Chapter Fifty-four

11K 592 40
                                        

A few days passed and my fever had broken. I was no longer congested or achy to the great relief of my family. Harvey had hardly left my side, leaving all minor injuries and illnesses to Olly. Shuu had taken Bart's cubs home and gone back to soldiering.

I had asked Winston to keep Kit away from me in case I passed the cold on to him. Though all of my mates thought I was being too cautious as male cubs are fairly sturdy, I was adamant. Kit, desperately missing the mama that spoiled him, came bounding into my room the second I gave the ok. A missile of auburn fur targeted my face in a blur of speed. I caught my cub just before he could flatten my nose and snuggled him to my chest.

"I missed you too, cub. Did you like having your papas to yourself?"

With yowls and barks Kit proceeded to tell me how strict his papas were and how hard training had been lately. He complained about Olly having no time to play with him and without Olly, not one of his papas could teach him how to dig a cool burrow like the honey badger family down the street.

"When did you meet the honey badger family?"

He told me they came out when the rest of the snow finally melted. It had surprised him because he had been standing almost directly over the entrance when they popped out. They didn't really talk much though. They seemed irritable and hungry, so papa Winston took him home before he could see how far their den went.

As a fox, Kit had the natural instinct to burrow. Wolves would make their own dens this way as well but not nearly as expansively. Badgers tended to be a little disgruntled all of the time so I hadn't gotten closely acquainted with that family yet.

A smooth voice and green scales reflecting the light entered the room. "Our little kit here has been trying to make a burrow beneath the land we had set aside for the garden you wanted to plant in drizzle season. Now that drizzle season is here, I strongly encouraged him to find somewhere else, but it appears the ground is a bit too hard in other places." Lances burly shoulder was leaning against the bedroom door frame and his usual smirk had lifted his thin but kissable lips.

I tapped my son's twitching nose, "I don't mind if you burrow there, you just have to make sure you go deep enough that the plant roots can still get enough soil and water to thrive. About this much should do." I held my hands out demonstrating about a foot and a half of distance. "But I would like you to wait until I can find someone who can teach you about tunneling. I wouldn't want it to cave in on you." Just the thought made me shiver. Though he'd be able to dig his way out if the soil wasn't too wet, my human side had claustrophobic fears of being buried alive and those fears had come back full swing when I'd regained my memories.

Kit's ears drooped in disappointment. He'd only be able to dig the short and shallow holes until an expert came along. If spring was here, then maybe I could reach out to the local fox families and see if any males had some time to spare. Doing so would insinuate that I was looking for a fox mate, but that couldn't be helped. It wasn't as though I could teach him. Another shiver ran down my spine as I imagined myself in a mine-like tunnel. Thin air, dust, and hundreds of pounds of earth above my head. No thank you.

"Are you alright? You're shivering. Let me go get your leopard." Said a worried Lance and before I could stop him, he took off on a mission to drag my healer mate to my side.

Kit looked at me with worry, about my health or about having to leave my side again, I wasn't sure. I gave him a reassuring smile. "Papa Lance worries too much. I'm feeling much better."

Harvey came in with a brew of lemon ginger tea a few moments later with Lance hovering closely behind him. "I heard you might still have a chill. Drink this. It will help."

I didn't bother to protest and took the yummy tea from him, giving him a quick smooch on the cheek to show my appreciation. "Thank you, Harvey. After this, do you think I could take a bath? I feel so sticky."

Lance answered instead and bowed dramatically, "I will get it ready right away my moon goddess. Just make sure you drink all of the leopard's potions."

I giggled at my mate's exaggerating comment. That snake was always able to make me smile.

He might have roped Winston into helping him because the bath was ready in just fifteen minutes. The stone tub filled with clean icy water would normally have taken a lot longer to heat. 

Kit and I finished our breakfast of smoked boar and stone fruit stew with onion before I went to the back of the house where the tub was located and gratefully sunk my icky self into it. For the first time in a long while, I had a real bath. I even had lavender soap to wash with and when I was done, I felt like a new woman.

When I was clean and dressed in a fresh outfit of a thigh length snakeskin spaghetti strapped dress, lined with white rabbit fur on the bottom and the neckline, I called my family together. We had much to discuss.

Once we were all seated around the low table with cups of citron tea, I started, "First. I want to thank you all for helping me with protecting Bart's cubs from Curtis' retribution."

Immediately they wanted to protest that I shouldn't be thanking them for things that were a male's duty. I held up a hand to stop them from interrupting. "Second, I want to thank you for taking such good care of me while I was sick and for taking care of Kit. Yes. I know what you are thinking but I truly am grateful." Then I changed the subject before they could shove their male pride down my throat. "I've been doing a lot of thinking while I was ill, and I have a few theories about why I was able to use beast pressure. I'd like to know what you think."

I told them the commonalities of both instances. I had been afraid and angry, but more than that, in my mind I had seen my loved ones getting hurt and dying. When that happened, something inside me felt like it had broken loose each time. My theory was that maybe females had a type of beast pressure we could only release if our hearts were genuinely concerned for our mates or cubs. I pushed the idea that I wasn't special in having such a power. If anything, what made me special was how much I cared.

Before I had fully regained my human memories, I had grieved Ryan's death but hadn't felt it quite so devastatingly until after I'd realized how much I'd taken for granted. Females are taught to be pragmatic when it comes to gaining and losing mates and cubs. It's just how life is here. Transient. So, my theory was, because most females wouldn't have such a strong emotional tie to their mates or male cubs, they wouldn't be able to emit the beast pressure.

Winston thought deeply about my theory and offered his own. "Or it could be something only you can do because of your past life. But the only way to know if you theory is correct, would be to find a female who feels as strongly about their family as you do about us."

"Yes....that means it really is something only you can do sweet Bailey." Lance said snidely.

Harvey looked into his cup of tea and pondered aloud, "So someone like Bai Qingqin, who isn't born from a beastman, wouldn't be able to do it either."

I nodded. "That's what I think too."

We sat in silence for a bit, each musing over the possibilities or how we could prove our conjectures without putting one of us in another life-or-death situation. 

A booming roar through the city brought us up from our internal depths.

"It's the call for grain distribution. Now that the cold season is over, the Ape King provides females and their families seeds and grains to cultivate." Winston, as the only long term resident of the city kindly explained. "He's calling us to his castle. In order to receive the seeds, a female must be present." He looked at me with concern. The last time we'd been there, things had not gone very well.

Speaking of which, I never received my promised reward. Maybe I would take this opportunity to put a little pressure on the King of Schemes. Even though the last thing I wanted to do was see his face, I wanted those seeds and I still wanted his recipe for the nectar.

"I'm going." I said determinedly. "Now, who's going with me?" 

Reborn as a Side Character in the BeastworldWhere stories live. Discover now