When I woke up, my mind and body both felt different. There was a small compass in my head, pointing to my left, and the pointer felt like Mavie so I could tell it was him it's pointing to. He did mention we'd always know each others rough location, so I guess this is how. For my body, something felt weird on the outside of my right thigh. It was kind of painful, but also soothing. I felt rather energetic considering I'd just woken up, so I opened my eyes and tried to sit up.
Key word tried, because Mavie was holding me around the stomach and as soon as he felt me move, pushed me back down before snuggling closer. He's normally clingy, but this is clingy even for him. He's obviously awake, why not get up? I don't know the time but I'm quite hungry, surely he is as well.
"Mavie, I want to get up." He grunts and opens his eyes to stare at me petulantly, and when he talks his voice is husky, sending lovely little shivers down my spine. "Why? Can't we just stay like this for a while?" Oh, how I would love to bed him. But no, it isn't the time for that yet. We should take our sweet time. But, my patience for taking time is running thin. "I'm hungry Mavie. I'll come back and we can cuddle once I've eaten and taken a bath. Okay?" His affirmative nod still seemed pretty sulky, but there isn't much I can do about that other then give up, and I'm not gonna do that.
When Maverick loosened his arms, I quickly stood up and walked over to where the basin of water sits. Getting over to it, I check my reflection, specifically my neck. I don't know how I was expecting the mate bond to be made, but it wasn't biting me. Maybe I should've expected it considering what kind of world this is, but I guess I'm still naïve.
My neck seems to be completely fine, no open wounds, no scratch, not even teeth marks. Maybe my vitality healed it? Not sure, but wow is that freaky. I stick my face into the water to cool my head, because I have a million thoughts raging around in there, from the mate bond to my vitality compared to his vitality to the still raging thoughts on what speed we should take to get this relationship on a bed, and finally kids. Yeah, I'm going to have to do a LOT of thinking in the next few day.
I bring my head back up, and shake my head to get the water off of my face. Mavie's looking rather confused as to what I'm doing from the bead, but I pay him no mind as I move over to the doorway. It's evening, probably around 7pm seeing as the sunlight is just starting to dim. We're heading towards the end of summer so the sun is now setting a bit earlier. I'm too lazy to fully cook myself some meat, so assorted berries and wild grasses it is. I grab the container holding them and start eating, getting through quite a pile of food quite quickly. I really am hungry huh. Looking down at my stomach, I notice something on the outside of my right thigh. I can't properly see it in my cross legged position, so I bring my legs to the side more.
The thing that caught my sight was actually some kind of tattoo? It's a set of three grey six pointed snowflakes, which seems weird but it looks super good actually. However, as cool as it looks, that doesn't help the fact that I do not know why or how this is here!! What is it?? I whip my head over to Maverick, who is still staring at me, and stand up to show him my thigh. "What is this?" I ask pointing to it.
"It's my mate mark. You have one too, right here." He turns so his back is to me, and I see a black paw mark right on the nape of his neck, with flaming orange tips of the toes. It certainly does seem to be the case that that is mine, doesn't it. I walk back to Mavie and stroke the tattoo, and it has the same texture as the rest of his skin, but I can feel a small bit of my vitality where the mark is. How magical, though I suppose most things in this world are. But, to think that I've now actually marked Mavie as mine, it feels... good. Perhaps my personality is a bit twisted, but knowing that other beasts can now see that he's taken is nice. Well, if you ignore the fact that polygamy is very normal here.
My musing is stopped by Mavie, who groans as I keep stroking him. I'm guessing it feels good, but I'm feeling a little mischievous. I move my hand up from his neck, into his hair, which is very soft, and start stroking it. His tail flicks a little before curling around my thigh, and Mavie presses his head into my hand more. "You should stop now Qiao Ai. Things could get dangerous if you keep going." He grabs my arm as he says this, and turns to look at me, and those eyes of his; they're deep, dark and filled with hot hot lust. God, I'm so turned on.
I'm about to open my mouth, to tell this man who's now mine just how much danger I enjoy, when Maverick grabs my waist and pulls me down on the bed, planting himself right on top me. Not in a sexual way, but instead fulling lying on my stomach to sleep. He looks up at me before asking a question that fully ruins my fun happy mood. "Do you have any plans for the future? I don't think we'll be able to stay on this mountain for the snowy season, and you won't be able to find any other possible mates around." I'd never thought of any of this, but if Maverick brings it up then it seems like it'll need to happen. And, polygamy again. I'm not particularly against it, but...
"What about you Mavie? Aren't you planning on getting any other mates? Also, why make your home here if you can't stay for the snowy season?" He blinked, and it seems that either he didn't know the answer, or it was so obvious that he didn't think I'd ask. "Males don't normally get more then one mate. It just means more weak Females to take care of, and they'd normally fight. Sure some do it anyways, but I'm not really interested. I'm more then happy with just you. Also, I'm a snow guardian. I'd be completely fine here during the snowy season. It's you I'm worried about."
Oh, I'm just dumb. But wait, more weak females? Can't the women here cultivate? I can, and Mavie talked about it like it's normal, so Why are they considered weak? This smells of something unpleasant, but I have to ask. "Mavie, why weak females? Can't they cultivate? They should be just as strong as the Males if they cultivate. You said all beasts are able to cultivate." His eyes shook, and he seemed to have noticed just as I said that that he'd said something wrong. He darted his eyes to the sides, and opened his mouth several times before closing it again and sitting up next to me.
"Well, when Females cultivate to a certain level, their fertility goes down. Also when they're pregnant or raising young they cannot hunt or defend themselves as much and are easy prey. Beasts, especially large settlements and pack beasts, rely on having children to continue on our strength and the new generation will surpass the old, so, um, they try to keep the Females inside as much as possible until they're adults as well as once they're mated, and when females have their first heat... they're clipped." I don't think I like how this sounds or where it's going, in fact I definitely don't, but Mavie's dodging the question and I need an answer.
"What does being clipped mean, Maverick."
"It's what beasts call the process of crushing Females core so they cannot cultivate any more. Once they can't cultivate, they have to rely on the tribes males to survive, but the males won't help them unless the Female is their mate. So most choose a few mates to make sure they survive and spend their lives bearing and raising children inside. My tribe are lone hunters though, and we think the practice is bad and inefficient so we don't do it." He's rambling, probably trying to make sure I'm aware of how different he is to them, but I stopped listening.
Disgusting. How awful. I take back my words of how amazing and magical this world is. This is barbaric, absolutely despicable. I had the wrong impression, and I'm very lucky to have met Maverick first before I walked into some random village, because I would have been turned into a birthing slave. That's what they are, aren't they? Slaves, kept locked away for the sake of having children. I'm going to cry. I am, I'm crying. The sheer horror of what I just learnt and the fate that could've befell me if I wasn't as lucky as I am made me cry, and Maverick in front of me was freaking out at my tears.
"Oh, no, Qiao Ai, why are you crying? Do you hurt? Is it because of what I just told you? I would never do that to you, and I'll kill anyone who tries, so please don't cry. Qiao Ai?"
"If I hadn't met you, or if you didn't let me in, I would've ended up like that." Maverick shuddered at the thought, but I stared him in the eye as I said, "Does it hurt? Are they told why or what is happening when they do it? Do those poor children even get a choice?" Maverick had a face like he'd never thought of it that way, like he'd never considered that the Females didn't want it and are forced to throw away their whole lives. "I've heard that the pain is awful. But I've never seen it in person, and I don't know about the rest. I doubt it though, I don't think they do."
"Cultivating increases your lifespan, right? Wouldn't it be easier to just let them? They'd have longer time to try have kids. Are the beasts okay with just killing of their females potentially hundreds of years early?" Another round of Maverick realizing I'm making very valid points that he never thought of. He just shrugged. "I guess it's really just about making sure the males have power over the females in the end." After saying my piece I turned around, shifted into fox form, and went to sleep; leaving Maverick uncomfortably fidgeting, wondering if I'm mad at him and if he can still snuggle with me to sleep.