"I told Rupert about her, sir, I've known about her since she was a child. Her mother came to the city in search of anyone else like Shuule, but of course I hadn't heard of any girl like her. I told the King at the time right away, He must have just not thought it relevant to inform you when you took over."
"No, Rupert did not think to tell me that there was a transforming fox female outside of the city while he was nursing his wounds," growled Edgar. "This is unnatural."
"Then you'd let her leave if she wanted?" asked Harvey.
"NO," the king snarled.
Quietly, Anna, Iro, and Harvey all exchanged glances at each other. It seemed pretty contradictory, but the tiger was clearly on edge and not even Iro wanted to cross him today.
"She's not a threat," Harvey continued, trying to soothe the beast. "She's young, she's scared, she'll be loyal to whoever gives her a soft place to land and lacks judgment."
The tiger stared down the doctor, but h
"If there aren't anymore surprises, I've got other matters to attend to. Harvey, I trust you'll keep attending to this issue until it's settled?""I'll watch them." All heads turned, because it wasn't Harvey who offered, but rather Anna, who was standing steadfast. "Harvey is our best, practically our only, doctor, if the issue does not have to do with Shuule's wounds, he should be freed from other tasks."Harvey wrung his hands; she was correct, and he wanted all these males out of his house - but that would also mean he was alone again. Having the company of others was a fleeting adventure, though perhaps he would have a mother or two needing birthing help this winter.Iro frowned, knowing that Anna offering was more that her spouses' would be watching - it wasn't as though a female would be able to handle Set if something were to go awry. But it was not his place to protest, and the King nodded to his daughter, before opening the door and leaving, alone. The
Pouting wasn't going to do him any good, Iro knew. The women were the head of the household, and even though it wasn't customary to allow other males to stay in your home, nothing was customary about the current situation, and they also had the good fortune of a huge home. It wasn't the same as having multiple families holed up in a one or two bedroom standard dwelling.Grumbling, under his breath, he stood in the corner next to the door, fuming, waiting for the rest of them to ready their things. Set had decided that nobody was going to make him transform out of his half-snake, believing that it would keep people from getting closer to his mate while they entered the streets for the first time. He helped Shuule change and dress into the gifted tiger clothing, while Anna focused on Harvey's instructions on what to look for if Shuule was falling ill from her wounds. He would be over the next day to open the dressing and repack it, if necessary. If she was a normal female, the
Shuule and Set stood in the empty room, together, silent, Shuule looking down at the ground, shoulders slumped."I know.... that this is a lot to take in," stated Set."Why didn't you tell me who your family was?" Shuule whimpered, her lip beginning to quiver.The snake tilted his head at the girl. She cried a lot, he felt, but she was young, and had been through much the last few days. And perhaps the women in his memories just didn't cry enough."Would it have made a difference?" he answered quietly. "Would I have been more tolerable if I broadcasted that my mother was famous? Or that she wasn't a snake?"Shuule's eyes went wide, and started to stutter a retort, but Set moved towards her in a sweeping slide, putting a finger up to her lips."You don't have to answer. I'm sorry. I could have said something. Don't cry, Shuule. You're safe. We're going to figure out a life here. I know it wasn't part of your own plans, but, I always imagined
Turning up and around a column of steps would have normally been hard for Set to navigate with his snake body, but the staircase was created wide specifically so his own father wouldn't have to change into his legs to climb them. The pair followed Anna, Shuule looking at the steps themselves, amazed at the application of what to her were multiple stone pedestals stacked on top of each other. No homes from her village had second levels, but she could understand perhaps a ladder connecting the two. Her mother had explained the buildings from her journey to The City, but she hadn't been inside any of the double story structures. Unlike modern human world homes, the rooms were all fairly uniform without a clear indication what each would be intended for. Anna pointed to a room to the left, with an old wooden door that was more worn than the others. "You two can stay here, this is just a spare room if we are ever blessed to have multiple ages of cubs in the house at once.
Shuule had mated once before, but it wasn't like this. It was a sheer obligation to her clan, her village, to keep the peace (and failed), and to stop Cain the chief from ripping her throat out. This, this was a fury of limbs and heartbeats. This was forgetting where her body stopped and his began. Pressed up against the door, Set leaned into her so hard that she could barely come up for air, but it didn't matter, she didn't want to. "Shuule," Set whispered, finally releasing her mouth, Shuule gasping. He grazed the side of her neck with his fangs like he had at the stream on the day he confessed his feelings towards her, but this time, the touch sent a shiver down her spine, her skin raised in goosebumps. The snakes instincts were still there, threatening to bubble to the surface, to bite into her flesh and leave his mark swiftly and instantly, in a way that couldn't be removed. But he hovered there, and his eyes darted towards hers, which were looking at him so inn
"Are YOU okay?" Shuule stammered, feeling Set freeze up like he was about to have a heart attack. His eyes had drawn down from her face to her breasts, which at first she had just assumed he was being crude, but now worried, she glanced down at her own bare chest. "Oh!" Now she saw it - the spousal mark. A black, intricate serpent wound up her body like an S shape, its tail starting on her left breast, spiraling up over her chest, its head landing at the point of her sternum. In the center of the solid black snake were perfectly symmetrical red circles that crawled up the entire length. She looked back up at her mate, grinning broadly. "I told you!" she exclaimed. "I don't know why you didn't believe me." Set's mind spun, consumed with the thought that this was somehow a mistake, still. Even after all this time, the gifts, the gestures, her words of affirmation, it didn't matter. "I just don't think I can explain how much this means," he said
Anna rapped her fingers on her own stone cup, suddenly very interested in its contents, her spouse picking his head up, his messy sandy colored hair looking like bedhead."Go on, tell her you're crazy," the leopard teased.Iro's spouse shot him a glance again, but Set, curled up next to Shuule, listened with interest, placing a hand protectively on the fox's shoulder."Well, you aren't wrong that it's not customary to invite others to live in your own home," Anna said, calculated at first. "But for one, this is a special case. I have such a large house, it's no trouble. Secondly, I... want a friend. My mother goes on and on about having Qingqing as a best friend while she was here, but I've never had the opportunity. Women are fairly stand offish with me."Neither of those points were lies. Nobody else besides the King had a castle, and between Anna's life being so structured growing up living under the King as her adopted father, the jealousy that came w
There wasn't much to say after Anna's explanation, not enough time to consider it without being awkward. Set had no desire to be a ruler, if that's what Anna was hinting at. It was hard enough for the snake to willingly live within a community, and live with other males as spouses of his mate. Ruling over, giving orders, and intimately caring about the needs of thousands of men and women was not something he was probably even capable of.The day had now moved well past noon, and Shuule was starting to tire, still injured, newly mated, and have not eaten much other than the fruit offered. Set remembered her request other than just food -"Is there somewhere I can take Shuule to bathe?" Set asked."Oh! Yes. The city has a waterhole, but we have a stream behind the back door. You two can just use that." Anna was happy to oblige, ushering them to the back. "We also have this- it's a scrub - use it in the stream on your body. You can even use it in your hair." She po