Before she could finish, a rumble echoed from above. Her words fell dead as her face paled. She slowly tilted her head to the sky.
Thunder.
Lightning.
A sudden crash.
"Oh… Oh my god!"
The once-bright sunnh was swallowed by dark clouds. Jagged streaks of white zits lit up the sky.
Hyerin could swear she just blinked once so why is it like the heavens themselves had come for retribution? Which god did she anger now?
"What mate? We're both males!!"
M.A.L.E.S!!!!
TWEET! TWEET! TWEET!!!
The two of beasts screamed in sync, their voices overlapping, both horrified and humiliated. However, their protests vanished into the wind.
Hyerin's attention was on the strange occurrence of thunder and lightning and the pressing matter of going home to see her pregnant husband, left all alone in the cave.
She grabbed the two young beasts in her arms and was about to bolt towards their dwelling when something dawned on her.
"Oh no… the fish trap! Shit, my laundry had yet to be dried! Ah! They're flying awaaaay! No!!!"
Hyerin's mouth dropped and lamented. Not even bothering to fix the tangled long hair that was blown away like her remaining sanity. Feeling extra weak, she fell to her knees with a groan, pressing her hand to her lower back like she had incur a grave torture.
She cried and kicked her legs on the ground. She felt so awful. This entire tiring day is completely wasted! Her only clothes were also blown away!
Meanwhile, a certain someone, very much the cause of the divine storm, stiffened at the accusation cloaked in her voice.
"Hey, bird-head," the red cub nudged and smirked. "I accept bribes. If you want me to seal my mouth, a good jar of wine and I won't tell her it was your fault—ack!"
And so, Konkon was smacked again. Rightfully. And repeatedly so.
----
Somewhere else, Sid, who just finished cleaning up the broken cup felt his body shuddered at the sound of another sharp crack.
Don't tell him...
"Young master!!!!"
Sid screamed as though he was a pregnant woman in labor.
"You, you! Argh, did you just break another cup?!"
If that wasn't enough, this time, he even smashed a redwood table and an intricately crafted Meissen jar!
Ah, his life! How can you do this to this poor servant's tormented heart? Sid almost fainted as he wailed in horror. He was so pale that even his shy tail came out on its own!
"Settle the bill and checkout..." Sky instructed.
Man, this time, they're truly done for.
"And buy a few sets of woman's clothes, choose something simple."
"..."
Hearing this, Sid was utterly speechless and finally felt the taut vein in his forehead snap.
After destroying things, you still want to buy clothes to woo a female? Shouldn't you first ask me if we still have money to squander?!
***Feral Peak, Thousand Beast Mountain.
In this savage wilderness where the wind howls like beasts and blood nourishes the soil, the law of the jungle reigns supreme: the strong devour the weak, and the weak… simply disappear.
The denizens of the Beast Realm carved their survival with fang and claw, not ink and law. Unlike the petty squabbles of the human world—where schemes and insults fester behind polished smiles—here, survival was written with blood.
Each encounter might be your last and each breath was a defiance against death.
In this land, failure had no lesson. Only consequence.
And that consequence… was always death.
Nowhere was this law more apparent than in the legendary Thousand Beast Mountain—a forsaken domain, a land of exiles and lunatics. Banished orcs, man-eating beasts, hermits shunning the suffocating laws of the Beast Cities… they had all carved their own blood-soaked kingdoms in this mountainous graveyard of dreams.
In time, tribes arose. Mountains were named. Territories were marked.
Among these, Feral Peak stood tallest—not in height, but in ferocity.
It was a land where the air stank of blood, and even the wind carried the sharpness of fangs. The ferals here did not just kill to survive; they thrived on it. Only the deep, yawning ravines beneath the peak whispered more danger.
It was beneath this merciless sky, on a blistering noon day, that the world shifted.
The sun blazed high, and the heat had begun to scald even the stone. But as though Heaven itself had changed its mind, the sky darkened with uncanny suddenness.
Thunder roared and streaks of lightning painted the sky. Clouds surged like a tidal wave overhead, blanketing the peak in oppressive gloom.
However, the beastmen on the outside barely lifted their heads before they continued and returned to what they were doing.
Weather changing, lightning striking or even black hole itself appearing randomly like spores of mushroom in the forest, it didn't matter. They had long learned not to question the whims of this cursed land and the temperament of the creatures who causes these unprecedented changes.
Inside a shadowed cavern tucked beneath the mountain's jaw, a low retch echoed.
Sol wiped his lips with trembling fingers, his expression pale and drawn. Cold sweat clung to his skin as he leaned back against the wall, his black tail slackened around him like a collapsed chain of obsidian.
His gaze lingered on the thunderclouds gathering outside the mouth of the cave, but his thoughts were elsewhere.
"Your foolish mother is late," he rasped, his voice hoarse, like dry leaves dragged across stone, seemingly conversing with the life in his belly.
Just then, at the faintest rustle from the cave's entrance, Sol's weary body tensed. His back straightened instinctively, and the tip of his tail curled.
Is she back?
He looked up and subconsciously sniffed himself to check if he smells nasty and would appear unpleasant to the female.
Wait, why does he even care about who she would perceive him? The man shook his head and mentally chastised himself for acting strange.
"I'm not trying to groom myself to please your mother. Don't be foolish..."