Shuu and Faolan carried the catch to the cave home of Chiaki. She'd disappeared so quickly that day that her own traps had been left unchecked. Shuu was worried that she had left so quickly because of how heavily pregnant she was, she might have been tired out or hurting.

Arriving at the cave, the two wolves found the females mates going about their normal routine. "Chiaki disappeared this afternoon, is she alright?" Shuu asked.

"Our mate is resting." Qianhuang said shortly.

"I see." Shuu replied back. "I hope that today wasn't too much for her, it must be very difficult to teach new skills while being so far along in her pregnancy. Would you permit me to offer the catch from my traps?"

Qianhuang looked at the young wolf, then took the trap that had Chiaki's catch in it. He nodded for Bai Di to take the extra Shuu had offered. Beside of Shuu Faolan held out his own meager catch. "I too would like to offer this food for her, in hopes she will feel better." He said stiffly. Bai Di snorted at the presumptuous offer, but still took the catch when Qianhuang nodded for him to do so.

"We should start salting fish for the cold season." Qianhuang said after the two males had left.

"We don't have the salt for that." Curtis said as soon as the idea was proposed.

"Trade for it?" Skye asked.

"I'd rather go to the ocean myself." Qianhuang said. "I know how to get salt from the water there, as the entire Winged Lion Tribe was taught how."

None of the others knew of this skill. Winston looked the most curious though. "I thought only fish beastmen could get salt from the sea, and the amount they make each year is very limited." He knew how difficult it was to get the item in trade from them. To hear that a village of winged lions had learned the secret? Their people must be very powerful traders in that area.

"Yes, the Beast God gave this knowledge to my village." He refrained from saying that it was through another female like Chiaki that the information had been gained. He wasn't sure the female Ji Mo would want others so far away to learn about her. "My tribe shared the information with our sister tribe, the winged tigers. I do not know if others have been taught the skill."

"Well, if we go to the sea, will you be the one making all the salt?" Curtis asked eyeing the winged lion male. "Or would you share this with all of us?"

Qianhuang stepped closer to Curtis, so they were eye to eye. "I would of course share this important knowledge with all the other mates of my mate." He said tersely.

The two glared at each other for a moment before Curtis lashed out at Qianhuang. The four striped snake and single striped lion engaging in a short scuffle in-front of the cave opening. It was over before it had really started. The other four males waited to see what the two decided. After another tense moment Curtis huffed and turned away.

Curtis was obviously the stronger of the two, but it seemed he wasn't really aiming to dethrone Qianhuang as the lead male. The snake simply headed towards the woods. "I'm going hunting."

Skye and Jiu Ruan looked at each other, along with Bai Di and Winston. Out of all of them only Winston had the pure stripe power to give Curtis a proper fight, though Bai Di and Qianhuang held their own better than most. Maybe it was because of the size they held when transformed, even with less stripes than Curtis. Whatever it was that had happened, they would just have to wait and see.

Qianhuang dumped the fish into a fired clay pot, they wouldn't keep more than a night at best without being properly prepared, so they would be cooked for dinner. The mix was more varied than what had been caught with just the first fish traps they had made. He had to shake free several tiny crabs that were pinched to the sides of the basket.

Skye had grow use to being the one left cleaning the fish guts so he didn't even wait to be asked before he grabbed the collection and headed to clean and prepare them for cooking. Slowly they all went back to work, things a bit quieter than they had been.

When Chiaki woke up and came out to join them, the food was just getting started. The last of the hides had been finished and now only needed a bit more work to make sure they were soft enough. The entire family had been reduced to a single set of wraps, save the Winter outfit they had all worked together on for Chiaki. With the first set of leather ready, they would be able to make fresh hip wraps and a more roomy dress for Chiaki's growing belly.

Tonight they had wrapped the fish in leaves and left them to bake under a hot ash blanket. They had prepared some yams the same way, having gotten a few from Huanhuan. It was a quick trade of the crayfish and crabs for the root vegetable. Huanhuan had said something about spicy gumbo, whatever that was.

Curtis returned with what looked like an entire rabbit warren strung together and carried over his shoulder and down his back. His dirt covered hands added to the image. He flicked his tongue at the hot pit like spot the food was being prepared in. He avoided it and dumped the rabbits in a pile at the entrance to the cave.

"Wow, you did a lot of hunting Kurt!" Chiaki said, not knowing there had been any events between her mates.

"You will need the soft underbellies for the bleeding after you give birth." He said softly. It seemed that he had taken his agitation out on the rabbits, so the rest of the males collectively let themselves ease back into their work.

The third day in a row of fish didn't seem to lessen Chiaki's appetite for the food. The different preparations had kept the fish new and interesting. However, the rabbits would be the meal of choice the following day. Party because the guys were running low on ideas for fish dishes without asking Chiaki and partly because of the sudden abundance of rabbit meat that had been gained.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Chiaki carefully made her way to the home of Langzhu, she'd been having a rougher day today than the last few days. The low continuous ache in her lower back made it hard to rest the night before. She knew the last time she'd had this feeling it had been the early stages of labor, so she wanted the healer to check. "Healer Langzhu?" She asked as she opened the door to the old wolfs home. Qianhuang stood behind her, hovering as he knew she was feeling off. She'd been able to get her mates to agree that only one of them would go with her and if anything happened, that male would fetch the others immediately.

"I'm afraid he's gone to look at the village leader's mate." Came Harvey's voice, followed by the leopard healer entering the outer room from the one that Langzhu used for keeping medications. "I can help you instead?" Harvey offered.

Chiaki pushed the door the rest of the way open and entered the house. "Yes, you see-" She put a hand on her large round belly. "-I want to have a healer look at me, I think I might be starting labor and-"

Harvey rushed to her side. "Oh! You must sit down then! How are you feeling? Has there been any sign of your water breaking? Any pain? How long have you been feeling like this?" He asked all the questions back to back in a single breath as he moved Chiaki over to the hide covered grass that passed for a bed.

"No water breaking yet, I really just wanted to have a healer see if I am starting into labor-" Chiaki winced at the movement of sitting down on the makeshift bed.

Harvey calmed a little. "You are an odd female, most only want to see a healer when something has already gone wrong." He sighed. "Often that makes it too late to do much." He glanced at Qianhuang. He didn't even get the request to be allowed to touch his mate out before the male had told him to do anything Chiaki asked.

"Alright, let's see." The dress wrap was a bit tight, so that might be causing a little discomfort. He worked the piece of clothing up, finally taking a claw to the bottom couple of stitches to allow him to freely examine the female. He ran his hands over her belly. It was stretched taunt, hard to the touch. Yes she was probably very close to the end of her pregnancy. The cubs within her had no room left to grow larger. "Yes, I say you are at the end of the pregnancy." He shot a worried glance at Qianhuang before he did something that in any other case would have cost him his hand, or his life. He slipped a finger past the opening into her body to feel if the birthing canal had started to open.

Qianhuang grabbed Harvey's wrist. "What do you think you are doing?!"

"Key! It's a normal medical exam!" Chiaki quickly said, her voice rising to make sure her mate heard her in his sudden anger.

"I can not allow any male, healer or not, touch you in such a way!" His eyes were hardened, glaring at the healer.

"Key-" Chiaki said in a warning tone. "You will not like the words that will come out of my mouth next, if you don't let Harvey do his job."

He turned his face to her, eyes begging. "I- it's not- please..." She wouldn't reject him now, would she? He was her first mate and he'd done everything as well as he could, she'd given him a son, the first time in memory that two winged white lions were alive at the same time. His grip on Harvey's wrist loosened. "Pleasedontbreakourmating!" He pleaded.

"Key- I didn't mean doing that."

With his wrist now free, Harvey pulled away from the pair. She was indeed in the early stages of labor, but right now her mate could snap... and snap his neck along with it. He took the risk. "Yes, you have started labor." Harvey forced himself to say, refusing to let the other male leave him cowering.

Qianhuang was looking at him again, this time with a mix of anger and fear. Harvey wondered what was the female threatening to do? Remove their spousal mark? She said that wasn't it. He watched as Chiaki took a deep breath. "If he can't do his job as a healer because only my mates can touch my privates then the family is going to have a new member in Harvey, because if he's my mate then he can examine me..." She stated carefully.

The words sank in slowly, to both males. Qianhuang looked back at her. She wasn't going to throw him away? Tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm sorry!" He breathed. "Thank you for not forcing me away! Thank you!" He grasped onto her dress wrap, tears soaking into the shoulder where he buried his face. "Thank you!" He voice was thin, soft and breathy as the words tumbled from his lips. "Thank you!"

Harvey sat there in shock. Him? The mate of a female? Surely he was misunderstanding her intent. He grabbed a scrap of leather to wipe his hands on. He should not bother them. The signs pointed at the birth being many hours away, maybe into the next day. "I should go." He said quickly and tried to get up.

Chiaki had enough of this. One hand fisted in Qianhuangs hair, the other caught Harvey's wrist. Her hand wrapped around the same place that was red from having been so tightly gripped moments before. "Harvey, don't run away from me."

"I just- you two need a moment- I can-"

"Maybe I was wrong to say it like I did." Chiaki started. "I didn't even think Key would take it the wrong way. The though of breaking off my relationship with one male for another, in this world I didn't even think that was a thing." See hadn't even realized she had said 'this world' when speaking.

Harvey caught it though. "You- what the Ape King was saying- Bai Qingqing was from another world. You are too, aren't you?" He said as he lowered his voice to a whisper, fearful that the people in the other room might be listening in.

Chiaki nodded. "That isn't important right now." She said. "What is important is that I'm in pain, and I need a healer to make sure nothing goes wrong. I need you to be that healer, okay? I need you to be MY healer." She made sure to make her words clear. "And when this is all over with, I want you to become my mate because I am fucking tired of having a healer that has to be afraid my mates are going to literally tear his head off for doing his job."

Harvey bit his lip. She was not mincing her words. She was saying she was going to take him as a mate. He looked over at the lion male that had minutes ago been ready to kill him and then cowering at his females words. A female had such power in this world, and he never realized how strongly that was true until now. "Then-" He started slowly. "Let's get you more comfortable while we wait for the birth to progress."

He forced himself back into his healer training. Job first. Make sure the female survived giving birth. Second, make sure as many of the offspring survived being born. This was something that normally was handled by a females mates, not a healer, unless it was female offspring. Or if something went very wrong. Harvey shook his head. Other than it was probably past the time her cubs should have been born, this pregnancy had shown no signs of anything being wrong. And pregnancies varied a lot by beast type. He got to work.