The male with brown hair and amber eyes was named Lupin. The others turned out to be Muchen, with shaggy shoulder length gray hair and green eyes, Jun Hie with long straw blond hair and dark blue eyes, and Faolan with red hair and ice blue eyes.
The food came together quickly with all the extra hands. Shuu thankfully getting a remainder of Chiaki's name when she introduced herself to the other males. At least he wouldn't embarrass himself with not remembering her name now.
"So what are you good at?" Chiaki asked. It seemed like a simple question to the males, not knowing Chiaki wanted her mates to bring more than an extra set of hands and basic hunting to the family group. Still she knew that she would take a mate who had little skill if she ended up caring for them. People were more than a block of skills. She knew little about Shuu personally, but felt that same tugging draw to him that she'd experienced before when, like when she saw Winston for the first time.
The first thing she noticed was that Muchen and Jun Hei seemed to already know each other fairly well an they would often interrupt each other in telling things about themselves to Chiaki.
"We were born in the same year." Muchen replied when asked about it. "Our mothers know each other and we have been like brothers all our lives."
Chiaki nodded. The two males hoped to find a female who would take them both on as mates, so they could stay together. It made her wonder if there was more than just feelings of friendship between the pair. Still they didn't seem like they were together, probably because of the overwhelming pressure to find a female and have children.
"I can hunt even the largest prey around the is village!" Jun Hei said with confidence. "The giant bellowing deer!" He went on to describe the animal when Chiaki said she'd not seen one of them before. In the end they sounded much like a Moose. Jun Hei only had a single stripe, so the hunting of the animal was considered rare for any male with under two stripes.
"I make soft leather." Muchen said. "And of all my brothers, I can carve a cave out of the rock mountain the fastest!" He flexed his clawed hands, showing the strength in them. "If you become my mate, I can help enlarge your cave to much bigger! You would have plenty of space for more cubs!"
Chiaki giggled at the enthusiasm. And there it was, the we will make beautiful babies together line that seemed hard wired into every male in this world. She didn't mind though. She'd been told to have as many children as possible, if not in those exact words, but she knew it had been part of the 'live a good happy life with many mates' lines from Tobi.
"Well, those are good skills." She said with a nod. Both males puffed out their chests from the praise.
Shuu spoke next. "I have never tasted fish like this, how did you find out?"
Chiaki smiled. "Well, I did have some help from a friend. Mostly though I had a very diverse family as a child and they all had different types of food they liked to make. I ended up learning a bit of everything from them."
The males glanced around the group of males that Chiaki had already taken as mates. Indeed her mates were pretty different, many females had one or two beast types that made up their list of males, but of her six males, five were different. If Chiaki had been raised with such a family, then her mix of many types of male would be normal for her. She didn't have any wold males yet, so this made the five invited guests each hope they would be the wolf who would be the lucky male.
"I learned how to recognize edible plants." Lupin offered when prompted to tell Chiaki more about himself. "I studied for a few seasons with healer Langzhu, but didn't have the talent for becoming a healer myself." He looked away in shame.
"But you did learn things others might need." Chiaki said. "You brought potatoes as a gift tonight. Potatoes are a food that I really like."
Lupin perked up at this, his tail beginning to thump against the ground at the praise. All the other males took note of Chiaki favoring potato as a food. This was something her mates already knew, having listened to her rant about rice and potatoes more than once.
"I'm the strongest male of this bunch." The red haired Faolan said when asked about himself. A truth, with three dark blue stripes. "And I have been training to awaken my Totem Beast."
Totem Beast was a different thing to the direct power gains from an added stripe, it meant the male had mastered an elemental power. Like the leader of the Rock Mountain Wolf Tribe, Frost Cloud, who had mastered elemental ice. Or the male now known as Fire Fang, who mastered elemental fire, having been called a different name before then.
"Do males in this village often change their names like that?" Chiaki asked.
"Some do, some don't. Frost Cloud had that name before he awakened his Beast Totem." Bai Di supplied. He had spent many years visiting this village and had leaned much about them.
Pure power in the form of stripes and elemental power in the form of totems, she was still learning new things about this world and it's people. She asked another question, this one aimed at her mates. "Why haven't I noticed anyone with a totem when were were at Highcliff City, or the other villages?"
"It's a lot more work, it's dangerous, and elemental powers aren't as useful as more stripes." Curtis said mater-of-factually. He gave Faolan an unpleasant grin. The other red-head gripped his bowl of fish and prawn stew tighter, his claws digging into the wood it was carved from.
Chiaki saw the tension rising, so she stood up. "I need to visit the sand pit, Curtis can you walk me there?" She asked, trying to defuse the situation.
"Of course!" The snake male said without pause and even a bit of excitement. His female was showing this damn wolf that he was favored! Maybe she thought he was right about the totem marks even? He couldn't be sure without asking.
He escorted Chiaki to the sand pit, where she did take the time to relieve her bladder. She had to pee more often with the weight and movement of her growing babies. However, she mainly wanted to give Curtis a few moments to calm down.
Chiaki cupped Curtis' face with one hand. "Are you upset?" Of course he was, but she knew he wouldn't say anything to her unless she asked directly.
Curtis tensed up. "Yes." He said shortly. She waited,knowing he was putting his words together in his head before he spoke. "You already have six mates, why even give more a look? Haven't I- we... shown that you will be safe and taken care of? Even during a harsh cold-season?"
"You have." Chiaki replied honestly. "I just... I have this weird feeling that I'm going to need more mates. Maybe not for myself entirely? I can't really put it into words yet,but until I can..." She looked at him, worry written on her face. "And have you seen how much work some of the mated males in this village have with the amount of pups born at a time? I saw one with a basket of nine! A famale might only give birth one every year or two, but the amount of young goes up significantly faster because of the numbers." She sofened her voice. "We've had Kimba and Copper, so it's hardly been a concern until now. But this time, I'm looking at multiples. We're going to need a bigger family if we want to not suffer losses." She turned her head to the side. "I want every one of my sons to make it to adulthood."
The raw hurt, the tender words, the power and fear mixed in her voice as she spoke. Curtis pulled her to him without pause. He petted her hair and made soothing sounds. His mate had her own set of worries and he hadn't even been thinking about what she might have on her mind. He felt foolish and childish, even if he was the oldest male in the family... when did he act it? The stupid tiger with the scar was a lot more mature than he was.
"Let's just stay here for another moment." He said softly. He still wanted the time with her all his, but right now he couldn't enjoy being alone with his mate.
