The dust having settled, Shuule grimaced, her injured arm throbbing. Her left hand instinctively went and gripped her arm over her the bandages, and when she felt the strange, sickening soft feeling underneath her fingers, her breathing stopped. Under the bandage it did not feel like flesh and body, but more like boneless clay.
"It's okay" Harvey chimed in. "It's a poultice. I've packed the wound cavity in your arm. I think," He paused to gesture at her, "You will be able regenerate your tissue fast enough to keep your arm, like a male would. If you weren't who you are, I would have to try and stitch this, and I don't think without Human medicine, we would be able to keep infection back. I apologize though, there is not much I can do for the pain other than put you back to sleep if you wish."
Shuule vigorously shook her head no. She would bear the pain happily to be conscious and have her own free will. The girl looked backwards and up to meet the eyes of Set, who had
Hosting three people like a hotel was not high on Harvey's list of things he wanted to do in his lifetime. However, he knew he needed to shield the fox until she was stronger, and he didn't want to send Ukko away, who was now sitting next to the fire, cross legged, staring at his potential new mate. Shuule was being comforted by the feeling of home laying in Set's coils, and had fallen asleep - but this was a true sleep, rather than being unconscious from physical exhaustion.Set continued to stroke the girl's red hair, brushing it with his nails, when he started to put his affairs in order."She needs her clothes," he stated. "This was her second favorite pair and they're ruined."the exhausted Harvey nodded, and then looked at Ukko, who had not absorbed that this was now potentially his responsibility, also."You can't smell anything, right?" Set asked."I CAN smell!" exclaimed the eagle, frowning.Set rolled his eyes. "Can you scent out a
"I told Rupert about her, sir, I've known about her since she was a child. Her mother came to the city in search of anyone else like Shuule, but of course I hadn't heard of any girl like her. I told the King at the time right away, He must have just not thought it relevant to inform you when you took over." "No, Rupert did not think to tell me that there was a transforming fox female outside of the city while he was nursing his wounds," growled Edgar. "This is unnatural." "Then you'd let her leave if she wanted?" asked Harvey. "NO," the king snarled. Quietly, Anna, Iro, and Harvey all exchanged glances at each other. It seemed pretty contradictory, but the tiger was clearly on edge and not even Iro wanted to cross him today. "She's not a threat," Harvey continued, trying to soothe the beast. "She's young, she's scared, she'll be loyal to whoever gives her a soft place to land and lacks judgment." The tiger stared down the doctor, but h
"If there aren't anymore surprises, I've got other matters to attend to. Harvey, I trust you'll keep attending to this issue until it's settled?""I'll watch them." All heads turned, because it wasn't Harvey who offered, but rather Anna, who was standing steadfast. "Harvey is our best, practically our only, doctor, if the issue does not have to do with Shuule's wounds, he should be freed from other tasks."Harvey wrung his hands; she was correct, and he wanted all these males out of his house - but that would also mean he was alone again. Having the company of others was a fleeting adventure, though perhaps he would have a mother or two needing birthing help this winter.Iro frowned, knowing that Anna offering was more that her spouses' would be watching - it wasn't as though a female would be able to handle Set if something were to go awry. But it was not his place to protest, and the King nodded to his daughter, before opening the door and leaving, alone. The
Pouting wasn't going to do him any good, Iro knew. The women were the head of the household, and even though it wasn't customary to allow other males to stay in your home, nothing was customary about the current situation, and they also had the good fortune of a huge home. It wasn't the same as having multiple families holed up in a one or two bedroom standard dwelling.Grumbling, under his breath, he stood in the corner next to the door, fuming, waiting for the rest of them to ready their things. Set had decided that nobody was going to make him transform out of his half-snake, believing that it would keep people from getting closer to his mate while they entered the streets for the first time. He helped Shuule change and dress into the gifted tiger clothing, while Anna focused on Harvey's instructions on what to look for if Shuule was falling ill from her wounds. He would be over the next day to open the dressing and repack it, if necessary. If she was a normal female, the
Shuule and Set stood in the empty room, together, silent, Shuule looking down at the ground, shoulders slumped."I know.... that this is a lot to take in," stated Set."Why didn't you tell me who your family was?" Shuule whimpered, her lip beginning to quiver.The snake tilted his head at the girl. She cried a lot, he felt, but she was young, and had been through much the last few days. And perhaps the women in his memories just didn't cry enough."Would it have made a difference?" he answered quietly. "Would I have been more tolerable if I broadcasted that my mother was famous? Or that she wasn't a snake?"Shuule's eyes went wide, and started to stutter a retort, but Set moved towards her in a sweeping slide, putting a finger up to her lips."You don't have to answer. I'm sorry. I could have said something. Don't cry, Shuule. You're safe. We're going to figure out a life here. I know it wasn't part of your own plans, but, I always imagined
Turning up and around a column of steps would have normally been hard for Set to navigate with his snake body, but the staircase was created wide specifically so his own father wouldn't have to change into his legs to climb them. The pair followed Anna, Shuule looking at the steps themselves, amazed at the application of what to her were multiple stone pedestals stacked on top of each other. No homes from her village had second levels, but she could understand perhaps a ladder connecting the two. Her mother had explained the buildings from her journey to The City, but she hadn't been inside any of the double story structures. Unlike modern human world homes, the rooms were all fairly uniform without a clear indication what each would be intended for. Anna pointed to a room to the left, with an old wooden door that was more worn than the others. "You two can stay here, this is just a spare room if we are ever blessed to have multiple ages of cubs in the house at once.
Shuule had mated once before, but it wasn't like this. It was a sheer obligation to her clan, her village, to keep the peace (and failed), and to stop Cain the chief from ripping her throat out. This, this was a fury of limbs and heartbeats. This was forgetting where her body stopped and his began. Pressed up against the door, Set leaned into her so hard that she could barely come up for air, but it didn't matter, she didn't want to. "Shuule," Set whispered, finally releasing her mouth, Shuule gasping. He grazed the side of her neck with his fangs like he had at the stream on the day he confessed his feelings towards her, but this time, the touch sent a shiver down her spine, her skin raised in goosebumps. The snakes instincts were still there, threatening to bubble to the surface, to bite into her flesh and leave his mark swiftly and instantly, in a way that couldn't be removed. But he hovered there, and his eyes darted towards hers, which were looking at him so inn
"Are YOU okay?" Shuule stammered, feeling Set freeze up like he was about to have a heart attack. His eyes had drawn down from her face to her breasts, which at first she had just assumed he was being crude, but now worried, she glanced down at her own bare chest. "Oh!" Now she saw it - the spousal mark. A black, intricate serpent wound up her body like an S shape, its tail starting on her left breast, spiraling up over her chest, its head landing at the point of her sternum. In the center of the solid black snake were perfectly symmetrical red circles that crawled up the entire length. She looked back up at her mate, grinning broadly. "I told you!" she exclaimed. "I don't know why you didn't believe me." Set's mind spun, consumed with the thought that this was somehow a mistake, still. Even after all this time, the gifts, the gestures, her words of affirmation, it didn't matter. "I just don't think I can explain how much this means," he said
She stared at the young man, dutifully organizing the furs around him, who hadn't had anything else to say about the matter. Shuule thought that sentence was the beginning of a deeper conversation, not a statement."I don't understand," she finally said, sitting down on the floor across from him. Ukko kept his eyes low on his work silently for a few more moments, before clearing his throat."Well, it didn't happen to me, so..." he started. "But just because you can shift doesn't mean the spousal mark works differently, apparently. So when you were getting slammed around by that tiger, Set was put on alert like he would have been if you were at home and being attacked, or whatever. Whatever it's supposed to do. So when you're training, we'll uh, if you really want to train, we can't deal with you with kid gloves. So he's going to have to figure out how to turn off his lizard brain."Shuule tilted her head in question. "Lizard Brain?""You know, like stupid
Ukko gave one hesitant upwards glance back towards the tree, before jogging off after Set. "Hey!" he called out, the snake acting as though nobody was there. "HEY," Ukko yelled again, catching up, turning and blocking his path. "What the FUCK was that?!" The male was standing square, arms out to his sides and ready to strike a blow if Set went off again. But, instead, chest heaving, the half-snake gave a heavy sigh, and though he snarled, he didn't strike. "You need to understand something," he hissed, still catching his breath, pointing at his chest. "You can feel it." Ukko tilted his head, his guarded stance loosening. Set jammed his pointer finger at his own chest again. "When she gets injured, you can feel it. I never thought about it before." "Ah, shit." The two of them stood, staring at each other in the rain, the courtyard's slightly uneven stones, settled in the earth after twenty years pooling wa
Set didn't answer Shuule's question, turning into his half beast to hurriedly look her over."What were you thinking? The bird and I would have been fine," he scolded, panicked.Shuule bared her fangs, her claws out as she shoved Set away from her, to his shock."DID YOU JUST KILL HIM?" she yelled again. "Go give him the antidote!"Set scowled. "It was a dry bite," he said, stiffly."AND DON'T TELL ME I CAN'T FIGHT" she shrieked again, wanting to burst back into her beast form.By now, Ukko had easily swung himself into the second story with his long arms, smirking at seeing the two of them bristle at each other. The snake may have her heart, but at least he now knew they weren't always pawing at each other like star crossed teens."We can train you," the eagle offered, quietly from the corner of the room."You won't," hissed Set, considering biting this annoyance also.Shuule just about had it, swiping at him with a cla
Shuule let out a barking noise, half in protest, half in surprise. She thought the trio of them would touch base with each other and devise a plan. Living with three separate species not practiced in communicating was already proving difficult, but she had no time to mull this over. As the fox clawed her way down the trunk of the birch, the harpy eagle flew as fast as he could at such a short distance to the top most entrance. If Set was going to ambush from below, Ukko would crash the party from above.Before Shuule could reach the tree, three yelping roars could be heard from inside. With a small hesitation, the fox puffed up her chest and scrambled up the giant tree's thick bark. She had never tried to climb one of these great houses before, and she found the bark was different than a regular tree's - it was easier to find places to hold onto and grip, one wouldn't even really need claws to do so, just the strength. Darting into the open entrance of the second story, she h
"Wait up!" Ukko waved his hand as he jogged out the door behind the fox, who turned around expectantly. As long as she didn't bolt, it made more sense for the man not to change into his eagle, since they wanted to end up at the tree at the same time."I know which one she's talking about, follow me. Unless - if you want to lead that's fine. I didn't mean to tell you what to do."Shuule chirped again. If she was human, she would be laughing at the boy's fear of irritating her. This was the first time she had been alone with Ukko, and in honesty, thinking back as the two of them trotted in the rain, she wasn't sure if they had been in the same room as each other for an hour total. With her conscious, at least. This was an awkward first date, going to pillage a house. But either way, relieved, she could tell this was going to work. A love connection? Who knew, but as far as males went, he seemed alright.Rain could be tricky for scenting. On one hand, the smells of
"The food didn't matter at all," Shuule answered, sighing in relief. "Thank you. I mean it, Ukko, thank you." For the first time, Shuule opened up her arms and hugged the young male, who could have been knocked over with one of his own feathers as a result. It took him a moment to even move his limbs, gently wrapping them around the girl in return. He eyed the snake, who was pointedly ignoring them, but was still too nervous to do anything more, such as pull her in tighter or drop his neck around her shoulders."Y-you're welcome. Of course." He stammered.Remi interrupted the reunion. "So you all can leave now, right?"Anna rolled her eyes "I apologize for my asshole of a spouse with no patience," she growled.Shuule shook her head. "No, he's right, we should be leaving. We can figure out where to move today." She shifted her weight out of Ukko's arms, looking between him and the snake - her two, now, spouses. "I want a tree house. How do I make that happ
It was well past noon now, though the darkened gray skies made it hard to tell by the angle of the sun. Shuule had long since removed her rain gear, hanging it to dry on wooden pegs that were bolted next to the front door. Anna and Remi were sitting with each other on a brown animal fur couch, fingers intertwined, barely paying attention to Shuule and Set as they fawned over each other.Remi was built much like Ukko was, a long legged, somewhat narrow man, but with broad shoulders and muscular arms. Though the bird men could easily pass as regular humans if they needed to, they were, once examined, top heavy in bulk, which made sense given their ability to fly when transformed. As a black eagle, Remi's hair was jet dark rather than silver gray - much more common in the city, and the world in general that they knew of anyway. With no means of communication other than word of mouth, the city and its surroundings only knew of what was in the world in about a half year's travel r
"What do you mean, 'how'?" Asked the bear, gruffly. "Rarities like jewelry I'd need something in return, but if it's basic needs, I just give it to you. Unless you're planning on leaving the city with it. Then that's stealing."Shuule and Set both starred at the three striped man, slack jawed."It's a trap," Shuule said, plainly.The iron smith's stubbled face first twisted into a scowl, then broke into a hearty laugh. "Uh.... what? No? Everyone here gets what they need unless," He shot a warning glare to the serpent man, "they truly act terrible or useless. Especially the women, you would never go without. Come back when you have your home set up and I'll give you what you need."Set nodded in understanding, putting his hand on the small of his mate's back, ready to turn and leave. Though this isn't what was in his legacy memories, most of the way the city now operated wasn't. It had clearly changed since he hatched.The bear then pointed to the w
As the skies overhead finally gave way, both girls shrieked, then laughed, running inside. Shuule shook her head vigorously to get the water off her ears and hair. They were met swiftly with the smell of wet fur in the house, muddy paw prints on the stone floor."KITTENS!" Screamed Anna, while twisting her hair into a knot on the top of her head. "IF YOU ARE IN THIS HOUSE I SWEAR"Shuule couldn't help but stifle a laugh under her hands, remembering her own mother scolding all of them for the same reason. A pang of guilt ripped through her at the thought - she missed her mother. Shuule was an adult now, and should be off on her own, but it would have been good to at least have a proper send off, the unknown now starting to spiral in her head."KITTENS." Anna paused to listen, no response being given."I don't think anyone is in here," Shuule offered, being able to hear better. She paused, sniffing the air. "I think Remi is upstairs?"A broad smile c