Chapter 101: One Month Off Was Nice While It Lasted
Tera stared up at the round, frowning face in her arms and felt a ridiculous surge of triumph.
She was finally able to lift her daughter without any difficulty.
Nadia giggled, her tiny ears twitching as she appeared just as excited by her mother’s achievement.
Then she sneezed.
The force of her own sneeze startled her so violently that her entire body jerked. Her tiny brown bear ears shot upright, her eyes went comically wide, and her chubby arms flew up as if the sneeze had been an attack from an unknown direction.
Her face went through several emotions in rapid succession before it then scrunched up in preparation for what was clearly going to be an indignant wail.
"Oh, no, no, no," Tera cooed, bringing Nadia to her chest and cradling her. But she was also trying hard not to laugh. "Don’t cry."
She pressed a kiss to Nadia’s forehead, and the wailing dissolved into a grumpy little coo.
Tera was surprised her body had recovered quite quickly within that month alone. Whatever beast biology she carried in this shiftless form, it repaired damage at a rate that would have been impossible for her human form.
The wound on her back had closed completely, leaving a long, raised scar she couldn’t see but could feel whenever she stretched. The deep soreness had faded completely, and by the third week she was walking comfortably around the settlement, even though her pussy still throbbed with that dull ache.
She had summoned the courage to look at it earlier in the month, and it thankfully wasn’t as botched as she had expected. The system comforted her that her ’prized possession’ would return to normal after a while, which had left Tera slightly annoyed at the particular wording.
And now, finally, she could carry both twins without her arms shaking since her strength had returned.
She wasn’t fully recovered, but for the most part she was good. And a bit better than before due to the increased stats, if she was being honest with herself.
But at the very least, despite being habitually tired because of the newborns, she was functional.
And functional was all she needed for what lay ahead.
[Ding!]
[Host’s grace period has concluded!]
[Task timer begins now!]
[Six months remaining!]
[(◕‿◕✿)]
[Is Host ready?]
She sighed.’Do I even have a choice?’
[Host always has a choice]
[The alternative is sixteen cubs crying endlessly unless Host holds them all simultaneously]
[For thirty days]
[(ᵕ—ᴗ—)]
Tera the tasks. They were coming whether she wanted them or not, and she had already spent the past month preparing.
She had used those quiet weeks of recovery to talk to her mates and the females.
Between the chaos of nursing and the bleary-eyed exhaustion of new motherhood, Tera had casually dropped the idea of building a proper nursery and figuring out a way to bring water closer to the settlement.
When she raised it with Xavi and Ermin, the reaction was predictable.
"No."
"Absolutely not."
"You just had cubs. You are not working."
It took five separate conversations before they cracked.
And the breakthrough came when one of the females mentioned something in passing that made Tera’s stomach drop.
Many cubs did ended up dying before adulthood.
Infection, mostly due to certain corrupted environments. Four out of every ten cubs tended to not make it to their teenage years.
This left Tera distraught and terrified, especially for her cubs.
And suddenly, the population problem made complete sense. A lot of beasts would have been having cubs, but a lot of those cubs still died, and not just from the corrupted beasts.
Easily accessible water would help immensely, and the nursery for the cubs would especially help keep them organised and in one place while the males tended to this task.
But the females didn’t bother about it since they were in a relatively safe place until Tera had to change strategy and hammer it in that having easy access to water would make it easier to take care of the cubs and them whenever they needed to drink their fill rather than walk such long distances.
However, she had still made it a point that, safe environment or not, were they really willing to make such a risk that would end in the death of one of their cubs?
That was more than enough to convince everyone.
[Influence +4]
[The clan’s trust in Host continues to grow]
The males, when told about the new project, were surprisingly eager.
"We are building again?!" Bessier’s ears perked so sharply they nearly vibrated.
"I missed carrying things," one admitted.
"Me too. The hunting is fine, but there is something satisfying about putting sticks together until they become walls."
[Host has turned savage beast men into enthusiastic labourers]
[Influence +2]
[The clan males are awed by Host’s ambition]
[Several of them are already arguing over who will dig the first hole]
Tera wasn’t sure it was a good idea to let them know of the water channel plan this quickly with the way they were now raring to do something.
But Xavi and Ermin were more than helpful in supervising the males and coordinating them to go prepare materials for the nursery instead. And Tera was swept off her feet with how they still made time to watch and take the cubs off her hands at intervals.
When all the materials were ready, Tera had them start the easier task.
She had designed it to sit right in the centre of the settlement, larger than any individual shelter, with reinforced supports, layered roofing, and extra cushioning for the floor since they were still babies and not young beast toddlers who wouldn’t be harmed by simple falls.
Or so the clan members said.
The blueprint feature made Tera so happy, and it helped her with the design process immensely. Though it was a bit frustrating that she couldn’t print out the paper to hand to them.
Not like they would even understand the sketches and diagrams either way.
But it had been easy to explain, and with their experience with building the shelters, this would be easier and not take so much time.
This way, Tera had the whole month to not only plan and prepare for how she would channel the water, but also to rest.
She wasn’t going to break her back and mind by rushing as she had done previously. It would be less stressful for the clan, and also for her.
Once the materials were ready and the males had started building the nursery, Tera had to figure out how to move a river.