Beastly

Chapter 3

It took a few days before the house was something Hariel could consider as livable. The base of the house was more than decent underneath the built-up dust, dirt, and grime; it was honestly surprising. Ren was invaluable in making the house up to par – his stamina alone was nothing to scoff at as she felt utterly exhausted after only a few hours of deep cleaning when he was still working and went off to hunt for them both.

It was with dinner that she was able to carry her weight. While Ren was able to hunt a decently sized deer for them to eat, she managed to clean the body and prepare the meat to eat. There was an annoying lack of spices at the time (not even salt for taste!) but she managed to prepare it well enough.

She had thought that there would be too much left over and worried slightly at the fact that there might have been some meat that would go bad due to a lack of proper cooling and storage methods. Then, Hariel was reminded at dinner as Ren ate any piece of meat she couldn't with little difficulty that he was in fact an extremely large panther.

Today, as it was the first day that the house was outfitted with proper bedding, roofing and flooring, Hariel decided to take on becoming more acclimated to living in the City of Beasts. Because she was so new, Ren had said most of the beastmen left her alone so that she could settle in – and that he was threatening the males who didn't care from sniffing around her. But now she wanted to figure out a way to feel settled and comfortable in her new home.

One thing she was grateful for was that the house they moved into had rudimentary furniture and supplies – there were pottery vases of varying sizes, a somewhat outfitted cooking fire-pit, some tables and shelves. When Hariel had asked why the previous occupants didn't take this with them, he told her that it was common practice in the City of Beasts to only take what you could carry when moving, and the houses were all built by their ancestors beyond living memory.

It was strange, and not something she was accustomed to but nonetheless was grateful as it meant they needed less to purchase from traders.

"Let's go to the main square in the City, Ren." She said as soon as they finished their breakfast- another thing she was hoping to change up a bit with a trip to the City. Ren had casually stated there were different beastmen traders that came from multiple parts of this world that she could hopefully purchase from. She was hoping for spices most of all, and some vegetables or seeds at the very least. A small vegetable garden would go great about now considering the amount of meat she has been consuming.

Vitamin deficiency was a real concern for her at this point.

"Of course." Ren said with his killer smile. "Carrying you will be the fastest way. It is also still early enough for there to be much trade from the traveling Beastmen."

"Okay, that's good to know." Hariel replied with a small nod to herself. She reached over to the side of the bedding to a small bag she had made with some dried reeds. It wasn't the prettiest she could make, but it served its purpose well, and it would definitely be enough to hold any spices and seeds.

As Ren got up to go outside she was struck with another thought, "Ren, how do I pay for what we need?"

The panther beastmen paused in his stretching and turned to her with light confusion written on his face. "Crystals for the most part." He replied before puling some of his braids forward and showing her some that were braided into his hair, "Energy crystals are quite universal, the bigger they are the more valuable. They are mostly found in the stomach of Colossus', but they can also be found in cave walls.

"Some beastmen will trade other items, but it depends on the trade."

Of course trade was with something unattainable to her, - this world was basically stuck in the stone age from what she had seen and while women held a lot of importance they were still utterly dependent on men.