Wayde and Dieg skin the deer carefully to save the skin then cut the meat into many pieces. Dieg is shocked that Wayde made a fire and could control it.
"Hey, wait!" Astri says rushing outside with the salt pouch.
"Don't force your foot." Wayde stops her.
"Let me season the meat with salt." She takes a few pinches of salt and spreads evenly around the meat. "You will see that it will taste better." She says happily.
"Isn't salt a medicine?" Dieg asks.
"It can be used on meat or other food. It will have the same effect." Astri answers.
"How do you know this?"
"When you try the meat you will believe me."
She noticed that the deerskin was already put to dry, she already had plans for that skin. She sits near the fire and looks to the sky again.
"The stars are beautiful here too. We can see them better here." Astri says.
Wayde and Dieg sit around the fire too. Wayde sits closer to Astri.
"Sorry about my sister. She's a pain when she wants to. And she was always crazy about Wayde since he got here." Dieg tells Astri.
"I noticed she likes him. You don't like her Wayde?"
Wayde denies it with his head.
"I like you. You're more beautiful, mature, and smarter." Wayde answers.
"Well, beauty is relative. But the rest I can understand." Astri chuckles softly.
She sighs a bit painfully as she's lying down on the grass.
"Don't you fear she will take Wayde? When females want the same male, they normally fight each other." Dieg asks Astri.
"Why waste my time with that? Wayde is free to choose whomever he wants. Besides, if I win and deep inside he wants her, he will be only unhappy with me. And Wayde said he doesn't like her, so why fight? I fight only those who touch me against my will." She says, going back to drawing on the stars and choosing constellations.
"I see... You're different."
"Thank you. I guess. Wayde, are we staying here for a long time?" She tries to change the subject.
"Why?"
"Just asking. I would like to try a few things, but it takes time and I need your authorization. It's your house, otherwise." She speaks. He smiles at her.
"Don't need to ask me for anything you want to do. It's your house now. You can do whatever you want."
"Then it's our house. I want to hear your opinion. You built it. Have you ever seen a closet or a drawer?" She speaks.
Astri is a very different female in Dieg's eyes. She is polite, not rude, and asks for the male's permission.
She explains how to build a closet and a table, saying the reasons to have them. He agreed to build it. Then she talks about a plantation, this way when he's not around she can have access to vegetables without risking herself in the woods. He also agreed to make one.
"Nice! And the bed, the bedsheets are good, but I was thinking about making a cushion and pillows to make it softer. We can put feathers, hay, cotton, or grass in between the sheets and sew it together so it doesn't spread and dirt the house." She explains.
"I like that. This way you will sleep better, but I like it when you sleep on me." Wayde says with a smirk.
She flushes punching his arm.
"I'm being serious here!"
"Me too."
She rolls her eyes.
"Enough with projects."
"I can help too. Is there anything I can do?" Dieg asks.
"You're the chief's son. His eldest son. Don't you have daily obligations?" She says.
"I do, but I can have time to stay with you. My father will understand."
"You can try keeping your sister away from me. She is not done with me yet."
"Do you think she will try to harm you?" Wayde asks.
"I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that if eyes could kill I would be 6 feet underground."
"She might try to bully you, but won't hurt you. She knows we need more females here. But I can try to keep her away." Dieg speaks.
"Good. Let's hope you're right."
She turns to her good side and then pushes herself to sit.
"I think this one here is good to eat." She points to a stick of meat.
When she tries to move to take it, Wayde holds her in place.
"Why can't you ask me to do things for you like other females?" Wayde asks.
"I'm not like other females. And you know that." She answers bitterly. She always hated being compared to others.
Wayde bit his tongue, realizing his mistake.
"I'm sorry." He apologizes.
"Don't need to apologize for telling the truth."
"What are you two talking about?" Dieg asks. Astri sighs.
"Let's say that not all females were raised as your sister did." Astri speaks.
Neither Dieg nor Wayde pressed on that matter. They could sense she was tense. Wayde gives the stick of meat to her and she tries the meat by poking it with her fingers a little bit, then she bites a piece.
"Oh yes! This is good! Try it." She says happily. She gives a big piece to Wayde and then another to Dieg. They try it and they're impressed with how good it is. "Look at those eyes! You loved it." She laughs looking at them.
Wayde and Dieg are carnivores and love red meat the most, so she imagined that barbecue would make them happy. They ate happily, and when Astri was full Wayde and Dieg kept eating. They left very few of the deer and Astri tells Wayde to save it for the next day.
"I wish I could clean myself. The river is near?" Astri speaks.
"Not much, but I can bring water for you to clean yourself and for drinking too." Wayde says.
"I can go." Dieg jumps up and then goes to take two old buckets from the side of the cabin.
He leaves Wayde and Astri alone.
"I'm sorry about what I said. I feel you got angry." Wayde says to her.
He was actually thankful Dieg left them alone.
"It's all right. Don't worry." She speaks, standing up. He holds her, not letting her walk away. She looks up to his face. "I'm feeling better. I just need to walk slowly." She is grateful that he worries, but she wants some freedom to walk a bit.
"What did you mean about not all females being raised like Ana? Where were you raised? In the Demon's City?" He asks, very serious.
"Demon's City?"
"A city of ferals and monsters. Females are only sexual slaves there."
"Wow.. No, I wasn't raised there." She answered, and her answer made him visibly relax.
"Then what did you mean?"
"Who doesn't have a hard past here? Forget it." She says trying to walk away, but he keeps her in place with his strong arms. She sighs, knowing that his eyes are telling her he won't move until he knows the answer. "Why do you want to know?"
"Because I'm your male. I don't want to be the one hurting you and I could sense you were hurt about what I said." He answers. She sighs.
"I was found when I was 6 months old, and I was raised in a place full of orphans. For some odd reason, I was always treated differently and no one liked me there. While other children were being adopted by a family, I wasn't even put up for adoption and who raised me just made me work to pay for my food. I had to do everything if I wanted to stay alive. I wasn't pampered by anyone. Then I lived by myself and survived by myself, until.." She says, but then she stops because she can't say she came from another world.
"Until you found me." He finishes her sentence.
She nods, it's not wrong, it's just not completely right. But he was indeed the first one to actually help her do something without feeling it was for teaching to never ask again.
"I don't want to leave you. I'll help you forget this hard past. I just need you to trust me and don't keep me away. You're not there anymore and won't be." He was so serious looking into her eyes while saying that, she felt her heart jump.
This man really wants to be in her life. Is this for real? Will he abandon her later? She steps back, but he brings her back.
"Trust me, Astri. I won't leave you."
Their eyes are locked on each other's, so their heads get closer as magnets. When their lips met, finally Wayde relaxed his grip because Astri gave up on running away.
"I want only you. Even if you don't mate with me, I will always be yours." Wayde says, now holding her face and waist.
Her eyes filled with tears. This is too soon to say something like that, but it's a different world and maybe what she learned about love won't necessarily be true. He kisses her eyes and hugs her firmly, trying to make her feel that he would never leave her.
"Wayde?"
"Hum?"
"My ribs."
He loosened his arms a little bit and looked again at her face.
"Sorry." He says smiling. She smiles too. "I will fight to keep this smile on your face."
"I'm sure it will be easy for you."
They kissed again, more deeply, and soon Wayde's breath was getting faster. Her taste is so sweet that it makes him want to taste all over her body. He stops and takes a deep breath to calm down.
"Sorry… If we continue I won't be able to stop. And you can't mate yet." He says.
She flushes by hearing that, then becomes pure red when she looks down and sees that his skirt has a big tent. Quickly she looks away, making him chuckle.
"You're so cute."