The Wicked Female and Her Eight Beastmen Mates: Pregnant From Day One - Chapter 15:

Elder Baishui

The heavens must have decided they’d gotten off too easy.

The rain didn’t just keep falling it grew heavier, turning violent,

laced with shards of hail that pelted the ground like thrown stones.

Thunder rolled across the darkening sky, and the flashes of

lightning split the world from day straight into night.

A small crackle echoed in the cave.

Bai Yue struck a match, its faint glow fighting against the shadows.

The flame caught on the dry wood she’d pulled from her mysterious storage space,

filling the cramped cave with flickering warmth. Slowly, the cold retreated.

Across from her, Al’s sharp eyes gleamed with surprise.

Fire controlled so easily, so calmly. His expression shifted, curiosity replacing amusement.

What is that?

Matches, Bai Yue sighed, her tone carrying the weight of financial heartbreak.

Five cents in the modern world, ten beast coins here. Total rip-off.

She had no idea that being able to control a steady flame in this world was no small feat.

If she had, she would’ve packed entire boxes of them.

Outside, the storm howled harder, water streaming in rivulets through the rocks.

Only one small hollow in the back wall of the cave stayed dry

barely large enough for a single person to sit.

Bai Yue hesitated. Letting Al stand out in the rain while she stayed warm didn’t feel right.

But Al only glanced at her and said lightly, Go on, sit inside.

I’m a Wind-Spirit. The rain won’t touch me.

He lifted a hand, and the gust that had been rushing toward her shifted directions,

swirling away like a living thing.

Bai Yue watched, wide-eyed and envious. If only she had an ability like that.

The rain kept falling. The wind kept humming.

Together they wove a lullaby of rhythm and breath, gentle and steady against the cave walls.

Her head tilted, her eyes drooped, and soon she drifted into sleep.

For a long time, Al stood with his back to her, silent. Then he turned slowly,

his gaze tracing her sleeping face, lingering on the way the

firelight brushed against her pale silver hair.

Wake up. The rain’s stopped.

When Bai Yue’s eyes fluttered open, everything was still dark,

lit only by faint moonlight at the cave’s mouth.

The first thing she saw were two points of green light gleaming in the shadows

Al’s eyes reflecting like a beast’s.

Can we go back now? she murmured, trying to stand.

She took one wrong step, slipped on the damp stone, and stumbled forward straight into his chest.

Her teeth grazed against the hard lines of his abs.

Both of them winced.

That… hurt.

Before either could react, a voice cut through the quiet. Deep. Cold. Explosive.

What are you two doing?

The voice came from outside the cave Bafeng.

They sprang apart instantly.

His stare burned into them, unreadable, something strange glinting beneath his calm expression.

The walk back to the tribe was silent.

Bai Yue didn’t dare speak.

Al played dumb, the very image of the simple, honest Eagle clansman everyone thought he was.

When they reached the White Fox tribe, several beastmen looked up in surprise.

Al? Didn’t you return to the Eagle Tribe?

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Heavy rain. Couldn’t make it back.

How long are you staying, then?

Just a few days.

The other beastman nodded, unconvinced but unwilling to pry further.

Then attention turned to Bai Yue.

A cluster of female beastfolk gathered around her at once,

fussing, scolding, asking how she’d managed to get lost on the mountain.

It was the first time in her life so many people had worried about her,

and for a moment, the warmth of it left her speechless.

Until the elder arrived.

Then she realized all of this was only the prelude.

Bai Yue of the White Foxes, said a voice as old as the stones.

Praise the Beast God for sending you to us.

Elder Baishui.

He was ancient, his snow-white fur streaked with grey, his presence heavy with authority.

Only those of pure White Fox lineage bore the title “Bai.”

These days, that bl00d was rare thinned through alliances and generations.

Elder Baishui stroked his beard and gave her a look that felt like he was seeing straight through her.

May the Beast God bless you, child, he murmured, then gestured for her to follow him.

They entered a vast cavern brightened by several pearl-like stones embedded in the walls,

glowing faintly in bowls of water.

Seeing her curious gaze, the elder began to explain as they walked.

Those are the eyes of a Light Beast. So long as they rest in water, they will never dim.

She looked closer sure enough, half the orbs were submerged.

And these are horns from a Bull Beast. They can make a sound

loud enough to summon help… or trouble. Blow one, and

every Bull Beast nearby will come charging.

The cavern was full of strange objects some wondrous, others unsettling.

Bai Yue had never seen anything like them, not in this world or her own.

Until she stopped dead in her tracks.

At the far end of the cavern loomed a massive white fox’s head so large it dwarfed a modern truck.

She almost screamed.

If she hadn’t seen the seams where stone met bone,

she would have sworn it belonged to a living creature.

Elder Baishui pressed his palms together and bowed deeply before it.

Bai Yue quickly followed suit, mimicking his gesture.

This fox, he said softly, was the great shaman who protected our people for three hundred years.

He died over twenty years ago, but before his passing, he asked us to preserve his head.

Since then, our tribe has been safe from the beasts that roam the wilds.

His tone shifted lower, heavier.

Until recently.

The head has begun to rot.

That means the beasts will come again.

He wiped a thin layer of dust from a stone beneath the fox’s skull and pushed it aside,

revealing several sheets of beast hide covered in unfamiliar symbols.

I don’t know what these mean. None of us can read them.

But before he died, the great shaman told me this:

if a beastman blessed by the Beast God ever appeared in our tribe,

these writings were meant for them.

He turned to her, eyes bright with frail hope.

Bai Yue, perhaps… these are meant for you.

The elder’s hands trembled as he passed her the ancient parchments.

His skin was spotted and thin, dark marks crawling along his arms dead man’s blotches,

as people called them.

When she looked into his eyes, she saw not fear but faith.

She unfolded the first sheet and froze.

The characters on the page were Chinese.

Her heart skipped.

Another traveler?

Someone else had come from her world?

Elder Baishui’s voice broke her daze. Can you read it, Bai Yue?

She glanced down again, half-expecting divine prophecy.

What she found instead made the corner of her mouth twitch uncontrollably.

It wasn’t scripture. It wasn’t a secret code.

It was… a diary.

Scrawled in uneven handwriting:

Unknown Year, Unknown Month:

Ate the leg of a “coo-coo chicken” tonight. Pretty sure it’s just a chicken. It won’t stop cooing.

Unknown Year, Unknown Month +1:

Didn’t catch anything yesterday. Haven’t even got poop to eat.

Bai Yue stared.

Whoever this other traveler was, they weren’t a hero or a prophet.

They were a comedian.