After having finished her beef stew, Iris prioritised her list. She decided that at the top of her list she would ensure her heating by pre-drying wood and storing it under the tarp. It wouldn't be perfect, and moisture would surely seep into it, however at least she would be able to prevent the wood from being sopping wet or moldy.

Next on her to-do list, she was to scout the area in search of water. Not necessarily to drink, but more so for cleaning purposes. Already she could feel the dirt she had gotten in her hair the day before becoming crusty and uncomfortable. However, she refused to potentially waste drinking water on cleaning if there was no nearby adequately clean source to replenish. Currently, she planned to follow the gentle downward sloping terrain and hopefully eventually find a stream or river of some sort.

As for food, she had decided to leave that on the back burner. If by day 20, search and rescue had not found her, she would start to be concerned about food. Though she knew the chances of being found via only the ELT were less than favorable. She could only hope that due to her distress call prior to the crash and hopefully a missing person report that her boss would HOPEFULLY file, due to her failed delivery, that people would connect the dots. From there they would have to follow the flight plan she had submitted in order to finally catch the ELT transition once within range.

Preferably she would have liked to be able to have a clearing to write an 'SOS' in, but in her case no such message would be visible with such thick foliage overhead. Luckily a yellow plane would stick out against the forest green backdrop. It would have to do.

Currently, she was already started on her plan to accumulate and dry wood. She had stacked wood around the fire, far enough so that there was no chance of anything catching, but still close enough so that the warmth would be able to evaporate any moisture. While waiting, she would scout the immediate surroundings while gathering more wood of varying sizes. She had even dragged back exceptionally large branches that she could chop up with the axe, that was still in the plane.

Once the current batch was sufficiently dry and she had switched onto the next batch, she planned to ascend the rope to the plane. She'd pick out her next meal, get the axe and toss down the tarp to be setup. While eating, she planned to figure out what activities to do to keep herself sane during her wait. So far, she was thinking of finding some solid, straight branches to carve into makeshift spears for self-defence. She also wanted to dabble into the art of homemade archery as currently there was no way of her being able to defend herself in close quarters.

Otherwise, she wanted to plan out a training regime for herself. Although she didn't want to admit it to herself, she knew she would need physical and mental strength if she wanted to survive until she was found. And she was determined to not just survive, but rather, to thrive.

-----------elsewhere-------------

Ink watched, perched in a tree as Tawn stalked an unsuspecting doe. She had her head down and was calmly grazing, her ears twitching every so often as she listened for any sign of predators. Not that she would be able to outrun Tawn even if she did notice his presence. Tawn being at level three meant that he was three times faster and stronger than the average wolf.

As such, it might be surprising to most that he would spend such energy on stalking his prey to perfection when he really didn't need to. The whole obsession came from Ink. Ink being a snake meant that his movements were much quieter than Tawn's on a fundamental level. This meant that Ink would often simply slither up to his none-the-wiser pray without detection. They only ever knew he was there once he was wrapped around them, crushing them. He couldn't use his venom because then he would be unable to share the kill with Tawn. The males liked to take turns hunting and showing off to each other.

Traditionally, beastmen only cared to show off their hunting skills for their females. If they could impress her, sometimes she would get an urge to mate. However, Ink and Tawn seemed to be an exception to this urge. They had a constant need to preen for the other, rather than in hopes of attracting a female mate. This was likely the reason why they had had no such success in finding a female they both fancied.

Though, if Tawn planned to form his own tribe, he would first need to have a female. Otherwise, no beastmen would willingly join two single males even if they claimed to prefer each other's company. Beastmen inherently hated competition, and anything that seemed like competition would be unanimously avoided by all males within a family. Why open themselves to the potential of an additional two members to compete against for the already limited affection of their female.

Hence why Ink and Tawn were currently traveling between known settlements, searching for the right female. They wanted to be her only two mates, and they wanted her to be kind, caring and most importantly obedient. Next, she'd have to care equally for both males and be open to the nature of their relationship. Both males refused to be wait on their female like servants. They were to be the bosses of the family. However, the vast majority of families were controlled by the female, so the duo were experiencing a bit of a setback in that domain.

Oh well. In the meantime, the males enjoyed each other's company while traveling.

A strangled screech sounded and brought Ink out of his thoughts. Below, the large tawny wolf had made his move and had just crushed the windpipe of the now limp doe. Tawn looked up at the snake in the tree with a cocky 'come and get it' gleam in his eyes. Oh he was so gonna get it. He turned and swaggered his way to the nearest source of water, with a horny snack hot on his heels. He was going to clean out the soon to be meal followed by a bath that Ink very much planned to interrupt.

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Thank you for reading! Please take a moment to like if you are enjoying this work. Any support means a lot to me.

Oct. 5, 2021