The Beast king’s advisor a cheetah beastman arrived on a morning that felt like any other.

Lin Wan was outside with her freshly squeezed pineapple fruit juice when unfamiliar footsteps echoed through the cave entrance.

She sat up straight.

Wang was already on his feet.

The male who stepped into the caldera was lean, grey at the temples, and had the look of someone who had been travelling for days and intended to keep it professional about it. His eyes found Qin Mo immediately. He dropped to one kneel

"Beast King."

Qin Mo stepped forward, putting himself between the advisor and everyone else without looking like he was doing it, it was obvious he didn’t want them to hear what they’re going to talk about.

"Walk with me," he said.

They moved to the far edge of the caldera. Lin Wan watched from her chair. She wasn’t pretending not to watch. The advisor spoke at length. Qin Mo listened. Then he said something short and the advisor bowed his head.

The advisor left.

Qin Mo stood at the cave entrance with his back to everyone.

Then he turned.

Lin Wan was looking at him.

Something moved through his expression. Then he started walking toward her.

Lin Wan stood up, picked up her empty cup, and walked inside.

Qin Mo stopped mid-step.

’is she angry r,’ he thought. ’Is it anger? I can’t tell what her mood is.’

He stood there for a second. Then he followed her.

Lin Wan heard his footsteps behind her all the way down the corridor. She pushed open the door to her and Wang’s room and walked in.

Wang was inside sharpening a blade. He looked up at her face, then at Qin Mo in the doorway.

Lin Wan turned around.

"I want to go to," she said.

Qin Mo blinked. "What."

"To Beast City." She grabbed Wang’s arm with both hands, shook his arm up and down. "I want to go. I’ve been in this valley for almost two months and I haven’t seen anything outside of it. I want to see the world. I want to eat different food. I want to see what’s out there, I want to travel. Please."

Wang looked at her, puzzled.

Then his gaze turned to Qin Mo over her head, the question was obvious.

Qin Mo was staring at Lin Wan like she had just said something in a language he didn’t know existed.

’I silently prepared myself for her anger,’ he thought. ’receiving the cold shoulder from her, or even crying.’

’but this. . . This came as an unexpected surprise and joy, it’s better to have her along with me, everywhere I go.’

"Then We’ll all go together," Wang said.

Lin Wan released his arm immediately. The pout vanished. "Really?"

"Yes."he nodded his head in affirmation

Lin Wan was already moving, her brain thinking about what they need to carry, food, light cloth, and some condiments and other things. "Good. The dried meat needs to be wrapped before it spoils. We need enough fruit for at least two weeks. Furs for sleeping. Qin Mo, how cold does it get on the road at night? Should I—"

Wang quickly put two fingers on top of her head, to stop her spinning brain.

"Tomorrow," he said. "We prepare tomorrow and leave the day after."

Lin Wan looked at him. Then nodded happily. today or tomorrow, any is fine with her as long as they really get to go, although it was the intended destination they planned on when they left the tribe, due to some events they stayed back, but it’s still nice to go see and then come back to the coldera, their home.

She walked out already making lists in her head.

Qin Mo watched her go.

Then he exhaled. Long and slow.

Wang looked at him sideways. "You were that worried about her reaction."

"Of course, the thought of not her being angry at me leaving and then going to the city without her."

"You’ve been with her for so long and you still don’t know her well enough yet," Wang said, and went back to his blade.

Qin Mo had nothing to say to that. Mostly because it was true.

They spent that day and the next preparing. Dried meat wrapped. Fruits selected. Furs packed and tied. Da Jun asked so many questions about Beast City that Keal eventually told him to pack something instead of talking and Da Jun said he was doing both simultaneously which was true, so Keal left him to his device.

On the morning they left, Lin Wan stepped out of her house and looked at the three cob structures standing in the early light.

She had built those.

Well. She had directed the building of those.

Close enough.

She picked up her tote bag, as it was the only thing she was allowed to carry and followed the others out.

At the cave entrance she stopped.

"Qin Mo," she said. "What if someone finds this place while we’re gone? Can they just walk in and take over our home?"

it will be a bummer to find out someone took over their home while they were gone.

Seeing the worry on Lin wan’s eyes, Qin Mo walked to the cave entrance where a large flat-faced rock jutted out from the wall. He set both hands against it and pushed.

The rock moved. Smooth and deliberate, swinging along a line worn deep into the stone, until the entrance narrowed, sealed, and became nothing but unbroken rock face.

Lin Wan stared at it.

’It was here the whole time a natural mechanism,’ she thought amazed ’We’ve been living next to a secret door this entire time and nobody mentioned it!.’

"How do we get back in?" she asked curious.

Qin Mo pressed a small notch on the underside of the rock. A faint click, and the seal loosened.

"Same way," he said.

"And nobody else knows about this notch?"

"Before it was only me, but now it’s the few of us here that knows about it."

Lin Wan looked at the solid rock face. Then at where the entrance used to be. Then back at Qin Mo.

"You could have mentioned this earlier," she said.

"You didn’t ask," Qin Mo said.

Lin Wan had nothing to say to this straight man either. She turned and looked at the open valley ahead of them.

"Alright," she said. "Let’s go."

Wang was already shifting to his beast form.

A massive Silver leopard stood in place of him, its Golden eyes on Lin Wan the moment the shift was done.

He lowered himself to the ground, motioning for Lin to climb up

Lin Wan climbed up. Before she had fully settled down, furs and hides were already being wrapped around her from the front, coverage from chin to toe, a gap left for her face that was exactly big enough to see through and breathe and absolutely nothing else.

Lin Wan looked out through her gap. "Qin Mo. I look like a travel bundle."

Wang stood up.

The gap didn’t change.

"Fine," Lin Wan said.

They moved.

Through the thick Forest. Some times open ground. other times they spent on Climbing terrain. The pace was fast and it stayed fast. Qin Mo ran ahead scouting. Keal and Da Jun flanked them. Nobody suggested slowing down.

Lin Wan quickly got used to the rhythm of it.

Wang only slowed down when she needed to eat, just enough that she wouldn’t choke, the food passing back to her one piece at a time. When she needed to stop he stopped. When she slept against his back he kept his movements as smooth as the ground allowed, which on some stretches wasn’t very smooth at all but he tried.

The males slept in short rotations. Two hours each while the group kept moving. Lin Wan slept through most of the night travel, waking each morning to different trees and the same relentless pace.

By the end of the first week she had bathed once.

Once.

At a shallow river they’d crossed mid-afternoon, standing in knee deep water fully clothed because there wasn’t time for anything more dignified.

By the end of the second week, twice more. Once at another river. Once in the rain.

’I am,’ Lin Wan thought, looking at her own hands one afternoon, ’the dirtiest human being on this continent. Possibly in history.’

"Wang," she said.

"Mn."

"We’re going to arrive before a month at this pace."

"Mn."

"That’s not an answer." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Mn."

Lin Wan stared at the back of his silver head. "Is something wrong? Why are we moving this fast?"

"I want to arrive early," Wang said.

’That,’ Lin Wan thought, ’is the least convincing thing you have ever said in your life.’

She looked ahead at Qin Mo moving through the trees, steady and purposeful. At Keal, who hadn’t relaxed his watch once in two weeks. At Da Jun, who was alert in a way that had nothing to do with his usual curiosity.

All of them.

Something had shifted the moment that advisor left the caldera and it had not shifted back.

She didn’t ask again.

Wang would tell her when he was ready.

Or when he had no choice but to spill it.

She pulled the fur tighter around herself and watched the trees.

One week down.

Beast City was getting closer.