"This place isn't in very good condition."
"The village leader did say it's been empty for almost a full turning of seasons."
The house was built like most in the leopard village. It was four rooms, one large central room for the family to gather in, one large room for the female and her mates to sleep, two smaller rooms, one for the cubs to sleep and the last for storage.
Their things were piled outside the entrance and Qianhuang was in his human form. "You stay inside and I'll get firewood."
"It's pitch black inside."
Qianhuang ears drooped a little. "There are so many wolves in this area though."
"And they would be dumb enough to come into a village filled with beast men?"
"Well... no..." He shook his head, his mate was smart. "I'll get the firewood, but please stay close to this house until I get back?"
"I promise."
With that promise Qianhuang felt better and transformed into his winged lion beast form and bounded out of the village. He would have flown, but until the village got use to him he was likely to scare females and put the males on alert. Firewood would be easy to gather, maybe he should hunt something while he was out? He had to make sure the leopard males could see he could take care of his female.
Chiaki looked at the pile of things around their new home, it was dark inside but she could probably move it into the main room with the light coming in the entrance-way and window openings. The sun was slowly lowering and she'd loose even that amount of light if she didn't hurry. She grabbed the bag with their food and salt and began to haul it into the house. She had to turn down several offers of help from unmated males, she knew if she gave them an inch they would take a mile.
As she was working she saw the male leopard Parker in his human form carrying the female he'd brought into the village somewhere. She finally got a good look at the girls face, the girls mud covered face. Even with the mud Chiaki could see the girl had large eyes and a tiny nose, features that were rare on the women of this world. She probably was another transmigrated Earth-girl. She looked several years younger than Ji Mo. That was all Chiaki could guess and now the pair were too far away for her to study the girl more.
"Prey is scared around here." Qianhuang commented when he returned. "I was only able to surprise a rabbit."
"That will leave you hungry."
"I'll be fine with a small meal for a night. I can't believe the Leopard Clan is letting such a large pack of wolves hunt so close to their village. I did get plenty of firewood though."
Quickly a fire was built in the pit of the main room. Between roasting the small rabbit or cooking it another way, Chiaki suggested they boil it as a soup with some of the travel rations they had left in an attempt to make it more filling for Qianhuang. Qianhuang pulled Chiaki into his lap and rubbed his cheek to hers. His mate was too kind.
"Why don't you just hunt the wolves?" She asked.
"I could eat them, yes, but the meat can be dangerous for females to eat."
"Why is it dangerous?"
"Wolves are meat eaters and they will also eat rotting meat if they have too. This can make them infested with sicknesses that don't bother the wolves but make females very sick. It is risky to let females eat wolf meat, but males don't seem to get effected very much by sicknesses in meat."
"Oh." Chiaki paused to stir the rabbit stew boiling in the clay pot on the fire. "So it's pretty safe for you to eat though, right?"
"Yes." Qianhuang nodded.
"Then you should still hunt them!" Chiaki said. "Less wolves around he village would mean more prey animals for the beast men to fed their mates. And the wolves still have fur that can be used!"
Qianhuang ears twitched. That was true. The Winged Lion Clan would often have to resort to eating other meat eaters during bad cold seasons and hope that the females didn't get sicknesses and that they survived if they did. "We do need to start stockpiling food for the cold season." He paused. "Does this mean you want to stay here until the end of the cold season?"
"I don't know how soon it will be until the Winter, but if you wouldn't have time to hunt enough if we tried to make it to the City of Beasts... Then, yes, we should stay here for the Winter."
"I had hoped you would want to continue traveling." This time it was Qianhuang who stirred the stew, leaning over with Chiaki still settled in his lap. "You are curious about the female that arrived in the village when we did, aren't you?"
"Yes." She admitted. "I'm starting to think that the Beast God is bringing lots of females to this world from mine. I'm not sure why though."
"I think the stew is cooked, you should eat your fill first." He stretched to reach a bowl, refusing to remove Chiaki from his lap. He filled it and blew on it to cool the contents. "I can feed you if you'd like."
Chiaki shook her head. "That's fine, I can feed myself." She saw Qianhuang ears twitch, he wanted to feed her. She was learning the little body movements that he did subconsciously. Ear twitches were often a sign of surprise. So he was surprised that she didn't want him to feed her, but not upset that she refused. She took the offered bowl and began to sip the thin stew, it was a little bland without any vegetables in it and only a little salt. They didn't have any fresh vegetables, only some pickled carrots and the dried rations that were mostly meat themselves. She would have to search the surrounding area for carrots, sweat-potatoes and anything else edible, just as soon as the over abundance of wolves were dealt with.
