After a few months I learned that my father was right. This world is dangerous and the strongest survive.
I have grown a little bigger due to fighting my brothers for milk and to maintain my first born status.
One time I drank too fast and choked on the milk. They laughed at me, but I fought them and they were not able to drink that time either.
My father encourages us to fight as long as we don't kill each other. He doesn't want our mother to be sad if we die, but said fighting is the best way to grow stronger.
All the males in our world fight except the weak stripe less males. My mother's mate fight over who gets to mate with her during her next cycle. My father is the strongest and wins every time.
I have learned a lot about our world in these few months. My father weened us off my mother's milk as soon as possible. He was jealous of the time and affection she was spending on us instead of him.
My mother has brown hair and brown eyes. Her fair skin makes her the most beautiful female in our village. That is why my father wanted her as his mate and she has the most mates and beast guardians in the village.
Now we have to hunt for our own food. The first time we hunted I found out how dangerous our world really is. I was almost gutted by a wild boar. They are ferocious with long sharp tusks. Luckily we are cat beast men and can climb trees really well.
We had to climb a tall tree to escape the boar while my father and uncles killed the wild boar.
They didn't even let us eat it! They made us hunt smaller prey to start with.
I learned that bugs don't taste as good as milk, but will keep you alive if necessary. My next hunt was better. I was able to kill a mouse. It was my first taste of blood and meat. After that, I was hooked and craved the taste of blood and meat.
I began hunting bigger prey. Sometimes my brother and I would team up to kill an even bigger prey, like a deer.
I was able to explore and learn about the village. The females are weak, but necessary for the population to survive. They have multiple beast men as mates and beast guardians to make sure they survive.
My mother has 10 mates and 5 beast guardians. My father is the favorite and his mate mark is on her chest.
I learned that there are a few other females in our tribe, but they all have high standards. They only mate with males that have at least one stripe. The stripe less males can only hope to become a beast guardian.
There are many more males that are guards for the village. I haven't seen other types of beast men except the flying ones that live on the mountain.
Mother mentioned about going to the beast city when we are older. She told us they have more females and all different kinds of beast men.
We have to grow up and earn our stripes before we can hope to get a mate. Personally, I don't want a mate. They are bossy and just lay around all day eating and waiting for their mates to take care of everything.
I can do that myself and not have to worry about other males and cubs. My brothers both want mates and that is the only thing they think about other than hunting prey. I just laugh at them.
They can spend their time worrying about finding a mate. I will spend my time focusing on getting stronger and earning my stripes. My father is the strongest male in the village with two stripes, but I think I will be stronger than him one day.
My mother let our father and uncles teach us how to hunt and take care of ourselves and mostly spends her days being fed and taken care of by her mates. Why would I want a female to take care of?
I would rather hunt and help keep the village safe. There are many males that guard the village. I have learned a lot from them.
My brothers tend to hang around the females or mated males to learn tips on how to attract a mate. The rest of the time we hunt together for bigger prey. I prefer deer and rabbits to mice and bugs.
The fat bugs are not bad, but the ones with wings are not good and don't have much meat on them. We found a rotted log one day and it had so many fat slugs under it that we ate as many as we could until we were full.
The weather is hot lately, but my uncles told me that we will start to prepare smoked meat in the cold season. They told us stories about past cold seasons when males starved to death. I want to make sure we have plenty of meat.
Mated males will make sure the female has enough food and they will starve themselves if they run out. If there is not enough food, a male will sacrifice himself to allow the female to have enough meat.
That is another reason I don't want a mate! I don't want a spoiled female to kill and eat me without caring about me at all.
Dr. Tony is nice to me and we eat together some days. He gets paid for his services with fresh meat and kills. Some days he has too much to finish by himself and he shares with me and my brothers.
It is interesting helping him find medicines, but some are too strong and my nose tingles when he grinds them into powder. I prefer to explore outside in the wild.
I tried to eat some flowers one day and it tasted horrible. Later it upset my stomach and I vowed to never eat flowers again!