Katherine watches the leaves flutter noiselessly onto the ground, turning her head to look at Stefan's profile at his question. In her head, she's taken back to the time right after the transformation when she was so ravenous she'd eaten almost anything that crossed her path, wondering if the hunger would ever abate.

"I did occasionally. Sometimes you have to manage however you can. If that meant eating a horse here or a wolf there, then so be it," Katherine murmurs, "But I never made a habit out of it. I decided early on to prefer human blood. Not only for the superior taste, but because I needed to be as strong as I possibly could while on the run. To be able to use every ability I had to its fullest."

The deciding factor had been survival for Katherine, especially during the first few decades. When she'd had no money to pay for a train ticket or a ship voyage to whatever destination she needed to reach, she couldn't take the risk of her compulsion wearing off and revealing her fraud.