A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 147: Distracted

She headed straight to the oak tree, wanting to speak to Emma about getting more brown strips for baskets. They were running out of them for normal storage as well as storage within her subspace.

As she walked to the oak tree where Emma was sitting with the other beastwomen, Serena had to dodge several beastmen lugging around large pieces of wood. A few were even carrying baskets.

In other words the village center was total chaos.

So much so that she spotted Kiro and his friends playing right by the oak tree. Which now that she thought about it was probably for the best. One of them could easily get hurt with all the work going on for the festival.

"Sister!" Kiro called out when he noticed her presence. The cub ran over to her and asked, "Do I have to come back now?"

"No." Serena patted his head. "You can go play. I’ve come to talk with some of your friends’ mothers."

Kiro nodded his head in understanding before he ran back to his friends, joining in on their game again. Serena, meanwhile, turned her attention to the group of beastwomen.

"So what brings you here today?" Wilma raised an eyebrow. "Still finishing up with cold season preparations?"

"Sort of... We’re mostly done now, but I’m trying to get some extra work done before then." Serena answered, gazing over at Emma. "Speaking of which, is your mate still making those brown strips? We’re in need of some more."

Emma pursed her lips at those words. "You’ve finished using the bunch I gave you already?!"

"Yeah..." Serena said sheepishly. "Meat takes up a lot of space... and we go through a lot of meat in a day too. So we need to store a lot."

One deer could last Theo two days and that was just by himself. Adding Kiro and herself, well that deer lasted one day for all three meals. And only because Serena added vegetables to her and Kiro’s diet.

Otherwise they’d be consuming way more meat. Serena did think about reducing the number of meals they had to save on food, but she also worried about Kiro not getting the right amount of food needed for him to grow.

When she first arrived in this world, Kiro had been skin and bones. However, now he was starting to show a bit of chubbiness in his cheeks and had a much healthier complexion.

She didn’t want to see him going back to that malnourished state. If it took more effort for them to gather and store food, then so be it. Serena was even willing to skip meals if it was necessary.

But she wouldn’t deny the cub what he needed. Kiro didn’t need to suffer. He had gone through enough as it was.

"I see..." Emma coughed. "Well, my mate isn’t making any more brown strips until the rainy season... But I believe we do have a bunch leftover. If we don’t need it, then I’ll sell it for one basket of food or two depending on how much we have."

"That works for me." Serena nodded her head in understanding. "Shall I come by tomorrow to see what you have?"

"Sure." Emma answered. "I can let you know tomorrow."

Wilma then suddenly shot up and grabbed Serena’s arm. "Now that that’s sorted, why don’t we have a little chat. After all, a little break for all that hard work wouldn’t hurt."

Serena stiffened at the rabbit beastwoman’s words, but let herself be dragged down by Wilma. Spending an hour with them wouldn’t hurt.

***

Serena and Kiro headed back to the hut, walking hand in hand. Behind them the sun hung low in the sky, close to sunset and casted a warm glow around the village.

She was only meant to stay in the village center for a short while. However, the rabbit beastwomen managed to keep her there until it got late and everyone needed to return.

And the interesting part was Serena didn’t feel upset about it. She found herself enjoying herself, lowering her guard for just a bit. It had been a while since she let loose like that and it felt good.

Of course, she did feel a little guilty about leaving Theo to prep the meat for storage all on his own. She knew he could handle the work, but it seemed a little unfair to her that he was working while she was messing around.

Not to mention she had also left Finn alone while he was working on the most important aspect of the grinder. Sure he wanted space as he worked, but Serena needed to also be close by in case he needed any help with the design.

"Today was fun!" Kiro stately happily, pulling Serena away from her thoughts. He was quiet for a moment, turning to look at Serena.

She noticed he was fidgeting with the hem of his fur skirt, clearly wanting to ask her something. So she said, "What do you want? Don’t be scared to ask."

"Can... Can my friends come over?" Kiro asked after a moment of silence. "I want to show them the wild birds again..."

Right she had told the cub that his friends could come visit the wild birds again. It had split her mind, but she supposed it wouldn’t be a bad idea.

"That’s not a problem Kiro." Serena smiled reassuringly at him. "If you want, we can have them over for the whole day... Though I might need to talk with Theo and their parents first to plan it all."

She was jumping the gun a little by having the cubs spend a day at the hut, but it was the least she could do after all the times the rabbit beastwomen had looked out for Kiro while she was doing other things. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Granted, she would have to talk to Theo about having a bunch of rabbit cubs over. Showing them the wild birds was one thing, but having them there the whole day was another.

And she didn’t want to do something like that without his knowledge.

Kiro, meanwhile, lit up at that thought, eyes blazing with excitement. "Yes! Let’s do that!"

"Alright." Serena chuckled. "But let me talk to the adults first okay."

"Okay!"