Not in the mood to continue his bath anymore, Duncan jumped out of the water and tossed the droplets away, then went straight back to the tribe to look for Ross.
As herbivores, even though they are beast-man now, kangaroos still prefer to eat vegetables for a living, and they rarely have the desire to hunt animals for food. Therefore, Duncan, as the alpha of the kangaroo tribe, barely goes hunting although he is the one with the strongest muscle and the most powerful body.
From time to time, Duncan does need to lead other beasts to hunt some animals — mainly not for eating but to make fur clothing to pass winter.
Almost all the kangaroo beasts love taking part in a fighting match — either mixed martial arts (MMA) or boxing — when they have leisure. Most of the time, Duncan's job is to make sure both sides of the kangaroo fighters don't bruise each other too fiercely and to protect their safety, as well as to act as a referee.
During the fight, everyone should keep in the beast form. Different from a normal fight — the one who attacks the other's pouch first would win, in the alpha's fight competition, beasts should keep fighting with each other until one can not carry on.
Ross was the runner-up that got punched by Duncan savagely in the alpha competition last year. Consequently, he barely could move his body and had to lie on the haystack for at least three days to fully recover. As men always become friends after a fight, Ross and Duncan now are the best friends in the kangaroo tribe, and Ross also acts on Duncan's behalf when Duncan himself participates in the fight.
"Ross, I sensed my destined mate's track when I was in the creek before. It seems that she is in danger now, so I have to find her without delay. Since the smell is quite faint, this female should be far away from here."
Duncan found Ross and asked for his assistance in nervousness, "I might be out for a long time, please take care of everyone while I am not around. Ryan in particular — pay your attention to him, you know, he's always easy to become too emotional in fights."
After a quick farewell, Duncan was about to shift into beast form and return to the riverbank, but suddenly made a sharp turn and ran back to the centre cave where things were stored.
Taking off the plant clothing which is made of cogon grass, Duncan put it back in the cave and then began to search and dig in the cave to look for a deerskin skirt he made one year ago. This skirt was made in order to keep himself warm in winter, but this time, the leather was used for wrapping the bitter grass, which is a kind of herb that can help people heal and stop bleeding.
The bitter grass was dried out in the sun for long-time storage, Duncan took some out and put them on the deerskin, and then wrapped the leather to hold it in his mouth. Thinking: "This is a gift for her, I'd better keep it well by storing it in my pouch." After holding the wrap in his mouth and running for a while, Duncan changed his mind. "The bloody smell is faint, it's probably just some small wounds, hope she is all good."
Expectation, anxiety and excitement encouraged Duncan to keep dashing all the way without any rest, he finally stopped at the time he can clearly smell the female's scent. After a few deep inhales, his heart turned back to his stomach from his mouth — the smell of blood has gone.
To impress his destined mate with a good mental and physical outlook, Duncan decided to find a nice place and have a good sleep before heading for her tribe the next morning.
...
Bai Lu was standing alone beneath the clothesline which was made of some poles and nylon ropes, and she was collecting the clothes that have been exposed in sun for all-day — hopefully, the UV radiation of the sunlight might help kill some germs and mites. Some familiar sound of branches cracking suddenly appeared from the woods not far away from her — it was just like the time when she met the aboriginal people, sounding like someone was getting close to Bai Lu.
"It can't be true... Didn't Kruger just say that humans won't approach the domain of beasts' tribes in general? Neither did other beasts who don't belong to this tribe. So what happened before? Did I miss something?" After hearing that noise, Bai Lu immediately froze and started a brain-storm.
Technically, Bai Lu was on the border of the thylacine tribe's domain. This is a relatively flat grassland without too many trees, which is the only place nearby that can fit her car and tent. In this case, there could be some stranger hiding in that forest.
While Bai Lu hesitated about whether she needed to yell Kruger's name for help, a naked man, holding a big bag made of animal skin in his arms, with a tomato-like red face, popped up from the shade of a tree.
This male has a very tall and muscular body shape, and he was standing near the tree, staring at Bai Lu without saying anything. Bai Lu even could have a peek at his big chest muscles under the cover of that leather bag. At that moment, she couldn't help picturing that this man might not be able to completely fold his two arms together in front. After observing two obvious Mermaid line abs on his belly, Bai Lu's sight kept moving down below...
"No! No no no, wait! Stop acting like a perve!" Bai Lu slightly slapped her face and forced herself to move her eyes back to the naked man's face.
She should have been startled by him — a muscle-bound guy that abruptly came around, or at least felt threatened. However, this extremely shy look on his face destroyed the fierce aura brought by his appearance.
"Does he come here especially for me?" It seems like this guy didn't want to attack her, so Bai Lu decided to friendly greet him first, as she could cut the tension between them with a knife, and she intended to stop this "two frozen people" silent movie.
"Umm... Hello?" (spoke in the beast language)
"Damn. I don't know what to say next in the beast language — haven't learned it yet." Bai Lu murmured to herself.
The man "defroze" himself and walked toward Bai Lu after hearing her voice, and stopped in front of her one step away, squirmed his lips several times. After a few deep breaths, he finally opened his mouth:
"My name is Duncan, a kangaroo beast-man. You are my destined mate. I am glad that you are safe now! Nice to meet you and this is a present for you!"
Finishing speaking in one breath, the sweat on Duncan's face was almost dropping down — he was too embarrassed to keep looking Bai Lu in the eye, so he closed his eyes, and handed the bag out with a blushed face.
As long as Duncan offered his gift, Kruger dashed to Bai Lu with a bunch of thylacines and interrupted the conversation:
"YOU! The beast over here, this is the domain of the thylacine tribe! You should not get in! ALSO, LuLu is my destined mate! SHE CAN NOT LEAVE WITH YOU!"
Yelling and racing to reach Bai Lu, Kruger then stood next to her and twisted his waist, nervously took a glance at Duncan up and down, and then turned back to scan Bai Lu's face carefully, waiting for her reply.
Bai Lu looked at Kruger, and then moved her eyes to Duncan. After a few back and forth, she stood still and started a serious contemplate.
After a while — feels like a century to those two beasts, Bai Lu stepped forward and took the herb on the leather, and then spoke to Duncan:
"Hello, my name is Bai Lu, you can call me LuLu, too. Is this some kind of herbal medicine? That is what I need now. Thank you, I'll definitely keep them well. What is its efficacy?"
Pushing the leather back into Duncan's arms, Bai Lu kept speaking, "As for this leather, is it fur clothing? I think you'd better keep it since you aren't wearing anything now..."
"Ahem... Ummm... Yes. Er... This is bitter grass, once you chew them up, you can put the paste on your injury to help it heal."
Duncan finished the instruction with his intermittent stutter, face turned purple — by awkward. With Kruger's hasty expulsion, he reluctantly walked away and turned his head back to peer at Bai Lu.