Lu Yue brought her some firewood that was better for cooking than the pine she was drying her clothes with. Bai Kun caught a rabbit. Chiaki took it, mentally daring him to consider it a gift. She gutted, skinned and cooked it on her own. She pointedly ignored her nude form and the longing looks from the pair of males. She did not ignore any unwanted advances though. Lu Yue had found this out the hard way when he nearly got a knife to the hand when he'd brushed too close for her comfort while she worked on the rabbit. Now they both made sure to give Chiaki her space.
"I said, I'm not interested in being courted now." She growled out at the deer male.
"I apologize." He said, a thin line of blood dripping from his hand. Any slower and she would have stabbed clean through it. This female was so much different from his sister and the females of his home. He healed his wound.
Chiaki studied the rabbit pelt, in this world tossing it away to rot was a waste, but she didn't have time to tan things. She wanted to put it in the item box for later, but she didn't know when or how she could with her new company. She couldn't even add to her meals with stored things now.
With a sigh, she checked the rabbit. The outer meat was cooking well. She turned it. She'd be stuck spit roasting whatever Bai Kun or Lu Yue brought back. By now the two males were studying the fish trap she'd set in the water. She thought of the fish in her storage, another thing she would now have to wait to have back. She only hopped they didn't ask her about how she had made the trap or how'd she brought it this far with her from the last camp. Had they seen her take it out of the storage?
"This is genius!" Bai Kun announced. "It keeps the fish from swimming back out!"
"Is this another thing a mate or courting male taught you?" Lu Yue asked, looking over at Chiaki.
"Uh, actually... I showed them how to make that."
"Where did you learn it? Would you teach me this?" Bai Kun asked.
"Sure I will teach you." Chiaki did not answer the other question. The fox male seemed happy with the answer anyway. "I set up camp thinking I'd be here tonight because of the tumble I took in the water, so we might as well stay until tomorrow. You need a bunch of slightly bendy branches or young bamboo and something you can weave with, like long grass."
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
"You are willing to teach us these skills. But why when you say you have no interest in either of us? Why pay attention to a male if you aren't being courted?"
The now fully dressed Chiaki paused in showing them how to force the trap open for the fish to have a place to be caught in. "I want others to know these things. The more who know, the better peoples lives become." Plus, if she got fish traps set up as a common skill in the past, it might be more widespread in the future already. Maybe she should try not to place too much new knowledge in the past. But she couldn't just say no when they wanted to learn! She was stuck with them following her already. Teaching them new skills wouldn't change that.
She looked up the river, it disappeared into the forest in the direction of the mountain. "Why'd you two leave your gathering to follow me anyway?"
"You are alone..." Lu Yue said. "And while many of the local feral males have been dealt with, wild animals can still be a danger."
"I just didn't want to be forced to take a mate that the matriarch picked. Plus, you are the first female that hasn't asked me to mate with her soon as they met me." Chiaki saw Lu Yue roll his eyes at Bai Kun's reasons. Was the fox exaggerating his desirability? Or was it something else?
"I can think of a couple females that have not done that."
Bai Kun made a noncommittal noise.
"And your village isn't going to miss you?" She continued.
"The matriarch is probably mad she can't use me as a bargaining tool."
"My sister will miss me, I'm sure. But otherwise." Lu Yue admitted with a shrug.
Chiaki nodded. Then she continued the lesson in trap making. It was like being back at the Rock Mountain, just with a smaller class. She admitted to herself, these two were nice company.
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
Lu Yue had taken the night watch, while Bai Kun slept on the far side of the fire from Chiaki. When morning came, the traps were the first things to be checked. Chiaki's had caught some small fish, but the two traps the guys had made had came apart during the night and neither had anything left in them if they had caught any before their destruction.
Chiaki tossed the fish guts into the river and cooked the fish the same way as the previous time, sharing the food with the two males. It was a lite meal. If she could do it herself, she refused to let the fox and deer do the work.
"Have either of you been to the top of this mountain?" She asked as they got going, following the river upstream. Unable to store the fish trap in the item box, she'd made some quick straps and slung it on like a backpack. It was almost too long due to her short height, plus the thin straps cut into her shoulders.
"No, it's become something of a trial for males from the nearby villages. Get to the top of the mountain and return with a white flower that only grows there." Bai Kun answered. "It's called an Icicle Flower."
Chiaki had never heard of it.