Chapter 30. Wedding

“Ken! We should get up now and go join the hunt.” Lovetta whispered to the sleeping young man who’s clinging on to her tightly as the two shared the warmth under a thick fur blanket.

A week had passed since Ken joined Lovetta at her tribe and today on December 24th, Lovetta’s brother is getting married and per the tribal traditions, the two families of the groom and bride will be competing in a hunt to see which family would bring in more kills for the festival that will take place later tonight.

“Morning Lovetta.” Ken answered sleepily as the two slowly got ready to get out of bed.

While Boris was totally against the two sharing a bed at first, since the house only had 3 bedrooms and with Zeev was still living at home, Lovetta refused to let Ken sleep in the living room or share a room with Zeev and with her showing her parents the protection spell that was cast on her so the two couldn’t make love, the father eventually give in to her demand and Ken had spent his nights snuggling and making out with Lovetta.

During the first few days of Ken’s stay, while Lovetta’s little sister and mom warmed up to Ken instantly, it took a few days before her brother and finally her father to warm up to the young man. But after a week, Boris had taken quite a liking to Ken.

Not only did Boris like Ken’s straightforward personality, his directness and his confidence, when he learned that Ken had only been training for a single year to reach the mastery he had already reached, the chieftain was thoroughly impressed.

Along with Ken’s curious nature to learn new things and his ability to pick up most things after been shown just once, even with his promiscuous side been of concern for the chieftain, Boris had changed his option on Ken to the point where he no longer thinks Lovetta had made the wrong choice and is now a supporter of the relationship.

“Come on my boy! Time for us to show the in-laws what a strong family their daughter married into!” Boris declared as Ken and Lovetta greeted the family in the living room.

Wearing a thick fur coat that was gifted to him by Lovetta’s mother, Ken is now well prepared for the cold while they are within the settlement. However, the thoughts of leaving the much warmer insulated settlement and go hunting in the bitter cold has Ken questioning his decision to help with the wedding.

When the family left the house and arrived at the center square area of the settlement where a large platform was built on top of many intersecting giant branches, it was already filled with family and friends who were eager to see the start of the ceremony.

As Ken greeted all the now familiar faces, the elder who was tasked with the important job of hosting this wedding went over the tradition and reasoning for this hunting competition.

To show that the family is strong enough to support an additional member, for the tribe that survived in the harsh forest, food is the number one concern. The competition determines who gets married into whose family as gender matters not to the tribe that only values strength and as the chieftain, Boris is not here to win the competition, he is here to put on a show and welcome his new daughter-in-law to the family with a giant feast.

As the participants got ready, three from the Wulric side including Ken and Lovetta went up against six members from in-laws. And as the elder announced the start of the hunt, Boris disappeared from sight almost instantly while Ken and Lovetta slowly jogged to the exit.

The strategy was simple, Boris alone was more than enough to provide enough for the whole feast while Ken and Lovetta are simply there to get some practice in and explore the great forest of Chelmswell.

Over the past week, Ken had learned many things from the tribe and while he was dreading the cold, he was glad to get some exploring done and maybe also hunt down a game or two and offer them for Zeev’s wedding celebration.

One of the first things Ken noticed after arriving at the settlement and meeting with the people is that unlike any other place he had been to, every single one he had met was a wolf beastman. After asking Lovetta, Ken was told that this tribe, like many other predator tribes in the great forest, are mostly pure.

Since the human settlements here were small and spread out due to its harsh weather in the great forest. When the Great Reset happened, most of the humans here merged with a single pack of animals. For her tribe’s ancestors, they happened to merge with a large wolf pack, so every individual happened to be a wolf beastman.

Many other tribes also shared this enormous forest and according to Lovetta, most of the herbivores like the rabbits, squirrels, rodents, deer, moose, etcetera formed tribes together due to their more passive nature while the predators have stayed pretty much unmixed for the past ten thousand years.

Since her ancestors only bred and gathered with other wolf beastman, unlike regular beastman like the ones Ken was used to, they don’t have the diversity within their lineage. Likewise, Lovetta told Ken there is a rather large fox beastman tribe, bear beastman tribe and feline beastman tribe that all call the great forest of Chelmswell their home.

When the pair finally got outside of the settlement, Ken followed Lovetta as the pair ran at a decent pace to the different areas that Lovetta was familiar with to see if they would have any luck and be able to get a few kills to bring back for the feast.

While Ken wondered what sort of animal would even be able to live in this harsh frozen environment, Lovetta suddenly went into full enhanced mode and dashed away. Moments later, she happily held up a giant snow-white hare as Ken rushed towards her, excited they wouldn’t return empty handed.

As the two wandered the great wilderness where everything looked the same, yet nothing looked the same, Ken had long been lost and had no clue where they were or how far away they were from the settlement.

After a few hours of searching, Lovetta managed to snag two more hare and a few fowl while the frustrated Ken had nothing to show for his efforts except his bright red cheeks from the bitter cold wind blowing nonstop in his face.

Along the way, the pair ran into a few other hunters including a pair of fox beastman, a huge polar bear beastman, a group of leopard beastman and a few rabbits and deer beastman. While the predators had kept their lineage mostly pure, the different tribes have for the most part co-existed in peace and shared this great forest with each other.

With Lovetta’s performance so far at the academy and Ken’s interviews with Lucia, the hunters they ran into all knew right away who the pair were and greeted them warmly and wished them luck on their hunt before going their separate ways.

"Lovetta. I give up!” Ken complained while flopping onto the icy cold ground.

“Let's head back Ken! We got a pretty good haul.” Lovetta said happily.

“You got a pretty good haul! I didn’t get anything! Couldn't even see anything! And it’s way too cold!”

Extending her hand to help the grumpy young man up, the pair trekked their way back to the settlement ready to get out of this bitter cold and enjoy some delicious meat.

Like Lovetta, the in-laws managed to score a few small mammals and a few fowl and as more and more gathered for the wedding, Boris showed up grinning with two giant deer over one shoulder and an elk and a moose on the other shoulder.

“Good haul you two! What portion of the catch was from you Ken?” Boris asked, impressed with their catch.

“Absolutely none of it! I don’t even understand how you could track something that blends in so well with the snow!”

Laughing heartily at the frustrated young man, Boris begins to show Ken different ways to track prey in the snow, different techniques he could use and different habits each of the animals he hunted displayed while Ken listened intently.

“So, your birthday is tomorrow isn’t that right? Want me to get rid of it for you?” Boris asked.

“Get rid of what?” Ken answered, not sure what Boris was talking about.

“The protection my boy, the protection spell.” Boris replied quietly while patting Ken on the shoulder.

For the first time in a long while, Ken was caught off guard and didn’t know how to answer the question. On one hand, for Ken who had been sleeping together with Lovetta for a week and been getting intimate with many girls for the past year, the thoughts and desires had obviously crossed his mind and body many many times and at times it was difficult to control his urges.

But to suddenly be offered something Ken could only fantasize about had thrown him into a myriad of thoughts. Is this a joke? Is he being tested? If it’s real, should he accept? How would the other girls feel when they returned to the academy? So many questions ran through his head and Ken decided to take a deep breath and give the most logical answer he could come up with in the few seconds that had passed.

“Honestly, that was not a possibility I had thought about so it never crossed my mind that it would happen, so I am not prepared at all. I love Lovetta and would no doubt make love with her one day, but I don’t think today is that day for various reasons.” Ken answered seriously after pondering at the situation.

"That’s the spirit! Get strong soon and take matters into your own hands!” The chieftain replied happily as the group got ready to prepare for the feast.

Now that Boris brought the topic up, Ken remembered just how strong the chieftain was and how easily it would be for him to remove a divine level protection spell.

From a conversation with Lovetta, Ken learned that up until her father Boris took over as the chieftain around 20 years ago, the tribe was very against intermingling with outsiders and keeping the bloodline pure was the number one priority.

While her father was brought up on that mindset as well and would have preferred it if his children would have married from within the tribe, he was also the one who decided that if the tribe was to stay close minded, eventually they would face extinction.

According to Lovetta, the reason the whole entire tribe could turn into wolves when the condition is met is because of a mutation. She advised Ken that from time to time, a beastman would be born with the ability to turn into the animal they represent but the occurrence is extremely rare, and many thousands of years ago, it happened to someone from this very tribe. After thousands of years of keeping the bloodline pure and not breeding with outsiders, the mutation had long since become a part of the tribe.

Just like Alice once told Ken about how the giants and vampires have weak traits due to limited breeding pool, the same thing happened with Lovetta’s tribe where even with this advantageous mutation, the general population had grown weaker with each generation without the introduction of new blood.

Of course, just because the average person is weaker, it doesn’t prevent a prodigy from being born. For Boris, he was that prodigy. Having reached holy level on all three types of physical enhancement in addition to his already impressive physical build, if the tribe wasn’t secluded back during his youth, he, without a doubt would have been selected to attend the academy.

After Boris became the chieftain, one of the most controversial decisions he made was to open up the tribe and allow members to go to the selection and join Dragonspire academy if they happened to be gifted. Over the 20 years, not many were gifted like he was, but now and then, someone like Lovetta will come along and be selected.

When Ken asked the chieftain why he had never participated in the tournament when he was this strong and could very well beat at least a few of the current top ten, he simply laughed and said that while it’s fun to watch the fights, his duty is to protect the tribe and his people who had entrusted him with the title of chieftain.

In just a week, while Ken had certainly gained the approval from Boris and the family, the chieftain had also gained the respect of Ken and meeting him had Ken wonder just how many more powerful individuals are out there who are just living a simple life, in a modest home but have enough power to single handed obliterate many smaller kingdoms.

As night approached, the aroma of roasted, grilled, braised, smoked and deep-fried meats filled the air and while the feast lacked variety in vegetables and fruits due to the time of the year and the general environment, the tribe’s ability to cook meat in so many different ways impressed Ken greatly and he was eager to learn a few recipes so he could share it once he get back home.

Since the wedding is for the son of the chieftain, pretty much the entire tribe of ten thousand gathered around as much as they could for the celebration. With the fresh games the two families hunted, and most families brought their own dishes to the celebration, mountains of meat dishes along with a few preserved vegetable dishes filled the long tables in the center stage as the ceremony got under way.

After the elder introduced the pair to the entire tribe, family members and the general crowd gave their blessing and approval and the two exchanged vows and a kiss to cement the marriage. Cheers erupted the moment the two kissed and the feast officially began.

With Ken counted as part of the family, he was first in line along with Lovetta to congratulate Zeev and his newly wed wife Ruth. While he did not inherit the full talent potential from his father like Lovetta did and wasn’t selected for the academy. At only 18 years old, Zeev had already achieved master level in his power enhancement with his speed and endurance not far behind.

When Ken sparred with Zeev trying to gain some experience, the difference in skill was so huge that it wasn’t really a spar but instead, those sessions turned into private tutoring sessions where Ken was able to learn many things for Zeev.

While on the surface, Zeev never said any good things about Ken and often complained about how weak Ken was. He was always willing to spar with Ken and provide him with helpful tips and for Ken, who’s only been hanging out with girls, he was comfortable saying that after only seven days, Zeev was probably the first guy friend around his age that he had ever made.

Happy to see Zeev getting married, Ken and the entire tribe ate, drank, danced and sang late into the night and when the celebration finally ended, Boris presented his son with his own newly built house so Zeev and his wife could start their new life and eventually grow their own family together.

After being filled to the brim with food and getting too sleepy to function, when the family finally reached back home, Ken and Lovetta wished the family goodnight and headed to bed.

As the two got into Lovetta’s room, they quickly brushed their teeth and washed their faces and wiped away the sweat as the weather was too cold for a shower, the sleepy pair quickly got into bed and snuggled under the warm fur blanket.

“Happy birthday Ken. Sorry we don’t have any shops here so I couldn’t buy you a cake.” Lovetta whispered quietly, gave Ken a quick kiss and pressed herself tightly into him.

“You know, I think I must be stupid for not taking your dad’s offer.” Ken replied.

“What did you and my dad talk about?” Lovetta asked curiously.

“Obviously I’m not telling you. Let’s get some sleep.” Despite Lovetta’s complaining, Ken simply pressed Lovetta into his chest and went to sleep so he could resist the urges.