The Beast Lands

The Village First Lady

Several days passed after the village changed leadership. Madison's hectic life became even more busy. She took the role as a mate to the chief seriously, she was like a miniature version of the first lady...well...maybe not that prestigious, but still. Even if she was only the "First Lady" of Holstone Village, she wanted to follow those ladies' examples and give back to her community. Look at the Kennedy's back in her old world, that family was well known for all the charitable work they did! So, Madison spent a few days thinking of ways she could help the families of this archaic world. She was able to think of the clothes machine from her visits to the local museums and historical places back in New York and Boston. With Amon and Kevin's help, she began her first line of attack: farm animals for milk. The two first built fences for the families that agreed to work with her, and several families decided to wait until they understood more. So, counting Madison's family, they were building fences for five other's, including Ambers, with Amon's skills all six were built in a day. The next day Amon, Taylor and several other beastmen went to hunt, but not kill a weird looking deer, she read about a 'mouse deer' in her old life, and it sounded oddly like it.  The mouse deer would be their new source of milk which in turn would help her with the original idea: butter! Luckily the village had enough staples to help feed the influx of animals. When the hunters returned with too many males, they were able to enjoy a feast as well. They only needed a few males and would be able to catch more at a later date to keep the herd healthy. Like in humans, incest was not good in animals. The six families had two females and one buck in each pen. This was a good start, but in order to get milk to make butter, the doe's needed to make some babies! Plenty of time for her to get everything made, like the butter churn. She also needed Amons woodworking skills to make wooden butter design molds with their family crest she was currently designing. This was going to be the exciting part, as a history buff, Madison looked into her family genealogy and discovered that she was Irish Scottish mixed. So her light reddish blonde hair and pale skin...and the scattering of freckles were part of her heritage. Also, she learned about her father's family crest when she was searching about her ancestors. She wanted a mix of that shield and a part of each mate. So far her crest was in the shape of a shield, which she kept from her father's side, with a circle in the middle and four corners. The circle in the middle would represent her, the four corners would be her mates, because she was always surrounded by their love. She didn't know what to put in the sections though. This would be a crest that would be passed down, as such, she wanted it to have meaning. Back in New  York a person could witness a lot of Greek statues. Her creative mind was leaning towards Hestia and Eros as symbols of her love towards her family and in turn the rest of the village, maybe with a skyscraper in the background of her circle...Madison began drawing her idea, keeping it simple so that Amon could make the design in the butter molds, but also on an actual shield they could hang on their home. Madison's drawing far surpassed what would be feasible on a butter dish, looking at the skyscraper background was too much. Madison began to contemplate once more...Apple blossoms! The story of Johnny Appleseed was an American tale, based on a real person. The shield would have an apple tree instead of the skyscraper, mixed with apples and blossoms...the butter dish would be an apple blossom design! Perfect. Madison spent the rest of the afternoon playing with her daughters and drawing the shield. She would have her mates draw their section-it was their portion to symbolize their family. Once the girls laid down to nap, Madison turned her attention to her own body. She had been so busy with the abrupt changes, and nervous about discovering the status of her egg, she did not check her body. Her  nerves were on edge, she needed to face the music. If she was pregnant, good. If not, well, they would try again. No big deal she thought, trying to ease her apprehension. It didn't work. Madison laid out some fur on the ground and sat criss cross with her hands on her knees. When she went to Yoga they would begin the session with meditation...Ah! another idea, she would bring Yoga to her village too...back on track. Madison closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then focused on centering her energy. She finally found her zone, it was like white lines for her mind to follow, tracking her body. Her heart was pumping strong...her blood flow was unobstructed. This really was an awesome ability-her body's transformation was still progressing and changing. She watched as her body repaired itself, the image was amazing to watch. She went deeper into her core, finding her egg. It was fertilized! But she couldn't see anything other than that. Knowing that she was in fact pregnant made her heart skip, she remembered the pain from the twins. That was ok. She survived then, she will survive this one too, her body was now too strong right? Madison got up from the floor, she needed herbs to strengthen the babe and herself. The girls were still sound asleep, and Madison didn't want to wake them up yet. She would visit Andy later and get the necessary concoction from him. In the meantime, Madison began planning more items. She wanted to make ice. She missed cold drinks and ice cream. Which made her remember her family vacation to Persia, where she saw a yakhchāls, a building that the ancients made that stored water and kept it frozen, even during the desert summers. She remembered thinking it looked like the poop emoji, but with steps. She needed a deep hole, sand, clay and some of the mouse deer fur...and a lot of beast power to build it. Madison drew the design from memory, since they were allowed to enter the structure she was able to draw the inside too. She remembered the tour guide's excited explanation of how the building worked and how it made ice. He even went into details about how to build it and the materials. Luckily Madison was a history buff and soaked up his words like a dried sponge finally finding water! Too bad this was going to take so long without any guarantee of success. 'I hope the villagers don't hate me if it fails!' she thought, then metaphorically slapped herself, this would not fail! When her mates came in for dinner that night, they were bombarded once again, with dozens of drawings. They looked over at each other, Taylor mind linked the group: "Does she think there are thousands of us?" he joked, the others smirking faces agreed with his assessment. Madison saw the looks and knew they were talking about her, which made her want to laugh. Their faces said it all, she didn't need to hear it! She ignored their internal banter and started telling them all of her ideas. She even relegated them to their tasks! The girls were looking at the talking adults, and joined in, their loud babbling contributed to the noise. Hearing the girls 'talking' with them, Madison's face lit up, and she began to laugh. Ginger followed suit and threw her little head back and laughed too. Misty followed the two and did the same. The beasts saw their females and began laughing as well. The time they spent together made their bonds so much stronger. When the noises calmed down Madison remembered her news, and began to chew on her bottom lip. She was so excited about the baby! Should she tell them now, or wait until she could identify the cub and father... "Uh, I have some other news to share too..." Madison looked over at her mates, their happy faces gave her butterflies in her tummy, she loved them so much. "I am pregnant!" Her rapid response made the men around her sit up straighter. The girls would be a year old next month, and now they would be having another in six months. Amon looked over with trepidation, and Kevin looked over with excitement. "Could it be a mix again?" Kaden spoke his thoughts aloud. The room got quiet. What he was asking is if she could be birthing two different men's cubs again, and if so, would they too be girls. The jovial mood turned tense at the beastmen's fears. Ginger and Misty are...special. Would Madison once again birth special cubs? Madison was the only adult not worried, she was hoping to birth exactly like she did before. Twins were the best. The girls had a best friend, and she was able to give Taylor and Kaden a cub. In her opinion it was the best outcome possible. If she could give both Amon and Kevin a cub at the same time, and give her offspring a best friend, then she would consider it a success. Besides, she always planned on having a lot of kids. She loved children, they are the most amazing little beings ever, and hers were the best in her biased opinion. "I actually hope that I have a cub from Amon and Kevin both, I look at Misty and Ginger and they are so happy together. Now that my body is altered, I think our children will be strong and healthy, maybe even more than our very strong and healthy twins here. I think I will be able to give birth a lot easier too." She looked around the table and saw her mates' surprised looks. She was right, before she only had her essence, but now she had all four of her mates' essence mixed in with her. The cubs this time could be a hybrid...