I stared at the lone, snow-colored bird as it flew through the trees like a ghost through the rain. It was a beautiful creature, and although its taste was lacking, if I hadn't been as traumatized and depressed as I was, I would have happily eaten it.

Mother's explanation yesterday had... Well, it'd probably scarred me for life. Hearing about how not even mother knew who my father was because, in her own words, 'I was horny, so I fucked every man in the tribe until I got you.'

I was honestly torn between morbid curiosity and horror at the realization that mother was apparently an insatiable sexual beast, judging from the longing look she had while she spoke of rather... kinky... moments.

Anyways, after forcing myself to choke down the more specific information, I actually learned a lot. I'd never really thought about it much, but it had always seemed odd why the tribe had so few people, and why I'd been the only newborn for all these years.

Apparently, the birth rate of Northern-Tailed Foxes was just that atrocious. Mother had been having uncontrolled sex every 'season' since she reached adulthood, and only now did she have me, and that was already considered lucky.

Each season usually lasted from a week to a couple of months, and they tended to happen somewhere around every twenty or so years. There was no real rhyme or reason to it, or at least none that mother could confidently tell me. It just kind of... happened?

I'm reluctant to admit that I'd been impressed when mother boasted of getting 'first picks' on her mates. Apparently, being the leader of the tribe had its perks, and amongst other things, strength was the strongest turn-on for most Northern-Tailed Foxes, and mother might lack in common sense, but she was definitely not lacking in strength.

As for Leiran... I didn't know what to think of it. He hadn't really done anything worth getting angry about, rather, I should be grateful to him for the free gift. Still, there was something about the whole thing that ticked me off.

However, I didn't know how to sum up my feelings. Hence, there I was, hanging out on a tree, resting on its top branches and overlooking the white world below as I thought deeply about it.

Was I being influenced by my previous life? Maybe. I didn't want to be, though. I'd fought hard to reform and adapt myself to this new world, and I wasn't about to let a basic bodily need get the better of me.

I felt happy enough with the answer. For now, I felt it best to act as though nothing happened, and if Leiran made any unwanted moves on me, I'd beat him up a bit, or even better, get mother to do it for me.

And if they're not unwanted... Well, I have a long life ahead of me. Certain things are best left to the future.

I felt distinctly uncomfortable now, a dull desire growing in the depth of my belly. My breathing had turned a bit irregular, and I felt excitement spreading across my body. Apparently, all this thinking about sex and mating hadn't left me unaffected.

Well... It doesn't hurt to try?

"Yes, yes. I apologize, Kira. I hadn't meant to make you uncomfortable." Leiran sighed as I stared at him, twin tails waving angrily behind me.

"Good," I said curtly before beginning our journey to the hunting ground. The man didn't seem particularly apologetic, but the faint scratch marks on his face told me of an encounter with a certain pissed off three-tailed fox.

Our journey this time was uneventful as we arrived at our chosen location four hours later. There, we proceeded as usual, choosing the most delicious-smelling target and ambushing it together. Our prey, a fairly large bear that seemed capable of manipulating ice to a minor extent, died within minutes of our ambush.

I approached the corpse with caution, ready to jump away should it be faking it. Luckily, it seemed to be truly dead, so I gorged myself on the copse, Leiran joining me soon after.

We'd consumed the entirety of the bear in only a few minutes, and thus, we weren't in a particular hurry to return hunting.

Thus, I curled up on the spot, using my soft tails as pillows. I knew that foxes were technically canines, but at that moment, I felt much more like a cat.

Leiran didn't seem bothered by my lack of hunting enthusiasm, instead choosing to also join me in dozing off. Well, it was more akin to relaxing than sleeping, as our senses were still working full-time to detect dangers.

"You know... I don't dislike you." I said, an hour into our impromptu nap. Leiran lazily opened an eye and stared at me, waiting for me to elaborate.

"But, I'm not... ready. If I want to mate, I'll choose when to do it myself." I explained, feeling a bit embarrassed. Thankfully, Leiran didn't seem at all bothered as he barked out a laugh.

"Don't worry about it. I was only trying to liven you up, as you always seem so distant." He told me after calming down, somewhat surprising me.

"I see..." I really didn't, but I didn't need to tell him that. I also didn't feel the particular need to tell him about the small pit of disappointment in my belly that his answer created.

We spent the next few days hunting down easy prey, not finding anything truly challenging. We had to bring some of our prey back to the tribe, which meant a lot of back-and-forth trips. It was a good exercise, if nothing else.

When spring came a few months later, I understood that, if anything, mother had underplayed 'season'.

I hid my face in my tail as I tried to flatten my ears against my skull, trying my hardest to ignore the moans and humping sounds coming from most other tents. Amongst those sounds, I could distinctly hear mom's moans amongst the mass of erotic sounds, and it was... ugh.

In the end, I had to leave the camp for an entire two weeks. I now understood why mother had been so insistent we bring back more prey than usual and store it away, considering that nobody other than myself went hunting for the entire time, too busy doing unspeakable things to each other.

Every time I poked my head by the camp to see if they were done, the partners would change. I'm fairly certain that there was some same-sex action going on too, but I didn't exactly stick around to find out.

I hunted like a maniac for the entire time, as if trying to prove to the world that, yes, I was a predator. But I was not a sexual predator.

... It did sound really kinky, though.