Chapter 49: Mysterious Home
Basil soon came to Iris's side and sat beside her on the floor. He curled his tail up beside her and laid his head on his arms in Iris's lap as he gazed up at her. Iris noticed the curiosity and playfulness in Basil's eyes and wondered what he was up to.
Basil had never seen anything like the home Iris lived in. Her bed was made from wood instead of stone and had some sort of plush padding. There was an area dedicated to eating and sitting.
There was also what Basil could only assume to be a kitchen. The strange wooden discs and strangely carved wooden sticks that were stored alongside sharp bone knives were also curious. However, Basil was most confused by the cooking area. There were strange stone contraptions above the remains of where a fire had been lit and the remains of food in a stone pot.
Then, to make things even more confusing, there was an additional room for sitting with another cooking area? What was the point in having such a large area for cooking and sitting when Iris had only had one male up until now?
Basil knew it was unlikely that Caspian was the culprit for the strange things within their home. While Caspian likely was capable of creating such items physically, he seemed to lack creativeness. Instead, he seemed to be a devoted male who cherished his female and did whatever she wanted.
This left Basil with only one last possibility. Iris must somehow be related to everything. Basil had even seen her putting more than should have physically been possible away into her bag. He had not only seen her place all his belongings inside, but also the contents of a rather large bag full of gifts she had received during the recent festivities.
Caspian soon came back into the main room and took note that Basil appeared to be entertaining Iris while Ember was nowhere to be seen. Caspian normally would not be bothered with what Ember does, but he was on guard with new males in their home. Caspian knew Iris was not like other females in the beast world and that their home was unusual. Thus, he questioned
"Where did Ember go? We only just got home and yet he has already wandered off?"
Iris looked up from where she had been petting Basil's soft tail. Caspian looked worried, but Iris quickly dismissed his concerns as she replied
"Ember said he was going out to hunt prey. I'm surprised you didn't hear him say it with your impeccable hearing."
Caspian nodded, easily accepting Iris's answer. It was quite possible that he had merely been too distracted when he returned home. Caspian turned to Basil as he addressed him.
"When dinner is finished being prepared, we need to have a family meeting. It is best we sort things out now so that we can live together well in the future."
Basil didn't even look away from Iris as he replied in his business tone
"Understood. We will need to sort out sleeping arrangements while it's still early, though. It doesn't look like the bedroom is large enough for all four of us."
It was common for multiple males to share the same bedroom as their female in the beast world. Any male that was favored by their mate would get a turn to sleep beside her at night and ensure her safety. The rest would be forced to sleep alone in various corners of their home.
Iris, however, felt this did not sit well with her. Iris did not think the roughly cobbled together bed would hold up to having more than two sleeping in it at once. Even if it would, Iris worried that the bed would be far too cramped to sleep comfortably.
Then, of course, was the matter of Iris's desire for privacy whenever she was intimate with her mates. Iris, of course, knew that they likely could hear everything going on and that they had all seen her naked at this point. However, this still did not make the situation any less embarrassing and awkward. Iris did not want to have her mates watching as she had intercourse with the others.
"I think we should build a separate bedroom. I like my privacy at night, but we don't have enough room for everyone to have their own room due to how the house is currently laid out.
I'd prefer to carve a room out to the right of the bedroom and move the furniture over to the new room. It'd be too awkward if you all walked through the master bedroom just to get to sleep, but it'd be less so the other way around.
You all can either make stone beds for yourselves or gather materials to make a new bed like the one I currently use. I know you all are a bit territorial about your homes so I imagine you won't want to share beds so you can each be responsible for your own."
Caspian nodded to show he understood Iris's wishes. Basil was happy to do as Iris but still couldn't help himself as he teased
"Don't tell me you are embarrassed by being watched while you are intimate with the others. At this rate, you'll never get to have your first threesome."
Basil snickered as he said this, joy dancing in his eyes as he did so. Caspian rolled his eyes at the vixen, but said nothing. Iris wanted him and Caspian wouldn't interfere no matter how ridiculous he was being.
Iris sputtered as she turned crimson. She lightly hit Basil who promptly played the victim as he played hurt.
"Boohoo, it hurts, it hurts! Why must you bully me so?"
Iris was tempted to apologize, but when she saw how amused he looked despite his fake tears, she decided to double down as she lightly hit him some more.
"I'll show you bullying you faker! Don't say such things if you don't want hit!"
Caspian left the two to themselves as he got to work on preparing the new bedroom. He carved out a larger area in the initial bedroom so that it could fit three beds and then carved out a smaller new bedroom beside it.
Once he was done, Caspian would move the bed frame, mattress, and pillows into the smaller room as Iris requested. As Caspian knew Iris wanted privacy, he hung an animal skin in the doorway just like the rest of the rooms had.
When Ember finally returned from hunting, he had two large boars. While eating with Iris this morning had been enjoyable, the males required much more food to feel satiated. A whole prey would be enough to make them full, but half a prey was enough to prevent their stomaches from complaining and give them sufficient enough energy to go about their lives.
Ember looked at Basil who was still being playful as he sat beside Iris and felt jealous. Still, he wouldn't risk Iris's ire so soon after upsetting her the previous time. So he only stalked forward towards Basil and thrust the prey into his arms as he demanded
"Cook these for dinner."
Ember was unsure how to go about cooking food for Iris, but he knew Basil had proven capable in the past. Ember figured this was due to Basil's background as a witch doctor, not even beginning to contemplate the possibility of it being a learnable skill.
Iris followed Basil to the kitchen as he carried the prey. As nice as Basil's cooking was, she still preferred to cook for herself. Besides, Basil was still unfamiliar with their home. Iris walked over to the pantry entrance as she explained
"This is the pantry where we store our food. There are still some cattails and flour, but most of our stores ran out during the cold season. We only have young cattails available until late rainy season so Caspian and I could only collect some roots for roasting.
There aren't any herbs or salt for seasoning down here right now since we were running low and I packed the leftovers before heading out. Ivy had stolen food from our home over the cold season previously and I can't trust her to not take advantage of us being out to do so again. Luckily, she isn't aware of the pantry since we keep it hidden."
Basil set the meat on the counter as he followed Iris down to the food storage. He was quite impressed with the sheer size of the space and number of containers meant for storing food. Seeing some oversized stone boxes, he went over to look and was met with a two compartment interior with water in one of them. Iris, noticing his confusion, explained
"Those are our ice boxes. Caspian had the ice element so he usually freezes the water which keeps the box cold. This allows us to store food for longer than we otherwise could. Of course, since we go through too much meat in the cold season, we just smoke and dry it. The ice boxes are more for leftovers and certain plants."
Basil's eyes lit up with amazement as he listened to Iris talk. He had never imagined that food could be stored for longer by using the cold. That Caspian was so useful to their mate thanks to his luck at obtaining an ice element made Basil feel bitter. Basil, however, was not one to let such things keep him down. He felt he would just have to work hard to be useful to Iris in other ways.
Iris grabbed a large number of cattails and went back up the ladder to the kitchen. Once up there, she noticed Ember was still standing around idly as he carefully watched her. This made Iris feel strange, but she decided to shrug it off. Ember wasn't hurting anyone anyhow and this was now his home too.
Once Iris saw Basil, she decided to enlist his help in preparing dinner. Two boars worth of prey was still a lot for one person to cook after all. Iris went to grab some firewood from a corner of the kitchen before stacking it up at both the stone oven and stone stove. Iris turned first to Basil as she requested
"If you could prepare the meat, I'd appreciate it. I want some bacon from this fatty portion, it has to be very thin. After that, I'll need some roasts of about this size and some cubes of meat for soup."
Iris gestured as necessary to illustrate her points as she talked. Next, Iris turned to Ember as she asked
"You have the fire element, I'm curious what you are capable of. I do have a way to start fires that I usually use, but I'd like to see what you can do. I've already arranged the campfires, so you'll just need to set the wood on fire. It should be just enough to light it so it can burn steadily."
Iris was careful to specify what she wanted. She knew beastmen were often not comfortable around fire and that Ember might not know what exactly she wanted if she was too vague.
Ember was unsure about letting his mate be around fire, but he was not afraid of fire. Ember had a lot of experience with fire thanks to his celestial beast abilities so it was only natural that Ember was less afraid of fire than most beastmen.
Deciding that it should be fine so long as he kept an eye on Iris, Ember stepped forward to start the fire. He emitted a small flame from his hand and held it towards the wood until it caught fire then repeated it at the next campfire.
Basil made short work of the boar meat as he carved it with his claws. Iris took over as she pulled seasonings out of her bag. Iris seasoned the roasts with salt, pepper, garlic, and chili peppers before wrapping them in bacon. These would be browned at the stone stove before being transferred to the oven to slowly roast alongside some cattail roots.
For the soup, Iris sent Ember off to fetch a pot of water before rendering some animal fat and adding flour to form a roux. From there, Iris added the cubes of meat, thinly sliced cattail roots, and seasonings.
Basil pouted until Iris agreed to let him help more. His pouting expression and low hanging tail was too cute and Iris decided to give in. Since it was already a pain to try to flip the roasts, Iris handed Basil two wooden spatulas to do so while she stirred the soup.
Basil was quite impressed with the cooking tools Iris had and her cooking techniques. He carefully observed as she worked so that he could improve his own cooking in the future. Basil felt that cooking was something he was quite suited to and it would be ideal to master such a skill so that he could spend more time with his mate.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
AutumnPlunkett
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