Why Am I In the Beast World?!

Chapter 5-Headache

Audre vaguely felt the motion of being carried. She saw blurry glimpses of men in animal skin skirts and large animals pass by. Although she wasn't sure as everything in her mind felt fuzzy.  

"Please don't die little female." said a voice. 

'Who was that? Why does their voice sound so far away?'

Then the world went white again, and the ringing in her ears once again drowned out all other sounds. 

When Audre's vision cleared again, she was inside a house. At least she thinks she was. Her vision was still blurry, but she could make out walls and various objects laying around.

"I think she is waking up." the voice came from that of an elderly woman. 

The woman tucked her animal skin dress underneath her as she knelt to sit beside Audre which allowed her to see the elderly woman more clearly. The woman's face was calm and regal like she has seen everything there was to see in the world and was no longer surprised by anything. Two brown fuzzy ears poked out from under her long grey hair that stood out against her suntanned skin. She had five black ring-shaped tattoos wrapped around each arm. Each tattoo had the face of an animal at its center.     

Audre's body ached as she struggled to sit up. She could feel something soft and lumpy underneath her. "What is this?" She asked in a raspy voice.

"You are on a grass bed covered with animal skins." the woman said slowly. "My name is Juno. Do you remember your name?"

"Audre," she answered with some difficulty. Her head was still throbbing, and her thoughts were very muddled which made any sort of thinking difficult.

"Is she going to be alright?" the loud voice seemed to resound in Audre's head like thunder, causing her head to throb even more. 

Audre covered her ears. "So loud."

A man wearing a tan animal skin skirt came and knelt beside her. Audre quickly recognized him as the Jaguar she had met in the jungle.

"Quiet down." The woman spoke in a soft yet stern voice. "You are doing the female no good by shouting."

It was so noisy. Audre gently rubbed her forehead to ease the throbbing.

Juno turned to speak to Audre again, but this time spoke to her in a softer tone than she did before. "Do you remember what happened?"

The memory came back, albeit slowly. Audre recalled climbing the tree and the vine snapping. But she had something important with her at that time.

'What was it?' Audre thought. 'I climbed the tree after looking at...at a...Book! Where did I put it? Ah! my backpack!'

Audre began patting around the bed, looking for her backpack. "Where was it?" 

"Bag." Audre finally spoke.

Juno and the Jaguar looked at each other in confusion. 

"I'm afraid I do not understand." the Juno said.

Audre began to shake her head but stopped when she was hit by a wave of pain. "I had a bag... when I fell."

"Right!" the Jaguar shouted before dashing across the room and returning with her backpack. "Is this the bag little female?!"

Audre groaned and covered her ears once more. The Jaguar was way too loud.

Juno took the backpack from the Jaguar. "You are too noisy." the woman told him. "Be useful and go fetch the female some water."

Audre was grateful to see Juno shoo the noisy jaguar from the room.

After the Jaguar was gone, the woman passed Audre over the backpack. "Is this the bag?"

"Yes." Audre unzipped the backpack and glanced inside to be sure everything was there. When she was content that nothing was missing, she closed the backpack and set it at her side. "Thank You."

"You are welcome." the woman said kindly. "Is there anyone looking for you?"

"No." Audre rubbed her temples. There wasn't anyone in this strange world to look for her. The frustration only made her head hurt more.

"Really! What about your mates? Shouldn't they be looking for you?" Juno frowned with concern.

"No. I never had any mates."

Juno's eyes widened in shock. The way she stared at Audre would've made her think that she had said she had killed someone's grandmother.

'Was what I said that bad? Surely there are females my age who hadn't chosen any mates yet?'

The silence hung thick in the room. Audre shifted a little to ease the awkward tension that was building up inside her.

Finally, Juno broke the silence. "Why.... haven't you gotten a mate?"

From the way Juno had asked the question, she knew that she had to be careful with how she answered.

'It sounds like some bad omen for a female to not have any mates. Why though? It couldn't be that bad, right?'

But she knew it was a bad idea to take chances right now. Audre thought for a moment, then answered. "My memory is fuzzy. I don't really remember much, but I think I just wanted the first mate to be special."

'I guess if a couple of years of customer service taught you anything was how to come up with lies.'

Juno sighed in relief. "Oh dear, I had almost thought that you were scorned by the beast goddess and cursed."

"Cursed?" Audre was confused. Why would a female be cursed for not having any mates?

"Yes. There are some, (Very few), that are scorned by the beast goddess. Their health deteriorates and any beast men that mates with them will also be cursed and then they all die." Juno explained. "Females that are cursed typically will refuse to have any mates in order to hide their curse."

'So, the curse was just an STD.' Audre thought.

"Well. It seems that you aren't cursed." Juno said. "I'm glad that we don't have to burn you! It's been a while since a new female has arrived in the village."

'Whoa! back up. What?'

"What do you mean by burn?" Audre understood the curse part but where did burning come from?

"Well to appease the beast goddess and to stop the curse from being passed on, we must burn all those who are cursed," Juno said as if it were common knowledge. Audre could not understand how such a practice could be commonplace. "It is then that the beast goddess will have mercy on their souls."

Audre was glad that she was careful with her answer. In the beast world, it would be odd for a female to refuse to have any mates at her age unless there was something prohibiting them too. If the village had assumed she was cursed, it would not have ended well for her. 

'Good move with the lie.'

Juno began to stand and dust off her dress. "Well, you won't be a single female for much longer it seems. Seeing as that jaguar will soon be your mate."