Serena finished gathering all the ingredients that they needed once Liz was gone and headed back up. When she stepped outside the hut, arms full, she found Theo starting a new fire a few ters away from where the soap mixtures were cooking.
She silently walked over to the tiger beastman and they got to work preparing lunch. However, the air around them as they worked was filled with awkwardness. They had left their conversation unresolved.
And neither quite knew how to broach the topic once more.
Finally Serena sighed, deciding to extend the olive branch first, as she said, "I didn’t an to look down at your suggestion... I just thought that your assumption was dumb. You can’t be sure of those kinds of things..."
Theo didn’t look at Serena, keeping his gaze on the fire. He knew he’d gone a bit out of line by saying Finn would never get a mate to prove a stupid point. But a part of him still felt he was right about that assumption.
Even if it seed dumb.
"You don’t have to worry about that." Theo murmured. "It’s sothing stupid to fight over anyway."
"That’s good to hear..." Serena mused as she finished up sorting out the vegetables.
She then got up and moved over to where Theo was crouching by the fire, a thought coming to mind. There was sothing she needed to tell Theo before the end of the cold season.
And it was probably best that she ripped the bandaid off now rather than later.
"Theo..." Serena called out as she put the vegetables to roast.
The tiger beastman turned to look at her. "You need sothing?"
"Not really... I actually need to tell you sothing." Serena coughed, averting her gaze to the fire.
Theo felt his body stiffen at her words, not liking the sound of it. Especially when she wouldn’t et his gaze. Sothing serious had to be up.
"How do I put this... Eh... In the rainy season a priest will be arriving in the village." Serena explained. "I’ll be taking that priest as a mate... I will explain our... um situation to him... but I thought you should know beforehand in case you want to change your mind about our agreent."
Theo blinked at her words. Then blinked again. His mouth flapped open and closed like a goldfish, however, not a sound passed his lips.
"Damn Serena..." Liz suddenly said, the system appearing on her upper arm once more. "I think you finally broke the poor tiger."
Serena grimaced, wondering if she should’ve perhaps approached the topic differently. Not that she was sure how to exactly. She tried to be as direct as possible without sugarcoating what was going to happen.
Granted she did leave out the whole part about her Beast God giving her a stupid mission to create so gods vessels. But she wasn’t sure how she’d even begin to explain that.
Or if Theo would even believe her. He would most probably think she jumped off the deep end and lost it completely.
anwhile, Theo was at a complete loss of words. Was Serena the one who was against the whole mate thing? That was the reason they had this whole arrangent in the first place.
But suddenly there was so priest coming to the village. And he was going to be her mate. When in the world did this happen? Had he been played by Serena?
Used as a stand-in until her real mate ca for her.
He knew she was strange from the mont he t her, but to think that she’d be scheming like this. When had she planned all of it? Was everything all fake?
"Theo..." Serena called out.
But Theo could barely hear her over the countless thoughts swarming his mind. Each worse than the last one. He felt his chest tighten and soon only one thought ca to mind.
He needed to get out of here.
"I-I need to go..." Theo exclaid, jumping up.
He didn’t wait for her to say anything, shifting into his beast form and running off. He needed to get away from it all and calm down. A few rabbit beastn jumped at the sudden sight of a tiger running through the village.
"Theo!" Serena cried out, slumping back down as the tiger beastman disappeared from sight.
"Well that went well..." Liz muttered. "What exactly did you say to him?"
"I just told him about the priest coming here." Serena sighed, glancing back at the fire. "Thought I’d give him a warning before everything happened."
She wanted to go after the tiger beastman, but had to stay. She couldn’t leave everything unattended while she went to track Theo and bring him back. Because who knew how long that would take.
"Ah..." Liz said. "Guess that was a good idea... Though I’m not sure about the execution. Guess it must be..."
"Be what?" Serena questioned when the system didn’t continue.
Liz just shook its head. "Anyway, maybe it’ll help if you tell him about it being a mission from the Beast God."
"Yeah... I don’t think so." Serena muttered. "I’m probably going to seem crazy saying that the Beast God gave him so divine mission to create the vessels of other gods. Which were sealed up and forgotten by most of the populace."
"Point taken." Liz sighed. It was quiet for a mont before it hissed, "I got it!"
Serena narrowed her eyes at the system. "Got what?"
"An idea... What else?" Liz rolled her eyes. It then added, "I can send Theo a dream ssage from the Beast God to accept what you have said-"
"I’d rather not do that..." Serena stated.
As much as it probably would’ve been much easier for her to go that route, she believed Theo deserved better than that. He had helped her quite a bit and deserved hearing this from her directly.
She had to be truthful... As much as she possibly could without outing herself.
"Fine..." Liz said. "We’ll do it your way... Also the at’s starting to burn."
Serena cursed and quickly snapped into action, turning the at skewers before they beca charred. anwhile, Theo had finally gotten so distance away from the village and ca to a stop in the middle of the forest.
He gulped down air, the running clearing his mind to think properly. And there was only one thought in his mind as he shifted into his male form.
He couldn’t go back!
I overreacted over sothing so simple! Theo muttered to himself, wanting to just disappear. Of course, Serena would land up getting a mate one day... Just didn’t expect it to be like that...
He knew this day would co. Knew that beastwon had multiple mates and yet here he was acting like so betrayed mate. When they weren’t even proper mates.
Serena was even telling him beforehand, giving him a chance to process it all. To have a proper discussion of where this left them...
And he had to screw it up by running away!
Theo ran a hand through his hair, frustration bubbling within him. He hated how much this was affecting and that he couldn’t handle it properly. It wasn’t like he was a cub.
He was ant to be mature about these things.
"Urgh... This is going to be a ss..." Theo muttered out loud to himself. "Can’t believe I left like that-"
Then another thought ca to mind. He had left all the food unattended. Theo wanted to hit himself for not even being rational enough to do that right all because of sothing said.
He shifted back into his beast form and hurried back to the village, giving up on his pride. Because he clearly left it to burn in the fire back ho when he ran off like so cub who couldn’t deal with his emotions.
When he made his way back, he got a few sideway glances from the villagers and it took everything inside him not to feel embarrassed. He had to act like that was totally normal.
He headed straight for the hut and found Kiro was already there, eating. Serena’s scent was around, however, he didn’t see her, making him guess she was inside the hut.
"Theo!" Kiro exclaid upon spotting the tiger beastman. "Sister, said you went to find sothing. Did you find it?"
"Eh... Not yet." Theo scratched his head, thankful Serena had covered for him. "I’ll need to look again... Um where’s your sister?"
His eyes drifted to the food by Kiro, noticing that so of the at had gotten a little charred. Thankfully, Serena seed to have managed to save most from being ruined.
"I went to grab so bowls." Serena answered, appearing with so wooden bowls. "Kiro couldn’t wait... So I let him start ahead of us. Hope that’s okay?"
"Fine by ." Theo nodded his head, awkwardness filling him.
He knew Serena was acting like this because Kiro was around and she didn’t want to question him in front of the cub. It seed to be one rule she had around the cub - no fighting in front of him.
"Take this and eat." Serena stated. "Before Kiro eats everything."
"I won’t." Kiro exclaid, but smiled at her words knowing she was joking. "You promised to make eggs!"
Serena smiled back. "That I did."
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