Stuck In the Branches

Although Duncan was allowed to stay in the thylacine tribe and help me build the hut during the daytime, he still has to keep a certain distance away from the tribe when everyone is sleeping at night. It is not because we don't welcome him: thylacines all have a keen sense of smell, and the scent of Duncan that belongs to other tribes has a high possibility of making these beasts too vigilant to have a deep sleep.

Additionally, I was not sure whether a kangaroo beast like Duncan is a vegetarian or not, so I didn't rashly invite him to join our dinner. As a consequence, during these days, Duncan only came here to do the construction early in the morning, ate lunch by himself and then directly left for somewhere after sunset.

I sort of felt sorry for him and kept thinking what can I do to express my appreciation.

Although indeed he is courting me and willing to do everything for me, my conscience doesn't allow me to ignore all his efforts and don't give him any feedback: Duncan left his own tribe alone and ran thousands of miles to meet me, and since he found me, this man didn't complain about anything or brag about himself, but kept doing whatever he can to help me.

After another brainstorm, I finally remembered that there was a bag of frozen carrots in the interlayer of my cooler box, which has not been thawed for the convenience of storage. So I rushed to my car and put the bag in the sun, hoping it would taste like the Frozen Coke of McDonald's, but in the carrot version — sweet and icy, with a half-frozen and half-juicy texture — perfect for drinking after hard working in the sunshine.

"Duncan, thank you for all you have done for me. Hope you will like this."

During our break time, I sat next to Duncan and gave him the carrot bag. Before he took it, his face turned red again, meanwhile, he started stammering a second time, "Tha... Thank you, LuLu."

"Duncan..."

Calling his name, I was planning to chat with Duncan by the way. However, he held the carrots and then bent his head, avoiding any eye contact with me. As I stared at him, his face became even darker in red. Duncan took a quick peep at me, then stood up and walked under another tree, quietly began to eat the carrots...

Wait...

Are you kidding me?

We've been working together for at least two days, but the conversation between us can be counted by only one hand, can you believe it?

Does he really want to make a mate contract with me?

Duncan was acting like he is just working for me, as an employee — shows up every day on time and leaves the place at the end of the day, and only asked things about the construction — even coworkers will freely chat with each other during the tea time! If it weren't for every time our eyes met, I can watch his ears changing colour rapidly, I might wonder what he was doing here...

What made me feel more speechless is that Duncan is not born to be shy — he can talk with other aboriginal ladies fluently in the beast language, only when he speaks with me do all his words come out with a stutter.

Looking at Duncan squatting alone under the tree, wearing a shy red face and taking small bites of the carrots, I weirdly think this is cute: the strong virile man has a fierce short Crew Cut hairstyle, and a poker face, but his ears are bloody red, chewing the carrots that only as big as his fingers.

I can't help stepping close to him, lowed down my face and gave him a smile:

"How is it? Do you like this carrot?"

"Ahem... Ve...Very delicious!" Duncan almost choked himself.

"That's great! The kangaroos in my previous world love to eat carrots, so I guess you might also like the flavour. Unfortunately, these carrots were frozen. If not, maybe I can save some of the roots and cultivate them, then we might be able to eat more in the future."

"LuLu, you like eating plants, too?" Duncan finally lifted his head and looked at me.

"We call them vegetables and fruits... And yes, I love them! Either they taste sour or sweet. What do you kangaroo beasts usually eat? Do you eat meat?" Finding he was not that shy anymore, I sat next to him and kept talking.

"Mostly, we eat plants as food, but at the time before winter, we also eat meat. Not only can we become stronger and have more fat to survive during the winter, but also the animals' skin would be used as warming equipment."

Wow, when it comes to tribe life, he is not stammering anymore.

"I am preparing food and other survival stuff for this winter, too! Let's cheer together next!"

I raised my hand, trying to make a handshake with him.

...

"Ow... What???"

"Duncan!"

"Your nose is bleeding now!"

+++++

Duncan covered his face with his hands and ran to the creek to clean up, feeling humiliated. For the rest of this afternoon, he deliberately avoided any physical contact with Bai Lu and stayed far away from her. Only when she turned back against him, Duncan would sneak a peek at her.

During this period, in order to get close to Bai Lu and protect her to the greatest extent, Duncan decided to detect if there was any danger around the thylacine tribe at night. He climbed to a relatively high tree and slept on that tree, in this way, every time he opened his eyes, he can catch the roof of Bai Lu's hut from a long distance.

Turning back to the beast form and curling himself between two branches, Duncan was sleeping standing on that tree, which is the way most kangaroos keep themselves vigilant at night. During the nighttime, Duncan couldn't help himself keep recalling the sweet smile of Bai Lu during the daytime, as well as the smooth feeling of her soft hands he touched before... As a result, Duncan irregularly got insomnia and stayed up late.

The next morning, as soon as Duncan woke up, he found an unexpected and startling thing came up for him: maybe because he unconsciously moved his body during his sleep, Duncan was stuck in the branches this morning!

Tentatively using his brawny feet to push the ground, Duncan tried to get himself out of those branches. Unfortunately, instead of jumping out, he even made his top deeper inserted into the tree: his waist was hanging in the air and his hands couldn't reach the branches next to him.

At this time, Duncan, who can only rely on the tree trunk to support his entire body, was like a fish sticking in some branches and barbecuing on the fire, wriggling around, but can't get out.

"Oh, God! What should I do now?!"

"LuLu must still be waiting for me, I can't let her worry about me and this is so embarrassing..."

Duncan tried to get himself free with as much vigour as possible, but whatever he did end up failing.

Feeling a bit desperate, his face even started to sweat.