A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 73: Late

After spending the next morning unsuccessfully finding any more wild birds, Serena headed back to the village. It was a little past noon by the time she returned.

She went back to the hut with Kiro, after picking him up from the village center, and was surprised to find Theo wasn’t there.

Normally he was the first one back whenever they headed out to the forest or would be the one to find her so they could head back together. So, being the first one back felt strange.

He must still be out hunting... Serena mused to herself as she put her basket down inside the hut. He did say yesterday that it was getting harder to find any prey.

Which didn’t bode well for her. She still needed that deer and wild bird to complete the mission and it seemed finding that nest of birds yesterday was likely beginner’s luck.

It made her regret not going after another wild bird when she had the chance. It would’ve made things easier for her. Serena shook her head at the thought. There was no point in having regrets now.

"Sister, where’s Theo?" Kiro asked suddenly, looking around the hut for the tiger beastman.

He’d gotten so used to Theo’s presence that it was strange not seeing him around at lunch time. The tiger beastman was almost always making lunch by this time.

"He must still be out hunting." Serena mused, putting her hand inside her basket to retrieve an apple from her subspace. She then handed it to Kiro, thinking he was hungry. "Here. You can eat this while we wait."

It wouldn’t make for a proper lunch, but at least it would keep the hunger at bay until Theo got back and they made lunch. At least she hoped so. Worse case scenario they would have to eat some of the smoked meat and a few roasted vegetables.

Kiro took the apple from his sister, glancing at it before looking back up at Serena. He then suddenly asked, "Are you going to go look for Theo?"

"If he doesn’t come back soon, but I’m sure he’ll be back." Serena murmured, ruffling Kiro’s hair. "Don’t worry. Theo just had to go further out to hunt. It’ll be fine."

But even as she said those words to help ease her young brother’s worries, she couldn’t help, but worry. Sure, she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and just think it was a long way back because he needed to go far to hunt.

However, there was a part of her wondering if he ran into any trouble. The deeper one went into the forest, the more dangerous it could get. Especially when you were unfamiliar with the terrain.

There was a massive risk of injury too if you ran into the wrong thing. And Serena didn’t like the idea of Theo dying in the forest while she just sat here and waited. She needed to go look.

Check that everything was fine.

But she couldn’t also just leave Kiro here while she went searching for who knows how long. Her priority was Kiro first and she had to push down her need to make sure everything was fine.

Just wait two hours.... Serena told herself. If he’s not back, then I’ll go out looking myself and pay someone to keep an eye on Kiro. Half a basket of food should do it...

But even if she did go out, she’d probably have to return by sun set as she was up to the task of dealing with whatever roamed the forest at night.

"Okay..." Kiro finally mused. He was quiet for a moment before he asked, "Do you think Theo found eggs?"

"Probably not." Serena chuckled, shaking her head. "He’s out hunting for meat only."

The cub really enjoyed the boil eggs they had for dinner yesterday. So much so, Serena landed up giving him one of hers upon seeing his gleaming eyes staring at her food.

She then added, wanting to distract him from the situation, "Why don’t we get a fire going while we wait for Theo. Maybe even go get some water too."

Kiro nodded his head eagerly and the two siblings headed to the river first to fetch some water. Once they returned with two buckets full of water, Serena let Kiro build up the fire in their firepit area while she took a bucket to water the garden.

Theo typically watered the garden in the late afternoon, but with him MIA right now, Serena wasn’t sure when it was going to be done. Thus she did it herself instead and saved him the trouble for later.

When she got back to the hut, she found Kiro had just finished building the fire. After handing him the flint stone, she then carefully watched him light the fire, ready to grab the other bucket of water in case something went wrong.

It took a few times, but Kiro finally lit up the fire and exclaimed excitedly to his sister, "Look I did it!"

"You did." Serena nodded her head with a small smile on her face. "Now why don’t you go sit down and rest."

Kiro handed her the flint stone and then did as he was told. He went to sit on a log by the firepit, watching the fire slowly burn though the kindling and catch onto the bigger pieces of wood.

It crackled and popped as it blazed on and the cub watched it all in wonder. Serena watched it too for a few seconds before putting the flint stone in her subspace.

She then moved to sit next to her brother, watching him munch on the apple she had given him eariler. He’d left it in the hut when they went to get water, grabbing it again a few minutes after she sat down.

Once he was done eating, he tossed the apple core into the fire and moved to the firewood pile to pick up one of the smaller twigs, bored out of his mind. Serena quietly watched him as he played with himself, wondering where Theo was.

Was he really alright? He had to be...

Eventually getting tired of her back and forth, Serena got up and yelled, "Kiro, I’m heading over to the village center. Don’t go near the fire. I’ll have someone come by okay."

Kiro looked over at her and replied, "Okay!"

She headed off, walking a few meters when she suddenly came to a stop. Walking towards her was Theo with his basket strapped to his back and the heavy scent of blood covering him.

His hair was wet, telling her he went to the river to clean up, but it didn’t hide the fact that his body was covered in injuries. Her gut feeling was right. Something had happened.

"What happened to you?" Serena exclaimed in horror, walking over to him to check out the wounds covering his body.

Most looked like scratches from some kind of claws and there was a large bite mark on his left shoulder. They were a hundred percent made from some kind of predator.

"Ran into two rootless beastmen while chasing a boar." Theo shrugged it off like it was nothing. "Killed them both already, so no need to worry."

"That’s not what I’m worried about." Serena muttered dryly. "You need to sit down and have those injuries checked out... Wait a second... Kiro!"

The cub came running at the sound of his name being called. "Sister?"

"Do you know where Healer Kai’s hut is?" Serena asked, getting a nod from Kiro. With that confirmation, she ordered, "Go to him and ask for some herbs to help with injuries. Take my basket with you and use the plants in there to pay him. You got that?"

"Um... yes." Kiro murmured, glancing over at Theo behind her. "Is Theo..."

"He’s fine." Serena smiled tightly. "Just do what I asked please."

The cub nodded his head and ran off just as Theo sighed, "You don’t need to do this... I’ll be fine."

"I can smell the blood on you." Serena muttered back. "And look at the blood from that bite wound. I wouldn’t be surprised if you need stitches. Are you trying to die from blood loss?"

Theo looked like he was about to rebuke her words, but Serena wasn’t having it. She dragged him back to the hut, had him sit down in front of the fire and got some water boiling.

She then took the basket with the meat inside the hut where it was cooler before grabbing a clean fur. She needed to clean those wounds because if blood loss didn’t kill Theo, infeection would.

She’d seen it one to many times before and did not want to relive those memories. Theo tried to get her to stop, saying he was fine, but she wouln’t listen.

Serena couldn’t risk it.

Kiro soon came back with the herbs and Davis in tow, the rabbit beastman thinking something bad had happened for Kiro to be sent over to his uncle’s hut for herbs.

After helping Serena make a paste from the herbs, Davis left, having to hold back a laugh as he watched Theo get babied by Serena. Meanwhile, Serena focused on making sure all Theo’s wounds were cleaned and treated properly.