"How many corpses did you see?" asks Leader Axel as his nose twitches to the various scents brought over by the two.

"Besides the three we saw today, there has been a total of seven," replies Vick as his eyes held onto any flicker of expression shown on his father's, Leader James's face, Healer Liam, and the elder female Nancy.

"And what beast do you believe these were from," says Leader James as he sniffs at the pile of teeth gathered before them.

Dash scrunches his nose in confusion, "by scent we're not sure since it seems like they're using something to erase their smell, but physically, I'd say that most had their tails cut off except for the sole female who may have been a complete female."

"A complete female you say?" mutters Nancy as she takes a whiff of bloodied hair. "Liam, sniff this.."

As Liam walks over to his female's hand, Nancy continues, "doesn't this remind you of something?"

Liam slightly scowls and snorts the air out through his nose, "yeah, the time we travelled to the sea and met with that pest."

Smiling with her wrinkly eyes close, Nancy reminiscent of her younger self, "aa yes, persistent and handsome male", opening one of her eyes as she peeks at her males deepening scowl. Letting out a soft snort, she then comments, "but his tribe did not respect females."

While the two elders recalled their past, Leader James cleared his throat to bring their respected elders back to the present.

"Dear me, a yes, Leader Axel and Leader James, the scent from the female's hair reminds me of a place located in the Southern Eastern Sea... though it's truly odd for one of their females and maybe males to have travelled such a long distance."

"Elder Nancy, do you believe they'll be a threat to us?" says Leader Axel in respect as thoughts wander over to a place he's never visited before.

Humming, the elder thinks as Liam cleans her hand with a wet cloth and fresh minty herbs. "It all depends on what tribe this female came from, if she was attempting to escape and brought those foreighn males to our woods or if there's another story to their deaths.... Let's just hope that they haven't caught wind of our tribe's number of plentiful females and newest member."

------- - ------ - ------

"Brrrr, It's starting to get too cold to bathe outside, what I'd give for some indoor plumbing," whines Sheila as she shivers under her fur blankets.

"Well, if you'd had taken a bath earlier today you wouldn't be shivering as much now," remarks Natasha with a wink as she passes us with a seductive sway. She is immediately followed by two of my brothers and her males to their own campfire.

"When will that she dog realize that I'm not a morning person?" comments Sheila to the air as she follows me to my own campfire.

"When will that pug realize that Suki is our female," mimics Radu in annoyance as he dramatically replicates the others sigh.

Rolling her eyes at the ever sarcastic skunk beastmen, Sheila responds haughtily, "I asked if I can join, Suki allowed, simple as that." Then continues to follow by my side as her two guardians snicker at her quirky response.

As for my males, Radu is clearly on my right with his bushy tail wrapped around the left side of my body, Wyatt is calmly walking behind us while Leo and Adan are already at our campfire getting the prey skinned and ready to be cooked.

Finally arriving at our campfire, I immediately sat at my favorite place which has a better view of when our Tribe Leaders would give their speech. Sheila, knowing that the two spots belong to my males, smartly decided to sit at the other side at the campfire with the two guards. As for who sat beside me, well...

"No fair Radu, you sat beside Suki last time," whimpers Leo as he looks at me with tearful eyes.

Radu smirks, "I can't remember."

Adan coughs, "fortunately, I do." Then he began to list the many times Radu sat besides me compared to how many times the rest were able to take that place.

Ooops, I guess I'm favoring Radu too much.. That can be dangerous.

Noticing my worry, Wyatt interrupts Adan's discussion as he boldly holds me up in a bridal style and sits at my place with me now sitting on his lap. Purring, he lowers his face to my own and gives me a small peck on my opened lips. With a wide grin he looks back up at the astonished trio and informs them, "now Leo and Adan can sit on both her sides".

"Poooff," Sheila snickers at my males surprised expressions.

Snapping out of their thoughts, Adan and Leo happily took their seats as Radu rolled his eyes and muttered, "I thought we were comrades."

Before I could reply, he then gives us an okay smile and goes to cook some of our meat. One of Sheila's guards walks over to Radu to help with the cooking.

As Adan feeds me some chestnuts, Sheila asks, "I probably haven't asked before but why are we having a campfire? I mean, it's autumn now, but is there a special reason or ocassion?"

Sniffing heavenly at the sizzling meat I respond, "tribe campfires are done once a season, except for winter. It is to give our tribe a sense of togetherness and a chance for single males to show their interest in a female. As for special occasions, well, ummm, another is done for the return of the Most Beautiful Competition but that's another story."

Adan then speaks up, "it's also a chance for our leaders to observe our tribe members to see which are healthy, in need of help, pregnant, had cubs, and others."

Humming, Sheila takes the information in and starts to play with her fingers. "And how would males show they're interested in a female?"

A dramatic gasp sound outloud near the sizzling meat, "woah, are you interested in a male pug? Do my ears deceive me?"

"Scram skunk!" yells Sheila as she blushes.

Giggling at the two never ending banter, I grin as I look into the devastating beauty of the fire, "you might witness some tonight, just wait and see."