Reborn as a Side Character in the Beastworld

Chapter Sixty-nine

*May edit this chap in the future. For some reason it feels unfinished but imma gonna post it anyway. Also too bad it's not a lemon teehee.

Shuu adapted to being one of my mates quickly, partly because he didn't try to establish himself higher on the pecking order, and partly because he followed the instructions of my other mates without question. Unlike usual beastmen who did everything they could to prove themselves stronger than others, he smartly respected even the weakest of my mates, Harvey. It was only amongst the castle guards that Shuu established dominance as he had the most experience from being a soldier in the Ape King's castle. Even the tigers who were stronger and had been around longer couldn't help but respect his knowledge, efficiency, and skill.

Time went by and in just a couple weeks many foxes and tigers had filled the empty homes in our territory. In addition to them, we also had to make room for leopards. The Leopard King would be leaving on the quarterly caravan to purchase salt soon and half of the refugees from Camel Hump Valley needed a new place to stay. Unlike the novel, Winston was not asked to lead the caravan by the Ape King. I guessed this was Wilbert's way of showing we still had an alliance. The leopard families who hadn't gone back to their homes and braved winter on soggy soil, were given rooms in our castle. Winston expertly organized supplies for them.

Despite him remaining in the city, Winston was kept incredibly busy with the territory and planting season. Trying to make things easier for him, I remembered from the novel that Bai had made nets somehow and her hatchling snakes kept the birds away. So, I reached out to her and provided her a large plot of land where she could put her cheat skills to work. Curtis was not allowed to come but she must have had a conversion with her mates since the last time we met because Parker who escorted her, wasn't as obnoxious. She was able to visit regularly without him snapping at every male that passed by. It was just my guess but I think a certain eagle was also on guard duty.

After she showed me how to tie bark into a net using Chinese knots, we introduced her ideas to the territory residents. The cubs in the territory that had been pent up all winter jumped at the chance to have something to do and soon we had a bird hunting-slash-crop protection club going. They competed against each other to see how many birds they could catch. Kit took this duty very seriously. The poor starlings didn't stand a chance.

In addition to the cub club, I knew from my memories that certain plants worked well to keep pesky bugs away as well. Since I could also use the fragrant flora for my soaps, I planted lavender, rosemary, lemongrass, and sage at various intervals in the fields. The soaps I made with them were then distributed to the cubs' mothers as a gift. When Bai saw my soaps, she looked at me like I was Einstein. For a second there, I thought she might pry into why I knew such things but she ended up chalking it up to a fox's natural intelligence. After all, since there was alcohol, why not soap?

Once the alcohol recipe was in Harvey's hands, we wasted no time on trying to make it, and make it better. The recipe called for the nectar of the purple perennial hellebore. The problem with that was, I couldn't touch it. Hellebore is poisonous and could easily cause skin rashes on females. Luckily the males had no problem but I still wanted to try other methods of getting yeast so I invited Bai to one of our brain storming sessions. For some reason only authors and gods know, she knew how to make yeast from honey. Of course, the next problem was that it takes forever to produce. Just like Shuu had told me before, it takes a full year to make a batch of decent alcohol. In the end, we put our concoctions in large stone jars and set them aside to ferment. I would think of what to do with them later.

I spent a lot of my time with Harvey and Bai in the clinic, not just making alcohol, but other things as well. With my knowledge of local flora and Bai's earthly knowledge, she and I were able to put our heads together to make natural shampoos, oil lanterns, antipyretics, hand creams, lip balm, and hemostatic powders. We had to ask Parker, Lance and Harvey to help us make a kiln so we could make clay jars for it all. They obliged and soon we had our own cosmetic line. I guessed that if we could live in the city for a year longer, all of the females would be looking and smelling much better.

Since I wasn't entirely sure how much time we had, I let a few of the females like Eve that seemed interested in on our secret recipes. After a month, we had a recurring Lady's brunch where we would share ideas and test samples. Unfortunately, these brunches didn't last long as Harvey and I got extra busy.

The females in our territory started having their estrus. We were well into the drizzle season now and it was common for females of most tribes to have their heats this time of year. They only had one chance a year to have cubs and they all took it very seriously. This meant many of them would be locked away by their mates to keep them safe from young unmated beasts. The females' mates would also have matches among themselves to see who would be allowed to reproduce that year. This meant a lot of minor injuries and a lot of sensitive beasts. It felt like everyone had adopted Parker's personality. You couldn't look at a female without her males getting defensive. Bai especially stopped coming around as often; though that was more Curtis and Parker being overprotective than any biological timing.

Winston and Shuu were always breaking up fights that got too dangerous and Harvey was the one cleaning up the messes. Olly and I helped out whenever we could, but that meant that Lance was once again stuck with babysitting duties. Between running off to hunt, taking mud baths and digging holes on any plot of land he could get his paws on, Kit made sure my normally lackadaisical mate got his exercise. For the millionth time, I was grateful for having such amazing mates. With everyone having a role, I was able to focus on what I did best.

Nurse Bailey to the rescue. One tiger beastman had managed to lose so badly to his female's bear mate, that he had three deep lacerations from the third left rib to his right hip, nearly disemboweling him. It took a while to get the bleeding to stop, then we stitched him up and put natural antiseptic salve on it. We were just finishing making a tea for the inevitable fever when an older fox male bust into the clinic in a panic.

He had red hair with black tips and yellow-green eyes. His face was ghostly pale and his breathing erratic.

"I need a healer!" He rasped out between gasping breaths.

Thinking the middle-aged fox might be having a heart attack, I said, "Sit down first. Where does it hurt?"

He shook his head vigorously, "Not me! My mate. She's giving birth! But something's wrong! Please!" With tears in his eyes he begged us for help.

"Giving birth? So early?" I asked, thinking it might end up being an early term miscarriage.

Again, he shook his head, "She's been pregnant since the cold season. We thought she was at the age where she wouldn't have her heat again, but it came early! Please help. Please!"

I looked at Harvey and Olly and started barking orders. So many things could be going wrong and we couldn't waste any more time. After telling Olly to hold down the fort, Harvey and I followed the fox beast to his den as fast as we could. I prayed it was fast enough.