Chapter 11

The next morning, I woke up alone for the first time in weeks. Maverick was curled up in the corner of the bed, seemingly giving me a wide berth after my emotional rage last night. I don't blame him, I was almost spitting fire and certainly wasn't about to be snuggling with him. That awful conversation made me very tempted to wallow in sadness and be depressed, especially about the whole clipping thing, which makes me violently disgusted, but there's really no point. Seriously, this isn't modern earth where a person can stay in bed for weeks on end with little consequence. This is a new world, where I have things to do, and being productive and busy is honestly probably the best thing I can do for myself right now. Yeah.

Deciding that made me feel like a weight had been lifted off my chest, and I was ready to start a new day. When I left to go do my business outside, I was almost skipping. The only thing stopping me was a foxes inability to actually do so. Why did accepting the awful reality make me this happy? Fuck if I know, my best guess it that now I'm informed about it and actually know how the reality is, I can take steps to either change it or avoid letting it happen to me. Ignorance may be bliss, but I much prefer being in the know and preparing.

Those thoughts followed me through my morning routine, as well as the relaxing walk through the small grove further down the mountain I decided to do afterwards on two legs instead of four. Although because I didn't grab my clothes before leaving I was naked, I seem to have become strangely comfortable like that. Afterall, being surrounded by nature is truly the best remedy for depressing thoughts. The fresh air and chilled wind feel amazing. I probably spent around an hour just wandering around, idly looking at the resources in the area, maybe picking a handful of berries to munch on.

However, in contrast to my relaxed mood, by the time I got back to the cave humming a little tune and ready to be productive, Maverick was frantic. The moment our eyes met and I smiled and waved, he sprinted over, grabbing me into a crushing hug and plastering his face onto my shoulder. He almost seemed like he was shivering, and I was frankly concerned. Mavie never acts like this. "Mavie? What's wrong? You're holding onto me very tightly." He made a strangled sounding noise before looking up at me so sadly I could almost see invisible tears in his eyes. His ears were down flat on his head, and his tail was once again wrapped around me, this time around my midriff.

"When I woke up you were gone and I couldn't smell you. I thought you'd regretting becoming my mate and left. I'm sorry, please don't leave. Please don't leave." His grip wasn't letting up, but hearing the why made me speechless. You've got to be kidding, I'm not sure whether I'm about to cry or laugh. I reached my hands to his face and stroked his cheeks, just silently letting him calm down before I started to speak. "Why would I leave Mavie? You've done nothing wrong. Even if I was still mad, which I'm not, I wouldn't take it out on you. You've taught me how to cultivate, and let me make all the choices in our relationship. You don't participate in those practices, and you're trying your best to keep me from being dragged in as well. Although, from now on, please help me know who does and doesn't do those things, so I can be better prepared. Yeah?"

He nuzzled deeper into my skin, nodding and relaxing against me. A very cute gesture that I love, but... he's heavy. Well, I've scared him, and he's feeling a bit insecure at the moment, so I'll just stay like this until he decides to move himself.

But he doesn't choose to move, and after an hour or so I'm starting to go numb. "Mavie, can we go inside and lie down if you're going to stick to me like this? We can talk or cultivate while doing it, but I'm not sure how much longer I can stand here without dropping you." It felt a bit pathetic to say out loud, and my face is totally burning up from the shame, but I'm still weak right now. I really need to improve my strength, and shouldn't rely completely on my cultivation. My determination rises as I decide to start working out from now on to improve my body. At this point, my schedule is looking pretty full. Cultivation, experimenting with our powers, improving our quality of life, getting closer and spending time with my cute lover, and now working out?? And apparently, we need to move off of the mountain in around a month as well. Gosh, I wish there were more hours in a day for me to do this all!

Mavie seems to have noticed me sinking into my thoughts and planning for the future, and he's unhappy. He lifts his head from where it's still on my shoulder and lightly bites on of my fingers to get my attention. When I yelp from the stimulation and stare at him incredulously, he grabs the hand he bit with his own hand and tugs me behind him into the cave. I'm so stunned I blankly follow behind him, and only come to my senses when we stop in front of our makeshift bed.

When I look into Mavie's eager, innocent eyes, I can't help but laugh. What happened to the big bad kitty cat, and how come I seem to be the only one with horny naughty thoughts? He's probably wanting to cuddle and that's it. I lay down and Mavie gets next to me, cuddled up by my side. I don't quite know what to do next, but luckily Mavie speaks up before I have to.

"The tribes who clip are normally carnivorous tribes, and the ones who gather in big packs or settlements. They're the only forces big enough to be able to do so with little to no risk of the females either escaping, dying prematurely, or going crazy. Mainly, most canines, foxes, bears, and sea tribes. Feline tribes normally live solitary or with only their family, so we don't bother because everyone needs to be able to defend themselves. Smaller herbivore tribes don't do it, but sometimes they do under certain circumstances."

"What sort of circumstances?"

"Hm, let's use the floating fluff clan as an example. They're four legged herbivores from the mountain with warm, fast growing big fur. Their element lets them float through the air, and because they look like clouds they're often ignored. The Wild wolf clan decided that they would be great to use for looking for things, and their fur is very warm in winter, so they let them live with their clan and keep them safe from predators. To show how thankful they are, the floating fluffs adopted the practice of clipping, and helped the wolf clan hunt down and take the females of weaker herbivore races, like the zooming squirrels. So there's two types of herbivore clipping there. Those who live with carnivores of their own will, and those who are forcefully taken and clipped by them."

Woah, that's fucked up. The so called 'floating fluffs' sound like sheep, although it's ironic that they apparently live with their natural hunter, wolves. On top of that, helping the wolves hunt down females of other races?! Woah, that's low. "Is that the only clan like that? Must be a pretty unique case if even you know of it."

"No, this is actually super common. This example are the ones who live right at the bottom of the hill. I used them to make sure you know and are aware of what they do and how they do it." Mavie was looking me straight in the eyes as he said that, showing me just how serious he is. The fact that these aren't some one off case and merely the closest nearby one floored me, and suddenly I was scared. If, if all the major settlements are like this, then I'm going to have to fight tooth and nail to keep my freedom. I really need to be stronger.

I said as much to Maverick, and he just nodded in agreement before suggesting we start cultivating. We laid down next to each other, and ended up cultivating until we fell asleep in that position.