Anna rapped her fingers on her own stone cup, suddenly very interested in its contents, her spouse picking his head up, his messy sandy colored hair looking like bedhead.
"Go on, tell her you're crazy," the leopard teased.
Iro's spouse shot him a glance again, but Set, curled up next to Shuule, listened with interest, placing a hand protectively on the fox's shoulder.
"Well, you aren't wrong that it's not customary to invite others to live in your own home," Anna said, calculated at first. "But for one, this is a special case. I have such a large house, it's no trouble. Secondly, I... want a friend. My mother goes on and on about having Qingqing as a best friend while she was here, but I've never had the opportunity. Women are fairly stand offish with me."
Neither of those points were lies. Nobody else besides the King had a castle, and between Anna's life being so structured growing up living under the King as her adopted father, the jealousy that came w
There wasn't much to say after Anna's explanation, not enough time to consider it without being awkward. Set had no desire to be a ruler, if that's what Anna was hinting at. It was hard enough for the snake to willingly live within a community, and live with other males as spouses of his mate. Ruling over, giving orders, and intimately caring about the needs of thousands of men and women was not something he was probably even capable of.The day had now moved well past noon, and Shuule was starting to tire, still injured, newly mated, and have not eaten much other than the fruit offered. Set remembered her request other than just food -"Is there somewhere I can take Shuule to bathe?" Set asked."Oh! Yes. The city has a waterhole, but we have a stream behind the back door. You two can just use that." Anna was happy to oblige, ushering them to the back. "We also have this- it's a scrub - use it in the stream on your body. You can even use it in your hair." She po
Shuule and Set slept soundly in their room that night, the first hours of real normalcy that they had both had for days. They were both woken up early, by the sounds of the city coming through their open window."You know you aren't actually obligated to do anything, anymore," Set spoke, trying to coax his spouse back to sleep. "That's the benefit of living here, or not by ourselves. Sleep longer, until the doctor comes."Shuule shook her head, crawling out of his snake coils and getting to her feet. "No, I want to eat real food today, and I want to see the city. And, you haven't eaten at all yet, you have to be comfortable leaving me here with Anna and going to hunt!"Set smiled at the fact that she was worried for him, but snakes could go much longer than a few days without eating. He was opportunistic, and happy to gorge himself when they lived at the cave, because prey was abundant. But he had no plans on leaving Shuule here by herself. The only obstacle he
Iro got up to open the door, but by scent they were all aware it was Harvey, eager to see how Shuule's wounds were healing."Hello!" Shuule waved from the table, all put licking her bowl clean. Even in her small home village, manners did exist, but they barely did at her cave, so she was starting to slowly remind herself what wasn't acceptable.Harvey's eyes beamed at the girl's enthusiastic welcome, having to stop himself from wagging his tail like a dog. Yesterday had been a lonely day and night. After being so central to many important decisions, he spent his time doing...nothing. Being nowhere, not being of service. He would have been at Anna's house at the break of dawn if he didn't know he would be intruding."I'm glad to see you doing so well!" he exclaimed, though his eyesight suddenly settling on the undeniable, dark snake mark, visible from the top of her clothing. Nearly coughing, he looked up at Set, who was keenly aware of Harvey's eagerness to touc
"Let me Carry you," hissed Set as the two of them walked out behind Anna and Iro, with Harvey tailing them."I don't want to look like a child," snapped Shuule. Perhaps the honeymoon was already over in twenty four hours, but Set, now on the defense as Shuule had purposely shown support to Harvey, let his jealousy take over, scooping her up off the ground while she growled."SET," overreacting, the fox pinned her ears, and aggravated, bit him on the arm. Anna looked back, alarmed, but her spouse, who had a grip on her hand, kept walking, ignoring them."They're fine," purred Iro. "You're forgetting how we were the first weeks."Iro was correct in this observation - the spousal bond was more than just a mark on the woman's skin. It fundamentally changed behaviors, especially in the men, and they had to figure out how to settle the new urgent emotions that they had. Jealously was normal on a good day, but attached to it was the undeniable need to protect th
Elena and the other woman next to her took a second to register what Anna was even talking about, and then gasped, gripping their tea."Is this....?" the stranger woman asked Anna, staring suspiciously at the fox, who had backed up and curled herself around one of Set's legs.Anna cringed, scanning the women's faces trying to figure out what their next moves would be. "Er.... yes. That's Shuule. And that," she pointed to the three striped male standing squarely on guard, "Is her mated spouse, Set."In his full human form, a male's sense of smell was always good enough to sniff out species, but women didn't have the same ability. To make sure they knew exactly who he was, Set blinked, letting his reptilian pupils dilate into slits.Elena and her friend peered upwards at the dark haired man, gulping, giving him a grim smile, but had nothing else to say."Let's keep going," Harvey requested gently. Happy to oblige, Anna ushered everyone forward down t
Iro hissed at Harvey's interpretation. "He didn't steal her," he snapped, but Harvey also had his ears pulled back, crouching low to the ground as if he was ready to turn into his leopard."He took the most beautiful female out of the village for himself, and the only remaining bloodline of the Tiger King," the doctor roared. "And don't act like I don't remember that you and your siblings helped him!""An'An?" Set asked, his eyes darting between the two angry leopards. Anna had stepped back to stand next to Shuule, who was watching with curiosity but not concern.Iro, not threatened by the unmarked leopard's aggression, easily turned his gaze away from his spitting opponent to question his snake brother. "How do you even remember her? You were all worms when you were set free."Set diverted his eyes, looking over at his mate, who's nostrils flared. "It doesn't matter," he answered. "Is she dead?!""No, I would think not," huffed Harvey, still raisi
The rest of the day allowed Shuule some normalcy, scampering away into the flowers and stalking down a rabbit so she wouldn't feel like a burden being fed by Anna's spouses again. That night, under the moonlight in the room to the left, she lounged in Set's coils back, bare skinned, in her human body, looking at the rabbit's foot she brought back - this one was pink - turning it over in her hands. Her mind wasn't on her souvenir, though, thinking back to Anna in the skystar field in the morning.Not being able to keep his hands out of her hair whenever she let him, Set was brushing her orange tresses back with his fingers in silence while she leaned into his chest."What are you worried about?" He asked quietly."Nothing," Shuule mumbled, still heavily inspecting her lucky foot."You're lying.""How would you know," she hissed back half heatedly."I can feel it. I can feel it because you're sitting on me, but I can feel it inside, too," Set
The next morning, Anna and Shuule were fed well by Iro again, another feast that Shuule had never had: fish paste balls and sour oranges. Shuule wasn't very in love with the oranges, but Anna explained that the vitamins in the fruits were supposed to help your immune system - which also had to be explained. As Anna should be going into heat soon, as most of the women in the city, she wanted to be as healthy as possible to give herself the best chance of conception."Iro and I are trying again this year," she explained between bites of the bitter juicy fruit, which she had brought out into the backyard. "One pregnancy in three years is really good, but he deserves a litter so badly, as do all of them. It's so hard thinking about the fact that they may not all get children." She sighed. "And of course Arthur is the one that managed the first litter."Shuule was holding her orange, looking over at Set for help, who was fully in his snake and sleeping. He wasn't going to t
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