The originally lively bonfire mating party ended abruptly due to Caesar’s sudden return.
Misha walked home holding the black bear cub in her arms, with Reya following behind her, carrying the unfinished prey on his shoulder.
“WHINE, WHINE~”
The black bear cub kept nuzzling against Misha’s chest, as if searching for milk.
They had caught the mother bear earlier that day, which meant the little cub had gone a whole day without milk.
Misha extended a finger to the cub’s mouth, and it immediately began sucking on it.
However, after sucking for a long time, it couldn’t get a single drop of milk.
It began to whimper in grievance.
If a newborn bear cub went too long without milk, its body would weaken, and it could easily die.
Misha felt a pang of heartache.
“Reya, it’s hungry.”
Reya set the prey down on the ground and patted the little cub’s head.
“The tribe has goat milk.
I’ll use our prey to trade for some.”
Misha nodded, urging him, “Alright, go right now.”
After waiting for about half an hour, Reya returned carrying a large bowl of goat milk.
“Goat milk is precious.
This was all I could trade for.”
Lactating female goats were hard to catch, and their milk production was limited.
This goat milk was strictly reserved for newborn female cubs and wouldn’t be lent out easily.
Fortunately, there weren’t many female cubs born this year.
Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have been able to borrow even this single bowl.
“Having some is better than none.
Reya, boil this milk for a bit.
If it’s not clean and the cub gets sick from drinking it, that would be bad.” She hadn’t intended to orphan the black bear cub, but since it had already happened, she would take good care of it.
“Alright.”
Reya carefully set down the stone bowl filled with goat milk, then went to the corner to find the small stone pot he had carved out yesterday.
After washing it clean, he poured every last drop of the goat milk into the stone pot.
The two adults stared unblinkingly at the stone pot.
Soon, the sweet aroma of milk wafted through the entire wooden cabin.
The little black bear also caught the scent, raising its head to SNIFF frantically in all directions.
Misha scooped a tiny bit of goat milk with a wooden spoon, blew on it until it cooled, and fed it to the cub.
As the milk entered its mouth, the little bear stuck out its pink tongue to lap it up.
Its dull eyes instantly lit up.
Its two little paws hugged the wooden spoon, refusing to let go.
“It drank it.
It really worked,” Reya said, a gentle smile appearing on his face.
From his smile, Misha could tell that deep down, Reya still longed to have a cub of his own.
“Yeah.
It hasn’t even reached a month old yet, so it can’t be weaned.
It looks like we need to catch a female goat.”
Reya nodded.
“Alright. This story is hosted at g.com.
We’ve stocked up a lot of prey over the past two days, so we have plenty of time to catch a goat.”
As the two conversed, Misha finished feeding the entire large bowl of milk.
The little bear licked its lips, still wanting more, and clung to Misha’s arm, refusing to let go.
Misha’s heart melted at the sight.
Having no other choice, she could only mix some water into the stone bowl and feed it a little more.
Once full, the little cub comfortably narrowed its eyes and fell asleep.
Reya went to the stream to wash the bear pelt clean, saving it for the winter.
Winter was only three months away.
It was a season when young females were prone to high fevers, so they needed to hoard more pelts and prepare early for warmth.
After washing the pelt, Reya used vines to weave a grass nest and a woven basket.
By the time he finished all this, Misha had already fallen fast asleep, cuddling the little bear.
The system grumbled inwardly, “This host is so carefree.
Has she forgotten that she still has a mission to complete?”
Early the next morning, Reya woke up and used the small stone pot to boil meat.
Through their days of living together, he had learned that Misha preferred cooked meat, ideally soft and tender.
The little female’s teeth didn’t seem to be very sharp.
After breakfast, Reya placed the black bear cub into the woven basket, strapped it to his chest, and headed into the great forest together with Misha.
Last time, she had spent five points to redeem ten uses of the system’s scanning function, but she had only used it once so far.
So, without hesitation, Misha directly activated the scanning function to search for traces of female goats.
Since it was a specific target, she could only scan the area sector by sector.
After using up three scanning opportunities, she finally found a female goat with kids.
Female goats didn’t have high attack power.
Misha and Reya easily captured it, scooping up its newborn lambs in one fell swoop as well.
Reya used vines to tether the goat and its kids, then led them on the journey back.
By the time they returned to the Dog Clan Tribe, it was already noon.
Many young females were taking walks and strolling around the tribe.
Before Misha and Reya had gone far, they ran into the annoying Dora.
“Oh, you’re back,” Dora said, drawing out her shrill voice.
Misha didn’t want to pay attention to her and tried to walk past.
But Dora was relentless, raising her hand to block Misha’s path.
“Wait a minute.
Did you abandon the black bear cub?”
Misha furrowed her brows.
“Who told you that?
Did they see it with their own eyes or hear it with their own ears?”
“No one told me, but I just know!”
Standing to the side, Reya’s nose twitched, and his face turned ashen.
“You went into our home.”
“What nonsense are you spouting?
Stop talking nonsense.
I did not.”
Reya scoffed coldly.
“The scent on your body can’t deceive anyone.
Any male could smell it.”
Dora decided to just brazen it out.
“So what if I went in?
I was just worried about the black bear cub!
If I hadn’t gone to look, how would I have known that it wasn’t in your house at all?
“Misha, how can you have such a black heart?
The black bear cub is still so small.
If you throw it into the forest, it won’t be able to survive at all,” Dora said, putting on a look of pitiful compassion.
“If you care about it so much, why didn’t you take it home with you last night?” Misha rolled her eyes.
At this moment, Caesar walked over from a short distance away.
His voice was clear and gentle.
“Reya, I entrusted the black bear cub to you two because I wanted it to receive better care, but you actually had the heart to throw it away.”
He didn’t sound accusatory, yet his words were meant to firmly nail Reya to the pillar of shame.
Misha sneered.
“Caesar, you really are used to judging right and wrong without figuring out the situation first, aren’t you?”
Caesar’s expression shifted, and he was just about to say something.
However, he saw Misha walk up to Reya and pull the little black bear out of the woven basket.
Silence…
A young female couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“They didn’t abandon the black bear cub at all.
They even specially caught a female goat to feed it.
How is that vicious?
She clearly has a very kind heart.”
“Yeah, yeah.
Caesar, next time you shouldn’t randomly accuse others before you’ve clarified the situation.”
Dora’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.
Caesar’s face also turned from pale to dark, then dark to pale.
Seeing that the way Reya looked at him had also changed, he hurriedly tried to smooth things over.
“Reya, I was just too concerned about the black bear cub, which is why I didn’t ask clearly.
I apologize to you.
Please don’t be angry.”
Reya didn’t say a word.
He just took Misha’s hand and led her toward their home, leaving Dora and Caesar standing awkwardly in place, subjected to the scrutinizing gazes of their fellow tribesmen.
As soon as they returned home, Reya milked the goat for the little bear cub.
Afterward, he built a goat pen and shut the female goat and the lambs inside.
With her lambs by her side, the female goat didn’t have much of a stress reaction.
After ramming against the pen for a while and realizing she couldn’t escape, she obediently settled down to feed her lambs.