Why Am I In the Beast World?!

Chapter 11- What To Do Now

     'I thought it was a dream.'

     Audre sat down and ate the half-eaten candy bar she had in her backpack as she flipped through the pages of the book. She found that the book no longer contained pictures of her previous adventures, but the quest was still printed on the first page. All other pages in the little brown book were blank.

     'Strange. But it seems that the quest may actually be real. But how am I supposed to get animal skin clothes?'

     Audre looked down at her clothes. None of it was made from animal skins. They were all mostly made from cotton. 

     Audre knew that she could probably ask the Jaguar for clothes, but she didn't want to use him more than she already unintentionally had. She knew that the Jaguar was only nice and protective over her because he thought that she would be his mate, but she had no intention of doing so.

     But Audre didn't have any idea how to sew, and nor did she have the materials to make animal skin clothes. She knew that she had to rely on someone in this world if she wanted to make it. The question was how she was going to do this without getting a mate.

                                                                                      ---

     Vadon had hunted down a caiman from the river. He wished that he could bring his female on his hunt as new couples usually did, but it was still far too dangerous. 

     Although he and the other beast-men in the village were able to chase away the wandering beast-men, the attacks were becoming more frequent. On top of this, the wandering beast-men numbers were multiplying. It was probably due to the decrease of females in earth tribes. If they didn't find a way to stop the attacks soon the village could be overwhelmed. 

     If they grew their forces, perhaps the village could permanently stop the attacks. But he was unsure if the village could even keep the beastmen they did have. 

     The number of males in the village heavily outnumbered the females. All the other village females had their limit of ten mates. The only way that they could accept anymore is if they abandoned their old ones, or if their other mates died. Else they would be cursed by the beast goddess and die, taking their mates with them.

     Vadon knew that the village chief would get word of Audre's appearance soon and that she would want to use Audre in order to quell the uneasiness of the males in the village by having her take more mates.

     The thought of having to share Audre with anyone aggravated him. He was already a solitary beast-men. The only reason he joined the village was the promise of finding a mate, but he was soon disappointed. Now that he found one, he wanted her all to himself.

      'Perhaps one day, I can take Audre and sneak out of the village.'

     When Vadon arrived back at his home, he changed back into his orc form and began skinning the caiman. Shortly after he started, Audre emerged from the tree hole a little wobbly on her feet. Vadon dropped his knife and rushed over to support Audre.

     "Thanks," Audre said. "But I think I can walk on my own now."

     Vadon sighed. He didn't understand why Audre was so insistent on doing things on her own, even when she was injured. "You shouldn't push yourself. I haven't even applied the medicine to your bruises today."

     "I already applied the medicine to my bruises," Audre said as she pulled herself away from him and attempted to stand up straight as if to convince him that she was fine, but her legs were still shaky. "See, I can take care of myself a little bit!"

     "Nice try." Vadon picked Audre up and carried her despite her protest.

     'So stubborn. But still cute.'

     He set Audre down in the grass near to where he was skinning the caiman.

     Audre didn't bother to stand back up and just sat in the grass with her arms crossed and her cheeks puffed up. "I could've gotten this far on my own."

     "How adorable." He knelt in front of Audre and poked her forehead. 

     Audre waved his hand away. "What did you catch?"

     Vadon stepped to the side and pointed at the half-skinned caiman that was next to the pile of sticks. 

     "Oh." Audre looked shocked when she saw the caiman.

     When Audre didn't look pleased, he began to panic a bit. "Do you not like caiman? I can hunt something else. Do you like fruits? Most females like fruits! I can get some fruit for you!"

     Vadon had heard of females abandoning their mates because they brought the wrong food. He knew females could be picky by nature and he didn't want to ruin his chances after just getting a female.

     Vadon was about to leave to gather some fruits when Audre grabbed his arm to stop him. "Calm down. Nothing is wrong with the caiman. I just never had it before."

     Vadon let out a breath that he hadn't realized he was holding. "Oh, that's a relief."

     This time it was Audre who poked the Jaguar on the forehead. "You're always so anxious. Everything isn't so serious."

     'If only she understood how precious she was here, she wouldn't say such things.'

     Now that Vadon knew that she didn't mind the caiman, he picked up his knife and finished skinning the caiman. 

     He could see that Audre was watching him intently, so he took great care in making the fire to impress her. He gathered a bundle of sticks gathered them into a pile. He then went back into the tree hole and came back with his fire stones.

     He then gathered a bundle of dry grass and leaves and struck the stone together until it ignited the grass, before placing the burning grass into the pile of sticks.

     When the pile of sticks went up in flames, Audre clapped with excitement. "Wow, that's so cool!"

     "Fire is hot, not cool." Vadon didn't understand the female's logic. Was she so sheltered before that she didn't even know that fire was hot?

     Audre looked down at the ground clearly embarrassed. "Umm, yeah that's what I meant."

     Vadon chuckled. Even embarrassed his female was cute.