Chapter 37: Winter Is Tomorrow. I Am Not Ready.
Getting dressed beside the river without a mirror and with wet hair was its own challenge, but Neve managed it.
The red shirt. The long pants for the cold morning air. He ran his fingers through his hair until it stopped dripping and fell around his shoulders in the dark waves that his reflection in the river showed him were honestly unfair given what he had just been through.
He breathed in the morning air. It was still cold and sharp as before. The smell of the river and the trees made him feel cleaner and refreshed. The specific quality of the air on the last day before winter. He knew that by the time he returned here, the river would be frozen.
’There’s enough water for us to use throughout the winter,’ he said to himself and started walking back to the village.
.
.
The village had rearranged itself in the time he had been gone.
The tiger tribe had settled into the space Cael’s father had prepared... he could see them moving between the structures, already familiar with the layout, like they’d been there since the beginning. Mixed groups of leopard and tiger tribe members were talking near the central fire that they were no longer afraid of. Children from both tribes were already forming alliances like long-time friends and running in the same direction, holding sticks and ugh... Earthworms.
’Are my litters going to hold earthworms, too and run around?’
He pictured it in his head. Two hundred of them were holding earthworms, and instead of running after each other, they were running after him. He snapped back to reality, shaking the thoughts away.
’There is no way I’m letting that happen.’
The village looked more like one large tribe than two separate ones.
Neve stood at the edge of it and felt eyes find him almost immediately. It wasn’t anything like a murderous intent. The tiger tribe people were looking at him like they’d heard rumours about him, and we’re confirming it. He couldn’t even tell which of the rumours they were trying to confirm.
He walked toward Cael.
Cael crossed the remaining distance instead, closing the gap with three steps and putting his hand at Neve’s waist before Neve had fully stopped moving.
"Are you hungry?" Cael asked.
Neve looked around at the gathered tribes, at the chief and Gideon and Soren sitting with Ryker and several senior tiger tribe members in the central area, at Isabella positioned slightly behind the leopard tribe delegation with her expression arranged into something pleasant.
"I’m fine," he said. "What’s happening?"
"We’re just having a meeting, talking about the festival," Cael said.
"Well, I’m not hungry," Neve said.
"I wasn’t asking if you were." Cael looked at him. "I asked if you are hungry."
"You literally just said..."
"I said I wasn’t asking if you were," Cael said. "I said, are you. Those are different."
Neve stared at him, confused even more.
"You’ll need to eat well before tonight," Cael said. "And before tomorrow."
Neve opened his mouth and closed it. He scratched the back of his head, blinking.
"What’s happening tonight?" he asked.
Cael looked at him steadily.
Neve looked back, waiting for the response.
"And what’s happening tomorrow?" he added.
"It’s winter tomorrow," Ryker’s easy voice came from the central gathering. He was looking at Neve with that smile that had too much behind it to be just a smile.
"Right," Neve said. "Winter. Of course, it is."
Winter. Huh? WINTER?
He had said winter. He had specifically told Cael... ’Once it’s winter, I’ll let you bond with me.’ He had said those words to him and even reminded him in the cave.
When Cael had looked at him with that disappointed and sad expression in the trade market, Neve had felt something rearrange itself in his chest, and that’s when he had said it.
His face went warm as he remembered.
He did not look at Cael.
Cael guided him to the central gathering with his hand still at Neve’s waist and sat him down between himself and Gideon. Food appeared... roasted meat passed around, the kind of large communal distribution that happened when two tribes sat down together.
Neve accepted a piece and ate without tasting it.
He pulled up the system privately.
The mission reward had finished loading.
{STATS — NEVE}
Name: Neve
Level: 3
Tribe: Red Panda (Rare)
Strength: 4 (+3)
Agility: 5 (+3)
Stamina: 4 (+3)
Intelligence: 10 (+3)
Appearance: MAXED
Pheromones: 95%
(Warning: Heat begins once Pheromones reach 100%)
Estrogen Level: Present
Fertility Rate: Abnormally High
{ABILITIES UNLOCKED}
Favourability Meter
Beast Language (Passive)
Medical Memory
Neve looked at the pheromone number for a long time without taking his eyes off it.
Ninety five percent. It was just five away from one hundred. Five away from his heat starting.
He pressed his palms flat against his thighs and felt how damp they were.
Around him, the gathering continued. Conversation between the tribes, the particular energy of people sizing each other up in the way that came with a winter spent in proximity.
The chief was talking to Ryker’s senior members in an efficient manner about someone covering practical arrangements. Gideon was asking one of the tiger tribe physicians something and taking mental notes. Soren was eating steadily and saying very little but watching everything with the sharp eyes of someone who had been unconscious for two years and was making up for lost observation time.
Isabella was across the gathering. She caught Neve’s eye once and smiled.
Neve smiled back and looked away.
Cael’s hand found his under the cover of the sitting arrangement. He held his hand and let it remain there. His palm over the back of Neve’s hand.
Neve did not pull away.
He looked at the fire in the centre of the gathering and thought about the bond mark on his neck and the number ninety-five and the words he had said in the cave again.
’Once it’s winter, I’ll let you bond with me.’
Tomorrow was winter.
He looked sideways at Cael’s profile. He had to bond with Cael and, at the same time, deal with his heat. He swallowed hard.
’It can’t be that hard,’ he thought. ’Right?’
{I’m just a machine, Host.}
’I wasn’t even talking to you. Just go away!’
He glared at the screen.
{For the record,} the system added, {95% pheromones with a full day ahead is worth noting.}
"I know," Neve muttered under his breath.
{Just being thorough, host.}
Neve looked at Cael again. His eyes trailed over his tattoos, jaw and the hand still resting over his.
’It really can’t be that hard,’ he thought again, more firmly this time, as if if he continued thinking about it with enough confidence, it would become true.
He swallowed.
’Right?’