Chapter 19: House Tour
Once back at the mountain, the large group of nine split up with the promise to meet back up in a short while. Quentin's group volunteered to hunt some prey while Holly's group needed to stop by their own cave and put away their food.
As for Caspian and Iris, they headed back to their own home. Caspian was loaded up with three fifty-pound bags of potatoes while Iris carried a bag that barely contained even twenty-five pounds of acorns. Caspian wanted to also take the acorns from Iris and carry them himself, but Iris adamantly refused. The sight of a grown beast man dwarfed by three large bags on their back was already too much for Iris to hand yet more work to her poor husband.
Upon arriving back at their home, Caspian immediately made Iris put the acorns down. He then got to work on storing the potatoes in the cellar and tending to the acorns. Iris, meanwhile, got to work picking up the grass and cattails she had placed all over the house for drying the previous day. If they were to have guests, Iris would need space for them to relax comfortably.
Once both tasks were completed, Caspian left to go fetch the others. Iris prepared the kitchen for a demonstration on cooking while she waited. She couldn't start the fire or chop vegetables until the others were here as she wanted to teach them how to cook when she made lunch.
Iris was immediately alerted to her guests' presence as she heard Holly loudly gasp in surprise. Walking into the main room, Iris went to greet the group. Quentin and his group had caught a large boar and had already cleaned it and wrapped it in its own hide. Thus, they stood to the side while Quentin awkwardly held the bulky meat.
"Welcome to our home," Iris uttered the greeting, feeling slightly awkward. Holly pounced forward, holding Iris's hands as she looked at Iris in wonder. Then she asked what everyone else was thinking.
"Is this really your home? What is all this? I've never seen anything like it before."
Caspian couldn't help chuckling from behind Iris as he puffed his chest out in pride.
"I told you our home was the best in the entire tribe."
Iris pursed her lips together, unsure of how to address Caspian's prideful remark. However, she clearly had to give some sort of answer to Holly as every eye in the room seemed to be staring at her.
"Um well, it's just some furniture we made from common materials like wood and stone. This is our main room with the left side functioning as a dining area and the right side as a general living area."
Iris walked around and gestured as she further explained.
"This is a table for putting food while eating and these are chairs for sitting in. In the living area are couches and another table. Also, the animal skins on the floor are because the floor can get cold and I don't like wearing shoes around the house all the time.
To the left is our kitchen where we cook. To the right of that is our bathroom and to the right of that is our bedroom for sleeping."
Of course, no one knew what a bathroom was, but Iris was not very eager to explain either. However, with the amazing display of furniture in the main room, Holly was eager to see the rest of the house too. Thus, Iris could only oblige as she showed her around and explained how everything was made.
When it came to the bedroom Caspian decided to refuse to allow anyone but the females inside as he repeatedly stated "No males," while barring the entrance with his arm and staring them down. Thus, the males could only crane their necks to try and get a glimpse at what they were talking about.
Once the tour of the house was complete, Iris led everyone back to the kitchen for a demonstration on cooking. However, Holly was still very bubbly and excited over everything she had seen and didn't want to stop talking about it yet.
"Wow! Your house is just the best! I've never seen anything like it before. Normally you only see furniture in beast cities and even then it's just those stone beds they use. I'd really love it if your mate could teach mine how to make some of this stuff..."
Iris's eyes lit up as she remembered that this was actually what she wanted. She had made Caspian gather extra planks, long grass, leaves, and keep any usable stone so that they could craft things to sell over the cold season. However, her mood quickly soured when she remembered that the tribal leader declined allowing them to set up shop within the tribe.
"We were actually planning on selling furniture and clothing at the nearest beast city after the cold season. Tribe leader James won't allow trades within the tribe or else I would be happy to trade with you during the cold season."
Holly looked disappointed at this news as her little ears dropped and she stared at the floor. However, she soon decided that, even if she had to wait a few months, it was worth it to get her hands on such impressive goods.
"I've only got one mate with a high enough level to enter a beast city, but I'll be sure to be your first customer!"
Holly quickly went to her mates' sides as she wanted to discuss what they could find to trade during the rainy season. Meanwhile, Iris took the opportunity to demonstrate how to start a fire. While normally she'd use flint and steel to start the fire, beastmen did not have such tools. As such she'd have to show them a much more primitive method.
"You'll need some tinder in the form of dry grass or leaves first. These items are flammable and easy to set on fire. You will then need kindling in the form of small dry sticks."
Iris then demonstrated the various methods for kindling placement from the tepee method to making a box with the sticks. Next was the hard part, which she would make Caspian do since he was stronger and had far better stamina than her.
"In order to start a fire you will need to rub sticks like these together to create friction. It can take a good bit of time and effort to do so but, with enough practice, you'll get faster at it."
Iris gave everyone an encouraging smile as she said this. Caspian had not used this method before either but he had a lot of trust in Iris and followed her instructions carefully. Soon smoke began to rise as the fire came to life. Caspian began to feed firewood into the campfire as Iris continued to explain
"Now, I know fire seems scary, but it doesn't have to be. As long as you keep an eye on it and only start one in a safe environment with water or soil nearby to put it out, it'll be controlled. As you can see here, we have the campfire on a stone floor with only stone anywhere near it. The stone stove and stone oven will become heated from the flames but it isn't nearly as flammable as wood, grass, or leaves are."
Iris allowed the group to grow used to the campfire as she led them through the process of making food. Iris broke the boar meat down into roasts while saving half for later that night. Iris then explained the various seasonings she rubbed into the roast before putting potatoes and cattail roots in to roast with the meat in the stone oven.
As Holly's group hadn't joined them in collecting cattails, Iris was forced to explain where to gather them as well as how to prepare them. It was unlikely that any of them would go out again after today, but it could be useful for the future.
As nine people were not needed to directly tend to the food, Iris watched over it while the others relaxed. Many of the males would glance over every time Iris did something to the food. They neither wanted to miss a step in the cooking process nor did they fully trust others handling their food.
When the first batch of food was finally finished cooking, Caspian shooed the two females from the kitchen. The males could survive eating overdone or raw food and Caspian would not let his precious mate cook food for random males.
One of Holly's mates tried the food first to ensure it wasn't poisoned before allowing her to eat it, even despite Iris eating the same food. As soon as Holly took her first bite, her eyes widened.
"Oh wow! This is so good!"
Holly soon had eaten over half the roast and vegetables and was eyeing what Iris hadn't eaten yet. Iris was used to eating a lot less than beastmen and would just have a single serving of roast. Thus she just smiled and said, "Go ahead." Holly did not stand on ceremony and quickly devoured the rest.
The males' meal was sadly not quite as delicious, as Holly's mate who tested the food for poison could clearly attest to. The meat Caspian cooked was raw in the middle and under-seasoned in comparison. He also did not bother with preparing any vegetables other than a few potatoes.
Due to Holly's clear joy while eating Iris's food, her mates all quickly promised to practice cooking so that they could try to prepare similar food for her. None of them wanted to give up the competitive advantage to the others and they did not want to be seen as incapable of giving their mate as much as another female received from their males.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
AutumnPlunkett
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