Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Happiness and Insecurity

Footsteps sounded outside the tent flap; Sane had returned, carrying a branch of Indian Jujube in his hand. Guessing that it was because he saw Kaelen liked eating them, he had snapped it off and brought it back.

When Walter saw the jujube branch, his teeth subconsciously felt sensitive; he found an excuse to slip away quickly, leaving the private space for the two friends.

"Barton said dinner is ready, and asked if you want to eat in the tent or go outside to join them."

Kaelen wrinkled his nose, looking very repelled. He was still experiencing morning sickness; if he went outside, he would have to smell a lot of mixed odors, such as the beastmen’s scent, roasted meat, the stench of animal skins...

[You go out and eat with them, I’m not going anywhere.]

"Alright then, I will bring some food over to you first."

Sane said while dropping the tent flap, then rushed over to Kaelen, pinning him down and kissing him ravenously. Kaelen resisted a little symbolically, then also went along with Sane’s kiss. If they hadn’t been apart, he wouldn’t have known; it turned out he also missed Sane that much. Perhaps both of them had liked each other for a long time, but just hadn’t overcome their fears.

Their lips parted, drawing out a silver thread. Kaelen looked at the tent pitching under both of their animal skin skirts, unable to hold back a snort of laughter. He lightly patted the tautness between Sane’s legs, teasingly tracing circles on his chest:

[Look, it’s almost dinner time, what should we do about this.]

Sane took a deep, restrained breath, pulled down the animal skin skirts, grasped his own and Kaelen’s, and stroked up and down. Kaelen couldn’t help but let out a sweet moan; Sane panted, lightly biting and nibbling his ear. Being in another tribe, and with the animal skin tent lacking soundproofing, neither dared to go too far, just releasing once and stopping.

After cleaning up both of their bodies, Sane adjusted his clothes and strode to the Crimson tribe’s communal dining area to ask Barton about Kaelen’s meal. The central area right now was filled with flickering firelight and bustling noise. The fragrant smell of roasted meat mixed with the scent of burning tree roots permeated the air. Sane wove through the crowd and found Barton standing next to a large fire pit. Hearing Sane’s inquiry, Barton hurriedly turned to call a Sub-Beast in charge of distributing food nearby, saying loudly:

"Cecil, please prepare a meal portion for a pregnant Sub-Beast. He is having severe morning sickness, so don’t get any fatty meat, just pick light and easily digestible food."

The Sub-Beast named Cecil acknowledged and nimbly went to prepare. Watching Cecil’s back, Barton turned around, smiling relaxedly and saying to Sane:

"You can just stay here and eat, I’ll tell Cecil’s group to lead him to the separate dining area for pregnant Sub-Beasts. There are many people in the same situation there, anyway, he would feel lonely eating by himself in the tent."

After saying that, he gently pushed Sane’s shoulder, signaling him to go sit with the group of beastmen drinking their fermented fruit juice. However, Sane’s reaction was completely opposite to expectations. He suddenly stiffened, his amber eyes widening, his feet rooted to the spot like a motionless monument. The surrounding noise seemed to be pushed away from his eardrums. Barton waited for a moment and, seeing no reaction from Sane, furrowed his brows in confusion and used a bit more force to push again. Sane still stood as rigid as a stone statue, his breathing seeming to stagnate as well. Barton patted his shoulder in surprise and asked: 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Buddy, what’s wrong with you? Hey, are you okay? Why does your complexion suddenly look so bad?"

Being continuously called and patted on the shoulder by Barton, Sane’s drifting mind finally snapped back to reality. The heart in his chest began to pound like a war drum. Then he suddenly grabbed Barton’s shoulder, the force of his hand so strong that it made Barton wince slightly. Sane’s deep voice shattered and trembled to the extreme, asking back:

"You just said... who is pregnant?"

Barton’s jaw dropped, his gaze shifting from surprise to disbelief, looking at Sane as if looking at the worst scumbag in the world. If he knew the animal called Capybara, he would probably be screaming in astonishment like one right now. The male named Marco, holding a greasy roasted goat leg right next to them, heard Sane’s question and his hand trembled, almost dropping the goat leg into the fire. He opened his mouth and stared wide-eyed, letting out several shocking sharp intakes of breath. Finally, the brief silence was broken when Marco couldn’t hold back, screeching in a piercing voice that echoed across the entire area:

"Are you kidding me? Your mate is already in his second month of pregnancy and a father like you still didn’t know? Good heavens, what kind of mate are you? Do you even care about him?!"

Marco’s furious shout successfully drew the attention of the noisy crowd. Dozens of pairs of eyes simultaneously turned towards this direction, staring intently at Sane.

"Hey Marco, what’s going on that you’re yelling so loudly?"

"Yeah, your face looks as scrunched up as if you haven’t been able to push out a piece of shit for ten days! Is there some earth-shattering news?"

Sane swallowed his saliva with difficulty. His throat was bone dry. Slowly pulling his hands back, he subconsciously reached up to clutch his left chest, where his heart was beating so hard it made him dizzy. The group of Obsidian tribe beastmen gathering nearby also hurriedly walked over, pushing through the crowd to ask Barton and Marco about the situation. The atmosphere became extremely awkward. Barton was somewhat speechless; he wiped his face, sighed, and said bluntly to the Obsidian group:

"Kaelen is in his second month of pregnancy, his morning sickness is so obvious, yet this Sane guy is still clueless and knows nothing."

At this moment, not only Sane, but the entire group of mighty beastmen from the Obsidian tribe stood petrified, jaws dropping, simultaneously transforming into human versions of the Capybara meme. They looked at Sane, then at each other. Seeing the Obsidian group’s expressions of extreme bewilderment, the people of the Crimson tribe began to whisper amongst themselves even more, bringing up all sorts of thrilling speculations.

Sane finally snapped out of his massive psychological shock. A complex surge of emotions welled up strongly: joy, regret, self-blame, and a vague sense of fear. He suddenly turned and stood up, and without saying a word, darted off with astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, his silhouette vanished, leaving behind the whispering crowd.

Captain Anthony wiped his face helplessly, gritting his teeth and cursing in a low voice:

"Well done you bastard Sane, daring to violate the tribe’s rule against unapproved mating!"

Hearing this, Barton standing nearby also vaguely understood something and asked curiously in a low voice: "Wait, you mean they... haven’t performed the official mating ceremony yet?"

Quinlan shrugged, curling his lips in a helpless response: "Not only have they not performed the ceremony, but before Kaelen got into the accident and went missing, we didn’t even know they were sneaking around and had a thing with each other! That kid Sane hid it really well!"

Everyone around let out a long "oh," their eyes shining with intense curiosity. Thus, they immediately and enthusiastically threw their arms around the shoulders of the Obsidian tribe beastmen, pulling them closer to the fire, offering more roasted meat, and actively started digging for information from them. Using Kaelen and Sane’s story as a foundation, the atmosphere quickly became lively, and the relationship between the members of the two tribes grew significantly closer as a result.

At this time, Sane had used his fastest speed to run back, but he was currently standing silently in front of his tent door. His footsteps hesitantly extended and then pulled back. The animal skin door flap seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, leaving him unsure whether to enter or not. Even if he entered, he wouldn’t know what to say first, nor could he rudely ask Kaelen directly, "are you pregnant?", or reproach him with, "why didn’t you tell me such an important matter?". The fault clearly lay with him for not being perceptive enough to notice the changes in Kaelen.

"Oh, hey there, why are you standing out here instead of going to eat dinner with everyone?"

A young Sub-Beast of the Crimson tribe bringing a tray of piping hot food to Kaelen was about to lift the flap and enter when he saw Sane pacing anxiously in front of the door, his forehead wrinkled in thought, and couldn’t help but speak up. Sane startled and turned around, trying to collect his usual calm expression. Seeing the food tray with the steaming bowl of bland porridge, he proactively stepped forward to take the wooden tray, saying hoarsely:

"He hasn’t had a good appetite lately, and his body is very tired. I will bring this in and help him finish eating before heading over to everyone."

The Sub-Beast smiled approvingly: "Oh, you are truly a thoughtful beastman who cares for his mate. I was even planning to invite him over to eat with our tribe’s group of pregnant Sub-Beasts so he’d have some company. But having you take care of him like this is the best. If that’s the case, I won’t disturb your resting time anymore."

Sane nodded silently in thanks. Waiting for the Sub-Beast to disappear from sight, he took a long, deep breath to calm his still-erratic heartbeat. He carefully held the food tray with one hand, gently lifting the animal skin tent flap with the other to step inside.

In the tent, a tired Kaelen was lying on his side on the animal skin bed, his eyes half-closed, about to fall asleep. Sane placed the food tray down on a wooden block cut from a tree stump, gently waking him up:

"Kaelen, hold off on sleeping for a bit, eat something first."

Kaelen rubbed his eyes and sat up, asking: [Aren’t you going to eat with everyone?]

"Bringing food to you." Sane carefully helped Kaelen sit up straight, then pulled the whole wooden block closer, picking up the yellow-colored porridge bowl to stir it cool, saying: "You’re having severe morning sickness, so they prepared meat porridge without grease; try it and see if you can eat it."

Kaelen hadn’t registered it yet, opening his mouth to receive the spoonful of porridge, and only reacted after swallowing. He hesitantly raised his hands: [You know already?]

"Yeah." Sane didn’t ask anything else, only patiently blowing on the golden grain porridge to cool it down, then feeding him spoonful by spoonful. Initially, Kaelen felt guilty, so he ate whichever spoonful was fed to him. After eating half a bowl, a wave of nausea rose up again; he hurriedly pushed the spoon of porridge away, grabbed the cup of sweet and sour fruit juice to drink, and then gnawed on two more Indian Jujubes before he could suppress it down.

Sane placed the porridge bowl down on the tray, pushed the wooden block away, and gently patted Kaelen’s back. Because Sane lowered his head, Kaelen couldn’t see the emotions in his eyes; he only touched Sane’s hand, telling him he didn’t need to pat his back anymore.

Drip!

Tears fell on the back of Kaelen’s hand resting on his thigh; he startled and cupped Sane’s face, forcing him to look up. Sane hurriedly turned his face away, hiding his tears to prevent Kaelen from seeing them. Kaelen couldn’t quite hold back his laughter, but tried to suppress it. He felt that Sane was truly adorable right now.

He sat on his knees on the animal skin rug, raising his hands to force Sane to turn his face towards him, gently wiping away the tears on Sane’s face, and placed a kiss on his lips. Sane embraced Kaelen, burying his face in the crook of Kaelen’s neck, his body trembling slightly with every choked sob. Kaelen smiled, rubbing Sane’s cool hair as if comforting an overgrown child.

Sane’s childhood was too unfortunate; although his persona always appeared indifferent, and his words were sometimes venomous, Kaelen knew that perhaps Sane was just like him, strongly yearning for a warm family life. Sane cried, perhaps because happiness arrived too unexpectedly, or perhaps because of fear; after all, he had almost lost Kaelen and their child.

Neither Kaelen nor Sane spoke; they merely embraced each other in the flickering firelight. Sparks flew out accompanied by crackling sounds, but they did not disturb the two hearts beating in sync.