The forest was quieter the second time they got there.
Neve walked beside Cael with the spike in his hand and the system floating at the edge of his vision and tried to focus.
'At least hunting is better than mating with these animals,' he thought. 'Marginally. But better.'
He almost felt bad calling them animals.
Almost.
They were literally animals.
"How's this?"
Neve looked up.
Cael had shifted at some point without him noticing and was standing over an antelope in his leopard form, teeth sunk into its neck, the animal hanging completely still.
Neve stared at it and blinked once.
He immediately turned his face away. "Fine. That's fine."
He looked at his system screen and waited.
But there was nothing. No notification. No mission update. No level increase. Nothing at all.
"Wait." He frowned. "Do I have to hunt it myself?"
He hadn't meant to say it out loud.
Cael shifted back and looked at him. "Absolutely not. Females don't hunt. I will not have my mate doing such things."
Neve pinched the bridge of his nose.
He was going to be called a female for the rest of his life in this world. He could feel it.
"Cael." He held up the spike. "Find me another animal. Don't kill it. Bring it to me alive."
Cael looked at him for a long moment, as if he wanted to argue. Then looked at Neve's face. Then went back into the forest without a word.
He returned faster than Neve expected, leopard form again, another antelope pinned under his paws and very much still alive and very much unhappy about it.
He dropped it in front of Neve and pressed down so it couldn't move.
"Stab the neck," Cael said.
Neve looked at the antelope.
The antelope looked at Neve.
His hand was shaking. He could feel it. He had cleaned enclosures and carried feed and watched animals get sick and sometimes not get better, so they ended up dying. But, he had never once in his life been the one to end it.
"Neve," Cael said quietly.
Neve closed his eyes and stabbed downward.
Blood hit his face immediately. Warm and sudden. The animal shook hard once under Cael's paws and then went still.
Neve stood there with his eyes closed.
'It's just hunting,' he told himself. 'It's just how this world works. This is normal here. This is fine.'
He was not going to cry about an antelope.
{System Notification: Hunt Mission Complete!}
{Level increased! +2 to all stats.}
The screen expanded in front of him and Neve opened his eyes.
{STATS — NEVE}
Name: Neve
Level: 1 → 2
Tribe: Red Panda (Rare)
Strength: 2 (+2)
Agility: 3 (+2)
Stamina: 2 (+2)
Intelligence: 8 (+2)
Appearance: MAXED
Pheromones: 60%
(Warning: Heat begins once Pheromones reach 100%)
Estrogen Level: Present
Fertility Rate: Abnormally High
{ABILITIES UNLOCKED}
Favourability Meter
Beast Language (Passive)
Neve stared at the pheromone percentage for a long time.
'Sixty per cent,' he thought. 'And heat starts at a hundred.'
He closed the screen before he could think about it too hard.
"Now that we're done," Cael said, shifting back and picking up both antelopes like they weighed nothing, "let's head back. It's getting late."
Neve nodded and followed.
.
.
Cael gave one antelope to the villagers on the way through and kept the second one. Neve went straight to the river barrel outside the cave and started scrubbing the blood off his face.
It wasn't coming off.
He scrubbed harder. The water was clean but without soap, without anything to cut through it, it just smeared.
He groaned.
'Soap, I need soap,' he thought. 'It doesn't exist here. Of course it doesn't.'
He scrubbed until his face felt raw and then gave up and found a spot to sit near the cave entrance. Behind him, Cael had started skinning the antelope with a sharp stone. The smell of blood was heavy in the air.
A sharp stone because knives were apparently rare.
Neve looked at the cave walls. The straw mat. The animal skins. The carved bone decorations.
He really was in another world. He kept knowing it and then forgetting and then knowing it again.
He shut his eyes.
"Neve." Cael's voice. "Would this piece be enough for you?"
He opened his eyes.
Raw meat. Right in front of his face, held out in Cael's bloody hand.
"Is there something we can cook it in?" Neve asked. "Like a pot? Some kind of container over heat?"
Cael stared at him. "Cook?"
"Yes. Heat the meat until—"
He stopped.
Right. New ability or not, some concepts just didn't have words here yet.
"Fire," he tried. "Do you know fire?"
"Fire." Cael's expression shifted slightly. "I know what fire is. It's dangerous. It can kill us."
"You won't be touching it," Neve said. "I will."
Cael looked deeply unconvinced.
Neve lay back and stared at the cave ceiling and thought about bamboo.
He had seen it during the hunt. A good patch of it, dry enough. The bamboo fire saw method — friction, heat, ember. He had watched someone do it on a survival show once. He was fairly sure he remembered enough.
He would do so tomorrow morning.
He closed his eyes again. He was asleep before he made any further decisions about it.
.
.
Cold water hit him like a wall.
Neve shot upright gasping, soaking wet, heart going at an unreasonable speed. He coughed and looked around wildly.
Two women stood in front of him. Ears on their heads, tails behind them, matching expressions that said they had enjoyed doing that very much. The taller one was already smirking.
Neve pushed wet hair out of his face. "What—"
"You're the one," the tall one said, "who stole the young chief from Isabella."
Neve looked at her, confusion pasted all over his face.
"Who," he said slowly, "the fuck is Isabella?"