Surviving the Beastworld

Panic at the Hut

Hope you enjoy<3

As Elisa began sobbing in his arms, Ahi felt himself panic a little inside. None of his ancestors' memories prepared him on how to comfort a female. He didn't even have much experience with females, living most of his life alone, wandering the Beast Continent.

Was he meant to tell Elisa to stop crying?

No... That didn't seem like a good idea. But he wanted to stop her from crying. Elisa was clearly hurting and he wasn't sure how to fix the problem. How did other beastmen stop their mates from crying?

Nothing came to mind, no matter how much he thought about it.

All he could think of doing was coil around Elisa, gently moving them to the hut for privacy. His hand ran up and down her back as she cried into his chest, Ahi wondering what had happened, deciding to figure out the cause.

He hoped none of the villagers had bullied Elisa. Anger boiled inside him at the thought. He would destroy the village if they were responsible for Elisa's tears.

They had no right to hurt a female because she was interested in a feral. It was cowardly to target the female when they were clearly after him, the feral.

Eventually, Elisa stopped crying, much to Ahi's relief. As she calmed down a little, he decided to take this chance to ask her what was going on. He had to solve whatever was bothering her.

"Did someone hurt you?" Ahi questioned, trying to keep his cool.

He didn't want to show his frustration at the possibility of Elisa being bullied. It was only a guess and he could be completely wrong about it.

Elisa sniffled and gazed up at him with wide, puffy red eyes. "No no! I was just thinking of my family.... I m-miss them."

Family.

Hearing that word made Ahi pause for a second. He had conflicting feelings about the idea of family, his own mother trying to end his existence before he hatched.

Many of his siblings died in her rage and his father accidently killed her while trying to stop her. He soon abandoned the few eggs spared and Ahi was forced to kill his surviving brothers or risk becoming food.

He'd been alone ever since, vowing to never have a family like his own.

But things were different now and Ahi realized as a female, Elisa likely had a beastman family out there that cared for Elisa. Females were precious and well cared for by their families. Of course, Elisa would miss them.

He should've taken her to them first instead of trying to make her his mate. Now she was crying about it because of his carelessness.

"Which tribe are you from?" Ahi asked, determined to right his wrongs.

Elisa was quiet for a moment, her lips trembling slightly. "They're not in this world..."

She looked like she was going to cry again, making Ahi panic once more. He shouldn't have asked about her tribe and family. How could he be so stupid?

He had met her in the middle of feral territory. Of course her tribe wouldn't be around. They were probably attacked by ferals and Elisa ran away, getting lost. If they were still alive, they would've found her by now.

"I'm sorry." Ahi murmured softly, hoping his words would comfort Elisa.

Elisa leaned her head against his chest, making his heart beat faster. "It's not your fault... I'm just being a little emotional right now."

Ahi just leaned into the hug, enjoying the feel of Elisa in his arms. They sat like this in a comfortable silence when there was a sudden knock on the door.

— — —

Ahi let out a hiss, making me want to giggle a little at his reaction. Not that I didn't understand his annoyance. Being held by Ahi was really comforting and I just wanted to stay there forever.

But it seemed reality was reminding us there were things to do.

Wiping my face and hoping my face wasn't botchy from all the crying, I said to Ahi, "We should probably get that."

"Or we could ignore it." Ahi countered, tightening his grip on me. "It's probably something stupid."

"Come on. It's rude to ignore people at the door." I sighed, flicking Ahi on the forehead. "Besides, we still need to prepare dinner and I wanna take a bath."

The last part seemed to spring the snake into action. "Alright... Let me go see who's bothering us."

Before I could say anything, Ahi set me down on a bed of dry grass before hurrying off to the front door. I quickly got up, running after Ahi to see who was at the door.

What can I say, I was curious as to who was at the door.

It was a short distance to the door, but Ahi was already speaking to whoever was there. And blocking my view of the other person as he stood there with an arm hanging across the doorframe.

So, I ducked under his right arm and found myself staring at Jasper, which instantly made me growl out in fustruction. I did not need to see this douchebag again.

Jasper looked over at me in confusion, almost as if he didn't recognize me. "Female, is something the matter?"

"Yes! What are you doing here?" I hissed at him, wondering why he was acting like this.

Was he trying to act dumb or something? Because he wasn't fooling me. I wasn't going to fall for that innocent act he was putting up.

"I... I'm here on the snake's request." Jasper answered, pausing for a moment. His eyes suddenly widened. "Wait... You don't think I'm Jasper, do you?"

Now I was the confused one. "You're not Jasper?"

"He's not." Ahi answered. "This is his brother, William. He's here at my request to watch over you while I go on a hunting trip tomorrow."

"Oh... I'm sorry." I murmured in embarrassment, wishing the ground would just swallow me.

I couldn't believe I confused this guy for someone else. Guess they were twins or something with how alike they looked. Actually, now that I think about it, beastmen were born in litters. Of course they would look alike.

William smiled. "It's alright... It's not the first time Jasper has caused trouble and I've been confused as him. I'm sorry for any trouble he caused you."

Honestly, I could feel for the guy. He was completely different from his brother, but because they looked alike, he got dragged into Jasper's mess.

"Anyway, I'll be going then." William stated. "I'll come by tomorrow and show you around the village."

Right, I nearly forgot about the babysitting thing. Seemed someone was making plans without telling me. Not that I was really any better, but we were going to have to have a long conversation about this.

Especially about future plans.

"Alright. See ya." I nodded in understanding. Once the jaguar beastman was gone, I turned to Ahi. "I think I need an explanation about what just happened."

***

Another slow chapter for you all. Probably have a few more like this before we see some action...

But hopefully, it's still enjoyable. Chapter 17 will be published next week unless I owe you guys another bonus chapter.

*cough*