Chapter 173: Permission To Tell

It seemed fate was against them because as soon as they were done with breakfast and had begun cleaning up, Finn showed up with some molded clay pieces in his arms.

The sight had Theo letting out an involuntary growl which caused the rabbit beastman to flinch. Finn then turned to Serena and asked, "Did I do something?"

"It’s not you." Theo lied before Serena could say a word. He then said in a more composed tone, "I just stubbed my toe."

Finn frowned at his words, glancing down at the flat ground around the tiger beastman. Who hadn’t even moved when he got there. But the rabbit beastman decided not to say anything.

He knew better than to poke a grouchy tiger.

Serena, meanwhile, had been helping Kiro wash his face when Finn had called out to her. She turned her attention towards the two beastman, wondering what had happened.

However, she didn’t have much time to think about it because Kiro distracted her. As she was checking that his hands were clean of any of the fruit’s juices that they ate for breakfast, her mind buzzed with everything she needed to do.

She needed to finish with the clay, look into crushing some more wheat and maybe getting the Council to give a little to each family, so that it could become a common food by the time the cold season came.

Of course, there was the issue of her not having much wheat, so she would probably need to grind some of it and get the numbers for the village. Then it was some basic maths on doing distribution.

Grinding all the wheat ears would likely mean there was more flour to go around, but Serena had to think past that. If she wanted to make flour a staple, they would need to farm it. Meaning they would need to have seeds to plant.

Foraging for wheat like she had wouldn’t work for them. She needed to keep at least two or three bags of wheat for next season. That way they could grow more wheat and split half for food storage and half for next season planting.

Granted, she did also have some other plants that she was looking to plant, but those still needed some experimenting first. However, she was getting a little ahead of herself.

For now, it was a matter of settling things with the Council and then moving from there.

After taking Kiro to one of the rabbit cubs’ homes to play for the day, Serena set about finishing some tasks before her meeting with the Council. One of her clay experiments still needed a bit of drying while others were looking ready for the next step.

Thus she planned to get the firing process done tomorrow. For now, she had Theo help her dig a pit while Finn set to work finishing some more clay pieces. Eventually though, they needed to prepare some lunch and Finn headed home.

Once lunch was halfway done, Serena went to fetch Kiro, making sure to tell the rabbit beastwomen to bring their cubs over tomorrow. She wanted to do a rotation on watching over the cubs, so that it wouldn’t seem like she was always dumping Kiro with the others.

After all, she was still his guardian, even if she hadn’t really been great at it so far. Serena knew she needed to dedicate more time and attention to the cub so he wouldn’t feel like she was neglecting him.

When they were done with lunch, it was finally time for her to meet with the Council. She left Kiro with Theo, keeping it simple and telling them she was meeting with Elder Samuel.

She could see that Theo wanted to ask for more details, but thankfully didn’t. Instead, he wished her well before turning his attention to the snow leopard cub.

Serena felt a hint of guilt claw at her chest, but she pushed it down, knowing that she would soon get permission to explain everything to the tiger beastman. Thus she gathered her basket of goods, not wanting to show her space off just yet, before heading to the Council hut.

She was the first to arrive with Elder Samuel appearing moments later. He gave her a wide smile before gesturing for her to enter the hut. Soon the other elders appeared, all looking curiously at the items she had brought over.

Once they all settled down, Serena took a deep breath before she said, "Before I start presenting my plan to the Council, I would like to ask for permission to speak to Theo about this... It has been hard to keep all this from him and will be harder to if we keep moving forward with this plan.

"I can promise that he’ll stay loyal to us and keep the truth about this project from outsiders. You have all met him by now and we can promise this is our home as much as it is yours."

Silence echoed through the hut as she finished, her eyes scanning over the others. She could tell there was a mixture of feelings going through the group, knowing many feared Theo spilling the truth about this project and the ramifications of it.

Still, she was set on getting them to agree to this request. Serena didn’t want to keep hiding things, especially if things were going to keep getting serious with Theo and her. She had to start being truthful.

Even if some things were going to be quite difficult to explain. But she would get through that some other time. For now her focus was on the most immediate thing before her.

"This is quite a difficult request..." One of the elders started.

Elder Samuel coughed before he countered, "Serena’s family has been helping this village greatly so far. I say we give her the trust."

The elders soon went back and forth for a bit before they finally agreed to let Serena tell Theo about this project. However, they warned her that they’d be watching the tiger beastman closely, some still not trusting them fully.

Serena let out a breath of relief before she said, "Thank you Council. I will now like to present to you the details of this project."