Her Beasts

The Stubborn Quest

The next half of the week, Iris relaxed indoors while Caspian went out. As Iris needed far more pads than normal females, Caspian would have to hunt for many sheep as well as find more blood moss. He was also careful to clean and dry more sinew for sewing purposes. Human periods were simply much heavier, longer lasting, and more frequent than beast women's.

This meant the tribe witch doctor Oliver could not spare the supplies. Of course, Caspian also simply did not want anyone outside the family to know about Iris being more fertile than the other females.

He was Iris's only mate and he was a mere three-star beast, which meant that there were plenty of stronger beasts out there. While awakening your celestial beast is uncommon and having an element was rare, the upper limit to strength was much closer to ten stars. So, while Caspian was the strongest in his tribe, he could not guarantee Iris's safety unless he became stronger.

After many days of hunting nothing but sheep, the meat reserves in the cellar took up nearly half of the entire cellar. Caspian felt happy at this as it was enough to feed several grown beastmen and would be more than enough for him and Iris who ate significantly less than him.

Seeing Caspian lingering around after breakfast was long finished, Iris grew confused and couldn't help but question it.

"Are you not hunting today? It's not that I don't love your company, but you usually head out by now."

Caspian laughed as he sat beside Iris on the couch. He leaned over and gave her a short kiss before answering.

"We have enough to feed three grown beast men and you with meat alone now. If you add in your acorns, cattails, and bearberries; we'd have enough to feed an extra female. There is also only about half a week left before the first snow. Most beastmen do not wander outside this close to the cold season without good reason as many of their prey have already begun to hibernate."

Iris's eyes grew big and her face blanched at this news. She had thought that the cellar looked a bit full before but she just thought that perhaps Caspian ate a lot. Yet, for some reason this damn quest for gathering enough food before the first snow still sat incomplete. Was the system broken?

"Hey, what's wrong? Are you in pain again? I can go brew some more of those pain relief herbs into tea?"

Iris was still caught up in her disappointment as she explained in a low voice.¹

"A few weeks ago I was issued a task to gather enough food before the first snow and it still isn't completed despite us having enough meat stored."

Caspian grew worried alongside Iris at this news, but figured that it might be a matter of missing some requirement.

"Did it specify who you needed food for or what sort of food you had to gather?"

Iris's eyes lit up as her mind flooded with hope. Caspian was right, the quest hadn't specified either! Maybe the problem was that she had to prepare the tribe or even simply more plant-based foods. However, this also caused Iris a bit of grief as, if she had thought to consider the tribe previously, she'd have enough time. As things stood now, things were too close on time.

"We only have a few days until the cold season officially sets in. You even said it yourself that most of the prey has already gone to hibernate. How are we supposed to prepare the entire tribe's food by then? It's far too little time!"

Iris began to panic, but Caspian just picked her up and placed her on his lap. He quietly rubbed her back to soothe her as he thought about the problem at hand.

"Well, most people in the tribe will already have gathered enough food for themselves. As the tribe's best warrior, I can just get together with the tribal leader and witch doctor to discuss the matter. From there we can figure out which households are lacking in food and how we can help them finish preparing.