Chapter 48: brought to you by Cat Fights!

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Sorry for the late update. I was lazy. I have to hunt down a mouse in order to do so while dodging a determined toddler, so sometimes...I'm lame. But anyways, next time on "I'm sorry, He Was Too Nummy": Friends fight friendly fights. Fight. Singular. Because they're both too, you know, friendly.

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"Neara?" She hunted out her friend and grabbed her hand. "We need to talk."

"I said I was sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you..."

"This isn't about that." She dragged her to the second bedroom and released her arm, giving her a level look. "I know you lied."

"About Harvey?"

"No, about where we came from. Come on, Neara, why couldn't you tell the truth? You don't trust them not to rat you out?"

She looked at the ground and bit her cheek. "I didn't think they could handle it..."

"Neara, you know how I feel about lying." Her attempts to soften her voice fell flat. She tried to temper the anger and disappointment she felt. Truth, above all else, was most important for Shay. You told the truth no matter what, no lying, no white lies, no deceiving, no lies of omission, nothing.

"And what if it gets out where we're from? What we are? You don't think the Ape King will try using it to his advantage? Locking us in a dungeon and raping us forever?" She yanked on her hair. "Look, the only reason females have power in this world is because they only reproduce once a year. Winston explained it to me; if the females have the power, it prevents war because they have multiple partners from multiple Clans and the Clans can't fight without endangering the females. If they find out we could give birth 12 times a year..."

"But we can't! The closest we can come is having snake eggs, and there's only 1 snake IN the City of Beasts. They're not going to try making more snakes." Her voice snapped like a thick branch.

"Fine, then, multiple times a year. Look, I'm sorry I teased you about Harvey but... it's not as easy as you make it look."

"This isn't about Harvey... ugh, he's not even in the picture right now. This is about you lying and saying we were from the mer tribe!"

"I never said we were, I just never said we weren't. They assumed; I didn't correct their assumptions."

"That's the same as lying!"

"Maybe to you!" Tears spilled from around her tightly closed eyes. Her breaths came fast through barely parted lips. "I live every day terrified about what's going to happen to us. We're the aliens here, the monsters, the outsiders, and nobody likes outsiders. You have 2 tetra-mark mates who, luckily for you, didn't think they'd ever find someone to make them happy. I don't... I don't want to marry people just for protection and I really don't want to lead them on and have them blame me down the road..."

"Neara..." Shay felt the situation click into place. She'd been too focused on keeping her two husbands happy, and apart, that she hadn't considered... "is this because of Justin and Calvin?"

She fell into a squatting position and hugged herself tightly, curly hair poofed around her head in a cotton ball. "Shay, I'm so scared. All the time." she explained through her sobs. "If we belonged to a Clan, they couldn't attack us without pissing off that Clan and making war. You have two ferals, so you're easy game, but they know I'm your friend, so I thought..."

"And Winston got cast out of Tiger Clan, so they wouldn't protect you, and Orson is Sheep Clan, so they could... Neara, I'm sorry for getting mad. I know you had your reasons... I just wish you hadn't lied." She sunk to her knees and patted her friend's back.

"I didn't see another way."

"I know you love Orson now, so it feels stupid to ask but... did you love him when you mated him?" Shay could barely bring herself to ask the question, her voice hovering just above a bumblebee's hum.

"What?" She pushed her hair out of her face and wiped the snot/tears on her cloak. "What'd you say?"

"I... ugh, this feels so awkward so I'm just going to come out and say it and I'm sorry if I offend your delicacies, but did you originally love Orson, or did you just mate him to get the protection of the Sheep Clan?"

Neara stared at her friend, confused. "I mean, I don't think I loved him, but I definitely liked him enough to have sex with him."

She sighed in relief. "Well, that's good. At least you weren't forced into it."

They rocked in silence, arms locked around each other. Living in the Stone Age surrounded by models meant you needed a break every once in a while. A friendship break.

"I don't even know... I love my husbands...." Shay trailed off.

Neara, wisely, said nothing and just held her close.

"I just wish everything was less complicated. I feel like I'm living in sin with two guys."

"Me too... and I'm only technically 'married' to one."

"Neara... I just had an idea."

"Yeah?"

"What if we got married?"

"What? Like..."

"Nononononono, just listen. We feel bad because we feel like we're sinning, right? Well, obviously those rules don't apply here, can't apply here, so maybe we should just stage a wedding. Fancy dresses and everything. Maybe if we actually married them like we're used to, it would feel less weird."

"That... might work. Would the fertility priests act like the actual priests though? Or would it be better to ask Parker's dad? He's the king. Or the Ape King is in charge of talking to the gods but..."

"Yeah, I don't want to ask him to do it. He wouldn't even understand what we were talking about. I'll have to think about it."

"Ok. I'll think about it too. I like the idea, though. Make this place feel more like home."

"I've been working on figuring out plant dyes, by the way." Shay let go of her friend and sat down, her hamstrings burning. "For the cotton you've been cleaning."

"I'm trying to figure out a design for a spinning wheel... Winston knows where a bunch of stonewood trees are. It's hard to carve, but they hold their shape pretty well. I want to get it spun into thread, then design a loom from there. I never used one though, so I'm flying blind."

"Makes sense. Well, we have all winter to figure it out."

"Yeah." Neara cupped her hands around her enormous stomach. "I figure I have about a month left with these guys. Speaking of which, I'm starving. Can we get some meat or something for lunch?"

"Yeah, sure, no problem. We can talk about weddings and stuff later."

The girls walked outside and rejoined their males, Orson shooting Shay knowing glances and Neara, swollen and pregnant, missed all of them.

Something snuffled in the night, a squawk echoing around the stone house. Neara woke up and tried to see anything other than the dimly glowing fire. "What's that noise?"

Orson grumbled in his sleep.

Winston poked his head in. "I hear it as well. I'll go check." He left outside and a mighty growl that shook Orson awake rumbled through the house.

"What the f..." Neara smashed her hand over his mouth.

"Shut up! Something's outside."

Theo cautiously stepped inside, his ears flat against his back, making him look smaller than ever. "It's wolves. I can smell them." Even in the dim light, Neara could see how he shook.

"Come over here then. We'll be... we'll be safe in here." She worried about Winston and knew she couldn't send the no-marks out to their probable death. Gritting her teeth, then flinching at the sensation, she stood up and Theo fell against Orson. "I'm going out there."

"Neara, you're crazy! Don't go anywhere!" Orson stood up and grabbed her arm. "If it's bad enough for Winston, it could kill you too. Let me go."

"You don't have any marks! You couldn't protect him, or even yourself!" She shook him off and felt for her long cloak.

The door opened slowly and Winston padded inside. He smelled like blood. "It was Rosa's cubs."

"What?"

"They killed one of your shortbirds, Neara." He held out the body for her to examine, although she couldn't see much.

Half-dressed, hands paused at her throat, she frowned. "Did you catch them? We need to prove they did it..."

"Their scent is all over your shortbird coop, and this carcass." He let his hand fall to his side, the body swinging from the motion. "It will be easy to prove their hand."

"Well, what do we do then? Go to their house and..."

"I can duel their father, if you like."

"What? Do you think he put them up to this?"

Winston shrugged. "Possibly. His scent was not outside though."

"Well... how are they... ugh, this sucks." She pulled off her cloak and stalked to the main room. Her belly felt the heat before the rest of her and she squatted in front of the flames. "It's not that hard to get another one... I know you're a great hunter, Winston, it's just... frustrating that we can't do anything about it."

Winston and Theo followed her out. Orson sat behind her and rested his fluffy head on her back. "I can duel their father," the white tiger said again, "and he will lose. He's only a three-mark."

"I don't want someone to die over a chicken... that's not fair. Can't she just give us another chicken?"

"It's not like that, Neara," Orson said softly behind her back. "In the City of Beasts, females and children are too important to be held accountable for their actions. She's being petty, but ultimately we can't do anything."

"Like hell..." Neara paused in thought and gnawed at her thumb.

After an hour of sitting in front of the fire, she still had no solution, but the flames were dying out, and so were the males cozied up around her. She decided to wait until the morning to do something about it.

Despite her thinking, Theo was the one who suggested a pit trap. As they dug a deep moat around the coop in the faint light of the morning, he said, "We used to do this all the time in the Rabbit Clan. This is how we protect our settlement from larger predators."

"I didn't know you had a permanent place." Orson said as sweat dripped down his chin. "I thought you fertility priests were wanderers."

"We usually are, but there's a secret place we go to raise our young. It's very well fortified; only rabbits can get to it." He smiled in pride.

"Sounds cool." Neara said from the sidelines. She'd been rebuffed when she offered to help, so she cleaned fish and threw the debris to the panicking birds. The blood cooled her hands significantly in the frosty air and the bones pricked her fingers more often than not. Nerves made her hands unsteady.

"How will we know when they're going to come back?"

Winston carefully laced loose banana leaves together to make a temporary net for the leaves and dirt that would be strewn on top. His hands, while large, did the delicate work cautiously, aware of his size. Theo kicked dirt out of the hole with lightning-fast paws, his beast form a snow-white rabbit half the size of Neara... or would have been half her size if she wasn't monstrously pregnant. Orson scanned the skies and surrounding forest for possible attackers.

Neara spent most of the morning begging Theo to assume his beast form to help with the digging, but it was only after threatening to do the digging herself that he agreed, as long as Orson kept watch. With the hole dug and covered, the trap was set, although they didn't have to wait long for sweet revenge.

Whiny howls pierced her sleep and she shot up. "Orson, did you hear that?"

"I'm asleep, not deaf." He puffed air between his lips and turned over. "Let Winston deal with it."

Neara threw on her cloak and walked to the front room where Winston waited by the door. "It won't do any good to let them go tonight; let the City of Beasts hear their guilt."

Winston nodded. "I'll keep an eye out so their parents can't rescue them until the morning."

The howling of the cubs attracted Rosa and her mates. Orson released the pups once a large crowd had gathered outside Neara's property, anxiously eyeing Winston, while Rosa glared after grabbing one of her cubs.

"Neara!" Her shriek echoed across the property and the surrounding houses. "How dare you harm my cubs? I'll have the Ape King sell you!"

"How was I supposed to know they'd come this far looking for food? If you're having such a hard time feeding your cubs, you should have said something; we were going to trade for salt this spr...rainy season, but if you're in need, we're more than willing to help."

The crowd whispered among themselves, and the bits Neara was able to hear were not flattering.

"I'll make your life miserable!" Rosa yelled as she clutched her cub tighter, tears in the corners of her eyes.

Neara shrugged. "How? I'm not your mate, so you can't make it any worse than it already is."

Winston's chuckle, though small, did not fall on deaf ears.

"How dare you laugh at me, Winston?" She pointed a trembling finger at him. "You... she is only mated to you because of your strength, not because she finds you attractive!" Feeling she scored a point, she smirked a little. "Yeah, it's not like she's with you for any other reason."

Orson mockingly put a finger to his chin. "Oh, for his strength? Isn't that why you wanted to mate him? Because all your other males were useless?"

Rosa shook in anger and turned in an attempt to leave with dignity. "We're going back to the Tiger Clan."

"We'll send some salted meat over later, enough for your cubs." Neara called after her.

The tiger female's back stiffened as the insult landed home and she stormed away with her males, the unlucky cub trailing behind. The crowd muttered between the houses:

"Neara is so kind."

"She shares her meat with her rival."

"Rosa's males really must be useless... that's why she has so many."

Neara smirked to herself, then yawned and stretched her arms over her head. "Man, I'm exhausted. We should go to bed... I can't wait to tell Shay about this later."

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