Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Host is using precious survival supplies already?

He did not answer.

For him, those two words were stranger than the way she held the cubs. Stranger than the way she inspected prey like a hunter from another life. Stranger than the way she had touched his arm with worry instead of disgust.

Thank you.

He had brought her fruit because she had always demanded fruit.

Even while they traveled, even when the forest was dangerous, even when he had to leave before dawn and return after nightfall, she would ask for sweet fruit and then complain if it was bruised. She hated raw meat. She hated the smell. She hated the cave. She hated the cubs’ mouths when they nursed from her. She had stopped feeding them too soon on purpose, forcing him to mash meat, soften it, beg her, carry screaming hungry cubs through the night while she turned away and covered her ears.

He remembered their mouths searching for milk she refused to give.

He remembered the smallest cub crying until his tiny body went limp.

He remembered kneeling beside her and asking her to feed them just once more.

He remembered the way she had looked at him as if he and the cubs were chains around her throat.

Now she was thanking him for fruit.

Kael did not understand.

Swanly shifted awkwardly. ”Is saying thank you illegal too?”

The smallest cub leaned toward the fruit. ”Mama happy?”

”Yes,” Swanly said, picking up one gold fruit. ”Mama is very happy. Mama likes food that did not try to kill anyone.”

The second cub sniffed the bundle. ”Sweet.”

The eldest looked at Kael. ”Papa bring sweet.”

The smallest looked at Swanly with shining eyes. ”Papa good?”

Swanly glanced at Kael.

He was still staring at her like she had rearranged the stars with a fruit peel.

She softened a little.

”Yes,” she said. ”Papa did good.”

The cubs all turned to Kael proudly, as if Swanly’s approval belonged to them too.

Kael’s throat moved.

Swanly quickly looked back at the prey because the air had become too emotional again.

”Okay,” she said. ”The meat. Let’s roast it.”

The change in Kael was immediate.

His face closed.

His shoulders stiffened.

The cave cooled.

Swanly paused with the fruit still in her hand.

”What?”

Kael’s voice became flat. ”You know I do not handle fire.”

Swanly blinked. ”I know?”

His jaw tightened. ”Do not begin this again.”

”Begin what?”

His eyes flashed anger. ”You demand roasted meat when you know I cannot make fire safely. Then when I fail, you curse me for being useless. When I say you should not go near it either, you tell me I am keeping you from what you want.”

Swanly stared at him.

The cubs shrank into themselves.

The smallest crawled behind Swanly’s leg.

The second pressed his belly low to the cave floor.

The eldest looked between Kael and Swanly with frightened eyes, as if he was waiting for the cave to fill with shouting.

Swanly’s anger died before it could rise.

Again.

Another memory that was not hers but had teeth.

She set the fruit down slowly.

”I wasn’t trying to start a fight.”

Kael did not look convinced.

Swanly held up both hands. ”Fine. I’ll do it.”

Kael’s eyes sharpened at once. ”No.”

”Why not?”

”You will burn yourself.”

”I know how fire works.”

”You do not.”

”Yes, I do.”

”You say this to force me.”

Swanly stared at him. ”Force you to what? Burn yourself for fun?”

His mouth tightened.

That silence answered her.

Swanly rubbed her face. ”Kael. I am not trying to trick you.”

He stepped toward the dry grass pile near the wall. ”I will do it.”

”You just said you do not know how.”

”I said I do not handle it well.”

”That is the same thing.”

”It is not.”

The cubs watched them in deep distress.

The smallest whispered, ”Fire bad.”

The second cub’s ears pressed flat. ”Hot bite.”

The eldest stood in front of his brothers, but even he took one step back when Kael gathered the dry bark fibers.

Swanly frowned.

The fear was not pretend.

They were all scared of fire.

That meant fire was not commonly used here, or at least not by them. Maybe only certain tribes knew how to keep it. Maybe it was rare. Maybe beastmen, with fur, sharp senses, and animal instincts, hated it on a level she did not understand.

Kael crouched near a flat stone closer to the cave mouth where the damp mist did not reach. He gathered dried grass, shredded bark, curled strips of fungus, and two dark stones from a shallow hollow. One stone was sharp-edged, flintlike, and the other had a metallic glint inside it. He struck them together.

Nothing happened.

He struck again.

A tiny spark jumped and died.

The cubs flinched anyway.

Swanly watched, her eyebrows slowly rising.

Kael’s face hardened.

He struck the stones again and again. His movements were too forceful, too tense. He was not coaxing fire out. He was attacking it like an enemy that had insulted his bloodline.

A spark caught on the bark fiber.

A thin thread of smoke rose.

Kael leaned closer and blew too hard.

The smoke vanished.

Swanly pressed her lips together.

Do not laugh.

Do not laugh.

This man is emotionally wounded and scared of fire.

Do not laugh.

Kael struck again.

This time, a spark caught the dry grass.

A tiny flame lifted.

The cubs squeaked and scrambled backward.

The smallest tripped over his own paws and rolled into Swanly’s foot.

She immediately scooped him up.

”It’s okay,” she murmured. ”It’s tiny.”

The smallest buried his face against her hand. ”Fire angry.”

Swanly looked at the little flame.

It did look angry, but only because Kael was glaring at it like he expected it to confess to a crime.

Kael reached for a thicker twig too soon. The flame licked upward, caught a piece of resin inside the bark, and flared.

He jerked, but not fast enough.

The edge of the flame kissed his fingers.

The smell of burned skin hit the air.

Swanly dropped the fruit bundle.

”Kael!”

The cubs cried out.

The smallest trembled against her chest. The second backed into the wall with wide eyes. The eldest let out a tiny growl at the fire, as if he intended to fight it despite being terrified.

Swanly rushed to Kael.

”What are you doing? That is not how you light it!”

Kael pulled his hand back before she could grab it.

His face was closed again.

Hard.

Wounded.

”You knew this,” he said.

Swanly froze.

”What?”

”You knew I could not use it well.”

The words were quiet, but they struck harder than if he had shouted.

Swanly stared at his burned fingers, then at his face.

He thought she had done this on purpose.

He thought she had told him to roast the meat because she wanted to watch him fail, or hurt himself, or prove again that he was not enough for her.

A sharp, ugly feeling twisted in her chest.

”No,” she said.

Kael looked away.

”I did not know,” she insisted. ”I told you, I don’t remember things properly. I know fire. I know how to use fire. I would not ask you to hurt yourself.”

His eyes flicked back to hers.

He wanted to believe her.

She could see that.

That almost made it worse.

Swanly held out her hand. ”Let me see.”

Kael hesitated.

The cubs watched with huge eyes.

Slowly, he gave her his hand.

His fingers were burned along the side, red and already swelling. Not life-threatening, but painful. Especially on top of the bite wound already on his arm.

”Fuck” Swanly cursed under her breath.

”Stay here.”

Kael frowned. ”Where are you going?”

”Nowhere.”

Then Swanly turned and walked toward the dimmer back wall of the cave.

There was a shadowed corner where the stone curved inward, hidden from the waterfall light. It smelled faintly of cold mineral, moss, and old damp earth. Swanly stood there facing the wall.

Behind her, the cave went silent.

The cubs stared.

Kael stared too.

The smallest slowly peeked around Swanly’s leg from far away.

”Mama face wall.”

The second cub whispered, ”Wall talk?”

The eldest narrowed his eyes. ”Maybe wall is sys-temu.”

Kael’s frown deepened.

Swanly ignored all of them.

She closed her eyes and focused on the space that should have been inside her mind. At first, nothing happened. Panic stirred. Then something clicked open, not like a screen, but like a hidden door in her soul.

The air around her shifted.

Her consciousness dropped inward.

A bright white space unfolded before her.

Shelves.

Boxes.

Stacks of supplies.

Plastic containers.

Bottled water.

Canned food.

Emergency blankets.

Medicine.

Rice.

Salt.

Basic cookware.

Random items she had shoved into her storage during the apocalypse because hoarding was not a personality flaw when the world ended, it was wisdom.

Swanly almost cried from relief.

Then she saw the system.

The tiny fairy system sat dramatically on the glowing white floor of her space, eating popcorn from one of her sealed snack tubs.

It had one hand pressed to its ear.

Its tiny face was wet with tears.

Its wings drooped like tragic curtains.

Swanly stared.

The system slowly turned its head toward her.

It said nothing.

It only looked at her with the sorrowful expression of a betrayed princess in the final act of a palace drama.

Swanly’s mouth opened.

Then closed.

Then opened again.

”What the fuck are you doing?”

The system sniffed loudly.

A single popcorn kernel was stuck to its cheek.

Swanly pointed at it. ”First of all, I have not even asked how you got a body. Second, why are you sitting in my space eating my popcorn?”

The system’s lower lip trembled.

It still said nothing.

It only turned its face slightly, showing the ear she had pinched earlier as if displaying evidence before a heavenly court.

Swanly stared at it.

”You cannot be serious.”

The system sniffed again.

Swanly walked over, bent down, and swept it aside with one hand.

Because the system had a body now, she could actually move it.

That was new.

The tiny fairy let out a dramatic gasp as it rolled across the glowing floor and landed on its back, arms spread, wings flattened beneath it.

”Cruel host,” it whispered.

Swanly tried very hard not to smile.

She failed a little, but only on the inside.

”This system is insane,” she muttered. ”I will deal with you later.”

The system remained lying on the floor like a fallen warrior.

Swanly ignored it and hurried through her supplies. She grabbed disinfectant, burn cream, gauze, medical tape, and a small clean cloth. Then she paused, looked at the supplies, and thought about the cubs. Then Kael. Then the raw meat. Then the fact that everyone here thought fire was a feral god with anger issues.

Fine.

Since the universe had dumped her here, she might as well bring seasoning.

She grabbed a small pot, a metal cup, a packet of rice, a little salt, a sealed spice pouch, a lighter, and a compact camping pan. Then, after thinking for half a second, she added a small bottle of cooking oil.

The system lifted its head from the floor. ”Host is using precious survival supplies already?”

Swanly looked at it.

The system dropped its head back down and pretended to be dead.

Swanly left the space.

From the cave’s view, she had only stood facing a wall for a little while.

Then she turned around with both arms full of strange objects that had not existed there before.

The waterfall light flashed across the metal pot.

The plastic medicine bottle gleamed white.

The roll of gauze sat in her hand like something from another universe, which, technically, it was.

Kael went completely still.

The cubs froze.

The smallest’s eyes became rounder than the fruit bundle.

The second cub’s mouth fell open.

The eldest stepped in front of his brothers at once, brave for half a second before he saw the pot shine and immediately stepped back too.

Swanly blinked at them.

”What?”

Immediately, Kael moved back, and the cubs stumbled back too, staring at her with shock.