Primitive Instinct: The Journey Home

I woke up and rubbed my eyes before I frowned when I noticed Roar wasn’t in the tent.

“Roar?” I called as I sat up and went to push open the flap.

“Fern,” I heard Ivy call as I climbed out of the tent and saw that Diesel wasn’t there, either, which was odd. He rarely left my side.

“Do you know where Diesel and Roar’kaol’tok are?” I asked her looking around the little camp we had made.

“Oh, I absolutely know and you need to get to the center of the camp right now,” she grinned widely. “Your hunter is nearly done with the proving so he may be allowed to start the gifting.”

“The proving?” I frowned.

“Ugh. Males,” she rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand to pull me behind her. “He has to prove he can provide for you and your family, so he got up very early to go hunting. He just came back and Osh’ri’ca is questioning him now. Move those sickeningly long legs faster, Fern!”

I hurried after her towards the center of the camp just as Osh’ri’ca stated that Roar had proven he was capable and may name his mate so she could receive her first gift.

“Fern’rath’fik,” Roar said and everyone moved away from me while I smiled hugely.

“Finally,” I said softly and Ivy snorted and tilted her head for me to go over to him.

I wasted zero time going to stand in front of him where he was still kneeling next to the two pulaks he had killed this morning. They were on the sled and Diesel was yawning and looking like he was going to be napping in the near future. People chuckled at my eagerness and Roar smiled as he reached into the flap of his shirt and pulled out a little wooden carving of a mammoth that hung on a soft leather band.

“For when I first saw the gift they brought to me,” he told me softly as he put it into my hand.

“Do you accept this gift, Fern’rath’fik?” Osh’ri’ca asked.

“I accept it,” I nodded and Roar smiled before getting up and taking the necklace back to put it over my head.

“I was worried it would be the wrong length,” Roar said as he pulled my hair out of the way and then picked up the carving to tuck it into my shirt. “Balla don’t wear things like this. It isn’t practical for a hunter to have adornments, but I think it suits you.”

“You better tell me that Diesel went with you this morning,” I glared gently at him.

“He wouldn’t let me leave without him,” he nodded. “I was careful. I promise.”

“Good,” I smiled at him.

“Let’s go eat and get you something warm for your hands to hold,” he smirked at me and put my cold fingers between his furry paws. “You should have grabbed your gloves.”

“You weren’t there and you never said anything about proving anything,” I scolded him as he let my hands go to put a paw on the middle of my back on our way back to where we were living for the moment.

“I forget that you don’t know the way this happens,” he chuckled sheepishly. “You might not look Mapok, but you certainly act like one.”

“Aw! Your being sweet again,” I smiled up at him and he laughed before using his paws on the side of my head to make me hug him as we walked.

“Your tiny little ears are cold,” he stated with a slight smirk.

“Uh-huh,” I rolled my eyes.

“You touched mine,” he smirked down at me and I laughed when one of the fox-shaped ears in question flicked. “We have a lot to do. We can’t survive the harsher storms in the tent you made for us. It needs more to keep us warm, so we are going to be very busy.”

“Alright. What do we need to do?” I asked and he smiled at me.

“What we do best, of course. We need to hunt,” he said and sat me down by the pit to start a fire. “A lot of pulak. I would prefer yuulk, but if we go where they are, the cazza also will be there.”

“Pass,” I said flatly, and he nodded.

“I, too, do not wish to meet another cazza in this life,” he agreed. “Some yuulk may venture far enough down the mountains to be hunted, but not many and not very often.”

“Sleepy, Dies,” I patted the dog’s head when I slipped his harness off and he yawned again. “Take a nap, boy.”

He flopped to the snow not far from the pit and closed his eyes, making me chuckle before I hauled a pulak off the sled and started skinning it.

“There is much more to hunt around here. The mouth of the valley is dangerous because of the predators outside, but they have good hide,” Roar stated.

“Nah-uh. No. You are not hunting a predator just because of the hide. Not happening,” I shook my head and pointed at him with my knife.

“It won’t just be me, Fern,” he chuckled, grabbing the other pulak to begin skinning it as well. “There will be a party of hunters, much like when we hunt the mammoth.”

“I’m still not liking this idea of yours,” I told him, going back to the work.

“And if I said you would be coming? Would that make any difference?” he asked.

“Some, because Diesel won’t let anything sneak up on you easily and I know you don’t like to leave me without him,” I answered him.

There was a loud howling from the center of the camp and I frowned before looking at Roar, who was grinning widely.

“Osh’ri’ca has heard his children finally,” he smirked. “One child is enough to be celebrate, but two at once is very joyous. There will be much celebration for his clan today.”

“Shh,” Roar said, kissing my neck softly.

There was, indeed, a lot of celebrating for Osh’ri’ca and Ivy’s clan. The chief was having his first children, and it was a huge event. A lot of shouting and sparring between the people and games that looked interesting, but Roar had another idea and it involved using the noise as cover. One I absolutely approved of and required far less clothing than usual.

Neither of our shirts lasted long before they were gone somewhere in the darkness of the tent and the band that held my boobs in place was the next target.

“Roar,” I moaned on a whisper as he tugged the ties that held in place until they came free.

“Soft,” he muttered, palming a breast gently and I shivered at the feeling of his warm pads and soft fur. “This, I find most interesting.”

He flicked my nipple and I gasped slightly as my back arched, making our skin rub together. He hummed and started to play with my nipples until they were both hard and I was half insane.

“They change. It’s very satisfying to watch,” he rumbled before I felt wet heat close around one of them while he held the other roughly.

I cried out and grabbed his free paw to put it over my mouth and he growled, giving my nipple a tender bite before letting it go and moving to the other, switching paws to keep my mouth covered.

“This makes you make sounds that are... difficult to resist,” he growled after he was done with my breasts. He kissed me deeply and rolled his hips against me, taking the moan as his. “I know this is not appropriate, but I don’t know how to stop. You make me want to not be honorable, Fern.”

“Don’t stop,” I panted. “Please, don’t stop.”

He growled deeply and his whole body went tense like a piano wire before he felt like he literally snapped.

He growled and put my hands above my head, holding them with one paw as he reached between us and loosened the belt around my pants. I lifted my hips and he groaned as he pushed them down and slipped his paw under my hips to grip my butt.

“Inappropriate,” he groaned, grinding hard against me and I opened my mouth, but he covered it with his just before I moaned. “Shh. I have to... I can’t... Fern, you can’t grow a kit before the gifting is done and we’re joined as mates.”

“Roar,” I groaned.

“We can’t... but there’s something else,” he said and the weight over me disappeared for a second before my pants were pulled off completely and my legs were pulled up and apart, settling on his shoulders as his breath tickled my inner thighs. “I wish you could see the way you look.”

As soon as he spoke, he was pressing his mouth against me and all of the noise around us vanished. I saw stars exploding in the darkness of the tent and felt like I was bathing in something bubbling, like a soda.

Roar’s paw went over my mouth again and my eyes rolled as he used his mouth and tongue to drive me straight into another new universe. One full of sparks that danced on my skin, little fires popped in the darkness in an array of color that put every firework display I’ve ever seen to utter shame, and Roar. The vibration of his pleased growl made me whimper and he ripped his mouth off of me while he pulled his own belt loose between us. A few seconds later, I felt warmth on my stomach while he groaned through his release right next to my ear.

We breathed heavily and my eyes drifted shut as I enjoyed the afterglow of the best sex I never had. A few moments passed and Roar groaned again as he rolled to my side.

“Do we have to wait for seven days?” I asked.

“Yes,” he chuckled as he sat up and then I felt him wiping me clean. “Unfortunately. But this... This we can do, and no one will know otherwise. You will not grow a kit this way, either, which is good. We don’t have a proper tent and not enough hides to make one that will be warm enough in the storms that are coming.”

“How much do we have?” I asked.

“Barely half of what we need,” he answered and dropped the cloth that I suspected was my chest band. “Fern. You look...”

I opened my eyes and tried to find him, but the darkness was too complete.

“Amazing,” he said in English, running his paw up from my hip and along my side to cup my face tenderly.

“I love you, Roar,” I told him holding his wrist.

“I love you, Fern,” he whispered before he kissed me.

“Roar! Roar, I got it!” I gasped and jumped up, dropping my cup of tea beside the pit the next morning after he gave me a small orou carving to add to the necklace. 'For the first time I saw who you were,' he had said, and my heart melted even more for him.

“What?” he looked around, his paw on his knife.

“I know how we’re going to have enough hide to stay warm during the storms!” I jumped into the sled and grabbed a scrap of hide and a few sticks from the firewood.

“Keep hunting,” he said slowly and came to help me out of the sled, catching me easily when I jumped into his arms instead of letting him lift me.

“Well, yes, because we need the food, but no,” I said and grabbed the bit of broken antler that Diesel was chewing on, making him growl softly. “Oh, stop complaining. I’ll give it back.”

I used it to dig a hole in the snow and pack the sides in to make walls and a step and fire pit before I tossed it back and stuck the sticks in the ground to make a point and then tossed the hide over the top.

“Ta-da!” I held my hands out at it and Roar looked at me, completely lost.

“I’m not understanding this,” he said and lifted the hide.

“Where I come from, we are called human, but like the Mapok, there are many different humans. Some live in clans, like the Mapok and some of them live in places like this where the storms are cold and harsh,” I explained, and he inspected the model I had made in the snow. “This is how they survive those storms.”

“Living in the snow? How is that warm?” he asked.

“I mean we clear the snow,” I said, using my fingers to pile snow around the hole. “We dig into the earth. The fire will be able to warm us, and we won’t have to hunt as much to get enough hide because we won’t need as much.”

His ears twitched as he looked at the hole, thinking deeply, for a long while.

“And it works? It’s warm and secure against the ice and wind?” he asked, putting the hide over the sticks again. “It weighs down our large tents. Will this one be able to hold it?”

“Well, not exactly like this, but there are ways to make it so that it can,” I nodded. “I promise, I’ve seen it before. It will work.”

“The ground is very hard, Fern. It will be difficult to break,” he said, looking at me.

“Not if we burn it first,” I grinned. “Stitching the cover and making the frame for it will take me time. A week, perhaps.”

“And we can burn the ground for our joining,” he smiled and looked back at the crude miniature tent I made. “The dirt will keep the chill out and if the hide is long enough...”

He tugged the hide so it laid on the ground some and then piled the snow on top of it. A weight to keep it from letting in drafts and to keep the strong winds from ripping it from over our heads.

“Do we have enough for that?” I asked and he looked far away before he shook his head.

“But we have enough to start,” he looked at the sled. “Can you make the frame for the hide? I still wish to join the hunting party to go outside the valley. It will bring us enough hide to finish the top and have some to put over the dirt.”

“How big?” I asked and he got up and dragged his foot in the snow to make a circle that was about the same size as his bachelor tent. “I’ll need wood.”

He nodded and picked up his ax and held out a paw for me.

“Really?” I smiled as I quickly put my snowshoes on and grabbed my hat and gloves.

“The Vysen live in things like this in the sun cycles, I think,” he nodded. “They are very thick skinned, almost like hide, so they have a difficult time with heat. More than Balla do. If this keeps the heat out, it should also keep the cold out.”

“Vysen are very interesting to look at,” I commented as we left the camp and Diesel jogged ahead to sniff around and lift his leg on a few trees.

“Yes,” Roar chuckled. “They are very powerful and strong. Their skin is tough like hide and hard to pierce. But they aren’t very fast, like Balla or Eeng. They don’t usually come to the valley, since they live so far away. They aren’t meant for the deep snow, much like you.”

“I don’t think they would be,” I said, remembering the split hooves of the few Vysen I’d seen.

“How many would you need to build this frame?” he asked.

I figured one on each side of the entrance flap, five to make the vertical supports, and smaller pieces between to help the shape hold up when the snow and ice weight it down. The rest could be done with branches cut from trees.

With that information, Roar pointed out a few trees and then started cutting them down. I picked the branches I was going to use after he cut them and smiled widely at me.

“What?” I laughed.

“I feel like hunting after all,” he said, slowly putting his ax down.

But he kept going until he was on all fours and staring at me.

“Roar,” I warned him.

“I suggest you start running, Fern,” he grinned, and his ear twitched before his body wiggled and I yelped and started to run, laughing my ass off for the whole three steps I took before I was tackled into the snow and held tightly in my hunter's arms as he kissed me fiercely. “Mammoths are wonderful creatures.”