Her Beasts

New Normal

Caspian had a very successful day at market. Many of the tribe members had enjoyed the gifts from Iris and had spread the word about the beauty products, cookies, clothes, and games to all their friends both in and out of the tribe.

While many of the females were unsure what to believe without trying the products for themselves, they were eager to give it a chance. The fact that many of the half orcs from the artic wolf tribe looked more beautiful with their hair combed, skin clear of dirt, and a lovely fragrance only helped draw interest to Caspian's stall.

The clothing which had sold well previously only sold better with the addition of pretty flowers embroidered on them. Caspian was easily able to sell the dresses at two per three crystals even despite some poor quality copies of Iris's previous work cropping up.

Thankfully the embroidery would be more difficult to copy so Caspian would not have to worry about copy cats too much. Besides, the copy cats were only copying previously sold dresses and had yet to try making new styles for themselves like Iris would. This meant that they simply could not compete with Caspian's stall.

After selling everything, the sun was already setting. Unfortunately, there were still far too many items to sell in one day for one person. Caspian could only package up items and exchange money with one person at a time. Caspian frowned as he hurried to do his shopping before the market closed.

He bought many beast skins and some more sinew, having learned well how to select the nicer ones from Iris. Then, Caspian went to purchase ten dozen eggs from the food shop. The meringues and cookies both sold well and were easy to transport so they'd be good items to continue selling in the future.

Since Basil and Iris had used up much of the animal fat in their house to make beauty products, Caspian also made a special request with the Golden Tradesmen group. Caspian had to leave a deposit for the goods but he'd be able to pick up the goods the following week.

With that, Caspian hurried home. By the time Caspian got home, it was only a little before sunrise. Caspian put away all of the goods before climbing into bed exhausted.

The next morning when Caspian awoke, he was pulled aside by Basil and Ember. Basil spoke first as he explained

"Ivy and her mates approached Iris and myself yesterday and attacked us. I barely managed to hold on until Ember showed up and rescued me. Iris had to run away into the forest after two of Ivy's mates went after her. I had managed to keep Ivy's stronger mates at bay so Iris escaped unharmed after stabbing one with a knife and toppling the two over.

Ember managed to save the day this time since Iris was smart enough to run away and he had good timing. However, it's too dangerous to just leave things as they are. We think it'd be best to only send one person to market each week and also start up a training regimen.

We have Iris what money we had after we mates with her and you have been making good money at market each week. I don't think it should be a huge issue to cut down on the number of goods we take to market each week. Maybe half the beauty products and clothes, remove the games, and still take the sweets since those are easy to transport and sell well.

As for training, we are all fairly strong and I'm a witch doctor. I can treat any wounds as long as we don't leave any fatal wounds on each other. Since Ember is stronger than us, regularly practicing combat with him could allow us to level up our beasts in a few months time. Even if we don't, the practice of fighting someone stronger than us would allow us to have more success in future battles."

Caspian felt bitter that things had become so bad with Ivy. It was quite possible they would have to find a new tribe to move to during the hot season. Right now it simply rains too much to travel around for months at a time to find a good tribe to join. Plus, Caspian knew Iris would be saddened to leave her friends behind.

For now, Caspian would do as Basil had suggested in an effort to protect Iris better. Caspian wasn't concerned even if he had to be beat black and blue every day by Basil and Ember. If it meant he could become stronger for Iris in the future, he would happily spend the rest of his life in a constant bruised state.

Besides, Caspian would give just as good as he got. It was quite likely the other two would also sustain some minor injuries in the process. The only real concern Caspian had was Iris as he knew she didn't like seeing them injured.

Ember remained in the house while Basil and Caspian went out to fight. Someone would have to watch the house to ensure Ivy didn't try to go after Iris again. When the two males returned, Caspian was easily the winner. Having no element meant that Basil was truly at a disadvantage. Ember nodded and went back out with Caspian to continue the combat.

This would be the new normal as Ember took on that day's winner and easily kicked their ass. Once Caspian was sent back home, Ember would go out to hunt and tend to the fields. Basil would prepare a simple soup and tea for Iris and then they would wake up Iris together. Caspian would comb Iris's hair and bring her fresh bath water while Basil flirted with Iris and ensured she ate properly.

From there, Iris would take turns working with Basil on developing beauty products or teach Caspian new techniques for making dresses and embroidering them. Today Iris was going to teach Caspian how to make decorations from extra pieces of animal hide.

"So, if you fold and bunch the cloth like this it looks a bit like a flower, right? From there you just need to sew it along the bottom to keep it in that position. These ones are too heavy to use excessively, but aren't bad to have one on the middle of the dress or two along the straps for the shoulders. These would be good for adorning bags too when I teach you to make those later on. Still gotta get reeds first though......

Anyhow, another thing you can do is to cut holes along the cloth in specific ways. Like if you cut a slit into a longer dress or skirt on one or both sides, that can add style to it and make it easier to move in.

Sometimes, you may also want to cut an oval or diamond from the middle lower back portion of a dress as well. This allows a dress to still have straps for support but the females back can be shown off."

Caspian listened intently as Iris showed him some new designs. Caspian wasn't sure if he should be happy or disappointed Iris did not wear such a revealing style of clothing. On the one hand, Caspian quite liked to look at his little mate's soft and supple skin. However, Caspian did not like random males looking at his mate and such a dress would only be inviting the gazes of others.

As it was best not to introduce too many new styles at once, Iris decided to just leave it at that for the week. Caspian was quite good at picking up new techniques, but it was still always best to give him time to practice new things. Besides this, flooding the market with too many styles at once wouldn't be as effective as slowly introducing new styles.

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