So mostly this chapter is for Flashbacks to shed some light on the reasons why Edward was open to accepting Humanimals as equals while his Mother was not and this was a for months before Ichabod met Marzipan when he had been rescued by the Fellowship Crew a few days ago so he's still new to Humanimals.
Ichabod remembered back to ahortly after Edward Green was reformed, during the process Minsk revealed to him the reason why she was trying to reform him was when she had captured him she sensed a great lonliness in him so she sought to become his mate, well of course at first Edward was horrified but he also didn't want the death penalty, after a few short days the conditioning was broken through and he saw with clear eyes the horrible things he had done to Humanimals and he he saw Minsk with new eyes seeing her as a brave and compassionate woman who was able to see past what he had done to her people to see there was still potential for good within him so he happily accepted her propsel of marriage!
First they had to get back to Earth, during their travels through space, while having breakfast there was a cry of pain coming from the male bathroom!
Minsk ran over and saw Edward, he had been shaving, but had to stop because his back started twitching with pain, and because he had no shirt on at the moment, Minsk gasped when she saw the reason why!
His back was crisscrossed with scars! It looked like someone had taken a whip and just laid into him! Edward had been trying to make sure none of his new friends saw these scars especially Minsk, he seemed like he would he shirked back with shame when he saw Minsk was seeing him in this state, But Minsk with hardly a word, hardly a sound took Edward's hand and led him to the living room area near the kitchen.
Everyone was shocked when they saw those scars but hardly said anything, Minsk led him to a safa and had him lay down on his belly, Edward seemed like a frightened child which made it seem all the more bizzare since he was built like a bodybuilder! He clutched one of the sofa's throw pillows and looked over his shoulder.
Minsk simply began every so softly stroking his back with her soft furry hands, since she was a Mink she had some of the softest fur of any Humanimal! She had claws on the ends of her fingers so she took special car not to let her claws touch his back while she softly stroked his twitching back.
Edward clutched the pillow and shut his eyes and he endured his body's fear response despite the plesant touch and after a while his back stopped twitching the pain stopped he smiled.
Ichabod watched all this and was fasinated about how they this all happened without needing any words, they already had such trust in each other! It also opened his eyes to the possibilities between Humans and Humanimals he imagined how plesant it would feel to be massaged by soft furry hands.
A few days later Edward mentioned that Monsk would provide the treatment whenever the pain started again Edward admitted "In a strange way I realized I am like an animal, a frightened animal who must relearn 'the hand is gentle' Ichabod was immensely curious but also felt it wasn't his place to pry why Edward needed to relearn it.
Tea Time was over everyone realized they needed sometime to think over how they would begin to plan for this mission.
So a short chapter but it does shed some light on Edward and Minsk's relationship