She looked around the hut and disgust filled her. The smell was like walking in from a weeklong vacation and realizing that you forgot to take the trash out.
It seems that I am stuck with them at least for a little while. Sighing Larann looked at the three men before her.
"I will stay, but only if you do what I say." The three of them nodded.
You'd think at least the one that had cat ears would groom himself, but they were all a mess. Sticks and leaves clung to their hair and the hides they used to clothe themselves were covered in a gunk that she didn't want to guess about.
And they smelled. Looking down at herself, she realized that while someone had given her something to wear, it was not very clean. Dirt and grime lay in a thin layer over her whole outfit. The walk though the ancient forest hadn't helped her smell any better.
Wrinkling her nose, she decided that the most important thing right now was to bathe and clean the house.
"If we are to live together, I need to know what to call you. Can you introduce yourselves and tell me what you are good at?" The three beast men lined up in front of her. The wolf talked first.
"I am Sawa. I am the leader of this hut, and I am one of the best hunters in the city."
"I am Mura. I joined Shu last year when my family perished in a flood. I am also a good hunter, but I also cook." The man with the white tiger ears looked at me shyly.
"I am Shuiss. I lure prey to Sawa and Mura to kill. I am one of the best at finding prey in the city." Larann nodded. All of their skills were good for a hunter society. But she paused as they kept saying 'city'.
"Why do you keep calling this place a city"? She had seen the few huts and at most, this could only have been a hamlet at most. She didn't even count fifty residents in total.
"That is what the Shaman's wife calls it." Mura said. "She even named it. Relai – City of Beasts. We are supposed to tell everyone we meet to come here, but there aren't that many people."
"The shaman is the man who gave me to you, right?"
"Yesss." Shuiss hissed. "When he found his wife, we made a lot of progress. Before, we lived in caves in the mountains, but she had us come here and build these stone huts. She even introduced fire to cook with."
She must not be from this era either. Larann wondered what kind of person the woman was.
"I think that we need to clean this hut up. I can smell the refuse and that will make me sick." The three beasts looked around in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Sawa asked. She snorted in frustration. The other two were looking just as confused. Sighing, she decided to teach them what she meant.
"The floor of the hut should be clean of all debris." Looking down, she realized that the floor was made of hard packed dirt. She would need to address that eventually, but a clear floor would be a start. Looking around she spied three nests of leaves.
Those must be their beds. It was like the one she had woken up in. She looked in the rafters and saw there were several hides hanging. They must be from their hunts. Walking up, she felt them. Even though they had scales, they were still very soft.
"Can I use these?" Shuiss nodded.
"Everything in this hut is yours to do with as you wish. We will follow your instructions." Sawa declared. She nodded and took a closer look.
"Then lets clear everything on the floor out, even your beds. I want to have a clean place to sleep for all of us."
At that, the men began to gather the piles of leaves and take them outside. It was funny watching them struggle to do it by hand until she took one of the dirty hides and had them brush the piles into it to take it out.
"This is much faster! Thank you," Mura purred. Larann patted him on the head and couldn't help scratching him behind the ear. When the other two saw, they all pushed in expecting their own pats.
She laughed and scratched Sawa's ear and brushed her hand along the ridge of scales behind Shuiss ear. Then she pulled back and sent them to finish their chore.
Larann stayed in the hut. She peeked out of the door a few times, and the city residents were all staring with curiosity. The shaman even came over once to ask what they were doing.
Larenn was a bit worried that she would blow her cover then, but Sawa just smiled at the shaman.
"I remembered when you brought Ganne home. She had you clean your hut." He bowed in deference to the shaman. "Since you have given us wife now, we decided to do the same."
The giant man just grunted at that and left to tend other matters. Larenn decided that it was good luck that this Ganne had done the same thing.
It didn't take long for the interior of the hut to be clear. The hard packed floor felt cold under her feet.
"This looks good and it no longer smells as bad." Since dirt floors tended to absorb anything that was spilled on it, it would have to be treated and covered. She wondered if there were any plants that would work to seal the floor.
One with a thick sap that dried hard? She wondered. Now that the hut was cleaned, she looked at the men again. They looked even dirtier than before.
"Is there a water source close by?"
"Of course. There is a river and a pond close by." Sawa said.
"Can you show me?" He nodded but looked at the other two men.
"They should come, too." She started to exit the hut, but Sawa stopped her.
"I should hold your hand and lead you." Remembering that she was trying to hide her intelligence from the shaman, she nodded.
I should ask what would happen if the shaman found out. Larann was annoyed at having to have pretend to be an idiot and she was certain that the jig would be up sooner than later. She was a terrible actress. Just ask her sixth-grade drama teacher!
She looked a little closer at the residents of the city as she walked by them. Most were men and children. She could see women peeking from their huts. She wondered why they seemed to be so confined. The path was packed down as if hundreds of people had tread the way before. The fern trees provided shade and made it cooler on the path. On all sides of her, there were ridges and mountains.
A creature flew in the air that looked like a type of pterosaur. Its wingspan was massive compared to the tiny birds of her era.
"They don't attack here." Shuiss told her. Larann's eyes had been glued to the creature as it circled overhead. "They prefer easier prey and ten to follow the big meat eaters and scavenge."
Nodding, she took in the view. The path was beginning to open to a crystal-clear pool of water. Across the pond several steams fed the pool. In the distance, the edge of the water dipped down into a short rapid that looked like it would feed into a waterfall.
There wasn't anyone there now and Larann raced up to the shore. Sawa yelled at her to stop. Pausing in her steps, she glanced back at the worried faces of the three men.
Suddenly, A giant creature jumped out of the water onto the shore. If she hadn't stopped, it might have eaten her. The jaws snapped as she darted back up the trail behind the beastmen.
The men yelled at the creature until it retreated to the clear waters. As the sun glinted, she could see the dark shadows of several massive creatures just below the water.
There is no way I am taking a bath in that!
"What the hell was that?" She said, gasping as fear and adrenaline made her shake.
"That was a lake monster. You can't just go up to the water, but we have a place built to get water safely."
"It was Ganne's idea. Before, we would have to come here in groups to fight off the monsters, but it is safer now." Mura and Shuiss led me to a new path near the end of the main path as Sawa kept watch for more creatures.
Someone had dug a shallow trench from the pond to make a smaller pond that was more human sized. It had a tank to store water above and a plug that could be moved to let people get water for everyday use. Off to the side was something I recognized. The ground had been lined with stones and a screen put in place that allowed people to wash.
"Who uses this?" She looked over to the men.
"The shaman and his wife. She told us that everyone in the city could also use it but not may do."
"Okay, then we will use it today."
Getting sweat, dirty and grime off us was paramount. She thought.