Bai Yue stirred awake, her mind groggy and heavy with the remnants of a dream about overpriced lattes and a world that didn't involve people wanting her dead. But as she tried to roll over, she felt a sharp tug. Then another.
Her eyes snapped open. It was pitch black, save for the faint, silvery moonlight filtering through the cracks in the hut's walls.
"Ugh... what the—?"
She tried to lift her arms, but they were pinned to her sides. She tried to kick her legs, but they were lashed together. Someone had tied her up. And not with professional rope, either, it felt like a messy, tangled web of itchy hemp and vines.
"Hehehe.….did the old woman say the knots would hold?"
The whisper came from the corner of the hut. Bai Yue squinted into the shadows and saw two young boys. They looked like twins, maybe fifteen in human years, but their skin was dusted with fine, black scales that shimmered in the dark.
Snake beastmen. They were brandishing wooden sticks as if they were legendary swords.
She moved her head.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" the one on the left suddenly screamed, his voice cracking midway through. "The cursed female is not dead! Die! Die, you monster!"
Before Bai Yue could even process the situation, the two teenagers lunged forward and started whacking her with the sticks.
"Ouch! Hey! Stop that! Oww!" Bai Yue yelled, thrashing on the bed of pelts. The sticks didn't hurt that much, they were more like aggressive twigs, but the audacity was staggering. "You little brats! Stop it right now!"
With a surge of adrenaline and the surprisingly high strength of her new body, Bai Yue flexed her muscles. The poorly tied vine-ropes snapped with a series of satisfying pops.
The twins froze, their eyes turning into giant yellow saucers.
"She broke the cursed binding!" the right one shrieked. "Run for your life!"
They scrambled for the door, but Bai Yue was faster. She rolled off the bed and lunged, grabbing each of them by the scruff of their tunics before they could reach the exit.
"Naughty!" she snapped, danging them slightly. "What was that for? I was sleeping! Who attacks a sleeping woman with sticks?"
"We were protecting Ruì Xuě!" the taller twin shouted, kicking his legs fruitlessly. "He's our friend! We saw you looking at him with your demon-eyes today!"
"Yeah!" the second one added, his forked tongue flickering out in a show of bravado. "The old woman said if we tied the sacred ropes around you, your heart would stop and you'd return to the hell you came from! Why didn't you die?!"
Bai Yue felt a massive sigh build up in her chest. Sacred ropes? It looked like someone's laundry line. She looked at their terrified, determined faces and her anger drained away. They were just kids trying to protect their friend from a monster.
She let go of them, and they tumbled to the dirt floor. "Ugh. Look, I'm not going to eat Ruì Xuě. Now go home before I decide to turn you into snake-skin boots."
They didn't need to be told twice. They scrambled out of the hut, screaming about demons and failed rituals as they vanished into the night.
Bai Yue groaned, rubbing her sore arms. "Damn it, Tiān-Mìng.….why me? Why couldn't you have picked a villainess who was at least mildly liked?"
She felt filthy. Between the dirt, the sweat from her 'mini-fit,' and the smell of the panther-cubs, she felt like a walking swamp. She remembered the hot springs. The men should have left by now, she thought hopefully. It's the middle of the night. Surely it's safe.
She scurried out of the hut, using her newly downloaded memories to navigate the darkened forest paths. The hot spring was massive, a natural stone basin filled with steaming, bubbling water that smelled faintly of minerals and ancient Earth.
She looked around. The area was silent. No guards, no shouting husbands, no stick-wielding teenagers.
"Yay."
She carefully stripped off her fur garments, feeling a bit shy even with no one around, and slipped into the water. "Ahhh.….this is the stuff." She leaned her head back against a smooth rock, closing her eyes. She thought about the two snake-boys. Even though they had tried to kill her (sort of), she was happy Ruì Xuě had friends who cared that much about him.
Splash.
Bai Yue's heart did a triple-flip. She froze, her eyes snapping open. Please don't let there be someone here. Please let that be a very large, very athletic fish.
A head emerged from the center of the steaming pool.
He was closer than she expected. Droplets of water ran down a face that was beautiful, more elegant than the others. He had vibrant red eyes and fiery orange hair that he slicked back with a wet hand. His bare chest was lean but muscled, and he looked at her with a gaze that could have set the water on fire.
Zhāo Yàn. Her second husband. The Fox Lord.
"You," he hissed.
Bai Yue tried to focus on the fact that he was her husband and he hated her, but she was currently very occupied with the fact that she was neck-deep in a pool with him and had absolutely zero clothing on.
She swallowed hard, sinking deeper until only her nose and eyes were above the water. "I... I... I'm sorry!"
Zhāo Yàn squinted, swimming a few inches closer, his red eyes narrowing with intense loathing. "Cursed female. I heard you had crawled back to the tribe, but I didn't believe it. You witch. You look even more disgusting than I remembered." He scoffed, a cruel smirk dancing on his lips. "I wish you would have died in that forest."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she bubbled through the water.
He scoffed again, looking bored. "Shut up. Your apologies are as fake as your beauty."
Without a shred of modesty, Zhāo Yàn stood up to leave the spring. He was.….well, he was a fox beastman, and he was currently wearing nothing but the steam.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Bai Yue shrieked, covering her eyes and splashing water everywhere.
Zhāo Yàn startled, jumping back a step. "What?! What is it?!"
"Cover up! My eyes! My innocent eyes!" she screamed.
He looked down at himself, then back at her, a look of pure confusion crossing his face. "Cover up? Bai Yue, you had my cub. You've seen me shift a thousand times. What is wrong with you?"
"It doesn't mean I want to see you.….you... everything right now!"
He scoffed, his lip curling in a sneer. "You are disgusting. And weird. Stay in your hut and rot, Bai Yue."
He grabbed a leather wrap from a nearby rock and walked away into the shadows, his bushy orange tail flicking once in a gesture of pure dismissal.
Bai Yue sat in the water, trembling and red-faced. Two beast husbands in one day. One tried to kill me, the other just traumatized me with his birthday suit.
She quickly scurried out, throwing her clothes back on with trembling fingers. As she was trying to fix her hair, and running, she bumped into a solid, warm chest.
"Whoa!"
Mo Xiao caught her by the shoulders. He looked at her wet hair and then sniffed the air. "Why.….were you in the hot springs? And why does the air smell like Fox?"
"I... I was just washing," she panted. "And Zhāo Yàn was there."
Mo Xiao's brow furrowed. "Zhāo Yàn was here? Strange. He hardly comes to this part of the territory anymore. He usually stays in the Eastern woods." He sighed, letting go of her shoulders. "Come. The tribe is gathering for the evening meal."
Bai Yue swallowed hard. The entire tribe? That meant hundreds of beastmen who all called her 'the cursed female.' "Should.….should I be there?"
Mo Xiao looked shocked again. He leaned in, peering into her eyes. "Are you not hungry?"
She nodded shyly. "Yes. I am."
"Then come with me," he said, his voice firm but not unkind. "You will sit afar from us, as usual. But you will eat."
Bai Yue nodded, looking back toward the hot spring where the steam was still rising. She had fifteen days to make a cub smile, three husbands who wanted her dead, and a reputation that made children want to tie her up with laundry lines.
Sigh. She had a lot of work to do.
[Day 1/15: Active]