"I'm hungry." Chiaki complained.

"Again?" Qianhuang said. "You ate twice today already."

"Yeah, I know... but it's like I can't stay full. Maybe I need more carbs? More protein?"

"What is a carb and pro-teen? I will try to hunt one for you." He said tilting his head to the side.

Chiaki burst out laughing. "I'm sorry! No, no! Heheheh! A carb- hah- a carb is something found in food like rice... and proteins are in meats."

Qianhuang frowned. "I can't get you rice." He shook his head. "Males die trying to farm it!"

Chiaki blinked at the sudden outburst. "Wait... you- you actually have farming?"

Qianhuang's ears pulled back against his head. "Rice is too energy demanding. Please don't ask for it."

Chiaki shook her head. "It was an example, I didn't even know you had rice. Potato also has carbs in it, and if the meat we have preserved isn't what my body is wanting... have you caught fish in the lake before?"

"Yes, fish can be caught. The lake is too big to freeze over this early in the cold season."

"Hmm, fish." Chiaki smiled. "Yeah, let's figure out how to catch some."

"Right!" Qianhuang though still held out a dry jerky to Chiaki. "Still, chew on this and swallow the juice, it might help you fell full longer."

Chiaki took the offered meat and began to eat it. "Thanks Key." She said, leaning over onto him.

While the food supply was doing well in their house, the rest of the village were still worried that the cold season would last too long. It was about one third the way through the season and several females had fallen sick again. Big families with lots of males were better off, but females with less than three mates were feeling the first pangs of the harsh Winter. Some females had given birth to a litter each year and had more mouths to feed than they had food. Many had young cubs from earlier that year, like Eve. Others were starting to show their pregnancies. Some had both cubs under a year old and more on the way, such as Eudora.

The first death of the season came one morning, the cold quiet broken by a distraught scream. Chiaki didn't know what home it had came from and Qianhuang forbid her going out to check. It could have been starvation, but it could have been sickness. He wouldn't risk his mate for her to satisfy her curiosity.

Chiaki spent the day curled up on Qianhuang's lap, mourning a life she didn't even know. He made sure she ate, hearing her stomach grow just as much as it had been for days, even when she at first refused.

They had made basic fish trap baskets, but he was too worried about his mate to leave her side to see if they would work. Instead he cooked her foods with meat, potato, carrot, and more salt than normal. They had ran out of the wild onion, and he tried to switch meat types each day. With the Aurochs, the normal boar, the deer, and the small game he had hunted before the great hunt, Qianhuang was able to feed his mate a different meat for several days in a row.

He refused to let her know that the wolf meat that was stored outside the house had been disappearing faster than he was eating it. It angered him that some males were stealing their food, but he couldn't be angry enough to do anything about it. They were taking it to feed their female, or to eat it themselves so they could give the better food to their female and cubs.

Another two weeks passed. Several days he stayed with his mate on his lap. He'd lost count on the exact amounts of deaths. Each time he would give her broth, put wood on the fire that heated the bath, and stay inside all day. When she fell asleep that night, he would drain the water and make sure it drained down the dugout groove outside the house and into the river. He would pass by the houses, often finding the one that was in mourning. He would not let Chiaki see. It was not a thing for his mate to know.

There would be no bodies to bury when the light-rainy season arrived.