The next day Harvey recovered enough to travel. They loaded up after breakfast and headed towards their next stop. Harvey felt embarrassed that Shelly had to treat him. He thought if I was stronger she would not need to take care of me. He was used to taking care of others, not the other way around. On the way Shelly noticed some nuts in the bushes. She asked Shuu to stop and noticed they were almonds. She was excited and collected as many as she could. David offered to taste test the nuts to make sure they were not poisonous. Shelly agreed because she knew what they were. They would only be poisonous if they were consumed in extremely high volumes. She said, "If they taste bitter, spit them out and rinse your mouth." He nodded and tried them. He thought they tasted a little sweet and told Shelly. She tried them and they were the best almonds she had ever tasted.
Nuts were always better fresh. Shelly remembered the Pecan tree in her mom's front yard. She would always get fresh nuts during her visits. They stayed good for a long time inside the shells. Shelly loved nuts and could use the almonds in a lot of recipes from food to skin care. She was already thinking about an almond face scrub for Winston's scar. She had been giving him regular facials all winter and his scar had improved. Over time it would fade and be less noticeable. She did not mind his scar, but she could tell that it helped his self esteem when others were not scared just by looking at him.
Shelly kept an eye out for nuts and berries or herbs she could use on the way to the Tiger village. They traveled for almost 2 weeks and finally arrived at the Tiger Village. They were stopped by the guards, but when they saw Winston with his 4 stripes they let them pass. A messenger was sent to inform the Tiger chief. He was thrilled that the Tiger king had arrived in his small village. He came out to greet them. Shelly was awed by the tree houses. She remembered her tree house when she was small, but it was small compared to these. First of all, these tree houses had 5 layers and were built inside the large trees. Shelly was admiring the tree houses when the chief said, "Welcome to the Tiger village. This is my female cub Molly. She will show you around the village. You can choose any empty tree house you like."
Winston thanked him and Molly came up to Shelly. She said, "Hi, my name is Molly. Welcome to our village. I'm so glad you are here. I am the most beautiful female of the tribe, but you are also beautiful. Let's be friends." Shelly smiled and said, "Hi Molly, My name is Shelly. These are my mates Winston, David, Shuu and Harvey. Your village is lovely. I really like the tree houses." Molly showed them around the village and brought them to an empty house near hers. She pointed to her house and said, "I live there with my father as I don't have a mate. You can move here if you want. It is empty." Shelly nodded and asked Winston, "Is this one good? Winston went up to check the tree house and came back down. He said, "This tree house will be good for now. I plan to build our own home but it will take a while."
Shelly was excited to move into the new house and start to decorate it. She had so many ideas. She thought she could use this house as a spa once they move into their new house. The one downside was there were no stairs. She would need to rely on one of her mates to bring her up and down. It also did not have anywhere to put an indoor toilet. She hoped the new house would be done before the cold season. For now she would ask Winston to build a fence or something around the sand pit. She liked privacy. They moved their belongings inside the tree house. Shelly designated the top two floors as bedrooms and the bottom floor for food storage and kitchen. The middle floor would be a living room.
Winston went to talk to the chief about the security of the village. He knew it was closer to the City of Flames and wanted Shelly to be safe. He also did not know if any beastmen would come from the City of Beasts to try and kill Shelly. He had to make sure the village was safe. He talked about building a wall around the village. He also inspected a good place to build his castle. While he was inspecting the village Shelly was planning her spa ingredients. She had Harvey crush up some almonds and soaked some in water to make almond milk. She also mixed some of the crushed almonds with aloe vera to make an almond scrub. She was having fun with her new experiments when Molly came by. She said, "Would you like to go to the water hole with me or the flower field?"
Shelly wanted to see the places mentioned in the novel and nodded her head. David was downstairs chopping wood and she was in the middle level. Shelly called to him and said, "David, Catch me!" She jumped down and David caught her. He hugged her close to his chest and said, "Be careful." She smiled and said, "That was fun!" Molly giggled. She could tell that she was going to get along with Shelly. Molly led Shelly to the flower field first. David, Shuu and Harvey came with her. Molly said, " This is the reason our tribe moved here. My father said this is the biggest flower field of Flos Eriocauli in the world!" She laid down in the flower field and said, "It can help with the estrous cycle, but don't run through it because it is an aphrodisiac."
Harvey knew of the flowers because he was a leopard beastman. These flowers affected cat beastmen the most. Tigers and leopard beastmen would be affected more than the wolf or bear beastmen. Harvey's eyes started to enlarge. He laid next to Shelly and started to snuggle with her. Shelly giggled. David and Shuu stood guard. Molly said, "We have guards outside of the field, you are safe here. We can take a nap if you want." Shelly was tired so she nodded. The three of them took a nap while David and Shuu blocked the sun with their bodies and stood guard.
After they woke up Molly led them to the water hole to freshen up. Shelly noticed how large it was and knew it was very deep. There was a natural well in Texas she always wanted to visit. This water hole reminded her of Jacob's Well. She cupped her hands and drank some water. It was cool and refreshing spring water. She loved it! Shelly was happy about her choice to move to the Tiger village. She just hoped she did not have any problems with scorpions like Bai. She made a mental note not to go to the desert. She didn't really want to go to the desert anyway. If she wanted to play in the sand, she would prefer to go to the beach.
She asked Molly, "How far away is the sea from the village?" Molly said, "I've never been myself, but my father sends a group to the sea every year to trade for salt. They are about to go soon. It usually takes them a week to get there and back." Shelly thought to herself it was a 3 day journey both ways. She would tell Winston her salt making ideas and it would increase his reputation in the village.
Winston finished inspecting the village and was informed there were more tigers from the City of Beasts that had arrived. He was cautious and went to see if they had bad intentions against Shelly. He saw a group of 20 tiger beastmen. He said, "Why did you follow me?" The bravest of the group stepped forward and said, "Tiger king, we believe in the prophecy and wanted to follow you. We only stayed long enough to pay our respects to the former Tiger king." Winston nodded and told the Tiger chief to help them find housing. They would make great additional guards for the village. The chief was excited about the additional security for his village. He asked about the prophecy they mentioned and one of the tigers told him of how the City of Beasts would be destroyed.
The chief was shocked, but hoped more beastmen would survive and come to their village. He knew it was going to grow and change for the better. He was hopeful and thankful for the Tiger king. Winston went to find Shelly by the water hole.