Morning, Astri is riding the white tiger again. All these days sleeping uncomfortably and sleeping so little yesterday made Astri very tired. She yawns and rubs her eyes, Wayde stops walking and looks at her.
"No. Don't worry. I slept a little, that's all." She says.
He walks to a tree shade and lays down, she stands up and he pulls her to him again. Making her lay down on his body. Supporting part of her body on him, his fur is soft and inviting to sleep.
"Now I got it. Your fur is comfortable indeed. Thank you."
She falls asleep quickly, Wayde stays awake to keep her guarded, but he always gets himself staring at her sleeping face. Even her slightly opened mouth is cute.
His female is too special and he will need to work hard to protect her, he will need to keep getting stronger to keep danger away from her.
He also needs to build the best shelter for her, comfortable and the way she desires. He never imagined that he would be all mushed with his mate even before mating.
Claud tries to connect with Astri, but soon he realizes she's asleep and decides to try connecting to her again later. He wonders why she's sleeping until now, but he could feel that she's alive so Wayde must be taking care of her.
He wonders why she's still sleeping, though. Were they attacked at night? Is she wounded? Is she still upset and didn't sleep? He didn't sleep well, worried about her.
She must be feeling so lost and lonely in this different world, not knowing who she is and where she came from. But he needs to keep her protected, as long as she still doesn't know who she is and doesn't call attention, she can live and learn about this world.
The Sacred Mountain of the Great Wall City is where Claud lives, it is far from where Astri is and is where he wants to bring her. Though, he also doesn't want to bring her there, knowing it's risky. This world is much more complicated than it looks like. He only knows that he needs to find a way to meet with her.
Astri wakes up after a few hours feeling much better. Then Wayde resumes walking to the village, and at the end of the day, they will arrive.
Noticing that the forest is over and they're walking on an open field, Astri looks forward to trying to take a glance at the village.
"Wayde?" She calls the tiger. He looks at her. "Are we close?" He nods, making a sound.
At the same time, she's curious, she's nervous about meeting more beasts. When she could finally see some tents and people walking, Wayde stopped and shifted to his human form.
"I'll take you directly to the doctor. Then I'll take you to my house." Wayde speaks.
"All right." She could only agree. He has a house, she's already thankful enough about that.
He carries her like a princess again.
"I feel like a baby being carried all the time." She says softly.
"You're injured. Bear with it for now." He speaks, with a smile, but he would carry her even if she was fine.
As they walk closer, Astri starts to smell something bad and soon she sees that there is feces and urine outside the houses and tents. She gets shocked, covering her nose and feeling like vomiting.
Astri looked to the people, the men looked pretty similar to men of the other world, but here they would dress in skirts of animal skin and normally have long hair. However, the women shocked Astri.
Most are fat, and their faces are not very pretty, but all of them felt like queens as they walked with a tail of males behind them.
Soon they were noticed by the people, and all eyes fell on Astri. Single males were amazed by Astri, she's a pure beauty in their eyes.
"Wayde! You're finally back! Who is this? Is she your mate?" A man with blond hair and as tall as Wayde comes fast to his side.
Looking closer at Astri the man soon fell into her eyes, he blushed and held her hand.
"My name is Dean. Please let me be your mate. I'm not as strong as Wayde, but I'm useful."
Astri is impressed that the first thing this man said was asking to be her mate. Few females looked at Astri envying her beauty, and that she was with Wayde. Other males tried to do the same, but Astri pulled her hands to her chest, showing she wasn't comfortable.
Wayde growled and released his strong aura, other males stepped away and gave them space.
Astri thought that it could be dangerous for those beastmen to attack them, but when they stepped away she noticed they wouldn't take the chance to anger Wayde. Not for fear, but for respect.
Astri could notice not very friendly eyes from some women. She was right in thinking that Wayde had a line of fans.
Wayde arrives at a cave above a rock mountain and is greeted by an old man. He has short white hair and a beard, a thinner body, and wears more skin clothes than other males.
"Oh, Wayde. I never saw you here." The old man says, then he looks at Astri. He opens a big smile. "But I can see why. I didn't know you had a female. Congratulations."
"Can you check up on her? She was attacked by ferals and fell into the river." Wayde says.
"Oh, sure! Put her down here." The doctor quickly got worried.
Wayde puts Astri on a rock bed. The doctor checks her ribs and ankle.
"You don't have a fever, so you're going to be fine as long as you rest. Your ribs are broken, they might take a long time to heal, and your ankle will be good in two days at the most." He explains.
The doctor stands and shows Wayde how to prepare the medicines Astri needs, then gathers the medicines in little bags to give to Wayde.
"Also, ask salt from the tribe leader. It will be good for her. Keep her nourished with plenty of meat. Keep her warm during the night. Sorry, but mating might hurt her ribs more, so you should avoid it until her ribs don't hurt when touching." The doctor says.
Wayde nods. The doctor smiles at Astri again.
"Don't worry. You will be fine. If you get worse, tell Wayde and he will bring you to me again. Apparently, he already knew some medicines and applied them to you, so you are not as bad as it looks." She nods.
For now, she doesn't want to say anything until she understands those people better. Wayde's reactions to her little knowledge of medicine made her wonder if it would be a good idea to expose that too.
"Thank you, doctor." She stays with that.
Wayde thanks the doctor again too, then carries Astri again and the bag with herbs and medicine.
First Wayde goes to the tribe leader's cave. It's near the doctor's cave. A man around his 40s, with darker skin and dark blond hair, tied on a ponytail appeared on the door.
"Wayde! Good to have you back. We were worried you wouldn't be back before the snowing season." The man speaks, he looks at Astri and is impressed with her beauty. "What a beautiful female. Where did you find her?"
"In the forest. She was lost." Wayde answered a few details, so he doesn't get questioned even more.
"How lucky... Will you be living in your house? You should live closer to the center of the tribe to keep her protected."
"No. Thank you. I can keep her protected." Wayde speaks. He wants to keep Astri away from unnecessary attention for now.
"My name is Shung. Leader of the Stone Moon Tribe. If you need anything, you can ask me." He says to Astri.
"Thank you. My name is Astri." Astri speaks softly.
He smiled, but Aika noticed it wasn't a hungry smile like the men outside, and that made her more relaxed.
"I came to ask for salt. The doctor said it would be good for her and her injuries." Wayde speaks.
"Oh, sure! Dieg! Bring two cups of salt!" Shung speaks. "What happened to her?"
"Attacked by ferals." Again, Wayde didn't give many details.
"Where? We should send a party to get them."
"It was far from here. Five or six days from here, where the sun rises. But if you want to send a party, it's your choice. I didn't sense anyone coming here when I was in the forest." Wayde answers.
"I trust your judgment. You might not like to be around us very much, but you're the best we have here." Shung speaks.
Astri is sure that Wayde is the strongest there. For the leader to say such a thing, he must be.
"I need to send someone to bring the skin clothes we make to exchange for salt at the Beast City Market. Our stock of salt might not be enough for the snowing season and I don't want to risk losing our females. You're who I trust the most for this task, Wayde." Shung says.
Wayde thinks for some moments. Astri will need salt too, so he can't simply deny this task.
"When do you want me to go? I don't want to leave until Astri is healed." Wayde speaks.
"As soon as possible. I can set some males to take care of her." Shung answered.
"In 10 days I can go. I want only mated males taking care of her, and I want skin clothes for all seasons and for bed too." Wayde says. Shung chuckles.
"Jealous of your mate? I understand. She's beautiful indeed."
A young man, who looks very much like Shung, but with shorter hair and is around 20 years old appears holding a little bag.
"Here, father."
"Thanks, Dieg." Shung says, taking the bag and giving it to Wayde.
Dieg looks at Astri and he is impressed.
"What a fine little thing, right?" Shung says to Dieg. "This is my eldest, Astri. Please consider having him as your mate. He is young, but he already has 3 marks. I know Wayde has 7 and is the strongest, but until Dieg is at Wayde's age he might be as strong as Wayde."
"Erm.. Right. I'll think about it." Astri said softly, but it was sarcasm.
"Good! Dieg, go take clothes for the common and snowing season for Astri and bedclothes. Then bring them to Wayde's home." Shung said happily. Dieg nods with a big smile.
Wayde walks away.
"Will you accept the boy?" Wayde asks Astri.
"No. Didn't you hear the awkwardness in my voice? The guy was throwing his son on me while making a deal with you. The guy is manipulative, he would remove half of the deal if I denied it. And for you accepting the deal it's because it's important. Right?" She speaks.
Wayde looks at her impressed.
"You noticed that just by his talking now?" Wayde asks.
"Yes. And, I said I would think about it. I didn't say I would accept him. This way your deal is not compromised."
"You're very smart. I like that." Wayde smiles proudly.
"Is salt so hard to get for you to accept doing what you don't want to do?" She asks.
"Yes. And you need salt, so I have to do this."
Everything that for her was pretty normal to find in the other world looks hard to find there.
What other common things will be so hard to find or to do?