~Mama! Look!~ Kimba said as he puffed out his chest and dropped a mole at her feet. ~I killed it!~
"Oh?" Chiaki croched down to her cub and his kill. "Where did you find this?"
~Was et'n grass.~ He said as he picked the mole up in his mouth and ran over to show it to the three males. ~I hunt too!~ He called out.
As the three males praised the cub for his first kill, Chiaki got it from him. "Well, I will just have to cook this for you!" She said. She held the mole in her hands for a moment just looking at it. "How do I skin this?" She mumbled to herself.
Qianhuang took it out of her hands. "I'll skin it for you."
Chiaki knelled back down to her son. "How do you want it cooked? My great little hunter?"
~Stew!~ Kimba chirped. ~With spicy leaf!~
"Hm, spicy leaf huh? You sure that wont be too hot?"
Kinba shook his head. ~Hu-uh!~
Soon the small ground mole was bubbling away in a pot over the fire with salt, spicy leaf and grains added to it. It was a small animal, not even a meal for the cub, but Chiaki wanted to encourage her son and make sure he knew how much he was loved by his family.
Like all his meals Kimba stuffed his muzzle right into the bowl and began to eat. He finished the entire thing and looked up giving a loud burp. Chiaki thought she saw steam leave his mouth. He simply licked his lips and swished his tail happily.
"I guess Bai Qingqing rubbed off on our cub a bit." Qianhuang said, remembering the younger female had a taste for spicy food.
"Oh please let that be the only thing he picked up from her!"
"Who is Bai Qingqing?" Bai Di asked.
"Another female from my world." Chiaki said as she retrieved the now empty bowl from her cub. "But she hasn't made much impact from what I've been told."
Bai Di nodded at his mates words. It seemed like more females than he'd believed had been brought to their world. Watching how Chiaki was always pushing them to do more and make better things, he could only guess what her objective was.
"Not that I've made much impact myself." She added. "I really need to get the rumour mill moving to find out if anyone knows about the attack on the Beast God's temple and his avatar."
"The Beast God's temple?" Bai Di tried to think. "I know it was attacked once, but that was far to long ago to be what you are talking about."
"You know of an attack on one of the Beast God's temples?"
"Well, yes. It's an old story though. It happened before any of us were even born."
Chiaki sat beside of her tiger mate. "That's okay, I still want to know it."
Bai Di shifted in his seat, then began to speak. "A thousand years ago a female came to our world from another. She was most beautiful and had knowledge unheard of by our ancestors. She taught the beast men to cover themselves with furs when it was cold and how to build villages to live together in safety from the wild colossal beasts that ravaged the land. She took mates from several tribes and they were the ones who grew in power the fastest. The dragons, unicorns, phoenix and several other tribes became the rulers of the land. Then one day as mysteriously as she had arrived the female was gone. Her mates were driven mad with grief at her loss, for they knew she had not died but they could not go where she had went. All but one of her mates mourned themselves to death. The last mate refused to die and became a beast even more frightening than the colossal-beasts and ravaged the land blessed by the Beast God. Knowing that there was a temple upon the highest mountain top the beast crushed all between him and that place, desiring only to make the Beast God feel the pain he suffered. He fell upon the worshippers at the temple and struck down the mortal form of the Beast God in revenge. Leaving nothing but destruction in his wake the beast retreated from the world disappearing into the deepest ocean and fell asleep. With his connection to the world severed the Beast God fell into his own endless sleep, leaving the world to fall out of balance."
Chiaki gaped at Bai Di, her mouth hanging wide open. "That! That- when did all this happen? You said before you were born?!"
Bai Di shook his head. "Long before any of us were born. It's a tale I heard in a temple far to the south. I was told it happened over a thousand years ago."
Curtis started coughing at the implication. A story that had been passed down longer than even the faintest memories of a snake-feral?! "That can't be!"
Bai Di shrugged. "That is how I was told it. You would have to visit one of the southern temples to find out more."
"We haven't time to go hunting the source of this story, not with the cold season drawing near." Qianhuang said with a shake of his head. he was sure Chiaki was ready to rush off and find out more, but now was not the time. "When the seasons become warm again, we will make plans. Until then-" He glanced out the window. "The festival will begin soon."
Chiaki got them to all change into clean wraps before leaving. While she herself slipped into another of Curtis' creations, a long body hugging dress made from this years shed skin, laced up the sides so it could easily fit her no matter how her weight changed.
"Keep your tail hidden." Qianhuang told Curtis. "There will be many females at the feast and we don't need their mates starting fights. Curtis hissed at him and made a rude gesture at the lion with one of his hands.
"Off to the feast!"
