Reborn as a Side Character in the Beastworld

Chapter Thirty-three

Once we got to the square, Winston shifted and carried me with one large bicep. I felt like a child in his large arms, but he could gather information more easily this way. His intimidating face scared off any would be flirts. Harvey also shifted, holding Kit.

After about an hour of asking around, we were given the location of three empty homes. The first one was large but too close to the Ape King's castle for my comfort. The third one was right by the Tiger King's castle, so we didn't even bother to go there. The second one ended up being perfect anyway.

It was on the outskirts of the Wolf King's territory. It had a bamboo forest behind it and the river was an acceptable distance away. Not so close as to flood us nor so far as to make getting there a nuisance. It was built with stone like all the others in the city but had an upper floor with a small room and an outdoor patio. The floor on the second level was stone but the first level was dirt.

I immediately had a thousand ideas to make the home comfortable. In my last life, I had a passion for interior design. Having my room perfectly decorated was the only way I could feel comfortable with my ever-changing relationships. It was my haven. I hadn't bothered to put in too much effort with Harvey's hut because I knew Camel Hump Valley would be wiped out at some point. This home too would not last forever, but I needed it for three more seasons. That amount of time felt long enough to put some effort into the place.

Lance paid the previous owner and we got to work right away. The first floor was threadbare. It had a fire pit in the middle of the front room and then a bedroom of equal size towards the back of the house. The first thing I had Harvey do was dig a three-square foot cellar into the dirt floor. The cold season would be here in just a couple weeks. I needed to think of ways to store food and medicine inside in case of emergencies.

While Harvey worked on that, I had Lance collect a bunch of bamboo. We could make so many things out of bamboo including flooring, matts, furniture, fencing, trellises, piping, bird coop, etc. The list goes on and on. I had Winston chop down some hardwood trees so we could have support for the flooring, shelving for the cellar, and a new smoke shed. Kit wanted to help too so I gave him a bucket of water and lemon peel and a rag that he could push around the floor upstairs. He ended up using his own body more than the rag, but it didn't hurt him and kept him busy. Using the same solution, I cleaned the inside walls.

I used the fleshy part of the lemons and some honey Lance found while collecting bamboo to make lemonade as we took a much-needed break around mid-afternoon. The cellar was dug, the supplies collected, all we needed to do now was make the things I had in mind.

The first priority was flooring because I thought we would need it to sleep tonight. I had to draw my idea out in the dirt as there was no way to explain it without confusing everyone. First, I moved the fire pit from the center of the living space toward the front of the house. We dug a foot deep rectangular space and using stone, wood beams and clay, built a knee-high fireplace. It looked like a floor height pizza oven. The top of the fireplace was where the level of the floor would now be. Then we made a maze-like tunnel to direct the flow of the smoke underneath the house when the fire was lit and sealed off by a large flat stone. The maze ended at a chimney venting outside. This would kill any bugs or rodents that got in and also distribute heat through the floors. Overall it would raise the floor only about six inches.

I took the idea from the Korean Ondol system of my previous life. Since it was my first time building it, it wasn't perfect, but the floor would be warm in most spots, bug free and not cause carbon monoxide poisoning. The cellar was far enough away from the source that it would still be cool enough for storage. Winston loved my idea and improved upon it covering the top with wide but slim paving stones as a subfloor and lining the ground with sand first since it retained heat longer than regular dirt. Lance, with his sharp claws easily cut the bamboo into slats and tied them together making the bamboo plank flooring. We filled the gaps with clay and would need to constantly repair any holes, but it was leaps and bounds better than a dirt floor.

When it was all done, it was already dark. We ended up not sleeping on the first floor for the first night because the clay was still wet and needed time to dry. Instead, we piled our furs on the second floor and cuddled up for warmth. It rained a little that night and we discovered some areas where we would need to patch the roof in the morning. The leaking water also gave me an idea for rain gutters and rain collection.

For the next week our focus was on making the house comfortable. On day two Winston built the smoke shed and started smoking a buck Harvey had caught while he was collecting medicinal herbs. Harvey also built a short indoor table where he could lay the herbs out to dry or where we could eat our meals. Lance fixed the roof and put together the rain gutter system. Kit and I worked on a shortbird coop. The men didn't want me to do much of anything, but I eventually convinced them that it made me feel good to contribute and that they were still the ones doing all the strenuous work.

On day three, Winston cut out of stone a rainwater collection basin, which gave me an idea for an outdoor bathtub. I had him create a base for the basin where we could light a fire and heat the water. He put a small hole towards the bottom and sealed it with a wood plug so we could drain it when we needed to. It could double as a bathtub and in the cold season when we didn't want to go outside, we could use it to melt the ice for drinking water. Harvey lined the cellar with flat stones and built a shelving system. He also carved himself some stone jars to store things in. Lance made a bamboo privacy screen for both the rainwater basin-slash-bathtub and the sand pit. Kit and I fashioned a small space on the second floor where we could keep a couple shortbirds when the weather was too cold. No one would be sleeping up there anyway. It was really too cramped for all of us and would be chilly with fur or feathers. I planned to use it more as a storage room or a place Kit could hide in case of danger.

On day four Harvey built an herb garden for the covered patio. I asked Lance to make floor chairs with backs on them. I was trying to make something like a Japanese zaisu. The result wasn't quite the same, but they worked. I made some mats to put under pelts but over the bamboo flooring since it was still a little uncomfortable to sit on by itself. I thought of the mattress I had made at Harvey's but decided it wasn't necessary since the floor is what would be keeping us warm. I also told Winston about outhouse pits and chamber pots. He found them intriguing and decided to make both.

By day five, we had more meat to smoke and furs to tan. I also found out that the city market has a booth run by the eagles. They sold feathers in bulk. I requested Harvey to pick up a bunch. I wanted to use it to make a quilt. He did and also bought some rare spices, herbs and salt. When he brought back the salt, I told the men about using it to preserve fish and they decided to try experimenting with it. It was easy for the males to gut a fish but impossible for me. I asked Lance for some of his sharp scales and ended up creating various knives with bamboo handles. Kit's eyes looked far too sparkly when he saw the knives, so I made a container for them far out of reach.

By the time the week was over, we had a comfortable place to sleep, plenty of food to eat, and a more private and sanitary place to defecate. We were as ready for the cold season as we could be.

I also finished the project of making all my males some decent outfits. Lance got a hip length military style cape made from black panther hide. The cape had a loop and toggle closure on the right shoulder so it was easy to take on and off. Winston got a mid-thigh version of my old skirts. It was a long snow leopard pelt that was cut straight except one-third of the way down where it would be wide enough to wrap around the waist. The excess is brought up and over the string that holds it all together. It covers all the dangley bits but comes off with a pull of the string. I remember learning about this design when I had googled loincloths for a history assignment. Harvey got my version of a lab coat made from grey wolf pelts. It was more like a robe with a leather sash and made him look like a pimp. I gifted Kit a collar of fluffy feathers. It made him look like he was dressing up as a lion.

Though I myself wasn't satisfied with the end results, my males acted as though I had given them the most precious gifts in the entire world. They all flaunted the clothes whenever they went out, including Kit. I made a mental note to get better at fashion design.