With Spring came new life, for the animals and for the City of Beasts. Chiaki saw more males headed out hunting each day. They came from the other rings of the city, passing through the outer circle to feed their mates and growing families. She recognized one of Rosa's males, then several of them leaving as a group. With a small amount of investigating she found out that Rosa was going to have a litter of wolf pups. Silently Chiaki wished her well, and hoped that she had given up on Winston.

Rumor circulated that a female in the city had came up with a way to make the rice growing less taxing. Given that Chiaki didn't believe many females would care, she guessed it was Bai Qingqing. She had to admit, the girls heart was in the right place, she just didn't find the best solution.

Chiaki hefted the basket of slightly shriveled up potatoes outside. She'd been able to keep a bunch of them in the cellar all Winter without needed to resort to eating all of them. Now they were growing 'eyes' and were ready to be planted. "Now that the last frost should have happened, let's get thee cut up and planted." She grabbed a stone knife and split the potato into pieces, making sure each part had a 'eye' growing from it. "Okay, cut them like this. Make sure each one has one of these growths on it, that's the part that will make a new plant grow." She handed the knife to Qianhuang who took over splitting the potatoes.

"Winston? It there a meadow near town we can claim to make a garden?"

The male thought about it for a moment. Then Winston spoke. "There is plenty of open land around the city to keep wild animals from being too close. I can claim some of it as part of my territory if that is what you want."

"No one will mind?"

"I doubt it, as long as no one else tried to claim the same area there wont be any fighting."

"Okay! I want to go scout out a plot of land to grow a garden on."

Winston transformed into his tiger form and Chiaki happily got on his back. Seeing them getting ready to leave Bai Di transformed, joining them. As they headed down the dirt road leading out of the city, Chiaki saw a few new homes being built and the start of a protective ring for the outer city. A female parading down the street also got the notice of many a young male.

"Beautiful female! Are you enjoying the sunshine today?" "Female! Are you going out to play?" "Pretty female! Pretty female! Look I earned a stripe!" "Beautiful female, I'm a white-tiger male too! Can I be one of your mates?!"

Chiaki politely waved at the males who called out to her. Thankfully at the steady pace of Winston walking they moved quickly through the streets and she didn't have to offer them more than a smile.

Winston was astonished that no one had taken notice of him with Chiaki there. The presence of his mate pushed the scar faced, four-stripe male to the background. He felt normal moving through the city like this. This must be how the feral snake male could move around the city with such ease.

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

"Here!" Chiaki called out as they found a meadow that fit her gardening needs. It was a wide open area with fairly flat ground and no trees. Not too close and not too far from the river. And as Winston and Bai Di checked, no one else had any claims by scent to the area.

"No male has scent marked anywhere near this meadow." Winston confirmed.

Suddenly the sounds of fighting made their way across the meadow, coming from in the forest further away from the city. Winston and Bai Di were immediately on edge. "I hear -"

"Roars?!" Chiaki said, not being able to make out the sounds as clearly from this distance as the males could. "What's going on?"

"A fight. Several males from the sounds of it, different beast kinds." Bai Di replied.

"Should we interfere?" Winston asked her.

"Do they sound like they are headed this way?" She asked. Both males shook their heads. "Then we shouldn't get involved." She winced at the sound of a loud cat scream. "Let's go home quickly!"

"Yes." Winston turned back to the city, they could claim the meadow some other time. Overhead he saw a beast male flying towards the fight. Was it an Eagle or a Hawk, he wasn't sure from this distance.

Arriving back to their home, Chiaki saw the beginnings of her suitors gathering near the stone wall around the property. Ah well, the Winter had been quiet, but it looked like Spring was bringing out more than just new plant growth.

Bai Di let out a loud roar at the young males, sending them back a few steps as the large white tiger male neared them. The sight of Chiaki arriving on the back of an even larger white-tiger male was met with a mixed response. Some of them surged to greet her, while others recognized Winston and stayed back. The two males hopped over the low wall with ease, leaving the young males on the outside.

"Looks like it's going to get noisy around here again."

"Again?" Winston asked.

"As long as the weather is good, we'll be seeing a few males drop by trying to catch me outside so they can ask to be mates."

Bai Di rubbed his head against her leg. "Would you like to get them to leave?"

"Well- sort of? I really don't want to start looking for anymore mates right now."

Bai Di transformed and lifted Chiaki off of Winstons' back. In one smooth motion he brought her down to his level and began to kiss her. She kissed him back, not thinking much of it until she felt another set of hands begin to trail down her sides. She broke the kiss and looked over her shoulder to see Winston had transformed too. Now she was sandwiched between the two of them in the middle of the lawn. Her eyes widened as she realized what Bai Di had been insinuating.

"Nope!" She squeaked out as she felt her top being tugged off. "Outside! We are outside!" She felt her breasts being cupped and then the breeze as her top came off. Why did that line never work like she hoped it would?! It was probably because she had wrapped her legs around Bai Di's hips and kissed Winston all while she protested.

It looked like the males wanting to court her were going to get a show.