A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 88: Cycle

Once they were done building the wooden structure for the coop, Serena and Kiro went to collect some tall grass and straw while Theo moved the coop into the garden.

He made sure to place it in a sunny area, needing both the glue to dry and because of what Serena told him about wild birds needing lots of sunlight to promote egg laying.

When he was done, he went back to the hut to make a water bowl and food bowl from the leftover wood. They still had a bit even after he used some for the bowls, so decided to put them to the side for now.

During the cold season he could definitely make use of his idle time crafting some furniture. Theo wasn’t the best when it came to crafting things, but they needed some more storage for everyday items and well as some more kitchen ware, bed frames and maybe a few more storage trunks for underground. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Because right now they were sleeping on straw beds on the ground and it was only a matter of time before rodents got into the straw. It would be much better to have raised beds with furs stuffed with straw.

Or even cotton for a softer bed cover. But he wasn’t sure if there were any cotton plants nearby where he could harvest some. Granted he hadn’t been looking around much.

Serena and Kiro soon returned and put the tall grass out to dry. Serena then grabbed some of the leftover ash from lunch time’s fire while Kiro went to get some sand for her. Once she had grabbed up the ashes, she started a new fire for dinner.

While she was getting the fire going, Theo asked, "Serena, have you seen any cotton plants while foraging? I want to gather some for bed covers."

Serena turned to him and furrowed her eyebrows. "Cotton?"

The name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on where she had heard the name from before. Perhaps from the original owner’s memories.

Thankfully, Liz noticed her confusion and explained, "It’s a fluffy white ball of fibers that covers seeds on a shrubby type plant. The fibers, also known as cotton, can be used to make clothes, stuffed into furs for bedding and beastwomen use it for the estrus cycle."

It took everything in Serena to keep her face still as she heard the last part. She had completely forgotten about the estrus cycle, but it did jolt some of the original owner’s memories in her.

But before she could process it much, Theo asked again, "Um... so have you?"

"No." Serena shook her head, now having a clear image of what cotton was in her head. She had never seen it before while out foraging. "But I can ask around and gather some. How much will you need?"

"May two or three baskets of it." Theo mused. "I want to make some proper beds and cotton will be much better than straw. But I’ll only do that in the cold season when I have more time on hand. The only thing would be to get the cotton before the rainy season."

Serena nodded her head in understanding. "Alright. You can leave that to me then. I’ll need to get extra cotton anyway..."

"Right... Your estrus cycle..." Theo murmured awkwardly, also forgetting about it. He was quiet for a moment before he finally asked, "How long would you say it lasts?"

Serena pursed her lips and looked through the original owner’s memories. "Maybe seven days... Why?"

"Well, we should probably work something out for it." Theo mused. "It’ll probably be uncomfortable having Kiro and me around when it happens... I can take him on an extended hunting trip, but we’d need to plan for that so you’ll be fine on your own here."

Right, estrus cycles were quite different from menstrual cycles that she was used to. Not only did estrus cycles happen once a year, but they tended to make beastwomen quite... horny.

And considering how the original owner acted when she was on her estrus cycle, especially around her mate, Serena definitely agreed it was probably better if Theo and Kiro were away during that time.

Perhaps, she could stay in her subspace during her cycle and then spend the rest of the time doing other things once she came out. She would definitely catch less attention that way.

"Of course, you could just get yourself a real mate to deal with it..." Theo added.

"You know I’m not interested in that." Serena retorted. "Besides, that would put our arrangement in an awkward position. After all, what beastman would let his wife live with some unmated beastman."

Their fake relationship had been going so well so far and they didn’t even need to mate to avoid suspicion. No one asked where her mate mark was, probably all thinking it was covered by her clothes and Serena was not going to correct them on that.

Theo sighed, "You do have a point there... Still, do you really never plan to have another mate?"

"I don’t. I perfectly like the way things are right now." Serena answered. "What about yourself?"

"Same here." Theo agreed before he joked, "I guess this arrangement is going to last a long time then."

Serena nodded her head about to agree with his words when Kiro came running back to them with a small bucket of sand he’d gone to collect. His face and clothes were covered in dirt.

"Guess, it’s time I take Kiro for a bath..." Serena sighed.

Why she thought it was a good idea to let him go get sand when she knew how easily he got dirty was beyond her. Perhaps it was because he was eager to help out. The cub really was excited with their coop project.

Because it meant lots of eggs in the future.

"Let me go. You can get food going instead." Theo offered.

"Fine, but let me get the basket ready for you both."