Beastmen Love-Chapter 36: Curious Glutton

All of them ate a lot, Cyprian was amazed with the delicious meal.

"Fried chicken is always good." Astri says satisfied. "I want to bathe."

"Sure. After this feast, you deserve a nice bath." Wayde smiles at her and kisses her cheek.

Zin is faster to get water, he can carry many buckets alone, so slithers to the river. Cyprian watches what Wayde is doing for Astri, carrying a bathtub inside. Lee takes clean clothes and a towel to put near the bathtub, then Wayde comes from outside and spreads some flowers and plants that have a nice smell inside the bathtub.

While she’s bathing, Zin guards her from outside, Wayde and Lee bring Cyprian to the river and all three bathe.

They tell Cyprian that he needs to get used to bathe everyday if he wishes to be around Astri, especially to sleep in the cabin. Cyprian has no issue with that, he can do anything she asks.

"Astri is very nice, gentle and kind, but she has some principles that she doesn’t step away from. And whenever she gets angry she shocks everyone." Lee speaks.

"What do you mean?" Cyprian asks.

"Since she’s always so calm and kind, it’s shocking. She knows how to defend herself and the way she speaks makes even a male mute." Wayde answers.

"And also be careful because she has a protective instinct too. She’s a fearless little female. Once she faced six males that were looking for trouble with Zin, that Ana who was clinging on to you was spreading lies about Zin. Astri beat up Ana and even threatened those males that they would need to face her first if they wanted to harm any of us. Oh, I get hard just talking about that." Lee says.

"It’s because you didn’t see her really beating up Ana. Dieg and I brought her to bathe in the river. When we came back Ana had invaded our cabin and ripped all her books, papers, and broke some painting tools. I never saw her so angry. She knocked out three males and beat Ana until she was crying for her father." Wayde tells.

"Damn... I wish I could have seen that, even if I imagine that she was also very sad with what happened." Lee says.

"She knows how to read and write?" Cyprian asks, just then Wayde and Lee realized they spoke too much.

"Whatever, you will be around all the time, so you would have found out either way." Lee speaks.

"We need to be more careful when talking about her." Wayde says.

"You’re right. You must be careful. She has all the reasons monsters and evil beasts want in a female." Cyprian speaks.

"The castle will take a bit long to be built. I’ll send some feather beastmen to nearby tribes to bring more beasts and build it faster." Lee says.

"I can help build this castle too. I can carry more rocks than others. Astri needs a safer place." Cyprian speaks.

"If you want to, we won’t stop you. We need this help if we want to finish this castle fast." Wayde speaks.

"Tomorrow Astri will start teaching the tribe doctor farming. And he will teach her medicine. She and Zin will learn more about medicine. She already knows a lot, but she says she wants to learn more." Lee says.

"It’s something good to know indeed. I noticed she likes to feel useful." Cyprian speaks.

"How will you be helping her to shift?" Wayde asks Cyprian.

"She needs to learn to open up to Nature more and I’ll be only answering the questions she has and that I know the answers. I don’t know how her kind learns how to shift, so only Nature can teach her. I can only support her by teaching what I know." Cyprian answers.

They stay quiet for some moments.

"Did she always treat you like that?" Cyprian asks.

"Yes. I think it’s amazing that she’s so sweet even after what she went through." Wayde speaks.

"She has the purest energy and she can transform bad energies into good ones even not knowing she’s doing that. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt her feelings, that she doesn’t get angry." Cyprian explains.

"Can we help her with something?" Wayde asks.

"Motivate her to keep growing her mind. Something that she’s already doing. With a stronger mind, she will be able to understand more about herself."

They nod and decide to trust Cyprian.

—--

The following days are busy. Astri and Zin are learning medicine from the tribe doctor, Astri is teaching him farming and Lee, Wayde and Cyprian are building the castle.

One day she decided to take a day off, then she made some snacks and brought it to where the castle is being built inside the forest with Zin. She’s shocked to see that the castle is taking form very fast.

Beastmen are way stronger than humans, what would take humans years to build takes a few months for beastmen. And after around only 40 days, it looked like 6 months of work.

A male sees Astri and Zin carrying some bags, he blushes seeing such a beautiful female. He’s a bear beastman, so he’s very large. He has brown skin and short hair. He has three marks and doesn’t want to make the snake angry.

"Excuse me. Do you know where Lee, Wayde and Cyprian are?" She asked him and his heart jumped.

He couldn’t form words properly, feeling embarrassed.

"I’m going to call them!" He says and runs away.

Astri shrugs her shoulders. Other males appear curious to see the famous mate of the most powerful beasts from the tribe.

"Everyone is staring at me." She whispers, feeling embarrassed.

"Who wouldn’t stare at the most beautiful female?" Zin says proudly.

"I’m not."

"You are. Don’t worry. They won’t come over knowing they would pick up a fight with us."

Lee and Cyprian come flying half-shifted. Then Wayde appears right after running. She smiles and waves at them.

"My boys. I brought some snacks for you." She tells them showing the skin bags.

They smile happy to have her delicious food and also presence.

"We could take some rest. Let’s eat together?" Lee asks.

"Yes! The castle is becoming beautiful and is super huge. You, guys, are awesome. How could you bring such big rocks??" She says walking with them.

"Cyprian can carry almost anything." Wayde speaks.

"That’s amazing!" She says to Cyprian. He smiles lovingly at her.

Anyone can see that Cyprian is in love with Astri, but he never steps further than her protector. Astri got closer to him, but since he doesn’t show that he’s courting her she lets him be comfortable and doesn’t force anything.

She believes that to become mates with anyone must happen naturally.

The other males around watch that family envious, those males have such a caring and kind female. She treats them so well that even mated males feel envious.

"I tried this new recipe with rock fruits and meat." She says showing the little buns.

The smell is great, but when they touch it feels a bit hard. They bite and it’s crunchy outside and soft inside and the flavor of the meat comes after.

"This is delicious. I could eat this all day." Lee speaks.

"It’s true. And we can eat with one bite, makes me want to eat more." Wayde says.

"That’s why we made a lot. During the snowing season we can keep it frozen and then just fry it when we want. So it can be stocked during winter and use less meat too." She says.

"You don’t have to worry about having too little meat during the snowing season anymore." Lee speaks.

"But it’s practical and can be also taught to others to help them have more food." She says.

"That’s true. Zin will teach some males how to do it to some males and they will teach the others." Lee affirms.

Zin nods, agreeing with keeping Astri away from males.

She pulls up a bowl with a red liquid. Then put it in the middle of them. She takes a ball.

"Now try like this." She says dipping the ball in the liquid, then eating it.

They do the same and their eyes get impressed. She laughs.

"What is this??" Wayde asks.

"Look at that reaction. This is made with boiled red fruit, salt and smell herb." She explains.

She basically made some kind of ketchup sauce.

"Your creativity has no limit." Cyprian says.

"I’m just a glutton who’s curious." She speaks, and they laugh.

When they’re finished, Wayde, Lee and Cyprian don’t really want to go back to work and they want to spend more time with her.

"We have to go back. We need to finish Astri’s castle." Wayde speaks.

"You say that because tomorrow it will be your turn to guard her." Lee says.

Wayde smiles and shrugs shoulders.

Even if Zin is learning medicine, Wayde and Lee shift places with him because they think Zin spends more time with her than them. Cyprian also wants to spend more time with her, but since he’s not her mate he doesn’t meddle.

"See you at home, my loves. Careful." She says waving at them as she walks away, also leaving their hearts warm.

Cyprian felt his cheeks burn because he felt included.

Zin and Astri are walking holding hands. She starts to feel something weird, she stops and she feels the wind directing her attention to her right side.

"What is it, my love?" Zin asks.

"I feel like there’s something that way.." She says looking to where the wind is directing her.

Zin looks at where she’s looking and flicks his tongue. He feels danger, a great danger trying to hide. He carries her princess style and half-shifts.

"Let’s go back to the others." Zin speaks.