LIBERI FATALIS: The Therianthrope Chronicles

by Eddie-E

A crossover between Ace Combat, Katmandu and another, surprise famous furry comic. A Japanese scientist during the onset of World War II in Europe devises a groundbreaking theory of evolution whose effects will resonate not only on Earth but also throughout the universe for centuries to come. Rated M for language and mature situations.

26. CONFLICT

ACT XXVI: CONFLICT

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Conflict is drama, and how people deal with conflict shows you the kind of people they are.

Stephen Moyer

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September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Akane's tent, 08:00 AM (earlier morning)

CUCKCOO! CUCKCOO!

The faint but noticeable sound of a cuckoo bird could be heard in Akane Araki's tent, who was napping peacefully in her sleeping bag.

But for that human woman, that sound was a bit annoying to hear, as she wished she could have a little more sleep...

CUCKCOO! CUCKCOO!

-"Oh, fuck..."- Akane cursed in her sleep as she was just trying to get up from the bag. -"Please, I just wanna sleep a little longer..."-

When Akane opened her eyes, she realized that the sun had already risen, mainly because the heat was also beginning to be somewhat noticeable inside her home.

Once her eyes were open, the human woke up and yawned noticeably, while she stretched her arms. The alarm clock that had awakened her was a small electronic cuckoo clock that she had bought at a discount store in Nipponbashi, better known locally as Den Den Town, the largest shopping area in her hometown, Osaka. That clock was an electronic reproduction of those clocks of the same type that were popular until the 21st century, when smaller clocks replaced the larger ones back then.

Akane had bought that alarm clock because she needed a clock that could wake her up, but at the same time not make too much noise, in order to avoid waking up the other people around her, especially the other crew members of the Asuka who were sleeping in their quarters. In that case, having a clock that sounded like a bird, and not with strange sounds, such as bells, trumpets, or the like, was also very convenient for the human, so she would avoid having to explain to her feline hosts the meaning of those noises, or to prevent them from getting scared if they heard those strange sounds.

Already up, Akane went to a bucket of clean water located at the back of her tent, which she used to brush her teeth. Quickly, the female soldier scrubbed her teeth carefully, and she used the water from the bucket to rinse her mouth and remove any leftover toothpaste residue from it.

The human noticed that the toothpaste she had in her backpack was starting to run out, and she knew that, if she didn't find another way to brush her teeth, she would start having serious problems with her dentition, for lack of a good dentist that she could find on that relatively primitive planet.

Knowing that this could cause her some trouble sooner or later, Akane turned on her laptop, and after the computer booted up, the African-Japanese woman spoke to the artificial intelligence of her device.

-"Good morning, Sgt. Araki."-

-"Good morning, Net."- Akane greeted the A.I., and then she asked the computer. -"I need to ask you a question, and I hope you can answer me, from what you have in your internal database."-

-"Yes, Sargeant Araki."- The Net replied. -"What is your question?"-

-"Do you know of a way to create a toothpaste, or mouthwash, that I can use, in order to brush my teeth ?"- Akane asked.

-"Please be more specific, Sargeant Araki."- The A.I. replied, and then continued. -"So, you want some form of oral hygiene product, in order to clean and keep your teeth in good health and strong condition?"-

Akane smiled when she heard the answer from the artificial intelligence, and she spoke.

-"Yes, Net."- Thereafter, the woman detailed her issues. -"As you may know, I am on a planet that, as far as I am aware, has a relatively primitive culture, and it is highly doubtful that its inhabitants know what toothpaste is, let alone the concept of dental cleaning."-

-"So, I guess you need to know how to prepare homemade toothpaste on your own, right?"- The Net concluded.

-"Yes."- Akane answered.

After waiting a few minutes while the computer processed her question, the artificial intelligence finally gave an answer to Akane's request on how to prepare homemade toothpaste.

-"According to the database of this unit, homemade toothpaste could be prepared by mixing baking soda with water."- The Net replied. -"You can also use edible virgin coconut oil, guar gum, turmeric, stevia, activated charcoal or cocoa beans as ingredients."-

-"Thanks, Net, but many of those ingredients would be very difficult to get here."- The female soldier replied about the possible problems in obtaining such ingredients. -"To begin with, I don't know where I could get baking soda naturally, and I don't even know if on this planet you can get the other ingredients, not to say that the nearest sea, from what I saw from space when I was on the Asuka, may be thousands of kilometers away from here, assuming there are coconut trees to get the coconut oil, of course."-

-"Unfortunately, sergeant, the only way to get baking soda is by industrial means."- The computer responded at the human. -"I have the scientific formula of the substance, in case it is of any use to you: Na2CO3 + CO2 + H2O → 2 NaHCO3."-

-"Thanks, Net."- Akane replied, visibly disappointed that the only way to get baking soda was by methods beyond her reach. -"But anyway, I will look for ingredients that are more readily available."-

-"There is also the option of using regular toothbrushes, along with cotton buds to clean your teeth and gums."- The Net said.

-"Yes, I know that, but without some form of substance to wipe my teeth, I don't know how long I would be able to clean my teeth that way."-

-"May I ask how much toothpaste you have available to clean your teeth, sergeant?"-

-"I have about a month's worth of toothpaste."- Akane responded at the A.I.'s question.

-"So I guess you still have time to find a way to make your own toothpaste or at least get some baking soda."- The computer responded.

-"That's right, but for now I'll have to try to rack the toothpaste I have on hand, in case I don't find another method to clean my teeth."- The woman concluded.

After checking her watch on her wrist, the African-Japanese woman saw that she had other things she had to do that day, and she couldn't waste her time debating about things like toothpaste.

-"Look Net, I don't have time to elaborate on this matter now; I promised to prepare okonomiyaki with the other women of the tribe and help with other things yesterday, so we will discuss this at night before I go to sleep if it is possible for me."-Akane told the artificial intelligence.

-"Roger that, sergeant. I wish you good luck, sir."-

-"You too, Net. See you later."-

After saying goodbye to the Net, the African-Japanese woman shut down the computer, and she headed out of her tent and leaving her home.

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Outside Akane's tent, 08:45 AM (earlier morning)

Once outside her makeshift home, Akane Araki headed towards the north of the village, as she noticed that all the other villagers were already awake as well, although by now it didn't surprise Akane much: Those people were used to waking up to work earlier than she was normally accustomed with, given that she didn't have many duties to do in the village, aside from helping out with certain kinds of chores, mainly cooking, something that didn't bother her in the least, since the food her feline hosts prepared wasn't exactly good tasting, at least not to her.

While walking around the village, one of the villagers kindly greeted the human guest, who was willing to have a quick chat with her.

-"Oh, good morning, Akane!"-

-"Good morning, sounds like you want to talk to me, don't you?"- The human returned the greeting with the other alien villager, who looked like a calico cat and he was older than her.

-"Yes. I was just curious to know if you are going to prepare with the other women that weird soup called oh-ko-noh-mee- or whatever is called, are you?"-

-"That's right, sir."- Akane explained. -"I'm actually going to talk to a friend of mine about that meal, so I'll see you later at lunch."-

-"Well, see you later too, Akane!"- The villager waved goodbye at the soldier. -"I'm looking forward to trying that soup, especially considering how good your food is!"-

-"Yeah, I know that."- The human also waved goodbye with a smile in her face.

So, Akane set off on her way north, while she had a somewhat sardonic smile on her face at the villager's opinion about the quality of the food she prepared.

-"Well, looks like I'm not the only one who thinks that the food here in this village sucks."- Akane mused within herself.

And as she walked, the human saw two girls playing dolls on the ground while she was half a distance away from the place she was going to visit.

Those two girls were Panka, Pyndan's younger sister, and Meelia, Kayce's daughter. Both girls were merrily playing with each other, oblivious to the presence of the foreigner walking up to them, until Akane herself, who was standing in front of them, caught their attention.

-"Good morning, girls!"-

The two kitten girls looked up, as they saw the human woman in front of them.

-"Oh, good morning, Miss Akane!"- Both girls replied together to the Earth woman, while stopping with their play.

Then, Akane Araki took a close look at the dolls both girls held in their hands.

-"Looks like you two are playing dolls, right?"-

-"Yes!"- Panka responded at the human woman. -"We really like to play with them in the morning, don't we, Meelia?"

Strangely, Panka's other friend didn't say a word, and for some strange reason, she hugged her doll tightly, preventing Akane from seeing her. This caused some estrangement in both the human and Panka, who did not understand the reason for the girl's attitude.

-"Something's wrong, Meelia?"- Pyndan's little sister asked to her play mate.

The girl kept hugging her doll, preventing Akane from keeping an eye on her toy, and she nodded her head in denial, without saying anything else.

The human soldier, who was becoming somewhat curious about Meelia's doll, couldn't help but ask about it.

-"Hey, little kitten girl, why don't you let me see your doll?"-

The girl looked at the human with fear, and she hugged her doll even tighter, refusing to let Akane see it. Seeing her friend's attitude, Panka explained to Akane why Meelia refused to show her doll to the foreigner.

-"Meelia's mom made her a new doll that looks like you, and I think she's afraid you might be upset if you see it, Miss Akane."-

The African-Japanese woman quickly understood why the alien girl did not want her to see her new doll. However, Akane was not annoyed that Meelia's mother, Kayce, made her a doll based on her, but rather she was very happy that the woman made her daughter a doll based on a person she admired, in this case, Akane, and even more so because the latter was an alien from another planet, and belonged to a completely different race than the native inhabitants of that planet.

That was a thing of pride for Akane, for even when she lived on Earth, no one would have bothered to make a similar courtesy to her. Even her best friend she had, Kaguya, would not have bothered to make a doll, or something similar for her, under similar circumstances.

-"Oh, your mommy made you a doll that looks like me? That's nice of her."- Akane said at the kitten girl with a big smile in her human face. -"May I see it, Meelia dear?"-

The girl was reluctant to let Akane see her doll, and she hesitantly replied sheepishly to the human female soldier.

-"I... I don't want you to laugh at my doll, Miss Akane..."-

-"And why should I laugh at your doll, sweetie girl?"- The woman responded with a reassuring smile towards that little girl, who was afraid that Akane would react negatively to her toy based on her. -"I wouldn't make fun of something that your mother made with great love for you, and even more so if she is a friend of mine like your mother is."-

Seeing that Akane did not intend to tease her doll, Meelia looked at the human rather shyly.

-"Re.. really, Miss Akane?"-

-"Seriously, darling, I promise."- Akane reassured the kitten girl. -"Besides, it's a great honor that your mother made you a doll based on me. Where I come from, no one would have troubled to make something similar to me, and I would love to see what that doll looks like."-

-"Oh, I see..."-

-"Oh, come on, Meelia, show your doll to Miss Akane,"- Panka followed suit to her human elder. -"I don't think she's going to be angry if she sees it."-

After pondering for a few seconds, Kayce's daughter finally responded about her doll based on Akane...

-"All right, I'll let you see it."-

-"Thank you, dear."- Akane said at the alien feline girl.

With some embarrassment, Meelia gave her doll to Akane Araki, who immediately glanced at it to see how the doll resembled her. This was especially relevant, as her mother had most likely never seen another human besides Keisuke Noguchi's corpse that was buried a month ago, and Akane was curious to see how her mother, Kayce, had made the doll with that in mind.

-"All right, let's see how your doll looks like..."-

But the moment the African-Japanese woman saw that doll based on her made by alien hands, Akane frowned in astonishment and surprise, and for good reason:

The doll had a round head, with a similarly rounded body, and the doll's skin looked more like Akane was tanned, rather than having dark skin as she would expect from a doll based on a black woman. In addition, the doll's clothing was an identical copy of the clothes Akane normally wore traditionally, with camouflage pants, boots, and a gray tank-top.

But that wasn't the strangest thing for the human: the doll's face had two black dots for eyes, thin black lines for eyebrows, its nose looked more like a circus clown's nose than a human's, and it had a very large mouth. And if that wasn't enough, the doll had no hair.

Akane, in order to avoid offending her little friend, tried her best to avoid doing anything that Meelia could interpret as a ridicule or criticism towards the doll that her mother had laboriously made for her, but...

-"HOLY SHIT!"- The human soldier thought, but couldn't keep a sly smile from forming on her face. -"Of all the things anyone can compare me to, this girl's mother made a doll that looks like the most bizarre character she could have come up with!"-

Akane thought that possibly Kayce tried to depict her human friend in the best way she could, but by a bizarre coincidence of fate, that doll looked less like Akane, and more like a famous character well known in her adopted homeland of Japan.

At all this, Akane began to giggle lightly, which caused some concern among the two alien feline girls...

-"Uh, are you all right, Miss Akane?"- Panka asked the human soldier.

But despite all her efforts, Akane burst into a loud laugh that could be heard throughout most of the village, no matter how hard she tried not to laugh at that homemade girl toy.

-"HOOOOOLY MARY MOTHER OF GOD!"- Akane said aloud among laughter. -"THIS IS THE FUNNIEST AND STRANGEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY WHOLE LIFE, HAHAHAHAHAHA!"-

But for Meelia, who would see how the human laughed out loud at her doll that her mother had painstakingly made for her, that was no laughing matter, and she lowered her head, and therefore her ears, when she saw the supposedly playful attitude of the foreigner towards her toy.

Seeing that her playmate looked notoriously sad to see Akane laughing loudly at her doll, Panka did not hesitate to call the adult woman out, even if she knew the risks that this entailed for her.

-"Hey, Miss Akane, stop laughing at Meelia's doll!"- Pyndan's sister angrily yelled at the human.

Seeing that the little girl was annoyed with her, Akane saw that she might have gone too far with her laughter, even if it was not her intention to laugh at the doll itself, but at its design, for resembling a famous character from her place of origin, and she quickly put a stop to her laughter, even if she was still smiling in a playful manner.

-"Alright, alright, I'm sorry, sweethearts, I'm REALLY sorry!"- The African-Japanese Space Ranger still chuckled to herself. -"I couldn't help but laugh, because... because..."-

-"Because WHAT, Miss Akane?"- Panka asked with an annoyed tone to Akane, trying to "defend" her friend from the supposedly mockery of that human woman.

-"Because..."- Akane paused briefly, as she tried to take a deep breath before continuing with her explanation, while she continued to maintain an admittedly playful chuckle. -"Since when do I look like Anpanman?"-

Upon hearing the name of that famous literary character of Japanese children's literature created by Takashi Yanase, which was famous especially during the 20th and 21st centuries, and which had different animated adaptations over the years, and even sporadic animated adaptations still existed in the 23rd century, the two alien girls stared at each other with some surprise and disbelief upon hearing that name, because they did not fully understand the context of the words that Akane had said.

-"Anpan-WHAT?!"- Meelia and Panka said aloud together at the same time after hearing the name of that character.

Seeing that the two kitten girls had no idea what Akane meant by Anpanman, the human from Japan quickly regained her self-control, and she explained, unoffended, about who that character was.

-"Well, let me explain who he is."- Akane said next. -"Anpanman is a character from a series of very famous stories among children in my place of origin, and he is called that way because he is a man made of a traditional dessert prepared with bread stuffed with sweet beans, called "anpan", hence the name."-

-"A man made of bread... stuffed with sweet beans?"- Meelia inquired, with some disbelief and putting aside her sadness at Akane's response to her doll. Still, the fact that her doll reminded the human of a seemingly comical character to the outsider was something the alien found very strange.

Next, Panka made a gesture of disgust, because for her and the other members of her culture, beans were a bitter food, and to imagine someone eating those seeds as a dessert was something unheard of for the little girl.

-"YUCK! I can't imagine what that thing tastes like!"-

Akane then asked both girls afterwards...

-"I guess you don't appreciate eating something like that, do you, girls?"- The human said, still smiling.

Both feline girls made a gesture of denial towards Akane, confirming that they had no desire to try something supposedly as disgusting as anpan for them.

-"In that case, let me handle that. Just wait me a few minutes, sweeties."-

Quickly, Akane left the scene, and returned to her tent. A few minutes later, the human of African origin returned to the place where Panka and Meelia were playing, while she brought two anpan for each of them, a magazine, and a piece of brown fabric.

-"What is all that, Miss Akane?"- Panka asked to the African-Japanese soldier.

-"Well,"- Akane explained about the stuff she brought with her. -"these two breads are the anpan I was talking about a few minutes ago. Since I figured you might not like the sweet bean filled ones, I brought some chestnut filled ones instead. You can consider them as a gift from me, so you can see that I'm not mad at you about Meelia's doll."-

Akane handed both buns to the two alien girls. At first, Meelia and Panka seemed reluctant to eat something that they had no desire to eat until a few moments before...

-"So this is anpan?"- Panka said, with some reticence...

-"Looks like an ordinary bread."- Meelia followed suit as well.

Since the girls didn't seem to be in the mood to try something like that, Akane encouraged them to try the bread with another anpan she had brought with her, just in case. Next, Akane gladly took a bite of her anpan, as she enjoyed the bread with pleasure.

-"MMMMHHH! THISH ISH DELISHIOUS!"- The human said with her mouth full, as she continued to enjoy that traditional Japanese bread in a very lighthearted manner.

Seeing that Akane enjoyed her anpan and seeing its tasty filling, both girls followed suit, and, with some trepidation, they too followed Akane's example and also tasted the anpan at the same time together.

And just like their human friend, both girls really began to enjoy the sweet taste of the Japanese bread in their mouths. They, like the rest of the villagers, had never tasted a bread stuffed with sweet fillings, so the experience was completely new to them.

-"You are right, Miss Akane... this is quite delicious and very sweet!"- Meelia said, quite surprised to taste such a sweet foreign bread like that anpan.

-"I agree with you; I have never tasted anything as sweet as this bread in my life!"- Panka also did the same, while eating her chestnut-filled anpan with gusto.

Seeing that both feline girls were enjoying their respective buns, Akane was more than happy to see that her alien friends were enjoying the sweet taste of Japanese anpan.

-"See? I told you girls that you would love this bread."- Akane said, smiling.

Both feline girls nodded in approval at the human's words.

-"Yeah, but I have a question, Miss Akane."- Panka asked to the African-Japanese woman.

-"What do you want to know, Panka dear?"-

-"Why your people eat bread stuffed with sweet things?"- The girl asked the human with curiousity. -"Is the bread you eat really bad?"-

The black woman made a somewhat mischievous smile, but at the same time, she understood the purpose of that question: For the people of that tribe, and probably of that unknown planet, all the bread they prepared was not precisely of good quality, since it was made with primitive methods. By tasting that bread, Panka wanted to imply that humans probably used to stuff their bread with sweet fillings to try to conceal its bad taste, without fully understanding the context and history that Japanese bread had behind it.

Faced with that question, Akane offered the girl the best answer she could think of, without infantilizing it, but at the same time, explaining it to her in an understanding way.

-"The answer is somewhat complex, but here goes:"- The human responded to Pyndan's little sister. -"The anpan bread was created by a warrior turned baker named Yasubei, who wanted to create a type of bread that was to the taste of the people of that era. At that time, the only bread known was similar to the bread you normally eat in this tribe, and Yasubei came up with the idea of stuffing the bread with a paste made of sweet beans, and that is how the anpan was born, and it became very popular, and still is in my place of origin."-

-"Oh, I see."- Panka replied. -"And who is this "Anpanman" person you were referring to when you laughed at Meelia's doll, Miss Akane?"-

-"I figured one of you two would ask me that question."-

Immediately afterwards, Akane showed the alien girls a magazine that had a picture of the aforementioned Anpanman, which allowed them to form an idea of who the Japanese children's literary character was physically.

-"This is the Anpanman guy I'm talking about, girls."- Akane pointed her finger at the image of the said character that featured in the magazine she held in her hand.

When they saw the picture of Anpanman, the two girls immediately noticed the similarity between the doll Meelia's mother had made based on Akane and the famous Japanese character. Meanwhile, Panka was the first to make a somewhat honest comment about it.

-"You are right. He looks a lot like you, Miss Akane..."- The tabby feline girl chuckled a bit.

On the other hand, Meelia, the doll's owner, was visibly sad because she thought Akane was offended by her toy's similarity to the human, and she thought Akane wanted to scold or humiliate her in front of her playmate.

Seeing the child's sorrowful expression, the soldier quickly shifted her attention to Meelia and assured her that this was not the case.

-"Hey, honey, I didn't mean to make fun of you, really!"- Akane said in a cheery voice that she never meant to make fun of the girl or her toy, which her mother made for her. -"I just wanted to point out that your doll looks a lot like this character, and also me, and that's what I laughed. I'm not mad at you at any way, sweetie!"- The human then giggled at the girl with a very sweet looks at her.

Meelia, seeing that her human friend was not angry with her, quickly responded in a timid manner.

-"Re... really... Miss Akane?"-

-"Yeah, really!"- The human retorted back. -"And just to prove that I'm not angry with you, let me give you a small present for you, dear."-

Akane gave the alien girl the small brown ball of fabric that the human had brought with her from her tent. Seeing the thing that the human gave to her friend, Panka did not doubt to ask Akane about it.

-"What is that thing, Miss Akane?"-

-"It is just ordinary fabric."- The soldier explained with some giggles. -"I brought it because I figured Meelia's mom couldn't put hair on the doll, so I brought some fabric I had lying around at my place for her to put on, so it would look more like me. hehehehe!"-

Meelia quickly confirmed Akane's assumptions about her doll.

-"That's true, Panka."- The girl said at her friend. -"My mom ran out of fabric to make the doll's hair and that's why she left her bald."-

-"Well, just as I imagined."- Then, the African-Japanese woman said at Meelia. -"In that case, tell your mommy that she can make your doll's hair look like my dreadlocks, or my chonmage, or if she finds that too complicated, at least make the doll's hair curly; that will make your doll look prettier and more like me."- Akane giggled again with a nice smile.

The two girls did not know what Akane meant by chonmage, the traditional Japanese hairstyle that the human had as a hairstyle that day.

-"What is a chon-ma-gee, Miss Akane?"- Meelia asked at the human.

-"It's the hairstyle I am currently using.""- Akane pointed to her ponytail. -"It's also a classic hairstyle which was used in the past in my land."-

The two alien girls were surprised to learn all those interesting details about Akane and her home of origin on Earth, even though she tried to be as vague as possible to avoid them raising too many questions about her world or her country, Japan.

-"Do all women where you come from have that hairstyle, Miss Akane?"- Panka asked at the soldier from Japan.

-"No."- The human gave a brief story about the chonmage hairstyle she used. -"Originally this hairstyle was worn more by men of the warrior class, but for some reason it became popular with both sexes. And I like to wear it since it's easier to make than the dreadlocks I normally wear."-

-"Oh, I see..."- Pyndan's little sister replied with curiosity.

-"Anyways, thanks a lot for your gift, Miss Akane!"- Meelia thanked Akane for that little gift the human gave her.

-"Hehehehe, you're very welcome, little girl!"- The adult human chuckled a bit.

Straight after, Akane looked at her wristwatch she had, and realized that she had been talking to those two girls for a long time, seeing that she had other things to do that day.

-"Hey, girls, I would love to stay and talk with you two longer, but I agreed with Liska and grandmother Sanna to help them both with some things, especially with the food we are going to eat this afternoon."- Then, Akane waved goodbye to both feline girls. -"I'll see you later!"-

-"See you later, Miss Akane!"- Panka and Meelia did the same with her human friend.

And so, Akane Araki left the place, with a wide smile on her face, and happy to know that she had made those two girls' day, especially for Meelia and her doll, even knowing that the design of that toy had a very cartoonish shape that in other circumstances would have infuriated Akane for having an appearance that she could have interpreted as racist.

But the human knew very well that the mother of that girl never had a bad intention in making that doll, which was designed based on Akane herself, look like the famous Anpanman character, as it was most likely a bizarre coincidence, possibly because Akane was fat and her physical features were easily caricatured, something that the human of African origin thought and reflected carefully as she walked north.

-"Well, I gotta be honest, these people have never seen another human in their lives, let alone a dark-skinned one like me, and I don't blame Kayce for making her daughter a doll that looks like a cartoon version of me."-

Akane said to herself in Japanese while she still walked to her destination...

-"But I find it hard to believe that doll looks so much like Anpanman, of all the things she could have brought out about me. At least she didn't make a doll that looked disparaging about me, I have to be fair to her..."-

But the human thought it better to worry about the things she had to discuss with her friend than to worry about a silly doll made by a woman who had never seen a human in her life, and much less when it was created with no ill intentions, and in order to give a toy to her daughter.

-"Well, I guess I have to put that aside, and worry about helping Liska with her things, and also to prepare the okonomiyaki for the afternoon meal."-

And so, the human walked without further ado to join her friend, leaving the issue of the doll behind.

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Liska and Rial's tent (Outside), 09:15 AM (earlier morning)

When Akane arrived near the teepee where her friend Liska and her now mate Rial lived, she noticed that the former was outside her home tanning skins, while she was humming a song, "Baka Mitai" to be precise, in a very cheerful manner.

The young slave was happy at that moment because she was now the mate of a respected member of the tribe, which allowed her to be treated with more respect by the rest of the villagers, and at the same time, that gave her more privileges, such as deciding when she wanted to work.

And another of the privileges that Liska now enjoyed was that she could ask for help to perform a task, something that previously she had to do on her own, and she was willing to use that privilege, now that her human friend, Akane Araki, had come precisely to help her with the tanning task.

-"Oh, good morning, Akane!"- Liska greeted the human soldier from Japan.

-"Hey, good morning, sweetie."- Akane followed suit as well. -"Did you have a good sleep?"-

The young girl giggled a bit at such question.

-"Well... I suppose so, hehe"-

-"Well, it shows. I can hear you humming that song from five steps away, hehehe."- Akane replied with a sly smile in her face.

-"Oh, you mean Baka Mitai?"-

-"Yeah, that song."- The African-Japanese woman pointed about the melody her alien friend was humming minutes ago.

-"Yes, I see; I really like that song, you know."- The slave girl said at her foreign friend. -"I feel like this is a song that goes a lot with me, don't you think, Akane?"-

-"Well, if you consider that was a song about a person whose lover has left them, and they start drinking like crazy to forget them, without success..."- The human showed some sarcasm over the interpretation of the song..

Liska realized the snide nature of that remark, and she didn't hesitate to call her friend's out.

-"Do you always have to be so sarcastic, Akane?"-

The human shrugged her shoulders and did not hesitate to admit her own personality flaw to her alien friend.

-"Well... it can't be helped, you know... hehehe"- Akane giggle a bit,

Thus, the human from another world changed the subject to a more significant one.

-"Aaaaaaand... leaving that dumb song aside... I guess you want me to help you tan those skins, right?"- The human asked to the feline girl.

-"That was the idea as we agreed yesterday together at night with the mistress, isn't it?"-

Akane sighed, but knew she regrettably had a commitment to do, and she was willing to help her friend in that endeavor, whether she liked it or not.

-"Well... I guess we have to, don't we?"- Akane replied with a sardonical tinge in her voice. -"And where my tools, by the way?"-

-"Your tools are in that box in front of you."- Liska pointed her finger to a wood box who was below Akane in front of the human soldier.

-"Oh, thank you."-

Without further ado, the human woman from Japan began to work on the tanning of skins together with her alien friend. For Akane, having to do such physically strenuous work was not something she enjoyed, but she had gotten engaged in such job the day before to Liska's mistress, Sanna, and Akane had no desire to look like a freeloader to her feline hosts, so she decided to work regardless.

As Akane began to work, the young slave noticed that her human friend seemed to have a lot of experience in that work of tanning leathers, and she was surprised that she did not have to tell Akane how to do that job, as the African-Japanese woman already knew the drill without needing Liska to explain to the human any kind of instructions.

-"Hey, Akane..."- Liska said at her human friend.

-"Yeah, what is it?"-

-"You seem to have a lot of experience on this, don't you?"-

-"You mean this leather tanning thing?"- The black woman said, while still working in her part.

-"Yes."- The feline girl replied at Akane.

Akane found it difficult to answer the question because the question hinged on her work as a Space Ranger and where she was from, so she had to avoid being too specific about some things.

-"Well... as you know..."- The human hesitated a bit on answering such question -"my job as an explorer requires me to know many specific things about how to survive in hostile places, so it's natural for me to know how to tan leather, among other things."-

-"Like cooking well too, Akane?"-

The slave girl asked, since she knew that the human soldier was a pretty good cook. Akane looked at her interlocutor with some amusement, for she knew what the question was about.

-"I assume you admit that you're not a good cook, huh, sweetie?"- Akane giggle a bit.

Liska likewise looked at her human friend with a certain contempt and arrogance, knowing that Akane did not seem to enjoy the food she prepared, but she chose not to raise the tone of the argument over something as absurd as the foreigner's caustic words.

-"I rather not answer that question."-

Akane looked at the slave, and the human couldn't help but notice that, despite everything, Liska nevertheless had an element of pride, even in the things she wasn't good at, something the human teasingly let her know.

-"I always say that, for a slave, you are too proud, even of your own flaws."- Akane said at Liska, while throwing her head back in amusement. -"You are the first person I know who is proud to say that their food is bad, and that's why I get a chuckle out of your attitude about it, sweetie..."-

-"Hey, I don't like it when a foreigner like you tells me my food is terrible!"- The feline slave girl retorted back at her human friend. -"I may not be the best cook in the world, but at least I do my best, especially for my mistress and Rial, you know..."-

-"Yeah, I get it..."- Akane cannot stop smiling in a sly way at her alien friend. -"But you have to admit that you, grandmother, Rial and the other members of this tribe enjoy my food when I prepare it, don't you?"-

The young slave girl looked thoughtful, and she had to admit, to her regret, that the African-Japanese woman was right to boast about the quality of her own food.

-"Well... I'd be lying if I said we didn't like your food, Akane..."- Liska replied with certain tone of humbleness.

-"In that case, I guess you admit that I cook better than you, then?"-

The young maiden glared at Akane with some amount of derision, and she did not shy away from criticizing her human friend in a frank and open manner.

-"sigh... Has anyone told you that you are also very arrogant?"- The feline slave girl said at her soldier friend. -"Because I don't think I'm the only woman in this village who has a bigger ego than I should have..."-

Akane paused for a few minutes and giggled mischievously, knowing that it was not the first time someone had told her such a thing about her personality.

-"My, it looks like you're not the only girl I know willing to stand up to me verbally like that, I see."-

Liska was a bit taken aback at her friend's question about herself.

-"And why do you say that, Akane? I guess you are talking about Kebec, don't you?"-

-"No."- Akane denied that point to her alien friend. -"I was talking especially about a very dear female friend of mine..."-

Hearing that, the young alien maiden quickly understood what Akane meant by it, especially when Liska saw her human friend's face shift from a cheerful look to one of sadness, as the subject was too difficult for the alien to broach.

-"Wait a second, Akane, are you talking about your friend who...?"-

-"Yes, that's right..."- The black woman interrupted her feline friend. -"I'm talking about Kaguya Hoshino..."-

The slave girl looked at Akane after hearing that name.

-"Kaguya... Hoshino?"- Liska said in a worried tone, since Akane looked really sad after mentioning her name. -"You had already mentioned her to me before, but you never elaborated much about Kaguya, except that I remind you a lot to her, or something like that."-

-"Well... in some ways... you remind me a lot of Kaguya; she was arrogant and somewhat self-centered for someone relatively weak, but in spite of that, she was an excellent friend, just like you..."- Akane sighed a bit, while closing her eyes in sadness. -"The only difference is that, unlike you, she was never a slave..."-

After a brief pause, the young slave asked Akane some questions about Kaguya.

-"Just out of curiosity, can you tell me some things about that Kaguya girl, like how she was physically, and what she did for a living, if you don't mind?"-

The human quickly didn't mind at all on telling Liska about her late friend on the slightest...

-"She had red hair, although hers was dyed, as her natural color was black, not to mention being very long, she was a few meters shorter than you, her skin was like Keisuke Noguchi's and she had a somewhat explosive temperament..."-

Afterwards, Akane did a slightly smug smile in her face.

-"...also, she had really big breasts for someone her height, bigger than mine or yours."- The soldier included an off-color supplement to Kaguya's physical description.

At that explanation about Akane's late friend, Liska looked at her own breasts, and also looked at Akane's, and could not help but make a somewhat surprised and somewhat disbelieving look, trying to imagine herself what that human named Kaguya was like physically. The female soldier from Japan noticed that her slave friend was directing her gaze to her chest, and couldn't help but make a comment about it.

-"I guess you have a hard time believing me about how Kaguya was, from the way you look at me and yourself in comparison, right?"-

The young maiden, after that awkward pause while staring at Akane's breasts and her own, had no choice but to answer her human friend.

-"I can't help but think that your friend Kaguya must have been a very pretty girl..."-

-"And yes she was pretty, to be honest."- Akane responded to her alien friend in a sincere way about her late former classmate from the university. -"She wasn't named "Kaguya" for nothing."-

-"Huh?"- Liska pondered when she heard that part about the name "Kaguya" and its meaning. -"And may I know what that name means, Akane?"-

The African-Japanese woman heaved a sigh for a few moments, and then she explained the meaning of her late friend's name.

-"Kaguya was the name of a princess of the same name who was the protagonist of a story called The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, also called The Tale of Princess Kaguya, for obvious reasons."-

Then, Akane explained a resumed version of the original tale.

-"The short version of the story goes like this: One day, an old man planting bamboo came across a bamboo tree that shined intensely. Out of curiosity, the old man cut off one of the branches of the tree, and when he looked inside, he found a little baby the size of a thumb. Afterwards, the old man took the baby home with his wife and adopted the girl as his own daughter, whom they named Nayotake no Kaguya-hime, which means "Princess of the bright light of the young bamboo" in Hinowan."-

-"And what happened next with that princess, Akane?"- Liska asked.

-"Well, I'll cut some things short and get to the point: After several adventures in her life, Princess Kaguya revealed to her parents that she was from the moon, and that she had to return to her world sooner or later, and soon after, some soldiers from the moon kingdom where Princess Kaguya came from came to my world to take her back to her home world, and the young princess had to return to the moon."-

After listening to the summary of the Tale of Princess Kaguya, the young slave immediately noticed that there was something that sounded quite familiar in that story.

-"Why do I feel like I've heard something like this before?"-

Akane became puzzled upon hearing this, for that meant that Liska may have heard a similar version of the same tale in her own world, a thing the human was eager to know right away.

-"Hey, don't tell me you've heard that same tale or something like it before, have you?"- The soldier asked to the feline girl.

-"Not exactly, but..."- The girl responded with some hesitation. -"...I have the strange feeling that someone in my family had told me that story somewhere when I was a kid, but I can't remember the specific details..."-

-"That would be one hell of a coincidence, if you ask me, dear."- Akane replied in a rather surprised tone.

-"And why do you say so, Akane?"-

-"Because..."-

The female soldier realized that explaining her point would force her to have to explain about some things about Earth, so she opted not to say anything else, even though she knew that her friend might resent her for it.

-"Oh... just forget it... will you?"-

Liska facepalmed in an annoyed way at her human friend's reply, since she knew what Akane meant with that.

-"Don't tell me it's just another one of those things you'd rather not say because you don't want to harm us with them, is that it?"-

-"Right."- Akane responded in a deadpan tone.

The young girl was visibly exasperated by her friend's answer, since she was saying such warning since she came to the village two months ago, and as if that were not enough, Akane was always ready to avoid a conversation if she felt she was talking too much about certain subjects, and that was gradually beginning to wear on the young slave's patience.

-"Sometimes I don't understand why you don't want to discuss certain topics under the pretext that you might bring us trouble if you speak the truth."- Liska replied at the stranger from Earth with a quite vexed tone.

Akane quickly sympathized with her friend's displeasure, but she had her own motives for not being truthful, and she again rehashed her usual excuse she had for not being sincere about her own origins beyond that unfamiliar planet.

-"I understand your discomfort, honey, but believe me, I have my reasons for not saying anything until the time is right."- The human replied on regards on her friend's questioning about her true identity. -"And I don't like this as much as you do, because I'm not the type of person who likes to keep such secrets."-

-"And what if you were to tell the truth about you, Akane?"-

-"Well, there is a possibility the perception that you and your people have about me could change for the worse, and I don't want that to happen."- The African-Japanese woman said in a somewhat somber manner, knowing full well the consequences that could befall her if she spoke too much about herself and her own world.

-"Couldn't you even say something to me, Akane?"- Liska asked to the human soldier about revealing some things about her own identity. -"Come on, I promise I won't tell anything to anyone, since I'm your friend."-

-"I'm sorry, but I can't say anything to anyone, not even you."- Akane denied her friend's petition. -"I can't run unnecessary risks if you were forced to open your big mouth, and I think you know why, don't you?"-

Liska bowed her head at the ground at her friend's hypothetical situation she described, and she knew her human friend was right, since, as a slave, she could be forced to reveal any kind of compromising info Akane could say about herself to either Rial, her mistress or any tribe member with any kind of authority over her, a fact that quite depressed her to no end.

Akane, seeing her friend feeling depressed at her slavery situation that the human brought up by mentioning her reasons for her secrecy, couldn't help but feel that she may have crossed the line by stating that without taking into account Liska's feelings about it.

-"Hey, I'm sorry if I possibly said something stupid that made you feel sad, I just wanted to...!"-

-"It's alright, Akane..."- The young feline girl said at her human friend in a quite downbeat voice. -"You are quite right on not telling me anything about yourself... after all, I'm still a slave, right?"-

Akane, eager to apologize for having accidentally made that tasteless remark, stepped closer to the young slave, and without further words, the human hugged Liska in a warm and loving way, trying to show her caring affection to her alien friend. The latter was quite surprised, for put in a nice way, about her friend hugging her.

-"Akane, what are you...?!"-

-"Shhhh... Quiet, my little kitten girl..."- The human woman said with a gentle voice, while petting her friend's head.

Seeing that Akane was trying to both apologize to her and cheer her up at the same time, Liska simply allowed the human to cuddle her tenderly, and meanwhile, the young slave began to placidly purr on her friend's chest, which caused Akane to blush for a few moments, due to the pleasure that this brought her at hearing the purrs of a cat the size of a 18-year-old human girl.

-"You know what, dear? As I always say, you're very cute when you purr..."- Akane giggled at her feline friend, while still hugging her.

-"I don't purr."- Liska retorted in a deadpan, yet comical tone.

-"Yes, you do."- Akane replied back in the same way, through still with a sly smile.

-"I said no."-

-"You do purr, sweetie."-

-"No."-

-"Yes."-

-"No."-

-"You know what, dear?"- The black woman responded with a even big smile in her face. -"You are really enjoying being teased like that."-

-"Well, I wouldn't say that if you weren't trying to pet me in that way, Akane."- The slave girl said with a proudful tone in her voice.

Then, Akane let go of her friend's embrace, and she simply saw how Liska was in a better mood after that show of affection from the human, although the latter could not help but be a bit wry at the affectionate attitude of her foreign friend.

-"But anyway... thank you very much for worrying about me... Akane."- The feline girl thanked her human friend wholeheartly, while resuming her work on tanning leathers.

-"Well, you're welcome, dear."- Akane Araki warmly replied back. -"I just wanted to make you feel good, and I'm sorry if sometimes I can be rude, but I didn't meant to offend you."-

-"Alright, I forgive you... but next time, be more careful what you say, will you?"-

-"Understood, sweetie."- Akane then smiled as widely as she could at her alien friend.

But before the two women could continue their merry chatter, they heard what sounded like derisive female laughter coming from the west side of where they were sitting.

And when the two girls looked to see where those mocking laughs were coming from, they realized who were the people who were laughing at them... and one of those people was a person very well known to both Akane and Liska, although the other person was not very well known to the former, for reasons that will be explained below.

-"(くそ！またあのケベックかよ！) Fuck! It's that Kebec girl again!"- Akane cursed in low voice in Japanese with her friend so that Kebec wouldn't learn what she was babbling about.

Regarding the aforementioned bully, she did not hesitate to say out loud what she thought of both Liska and Akane aloud, in order to let both know her contempt for the human and the young slave girl.

-"Well, well, what do we have here:"- Kebec began first with her scatting bullying on those women. -"Rial's spoiled slave, and her friend, the dark-skinned, furless freeloader, who Mother Sanna must surerly have her put to work after two moons of doing nothing but sitting her rear in her teepee exploiting our hospitality. Don't you think so, Brocia?"-

The other girl Kebec was referring to, Brocia, and who was standing next to her, was a woman with curly brown hair, eyes of the same color, and a honey-colored fur, with the exception of black stripes on her tail. She was also slightly taller than her other friend, and although she was not ugly at all, her personality was not exactly pleasant either.

-"I guess you're right, Kebec."- Brocia replied in the same mocking tone as her other bully friend. -"At least it's good to see Akane doing something useful for the tribe for once in her life."-

Then, both women began to laugh mockingly at Liska and Akane, seeing how they both seemed to delight in seeing how they were going to aggressively react to the two bullies.

And this is precisely what happened, at least with Akane: The human had no tolerance for bullies, especially when they used racist language towards her, and she was willing to meet both women's insults... with a knuckle sandwich on their faces.

-"(てめえ。。。！)" YOU LITTLE BITCHES!"-

Akane yelled in Japanese towards Kebec and Brocia, and he was ready to deal with both of them... violently.

But before she could even dare to take a step in order to get even with both bullies, Liska caught her by the wrist, and prevented her from doing anything that Akane might regret later.

-"(もうやめてくださいよ、明音さん！) Please don't do that, Akane-san!"- The young slave communicated to Akane in Japanese as well. -"(この二人共を懲らしめるために、罰を受けるのはもったありません！) It's not worth the risk of being punished just to teach these two a lesson!"-

But the fact that Akane was stopped by Liska only caused Kebec to intensify her mockery at both women in order to bait them in one way or another.

-"Hey, Akane, I didn't know your slave friend controlled you..."- The young white-furred bully insulted Akane in the worst way she could think of. -"I wonder who's the slave here then, huh? chuckle..."-

That last one was the straw that broke the camel's back for Akane, because calling her a "slave" was something that the human of African origin would no longer tolerate, and she was willing to make Kebec pay dearly for that.

-"WHY YOU LITTLE..."- The human soldier yelled at Kebec and Brocia, and she was willing to attack them both with her own hands.

But before Akane could do anything violent, the young slave girl quickly got up from her place and immediately interposed herself between the human and the two bullies in order to prevent the situation from becoming explosive, being her the one who confronted the two of them on her own terms.

-"That's enough, Kebec!"- Liska yelled at the bully. -"And you too, Akane!"-

Kebec stood with her arms crossed, and with a haughty expression in her place alongside Brocia, watching as Liska was trying to placate her human friend, and being the one who was stepping in to deal with Kebec, rather than the foreigner, to prevent things from getting worse for both of them.

Akane, for her part, agreed to obey her, even if reluctantly, just to avoid giving Liska more headaches than she could have at that moment.

-"Please, Akane, let me handle them, alright?"- The blonde-haired feline girl addressed the human woman from Japan.

Akane gave an angry grunt in response, knowing that she wanted to fix the bully's face with her fists, but she knew that her friend wanted to deal the problem in a less confrontational way, so she had no choice but to obey her.

-"Tch!... All right, as you wish, dear..."- The human reluctantly and angrily responded at her alien friend.

Immediately afterwards, Liska confronted Kebec face to face, although this time she wished to settle things verbally, and not through blows as on other occasions, in order to avoid giving her enemy a pretext to accuse her before her mistress or with the chief.

-"Very well, slave, I see that you want to settle this directly, or maybe your friend Akane can't help you because you control her, don't you?"- Kebec began her caustic attack toward the young maiden, who was also eager to find a way to shut her up for good.

But Liska, knowing that dealing with bullies like Kebec and Brocia violently would not help her in any way except to cause her more unnecessary trouble, resolved to act smarter this time, and confront the bully in a language she could understand in a strong and straightforward manner.

-"If you have nothing more important to say besides insulting me and Akane, I suggest you get out of here right away, unless you want to settle this some other way, Kebec."- The slave girl said, crossing her arms in a proudful way, and standing still before Kebec and Brocia, ready to take action if necessary.

-"And if I don't, what, you stupid slave?"-

Liska sighed a bit, and then she replied in a more severe tone toward both bullies.

-"I don't think it would sound good for your own reputation if everyone saw you getting beaten up by Rial, would it, Kebec?"-

Hearing the name of Liska's now mate, Kebec gulped quickly, for she had not taken that into consideration when bullying the slave in front of their own teepee. And considering the social status of both Liska and Rial, picking a fight with the mate of one of the well-known warriors of the tribe would not look too good on her.

-"Oh... crap!"- Kebec thought immediately, seeing that the slave was right in knowing that she could stand up to Rial if he saw her bullying Liska in front of him.

Immediately after, Liska shifted her attention to Brocia, to whom she also had a few words for the other bully... which were even more scathing than the previous ones directed at Kebec.

-"And as for you, Brocia, I don't think it would look good either for a former slave like you to pick on another slave in front of Rial..."-

Liska's explosive statement about Brocia's past caused the latter to curse the young maiden, as she did not expect her to bring up that delicate subject in front of everyone in such a way.

-"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU LOWLY...!"-

And then, in order to tease her, Liska shrugged her shoulders, closed her eyes, and afterwards, she continued with her scathing remarks toward Brocia.

-"I wonder what your husband, who is not here to see you, would say if he found out that you had a fight with the mate of another warrior of this tribe? He would probably punish you so severely that you might not be able to sit for several moons, I suppose."- Liska continued with her caustic words, being said in a very arrogant tone toward Kebec's other bully friend.

On the other hand, Akane Araki, who was watching the whole event, could only watch in amazement as her feline friend confronted both bullies in a way that even she would have had a hard time saying in similar circumstances.

And she was very proud of Liska at the same time, knowing at that point that the seemingly weak slave turned out to be more determined than she appeared to be.

-"Holy shit, this woman has a mouth as big as mine!"- The African-Japanese woman thought as she saw her friend confronting both bullies in a very resolute yet intelligent way, without resorting to violence for once.

On the other hand, Brocia did not seem to be very happy to see that young slave girl was exposing certain aspects of her past to everyone in a very smug fashion, and she began hissing loudly as a result...

-"YOU LITTLE WHORE!"- The other bully yelled at Liska in a very threatening, harsh tone -"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT! I'M GOING TO...!"-

Brocia clenched her fists, and that woman was ready to hit Liska with her bare hands at that moment...

But before she could do anything violent, Kebec stopped her immediately when she was only two steps away from assaulting the slave girl.

-"Hey, stop it, Brocia!"-

The former slave, who was still hissing furiously, was surprised that her friend had stopped her, when she might have felt like letting Liska and Brocia come to blows for her perverse amusement. But Kebec knew that a brawl of that extent could be damaging for the reputation of both of them, and besides, they hadn't originally come to pick a fight with either Liska, Akane or both of them at the same time, but only to tease them for a while.

Brocia, on the other hand, didn't see why Kebec had no intention of letting her beat the slave, and she let her know immediately.

-"And why don't you let me shut this dirty slave's big mouth with my bare hands, eh, Kebec?"- Brocia yelled furiously at her other bully friend. -"That stupid little girl insulted me and still has the nerve to act like she feels like a free woman to speak to me like that!"-

-"Do you want to get us both in trouble with either Rial, the chief or Mother Sanna if they see us having a fist fight with her?"- Kebec replied in more serious tone.

-"Uh... well... of course not."- Brocia said, knowing her friend was right on stopping her from making the things worse.

-"Besides, we're not here to fight with anyone, we're here to have a little fun with those two idiots, and we already got what we wanted, so we'd better move out of here sooner than later."-

The other bully snarled in disagreement with her friend, but she knew she had no choice but to obey her, lowering her arms and fists as a sign that she would no longer intend to attack the slave.

-"All right... whatever you say... damn it..."-

-"In that case, let's get out of here; we have other things to do regarding the meal we have to prepare in the afternoon for the whole tribe."- Kebec said, as she headed for her home, leaving Liska and Akane behind, while Brocia reluctantly followed her, knowing that she could not have a chance to retaliate against the slave.

But before she and Brocia disappeared from the scene, Kebec still had a few words to say to her enemies, which she said in an haughty and belligerent style, as was usual for her.

-"I hope you enjoy your good time you have now with him, stupid slave, because if you don't manage to give Rial a kitten child who carries his clan name, you will most likely end up going back to being a slave again, and you will end up cleaning the village latrines with those pretty hands of yours..."-

Immediately after, the bully addressed Akane in even worse terms...

-"And as for you, Akane Araragi, or whatever the hell you call yourself, you'd better watch that mouth of yours, because otherwise you'll end up being a slave too, and you'll probably end up cleaning latrines with your slave friend too, and I'll make sure you do it with that snake tongue of yours..."-

Akane, hearing that, was a moment away from losing her patience and was ready to make that bully pay for her words...

-"(貴様！) YOU FUCKIN' BITCH!"- The Japanese-speaking human cursed in her language at Kebec, ready to exchange blows to her.

But before she could do anything, Liska stopped her again...

-"(やめなさい、明音さん！) Stop it, Akane-san!" The young maiden warned her friend in her own language even more sternly on that time.

Seeing that the bully and her friend were leaving, the human only wanted to try to punch them both in their faces, but at the same time she understood that her alien friend only wanted to prevent things from getting worse for everyone involved, and that it was not worth risking a worse punishment just to maintain one's dignity and honor.

And at that, Akane could only say the following.

-"Tch... all right... you may be right. It's just not worth risking myself and you just to getting even with those brainless whores..."-

-"Glad that you understand, Akane."- Liska replied, while breathing a sigh of relief that her human friend didn't try to beat up the bullies herself.

But before they could do anything else of importance, both Liska and Akane saw another girl walking behind Kebec and Brocia, who seemed to be walking in a hurry. They also noticed that she was carrying a basket full of yams, which would be used to make the okonomiyaki they would eat in the afternoon...

...and that girl was well known to both women.

-"Kayce?"- Both the ginger-furred girl and the black human woman said at the same time when they saw Kebec's elder sister walking behind her younger one. And without even trying to talk to the two of them, visibly embarrassed to see them.

-"I wonder why she doesn't want to talk to us?"- Liska said when she saw the brown-furred girl walking so fast and without trying to talk to either her or Akane.

-"Well, clearly she doesn't agree with what her younger sister is doing, and I don't think she wants to become involved in this mess."- Akane replied.

And the alien slave girl and her human friend were confused when the young maiden disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared.

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Near Kebec's tent, 11:00 AM (late morning)

After Kebec and Brocia had left their two bitter enemies behind after having fun with them, the former had come home to continue working, as she had to grate the yams, one of the ingredients for the okonomiyaki that the whole village would eat for lunch.

But it was unmistakable that Kebec did not like in the least to have to prepare a meal that, besides being a foreign food brought by one of her enemies, the human named Akane, with whom she had a clash minutes before, having to grate those vegetables was not exactly an easy task for her, or for her friend Brocia, who was also willing to help her with that task.

Something that Brocia herself pointed out to her other friend next to her.

-"DAMN IT!"- The former slave cursed loudly. -"Who the hell came up with the idea of preparing that crap food that Liska's friend came up with for us to eat in the afternoon, huh?"-

-"Well, If you want to blame someone, blame Mother Sanna and the chief, who allowed Akane to let us all eat that crap."- Kebec also lamented her and her friend's dilemma they were involved against their will. "And if that wasn't enough, most of the tribe went along with it, so we can't do anything about it, other than help prepare that food."-

-"Yeah, I know that, damn it, but..."- Brocia continued to audibly complain to her friend. -"Someone should have told that stupid Akane woman that peeling and grating yams is not exactly a cut and dried thing!"-

-"I agree with you, but what can we do if almost the whole tribe agreed to it, huh?"-

Both women looked at each other, knowing that there was nothing they could both do to get out of the commitment to which they were bound by being members of the Highland tribe, regardless of whether they hated Akane or not.

-"Hmmm... That's a big problem, no doubt about it."- Brocia retorted, while musing on the whole issue on herself.

-"You can say that again, Brocia dear."- Kebec replied as well, also damning her own luck as well.

But while both women were cursing their bad luck, Kayce, Kebec's older sister-cousin, appeared on the scene, bringing with her a basket full of yams that they would use along with her younger sister and Brocia for peeling and grating.

But the girl's presence seemed to make her younger sister upset for reasons she would explain next...

-"You're late, Kayce."- Kebec complained loudly at her older sister. -"What took you so long?"-

-"I'm sorry, Kebec,"- The young feline maiden apologized to her sister. -"but I was busy trying to carry all these yams back to the village."-

But Kayce's younger sister knew that she didn't seem to be telling the truth...

-"Really?"- The white-furred girl questioned her older sister-cousin. -"It seemed to me that you were behind us at one of the teepees while we were busy playing with that stupid slave and her dark-skinned furless friend, waiting for us to finish, weren't you?"-

Hearing that racist comment about Akane, Kayce, who also had dark fur like that human woman's skin, switched her demeanor from one of uneasiness to one of irritation at the extremely abusive language that Kebec addressed the foreigner, considering her younger sister's utter hypocrisy in targeting Akane in such a way, but not daring to do the same to her own older sister.

But even so, she preferred to be as diplomatic as possible when talking to her sister-cousin, even though she could no longer hide her anger at Kebec's racially discriminatory remarks about Akane.

-"Should you care about that, Kebec?"-

Seeing Kayce speak to her in a more aggressive tone than usual, the white-haired bully was surprised to see that her sister seemed to sympathize with the people she hated, even if she knew that Kayce had been doing so for a month, but out of respect for the privacy of her sister's intimate life, she had never dared to question her motives.

But Kebec knew she could no longer ignore the elephant in the room, and she didn't hesitate to strongly question Kayce about it, regardless of the consequences.

-"And since when do you care about those two stupid girls, Kayce?"-

Seeing that her younger sister was escalating the tone of the discussion, the young maiden again repeated her answer, this time in the same way Kebec was questioning her decisions.

-"And I repeat myself: should that matter to you?"- Kebec's older relative replied in more aggressive fashion. -"And besides, who are you to talk to me that way?"-

-"Wha... WHAAAAAAAT?!"-

Seeing Kayce respond to her in a way she had never seen from her own older sister-cousin before, the white-furred feline girl was losing her nerve with her, and she didn't hesitated to let her know what she thought of the sudden change of heart her sister had experienced since Akane Araki had come to the Highland tribe.

-"And since when have you allowed Akane and her slave friend to wash that brain of YOURS, uh?"-

Kebec replied to his sister in the rudest way possible, seeing that she was no longer tolerating her attitude or her comments about her two new friends.

At that aggressive response, Kayce approached her sister just a step closer to her face, as she carried her basket of yams in her hands...

-"What the...!"-

...and without a second thought, she angrily dumped the said heavy basket at Kebec's feet. The latter mewled in pain as she received the impact of the blow on her feet.

-"MEOOOW! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, YOU STUPID..."-

But before she could curse her sister, Kayce yelled at Kebec in a never-heared-before-for-her agressive tone...

-"I'm sick and tired of being your partner-in-crime and listening to your nonsense EVERY SINGLE DAY, Kebec!"-

-"WHAT?!"- The bully replied, quite shocked to hear her sister-cousin yelled at her in very violent way her as she had never heard from her sister before.

On the other hand, Brocia, who was next to her, was also as shocked to hear that as her friend Kebec, but, out of respect for her friend and because it was a family affair, she decided to keep quiet about it.

Meanwhile, Kebec, who was trying to catch her breath after hearing her older sister insulted her right under her nose, decided to hit back at her in the same way.

-"Hey, who the hell do you think you can talk down to me like that, UH?"- The white-furred lady angrily retorted back at her sister.

-"I have the right to talk to you however I damn well please, because I'M DONE PLAYING ALONG WITH YOU, and THAT other little friend you have by your side!"- Kayce yelled at her other blood sister, and also pointing her finger to Brocia, her other partner-in-crime, something that also shocked her as well.

-"HAH! Surely that stinky slave and her dark-skinned foreign friend must have done something to you to make you act like that! Or maybe am I wrong?"-

If Kebec's already aggressive language was pushing Kayce to her limit, that vicarious insult towards the young dark-furred maiden was the last straw for her, and this time she didn't hesitate to say what she thought of her sister in her own terms.

-"That dark-skinned foreigner as you call Akane is MY FRIEND, and her skin is as dark as MY FUR, in case you haven't noticed that, you stupid hypocrite bonehead!"- Kayce pointed out Kebec's hypocrisy in insulting Akane with racist terms, while she did not dare to say the same about her own sister, whose fur was the same color as the human from Japan. -"And I can't stand you addressing her that way anymore, and the same goes for Liska!"-

-"And since when are you concerned about the welfare of slaves and foreign meddlers like that Akane, Kayce?"-

-"Because I have something called EMPATHY, something you don't have in that little head of YOURS, and I'm sick of hating people for no reason just to suit you as your older sister!"- The young girl was even more furious, to the extent that even her fangs were noticeable when she was yelling, making Kebec herself nervous, thinking that at any moment her older sister-cousin could do something more violent against her. -"And I don't want my daughter to be like me, let alone like you!"-

And suddenly, Kayce turned away furiously, and decided to leave Kebec and Brocia alone, possibly in order to avoid escalating the discussion even further, but it was more than obvious that the bond between the two sisters had been broken, most likely permanently...

This last made Kebec, who had never before been insulted in that way in her life, much less by someone close to her like Kayce, even more enraged, and she was not willing to be insulted by her elder sister in that way, much less after she felt that Kayce had betrayed and abandoned her.

-"WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, YOU STUPID GIRL?!"-

-"THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"- Kayce yelled back for a final time -"AND UNTIL YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND, I WILL NEVER SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN!"-

With nothing more to say, and plainly more than angry, Kayce walked away from her younger sister, who was both perplexed by the sudden turn of events and also furious at how Kayce had basically betrayed her by no longer tolerating the abusive and discriminatory attitude that Kebec had towards Liska and Akane.

And it was the racist language towards the latter that caused Kayce to begin to reflect on her own personality, and upon noticing herself the contradictions of insulting a dark-skinned woman, her fur being as dark as that human's skin, she decided to repent of what she had done in the last few months...

...even if that meant having to break ties with her own younger sister-cousin.

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Liska and Rial's tent (Outside), 11:30 AM (late morning)

Meanwhile, Liska and Akane, who were watching from afar the events that had happened to Kayce regarding her younger sister, could not believe what had happened. Both the slave and her human friend had always thought that Kayce was a girl with a more submissive personality, incapable of at least disagreeing with Kebec, or at least not saying anything that would upset her younger sister.

But that young maiden turned out to have a stronger side than anyone had assumed she could have, not only being capable of shunning everything Ke stood for, but also going so far as to break ties with her, something they did not expect from Kayce at all.

In response, the human, who watched these events gaping open-mouthed, only blurted out the following.

-"Boy, that girl has bigger balls than I thought!"-

Liska, on the other hand, did not understand what Akane meant by saying that vulgar expression, as the human said it in the local language, and not in Japanese, the language she used when Akane needed to say something incredibly vulgar, which was not the case this time.

-"And what does that mean, Akane?"- The slave asked with some curiosity.

The human of African origin looked with some disbelief at Liska, upon hearing that the young slave was clueless as to the context of her words.

-"You've never heard anything like that before?"-

-"To be honest, no."- The feline girl replied.

Akane realized that it would be very awkward to have to describe something so explicit to her friend in a way that she could understand...

-"Well, when we, at least in people of my own species, say that someone has very big balls, we mean..."-

Then, Akane pointed her finger at her crotch.

-"...this, at least in the literal sense of the word."-

Liska could not help but make a smirk after she heard the real meaning of Akane's idiomatic expression, and translated into a context that the slave could understand, knowing that it was something very typical of the human to use vulgar language, even if she was doing it in the local language and not in Japanese that time.

-"Why did I imagine that it would be something obscene what you just said, Akane?"-

-"Well, I couldn't help it."-

The human shrugged her shoulders and she then smiled to her friend afterwards.

-"Anyway, where I come from that word idiomatically means that someone has to be extremely brave to do what Kayce did to her own sister."- Akane explained the meaning of her vulgar idiom at her alien friend. -"To be honest, I would have a hard time doing what she did, even in the worst of circumstances. It's not easy to cut ties with someone as abusive as Kebec, and even more so when you are related to her as intimately as she is."-

Liska quickly agreed with her human friend.

-"You're right; doing something like that is hardly something that anyone would have the courage to do on any given day..."-

-"I agree with you there, little sister..."- Akane replied with a smile at her slave friend.

After this, Kayce quickly drew near the place where Liska and Akane were standing watching what had happened to the young dark-furred maiden in the distance.

As she came closer, Akane began to slowly clap her hands at Kayce, while the human smiled placidly, as if trying to congratulate her for the bold move Kayce had made in speaking her mind about her own younger sister-cousin's abusive behavior. The young feline, on the other hand, had no idea what Akane was doing, something she thought to ask her.

-"Can I ask what are you doing, Akane?"-

-"Oh, you mean this?"- The human woman said while referring to her action she was doing to the alien girl. -"It's just a round of applause for you."-

-"And what is that?"- The alien feline girl asked to the Earth soldier.

-"We do this to congratulate someone."- Akane explained the meaning of her clapping. -"In your case, it's to praise you for having the courage to kick your sister to the curb once and for all, if I may say so frankly."-

Catching the significance of what Akane was doing by clapping for her, Kayce couldn't help but smile in the same way, albeit in a somewhat forced way, taking into consideration the circumstances.

-"Heheh... thank you, Akane..."- The dark-furred girl replied. -"Although to be honest, someone had to set Kebec straight one of these days, and she's had enough of my patience."-

-"Considering the horrible things she has said about Akane, we don't blame you if you decided to break up with your sister."- Liska followed suit as well on congratulating Kayce.

-"Thank you, Liska, I appreciate your words too."-

After a few seconds of silence, Kayce posed a question to the two women with whom she was engaged in conversation regarding her sister.

-"Putting that aside, wouldn't you like me to give you a hand with what you two are doing?"-

-"You mean, helping us on tanning these hides?"- Liska asked to Kayce quite puzzled at her question.

-"Yes."- The young maiden replied with a smile in her face.

Liska and Akane looked at each other with some concern and the former asked another question about it.

-"Wouldn't we be taking up too much of your time?"- The slave girl questioned Kayce about her own duties. -"Just remember that you also have to help us with preparing the okonomiyaki for the whole village."-

-"Yeah, and I don't think we would want you to get in trouble with grandmother because of us."- Akane also followed suit.

-"No, there is no problem, girls."- The free girl responded at Liska and Akane's questions about her own time available for work. -"I have another basket of yams that I'm going to peel later at home, and the one I gave Kebec is a different one, and I can peel mine quickly without any problems."-

-"Oh, I see."- Akane replied.

-"Besides... I need to talk to someone, now that I've put Kebec aside."- Kayce said, in a quite worried tone. -"I hope my presence won't cause you girls any trouble here."-

-"Of course not, Kayce!"- Liska replied with a merry expression in her face. -"Any help is good for us, and besides, having another person to talk to is always good to lighten the mood. Right, Akane?"-

-"Well..."-

The human put her arms behind her head, trying to play along with her alien friend. Although she didn't mind Kayce's presence, on the other hand Akane had no desire to trigger Kebec and Brocia further either if Kayce was now with both women, but she would rather leave that decision to Liska, as it was her home where they were both invited in the first place.

-"I guess if there's no issue on your end, I don't see why Kayce can't lend a hand, do you?"- Akane replied in a deadpan tone at her friend.

-"Of course not, Akane."-

-"Well, in that case, I don't see a problem with her helping us."- The African-Japanese woman agreed with Liska.

-"Thank you, both of you."- The young girl appreciated both women for allowing her to help them in their work, And she was ready to begin working with them. -"And what tools will I use?"-

-"There is another set of tools next to my teepee; you can use those if you want."- The slave girl pointed her finger to another box who was behind her, in front of her teepee.

-"Oh, I see them, thank you again, Liska."-

-"You are welcome, Kayce."-

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Liska and Rial's tent (Outside), 11:50 AM (late morning)

And so, the three women, Liska, Kayce and Akane, began to work on tanning those skins, while they also started to discuss about different topics, the human being the first to start the conversation.

-"Hey, Kayce dear, I'd like to ask you something."-

-"What would that be, Akane?"- The alien girl said back to the human.

-"Who the hell is that Brocia girl, that Kebec's new little friend who seems to be just as irksome as she is?"- The female soldier from Japan asked the young maiden in a somewhat sardonic manner.

-"You've never seen her before, Akane?"- Liska also asked her human friend on regards of her question about Kebec's fellow bully friend.

The human, on the other hand, could not help but recognize her ignorance about that woman.

-"Well, I'd seen her hanging around the village, and I'd noticed that she always seemed to be avoiding me for some reason, but this is the first time she's ever come up against me in one way or another."- Akane said on regard about Brocia and the fact she seemed to hate the human woman for some reason. -"And I'm not surprised that she hates me for being a outsider."-

After a brief pause, the young slave explained to Akane the personal background about that bully girl.

-"Brocia is the wife of a veteran warrior, named Towakota, who is not currently in the village right now."- Liska explained to the human. -"She was a slave like me, but her husband, who loved her very much, decided to give her her freedom, and they both got married."-

-"Hmm, that would explain why she snapped when you recalled her past that way."- Akane responded back. -"I also noticed another unusual trait about her, though."-

-"What do you mean, Akane?"- The blonde feline girl asked the African-Japanese soldier.

-"She has a touch of a foreign accent, like she sounds to it so she comes from elsewhere like I do. Have either of you two got an idea why?"-

Kayce gave an answer to the specific question Akane posed about Brocia, as she was the one who knew that woman well.

-"I'm surprised you noticed that, Akane, and that has an explanation."- The other girl explained Brocia's past. -"Brocia is not from the Plains region, like all of us, but she was born in a kingdom far away, beyond the eastern mountains. The only thing she has commented about it is that the name of that kingdom is Romalia, and that she was a woman of the high society of that kingdom, until her father sold her as a slave, and for some reason she ended up here, where she was bought by her current husband, Towakota."-

The human, for reasons more than obvious, made a gesture of both surprise and disgust, not being able to imagine what kind of person who would call himself a father would sell his daughter into slavery for some reason.

Still, Akane could not help but sympathize with the reasons why she had such aggressive behavior towards Liska and herself. Anyone would end up acting the same way if one's father sold one of his children into slavery, and Akane, being a descendant of a racial group that was also enslaved in the past on her home planet Earth, understood that better than anyone else.

-"I'm sorry for what I'm about to say, but..."-

The black woman paused for a few moments, and without dropping her work tools, she clenched her fists in anger at what she had heard about Brocia.

It didn't matter if that woman was a bully friend of Kebec's, not even Akane would wish something like Brocia suffered in the past on her worst enemy, period.

-"What kind of sick, degenerated BASTARD would sell his OWN daughter into slavery?"-

Seeing that Akane was almost burning red with rage, Liska began to worry for her friend, thinking that she might snap at any moment at the mere mention of the subject of slavery.

-"A... Akane... are you alright?"-

Quickly and without wasting time, the young slave put her right hand on Akane's left hand, in order to pacify her...

-"Easy, Akane... please calm down... you don't have to be angry about that."-

Seeing that gesture of concern for her, the human realized that she may have gone a little too far with that display of anger, and she gradually calmed down.

-"I'm sorry, dear."- Akane replied to her friend, this time in a calmer tone. -"You know that anything that has to do with slavery, especially if someone close to me suffers or has suffered it, enrages me beyond belief..."-

-"I think your position is very understandable, if I must say so, Akane."- Kayce gave her own opinion about the topic, also trying to be sympathetic with the human woman from Japan.

-"Heheh... Thank you for your kind words, Kayce dear."-

-"Well, you don't have to thank me, I just wanted to help you too."-

-"You are welcome, sweetie..."-

Afterwards, Akane decided to switch to another topic more or less related to what she was talking about Brocia...

-"And leaving aside all that slavery stuff, who is that... Utakata... or whatever that guy's name is?"- The African-Japanese woman said. -"I don't think I've seen or heard anyone by that name around here."-

Liska snickered a few times when she heard Akane mispronounce the name of that warrior who was Brocia's husband.

-"Are you talking about Towakota, Akane?"-

-"Yeah, that guy."- The human responded at her alien friend's question. -"Or whatever the hell his name is spelled."-

-"He is a veteran warrior who has been in this tribe for a long time, and he is an old friend of the chief since before the latter became one. He's not exactly very friendly with strangers like you, although he loves Brocia very much, and he freed her soon after Towakota bought her, and the two of them married afterwards."- The slave told Akane what the warrior's background was.

-"Oh, I see."- The human responded with some awe. -"That would explain a few things. But that doesn't explain my question about why I haven't seen that guy since I came to this village."-

-"You mean where he is now?"- Liska replied at her friend's question about Brocia's husband and his current whereabouts. -"Towakota is currently representing the tribe on a bartering trip in the Tianchao Empire, in the eastern lands."-

Akane found the name of the oriental kingdom her friend was referring to rather peculiar. Judging by that name, the human could deduce that it sounded like something related to China, as the name "Tianchao" (天朝) means "the heavenly kingdom" in Chinese.

-"Tian...chao?"- The soldier said. -"I have not heard that name before, but it does sound familiar."-

Both alien women made a combined "uh?" sound when they heard that their human friend had never heard the name of that far eastern kingdom in her life.

-"Don't tell me you've never heard of the Tianchao Empire before, Akane?"- Kayce asked in a puzzled way to Akane.

-"I'll be honest, Kayce dear, the name rings a bell for me, but I've never heard of a place by that name before..."- The human soldier replied back.

Given that topic about Tianchao, Akane was motivated to ask questions about her surroundings because of the subject they were discussing.

-"...And may I ask what is so special about that place called Tianchao?"- The black woman did her question about the Eastern empire. -"By the surprised face you two made when I mentioned that I had not heard of that country, I must assume it must be a very well known place."-

-"Well..."- Kayce described Tianchao as best as she could. -"While I have never traveled there, I know several people from this tribe who have traveled or done business with Tianchaoese people, and this is what I know about that empire."-

-"I'm all ears, sweetie."- Akane said with curiosity.

-"Tianchao is a kingdom ruled by an emperor, just like our close neighbor to the east, Hinowa. What I know is that Tianchao is said to be a very beautiful kingdom, with castles and homes much like Hinowa, but with many colors on their roofs. That empire is very famous for making beautiful fabrics that cannot be bought anywhere else, not even in Hinowa or other tribes in the region, and many people, like Towakota, make trips there to buy them from time to time."-

Akane quickly deduced that, from the description given by Kayce and from the Chinese name, that place called Tianchao was very similar to China, quite possibly based on either the China from the era of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or the China of the last two dynasties that ruled that country, Ming and Qing.

To begin with, ancient China on Earth was very famous for selling and exporting precious fabrics to other kingdoms and also to western countries, and it was most probably the same case on that unknown planet. This caused Akane to ask herself some questions about that planet, considering where she was living in a tribe similar to the Native Americans of the pre-Columbian era.

-"This is getting kind of weird. First I end up in a tribe out of a cheap-ass wild west flick, and from what I hear, this is not the only similar tribe around here, but besides that there is a country similar to the Sengoku-era Japan which is an adjacent neighbor of these cats, there is even a country similar to ancient China!"-

Akane quickly began to analyze what she was hearing from her feline friends, completely stunned to learn that the world she had ended up in was too similar to the ancient eras of Earth in a way that was beginning to worry her that she could simply dismiss it as a sheer coincidence...

-"There is something not quite right about this planet, no doubt about it."- The human of African origin wondered at everything she was hearing and seeing about the planet and the cultures that inhabited it. -"No way this planet could have cultures similar to those of the Native Americans, much less those of feudal Japan and imperial China, and I would not be surprised if there were other cultures that resemble other ancient cultures on Earth. Either this world has some relationship to Earth, or there is something really dire that I should not know about."-

Seeing that Akane had been silent for a few moments, with her eyes closed, Liska began to call her human friend's attention.

-"Something wrong, Akane?"-

The female soldier opened her eyes as she was interrupted during her moment of inner contemplation at what she had heard a few minutes earlier, seemingly startled.

-"Wait... WHAT?"-

-"You were silent for a few moments when Kayce was talking about Tianchao..."- The slave girl responded to a quite shocked Akane. -"Is there something wrong with that?"-

Akane put her hands to her face in frustration, trying to find a pretext for her silence, for she did not want to alarm or make her friends suspicious of her if Akane were to say what she thought on the subject of Tianchao and its relationship with China, and thus, with Earth.

-"Nothing... it was nothing, dear..."- Akane made an excuse for her silence. -"I was just trying to remember where I had heard the name Tianchao somewhere, but the name doesn't ring a bell for me..."-

But Kayce, who more or less knew the human and her supposed backstory as an "explorer" from a far away land, or as Akane called herself, knew that her foreign friend seemed to be hiding something.

-"Hey, Akane, you're supposed to be an explorer, and I'm surprised you don't know the Tianchao Empire, do you?"-

-"Well, um..."- The African-Japanese woman again excused herself about her lack of knowledge about Tianchao or about the eastern kingdoms of that world in which she found herself, at large. -"As you know, I come from a very distant place, and that's why I don't know a lot of things about this region, and that's one of the reasons why me and Keisuke go out to explore, to get to know the world around us."-

-"And how distant is that place where you and your dead friend came from, Akane?"- The dark-furred girl asked the human again about her origins, this time in a quite inquisitive tone. -"The Tianchao Empire is as big as that of Hinowa, and I find it very difficult that you and your people do not know that place."-

Akane saw that Kayce was putting her between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, the human woman couldn't tell her alien friend that she was from Earth, and on the other hand, Akane couldn't keep up her same pretense of not saying anything about herself or her origins, because she was noticing that both Liska and Kayce were starting to grow peeved by the otherworldly foreigner's secretive attitude about everything concerning her.

This left Akane Araki with two options: Either she had to tell the truth, and bear the consequences herself, or continue with the same attitude of saying nothing, and risk alienating her friends and the rest of the tribe in the face of it.

-"Oh, shit. Now I'm in a real mess that I can't get out of! Liska and Kayce are already getting suspicious about me, and I can't keep lying for the rest of my life if I want to continue living in this village. Now what the hell am I going to do to get out of this?"-

Akane tried to find a way out of that predicament with a more intelligent pretext, hoping that this would help her to convince her friends that at least she came from their own world, and not from another one farther away from theirs.

-"Well... you know, Kayce, dear... "- Akane made a nervous response to her two friends. -"I could tell you and Liska that I come from..."-

But before she could say anything else, the three women heard what sounded like a loud yawn from a young man.

-"MRAAAWWW!"-

At that unexpected interruption, Akane said something in Japanese to herself aloud.

-"(なんやこりゃ？) WHAT THE FUCK?"-

But for Liska, she knew what that yawn meant...

-"Oh, it's Rial..."-

On the other hand, Akane, who was interrupted by the noise coming from the slave's mate, could not hide her dislike for the black-furred and white-haired warrior in the most scathing way possible.

-"You mean your Romeo, dear?"- The human replied with a sneering, mischievous smile.

Kayce, on the other hand, did not understand what Akane was referring to with the term "Romeo", since for obvious reasons she had never read or heard about William Shakespeare's famous novel, Romeo and Juliet, as to understand the background of that insult.

-"And what is a "Romeo", Akane?"-

The human understood that she had said too much when she used that term, but she didn't want to leave her friend without explanation, although she knew that there were other things to deal with at that moment than having to say the meaning of that insult towards Rial.

-"Uh... well... it's a very long story, Kayce sweetie."-

In the meantime, Liska stopped doing her part regarding the leather tanning and she quickly apologized to her two friends on the spot.

-"Hey girls, could you cover for me for a few moments, please?"- The blonde slave girl addressed her friends in a hurried tone. -"I have other... things... to deal to with Rial while I'm at it. I hope it won't take too long."-

Akane quickly understood what her friend meant by dealing certain things, and she couldn't help but smile sarcastically and teasingly at that. On the other hand, Kayce didn't seem to have a problem with it, other than that she and Akane were supposed to do Liska's share of the work while she was away.

-"All right... go and hook up with your Romeo while we take care of this thing, sweetie..."- The human retorted in mockery to her feline friend.

-"Please, try not to take too long, will you?"- Kayce, on the other hand, and more diplomatically, preferred only to ask Liska not to take more time than she should.

-"Understood."- The slave girl responded. -"Now, if you will excuse me, girls..."-

And so, Liska left Akane and Kayce alone with their part on the leather tanning work, while she went into her teepee to deal with Rial in intimacy, much to the human's chagrin.

On the other hand, Kayce could only slyly smile as she watched Akane continue to grumpily work on seeing that Liska was arranging intimate matters with the person the human from Japan hated the most.

-"Hey, Akane, you seem to hate Rial a lot, from what I'm seeing..."- The young brown-furred lady chuckled a bit to her outsider friend.

But for Akane, that was no laughing matter, as she continued to work with visible irritation at the mere mention of Rial's name.

-"What do you think, dear?"- The woman of African origin responded with a certain tone of derision, unable to hide her contempt for that man. -"That guy is an arrogant, cocky, smug braggart who is only likely using Liska as his personal sex toy, since she is her and his grandmother's slave after all, and I hate him for that, period!"-

At all this, Kayce could not help but look at Akane with a mixture of annoyance due to her belligerent stance towards Rial, and some amusement, for she sensed that the reasons why her human friend hated the young warrior went deeper than simply hating him on principle due to the fact that Liska was his slave, and now intimate mate.

-"I don't want to sound nosy, and maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but,"- The young feline maiden asked Akane. -"maybe you hate Rial because you're jealous of him and Liska as they're a couple, and you don't have anyone to sleep with?"-

Facing that sudden and unexpected question of such an intimate nature for Akane, since it was something that the human had never analyzed for herself to that point raised by her alien friend, the only thing that the African-Japanese woman could do at that moment was to remain silent for a few minutes.

-"I guess I'm right, aren't I, Akane?"-

The human sighed for a few moments, and in a muted manner, Akane responded, without being defensive to herself.

-"What makes you think that?"-

-"Well..."- Kayce explained her reasons, while pointing her finger to her right ear. -"For starters, you have earrings in your ears, which means you're married, right?"-

Akane quickly remembered that in the culture in which she lived, wearing earrings invariably meant that a woman was married, something that did not apply to her, a fact the human needed to rectify immediately to her feline friend, who did not know that on Earth not all women who wear earrings are married.

-"Well... I've explained this to Liska before, but here it goes again to you."- Akane explained the significance of her earrings. -"Where I come from, women like me wear earrings simply as an adornment to look pretty, and not as a symbol that signifies our marital status. Though to be honest, I do have a significant other back home, whose name is Satoru Okazaki."-

-"Satoru Okazaki..."- Kayce said aloud when she heard the name of Akane's boyfriend living in her hometown, Osaka. -"Is that your mate's name, Akane?"-

-"Yes, dear."-

-"And may I ask what he looks like, if you don't mind?"-

-"Satoru is a very nice and friendly guy, and we met when I finished my studies. He works as a kind of peacekeeper, at least as you would call him here in his tribe, and originally we had agreed to wed when I returned back home..."-

As she finished that last part regarding marriage, including her now non-existent chances of marrying Satoru, Akane was unable to stop herself from bowing her head and closing her eyes, as her voice began to falter at the possibility that she would never see him again...

-"I hate to said this, dear... but you are damn right, Kayce..."- Akane sadly said, with some tears in her eyes. -"I can't help but feel a little envious of those two, as much as I hate Rial... At least Liska has someone to love her, and a place to come back to..."-

And then, Akane could not help but continue to shed tears as she compared the situation of her slave friend, and herself, and the tremendous irony that Liska, a slave, had better luck than Akane, a free woman.

After all, for that human, being free on an unknown planet with no means to return to Earth, all of her comrades dead to top it off, and no one to love her, was even worse than being a slave who could have someone with whom she could share her love, and a place she could call home.

-"On the other hand, I, being free, cannot return home, all the people I know are dead, and I have no one to even have sex with... and the only people I have contact with in this tribe are you, your daughter, your older brother, Liska, Pyndan, his younger sister Panka, Mother Sanna, the chief and his Seneschal. Everyone else either ignores me, or hates me like Kebec, Rial, and Brocia..."-

Akane continued with her lamentations, unable to hide her tears of sadness at how pathetic her situation was compared to that of her friend Liska.

-"Isn't that ironic, dear?"- The human cursed her luck aloud. -"Isn't that so... DAMN... ironic?"-

Seeing that her friend did not stop crying, Kayce drew closer to Akane, and she put both her hands on the human's shoulders, in order to comfort her and calm her down, in the face of the tragic situation in which she found herself.

-"Are you all right, Akane?"- The young feline lady politely addressed the human soldier.

-"The hell am I going to be all right!"- Akane muttered grumpily. -"Just thinking about how much my life stinks gets me down!"-

And suddenly, Kayce hugged Akane affectionately, while she put her head on the side of the human woman's one, to the surprise of the latter, who did not imagine that someone from that tribe had the initiative to hug her, when Akane normally enjoyed hugging others.

Then, the African-Japanese woman listened placidly to the sweet feline purr of that alien maiden, who tried to calm her friend's pain at seeing that life was not being fair to the human, and Akane's helplessness at seeing that other supposedly unfortunate people were luckier in love than her, who, on the other hand, had no one to share a moment of intimacy with.

-"Calm down, Akane, calm down... I know this must be very uncomfortable and sad for you..."-

Akane, for her part, also hugged her other friend in the same way, as she let out her sorrow and frustration in the same way.

-"Thank you... sob... little kitty... sob... you don't know how much this comforts me..."-

-"I hope that someday you will be able to return to your home, and be reunited with your mate, Satoru, my dear friend Akane..."- Kayce began to whisper some things in her foreign friend's ear, in order to make her feel good.

Akane was deeply moved by this display of affection from the alien maiden. Even though the human was a being from another world, that didn't matter in the least to Kayce, who only wanted to help her friend in that moment of pain that Akane felt.

In the end, the Earth woman could perceive one thing: Those beings might not be human, but at least they had the same emotions and feelings that humans also possessed, something that Akane was gradually beginning to understand at that moment, after several months of residing in that village. Even though their physical appearance was that of cats, many of the things they felt, spoke and perceived were not so different from what humans also normally experienced, such as love, hate, envy, jealousy, humor, and sarcasm.

And that was something Akane found comforting. If those beings had been even stranger people with equally alien behavior, the human's emotional grief would have been more intense and too difficult to tolerate.

-"Thank you, dear... thank you very much..."- Akane replied with tears in her eyes.

-"giggle... You are welcome... Akane."-

While this was going on, both women heard another female voice coming from a few steps away from where they were working...

-"My, I knew you are very emotional, Akane, but I never realized you are so much so..."- The woman noted with a certain tone of amusement.

Akane and Kayce quickly realized who that voice was, causing them both to stop hugging and immediately look at the person who was speaking.

-"Mother Sanna!"- Both girls responded with surprise at the same time.

The elderly feline approached the teepee where Rial and Liska lived, specifically the work place where Akane and Kayce were both tanning the leathers that Liska was doing before the last two women came to help her. Once on the scene, the old woman engaged in conversation with the human and her other friend who was standing next to her.

-"Is something wrong with you, Akane?"- Sanna asked to Akane first.

-"Well... grandmother... I was just discussing with Kayce how my love life is terrible compared to Liska's, and that made me pretty depressed."-

-"I guess it's because of the relationship she has with Rial, right, Akane?"- The old lady said, knowing beforehand that Akane did not like Rial, her grandson, in the least.

The human of African origin, on the other hand, sighed peevishly, and she did not hesitate to give her answer.

-"I would be lying if I said no."- Akane replied. -"Rather, I am envious of both of them. That was what I was discussing with Kayce... and she hugged me to comfort me."-

The old woman let out a slight groan, and after a few seconds, she responded to the African-Japanese woman.

-"Well... what can I say, dear..."- Sanna did not know what else to say to help the young human woman. -"I only hope that someday you will find someone you can be with, or at least find a way to return back to your home..."-

-"Yeah, I already know that, grandmother..."-

After a brief moment of silence, the old woman changed the issue to one of her own concern.

-"Leaving that aside, where is Liska, girls?"-

Both Akane and Kayce pointed their fingers toward the occupant's teepee.

-"She is in her home, doing ... uh... you know... "- Kayce responded with some embarrassment, not wanting to explicitly name what Liska was doing in her intimacy with Rial.

On the other hand, Akane, in a more descriptive way, made the OK symbol with her left hand, while she, using her index finger of her right hand, inserted it into the gap formed between the index finger and thumb of her other hand, while pulling it in and out. The old woman quickly understood, with a certain mischievous smile, what the human meant by that.

Kayce, meanwhile, facepalmed in shame, seeing the vulgar gesture her human friend had made in describing what Liska and Rial were doing in their home.

-"sigh... Akane... why do you always have to be so crude?"-

-"Weeeeell..."- The human smiled with a sardonic grin in her face. -"I couldn't help it, sweetie... giggle"-

Mother Sanna, on the other hand, didn't seem to give much importance to the vulgar gesture Akane made with her hands, as she understood the reason, but she couldn't help but grin mischievously either.

-"Heh... I see..."- The old feline lady replied to the black woman from Earth. -"I understand perfectly what those signs you made with your hands mean. But I think you could have been less explicit with that, Akane dear."-

-"I see. Sorry about that, grandmother."- Akane gigglingly apologized to the old woman.

-"Well, if you'll excuse me, girls,"- Sanna changed the topic at the one she needed to deal first. -"I have other things to address with Liska."-

-"Understood."- Again, both Akane and Kayce replied in unison.

Immediately after, Sanna scratched the entrance of the teepee where Liska and her grandson, Rial, were living to attract the attention of the former.

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Liska and Rial's tent (Inside), 12:30 PM (afternoon)

While all this was going on out there, Liska was having an... intimate encounter... with her mate, Rial, inside their home. Because their bed was all the way to the back of the teepee, neither of them could hear anything of what was going on outside, much less the voice of Liska's mistress, who was trying to talk to her.

That, and also coupled with the meows and moans of pleasure they both made...

-"Mrawww... Rial... did you hear something?"-

On the other hand, the young black-furred warrior didn't seem to pay attention to anything else, except that he was biting the nape of his mate's neck as a cat would normally do during sex.

-"No... maybe it's your friend Akane... whining about whatever stupid thing she's doing."-

-"Oh, please..."- The young slave replied, still with a sensual, lewd tone in her voice. -"Don't be so negative with Akane, even if... meow... I can see why you don't like her..."-

-"Akane is an annoying and whiny woman, and she complains about everything that happens in this village."- Rial replied, while licking Liska's face with his tongue. -"I don't know why the chief and the rest of the tribe still tolerate her..."-

-"Come on, wouldn't it be good for you and Akane to have a talk to settle your differences?"- The blonde girl retorted back. -"Besides, she has helped us a lot in the village with various things, and she has even agreed to assist us with today's meal."-

The young warrior could not help but show his reluctance at that suggestion...

-"Heh... Akane would probably jump off a cliff head first before having a decent talk with me."-

Seeing that it would be impossible to convince Rial to at least try to talk to Akane to settle their disagreements, Liska opted to say nothing more, and simply continue to receive... erotic pleasure... from his then mate.

But then, she heard something...

-"Liska, are you there? I need to talk to you right now."-

The young slave girl realized who that voice was, because it was that of a person known to her... and it wasn't Akane Araki to begin with.

-"That voice is not Akane's, but my mistress's!"- The girl reacted immediately upon learning whose voice it was.

-"Are you talking about my grandmother?"- Rial responded with curiosity.

-"Yes."-

Immediately afterwards, Liska rose from her bed, but not before covering her naked body with a sheet, so that she could go and talk to Mother Sanna, her mistress, and find out what she wanted to talk to the young slave.

-"Please wait a moment while I talk to her."- The girl said at her lover, who was still in his bed.

-"sigh... I just hope it's something important for you..."- Rial responded with some annoyance at being cut off while he was having sex.

Once covered with the sheet, the young woman poked her head out of the teepee. Sanna was outside waiting to talk to her slave at that moment...

-"Hello, young lady..."- The old woman responded with a certain mischievous smile as she saw that the young maiden was half-naked and covered only with a bedsheet. -"I hope you are having a good time with my grandson right now... chuckle"-

-"Oh, hello, my mistress!"- Liska responded, equally happy to see her mistress in front of her. -"May I know what brings you here at this time of day?"-

The elderly feline tried to remember what it was she wished to talk to Liska about, and after a few seconds of brief pause, she finally replied.

-"Well, I just wanted to talk to you about something important..."-

-"And what would that be, my mistress?"- The ginger-furred slave responded with curiosity.

Then, the old woman brought her head close to Liska's, so that what she was going to discuss with her slave would only stay between the two women, for various reasons that would become more obvious later...

-"I just want to know that if you are already... expecting something... you know... a new life and so forth."-

Seeing that Mother Sanna was speaking very quietly to keep what she was talking about in a private way, Liska realized the reason for the old woman's secrecy on the subject of a possible pregnancy, seeing where Sanna's eyes were pointed...

...And the person the old woman was looking at was Akane.

Both women knew that the human would be appalled to learn that Liska would be expecting a child from the person Akane hated the most, in this case Rial, and the best thing the old woman and her slave could do was to keep it a secret, for the sake of Liska, Rial, and everyone else in the village.

Unfortunately for Mother Sanna, that would have to wait for another time...

-"Uh... I am not pregnant yet, my mistress..."- Liska responded with some reluctance, thinking that her master would respond in a bad way knowing that she was still not awaiting anything.

The old Siamese-looking feline woman could not help but feel a little disappointed to learn that her young slave was not yet pregnant, although she was not upset with her either, knowing that no one can fall pregnant at the drop of a hat just like that.

-"I see..."- Sanna responded. -"I'm sorry if you felt that I might be pressuring you to conceive too quickly, dear..."-

-"Don't worry, I understand your concern about this, but I just hope Akane also understands this somehow."-

-"Yes, I know that..."-

Then, the old woman glanced at Akane and Kayce, who were still working on tanning hides, and immediately after that she turned her gaze on her slave again.

-"By the way, try not to take too long with Rial, because I need you to help us cook the okonomiyaki along with the other women of the tribe. You're in charge of preparing the corn flour, so I need you to start working as soon as you are ready."-

-"Understood, mistress Sanna."-

-"In that case, I won't take up any more of your time."- The mistress responded, as Liska returned back to bed with Rial. The old woman, on the other hand, closed the teepee entrance, leaving the young feline couple alone so they could continue their lovemaking session undisturbed. -"Continue with what you were doing with my grandson, and I'll wait for you in the afternoon to help us with that food. I'll make sure you two are not interrupted in the meantime."-

-"Understood... and thank you, my mistress."- The young slave responded very gratefully and with a smile for her mistress who had allowed her to continue her intimacy with her grandson.

-"Oh... you don't need to thank me, dear... chuckle"-

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Liska and Rial's tent (Outside), 12:49 PM (afternoon)

Once Mother Sanna had left Liska and Rial alone for the two of them to continue their erotic session, with the latter's grandmother's blessing, the old feline began to look at the sky somewhat placidly, and she began to sigh happily. It was obvious that, even though she was Liska's mistress, she only wished the best for that young maiden and her grandson, and it was more than obvious that the wish of that old woman was that Liska and Rial had children, so that she could be a great-grandmother.

But in addition to that personal desire that the old woman had, the relationship of those two young people reminded her very much of something from her own youth, something that brought back many fond memories for Sanna in many ways, and seeing Liska and Rial being happy and having a relationship was for that woman the best thing she could have had in her life.

But all this did not escape the notice of Akane Araki, the human woman from Earth, who was still at work tanning leathers with Kayce. Seeing the old woman in that state of mind of remarkable bliss that could be seen on her face, the African-Japanese female soldier stopped what she was doing, but not before indicating to her other feline friend that she was going to pause in her work, and Akane, with a certain lurid degree of curiosity, engaged in conversation with the old alien woman.

-"May I know what happened, grandmother?"- The woman from Japan asked the Native-looking feline lady.

The old woman took a few moments to respond, and seeing that Akane was talking to her, Sanna replied with a smile to the human.

-"Oh... it's nothing, Akane dear..."- The Siamese-looking old woman replied at the dark-skinned maiden. -"I'm just remembering... happy times from my youth..."-

Akane, hearing that, could not help but make a naughty smile, due to the implications that those words had...

-"Happy times... from your youth?"- The human retorted with a certain amount of sarcasm. -"Eh... I think I already know what you mean by that... heheh!"- Akane then put her hands in her waist while she was hearing Mother Sanna's words about her younger days, much for the surprise of her.

-"Well, I couldn't help but think that Liska reminded me when I was her age."- The old lady continued. -"Like her, I remember when I woke up every morning... after having intimacy with my beloved Athos..."-

-"Athos?"- Akane asked with curiosity, as she had heard that name before. -"You mean, your late mate?"-

-"Yes, dear, I mean him..."-

-"And..."- The human responded with a wicked grin in her face. -"May I know what happened next?"-

-"Then, I remembered him rising out of bed... with his mighty spear in his hand..."-

The African-Japanese woman quickly understood those words in the most twisted way possible. When the old woman referred to the "mighty spear" that the late Athos had in his hands, Sanna was not referring to the weapon of war, but to something completely different...

...much for the perverted hilarity of Akane Araki.

-"I just hope your grandson's mighty spear doesn't run into some mighty shield... assuming his spear is that mighty to begin with... heheheh!"-

Akane responded as was usual with her when it came to Rial, by questioning his own manhood in the most scathingly sarcastic and vulgar way possible for the human.

For more than obvious reasons, the old woman did not find that crude reference about her grandson amusing in the slightest.

And then...

-"OUCH, MY EAR!"-

Sanna suddenly and violently pulled Akane's left ear in response to her vulgar criticism of her grandson, causing the human's head to tilt to the left below. This is considerable, considering that the elderly alien woman was only half Akane's height, while the human was about 1.85 meters tall, but she was able to subdue the African-Japanese woman quite easily.

-"YOU SPOILED BRAT! HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY GRANDSON LIKE THAT, HUH?"-

Everyone watching the scene, especially Kayce, was especially surprised and amused to see how that seemingly frail old woman was able to punish a woman who was three times her size and weight, leaving aside how different their species were.

Akane, on the other hand, could only feel the brutal ear-pulling exerted by that woman, who was willing to defend her family from any affront made by other people, irrespective of whether they were justified or not.

-"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, I'M SORRY! I WAS JUST KIDDING, OKAY? JUST STOP PULLING MY EAR!"-

Seeing Akane apologizing in between cries of pain for having insulted Rial, Mother Sanna immediately let go of the human's ear. The earth woman quickly took her left hand to that part of her body sore after that punishment to see how much it hurt, while the old woman just looked at Akane angrily.

-"Hey, you didn't have to pull my ear so hard, dammit!"-

-"And that's what you get for being a mouthy girl, Miss Akane Araki!"- The old healer furiously pointed her finger on the human soldier from Osaka. -"Be glad I didn't do something worse on you for insulting my grandson in such lewd way, young lady!"-

-"Fine, I'm sorry, you don't have to do that... geez!"- Akane apologized, while she kept touching the lobe of her left ear, which was reddened after the rough pull she had received.

-"I fully understand that Rial is not perfect, and that you hate him, but that does not give you the right to question his manhood in that way..."-

And then, Sanna put her finger in Akane's chest, in order to make her point loud and clear for the human.

-"...And he will, one day, have the strong and healthy children he needs, whether you like it or not. Is that clear to you, Akane?"-

The human grumbled slightly, but Akane knew she couldn't verbally antagonize the old woman, so she preferred to avoid raising the tone of the argument any further.

-"sigh... Fine, have it your way, grandmother..."- The female soldier shrugged her shoulders out of irritation.

While this was happening in that place, a well-known male voice could be heard from several steps away, talking in a very cheerful tone.

-"Good afternoon, grandmother, and you too, Akane!"-

Akane, Mother Sanna and Kayce looked to their right to find out whose voice it was, and quickly noticed the person walking towards them.

-"Oh, it's you, Pyndan."- the old lady greeted the young white-furred young man.

On the other hand, Akane was not happy to see Rial's cousin-brother, whom she didn't entirely like either, for the same reasons she hated the black-furred warrior, and the human didn't hesitate to make her dislike of Pyndan noticeably felt.

-"Great... Mercutio, Romeo's idiot friend, is here..."- The human responded with her typical snark, comparing the young warrior to Romeo's best friend from William Shakespeare's famous play.

The old feline, who, even without knowing the context of Akane's words, let alone that she was referring to a well-known play in her world in a derogatory way towards Pyndan, quickly grasped nonetheless that Akane was being rude to the young man.

-"I have to assume that was an insult, wasn't it, Akane?"- Sanna looked up at the human in sour annoyance.

-"Well... take it any way you want, grandmother."- The black woman replied, while looking her head to another way, ignoring the old woman's vexed face.

Meanwhile, Pyndan simply decided to ignore the human, and he went straight to the point in making it known what he needed to discuss with Mother Sanna.

-"Uh..."- The young white-furred feline said, while rolling his eyes as he tried to ignore Akane. -"...leaving that aside, I need to talk to grandmother."-

The old woman turned to her adopted grandson, also ignoring Akane, who, in turn, returned to continue working on tanning skins.

-"All right, what do you need to talk to me about?"-

-"Well... I need to talk to Rial, as we are going out hunting today, and I need to discuss a few things with him."-

Sanna immediately responded with a somewhat more stern tone than usual toward Pyndan, for obvious reasons that she would explain.

-"You'll have to wait a while for that. He is busy with Liska on their teepee."-

The young warrior more or less deduced the reason why his blood relative would delay in helping him in his hunting errand, but he did not hesitate to ask the old woman another question... just in case.

-"Oh... I see."-

Pyndan then asked to Sanna with a look of seriousness that he could barely maintain, as he wondered what Rial might be doing in intimacy with Liska.

-"Aaand... may I know what he is doing right now?"-

Akane, who was still working at few steps away from the young man and the alien old woman, and in a sudden fashion, she loudly and disrespectfully interrupted Pyndan's conversation with his grandmother, and she did not hesitate to give her own, unsolicited, view of what Rial was doing in the privacy of his home.

-"Most likely Rial is with Liska asking a baby from the stork... that is, if his stork is still able to stand upright... hahahahahah!"-

Sanna, not being able to tolerate the human woman's crass display of humor regarding her grandson's masculinity, picked up a medium-sized stone from the ground, and in a violent manner, she threw it at Akane's head.

-"OUCH! WHAT THE HELL?!"-

The human from Japan yelped as the stone bounced off her head, as she looked at the old woman, furious to see her relative being mocked again in a vulgar way by Akane, as she questioned his ability to bear children.

-"If you insult Rial like that again, Akane, next time I'll use a bigger rock on that stupid head of yours! Do I make myself clear, you little brat?"-

Akane brought her left hand to her head, feeling the slight bruise she had on her head after receiving that hard hit...

-"Oooouuuuhh, boy, that really hurt...!"- The black woman said. -"Alright... I was just kidding... dammit..."-

Kayce, who was standing next to Akane, could not help but let out a light burst of laughter as she watched the human being punished with a stone to her head.

-"chuckle... That's what you get for being so rude, Akane dear..."-

-"Oh, shut up, will you?"- Akane yelled in pain at Kayce. -"Owwwww, my damn head!"-

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Liska and Rial's tent (Inside), 01:00 PM (afternoon)

Liska and Rial, who had just finished having intimate relations at that very moment, listened from their bed with some curiosity at the commotion outside their home, considering that Akane was not shy to say how much she hated the latter, much to the displeasure of Mother Sanna, his paternal grandmother.

On the other hand, the conflicting attitude of the human woman was gradually annoying the young warrior with black fur and white hair, who felt that Akane and he were always fighting over one thing and another, adding the fact that his mate, Liska, was still technically his slave, even if she had more privileges than the average slave.

It didn't help either that Akane came from a world where slavery was almost non-existent, and she had many reasons, being a black woman and being born in a continent that suffered for centuries the scourge of slavery, and all that still affected her fellow people even at the end of the 23rd century, to continue to have conflicts with those who thought slavery was normal, like Rial and all the inhabitants of that world.

-"sigh... That girl Akane is a pain in the tail for everyone in this tribe."- Rial addressed Liska in an annoyed mood about her friend. -"I don't understand how you and that woman get along so well, despite her being so hostile with everyone who differs with her..."-

-"Don't be so hard on her, Rial. Akane is a good person... although I do recognize that she is a bit rude at times. We even both have gotten into heated arguments at times, to be fair."- The girl gave her opinion about the Earth woman.

-"Yes, I understand that, but she seems like she would wish to see me dead if she could."- The young feline man replied. -"No matter what I do to please Akane, she seems to have some reason to hate me, whether it's if I say something that makes her angry, or when she does or says something stupid that gets on my nerves."-

Liska sighed for a moment, trying to answer her beloved in thinking about some way to have them both make amends, but unfortunately for the blonde-haired young woman, Liska knew that Akane was not a woman who was going to compromise her beliefs even if it meant having to alienate everyone around her.

-"Akane is still having trouble adapting to this tribe. It is very likely that the culture of the country she comes from is very different from ours, and that is why she has so many conflicts with everyone."- The young slave girl tried to explain to Rial about Liska knew about Akane, from what she had told her about her own backgrounds. -"The only thing we know is that Akane speaks Hinowan, but it is obvious that she was not born in Hinowa. She is also not a feline Velite like us, much less a Hoplite, let alone a mousekin or ratkin either..."-

-"In that case, Liska..."- Rial sighed again, and then he continued -"what the hell is or what thing is she really?"-

-"I really don't know. Akane refuses to tell me anything about her, except that she comes from a land far away from ours..."-

The answer about Akane's origins was starting to annoy the young warrior, and he didn't hesitate to say what would happen if the human didn't start saying more about her.

-"sigh... if that woman doesn't start telling the truth about herself, we should consider kicking her out of the village. We had enough of having to put up with that stupid freeloader, just as she refuses to say anything else about herself that might damage us later, not to mention her rude attitude towards everyone."-

Liska couldn't help but think that the situation between Rial and Akane was starting to become tense, and being her mate a warrior with remarkable clout, not to mention her being a slave, the young maiden knew there wasn't much she could do to change Rial's mind about her human friend.

-"I don't blame you if you hate Akane, but I think you should talk to her one day. I will also try to have her try to talk to you and settle things once and for all."-

-"Assuming Akane doesn't kill me first..."- Rial sardonically responded at her mate.

-"Weeeeell... that aside,"- Liska changed the subject in a sudden fashion. -"seems like Pyndan is looking for you, from what I can hear from here."-

-"Yes, I know, I'm already listening to him too;"- The young feline man can't help but continue to talk about the human woman in a disparaging light. -"at least he has more patience for Akane than I do."-

-"I guess you're going hunting, aren't you?"- The slave girl asked.

-"Well, yes. But I just need to take a dip in the river first; I can't go hunting like this."-

Liska let out a slight giggle at the sight of her beloved completely naked in that instant that he was stood up, while Rial covered himself with a bedsheet.

-"I take it you mean going hunting naked, huh?"-

The black-furred warrior took a few seconds to answer that question, and then, he replied.

-"Ummm, well... that and other things you already know."- And then, Rial did a question to her mate. -"And what are you going to do today?"-

-"As for me, I have to help Akane, mistress Sanna and the other women of the tribe to prepare the okonomiyaki, as we agreed yesterday."-

-"You mean one of those odd meals Akane likes to cook?"-

-"Yes. I once tasted that food at Akane's teepee, and it is delicious. You should try it when it's ready, Rial."-

Normally, Rial wouldn't feel like trying anything prepared by that foreign woman, but knowing that Akane had already made a reputation for herself as an excellent cook, he didn't want to have another argument with Liska about Akane, and he thought it wouldn't hurt to at least try some of the Japanese food that Akane used to cook, even if it was just to please his mate.

-"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try that kokoromi- or whatever it's called."-

-"So, are you going out to the river to take a bath?"- Liska asked.

-"Yes, I will be back in a few minutes. I'll see you later, dear."-

And then, Rial kissed Liska in her lips, and then he proceeded to leave the teepee he shared with her.

-"See you later, Rial."-

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Liska and Rial's tent (Outside), 01:15 PM (afternoon)

Once covered with a blanket, Rial came out of his teepee and greeted his grandmother and Pyndan, who were outside waiting for him...

-"Oh, good afternoon, everyone."- Rial said. -"Looks like both were waiting for me to leave my home."

-"Good afternoon for you, too!"- Both Mother Sanna and Pyndan returned the greeting at the same time.

Once the formal greetings had been made, the young warrior went straight to the point and he looked to his other cousin-brother...

-"I heard from my house that you were looking for me to discuss our hunting party, right, Pyndan?"-

-"Well... that's the idea we agreed on yesterday, my dear friend..."- The white-furred young feline man replied with a smile on his face.

-"Fine, just let me take a swim in the river, and then we'll sort that out right away, shall we?"-

-"Hmmm... Alright. Don't you want to come with you?"- Pyndan asked to his other blood relative.

-"Sure, no problem!"- Rial happily replied at his other fellow warrior.

But on the other hand, Akane Araki, who was still working alongside Kayce a few steps away, could not help but show her contempt for Rial by delivering another putdown in a bantering tone.

-"Well, Romeo..."- The African-Japanese soldier said with a dismissive -"I think you really need that bath, because from where I'm sitting here, you smell like rotten cat ji..."-

Obviously, no one, especially Kayce, was particularly interested in listening to the scatological descriptions that the human from Japan had to say about Rial...

-"AIN'T NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR THAT KIND OF THING, AKANE!"- The young feline woman yelled at the Earthling.

At that, Akane could only let out a light mischievous cackle, knowing that she had managed to achieve the effect on her peers that she desired, even if she had not been able to finish the vulgar phrase at all.

-"Well... I'm just saying what our resident Romeo smells like... hehehehe!"-

On the other hand, Sanna, Rial's grandmother, facepalmed in frustration when she heard how Akane insulted her grandson again, while the latter could only grimace and sigh in disapproval, seeing that the human still hated the young black-furred warrior as always.

-"sigh... Akane... you're hopeless and shameless..."- The old woman said, damning the human woman.

But Rial knew that there was nothing he could do to change Akane's mind about him, not to mention that he had other things to do at the moment, like taking a bath in the river, to worry about the thoughts of a stranger like that mysterious woman from another world.

-"Forget about Akane, grandmother. You know very well that woman will never change."-

-"I'd like to do that, but... sigh... I'd like that girl to stop using disgusting terms to describe you."-

-"So do I."- The young warrior said with frustrated expression in his muzzle.

Immediately after that brief conversation, Rial, along with Pyndan, headed for the river, but not before saying goodbye to his grandmother first.

-"Well... I have to go take a bath. See you later, grandmother."-

-"Oh, see you soon, dear, and the same goes for you, Pyndan."-

-"See you soon, too!"- The white-furred young man followed suit.

But Akane, in order to taunt Rial all over again, did not hesitate to add another insult in her long string of cracks against the person of Sanna's grandson, before he went to take a bath in the river...

-"Hope a cat-eating fish doesn't eat you first, Rial..."-

The moment Akane said that insult...

-"OUCH!"-

...the human woman received a smack on her head from the old woman, hearing how the human had insulted her grandson yet again.

-"What did we say about insulting Rial, HUH?"-

Sanna glared angrily at the human, while Akane just scratched her head again after being punched in the back of it by that old feline lady.

-"Ouuu... Alright... I'm sorry, grandmother..."- The human replied with a certain insincere tone, simply to avoid angering the old woman even more, and said nothing more afterwards.

Immediately after, Mother Sanna looked to the horizon, in order to know the time of day, and she then changed the subject.

-"Well, I'm going back home to continue doing my part in preparing the okonomiyaki for the whole village. When you and Kayce finish doing whatever you are doing now, report to my teepee to help me, and tell Liska to come and help out as well when she gets free. Is that clear, girls?"-

-"Yes, ma'am!"- Both Akane and Kayce responded at the same time.

-"In that case, I'm leaving, I'll see you later, girls."-

-"See you soon!"- Again, the two women waved goodbye at Sanna, while she returned to her home as quickly as she could.

Once the two women were alone, Kayce did not hesitate to let her friend Akane know her opinion about her behavior towards Rial, and the problems this was causing the human woman.

-"Hey Akane, one of these days you're going to end up in a very big mess if you keep trying to stir up Rial and Mother Sanna with your name-calling..."-

But Akane didn't seem to care much about her friend's opinion on the subject, and she let her friend know right away.

-"Huuuhhh... Look, I don't need to be respectful to someone who enslaves another person against their will like that jerk, and I think you already know that beforehand, don't you?"-

-"Yes, I know that,"- The young maiden replied at the human. -"but I'm just warning you that if you keep insulting Rial, one of these days you will be kicked out of this tribe if you continue to antagonize him, and the same goes for anyone who disagrees with you."-

Akane simply kept silent, for the African-born human knew that her alien friend was right about her belligerent personality not helping her at all, especially when it came to antagonizing people who represented everything she was against, such as Rial and Kebec.

Likewise, she also didn't know what she could say to justify herself more than what she had already done in the last few months since she had arrived at the tribe. Akane had already done something similar with people she disliked, their attitudes she found contrary to her own values, or simply as a game, as Kaguya had been in her time when they both went to school on Earth.

She knew that many of those attitudes had already gotten her into trouble in the past, but by the same token, she could not give up who Akane had always been just to make herself look good to other people, because she had many reasons to act that way, among which were, to begin with, the fact that she was a black woman in a country as racially homogeneous as Japan is, and that she herself had suffered from discrimination in the past, not to mention other personal reasons. To completely ignore someone who enslaved another person, as Rial and his grandmother did with Liska, went against everything she had fought for all her life.

This caused a great moral dilemma for Akane. On the one hand, she wanted to continue living in that village, because she had nowhere else to go that she knew of outside of that place, for obvious reasons. On the other hand, following the Confucian maxim of See no evil, Hear no evil and Speak no evil was not something she was happy to do either, even when she was living in Japan, where maintaining social harmony has always been important for centuries.

But keeping social harmony was one thing, tolerating injustice such as slavery was a different matter for her entirely. And that was something that tormented the human in a considerable way.

Moments later, on seeing Akane's silence, Kayce asked the human right away.

-"What's wrong, Akane?"- The young brown-furred feline girl asked to her foreign friend. -"I have to assume that I am right, don't I?"-

The human remained silent without saying anything more, and immediately afterwards, she finally responded, in a deadpan, annoyed tone.

-"Nothing... I was just thinking about several things... that's all..."- The African-Japanese soldier, not happy at all. -"Just musing on how my own life is awful..."-

The young alien maiden could only stare intently at Akane, who could only continue working on her part regarding tanning skins, while the human only looked at her surroundings in a blank and cheerless attitude.

-"Well, I think we'd better leave that for another time, shall we?"- Kayce said at the Earth soldier, quite worried to see her friend looking angry and annoyed about anything that happenned to her in that day.

-"Understood."-

Suddenly, a female voice familiar to both women was heard behind them...

-"Hey, Akane!"-

The human realized that Liska was addressing her from her teepee, while the young slave just poked her head outside her home in order to talk to her friend from Japan.

-"Uh?"- Akane turned her head. -"Oh!... It's you!... What's the matter, sweetie?"-

-"I need to talk to you in private."- The blonde girl said at the her human friend.

-"Oh, I see..."- Then, the human replied. -"Just give me a few minutes, as I am still busy with this."-

Suddenly and without warning, Kayce cut short the exchange between Liska and Akane.

-"Hey, Akane, if you don't mind, I'll take care of finishing your part, while you talk to Liska, so you can talk to her undisturbed."-

-"Would you really do that for me, honey?"- Akane replied, quite surprised to see that her friend offered herself to do her work, while she would be busy talking to the young slave girl.

-"Of course."-

-"Oh, thank you, sweetie!"- The human thanked wholeheartly to her alien friend, while hugging her. -"You really saved me!"-

-"Hehehe!"- Kayce laughed a little, albeit with some effort, as Akane hugged her very tightly. -"You don't need to thank me, Akane... Do what you have to do with Liska, and I'll take care of your work in the meantime."-

-"Understood. Thank you!"-

And so, Akane Araki went to her friend's teepee in order to talk to her, while Kayce took care of finishing both her part of her work and Akane's part.

---

September 19th, AD 2299/18th day of the Autumn Equinox, 1748 (summer season), Liska and Rial's tent (Inside), 01:28 PM (afternoon)

Once inside the teepee, the first thing the African-born human noticed as she entered was that Liska was looking at her friend with a concerned look on her face. And Akane knew perfectly well what the reason was...

All that mess caused by Akane's repeated name-calling towards Rial was already starting to annoy Liska, who was the latter's mate, and she knew that someday the situation could get out of control between the foreigner and the young warrior if she did not talk to Akane first and make it clear what her position was on the matter in this uncomfortable situation for everyone in the village.

On Akane's side, she had a look of annoyance, for she knew that her alien friend would surely scold her, but the earthling knew that she had no choice but to listen to what Liska was going to throw at her, much to her personal chagrin.

-"Please sit on that cushion, Akane."-

-"Understood, dear."-

Once the two women were seated, looking at each other, Akane could not help but look at her friend, who was half-naked, covered only with a bedsheet. Not that it bothered either of them, as they both trusted each other, and the human didn't seem to look at Liska in a lewd way or anything like that.

Not to mention that Akane had other things to worry about than the fact that her friend had no more clothes on her than that blanket.

-"All right, Liska, I guess you're going to chew me out too for all the cussing I did to Rial, aren't you?"-

The young slave gave a small sigh, and then she answered the question from the human woman.

-"Well, you could say so."-

-"For my part, you know better than anyone that I still don't like your mate in the least, and I'm not going to hide the obvious from you. You know well how I feel about slavery, and that I can't be friends with a slave owner, no matter how well Rial treats you."- Akane explained her stance on the matter, while crossing her arms as symbol of defiance. -"I hope you understand that, sweetie..."-

The ginger-furred girl looked at Akane again, still concerned by her friend's attitude regarding her mate, seeing that it would be very difficult to change Akane's mind. The only thing Liska could do was to let the human know her displeasure for her behavior once and for all.

-"I understand how you feel, Akane, and I know very well that you have your reasons for repudiating anything that has to do with slavery, and I also thank you very much for caring so much about me in this regard..."-

And then, the slave girl also crossed her arms, in order to show her annoyance for her foreign friend's attitude toward Rial...

-"...but, can't you be less rude when referring to Rial in person, and do it where no one else will hear you?"-

Akane quickly understood what Liska was getting at with her, since the young lady was referencing the vulgar and scatological language that the human from Earth used to describe anyone who displeased her.

-"I take it you mean every time I use a strong expletive, right?"-

-"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, Akane."- Liska explained what she disliked about the African-Japanese woman's rude speech. -"Whether you speak in our language or in yours, especially in the latter case."-

-"I have to assume you heard me cursing Rial out there when I was talking to grandmother and when he went to bathe in the river with Pyndan, did you?"-

Liska could not believe that Akane still had the nerve to ask her if she had heard the human curse her mate in front of her own home, as if it was no big deal for the foreigner, even though she knew that her uncouth and confrontational attitude towards Rial was gradually becoming intolerable for everyone involved, and the young slave did not want things to turn sour.

-"Akane... you're really hopeless..."- The slave facepalmed.

-"And you, young lady..."- The human retorted back at her alien friend. -"you sound just like my mother, going by the tone you talk to me in."-

-"In that case, I think you should have listened more to your mother once in a while, Akane, assuming she brought you up right first to begin with."- The feline girl replied with a more agressive tone to Akane.

That sardonic insinuation about Akane's family made the human, who up to that point was trying to speak to her friend as politely as possible, albeit with her typical human sarcasm, to raise violently the intensity of her voice. There were many things Akane could tolerate from anyone who wanted to criticize her, but involving her family when it came to insults was something that even she was not willing to put up with from anyone, not even her best friends, as Liska was at that moment.

-"HEY, DON'T DRAG MY FAMILY INTO YOUR DAMN CRITICISM ABOUT ME, HUH?!"- Akane yelled at the alien slave as hard as she could.

The human quickly noticed that her alien friend began to loudly hissing at her, and her fur stood on end when she heard Akane's violent response when the latter reacted aggressively to the mere mention of her stepmother being unnecessarily insulted, even if Liska had done it in sarcasm just to make her friend Akane aware that she should be tolerant to criticisms about her personality.

Seeing her friend reacting defensively to the human's screams, Akane realized that she had gone too far by yelling at her friend violently, while the latter simply acted in the belief that Akane might hit her or do something violent against the slave, when that was not the case, causing the African-Japanese soldier to felt terrible about it...

-"Damn... once again I have to screw things up just because I was insulted by some criticism about me..."-

Immediately afterward, the Earth woman offered an apology for her behavior, hoping that Liska would understand that Akane was truly sorry for yelling at her as she did.

-"Look, honey... I'm REALLY sorry for yelling you aloud... I just simply don't like that kind of jokes about my family, and I think you will understand why I acted that way... but I don't want our friendship to be damaged because of this, right?"-

At the human's apology, Liska haughtily crossed her arms, looked at the human in an annoyed way, but at the same time, she knew that Akane wanted to apologize sincerely for having yelled at her like that, even if it was not the first time that both women argued acrimoniously, so the young slave could only say the following.

-"Akane, you are a very rude woman..."-

The black woman only sighed and then, she had to admit that obvious flaw in her behavior that her alien friend had pointed out to her.

-"Yeah, I know that... I'm sorry, dear..."-

Akane, apologizing to her friend, immediately sat down in a seiza position, while she put her hands on her knees. Liska, who more or less knew some of the cultural traditions of both Hinowa, the neighboring country, and Japan, the Earth country where Akane was originally from, knew that such a position meant that the human was visibly sorry and that she intended to apologize more profusely, something that the alien slave saw as an unnecessary exaggeration, and that a simple apology was enough for her.

-"Akane, you don't need to apologize to me like that."- The ginger-furred girl said at her Earth friend. -"I'll settle for an "I'm sorry", instead of you doing all that demeaning ceremony for yourself."-

Seeing that her friend was willing to accept her apology in a simpler way, Akane breathed a sigh of relief that Liska intended to let that outburst go because she didn't want her friendship with the human to be ruined by something as silly as an insult.

-"Thank you, Liska sweetie."-

-"Well, to be fair..."-

And the slave girl also sighed to herself.

-"...I also insulted you by mentioning your stepmother. I hope you will also forgive me... Akane."- Liska said, while lowering her head and her ears at the same time in shame.

Akane smiled playfully as she saw that her friend also wanted to apologize for offending her human friend, and she did not hesitate to give her answer.

-"Heheheh!... Apology accepted, sweetie!"- The human woman replied. -"I think we're both rather foolish girls after all... don't you think?"-

Liska was unable to avoid agreeing with her foreign friend that both women had many shortcomings in their personalities, since it was inevitable that the two would often butt heads when they let each other know what they thought about each other.

-"chuckle... Well... I suppose so, Akane."-

-"At least I'm glad you're not mad at me anymore."- The Earth soldier responded.

-"Yes, but next time, be more careful what you say in front of others, will you?"-

-"Weeeeell..."- Akane looked away, knowing that she could not assure her otherwise. -"...as long as Rial doesn't make me angry with some misogynistic or stupid nonsense, I won't open my mouth against him, but I don't guarantee anything, honey."-

Seeing that Akane was not willing to assure her that she would not insult her mate again, the slave thought of an idea that could help Rial and Akane finally settle things down.

-"Look, Akane, I have an idea."- Liska discussed her idea to Akane. -"How about if I talk to Rial when he gets back from hunting tonight and convince him to let you and him discuss your differences, while I help mediate between the two of you?"-

Akane, upon hearing her friend's proposal to mediate an argument between Rial and the human, decided it was a good idea, in order for the feline warrior and the female Earth soldier to put an end to months of bitter verbal fights between the two, as well as bring more tranquility to the tribe if they would stop arguing and insulting each other.

-"Well, that sounds like a good idea, dear."-

-"In that case, I will talk to him when he returns from hunting at night. I hope this will put an end to your quarrels and we will have a little more peace of mind, Akane."-

-"sigh... Fine..."- The human retorted slightly exasperated. -"...but if I do this is only because I don't want to have any more problems with you or with grandmother, and I hope that he will also reach an understanding in the same way, is that clear?"-

-"Understood, Akane."- Liska replied.

-"I just hope he also understands the same thing we all want and puts aside his cocky act for a while."- The human thus concluded what she expected from that meeting she and Rial were supposed to have on the night of that day.

The young slave girl, on the other hand, had another topic to discuss with the human from Japan.

-"Well, moving on, there is something else I need to discuss with you, Akane..."-

-"And what is it that you want to talk to me about, sweetie?"- The African-Japanese woman asked her alien friend in curiosity.

-"Uh... I just need you to come closer to me, so I can talk to you in private and avoid anyone else hearing us, especially Kayce or anyone else."-

-"Well, I'm all ears, little kitty; I guess it must be something touchy..."-

Once Akane was at her side, Liska leaned close to the human's ear to whisper something private to her that she needed to tell her in person.

-"I just want to thank you for putting that strange thing you placed inside my private parts to keep me from getting pregnant, Akane."-

-"Oh, you mean the IUD (Intrauterine Device) that I put in you a few moons ago?"-

-"Yes, that thing."- The slave girl replied.

-"Well, thank you, dear!"

Akane smiled with a certain perverted naughtiness, although she understood the reason why she had put that contraceptive device in her alien friend, for Akane had put it in Liska at the latter's request when she had explained to Akane months ago her concern that she might get pregnant without intending to, and the only way to avoid pregnancy was with old-fashioned methods, such as the famous Shurinar stones. To the slave's good fortune, Akane had several spare IUDs that she brought with her when she could run the risk of being raped on any mission she took part in.

-"...although to be honest, I didn't expect those devices to work on you, as they were meant to be used on women of my species."-

-"Really, Akane?"- The blonde slave girl asked to the soldier.

-"Yes, I use them on occasion when I am on a mission where I am at risk of being assaulted by an enemy. You know, you always run the risk, being a woman, of attracting the attention of some bad guy in the worst possible way, and the last thing I want is to end up having someone else's child."- The Earth woman explained. -"But from what I'm seeing, it seems that IUDs work better with people of your species than with people of mine."-

-"I just hope Rial doesn't wonder someday why I'm not pregnant yet. That could cause some trouble for you if he finds out about this."

Akane took a pause before answering.

-"Well, I don't think your mate is so miserable that he could even check your private parts and find out that you have a device stuck in your uterus to keep that horny idiot from getting you pregnant."- The human responded with her typical demeanor of negativity towards Rial, for obvious reasons.

-"Uh... If I must be honest, Akane... that has happened before."- The feline maiden said.

-"WHAAAAAAAAAAATTTT?!"- The African-Japanese woman suddenly cried out in surprise in her alien friend's ear as she heard that the event she had described as a very unlikely event had actually occurred.

-"Hey, Akane, don't yell me like that!"- Liska yelled back to Akane, with a hand to her ear, which was buzzing as she heard the human's scream very close to it.

-"Ooops, sorry, honey, heheheheh!"- The human apologized for her outburst directed at her friend's ear. -"The truth is that I couldn't believe that something like this really happened to you."-

-"Actually, that did not happen to me, but it is something Kayce told me a few days ago that something like you said happened to her when she was pregnant with Meelia, her daughter."-

Akane was surprised to learn that Kayce had been examined in her private parts for some reason the human wanted to know.

-"I guess it was to find out if she was pregnant or to find out if she didn't use some method to avoid pregnancy, wasn't it?"-

-"Technically, it was her mother who did it."-

The human could not believe what she was hearing...

-"Her... mother... you say?"-

-"Yes. She wanted to know if her daughter was pregnant, so she checked her private parts to find out."-

The Earth woman couldn't believe what she heard. She couldn't help but react with disgust and ridicule.

-"Yuccccccchhhhh!"- Akane said aloud, quite disgusted, while sticking her tongue out. -"What kind of mother would do that to her daughter, huh?"-

The young lady glanced at Akane as she saw her displeasure at that custom that Liska mentioned to find out if someone was pregnant.

-"I guess where you come from they don't do that, right?"-

-"Of course not!"- The human retorted back, but this time in a lower voice. -"We have our own methods to know if a woman is pregnant or not, and none of them involve letting someone peek at our private parts!"-

-"And may I ask what methods your people uses to know if a woman is expecting a child?"- Liska asked with curiosity at her soldier friend.

That question was somewhat difficult for Akane to answer, as the methods she knew were too modern for her friend to fully understand, so the human had to simplify her explanations in the most basic terms she could put into words, without giving any further details.

-"Well... Many of our methods involve touching the mother's belly to find out if someone is pregnant. That's the least I can explain in terms you can understand."-

-"Touching the mother's belly, you say, Akane?"- The feline slave replied with some incredulity. -"Is it possible to do that?"-

-"Uhhh, that's something that would be very complicated for you to understand, but basically that's what it boils down to. A healer or doctor who is specifically in charge of helping you have a successful child touches your belly, and then he or she tells you if you are pregnant or not. It's as simple as that."- The human woman explained, in broad strokes, the work of a gynecologist, the person in charge of precisely the task Akane was describing to her alien friend.

-"It must be someone very skilled or really have magical powers to be able to tell if a person is pregnant, if you ask me, Akane..."-

-"Nah, It's not that complicated, nor is it anything that involves magic. It is simply a matter of mastering a few instruments and having studied a lot, as well as experience."- Akane said.

-"I see..."-

But before the two women's conversation could continue, Kayce, without warning, poked her head inside Liska and Rial's teepee, in order to talk to both the former and Akane at the same time.

-"Hey, Akane, I've finished doing my part and yours regarding..."-

The young brown-furred maiden saw that Akane was very close to Liska, who was still naked and only covered with a sheet, because they were both talking with a lower voice. Without understanding the context of the situation, Kayce made a mischievous grin and could not help but say her mind about what she was watching at that moment between her two friends...

-"I didn't know you two... are a couple... giggle"- The girl did a naughty smile on both Liska and Akane, while teasing both of them.

Akane, on the other hand, who didn't know whether her other friend was being serious or in jest, exploded in anger, in a way nobody had ever saw her before, at the suggestion that she was a lesbian.

-"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT?!"-

The human screamed as loud as she could, and then, she continued with another rant.

-"WHO THE HELL TOLD YOU I LIKE WOMEN, HUH?"- Akane yelled even harder, this time rising from her cushion where she was sitting and enraged as no one had ever seen her before.

Both Liska and Kayce were visibly frightened to see how their human friend was burning red with rage when the latter had made an innocent joke about Akane's sexuality, and both feared that the human might do something worse immediately after...

-"A-Akane... please... it was just a joke I did... please... don't get angry..."- Kayce said, still scared to see her human friend angry as she never saw her before.

-"WELL, YOU STUPID BRAT, I DON'T LIKE THOSE JOKES ABOUT MY TASTES ON PEOPLE! YOU HEAR ME?!"-

The slave, on the other hand, tried to reassure the human in one way or another, seeing that her attitude had suddenly become violent at the mere mention of that joke about Akane's sexuality, even if Kayce had not intended to insult or offend her in any way.

-"Akane, please calm down, it was just a joke, I don't think she meant to...!"-

And at that instant, Akane saw Liska with a furious stare at her, which caused the young slave, who had stood up from her bed to pacify Akane, to step back a few meters, fearful that the human might do something violent on her...

-"A-Akane... please..."-

But Akane, far from doing anything that could make things worse, she simply left the teepee, without saying another word, possibly aware of what was going on, and she headed towards her home, visibly furious and enraged as she had never been before.

On the other hand, Liska and Kayce, who were still, frightened, inside the former's home, could only see the human leaving the place enraged, while they themselves were shocked and disgusted by what had happened.

In any other similar case, such a joke would not have been enough reason for someone to become angry, but for some reason, having her sexuality questioned caused Akane Araki to explode in anger like no one, not even Liska, her best friend, had ever seen before...

-"Wha...what the hell did I say to make Akane so angry, Liska?"- Kayce said, still shocked, at her other friend, after being witness of Akane's wrath.

The ginger-furred girl, for her part, only facepalmed, this time, notoriously annoyed to see that Akane had done something stupid that shamed everyone in the village, and that made everyone there, including Liska, think that there was something not right in the mind of that human woman.

-"I don't know..."- The slave girl replied, also as shocked as Kayce was. -"but... sigh... this is definitely the last straw for me, to be fair... Akane cannot continue to treat everyone as if she has the right to insult everyone as she pleases..."-

-"I agree with you, Liska, but..."- The other, brown-furred feline girl also sighed as well. -"I wondered why she was so upset when I said that if she likes women?"-

-"To be honest, I don't know, she has never mentioned anything about it to me before. What I can tell you is that I have never seen her as angry as I saw her today, that's for sure."-

-"She sure was..."-

Kayce reasserted her friend's words, as she looked in the direction of the teepee entrance, trying to think what Akane was feeling when she had become angry at Kayce's humorous insinuation that the human was a lesbian.

But before the two women could proceed with their discussion, another female voice was heard in front of the teepee, a voice very familiar to the women there.

-"May I come in, girls?"-

Hearing this, Liska quickly knew who the person was on the other side of her teepee entrance...

-"Mistress!"- The slave girl said with surprise.

Seconds later, Mother Sanna quickly entered the young slave's home, knowing that she would have no problem doing so.

-"What brings you back here again, grandmother?"- Kayce followed suit, while Liska, by the other hand, began to dress, as she had to leave in a few minutes to help her mistress prepare the okonomiyaki for the whole village.

-"A few moments ago I saw Akane storming out of your home, and I thought some bad thing must have happened with either of you two to make her act that way."- The old lady asked to both girls. -"Can you explain to me why?"-

-"Well... uh..."-

Kayce was the first to talk to the old feline woman, with some reluctance, as she was afraid to be scolded due to her participation in the whole event involving both her and Akane.

-"...I made a comment that displeased Akane, although I did it in jest, and with no intention to offend her."- The brown-furred alien girl said, noticeably ashamed, and at the same time crestfallen for having unwittingly insulted the human. -"When that happened, she flew into a rage like we had never seen her before, and she left the place extremely upset."-

-"And... may I know what it was that you said that made her angry, dear?"-

-"I said that if Akane liked women... and that was because, when I walked into this teepee, Akane and Liska were talking side by side, and Liska was naked, so I couldn't help but make a joke about it..."-

Then, Sanna turned to her slave to have her speak to her.

-"Is that true?"-

-"Yes."- Liska responded, almost as annoyed as her mistress was. -"I was naked when talking about private matters with Akane, because I didn't feel like putting on my clothes at that moment, and when Kayce made that joke, Akane got angry, and walked out of here."-

Hearing the summation of those events that caused Akane to react violently, causing grief and anger in her alien hosts, the old woman could not help but facepalming in dismay at knowing that Akane had once again stirred up trouble due to her erratic and volatile behavior...

-"sigh... oh gods... not again you, Akane..."- Sanna said aloud, while nodding her head in disapproval of the human woman's actions.

Seeing her mistress angry at what had happened minutes before with the African-Japanese woman, Liska explained a way to solve the whole mess, so as to at least prevent things from escalating between Akane and the whole village.

-"Before all this happened, I told Akane that I could mediate between her and Rial tonight when he returns from hunting so that the two of them could reconcile."- The slave girl said, while finishing dressing herself. -"If you wish, you can also participate to tell Akane what bothers you about her and let her know your displeasure and the displeasure of all of us regarding her behavior."-

The old woman looked at the young blonde-haired damsel, and she more than agreed with her suggestion, with some things to add on.

-"I agree with your idea, dear, and I would also like to have a few words with that woman, and put an end to all this litany of arguments, bickering and misunderstandings involving her at once."- Sanna said, still visibly angry while the whole issue involving Akane. -"This can't go on any longer, that's for sure."-

-"Sorry if I'm interrupting,"- Kayce also wanted to say something to Akane as well in the planned night reunion about the human's long list of problems they have with her. -"but if you and Liska permit me, I would also like to participate in the discussion, so I can explain to Akane what I said and apologize to her."-

-"Normally you wouldn't have to apologize for that joke you made, Kayce, but we would appreciate it if you would also participate."- The old healer replied, and thanked the young lady for trying to involving herself in that planned reunion with Akane. -"I think that would let Akane know how serious this whole matter is."-

-"You are right, Mother Sanna."- Kayce agreed with the older woman. -"I think Akane should be told that things can't go on like this anymore, unless she wants to put herself in serious trouble."-

Once Liska had dressed, the young slave girl in Mother Sanna's service was ready to help her mistress with whatever she needed her to do that day, in this case, cooking the communitary meal.

-"Well, I'm done getting dressed."- The young girl said. -"I think we'd better start preparing the okonomiyaki for the afternoon meal."-

-"Well, you're right, dear. We'd better leave the Akane issue aside, and we'll talk to her later. At any rate, she'll have to come and help us too."- The old lady replied.

-"That's true; besides, she's the one who knows exactly how to prepare the food we're going to eat today."- Kayce followed suit as well.

-"Well, if no one has anything else to say,"- Sanna concluded the chat. -"we will start working on that food right away, so let's get going, girls!"-

-"Yes, ma'am!"- Both Liska and Kayce replied at the same time at the old feline woman.

And so, the three women left the teepee inhabited by Liska and Rial, Sanna's grandson, and headed to the latter's home to prepare the okonomiyaki that they would cook together with Akane. They knew they had to prepare food for the whole tribe and they were going to need all the time necessary to prepare all the food that would be needed, while Akane's issue would be discussed for that night.

However, little did anyone know that something would happen that day that would change the lives of everyone present, especially for Akane and Liska, in a more than permanent way...

END OF ACT XVI