A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 154: The Festival (3)

Once Serena got to Theo and Kiro’s side, the trio spent the rest of their time wandering the village center. They soon met Wilma and the others around the edge of the village center, away from most of the chaos.

After chatting a bit with the others, Serena and Theo moved to grab a spot for themselves. They settled down close to the others, but still far away to be heard. Not that one could really hear others speaking over all the noise.

"Can I go play now?" Kiro questioned the moment Serena sat down.

The snow leopard beastwoman nodded her head in response before she added, "You can, but stay close to us okay. And if there’s any trouble you come running here. Scream if necessary."

"Okay!" Kiro exclaimed, rushing off to play with the other cubs a second later.

Serena kept her gaze on him as he ran off, Theo sitting down quite close to her. So close she could feel the heat coming off his body. He leaned closer, hand moving behind her body to anchor himself.

She finally shifted her gaze to the tiger beastman, staring into those blue eyes of his. Liz looked between the two before deciding to quietly slip away into Serena’s subspace.

After a moment of silence between them, Serena asked, "What are you doing?"

"Just... getting close." Theo murmured softly, averting his gaze and breaking their staring contest for a second. He then looked back at her once more. "Are... are you okay? You seemed pale when you came back."

Serena went still at his words. She did have to admit that her chat with Merinda had affected her. However, she had thought that she had hidden it well.

"I... I just learnt what Merinda gave up to be a priestess." Serena finally answered, averting her gaze to look at the crowd around them. Her eyes quickly found Kiro chasing his friends. Turning back to look at Theo, she added, "It... was surprising."

That was an understatement, but Serena wasn’t sure how else to put it. She didn’t want to lie, hide what had happened, but she also couldn’t speak about it. Not now at least.

"I see..." Theo pursed his lips for a moment. He then dropped his head, letting it fall to her shoulder. "I guess we can talk about it later... When no one’s around."

"Mhmm." Serena murmured in agreement, eyeing Theo.

He glanced up at her, strands of his hair covering his eyes as he gazed up. "Can... can we stay like this for a moment?"

"I suppose so..." Serena mused. "But isn’t your neck getting sore like that?"

Theo shifted closer, head moving to the nook of her neck. "Now it doesn’t hurt."

Serena scoffed at his antics, but let him be. She turned her attention back to the crowd, watching Kiro as he played. Soon, she heard Theo’s breathing even out and glanced at him to see that the tiger beastman had fallen asleep.

Her shoulder was definitely going to be sore once he woke up.

But she let him be, knowing he was probably tired after coming home later from hunting and then spending most of the evening sorting out the meat. She tried to help, but the tiger beastman wanted to do it all.

Sighing, Serena gently ruffled his hair for a second before dropping her hand. However, Theo caught her hand and quietly said, "You can keep doing that... I don’t mind."

"I thought you were sleeping." Serena stated dryly as Theo let go of her hand.

"Just resting my eyes." Theo answered, snapping an eye open to look at her. "Is your shoulder getting sore?"

"Not yet." Serena murmured, ruffling his hair again. "But if you’re going to sleep, then do it on my lap."

She straightened her legs at that and Theo took his chance. He didn’t really need to sleep, but it was nice being this close to Serena. He didn’t think the snow leopard beastwoman would let him get this close.

Granted he was just testing the waters and also didn’t want to try his luck. He would enjoy what he could get and leave it at that for now.

***

The sun was beginning to set when Serena shook Theo’s shoulder and murmured, "Time to get up."

The tiger beastman groggily opened his eyes and straightened up, grumbling something unintelligent under his breath. Serena, meanwhile, stretched her numb legs and rolled her shoulders.

Sitting in one spot for a while had her muscles stiff. Perhaps she should’ve told Theo to get up when he asked. But for some strange reason she didn’t want him to move.

She found the way they were sitting quite... relaxing.

"You should’ve told me to move." Theo stated as he watched Serena stretch her body. "Your legs must be sore."

"Just leave it... A little pain doesn’t hurt." Serena grumbled. "And if I can’t walk, then you can just carry me as compensation."

Theo felt his face heat up at those words, grumbling under his breath before he said, "Fine..."

He didn’t mind carrying Serena around, that was a pretty normal thing for beastmen to do especially in the city. But he didn’t like that comment about pain. However, now wasn’t the time to fight about it.

Instead, he straightened up and held out a hand to her. Serena took it, letting Theo pull her up. She had to hold onto his arm for a second, letting the pins and needles disappear.

After a moment she smirked at Theo and said, "Don’t think you’ll need to carry me. I’m all good now. Lucky you."

More like unlucky me. Theo thought to himself as he grabbed their offering plate.

The two then headed to where the cubs were to get Kiro. They met up with Emma and her mates along the way and followed them to the wooden stage once Serena got Kiro.

She picked up the cub, who was looking a little tired, so she wouldn’t lose him as the village gathered by the wooden stage. Theo offered to carry him, but for some reason the cub was feeling attached to his sister.

"Let him be." Serena murmured to Theo. "He’s not heavy."

Theo eyed the cub, who snuggled closer to Serena, silently wondering what was up with the cub. He knew Kiro was quite close with his sister, but he’d rarely seen the cub get like this.

They soon came to a stop by the wooden stage, watching as everyone was taking turns to place their offering plate on the wooden stage. Theo watched one of Emma’s mates take the offering plate to the stage before following along.

One the stage stood Merinda in front of a large stone bowl. Inside the bowl was a burning fire with what seemed to be plants. The thick scent of burning vegetables filled his nose, making him wrinkle it for a second.

"Please drop your offerings in the fire." Merinda said as Theo approached her. "And may Asdea bless you with good change."

"Mhmm..." Theo mused, doing as he was told.

The fire flickered as he dropped the plate of offering into the fire, watching it slowly burn. Merinda smiled faintly, her eyes going pure white for a second.

"Thank you." Merinda murmured, her eyes returning to normal.

Theo took that as his queue to leave, watching as a rabbit beastman headed up to the stage. By the time everyone had given their offerings, it was night time.

Several stone bowls of fire had been lit around the village center, giving some light to the place. Not that most needed it. Many could see quite well in the dark, having some level of night vision.

Merinda soon appeared in front of everyone with two rabbit beastman trailing behind her, the crowd of rabbit beastmen quietening down at the sight of her. She then raised her hands and began to speak.

"The cold season has come upon us with the winds of change." Merinda exclaimed in a loud, almost commanding voice. "Asdea bless these winds of change and bring good fortune to the village."

"Asdea bless us!" The rabbit beastmen cried out in response.

It almost felt like he was at a temple ceremony back in the Forest City, only this time it was for another god. Which was a little strange to him.

Strands of blue and green light suddenly shifted around Merinda’s body, her eyes going white again. She was mumbling something under her breath, but Theo couldn’t make out the words. Still, he could guess it was a priest chant.

After a minute or so, the light spread around the crowd, flickers of light sparkling around everyone like fireflies before disappearing. Once they were all gone, Merinda spoke once more.

"It shall be a cold time this year with mountains blowing their cold winds towards us." Merinda exclaimed. "However, no deaths shall come for us this time."

The crowd cheered at the news, only for Merinda to collapse a moment later.