Junipers Heart In The Beast World

Chapter Four

As we were exiting the cave I was amazed by the beautiful sights all around. We were on some slightly elevated ground right next to a waterfall that was flowing into a small River with beautiful purple flowers growing along its banks. My mind was absolutely saving this image in my favorite memory banks.

We descended the slope and a cautious fashion as to not slip along the damp path. We followed the river for about 10 minutes before We Came Upon a clearing. Jasper finally granted me the permission to stand on my own two feet after he set me down.

I began to search for anything edible while Jasper transformed into his black jaguar form. My big kitty rubbed against my leg making me giggle, then he walked into the dense trees to hunt. I swear as he walked away it looked like he blurred kind of like a shadow.

I went back to my foraging and instantly noticed some berries along brambles they kind of looked like mulberries but they were bright blue. I wasn't entirely sure they were edible until I saw some birds land and eat a few.

Realizing I had nothing to put them in I grabbed a sharp Rock and began to cut down some Long Grass at the edge of the clearing. I never thought my grandma's crafting skills she insisted on teaching me would actually be needed, but here we are. I sat criss cross applesauce on the ground and began my lattice work to weave a small basket.

Halfway through I heard a very loud scuffle going on to the left of me. I stood up to take a look and saw Jasper taking down a rather large white boar. As soon as Jasper finish it off he looked over at me rather proudly, like he knew I was there the whole time. He began swishing his tail back and forth as he stared at me. I couldn't help it but to let out a giggle." Good job my pretty kitty."

He happily dragged the the bore over to a tree in the clearing. Jasper grabbed some Vines and strung the bore up by its hind legs after transforming back into his human form. He retransformed his hand into a paw and sliced down the belly of the boar, blood spraying everywhere. I had to look away at that point, or I'm pretty sure I was going to hurl.

I went back and finished my basket and then started picking my berries off the brambles. I heard Jasper walking up behind me, "do you want me to pick those? I don't want you getting hurt on those razzleberry bushes." The sweet sentiment made me smile. "No I'm fine, I can do at least this much." "I'm not saying you can't. It's just most females prefer to let their males work while they stay safe." "Well that doesn't seem fair to me, so please let me do this much."

He hugged me from behind while placing his chin atop my head. "Okay little one." This ilisited a very inappropriate reaction in my nether regions causing me to grow from flower petal pink to cherry red in the face.

Jasper stiffen behind me and held me tighter like he was trying to refrain himself from attacking me. "You know I can smell your flower right little one?" I jumped out of his arms very swiftly feeling my face turn absolutely crimson. "no do I I i I'm sorry I didn't I I ..." I stuttered crossing my arms over my chest, not sure what to do next.

Jasper just smiled at me. "It's okay I can tell you're not like most females, we'll take things slow Juniper." Him saying my name seemed to emphasize how serious he was.

He went back to his boar and began skinning it, while I returned to razzleberry picking. We both finished up and decided to head back towards the cave. Jasper promised to take me to a different location tomorrow to look for more edible plants.

Jasper began making a fire outside the cave after washing the meat in the river. While he was cooking small pieces of the boar on a stick, I just sat watching him while munching on some razzleberries, which were actually pretty good (kind of both sour and sweet).

Jasper was actually a pretty good cook for having no seasonings other than the small bag of salt and pepper he had in the cave. He apparently liked to cook his food too, which was a huge relief to me.

After dinner we started to head to bed. Jasper promised to show me some kind of cone plant I could apparently squeeze to wash my hair with in the morning. I was a little nervous to lay on the same bed as him to begin with but he thankfully turned into his Jaguar form and laid down behind my head, which ironically made me feel much safer.

So much had happened in only two days that I had a really hard time turning my brain off and going to sleep. But eventually Jasper's purring lulled me into a deep sleep.