Her Beasts

Blue Lake City

[System 316: New quest available! Cold weather is quickly approaching and food is scarce during the cold seasons.]

[Host, please obtain sufficient food before the snow begins to fall!]

Upon awakening, Iris is immediately met with a new quest notification.

'Now you're even nagging me first thing in the morning? Jesus, we're working on the food situation as fast as we can. It isn't like we want to starve either.'

Iris couldn't help but feel the urge to roll her eyes. The cellar was already beginning to fill up with the smoked & dried meat of various prey. There was a lot of room left as Caspian would likely catch a lot more prey before the cold season started. After all, male beasts needed quite a lot of meat to feel full.

Iris was also hopeful that she'd eventually find some sort of grains, vegetables, or fruits to stock up on as well. Thus far she only had a small variety of herbs good for teas and seasonings.

Well, that and a few pounds worth of bearberries that Caspian had eagerly gathered after finding out that Iris liked them. The only problem is that eating bearberries had to be done in moderation or else they could lead to intestinal cramping and vomiting.

"Good morning my cute little mate. Are you ready to go to the city?"

Iris looked up at Caspian who was holding a small bowl of soup out to her. As he often awoke much earlier than her, he usually prepared a small pot of soup for their breakfast or had a few freshly picked fruits for Iris.

"I'm very much looking forward to it! I'd like to freshen up a bit before we go, though."

Iris had been hard at work sewing animal hides into clothes for herself over the week she'd been here. Something simple like a tube style dress would be easy and quick to make but the weather was much too cold for such clothing.

Thus, Iris put in the time to get the hides tanned and cut out before sewing them together into fashionable and warm clothing. She made a layered skirt, tank top with straps to tie around her neck, underwear, boots, and a nice hooded cloak.

Iris could finally get rid of her modern-day clothes that looked rather suspicious in the beast world. While it was a shame to give up such well-made clothing for roughly made clothing entirely made of animal hides, it was much safer. On the bright side, with boots to protect her feet, Iris could walk around freely instead of being carried around everywhere by Caspian.

Caspian brought in some bath water with clean animal hides so that Iris could bathe. While cleaning herself, Iris noticed she now had a tattoo matching Caspian's on her left shoulder near her collarbone. Feeling quite surprised by this new addition, she questioned,

"How come I have a tattoo that matches yours now?"

Caspian was a bit confused about his mate not knowing what was common sense in this world, but didn't bother to question it.

"We officially became mates last night. When you become mates, the males' celestial beast tattoos will show up on the female. The mark will even change over time to reflect the correct number of stars from the males' tattoos. This helps warn away weaker males from pursuing females. The closer the mark is to her heart, the more important the male beast is in the female's heart."

Iris was embarrassed and pouted as she explained

"I'm sure if we'd had more time before mating that your mark would be on my heart. It's my fault for rushing things."

Caspian couldn't help but feel lucky to have a female who cared about his feelings. Usually, it was thought that it was the male's responsibility to ensure he did enough to earn their female's love.