Jenny and the Beasts

19. Winter

1/5 updates incoming.  As of today, August 16, 2022, the story is complete.  Well, minus the epilogue chapters anyway.  Enjoy.

Jenny loved winter back home. Her state got a fair amount of snow and she really liked seeing everything covered in it. It made her feel like she was in a totally new place, a winter wonder land. Rolling her eyes at her own silliness, Jenny got back to crocheting. Since she wouldn't need the mountain of cotton for her period, she worked on making it usable.

After several trials and errors, Jenny finally figured out how to turn her crochet chain. Once she did, she took off with it. She had an incredibly boring amount of free time and she used a lot of it on this new project of hers.

Jenny ambitiously wanted to make clothes first, but that was beyond her skill level. It was better to work on something more basic until she got the hang of it. That's what she ended up doing. She was almost done with an afghan now and might work on socks next. Gloves would be nice too, but Jenny knew she was being awfully optimistic in her newly formed skill.

At least her hooks were easy to make. All she had to do was describe what she wanted to Mestor and he made it almost exactly to her specifications. Simon and Winston were, unfortunately, not great at fine crafts. If her spouses were not helping her make things, they were out hunting or training. Even Mestor had a fire lit under his rear and put in a lot of effort towards growing stronger.

Jenny supported them by keeping the food flowing and fire hot. If they weren't off doing those things, they were pushing her to mate. Well, not really pushing since it didn't take much to convince Jenny. Simon and Mestor, especially, were bad. Winston was the only one she had to approach first. She was able to read Winston better now and could tell he loved the attention as much as the other two, but he wasn't forward about it.

Jenny had worried for the baby, but these mates of hers insisted that mating was good for the child. Harvey had assured her that they weren't exaggerating just to get some action. He effectively killed her best excuse. 'Darn it Harvey,' she thought in mock disappointment.

Some time ago, Jenny heard the call for the fruit wine. There was no reason for her to go. Getting involved with Rosa, Bai, and Bard was not what she was trying for. Drinking the bad wine was a no-go too. Jenny glanced at her storage room. She had her own version of alcohols brewing in there from last season. It was one of the many crafts she had worked on.

Jenny knew of the wine making process that Bai used in the novel, but her parents both liked good wine. As soon as Jenny turned twenty one, they took her to every vineyard in a 70 mile radius, on separate trips of course. Jenny's step-mom didn't like it when her mother and father got together to do things and her dad respected that.

Using the knowledge she gained from those trips, plus what she learned from the novel, Jenny got several experiments underway. They hadn't enough rice for her to make any liquor from that, but she had potatoes. Vodka would work as an antiseptic and she hoped to succeed in making some.

Bai came to visit her sometimes and so did Harvey. Jenny learned that Harvey was the lucky one who got to guard Bai in place of Winston. Feeling both happy for him and bad about the situation, Jenny avoided the subject. Harvey did look very happy after all and she would not be the one to bring him down.

Jenny never turned them away, but she never made an effort to seek them out either. Since Bai was never with Curtis, Jenny wasn't nearly as tense. Even so, Jenny didn't want to hang out with her. Since Bai hid a lot from her spouses, it was hard to have a meaningful conversation with the girl.