Beastmen Love-Chapter 25: Protect Our Female

Lee asked a hawk beastman to hunt a prey for dinner. Zin is standing near the door, like a guard. Wayde and Lee are sitting around another fire they built.

"I saw those papers. Does she also know how to read and write?" Lee asks in a low voice to Wayde.

Wayde just nods, knowing that there’s no point on hiding things from Lee and Zin. They heard too much.

Lee sighs and passes his hand in his forehead.

"I don’t know if you understand how dangerous this is. Those monsters might have heard about her and they came here to get her." Lee says.

"Of course, I understand. I was planning on using her salt knowledge to have money and power to have people to build a castle and protect her."

"I have money and power, and I think that the castle is the best choice too. Beastmen need to be trained to get stronger marks and be capable of fighting off invaders. This area will become more popular and dangerous with more females."

"I don’t want Astri to feel locked. She loves gardening, have her own things. So this castle must be well planned."

They stay in silence for a few moments.

"I think she came from another continent. And I think that her memory loss about her identity and knowledge are not a coincidence. I’m sure her beast soul is not a common one too." Lee says.

"I don’t care about any of that. She could be a frog or a goddess. I’ll just do everything to protect her. And I won’t ever again leave her even if the situation in question is a 100 bales of salt. She must have suffered too much these past days. I felt my mark burning for 2 days. I don’t want to ever feel that again." Wayde speaks.

"You’re right. And thinking about her past is useless. I just want to make sure she’s safe."

Zin stays quiet only hearing, but he agrees with them. He doesn’t care where she came from, he will just protect her no matter what.

Next five days were very boring for Astri. They didn’t let her leave the cabin for almost nothing.

She decided to make clothes for Zin since he didn’t have any and he could shift into human form entirely.

Whenever Zin was inside the cabin they had to leave the door open because of his very long body, so it would be more convenient having clothes.

Lee threw a tantrum, jealous that she made clothes for Zin. Then she had more things to do making clothes for all of them.

Zin was happy to know she cared about him. Every day she treats him kindly and that is making him fall for her even more.

Same thing for Lee, she shows a stronger side to him because he’s a brat, but he wants to tie her to his waist and bring her everywhere.

Lee burns in jealousy of Wayde, because she treats him very well and kisses him whenever he asks.

She hugs and sometimes even locks her good arm around him, or lays her little body on him to force him bring her somewhere.

Finally all the days of rest are over. The doctor comes over to check on her, and he’s very happy to say she’s better.

The doctor said that he’s impressed that she got better so fast. And Astri looked at her males with a face of "I told you".

"Wayde, talk to the leader about this inside fire you built to keep your female warm. It can save many females during winter. And also, a female baby was born and she already shifted to a baby. It would help her have a warmer place for winter." The doctor speaks.

Wayde nods. He noticed that all of Astri’s projects are helping them and teaching to others will help everyone too, maybe her knowledge can help them have a stronger tribe.

"Who planted those herbs?" The doctor asks.

"I did. You can take it if you want." Astri answers.

"You know how to farm?" The doctor asks, impressed.

"I was a slave before finding Wayde. They made me work with everything. Farming, cleaning, getting my own food." It’s not a lie if she thinks better, and that took them by surprise.

"Do you know what those herbs are used for?" The doctor asks.

"No! Pff.. No." She tries to lie.

She hates that she has to lie that she’s not stupid.

"You weren’t very believable. You’re good at hiding or transforming the answer, but lying you’re horrible." Claud says in her mind.

"Shut up. Look who’s saying." She says back and he chuckles.

"If you were forced to farm you might know about herbs just by looking at them." The doctor says.

"Yes. That’s what I know about them." She nods, making Claud laugh in her mind.

Claud taught her a lot about medicine until now, and she wrote everything in her notebook. So it’s hard for him to not laugh at her lame words.

"Do you want to know what they can be used for?" He asks.

"Yes. It’s a good thing to know to help my family."

"I can teach you, if you teach me how to raise them."

"Boom! That’s what I was waiting for, my friend!" She says happily in her mind.

"Lee told me that farming is a big knowledge." She speaks like she was a pure silly girl.

"It is. Very. As much as medicine."

"That’s great. So, if it’s as much great. I will teach you if you let me be your medicine apprentice. Zin too. I’m too stupid, Zin is smarter." She says.

Lee, Wayde and Zin try to hide their impressed faces. Things turned tables greatly and she’s amazing at negotiating what she wants.

"You want to learn medicine?" The doctor asks.

"And Zin too. Farming will let you have not only herbs, you can have crops and fruits too. I believe that this knowledge can help you not only for medicine matters." She says sweetly.

"It’s true.. All right. I’ll have you two as apprentices, and you will teach me how to farm."

"Deal! The other parts of the deal, Lee and Wayde will talk to you about it another time."

"I’m impressed. You could be the leader with your audacity." Claud speaks.

Wayde and Lee got confused at first, but after the doctor left they waited for her to explain.

"First of all, why Zin? You’re too biased towards him!" Lee says jealous.

Zin smiles softly.

"Zin is good at medicine. You and Wayde have other things to do that will be as important too." She speaks.

She walks to her closet and takes a notebook. She takes some papers and spreads them on the table. All of them have drawings on them.

"This."

"What is that?" Wayde asks.

"This is a map. Maps are to illustrate the position of things. This is where the sun comes up, this is the village, this is our cabin, here is the forest Lee is building things for his tribe, here is the river. Can you understand until now?" She asks.

"Yes." All of them answer.

"You want to make a castle, which is great, but you’re not thinking of the consequences of that. The other tribesmen from both tribes will try to understand why protecting only me and not other females." She says.

"They can build their own castles if they can." Lee speaks.

"The problem is not the castle. They know you’re just giving what you can give to your female. The problem is not showing that you care for the other females. Our castle will call attention from everywhere and the other females will be easy targets. You will lose power not having the trust of your tribesmen, and you will not grow too. If you want to sell salt, you need man power." She explains.

Lee was happy because she called herself his female. He almost didn’t listen to what she explained next.

"You’re right. So what do you think that must be done?" Wayde asks.

"First, let’s talk about the castle. The area where our cabin is the greatest is beside the rock mountain where chief Shung lives, so..."

Then she explains the parts of the castle and how the structure needs to be so it doesn’t fall on their heads. Where would be a better idea to leave the salt.

The only thing she asked for was a garden.

"We need more rooms, I don’t want our kids in ours." Lee says.

"It’s true. As they grow up they will need more space too." Wayde speaks.

"Can you stop talking about my womb?" She asks, blushing.

"I will be the first just to let you all know." Wayde speaks.

"Are you sure? Bird eggs are easier on the female’s body." Lee grins.

"Brats! Hooligans!" She says taking her papers away.

"All right! Sorry. Continue." Lee speaks.

She sighs and puts back the papers. Then she shows the walls of the tribe. Having tall and large walls will keep the tribe more protected from invaders.

Having few ways to enter and leave the tribe will also make them always know who’s coming or leaving, besides birds.

The walls will be made of rock and wood, harder to destroy and will give invaders a hard time to trespass.

"This is amazing. I’m sure Shung will accept this. We can start all this as soon as the snow season is gone. For now, we need to prepare for winter." Lee speaks.

"It’s true. We need to hunt to smoke the most meat we can for Astri. To have meat all snowing season. Also have a lot of firewood." Wayde speaks.

"At least one of us needs to be here with Astri." Lee says.

Astri leaves them discussing what they think they need to do. Then she goes outside to her little plantation to keep talking to Claud.

He already knew all of that project, so it wasn’t news for him, even if he gets proud of everything she does.

"Tell me your secrets. Why is she so good to you?" Lee asks Zin.

"I heard that you chicken! Stop bothering him!" Astri says in a loud voice.

"See? She protects him. Why don’t you protect me?" Lee speaks.

"Because Wayde and Zin are not bullies towards you. Now stop this."

She goes back to her flowers and starts removing weeds, going back to talk with Claud.

"This female.. If I didn’t love her already.." Lee mumbles.

"If you could be more nice with your words and attitude, she would like you more." Wayde says.

Zin could only agree, Lee has an issue with his mouth.

"But there’s something else.. If it wasn’t the wings on your mark I would say she was a snake too." Lee keeps mumbling.

"I think that we just have a connection that you two don’t understand.." Zin speaks.

"What do you mean?" Wayde asks.

"You heard her. She was raised as a slave and not loved by anyone. She told me that the only love she felt was the one of the orphan children she tried to help when she was a slave. She knows what it feels like to be ignored and not loved just for being who you are." Zin explains.

Lee and Wayde didn’t have an answer for that.

There’s a difference between deciding to be alone when you want and being forced to do that since you were little.

It’s a pain Lee and Wayde really didn’t feel.

After learning that Astri suffered all of her childhood, they started to sympathize more with Zin.

They can see that Zin is helpful, protects Astri and respects her. Until now he didn’t show any threat to anyone.

Somehow treating Zin bad just for being a snake is the same as treating her bad too, and they don’t feel that’s correct.