It took only two days for Chaiki's home to become the hub of activity on the outer ring of the city. Thin strips of meat drying in the sun, fruit drying beside it. Chiaki herself stretching and scraping a hide for tanning, a pass-time that caught the attention of several males who passed the home. Mixed grains being pounded free of their hulls and ground down into flour. Dozens of herbs tied in bunches and hung leaf down to to dry from the rafters of the house.

Kimba stalked the short-winged birds until the fowl would turn on him and chase him around the yard as he yowled in glee. Jiu Ruan had been given allowance to be in the yard as long as one of Chiaki's mates was there. Kimba was beginning to pull the wolf into his play. The same deal had been given to Skye, who was spending hours under the sole tree in the yard, carving antler, horn and tusk. There wasn't much direction to it yet, just to make things that could be worn was all Chiaki had asked of him.

The flock of short-winged birds numbered nearly twenty. Curtis having went above an beyond on his trapping skill of the birds. Chiaki was getting at least two or three eggs each morning from the coop, with the better fed and mostly tamer birds being the producers. The others would lay eggs more often once they were just as well fed. She knew the egg laying would lower as Winter approached and she needed to think of a way to make the eggs keep longer. During winter, they might be days between finding fresh eggs.

With both a deer pelt and one that Chaiki thought looked like a Bison, both drying on stretching racks. She turned her attention to the first batch of dry meat and the rendered fat. Pounding the dry meat into a powder like consistency she'd asked of Qianhuang. He'd delivered wonderfully, confused as to why they would need to powder the dry meat. "Uh, it's an old food from my world." Chiaki said as she started heating the fat in a clay pot over a fire. "Pemmican is the longest lasting food I can think of. It will easily last a Winter, and if you keep it contained right it will even last through more than one!"

"Food that can be stored for more than one cold season?" Bai Di asked in shock.

"Yeah, there are stories of Pemmican lasting as long as I've been alive and still be safe to eat."

"That... that could save so many people during the cold season, and even during the lean parts of the others." He now looked excited. "How much of this amazing food do we need to make?"

"I'm not sure, it all depends on the type of animal. At least one large animal per person worth, I guess? But we need to make it with different stuff so we don't' grow tired of the taste if you want to eat it all Winter!"

With the bulk of the meat hunted being devoted to making Pemmican first, the meals during that time became their own balancing act. As the three males and Chaiki tried to find the best ways to use the innards of the animals. The males didn't mind just eating them right from the kills, several parts were even preferred that way, but then they had to deal with intestines... at least the brains were used in the tanning. Chiaki wasn't sure she was ready to try eating an animal brain.

The big animals all went into the food stores for the upcoming harsh months. However, they also brought in rabbit, squirrel, duck, ptarmigan, grouse, partridge, goose, groundhog, beaver, pheasant, and many animals that Chaiki wasn't able to name as a creature she had known on Earth. The small chicken sized upright lizards looked right out of a dinosaur movie! When those were cooked she joked that they tasted like chicken, though she only got confused looks.

Deer were the most densely populated big animal near the City of Beasts. But they also brought in Elk, Moose, Bison, and Boar. By the time Chaiki desired to move onto preserving types of fish, they had to spend several days shaping and firing more large clay urns to keep it in!

"And this is why I wanted as much salt as the Winged-Lion Village would trade us." Chaika said as she showed them the pots filled with layers of salted meats, and then the ones of salted fish, and the ones with salted vegetables!

"And... it will stay good in water?" Curtis asked curiously.

"It's not water, it's salt brine. We dissolved as much salt as we could into the water that was poured over the meat and salt layers." She pointed to pots with different kinds of lids. "That one is full of the cucumbers and spices, and that one is carrots and spices... I'm hoping that they pickle correctly!"

"Pickle?"

"Well, more like ferment, but yeah. The cucumbers should change in taste because of the spice mixture." She pointed to hanging leaves. "This is mint, it will make tea by just adding it to hot water."

"And the hanging bags?" Bai Di said with a hand motion.

"That's the Pemmican! Qianhuang and I put it in leather bags and stitched them closed, then hung them up to keep pests from getting into them as easily. Mice wont get into the pots without trouble, but will get into the bags quickly unless we try to prevent that."

The four of them admired the work they had been doing for the past several weeks. It was now no denying that the seasons had changed, as the hottest parts of the days were no longer blistering hot. Rain had began to fall most afternoons, though not enough to send many scrambling indoors just yet. The relief from the hot-dry season was in full swing, and just now were the other males of the City of Beasts beginning to turn their thoughts to the coming cold-season and it's lack of resources.

"How much more do we need?"

"More dry plants." Chaiki said with ease. "Other than tubers, that's the potatoes and carrots, you know the roots I had you gather... other than those and some dry fruit, we haven't gathered nearly as much as we have in meats. A lot of the grains we stored are for the short-winged birds, not us." Chiaki headed towards the steps that lead up into the house proper, wincing as she started up them. She placed a hand on her lower stomach. "Nnn."

Three sets of ears tilted to the small sound, followed by three heads turning and three males rushing to the side of their mate.

"Are you all right?!" Echoed for them as one.

"I think, how long has it been when I last bled?" She thought. It had been four... five... six... yeah about six weeks. Her period much be getting ready to start up, after... after the events in the Rock Wolf Tribe Village, it must have been thrown off a bit.

"It's just my cycle." She said waving a hand at her mates.