Chapter 93: Ten New Cubs
Tera drifted in and out of consciousness for the first three days.
Her body burned with fever, and the wound across her back had swollen and reddened despite Xavi’s constant applications of herbal paste.
He had ground the herbs himself, mixing combinations he had learned recently from watching Tera.
The sight of the massive bear carefully preparing medicine quietly stunned Ermin, but he had also done what he could to make Tera comfortable and feed her while also learning how to use the herbs that would soothe Tera’s pain and heal her injury.
They worked in shifts without discussing it. One was always beside her while the other rested or fetched supplies.
Neither left her shelter for longer than necessary.
Puff Dumpling hadn’t moved either.
The small creature had waddled into the shelter on the first day and settled near Tera’s head. He didn’t chirp or snuffle or do any of the ridiculous things that usually made Tera laugh.
He just lay there with his round body pressed against the edge of her bedding, his moustache puffs drooping, and his dark eyes fixed on her face.
He looked sad in a way that animals weren’t supposed to look sad, and it made the males uncomfortable in a way they couldn’t explain.
Every time someone entered or left the shelter, Puff Dumpling would lift his head, watch, and then lower it again when it wasn’t Tera getting up.
Tera was aware of her surroundings only in fragments.
Warm hands on her forehead, cool cloth on her back, the low rumble of Xavi’s voice telling her to drink something, and the lighter brush of Ermin’s fingers checking her pulse.
She had tried to speak several times, but the words came out muddled, and the effort of forming them pulled her back under.
The wound was not the only concern.
The sharp pain in her stomach had returned twice more during the first week, each time sending both males into barely contained panic when they saw Tera clutching her stomach while whining in pain.
There were frequent rains oddly during this period. They were light and never grew heavy no matter how long they lasted. The sound of the rain became a backdrop against everything else that happened.
The truth about Kiri had spread through the settlement, and every member who had defended the fox and believed her tears over Tera’s accusations now had to sit with the knowledge that they had been fooled.
The female who had comforted Kiri during her crying performance could not stop thinking about how she had pulled the fox close and stroked her hair while the woman she was consoling had been plotting to murder the female who built their homes.
Feron was the most complicated case.
He had been Kiri’s tool, and now that she was gone, the full picture of how he had been used was becoming clearer. He carried guilt, and even though none of that was connected to the corrupted beast, the proximity of it all made him feel contaminated.
But weeks of hard labour, genuine remorse, and consistent effort had slowly changed how the clan saw him.
He had done everything Tera’s punishment demanded, and more. He worked the hardest, complained the least, and quietly assisted anyone who needed help without being asked.
The two cubs who had been with Tera during the attack were not the same.
They cried in their sleep every night without fail. The bear cub would wake screaming, his small body thrashing against the blankets as if the monster’s claws were still reaching for him. The cat cub did not scream. He only trembled, silent and wide-eyed, clinging to whoever was nearest until dawn broke.
The clan tried everything to ease their fears, but the night terrors continued for nearly a week, and the sound of a cub screaming in the dark was something no one could fix with herbs or food or shelter.
In the midst of this, they were also doing their best to assist Xavi and Ermin and take care of Tera.
Everyone was worried as the fever did not seem to go away. It kept rising and falling.
And then, as if the world had decided the clan hadn’t had enough, the births began.
The first female went into labour, then another the next morning, then two more within the same afternoon.
The settlement, which had been wrapped in tense, anxious silence, was suddenly flooded with the high, thin wails of newborn cubs.
It should have been joyful, and it was, in its own complicated way.
But the timing was cruel.
The clan was stretched between celebration and worry, between welcoming new life and fearing for the one still fighting.
Most of the able-bodied members were pulled toward the birthing females, tending to mothers and newborns, leaving Xavi and Ermin almost entirely alone in their vigil over Tera.
Yara, despite having delivered her own cub just two days prior, dragged herself to Tera’s shelter.
Xavi disliked this and had pressed Yara to return. The new mother needed to rest and had her own newborn to tend to.
By the end of that week, ten new cubs had been born into the Dow clan.
And through all of it, Tera had not woken up. Neither had she noticed that the system had been completely silent.
No notifications, stats, sarcastic commentary, emoticon faces, and unsolicited opinions about her life choices.
The screen had not appeared once since the monster attack.
- ※ - ※ - ※ -
Tera woke up properly for the first time in what felt like an eternity.
Her body ached in a dozen places, and there was a deep, pulling soreness across her back where the wound was healing. But the fever was gone, and her mind was clear.
Tera blinked slowly.
She tried to move her fingers and found them tangled in fur.
Tera looked down to find Puff Dumpling curled against her hip. His moustache puffs were slightly flattened from days of pressing them against her bedding, and he was snoring with gentle wheezing sounds.
The little one’s eyes cracked open.
He stared at her, then let out a single, high-pitched chirp as it scrambled onto her chest, his stubby legs flailing as he burrowed against her neck.
Tera winced at the weight on her sore body, but she didn’t push him away. She wrapped one arm around the ridiculous creature and held him.
’Damn. Are you that happy to see me?’
It was a little shocking how the thing with barely any thoughts behind those eyes was so excited.
Just looking at Puff Dumpling made her happy despite how tired she felt. Then she felt strange. The system could have at least said something by now.
’Hey...’
Nothing.
’System?’
Silence.
Tera frowned. She tried again, pushing the thought harder, as if volume mattered when communicating with a floating rectangle.
’SYSTEM!’
Tera felt uneasy when she still didn’t get any response. The system had never been silent lately, especially whenever she called for it.
Now everywhere was just quiet.
Tera stared at the empty space where the screen usually appeared, and a small, irrational part of her felt abandoned.
She had spent so long thinking of the system as a nuisance, and now that it was gone, she found herself missing its terrible jokes and shameless meddling.
She caressed Puff Dumpling.
"At least you’re still here."