Night draped the land in silver, the moon glowing like a quiet sentinel overhead.
Aiden sat outside his home, elbows resting on his knees, lost in thought. His mind kept circling back to Sera. Was she the one behind the tractor's design? She had understood its mechanism with startling ease, as if she'd built it herself.
If she didn't design it, he wondered, how could she know it so intimately?
He'd traveled through many tribes, seen countless tools and machines, but nothing like this. Most of the tribes he'd visited were carnivorous—strong, aggressive, practical. Their technology was brute-force efficient, not elegant. He'd never set foot in a herbivorous tribe. Not out of disinterest, but because such visits were rare, and often unwelcome.
Carnivorous and herbivorous beast men lived apart. The divide was old, instinctual. Trade was permitted—goods exchanged across borders—but trust rarely crossed with them.
Aiden stared at the moon, its pale light casting long shadows. Sera was unlike anyone he'd met. Brilliant, enigmatic. And perhaps, more connected to a world he'd never truly understood.
---
Not far, Lukas watched as Sera walked out of her home. He already had a feeling that she will visit Aiden. He wanted to go and stop her but knowing how Sera can be stubborn sometimes he knows he can't stop her.
"She's too naive. She may be smart but she's too clumsy, too naive." Lukas mumbled.
Lukas couldn't quite pinpoint when his feelings for Sera began. Maybe it was the way she could be dazzlingly brilliant one moment and adorably clumsy the next. He remembered the time he was injured—how she had nursed him back to health with quiet determination. She'd crushed herbs into a healing paste, aligned his broken bones with sticks and bandages, her hands steady even as her voice trembled. Another time, she saved a villager from poisoning with nothing but a raw egg and instinct. Sera knew things others didn't. She was mystery wrapped in warmth, and Lukas had never stopped marveling at her.
Now, he watched her approach the tiger beast man—Aiden. A stranger cloaked in muscle and reputation. Lukas felt the sour burn of jealousy rise in his throat. He hated it. Hated how easily she moved toward danger, how effortlessly she drew others in.
A twisted thought slithered through his mind: If only I could keep her hidden. Lock her away from the world. Make her need me. Make her see me as her only lifeline. He imagined caring for her, breaking her will, reshaping her world until he was the center of it.
He flinched at the darkness of it.
No. He wouldn't destroy what they had. Not like that.
But Aiden—Aiden could be chased away. Reputation or not, Lukas was a chief. He had power. And if he had to make the tiger suffer to protect what was his, so be it.
---
Sera spotted Aiden sitting outside his home, his gaze distant, lost in thought beneath the quiet shimmer of moonlight. Something about his stillness made her pause—what weighed so heavily on his mind?
She approached, arms full of materials, her steps soft against the earth. As she drew closer, Aiden stirred. His eyes found hers, and in an instant, his expression shifted—lit from within by a quiet joy. He rose swiftly, closing the distance between them, and reached out to relieve her burden.
"You really came," he said, voice low but warm, as if her presence had pulled him back from some far-off place.
"I told you I would," Sera replied, her tone steady, but something flickered behind her eyes.
For a moment, Aiden just looked at her, the weight of his mission slipping from his shoulders. "Right... you did." He scratched the back of his neck, trying to pull himself back to the task at hand.
He cleared his throat.
"So... that tractor design you mentioned—how do you even know how to build something like that?" Aiden asked.
Sera fell silent, the weight of the truth pressing against her chest. Admitting she was the one who designed it could unravel everything—Lukas's reputation, the tribe's trust, maybe even her place among them. They all believed it was his brilliant idea. Challenging that belief now could stir trouble she wasn't ready to face.
"Lukas showed me the plans once," she said finally, keeping her voice neutral. "I don't know the full design, but... it should work." Sera lied. Her lips twitched a little.
Aiden looked at her and for a moment he thought he saw something flickered in her eyes. Fear? Anxiety? maybe jealousy? he couldn't quite pinpoint it but it was an emotion he didn't like.
Aiden studied the design of the Tractor sketched on a sheet of brown parchment. Even the parchment itself was impressive—writing materials were rare in Beastworld. Few cared to read or write, so parchment and ink were luxuries reserved for noble beasts. Yet the leopard tribe possessed them as if they were commonplace.
He forced his attention back to the drawing. The design was remarkably detailed yet easy to follow. Whoever had drawn it clearly understood the mechanism well enough to capture its intricacies while keeping it simple to grasp.
"So, Lukas drew this?" Aiden asked. He couldn't bring himself to believe it. To him, Lukas was too muscle-headed for such complicated engineering.
"Yes. Yes, he did," Sera replied, lying once more. She shut her eyes as the words left her mouth.
Aiden regarded her quietly, as though something had clicked in his mind. He lifted the blueprint, smiling gently.
"Thanks again for this," he said. "The inventor of this is truly brilliant."
Sera frowned, her brows knitting together. "Lukas? I thought you hated him…"
"No," Aiden said, shaking his head. "I know Lukas isn't the inventor."
The words hung between them, heavy with implication. Sera's curiosity burned, but Aiden offered no further explanation. He deflected her questions with calm insistence, urging her instead to help him bring the design to life.
And so, beneath the pale glow of the moon, they labored together. The night was filled with the rasp of tools, the scent of iron and earth, and the quiet rhythm of creation. Piece by piece, the tractor took form—simple, imperfect, yet alive.