Reborn as a Side Character in the Beastworld

Chapter Ninety-two

On the first and second day we didn't go very far. We went to Camel Hump Village and let the residents know what had happened in the city. By the third day, we had ten additional members in our group.

We still hadn't decided on a destination. I knew I didn't want to go to the Tiger Village or anywhere near Flame City. I also didn't want to be too close to the ocean. I had always been a forest girl at heart and being a fox hadn't changed that. That, and the merfolk freaked me out.

We were sitting around at a breakfast fire on the same plateau of the night we decided to move to the City of Beasts. Harvey was cooking a coyote that Tristan had caught with a little salt and green onion. I was playing with Kit's toe beans. Lance was lounging on his tail. Oliver was cleaning the coyote pelt and treating it with a tree sap that could tan it faster than other methods. He had to sit a bit away as the sap gave off an odor that stung my eyes a bit. Winston, Tristan and Shuu were sitting cross-legged by the fire and talking about possible destinations.

After not having come up with any good ideas, Tristan turned to me, "Tiger Queen, is there anywhere you would like to go?"

I thought about the few places I did know and didn't like any of them, so I answered vaguely, "Hmmm, I'm not really familiar with the different villages."

His ears fell a little but then perked up with an idea, "Then what about environment? Do you want to live next to the sea or maybe somewhere high where it snows?"

This was an easy question to answer, "If I could live anywhere, I would want to live in a mountainous area next to a lake or river in a lush evergreen forest where it rarely snows." I had always found lake cabins extremely romantic.

Winston had to put a damper on things with the facts, "If you don't like snow then you have to be closer to the ocean but the closer you get to the edge of the continent, the less mountains there are."

Talk of mountains and oceans reminded me of something. "Do any of you know where the eagle tribe raise their clutches?"

Tristan, Shuu and Winston all shook their heads 'no'.

"The eagles keep that information private for safety reasons. There aren't as many of them and they don't event take their females there." Shuu explained.

Of course, it was Lance that spoke next, "I know where it is. Or at least where is used to be eighty years ago."

"Was there a peacock village not too far from it?" I asked him eagerly.

"Yes..." He answered with suspicion. "Why? Do you wish to find a peacock mate?" he smirked.

"What? No. That isn't it." I told them about what might be happening to Bai right now as she had been taken away by Muir, just like in the novel. "Plus, I figured if a weaker tribe like peacocks can flourish in a forest, it must be a safe place to live." It was so safe that I couldn't remember why Bai had ever left it. There were no beast tides, it was days away from the ocean on foot, and it had low mountains with lots of caves. The only real danger was forest fire, which Muir had started to get rid of Curtis but I don't remember it spreading far.

Lance nodded in an agreement with my logic, "... That's true. It's close enough to the ocean that it doesn't snow much, and the forest stays green all year round. The peacocks use the color of the trees to blend in and escape predators by flying high into the branches. They've also built their village up in the canopy that's why most beasts don't even know it exists."

I pulled Kit into my lap and started playing with his ears, "Do you think we could find space in the same forest large enough for our group to settle without infringing on their territory?"

Lance yawned, "As long as the group doesn't get much larger, it's possible. Over time we may even be able to combine our villages."

"Can we pause for just a second? I think I'm missing something here." Shuu interjected. "Just how do you know all of this? It's just like that time with my brother. You knew so much about where they should go."

Whoopsie. With everything happening all at once, I had completely forgotten to tell Shuu about my memories. Now was as good a time as any and I didn't mind if Tristan and Oliver knew as well. It took a good part of the morning to explain about the human world, my death and my reincarnation. The three Canidae looked overwhelmed by the information. Lance laughed at their expressions. They each had hours of questions loaded and aimed at me, but I stopped them before we got stuck in the village for the next week. They could ask me slowly over time.

With the trip down memory lane navigated, we returned to the issue at hand and decided that the peacock forest was the perfect place to try. When the sun was high, we let the group know our destination and we also told them of the Tiger Village where Oscar and Bart had already set down roots. It gave them the options but surprisingly, there were only a few who decided to split from us and go a different route. A few tigers and wolves that still held positive feelings towards the old Tiger King, but that was all.

With still around forty beasts and eight females, we made our way slowly to the edge of the continent with Lance as our guide. We were forced to move at an ants crawl because most of the females had young cubs. Then on day five as we camped by the lake I first met Lance, I upchucked the wild Cayman meat we had for lunch and Harvey announced I was preggo.

If I was counting the days right, it had been eighteen days since I had mated with Winston. We didn't need to wait to make sure they were his. Harvey was able to hear two strong heartbeats. Winston wanted to stop the journey right then and there but I told him he was overreacting and we'd be in the forest before the symptoms got unmanageable. Besides, the gestation period for tigers was around one hundred days and I was almost one hundred percent certain we didn't have that long before the volcano blew its top. So, despite my inability to eat much more than fish and shortbird, we soldiered on.