Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 17: brought to you by an inferiority complex

He's hot, he's fine, he's Winston! With all the inferiority complex of a midget on a basketball team! So he's only of some use against Yogi and da dog when he's around. So come on, Boo Boo, let's go get dem picanic baskets (aka, crazy stupid fine gurl).

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Neara shoved the fruit away and the corners of her mouth tightened. Shuu stopped by every day this week with fresh fruits, more meat, and different flowers. Their adventure to the meadow had not gone unnoticed and every female in the City demanded their houses smell as fragrant as Neara's. Some males slept outside when the weather permitted since their rooms had been filled to the brim with as many different blossoms as they could find.

Winston, meanwhile, had been hard at work gathering cotton blossoms. A brief conversation about the seasons in this world scared her enough to start preparing and he brought back armloads every day. He assigned himself the nightly task of, after tucking her in, cleaning the seeds from the cotton blooms.

"Neara, I am needed by the Ape King this afternoon. I will return before nightfall." He said after preparing the meat for lunch.

She looked up from fiddling with some strips of bark. She'd never been good at boondoggle and attempted to weave a fishing basket. The results looked as hideous as the women here. "You're going to leave me alone?"

"Your estrous cycle has finished, so you're in no danger from the beastmen for another year. The Ape King has requested that I appear alone."

"I'm not really comfortable being by myself." She pinched the bark between her fingers and let the rough edges bite into her skin.

"If you desire company, there is no shortage of males." His voice flattened against the walls and crushed her, leaving her unable to speak until he left.

As the pressure left the room, she whispered, "Don't leave me."

When he didn't return, she picked up the bark and brought the long strips into the bedroom. As she wrapped herself in the fur, she repeated to herself, "I'm not alone. I'm not afraid. Shay is coming home soon."

None of the leopard court had asked about her whereabouts, or come to see her, and she suspected they wouldn't care until Parker returned with Shay. Parker wouldn't even care unless Shay told him to. The homesickness settled in her intestines and stilled her hands. "What if we never go home? What if we never leave? What if we're trapped here... what... if..." She fiddled with the bark again and finally threaded a piece through. "I wonder if I'm supposed to soak these first..." Once she got it started, the rest of the basket came together quickly. Shaped like a tube, the idea was for fish to swim in, but not be able to swim out. That would be the next design choice. Winston never caught her fish, but she suspected fishing poles hadn't been invented yet and the lack of woven baskets made her think it was a specialty they had to import from another Clan. Eve had one for her cubs, but she never saw them used for anything else.

She fitted a leftover strip of bark through the narrow slits. "Maybe if I could just... Oh snap, I could make it like a pit trap." She hurried outside to cut more bark with the sharp rock Winston gave her after noticing her struggle with the trees near the river. She'd insisted on the tool when she pointed out that he wouldn't always be there with her. Pressing the stone against the bark, she pushed it outward until it curled like a ribbon, then she rolled it tightly and sealed it with tree sap. The tube held strong and when she submerged it, the sap did not dissolve. Success!

A large beastman approached her. He was taller than Winston, and maybe taller than Shay's kidnapper. "Hello, little female."

She jumped and almost dropped the stone into the river. "Ah! Um... hi?"