Thinking of Owen's initial attitude, it probably wouldn't go that far; at most, he would prepare a bit more food for him in the future.
But witnessing Owen finish all the meat in just a few bites with his own eyes, Rowan was slightly horrified; he had thought that meat was their ration for a week.
Owen chewed the last piece of meat, sensing Rowan's bewildered gaze, and his movements slowed down a bit. Could it be that he was being too noisy and disturbing his rest?
He hurriedly finished eating, then added some firewood to the fire to make the flames burn brighter.
Owen walked towards Rowan, patting the stone bed to signal: "You rest, I'll sleep on the ground."
Having said that, he transformed into his beast form and lay down next to the stone bed; the meaning was extremely clear, and the whole cave instantly became cramped.
Rowan retracted his legs inward, goosebumps rising all over his body.
He composed himself and said: "Owen, change back into human form, the stone bed is wide enough." He frantically gestured towards the other side of the stone bed, telling him to get up.
The human form was bearable, but with the beast form lying next to him, Rowan felt he wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of his life.
With his vigilance, having a beast sleeping right beside him made it completely impossible to close his eyes.
Rowan was afraid he wouldn't agree to get up, so he gathered his courage to approach and gently pulled on his cicada-thin wings.
Owen looked up at him, slightly flustered, his face turning red. He hurriedly retracted his wings close to his snake body, trying to hide them.
He had never seen an Omegina so enthusiastic; before being witnessed by the Beast God and performing the mating ritual, sleeping together was not allowed.
He was a bit troubled about how to politely decline Rowan's invitation, even though from the very first moment they met, he had wanted to become mates with him.
Naturally, Rowan couldn't see the blush on his face covered in black scales. Even less could he know his thoughts; he only sensed the resistance.
Trying to reason with him...
Forget it, communication was impossible. Rowan got directly off the stone bed, imitating him, and intended to lie down on the ground to sleep.
Owen immediately became anxious; how could he let a precious Omegina sleep on the ground!
He transformed back into a human instantly, pulling Rowan back onto the stone bed to lie down.
He pointed at the stone bed, his brow slightly furrowed, and said firmly: "You sleep here, you cannot sleep on the ground."
Rowan shook his head, wanting to pull him up, but unfortunately couldn't. But he was also determined not to yield; he would rather sleep alone on the ground than see his beast form sleeping beside him.
Owen looked at the stubborn Rowan, momentarily at a loss, the situation at a stalemate.
In the end, it was Owen who had to compromise; he couldn't let Rowan go sleepless all night.
He looked at Rowan solemnly and made a promise: "I will take responsibility, Sir Omegina. Before the mating ritual is performed, without your consent, I will not touch you."
Saying this, he lay down on the edge of the stone bed, very far from Rowan.
Rowan didn't understand, but seeing his serious expression, he vaguely felt it was very important, yet looking at his actions, he knew he had compromised.
His mood was much more relaxed, no need to worry about being accidentally swallowed whole by him in the middle of the night.
Later, when Rowan learned the meaning of those words, he wished he could travel back in time to punch himself to death right then; letting Owen sleep on the ground in beast form wouldn't have been a big deal.
Rowan thought he wouldn't be able to sleep, as he had never shared a bed with anyone. Perhaps because he was too tired, not long after, he fell into a deep sleep.
Hearing the deep and steady breathing from the other side of the stone bed, Owen couldn't sleep for a long time.
A Beastman's hearing was incredibly keen; he tried to restrain himself from paying too much attention, closing his eyes tight, daring not to make a single sound.
Where did this Omegina come from? The people of his tribe were too careless; how could they let an Omegina get injured? His wound must hurt a lot, right? He...
Owen's mind was full of images of Rowan, truly unable to sleep; he quietly got up without a sound and went out.
Early in the morning, Rowan woke up smelling the rich aroma of meat, seeing a stone pot that had appeared from nowhere, with large chunks of meat stewing inside.
He hurriedly got up to join Owen in adding firewood under the stone pot.
Since when had his vigilance decreased so much? Why didn't he realize this big guy had gotten up even earlier than him?
Heaven knew, to avoid disturbing Rowan's rest, Owen had never been so careful.
Owen hadn't slept all night, which was very normal for Beastmen; to hunt, they could go three or four nights without rest, so he was still very alert now.
Last night he went to the cave where his father used to live and brought back the stone pot his father hadn't had time to move.
If he were eating alone, he wouldn't care about these things, but with Rowan here, it couldn't be like that.
He also went to find herbs to treat the leg wound, and incidentally hunted a few long-tailed rabbits for Rowan's breakfast.
Long-tailed rabbits were the most common animals in the beast world; they reproduced extremely fast and were clever and cunning, requiring some effort to catch.
Rowan didn't ask when Owen got up, thinking to himself that he should get up earlier in the future to help with the work; he really couldn't just eat and drink for free like this.
Seeing the meat was stewed, Rowan removed some of the firewood to let it cool down a bit before eating.
Taking this opportunity, Rowan wanted to learn the language here from Owen; he pointed to the meat in the stone pot and asked what it was called.
At first, Owen didn't understand Rowan's intention, thinking he wanted to eat already, so he reached out to take out the stewed long-tailed rabbit meat.
Rowan hurriedly stopped him, shaking his head. He pointed to the pile of yellow fruits on the ground and asked; seeing he still didn't understand, he stood up, went to the corner of the cave, took a piece of stone sharpened quite keenly, and asked him.
Owen looked blankly at Rowan's series of strange actions, guessing while watching the gestures, and finally understood what he wanted to express.
He smiled, took the stone knife from Rowan's hand, spoke slowly, patiently teaching him the pronunciation, and even used the stone knife to cut a piece of meat in the pot to give to him, demonstrating its use.
Rowan repeated after him, understanding from his movements that this was a knife. Next, he pointed to other items in the cave to learn their pronunciation.
Owen was actually very happy in his heart that Rowan was talking to him, even though his face didn't show it.
He discovered Rowan was very smart; he only needed to say it once or twice for him to memorize it.
His clear yet cold voice was very pleasant, making the usually reticent Owen speak a bit more, wanting to hear him respond more.
Rowan thus identified all the objects in the cave, discovering this cave was indeed a bit simple; it didn't take long to identify everything.
Just then, the meat was no longer hot and could be eaten. Owen cut it into small pieces and gave them to him to eat. Rowan thanked him, indicating he could do it himself.
Owen handed him the knife with a bit of regret.
Waiting for Rowan to eat his fill, Owen started to eat the rest.
This time Rowan didn't watch him gnaw on bones anymore but returned to the stone bed, sat down, and examined his leg.
There was a bit of yellow-white pus oozing out again, and the calf had swollen up a large patch. It seemed he had to treat the wound quickly today and nurse the calf wound back to health.
Owen glanced at the wound on Rowan's calf, couldn't help frowning, and took out the herbs picked last night.
Rowan saw Owen wanted to apply medicine to him, so he dodged a bit, shaking his head at him; applying medicine directly wouldn't have much effect.
Owen saw he wouldn't let him help, so he placed the herbs beside him.