Lu Yue was nowhere to be seen the next morning. Chiaki shook her head. He'd probably went back to the gathering of tribes. The fire was out, the dampness in the air proving to be the culprit. Seeing as she was alone. "Tobi?" She called out softly.

~Yes?~

"Future you didn't remember anything about what happened at the Beast God's Temple, but you still have those memories, correct?"

~I do.~

"I want to go there."

The world around her seemed to quiet as the seconds passed without a response.

~It has been marked on your map.~

"Thank you."

Chiaki brought up the map while she finished off the roasted sweat potatoes she'd fixed the night before. She'd have to get better food than just radishes, but they were the only filling food she'd found. Maybe she could get a few fish from the lake and keep them fresh in the item box. She saw she was actually very far to the north-west from the location she'd been at in the future, so she'd been moved through space as well as time it seemed. The temple was... not very far actually. It was mostly a climb up the side of a mountain. If only Key was here he could fly her up without much trouble.

She closed the map and the system screen with a wave of her hand. Standing, she moved to the edge of the lake she'd been following. It dipped gently into the water. Well, no time like the present. She found a thin mostly strait branch and fashioned it with her bone knife into a fishing spear. Chiaki stripped her clothes off, placing them into storage before wading out into the lake, crude spear in hand.

Trial and error eventually paid off with the spear slicing into a fish deeply enough to pin it to the sandy shallow bottom of the lake edge. However, the learning curve of the roughly made item meant keeping herself fed like this was not viable. She dragged herself up to shore, though she'd never waded out any deeper than her mid thigh. She'd spent more calories fishing and moving around in the water than the fish would give.

She'd have to make a fish trap or two and stay in the area longer just to prepare for going to the ruin of the temple. She might be able to survive off of buying food from the item store, at great expense. Depending on how long she needed to provide for herself, she could run out of Spar that way. Thinking about the item shop and thus the item box- "Item Box." She tossed the fish into storage.

'Large Bluegill Fish x1' was added to her things and she retrieved her clothing.

She didn't have any fish traps in the item box, they'd been traded to the Rock Mountain wolves before she left the village. There had been no need to make more at either village she'd been at after that. Still, she did have some strips of willow bark and bamboo she'd gathered during the trip south. She looked around. The local pine trees... well she might get a bit of use from them, but they were probably too woody.

It took her two hours to make a fish trap, then another three to actually get it done right. She'd hoped knowing the steps would let her work faster, but in the end it took the whole afternoon to build a large funnel trap. She staked it to the shore, placing it near the rocks the bluegill fish like to hide in. She used the guts of the only one she'd caught to bait the trap.

That night, she cooked the fish over the fire, skin and head still attached, she hadn't really learned to work with fish because her mates had always wanted to handle the job. Looks like she might learn after all. The cooking did let her pull the old fish-on-a-stick method seen in every cartoon she'd watched as a child. Surprisingly she found the skin pulled away easy after it was cooked. She ate some of the dried pumpkin seeds she had in storage along with her catch.

The sound of foot steps brought her attention back to the woods, she looked to see if Lu Yue had returned. She was greeted with the sight of a silver fox, again easily recognized as a beast man and not just an animal. "What, you pull the short stick for guard duty this time?" She groused at the fox.

The fox man sat, again just at the edge of he fire light as the deer the night before. "Many of the tribes are interested in you." He replied.

"Great, I'm a show. Wilderness Survival Woman, catch it every evening at dusk." She said and tossed her arms up. "Well, Yue was his name, what's yours?"

"Bai Kun"

What is with so any Chinese names starting with 'white' in this world? Chiaki pondered. Well, white tiger, white lion, white fox... guess he was white and not silver. She checked him for tails plural, nope just the one. Okay not a Kitsune. Just a fox guy. "Well, I'm Chiaki."

Bai Kun's ears perked up and his tail twitched. Lu Yue hadn't told them her name, had she not given it to him the day before? Perhaps this female preferred his fox over the other's deer. What could a deer hunt anyway? Plants?

Not that Bai Kun was interested, no he had many females who wished him for their mate. As a beautiful and very smart and talented member of the fox tribe, he was always being wanted. But, well that was it, they wanted the beautiful fox and fights started in any village he tried to settle. The fox tribe was just lucky they had happened upon the trade meeting near this lake, it might give them a safe place to settle.

To find out that the Beast God's power was held by the female Lu Ling of one of the tribes was shocking. His own matriarch was trying to persuade one of the villages to let them join. Being part of the villages that were so strong would be a great windfall for the fox tribe.

Only, his matriarch wanted to use him as a bargaining chip. So he'd begged Lu Yue to tell him where he'd found the female by the lake and had left before he could be dragged into a forced mating with the village leader of some other tribe at the gathering. Staying in this form and at a distance, he would at least have a peaceful night.

Of course finding the female cooking a fish over a fire had not been what he thought he would find. Sure a female might gather some berries or such to eat, or an edible root. But to see a female who hunted? She was very interesting.