The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 222: You are... very stubborn

"Are you about to hibernate?"

The question hung in the air, heavy and sudden. Fenric and Noah both froze, their own meals forgotten as they turned their gazes toward the snake beastman.

Damar’s jaw tightened, a flicker of something like shame crossing his face. "I am a cold-blooded creature, Ari. When the sun hides and the earth turns to ice... my blood slows. It is... natural."

"Natural?" I repeated, my grip on his hand tightening as if I could squeeze my own warmth into his veins. I’d heard about hibernation back in my world, but this wasn’t an animal in a burrow—this was my husband. "If you sleep now, Damar... when will you wake up?"

He did not answer so I looked at Fenric and Noah, looking for answers, but they both looked grim.

"Usually," Noah said, his voice unusually quiet, "...serpent-types don’t wake until the snow dies. Sometimes months. If the winter is harsh... sometimes they don’t wake in between at all."

My stomach did a slow, sick flip. The idea of Damar lying here, a cold, unmoving statue while the rest of us lived our lives—and worse the babies would be born while he sleeps—made my throat tighten until it hurt.

"No," I said, moving from my spot to crawl into the space beside him. I wrapped my arms around his torso, pressing my chest against his back, trying to share every bit of the ’internal furnace’ I had. "I’m not letting you go to sleep for months. I didn’t work this hard to get us to a cave just to lose you to a nap."

Damar let out a long, shaky exhale, his body leaning into mine with a heavy, boneless weight. "Ari... you cannot fight the seasons."

"Watch me," I muttered, looking at the other two. "Fenric, Noah, get over here. We need to sandwich him. If his blood is slow, we’re going to speed it up. We have the fire, we have the furs, and he has us. We aren’t just ’staying warm’ tonight. We’re keeping him awake."

Fenric didn’t hesitate. He moved behind Damar, wrapping his massive, hot arms around both of us, his chin resting on Damar’s shoulder. Noah moved to the front, tucking the heavy blankets around Damar’s legs and then pressing himself against his knees.

"You’re not going anywhere, Snake," Fenric rumbled, his chest vibrating against my back. "Who else am I going to argue with all winter?"

Noah simply shook his head as he regarded our action as pointless but I couldn’t bear it. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Damar’s eyes opened a sliver, a faint, dazed smile touching his lips as he felt the overwhelming heat of the three of us pressing into him.

"You are... very stubborn," Damar whispered, his voice sounding a little more present, a little less like it was drifting from a distance, but it was also sounding unlike him.

"I have to be," I said, resting my head against his shoulder. "I have a lot of work for you to do this winter. You can’t just sleep through it."

We stayed like that for a long time, a huddle of fur and limbs in the center of the dark cave. Slowly, very slowly, I felt the deathly chill leave Damar’s skin. He wasn’t ’hot’ like the others, but he wasn’t a stone anymore. He was a living man.

I didn’t want to cry because I wanted to hope fervently and with that, I fell asleep clutching him.

By the morning, the fire had burned down to a heap of glowing white ash. The warmth we had fought so hard to build was still there, trapped under the heavy furs, but as I opened my eyes, I gound myself lying on the blanket with another drapped over me for warmth... someone had moved me.

I quickly raised my head, only for a silent gasp to escape my lips as I found Damar coiled in his beast form just above my head.

He was still and... Cold.

"Damar?" I called, my voice silent as if I wished he wouldn’t respond because he didn’t hear me, rather than because he ’couldn’t.’

He looked like a living corpse.

My lower lip quivered and I bit it so hard I tasted blood, fighting back the tears that threatened to blur my vision. I had spent the whole night pressing my body against his, whispering to him, trying to pull him back from the edge of the dark, and yet I found myself sleeping on a blanket he may or may not have laid for me before the winter took him away.

"Why didn’t he mention anything before now?" I asked, my voice cracking. A single, hot tear slid down my cheek and splashed onto Damar’s cold shoulder. "He knew this was coming. He knew the snow would do this to him. Why keep it a secret?"

Fenric, who was already sitting up and stoking the embers of the fire, didn’t look back at me immediately. He looked tired, his broad shoulders slumped under the weight of the morning.

"Maybe because he wished it wouldn’t happen," Fenric answered quietly. He set the poker aside and finally turned, his ruby eyes somber. He didn’t look particularly sad—death and the cycles of nature were things he lived with every day—but he wasn’t happy either. There was a grim acceptance in his expression that I hated.

"He’s a proud one, Ari," Fenric continued. "To a serpent, hibernation isn’t just a nap; it’s a vulnerability. In the wild, it’s when they’re most likely to be eaten or frozen solid. But more than that... he wanted to be here. With you. He probably thought if he stayed close enough to your fire, he could cheat the seasons."

I looked back at Damar’s peaceful, form. I thought about him sitting by the lake, applying that green paste to my scratches. I thought about him carrying me through the blizzard, his arms feeling like iron. He had been fighting his own body every step of the way just to stay by my side for as long as possible.

"He’s so cold," I whispered.

"His body might’ve shut down," Noah said, leaning over from the other side to squeeze my hand. His golden eyes were sharp, scanning Damar with a practical sort of worry. "But his spirit is still there. He can probably feel you, but can’t do anything about it."

I wiped my face with the back of my hand, a fierce, protective fire starting to replace the sorrow in my chest.

The thought that snakes become vulnerable during hibernation means Damar trusted me—us—with his body during such a vulnerable time. And I’ll make sure to keep him safe.

"Don’t worry too much, Damar. We’ll keep you safe," I said, my voice hardening as I rested my forehead on his cold scaly body. "We won’t let the fire go out, and we will make sure nothing—not even a squirrel—disturbs you, so rest easy and please... Wake up soon, for me and..." A tear slid down again as I raised my head to look at his form. "And the cubs. They’d love to know their snake daddy." I smiled, though it didn’t reach my eyes..

I felt pain. I clenched my fists over my chest.

It’s waiting, right? I’ll wait, but I don’t know how long I can wait before my heart feels too heavy for me to carry.

Without Damar, it just doesn’t seem complete anymore.

"Oh, and there’s one more thing," Noah said and I turned my head to him. "When snake beastmen get out of hibernation, they usually go into a rut so... Be prepared."

My eyes widened at this sudden news.

"What?!"