A new chapter early since I was a day late updating the last two because I forgot. I have no excueses. Apologies. But now life's good in the hood, homeskillets. Fo shizzle! So, your program will continue after this message...

---------------------------------------------------------------

After inserting yet a new cave-man style pad into her underwear, she lifted the scale necklace off her head, Curtis's thick strand of hair hefty as fishing wire against her fingers, and put its edge to her ankle. She had little time to brace herself for the cut, as no sooner had she even begun to press down than her flesh split, the pain so needle-thin it itched more than hurt.

A minute passed. Nothing happened, and Shay let out the breath she had been holding.

In a way, Shay was relieved when the detailed red snake on her ankle remained, a shade brighter than the blood trickling around the bump of her ankle.

Neara stared at the snake tattoo and could have sworn she saw the eye gleam when the scale touched it.

"Well," said Shay. "That didn't work."

The leopard queen, however, seemed to echo Shay's relief rather than Neara's fear.

"I knew you were a good female," she said with a gentle smile. "My son wouldn't have loved one who wasn't."

"But why is it still there?" asked Neara.

"If there is any love left for the male, it will remain."

Shay flinched. "Excuse me?"

Neara, eyes still riveted on her friend's ankle, said, "So... does that mean she loves him or something?"

"But I don't 'love' him. I mean, I don't hate the guy, but that doesn't mean I want to be married to him..." but she paused, thinking hard. Didn't someone say that to get a beast mark you had to have sex with them? But I didn't, he just bit me.

If marks can be given by biting and they don't know...probably shouldn't mention it now. Biting is a lot easier than...yeah, and we have enough problems as it is.

The leopard queen just continued to smile and gently patted Shay's head. "Everything will work out. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have tried to terminate your pregnancy." She then reached for a rag in the bowl of water, wrung it out, and went to dab off the blood from Shay's ankle.

Just then, a leopard burst in, mouth full of a dinner plate-sized chunk of dripping honeycomb. The leopard leaned back and shifted into Parker, who then took the honeycomb from his grinning mouth.

Inwardly Shay winced. Eww, leopard saliva...but he's covered in stings, so I can't really scold him for that.

"Shay! I got your honey!" His eyes zipped to her ankle, where his mother tended the small wound. His expression lit up. "Did you cancel your spousal relationship with the snake?"

Neara averted her eyes and took the comb from him. She remembered Calvin's rage at the suggestion of cheating and while Parker was different... maybe he wasn't different enough.

Shay, however, had no concerns. "Won't come off. Guess I have to want to kill him or something."

"It doesn't have to be that extreme," said the leopard queen, somehow amused, handing Neara a stone plate and a flat, wooden knife. "Don't worry too much about the leopard spittle," she whispered.

Parker, however, froze. Everything in him seemed to droop. He looked down, his teeth once more clenched.

He's going to ruin his teeth like that, thought Shay. "Hey, Parker, why don't you put some of this honey on your welts? It will help fight off infec--"

Parker pivoted and dashed out of the room.

"...tions."

The leopard queen, gentle face flashing to a dark scowl, leaped to her feet and ran after him without a word. leaving Neara and Shay alone with a lot of honeycomb.

Shay, not exactly unknowing about what all that drama was about, patted the space in front of her on the bearskin rug. "Bring that honeycomb over and let me smash some cells. Such perfect order needs to be squished."

Neara gave an uncertain grin before doing so, setting the plate between them.

Shay took the knife and cut herself some honey-bloated honeycomb to chew on before proceeding to do just as she said, using the flat of the wooden knife to demolish the walls of the octagonal cells. Honey oozed out onto the plate. "I'm going to be so anemic after this," she muttered, wrapping an arm around her lower gut.

"Yeah, we probably shouldn't just drink or eat whatever funny stuff we're given before asking next time," said Neara. "So..."

"No, I'm not in love with a snake."

She let out a great whoosh of breath. "Good, because I don't know how I'll be able to visit if you have a giant snake guy around."

Shay flashed her a honey-goo grin that turned to a grimace. Then, a wobbly frown, curled bottom lip and all. Her eyes began to water.

"Neara...I don't want to be married yet..."

Instantly, Neara had her arms around her friend's neck, pulling her tight to shield her from the negative emotions.

The momentary quiet allowed them to make out the words of the leopard queen down the hall as she returned, slightly echoed by the stone walls.

"...spousal mark is like a seed, planted into a female by her spouse. It lets the male grow closer to her--to have a home, a place of purpose and meaning. Once the mark disappears the male will be like a tree without roots. It might look healthy and fine on the outside, but no matter where it goes, what soil it has, what nutrients it is given, it won't belong, and will eventually wither."

Her voice stopped just out of sight of the doorway. Neara pulled back, looking down to the floor, both girl's mouths in a small 'o.'

"Cub, don't push her. A female will never only have one male. That will be horrible for fertility, and deprive many of a purpose for living."

They stepped into the doorway, the queen pulling him in by the arm.

At the look on Parker's face, Shay felt her insides crumble. The tears she had been about to shed for herself finally leaked out for someone else. She would never want to share her spouse with anyone either. The very thought of it made her want to die.

The queen, spotting her tears first, dropped her mouth in alarm. "Oh! Does it hurt that badly?"

Shay shook her head, even as the tears grew faster. Parker looked up, then echoing his mother's alarm on seeing her tears. "No, no Shay, don't cry." He dropped to the floor, setting himself at her hip in order to wrap his tail about her. Somewhere in his run he'd managed to find some clothes, a brown, shaggy toga. He took her face and wiped at her dirt-crusted cheeks with his thumbs, smearing away the mud created by her tears.

For once, Shay let him. The honey-slathered wood-knife hung forgotten at her fingertips.

Neara touched her friend's arm, an understanding gleam in her gaze. She also gave Parker a pitying glance.

The queen, catching their sympathetic gazes to her son, puckered up her eyebrows in both sympathy, gratitude, and affection. "You've truly found a wonderful female, little cub. You may stay as long as you like." With that, she left.

Shay wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "Crap, now it's streaming worse than ever."

"I can do that--"

"Don't you dare, Parker. It's embarrassing enough for you to see my snot let alone touch it."

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," he said, swiping his thumb across her nose anyways and wiping it on his clothes. "You're sick. You can't help it."

Shay sighed. Too tired and sad to protest, she let her head fall against his shoulder like a dead thing.

Parker stiffened at her touch.

"I get it now," she said. "Why you guys act so crazy."

Though on cloud nine, Parker still had the mind to frown. "Crazy?"

"Why the beastmen here are so possessive," said Neara gently. "Don't worry, Shay, I can interpret."

Another watery sniff that sounded awful. "Thanks. I'm too tired and sore to think."

Brow puckered in confusion, Parker gently wrapped an arm around Shay, setting his palm atop her head. "What do you mean possessive? Do they not love females as much? That would explain why you two were so neglected by your parents."

Just then, Orson walked in, expression broadcasting that he had no idea why he was even there when there were more pressing things to be done. "You saw your friend, she's alive, are you going home now?" he asked Neara impatiently. "Since I'm the one escorting you I can't go back to work until you're back with your guardian."

Neara dropped the scale she'd been taking from Shay's hand, flustered. "Um... Parker could escort me if it's too much trouble. Do you think you could walk Shay?"

"I can carry her," said Parker before she could answer.

"Gal, at this point just make me a wheelchair," said Shay. "Because obviously females aren't supposed to walk much in this world." She stopped and quickly looked to a bemused Parker. "Not that I'm not grateful for your help, I'd really appreciate it since I don't have shoes, I was just hauled around by a snakeman all week and not allowed on my own and..."

Parker gave her a smile with the same softness she had recognized in Curtis's. The sight threw the temporarily vulnerable Shay for a loop, smashing out her thoughts. "Of course I know females need to play and roam," said Parker. "Don't worry, Shay, I know way more about taking care of females than some feral."

Neara gave Shay a thumbs up and mouthed "Nice save."

Orson watched this all with folded arms and a flat look. "Well now I have to escort you home," he said "Predators don't know the first thing about taking care of females."

Without any adieu, Parker scooped Shay up and followed after Neara and her disgruntled escort.

"So you got a house? Did I already ask that? I think I did." Shay asked.

"Yeah, but we didn't really talk about it. My...guardian bought it for me." She nervously looked at Parker. "It's stone, like everything else in this city. Two bedrooms, one big room. The bathroom's this big sandbox."

Shay snorted, which turned to a pained cough before she managed to squeeze out. "First thing to teach the kids: don't play treasure hunt in the sandbox."

Neara laughed. "Wow, it's so good to have you back...I missed you."

"Ditto, dude. Oh gal, and you actually understand what I just said, so I have to say it more-- ditto, dude, ditto, totes, pinata, anime, dime a dozen--" coughing once more broke her off.

"Maybe you shouldn't talk."

The coughing fit came on stronger than the previous ones. Several beastmen stared at Shay with obvious looks of pity as they passed through the hall and out the front gates. By the time it ended Shay had gone limp and flushed against Parker's shoulder, eyes closed, and her breaths coming out in small whines.

Poor Parker looked close to tears. "You...you really are sick," he said.

"No shit," said Orson, suddenly appearing at his shoulder. "What, you think she was just milking for more sympathy? Because being kidnapped and raped by a feral isn't enough? Now you're parading her through town because you literally don't know any better." He sighed and walked faster.

In a flash, Parker's face flushed with fury. "You're way over the line for a no-stripe plant-eater!"

Orson shot a withering glare at him. "I'm aware of what I am, no need to belt it out. Predators; always have to be the loudest and smelliest in the bunch."

"If I wasn't holding Shay--"

"You'd attack a doctor? A prey doctor? Really working on that third stripe, aren't you?"

"Shut up!" Parker's face had gone purple.

Shay slapped her hands over her ears in pain.

Beastmen passing by them on the packed-dirt streets turned to stare yet again at the noisy passersby.

Even in beast world, if you're going to air your dirty laundry for all to see, they're gonna see. Shay had a mind to start yanking ears and telling them to shut up herself, but only a raspy cough came out of her broken chords. Not to mention she'd need more time to build up the emotional calluses necessary to grab and mangle velvety cute cat ears.

Neara, however, had no such handicaps. She whirled him around, fists clenched and cheeks bright. "Shut the hell up, Orson. My friend is sick and her mate is trying to make sure she gets to my house safely. All you're doing is pissing everyone off by picking fights when, like you said, she literally got back from being kidnapped. She's sick and instead of being a good doctor, you're making it worse."