Soon it was evening and we got our guest at the door, Everything was prepared wether it was the food or the newly crafted wooden bowls and chopsticks.
Harvey brought five dead chickens or short birds with him, Qingqing's face brightened after seeing the chickens because suddenly the thought that she could make something even more delicious with them struck her.
Looking at Bai's reaction Harvey blushed, Me and Sam were standing there, looking at them like audiences, only if we had some popcorns.
Sam slowly whispered in my ear, "Kyra, if you want then I can bring short birds too".
I shrugged my shoulders as I replied, "I'll leave that upto you" because it's not like I'm hating the meat-meals after all I was able to eat chickens daily in my last life but eating porks and beef daily was a luxury so why would I choose some chickens over high-priced meats.
Oh please~ I'm just thinking practically!.... Okay, fine, I'm being selfish, Happy?
I went toward the two persons who were having a whole lot awkward environment around them. I carefully pulled Bai to one side as I asked Harvey to come inside politely,
yeah.. Bai didn't even ask him to come inside, maybe because it was Sam's house? Who knows?
Harvey came inside, Sam took the chickens when Bai asked him if he could clean them because she wanted to add them to the dinner too, Sam easily agreed and went outside to clean them while Harvey got seated at the place Bai asked him to.
For the time being Harvey looked pretty uncomfortable because I was literally digging holes into him by my blatant staring.
"Umm..Kyra, why are you staring at me?" My hesitant princess finally asked in the end with some hesitation,
I looked at him without any change in my expression and blatantly replied while still shamelessly looking at him, "You're beautiful, that's why".
And BOOM!
Qingqing got choked on her own saliva because she started coughing.
Harvey's face blew red, he became stupefied at his spot while looking at me with surprise yet confusion filled eyes as he became embarrassed.
As for Sam.... he dashed inside, hurriedly hugged me from behind and said while glaring at Harvey, "Am I not beautiful Kyra?" in a pretty childish tone.
I ended up laughing out loud, while leaning toward Sam I replied "How can that be possible? Sam is the most beautiful~"
After listening to my words Sam smiled and snuggled his head in the crook of my neck.
Harvey looked pretty shocked, he looked at public display of affection with surprise accompanied with a little bit of sourness in his chest, he sneakily looked toward Qingqing to find that even she was looking at Kyra with wide eyes, with a blush over her face.
I patted Sam on his head and said, "Sam~ I'm hungry, are you done with cleaning the chicken ?"
Sam parted and went outside hurriedly, Harvey was still in daze but he still mustered up his courage and asked, "Have you accepted Sam as your mate?"
I looked at him and nodded, Harvey was surprised but there was still nothing he could ask because he knew that Kyra didn't like him even a bit and it was a big thing that for the first time she had replied to any of his questions normally, so taking another chance he still asked, "Chicken...what do you mean by that?" just to lighten up the environment.
"Those birds that you brought, from where we are, we call them chickens"
I replied nonchalantly while putting my bright red open hairs into a ponytail after inhaling the fragrant broth.
Harvey's eyes lit up on the mention of our origin, he had his doubts from the moment he saw them both but still couldn't deduce from where we are and the first time he asked, Kyra's answers were clearly telling that she won't tell him anything, 'so did she change her mind?' he thought.
He suddenly asked, "Are you from a fox tribe?"
Both I and Qingqing looked at him at the same time without replying, I asked after tightening my hairs "What made you think so?"
"That... your hairs, foxes are known to have red hairs.." he replied meekly.
"My hairs are originally Black, I just got them colored." I told him because it's not like my hairs will always stay like this, black roots will eventually start showing up.
Harvey's eyes widened at my response, "You can change your hair colors? What kind of tribe you are from? I've never heard of something like this!" He asked in a flow with amazement but his expression froze when he saw my emotionless face looking at him coldly.
I replied, "Non of your business" nonchalantly and Harvey just gave a helpless nod because from the very beginning he was expecting to hear this reply.
At this moment, Sam already came inside with the meat in his hands and sliced it into thin slices using the bone knife pretty skilfully because its him, who had been cutting all the thin slices of meat for the hotpot since evening.
Harvey also stopped asking anymore questions and we all sat down together around the makeshift stone stove in the center of the room, I was sitting between Bai and Sam while Harvey on the other side of Sam. (Bai and Harvey were still quite apart)
A big flat stone vessel (which was created by Sam on special demand of our chef Qingqing) filled with boiling pork broth was giving the beautiful aroma of meat mixed with spices, Bai passed the bowls and the chopsticks to everyone and just as I expected, the guys didn't know how to use it as they looked at the sticks with confusion.
I sighed and started telling them how to use it, of course they made a lot of mistakes but in the end they still somehow made do with it.
Qingqing started telling how to eat the hotpot as she started cooking the thin meat slices into the broth and placed it into my bowl.
I happily ate the first bite and just as expected, I'm having pretty wonderful food in the beast world, all thanks to my bimbo. She deserves a chef's kiss for this one.
Sam and Harvey followed our actions and cooked their first meat slices, Sam placed his in mine bowl with a smile while I was already eating the one that I cooked myself.
Fuck! I was supposed to give my first slice to Sam? Wait, Qingqing gave me too so I've to give her one too?
I ate Sam's offering and after using my brain I cooked two slices at a same time! Yeah I know I'm pretty intelligent, you don't have to appreciate it that much~
While I was cooking I saw that Harvey hesitantly passed one into Qingqing's bowl, Bai looked a bit bewildered because of it so she looked toward me to find that I was looking at Sam, yeah I was intentionally ignoring it.
After finding that even I wasn't paying attention while Harvey was still looking at her, she finally decided to take it with a thanks.
Bai didn't give any meat to Harvey because she recalled Kyra telling her that if a female gives a male something then its equal to accepting that person as a mate whereas she can't accept anyone just like that!
Even if her foster sister have accepted Sam just after some hours of knowing him, she can't be haste in deciding something like this.
She agrees that Sam is indeed good and looking at him and her sister together is clearly evident that they both like each other.
Whereas Harvey is indeed beautiful and after seeing him in the forest her heart indeed skipped some beats but she still doesn't know if she likes him or is it just because of her lack of interaction with boys from her world that makes her heart race everytime she looked at the men in this world.
And the most important thing, the scary leopard beastman who has been chasing her all the time that it started bothering her, he didn't even listen to any words that sister Kyra said and kept on claiming me as her female when he doesn't even know my name!
Just when Bai was lost in her thoughts I placed the meat slice in her bowl making her surprise and when she looked toward me, I gave her a big smile making her smile shyly as she ate it.
I turned to my left and fed the other slice to Sam myself, he was shocked but at the same time he was extremely happy because his tail was wagging at a pretty fast pace, he happily took the piece and smiled at me.
He fed me happily while I also fed him, sometimes I would've dipped the slice for him into the chilly dip that Qingqing specially made for me which made Sam's face all red while he tried to soothe his tongue by sticking it outside, whereas I was eating the same amount of spice without any sweat bead on my face.
While we were busy in our two person world, Harvey and Qingqing were having a whole lot of conversation. I kept my one ear on their conversation because I didn't want my bimbo to slip any kind of confidential information inbetween.
Their convo went like:
Harvey: Bai qingqing, where did you learn to cook like this?
Qingqing: From my mother.
Harvey: Did you mother cook the food?
Qingqing: yes!
Harvey: Umm..What clan are you from?
Qingqing: ughh, sorry but I can't tell that.
Harvey: Then what were you doing in the forest?
Qingqing: We...got lost, yes! We lost our way!
Harvey: Umm... Qingqing, can you teach me how to make the fragrant meat, don't worry, I'll pay you back!
Qingqing: It's fine, you don't have to because I can teach you in return for the dress.
Harvey: Then...will you come to my hut tomorrow?
Kyra: Why are you only inviting Qingqing? Are you planning on doing something Harvey?
I interrupted while taking Qingqing protectively into my embrace while looking at Harvey with sulky pout.
Sam controlled his laugh by covering his mouth while Qingqing chuckled pretty sweetly whereas Harvey was sitting stupefied with the expression saying "How can you laugh when she said something this serious?"
Which even made me laugh but Harvey still didn't get what was happening.
I made some more sarcastic jokes which made Sam and Qingqing laugh but my Disney princess was still looking dumbfounded.
Dinner went by just like that, with laughs and some talks, in the end I still told Harvey that we belong to a race called 'humans' which made him question what kind of clan is human? Just to get a nonchalant "None of your business" from me.
This time he smiled and said his good bye to all of us and went to his house.
We three came inside, I went to pick up the cooking vessel to take it outside for cleaning whereas Qingqing started picking up the bowls and chopsticks.
Sam asked us to leave the work to him with slight worry on his face, I smiled and gave a peck on his cheek saying "Family helps each other" and went outside.
"This much work is nothing for us" saying this Qingqing followed me outside.
We really underestimated him, because he still took the washing job from us and instead of bickering we just let him do what he wanted to do as we both, Qingqing and me went to take a bath in the already prepared bath tub.
We both washed up and changed into another animal fur dresses and this time they both were created by Sam because I requested him in the morning when he was creating dresses for me.
I was wearing a tiger print dress while Qingqing got another deer fur dress, I got some underwears stitch for me by my idol boyfriend while Qingqing had an extra for her in her backpack so she was using her two undies alternatively.
We got out of the hot bath to see that the living room was completely cleaned, after drying our heads Qingqing hurriedly laid down on the hay bed because she was tired and soon started snoring while I was patting her head gently while looking at her with a smile on my face.
You might be thinking why I helped her? Because she makes me recall of myself, an age of sixteen is pretty small for a girl who is alone in a world which is nothing like she know.
I was even smaller than her, just of fifteen when I ran away from my home, of course people will call it impulsive but for me....it was a brave decision for my age but your momentarily teenage impulsiveness can't feed you, nor it can protect you and this was something I realised pretty late.
The gang members who took me in were like some angels in cool apparels who came to save me, even when they used a sixteen year old girl as they liked.
At that time I used to think that it was the freedom, everything they did was freedom, and if I follow their path I'll become cool like them.
An impulsive teenage fantasy or dream you can call it, I was living their life even when I had to do something which might have been wrong if my mother would've been alive, or if I had been in my house.
They brainwashed me because it's the most easiest thing you could do to any teenager, and the irony is that you'll eventually realize it when you grow old but still can't change anything, you could only move on but for me that wasn't even an option.
When I read the story, instead of feeling bad, I felt pity for Qingqing because she kept on getting manipulated from the very beginning, first by Parker then it was Curtis followed by Muir except Winston.
And when I found myself here, in this fantasy world the very first thought that came to my mind was if this is because of my pity that I got a chance to make any amendments.
The moment I saw Qingqing, I knew that she was the person who needed to be changed first and maybe I could do that easily because I couldn't change my past self then why don't I help another girl my age, maybe I could change something for her.
I looked at her sleeping when I heard the sound of breaking of twigs, I got up to look outside from the window and saw the silhouette of a wolf in the already dark night.
There wasn't any moonlight and because of that my eyesight could only trace a wolf's figure that was going away from our house.
According to me that wolf have to be Sam because he was refilling all the wooden barrels present in the house for the next day by making frequent trips to the river and this time it was supposed to be his last trip.
I squinted my eyes to get a proper look and said "Sam? What are you doing outside?" enquirily while my hand grabbed the baseball bat that was placed against the wall, Why? Because I noticed that the fur of the wolf in front of me wasn't silvery gray instead it was black and his size wasn't same as Sam because the unknown visitor was larger.
My words made the wolf halt and he looked back at me when I saw that his eyes were Auburn golden which were shining in the dark.
Before I could've reacted, I saw that something made the intruder alert because he instantly dashed away and soon disappeared into the black surroundings.
"Kyra? What happened?" I heard, I turned towards the right to see that Sam came back while holding the barrel, he looked toward me with confusion still waiting for my reply.
"Sam...I think a thief came when you were not here" I replied in a quite serious tone.
But to my surprise, Sam laughed and said while coming toward me "If he got to know that you called him a thief, I'm sure he'll steal you as the very first thing".
"I'm being serious here" I said vexed.
Sam stretched out his hands to hold onto my waist and gently took me into his embrace, after snuggling and sniffing in the crook of my neck, he replied "He is my brother so don't worry"
"Then why did he run away?" I asked in confusion while my expression was telling how shocked I am.
Sam parted and said after a second of pondering, "He is a shy beastman, specially when it comes to females and it's possible that he got scared after seeing you"
I pushed Sam as I said "Do I look that scary?" sarcastically as I picked up the fur towel and started rubbing Sam's head because his hairs were wet, depicting that he just came back after taking a bath.
Sam was gleaming and smiling from ear to ear as he replied "How can that be possible? After all my mate is the most beautiful~",
I felt an urge to laugh out loud but still controlled it and got seated on the newly created hay bed beside the older one (on which Bai was sleeping) while Sam sat down on the ground to make it easy for me to dry him.
"So why did he came?" I asked.
"Maybe....to check onto me? I'm not that much sure" replied Sam while pondering on something.
"He lives in the village too?"
"No, he lives alone in the forest"
"Oh! Like a lone wolf!"
Sam laughed on my statement and agreed by saying "You're right, he is a lone wolf..", he continued and told me that he is Sam's elder brother but from another litter and he was the reason why Sam decided to stay in this village instead of beast city.
"You should've asked him to join us for the dinner" I said while putting my head on his because I was done with drying his hairs.
"Can I?" he exclaimed.
"Of course, he is your family after all." I replied while smiling as I snuggled in his neck crook from behind.
"Kyra, do you want to mate?" All of a sudden Sam asked while gently taking my hands in his, as he turned his face slightly toward me making the distance nearly negligible.
Instead of replying I moved forward and kissed him on the lips, Sam pulled away and got up, he moved toward me and kissed me in a more comfortable position, while deepening the kiss he slowly pushed me onto the bed.
While straddling me with his legs and arms he leaned for another kiss when I said "No."
"Huh?" Sam instantly stopped and looked at me with confusion.
"Answer to your question. You asked, right?" I replied while holding my upcoming laugh because the look on his face was telling that he was in a serious turmoil.
"You don't want to mate with me?" Sam asked in a nervous slow voice as he moved even more apart to get a clear view of my body language.
"Ofcourse I want to mate with you, but not now because Qingqing is right here..."I said slowly while extending my arms to hold onto the guy's neck who was trying to move away, just after completing my words i pulled him toward myself and gave a peck on his lips.
"And...I want your mark to end up nearest to my heart so let's take time to cultivate our feelings even more.." I continued while maintaining my eye contact with him.
Sam's eyes widen because of my words and his face was instantly graced by the most sweetest smile in the world, he placed his head on my chest and said "You might be the only female in the world who gave the marking this much thought".
While caressing his head I replied "isn't that obvious to happen when you decided to take me as your mate~"