Bear and I III
Chapter 2
Kate rolled out of bed naked and stretched to work out all the kinks and stretch at least a couple of muscles. Standing, she put on a top that barely concealed much of anything but it was enough. That was followed by a pair of shorts. Thankfully her period wasn't for about another two weeks. Well twelve days and a few odd number of hours if anyone like Kate herself was counting.
Then she laced on a pair of flats that had cords that wound up her calves and were tied in place.
Leaving her yurt she headed for the dining yurt. It was there that everyone ate anything save for those people that had families. They had a reason to keep some food at their yurts. Since Kate was alone she didn't have that need.
Kate waved at everyone she saw and smiled. Their place was small and didn't even number a hundred. There were eighty-nine at the moment and that included children and babies. Though that number might increase by one today if the baby decided today was the day.
Kate herself was all alone. Her parents were gone. Gone meaning not here and not knowing if they were dead or not, though her heart told her that they weren't. She was sure in her soul that she would know so she was convinced that they were alive. Just not here.
"Morning, Kate." Kate saw someone in the yurt setting out fruit. "We have a few options today with fruit or do you prefer something else?" she was asked.
"Some fruit is fine, Ann, thanks. How are the greenhouses coming?" Kate asked her since she should know. Yes, they had farms and they even had a few animals that helped them with the garden.
Ann smiled. "Excellent. In about a month we'll add watermelons and a few other things. Sadly we only just planted the fields for winter. Not that we have much winter as I understand it."
That was one thing about their place. It had a large lake and lots of fields for animals to roam around in. They had two fields meant to grow food and even a few grains to grind into flour. The ground was very rich and fertile and had been that way for generations.
The reason for this was that this valley was one massive volcano that had blown its top millions of years ago and created this deep bowl. All around them were mountains hundreds to thousands of feet high.
While the volcano was mostly dormant, it wasn't totally. It still had hot magma moving below them. It kept the lake warm, the land always warm, and when the heat reached the cold mountains it created clouds and much needed rain.
The temperature never got much above 80F degrees and never got below 65F degrees even at night when it was winter on the other side of the mountains. It was perfect year round. It was an amazing place to live.
It had trees of a few types all of which were perfect to be cut down, turned into furniture, poles for yurts, or make repairs with. About the only problem they had was getting skins for those yurts when the need arose.
"I look forward to it." Kate grabbed a knitted bag, chose what she wanted to eat for breakfast, and left Ann to her work.
Kate became the de facto leader of this group when she came of age after her parents left and never came back. One of her jobs was to tour mostly everywhere and check in on everyone to determine what they needed and find a way to get it.
She walked while popping one of her choices in her mouth. Since they only had eighty-nine people in total it wasn't a surprise she didn't see too many. Besides it was still early in the day.
Kate was eating the last of her breakfast when she reached the edge of their lake.
While they had trees, most of them were on the side of the mountains. However, the mountains themselves were all green till they reached higher up. Then it became mostly rock; higher up it turned to snow. Eventually the snow would get really thick and then come later in the season it would melt and run down the mountains and end up in their lake.
The lake itself was large and took up maybe about a quarter of the space they all called home. It had water-based plants on one side. There was an island on one side that grew one plant that couldn't be grown anywhere else. Only here and it was a delicacy that everyone enjoyed. Sadly right now those plants were just babies.
On one end were palm trees that were even now filled with coconuts. They used the coconuts, the water inside, and the meat that was mashed and used for a number of things.
The exact opposite side held the bamboo. Here the bamboo was hacked down or cut based on the size of the plant and used for everything they made for the last few years.
An example of what bamboo could be used for was what Kate found herself subconsciously walking toward and began smiling as she walked its length. It was a walkway out in the lake that crossed in a meandering curvy trail from one side to another side without having to go all the way around. The plants were getting a little out of control, she noticed as she started across. They were going to have to take care of that.
The walkway wasn't really needed but it was a beautiful and peaceful walk. Kate popped the last of her breakfast into her mouth and tied the bag to her wrist to take back to the kitchen to be reused.
Kate was mostly looking at the beauty of the lake till it was broken abruptly. "KATE!"
She heard her name and heard running feet and finally focused on the walkway. She saw an almost naked little girl wearing nothing but a diaper running what might be flat out, straight for her.
Kate knelt down and smiled wide as the little girl ran right into her arms. Kate held onto her, stood up, and gave her kisses. "And what are you doing out here all alone, Jo?"
Jo shook her head and pointed. "Swimming." That had Kate looking and saw two white swans headed right for both of them. Now one might think all swans looked the same but that wasn't the truth. If one knew what to look for one could tell each of them apart.
"So your mommy's trying to give you swimming lessons, is she? Then why are you up here instead of in the water?" All Kate got was a shrug of her shoulders.
Kate was pretty sure she had a reason but if she didn't want to say she wasn't going to press her. Kate heard one of the swans honk and whistle. Immediately the little girl in her arms shook her head.
Now a swan grunted, and had reserved a trumpet or bugle, snort, snore, whistle, and hiss.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" Kate knew exactly what her mother had just said and it wasn't about Kate. It was all about the little girl in her arms. "It doesn't hurt shifting into a swan, I promise. All of the women here do it. You want me to prove it to you?" Kate was willing to let her watch.
Except all Jo did was shake her head. Kate took a step to get closer to the railing and looked out. "What's wrong? She refuses to shift." Kate listened intently to a series of snorts, whistles, a bugle, and finally a hiss.
"A fish? You're afraid of a simple fish?" Kate knew their lake had fish. It was one of the staples in their diet. Most of them stayed in the grasses save for the bottom feeders. They didn't have a single fish type that anyone had to worry about. In fact they had very few predators at all. The few they did have tended to stay away from them.
They weren't human killers and they didn't eat swans.
Kate felt her hide her face in her neck. "Oh, Jo. The fish aren't going to bite you or your feet. Just because you eat fish doesn't mean they're going to eat you back." Kate tried reasoning with her but appeared to be losing this argument.
They both heard more snorts and whistles.
"All right, I'm going to prove it to you." If she wasn't going to listen to her own mother maybe she would listen to her. So Kate put her down. "Now watch me. I'm not afraid of any fish in this lake so you don't have to be afraid, either."
Kate climbed up onto the railing and looked for a good place to jump. "BIG WAVE!" She jumped, tucked her legs in close and wrapped her arms around them, and landed in the water, sending up a big splash.
Right away Kate lost her loose top and started floating. When she surfaced she shifted into a beautiful swan. Now Kate, much like her mother, wasn't a white or even black swan. She was the only one that had feathers like this.
Yes, her beak was orange. Then black just behind that with black eyes. After that everything changed. Her head was white, her neck started out a muted orange and slowly melted into a soft pink followed by a pale blue and then a subtle purple. Her wings were a mix of muted orange and soft pink with one or two pale blue feathers. Her body was white while her legs and feet were black like all the other swans.
Kate trumpeted at the little girl telling her to jump but all she did was shake her head. So Kate shifted back to human and trod water. Her exposed breasts were now underwater so no one saw them.
"Jump! I'll catch you. I promise. I'll even swim with you while you and your mother are here." Kate kept kicking. She raised her arms high and waited for the little girl to jump to her.
A series of snorts, whistles, and a final snort from her mother had her climbing the railing slowly on Kate's side of the walkway.
"Good girl. Now jump for me. I'll catch you." Kate kept her arms raised high. "You can do it. Swans can't drown." Their feathers literally prevented it. They were actually pretty good fliers and swimmers. On the surface of the water anyway. Not so much underwater.
"Come on." Kate saw her jump, grabbed her, and kept her above water. "GOOD GIRL! Now shift and we can go swimming together. I promise no fish will attack you. Just shift and let's go swimming." She would collect her top that was floating around her somewhere later.
+x+ [-O-] +x+
A moment later Kate, along with two full-size swans and a little one, were swimming around the lake together whistling and snorting the entire time.
Kate really didn't get why Jo could have fear of fish, but she hadn't been a little girl her age for quite a while so what did she know. She also didn't have any children. For that to happen there had to be a free man to marry and have children with.
There were damn few men in their community and literally no boys at all. Just women and girls everywhere mostly. It had been like that for generations. With few men it kept the population low. It was impossible to overpopulate the area.
Now what was different about them was that only the women were swans. The men were strictly humans with others being half elf. Meaning they were half human and half elf. The men did most of the construction and building of anything they needed or needed repaired.
The women took care of them and the women were the warriors if it was needed.
Since swans mated for life this was transferred to the men. Once they were mated with a swan they didn't or couldn't be involved with any other woman. So getting another woman pregnant while technically possible, just didn't happen.
This meant unless a man found his way inside their isolated valley, Kate and the other women could expect to stay single and never know the pleasure of a man or the joy of having a child.
This also meant that while every child here had a mother, it also meant that every child here had, in a way, several mothers and that included Kate. So while this little girl wasn't technically hers, she and the other woman could think of her as being theirs and treat her that way.
+x+ [-O-] +x+
Kate needed to get back to her job which meant swimming till she found her top. Granted the place was mostly women so even going naked might not be totally impossible, but there were a few men around and she didn't need the trouble.
Except when she found it, naturally it was soaking wet. Putting it back on meant it became almost glued to her body and that meant her now hard nipples were rather prominent. She couldn't allow that either.
So with great care trying not to be seen by a male she hustled back to her yurt and selected a top just like it save for a different color that didn't clash with her shorts. Once dressed she went back to her tour to make sure everything was fine.
Once again Kate heard her name being called and turned to see Gina running toward her. She hated Gina. Kate sighed. Maybe hate was too strong of a word. Gina had tits coming out of her damn ears. Kate could only wish her tits were that size. Worse Gina was young enough that even though she was running her way her tits, while bouncing nicely, weren't going all over the place.
Still while watching Gina run Kate was thinking maybe the size of her own tits was actually a good thing. Those babies just had to get in the way of nearly everything let alone watching those things bounce they had to hurt.
Nope. She hated her. It was official. Almost official.
"Yes, Gina?" Kate inquired after she stopped in front of her. Kate gave herself points since she wasn't looking at those big tits given that much like Kate and all the other women around here, both of them weren't wearing all that much. So Gina's tits were almost on display for all to see and be jealous of.
"Can we discuss going hunting for meat again? I don't mean hunt the few animals in our area. I mean going outside of this area just a little." Gina used a finger and her thumb to show a teeny amount.
"Let me guess. Your mate's after you again." That was one more reason to hate her. She had a mate and she was getting laid unlike most of the rest of them, including Kate. Hell, she hadn't even lost her virginity yet. There was no one to lose her virginity to around here. Besides she should be losing her virginity to her mate and not just some man.
The only shining silver lining in Gina was that she wasn't pregnant. Knowing her luck Gina would give birth to a boy instead of the much more desirable girl. She would do it just to spite all of them, especially her.
The second reason was because Gina couldn't shoot a bow to save her own life. She was pretty good with a sword, though. Thankfully when she shifted into a swan those tits of her vanished and she looked like everyone else save for herself.
"He has a point," Gina persisted. "We don't want to overhunt our lands so we need to hunt outside of it. Winter's coming so our chances of finding something will diminish."
That was another reason to hate Gina. She was FUCKING RIGHT!
"I'll talk to the others but I make no promises," Kate told her.
"Thank you!" This time Gina hurried back to her mate to give him the good news.
Kate groaned and looked toward the sky wanting to know why she had to be in charge instead of someone else. Let alone why she had to be the best fighter and hunter they had.
It meant Kate needed to find two others and she knew just who to talk to.
+x+ [-O-] +x+
Since it was still early they were each in their yurts getting ready to go out and go hunting. It meant Kate was opening a chest at the end of her bed. It was where she kept everything. She hadn't worn these things for a while. They didn't leave their area to do anything very often.
Kate put her hide armor on her shins, put the chest and back plates over her head and strapped them into place. She slipped on her boots then the leather rerebraces that went on her upper arms.
Next came the bracers that would help her hit at what she aimed at with her bow. Since where they were going she put on a ring. She looped her thin leather belt around the scabbard, made the knots, tightened them and her belt, and then inserted her sword.
Standing up she put her quiver full of arrows over her back followed by her bow. Kate put the last magical piece she had around her head. Then out came her backpack and she started stuffing it with things she might need. It was really small and didn't take up much room on her back. Under that she attached her sleeping bag.
She was ready and just needed to meet the others at the kitchen so they could pick up food for the three of them to last at least three days.
In the kitchen the three of them got food and water and were ready to go.
"Where are we going, Kate?" Lanie queried.
"I'm thinking two or three goats on the mountainside which means we need rope," Kate told Lanie and Rozalyn.
"We each have fifty feet of rope and a grappling hook. We need something to bring them back with," Lanie reminded her.
"We'll pick that up on the way out. Let's go hunting, ladies, and pray we don't freeze to death." Kate feared they were going to have to go up a little high where there might be snow.
"Careful, goats aren't worth losing any of you and if you find a man bring him back with you." Ann saw the look they all gave her. "What? I have urges, all right?"
The three of them left laughing at her or with her. "She thinks we're just going to hand him over to her," Roz joked since if they found one she was keeping him. If he was good looking enough.
"You two can have him. If I find someone I want a mate who will love me, not just get me pregnant," Kate said and led their little group toward one of the gaps she knew about so they could start climbing.