Bree sat around the square dining room table just on the other side of the couch. She called it a couch, but it was far less comfortable than what she was used to in her previous life. Sitting next to her is her new mate Byron. Sitting the closest on his left is his daughter Midori, who is currently pouting, because she wanted to sit next to Bree. On the right side of the table and on Bree's left, is sitting Cyra, who is happily bouncing in her seat while eating.
Sitting beside her is a young boy, about Midori's size with curly black hair that reaches his chin, pointy elf looking ears like Cyra, dark purple eyes, big black bat wings, white sparkling skin, and double sets of fangs. It was obvious from his appearance that he was Cyra and Midori's brother and that he would grow up to be a serious looker, he was introduced as Noor. He kept on glancing at the rather large man across from Bree who looked like he was getting ready to compete in the 'strongest man' competition.
Byron introduced the guy sitting across from Bree as Glen. Glen, the same bear who Byron mentioned in the story about his past. He hadn't however mentioned that Glen was built like a mountain and had muscles on top of his muscles. His biceps were roughly the size of Bree's head. He was roughly half a head taller than a doorway in Bree's previous life and just as wide. He made body builders look puny. When Bree walked into the kitchen, he looked at her and had held perfectly still. He had been wearing a small light brown apron over his leathers in the same style as Byron wore. When Byron introduced them, he had grunted out a reply.
Glen had tanned skin, chin length wavy black hair and midnight blue eyes. When their eyes met, little black bear ears suddenly appeared into existence on top of his head and his cheeks flushed slightly pink. Then he accidentally dropped the bowl of soup on the floor. The bowl noisily rolled around and sloshed all over the once clean floor, but he paid no notice of it until Bree mentioned it. Then he rushed to clean up the mess and Bree watched as he bent over and looked at his toned backside.
Now he just stared at Bree from across the table with both fascination and caution, but didn't reply to anyone, except with grunts.
Bree looked down at the chunk of meat next to her bowl of vegetable soup and contemplated whether or not she thought she would be able to eat it. There was a part of her that was thrilled at the prospect of eating meat again and another part that felt herself cringing away from it. She tentatively reached out and pulled a small piece of meat off the larger chunk and sniffed it. She felt goosebumps form on her arms and a chill go up her back, while her stomach twisted and started to ache.
Her instinct screamed at her to run and hide somewhere away from the predators. She felt her stomach convulse and threaten to let loose all over their nice clean table. She gently set the piece of meat back down on the plate while feeling greatly disappointed. She missed being able to eat meat.
Bree looked around at the other shifters who were quietly lifting their bowls to their mouths and slurping their soup. When in Rome she supposed and lifted her own bowl to her lips. The vegetables practically sang in her mouth. They tasted so much better than she remembered vegetables tasting in her previous life.
"This is delicious. Thank you for the food," Bree said to Glen. Then she smiled at him. Her teeth were completely flat without any canines at all. Her two front teeth were slightly wider than the rest of her teeth, but not very noticeably. She went back to happily slurping her bowl of vegetable soup and tried to ignore her chunk of trithorian meat.
A trithorian is a monster that is silver and looks somewhat like a saber-tooth tiger, but without fur and it has three long tails that have a paralyzing electric zap. It has long claws and likes to climb up giant trees, then slip one of it's tails down to zap and then drag up it's prey by curling it's tail around it. Luckily it's typically a singular creature that likes to live and hunt alone, because it's about the size of a small car. It likes to eat small living things that are bite size for it, like small animals, prey shifters, and cubs.
It was considered a difficult and dangerous creature to slay, however it's delicious, so the meat is worth quite a bit. Usually whole hunting parties went out together to slay one and then they would divide the meat amongst the households who participated, the females, and the elderly in their community.
"Glen heard about a trithorian eating a litter of cubs that hadn't been old enough to shift yet and decided to join the hunting party that went out. I wasn't able to go, because I was with the kids, but I heard that he practically killed it all on his own. The hunting party was so impressed that they gave him a considerably large portion of the meat along with it's leather, teeth, magic stone, and claws," said Byron.
"Uncle Glen is really strong. He's also really good at making clothes and said that he'll make some clothes and blankets for us from the trithorian leather. He's going to make some new knives for me and my siblings," says Midori. Then she looked down at her lap and blushed," mostly because we don't have good claws."
"That's nothing to be ashamed of. Not everyone is born with dangerous claws," says Bree.
Glen startles everyone by abruptly standing up after practically staring holes in Bree. Then he walks over to the little table near the fireplace and piles a bowl full of berries, fresh vegetables, and soft flat bread shaped like disks. After the bowl is piled up, he walks over to Bree's side and silently switches out the plate of meat for the bowl he was carrying. Then he puts the meat back on the little prep table and sits back in his seat without saying a word.
Bree looks at the plate of berries and other yummy treats and can feel her mouth watering. She pops a big blueberry into her mouth and the flavors explode into juicy deliciousness. Who knew that fruits and veggies could taste so good? Bree contentedly eats a mouthful while humming. Glen looks at her humming and his lips lift at the corners slightly. Then he stands up again and after just another moment he sets a cup full of apple juice in front of Bree. She reaches out to take a sip and clears out her mouth.
"Thank you!" Bree says while grinning at Glen.
Glen sits back down and looks at his plate while his face flushes. "You're welcome," he says quietly.
Midori and Byron look at the interaction between Bree and Glen with calculative eyes while Cyra happily bounces in her seat. Noor doesn't look up from his plate while he shoves chunks of meat into his mouth, as if he's worried that it might jump off his plate before he gets a chance to eat it. Bree doesn't notice anything else around her besides her berries and Glen doesn't notice anything around him besides Bree. This was the way their first meal as a new family went until Bree felt her eyes start to droop and her head felt foggy. It had truly been a long adrenaline filled day and now that her stomach was full and she felt safe, her exhaustion had finally caught up with her.