Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 85: brought to you by cravings

Today on "The Worst Things to Do in Another World": Bunnies almost get eaten out of home and country. Preggies crave carbs. Neara provides. They have emotionally preggy cries for Ding Dongs, Donuts, and other Hostess snacks and make the rabbit clan panic. Other pregnancy jokes. Basket making. Blanket making. And I have a burrito.

"I'm just not coming over until you're done with... all this." Shay gestured behind her back at Neara crouched over a small stone bowl.

Neara, too busy tossing her cookies, pancakes, pizza, and several salads, couldn't respond.

"Yeah, I'm just going to go." As she left, she yelled over her shoulder, "I'll find some ginger for you."

Face deep in igneous, Neara could only listen to a rabbit, probably Aetius, gently close the door behind her, leaving her in darkness. She didn't know why she insisted on remaining in the old hut when she could have gone to Aetius's... ok, she knew exactly why. She rinsed her mouth out with water and picked up the bowl. She didn't want to lose her autonomy and rely on him for everything... which is exactly what he wanted. He didn't trust her to be independent, especially since he'd sniffed the pregnancy on her. Captain, overjoyed at the news, had promised every Rabbit to her bidding and had at least one of them standing outside her hut every day, waiting for instructions.

"I guess it couldn't have lasted forever." She nodded to the young blond outside her tent, Cliff, and walked to the small stream. If Aetius knew what she was doing... but Captain had him checking the barriers every week now, worried the ferals would smell her pregnancy through the ice and snow and come charging over or something, who really knew. Her attention wandered whenever Captain came over. He only wanted to talk about how they could trust him implicitly and that sort of thing. She lost patience and interest after the first few minutes since he always said the same things. Those checkups, she suspected, were more to make sure she wasn't trying to kill the babies rather than a genuine interest in her well-being. So be it.

The stream felt good on her sweaty palms and she gave her face, and mouth, a quick rinse. She missed the spiky bushes they'd used for brushing teeth back in the valley and they'd resorted to pulling threads through their teeth and scrubbing with their fingers wrapped in hide. Shay, also pregnant, complained about the same level of attention and often waxed eloquent about the things she wanted to do to Captain when his back was turned. Everyone took it in stride as 'pregnant female' and nobody took it to heart. Or, at least, that's what Neara hoped.

There was... something weird about Shay though. She'd basically stopped eating since she'd gotten there, but now her appetite returned with a vengeance. Most of the rabbits were kept busy running everywhere looking for the specific foods she craved, but it was never enough. She'd even taken to chomping on whatever edible bark she could find, ripping it off the trees with her leftover good hand and a slight glow of her ankle or chest.

Shadows danced over the surface of the stream and she looked up to see branches being violently shaken from the trees above her. Small twigs clattered around her and she covered her face with her arms. The sun shone straight in her eyes and she couldn't quite make out who was up the tree... it definitely wasn't anyone other than a rabbit...

"Oh! Sorry Neara." A voice called from the treetops. It sounded too far away to make out who it belonged to... but there were only a handful of beastmen it could be. She took a stab at it anyway.

"Vincent?"

He scrambled down the tree, knocking more bark into her hair and clothes. He clutched a small nest in his hand, the greenish eggs mottled with brown and cradled in his palm. "Shay wanted eggs."

"Oh. That's nice of you to get them for her."

He frowned at the eggs, then plucked them from the twigs and nestled them into a pouch at his waist, stuffing handfuls of grass around them. "Not enough. I've been through almost every tree in the forest, leaving just enough for them to grow. I only have 38... this will never satisfy her."