"So what's this 'Beast God's Gift - Lovers Golden Heart' ability that activated when I arrived?"

Tobi shook his head. "I don't have any knowledge from your time." He looked though. "The energy is... the beast gods' own. I didn't make this." He lifted a finger towards the golden circle on her chest. "May I?"

"Yeah sure." Chiaki shrugged.

With a touch, Chiaki felt the energy from her mate marks fill her body. She gasped at the sudden difference, it was immense. She looked at her hand, seeing Shuu's mark. "My marks!" She could have started crying right there.

"It seems to allow you to conceal your mating marks and suppress their power."

"But why?"

Tobi shook his head. He didn't know. He looked at the circle in worry. Should he tell her that it also seemed to be her body was holding a lot more of that power than was normal for mate marks? No, it might worry her... or maybe it was normal for mate marks 10,000 years into the future? He just wasn't sure. And if he didn't know, she probably wouldn't either. "It's safe to use." He reassured her.

"I would hope so, considering it's a gift right from the Beast God himself." She put a hand over the mark and willed the ability to activate. She felt weak as soon as her mate marks disappeared. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She'd lived twenty-eight years without a boost, she could do it again.

"Do you want to return to the world now?" Tobi asked, his curiosity sated for the moment.

Chiaki nodded and in a blink she found herself looking in the lake water once more. "Item Box." She needed to check if the gifts from Tobi still worked. The box popped open, the screen showing it still held all the things she'd placed in it. Thankful she tapped on the stone knife she often used for prepping vegetables. Now it was her only weapon.

She stood, looking back the way she had came. Now that she wasn't panicking, she could see a large gathering was going on in the distance. She touched the yellow mark on her chest, would it be better to have all her marks showing but her mates missing, or to seem like she was not mated. She glowered. Neither option was good. Both would lead to some male barging in on her life to 'protect' her. One would keep her safer than the other though. With a thought she was filled with her mates power, their marks scattering back to where they belonged. For now, she needed to put some distance between herself and the gathered beast groups. Something told her she needed to not get in the way of the lives there just yet.

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

'Star Radish x1' - A type of radish that has gone extinct in most places on the world.

Chiaki looked at the first food she'd gathered, something that she'd not seen before, and given the description she knew why. She'd tossed one into her item box like she'd done many times before. She thought the little star shaped leaves that gave the vegetable it's name were cute. Seeing that is was safe to eat she pulled up another and washed it off, then took a bite. She ate it while gathering some more, tossing them into the item box with a practiced hand.

"I wonder if there is anything else around here?" She asked herself, pulling another from the ground. Eventually she found a single sweet potato plant tangled up with the patch of star radishes.

She'd headed away from the gathered peoples, staying withing sight of the lake because of it's fresh water. She would hopefully find the river source that drained into it. Now she only needed to find out why she'd been sent into the beast world of the past.

She was surprised that the Voices had already started pulling humans into the world in hopes they would be of some help, though both Lu Ling and Ida had been placed into bodies of women born in the beast world. Apparently because the Voices were so new at this, they could only pull the mind and not the body of humans through to this side.

She started a fire, roasting the sweet potatoes, thankful she would be able to store away any leftovers to eat later. She knew it was best not to get mixed up any anything happening around here, she might change the future. Of course, changing the future might have been her job here. Who knew, Tobi sure didn't seem to know what his older self had in mind. Was he even the one who had placed the magic on the scroll? She hadn't thought to ask. He seemed like he didn't want to tell her anything about the scroll either.

She sighed and poked the fire.

The snap of a twig put her on high alert. She stiffened. She wished she could tilt her ears like her mates and pinpoint the sound. As it was human ears could sort of wiggle and that didn't really help now. The movement was slow, like the animal knew it had been noticed.

Out of the tree line, the pines that bordered the lake, stepped a deer. A buck, white as snow with golden hooves and small antlers. The eyes were intelligent and Chiaki knew that this wasn't an animal, but a man in his beast form. Though why he was approaching her like this was unknown. Maybe he'd seen the fire.

He didn't transform, nor did he speak. Then carefully, just at the edge of the fire light he lay down. His ears twitched at any sound that emanated from the forest or the lakeside. Was he- protecting her?

Chiaki turned away from him, not quite far enough for him to be out of sight in the corner of her eye. She didn't say anything. Instead she finished cooking her food. She ate in silence, waiting to see what he was up to.

As the darkness deepened from evening into night, she had to make up her mind. She wasn't about to go to sleep with a random unknown guy watching her from the shadows. She'd probably end up kidnapped. She didn't like the idea of being used as breeding stock for a bunch of desperate males with no village. Not that they'd get any children out of her, thanks to her paused cycle. That would just get her a bunch of angry males bonded to her for life.

"What's your name?" She asked, eyeing the deer.

His ears shot forward, latching onto her voice. "Lu Yue." Came the reply in the beast language.

"Well, you can go back to wherever you came from, Lu Yue." She said tersely. "I'm in no need of a random lone male following me around."

"I can see you have many mate marks, but are alone."

"Some males trust their mate can handle herself."

The deer snorted. From the forest she heard several animals take off away from the area. Lu Yue's ears tracked the sounds for a minute, then turned back to her. "The daughter of the Red Lion tribe leader mentioned you, I am simply curious."

So the little girl who'd Chiaki had met when arriving here was the daughter of a leader. "Uh, how's the Cave Bear guy I landed on?"

"The Patriarch of the Cave Bear tribe said he wished he had stayed awake to enjoy the sight of a pretty young female sitting on his chest."

Chiaki burst out laughing. Lu Yue was surprised, he had thought that a female would sneer at the thought of an old ugly male saying such things. Though she'd already been surprising. He never seen a female forage for food alone, then cook it herself, at least not without complaint. Females didn't travel alone, didn't leave the village without being in a group that was protected by males.

He saw the bone knife at her hip. The well made clothes she wore. She was plump, well taken care of. It was obvious her mates were both kind and strong enough to keep her safe and fed. So why was she out here wandering alone? Was the child Ayres correct? Had this female been grabbed by a bird beast man, then accidentally dropped?