Quest Complete

After Iris had her fill, there was still a large amount of boar meat left. Caspian worried that the little female wasn't eating enough but after lots of reassurance, he finished the rest himself.

Soon it was time to sleep for the night. As there was no bed yet they could only lay on a few animal hides that were spread out on the floor.

As Iris lay in Caspian's arms that night, he enjoyed the feel of her small soft body pressed against his. He felt his body begin to heat up as he breathed in her pleasant feminine scent.

Feeling Caspian's stiff rod poking her from behind Iris felt her face heat up in embarrassment. She'd had a boyfriend or two before this but the intimacy of sleeping together at night was still quite new. While she knew they'd be mates sooner or later, she wanted to take things slow. As such, she pretended not to notice Caspian's discomfort and they soon fell asleep.

The next morning, Iris awoke to find Caspian coming back from a hunt. Several pieces of prey were piled up in the main room ready to be prepared. Seeing Iris was awake, Caspian gave her a heartwarming smile before pulling out a few fruits.

"I found these red fruits for you while hunting. I hear many of the females like them."

Iris gratefully accepted the fruits. They were small and round berry-like fruits. As they were not familiar to Iris, she wanted to learn about them. Iris pulled out the "Ancient Flora & Fauna" animal hides book and eventually found an entry on bearberries.

The leaves could be used for teas and the berries are comparable to cranberries. They are commonly ready late in the year and enjoy colder climates. That certainly made sense since this was an Arctic Wolf Tribe living on a cold mountain range. Plus, it's nearly the cold season.

Caspian looked up from the prey he was skinning and noticed the book in the female's hands. He wasn't sure what the female was doing with it or where she got it from but was concerned for her safety. It seemed like his little female had secrets, and he began to worry if he would be capable of protecting her.

"Are you able to read that? Where did you get it from?"

Iris flinched, kicking herself for not being smarter about hiding it. She was nervous about answering the question truthfully but didn't feel that lying would help at this point.

"Yes, I can read and write. This book is mine, I didn't get it from anywhere."

Caspian didn't want to force the female to share her secrets and scare her away. He didn't press the issue, but he still worried for her safety.

"Okay, just promise me you won't show this to anyone else. Only those from the temples and important people from beast cities can read and books like this are very rare. I don't want you getting yourself hurt."

Iris sighed in relief that she wasn't in trouble this time and swore she'd be more careful in the future.

"Can you bring me more of these fruits and some of the leaves from this plant later? It would be good to stock up and dry some fruits and herbs for the winter alongside the meat."

Caspian smiled indulgently at the little female and nodded in agreement. While Caspian was skinning and cleaning the prey, Iris took the opportunity to ask questions about the standard preparation method for preserving the meat.

Caspian described how the beasts would cut the meat into smaller pieces and then hang the meat to dry in the sun. They would then store them in their caves for the winter.

This method concerned Iris as, while effective, the method was not as safe as other methods. Using salt to cure the meat, smoking the meat, or even a combination of the three would yield much better results.

"Does your tribe have any salt? They are a white rock crystal-like seasoning used on food."

Caspian nodded after thinking for a bit.

"While there isn't much in the tribe, they do sell it in beast cities. Mermaid tribes often trade it and it ends up in the markets at beast cities. As I said before, the market is in a few days, I can certainly get you some then."

Iris nodded happily. With salt she'd be able to have more flavorful food, but whether it would be enough for food preservation was another story. Thus, it'd likely be better to focus on a combination of smoking and drying to preserve the food.

Since today was the day for making furniture as well, they would be heading into the forest to collect wood. Thus, they'd just have to keep an eye out for the right type of wood for smoking while gathering firewood and making planks for furniture.

"Alright, are you ready to go?"

Caspian had meat tied to vines and draped across his body while patiently holding a hand out for Iris to hold. She happily took it and followed him out to the mountain cave entrance. Caspian kissed Iris on the forehead and instructed her.

"Stay here, I'll be right back after I hang the meat to dry."

She watched as Caspian nimbly climbed down the mountain. The view of his back as he walked away was just as attractive as his front. Having such beautiful eye candy to look at truly made her feel lucky. Men weren't nearly this attractive in her everyday life back on Earth.

Before she knew it, Caspian was back. He quickly scooped her up into his arms and carried her down into the forest.

"Alright, what should we do first my cute little mate?"

Iris's first night of sleep in the beast world was as unpleasant as you'd expect. Sleeping on the cold hard stone floor with only a few animal hides for comfort was nothing like the modern-day beds she was used to.

To make a proper bed there were some obvious steps she needed to take, but there were other steps she simply didn't know how to do. Having a bed that was raised off the ground would make getting in and out of bed easier, and make it harder for insects and pests to climb into bed with her.

However, modern-day furniture is usually made with wood and nails. Even if Iris had access to wood, there was no way for her to obtain nails at this time.

The best idea that Iris could come up with was to make a wooden slatted bed frame. She had Caspian cut sturdy trees and create many planks. These would have to be dried before they could be used to create furniture.

The plan for once the wood was prepared was to have Caspian drill holes into the corners of four planks and tie them together with sturdy vines. Next, she had him create long pole-like sticks and drill holes into the rectangular bed frame to slot the poles through. With that, the bed frame would be complete.

While Caspian gathered wood and vines to build furniture, Iris gathered lots of long grass and leaves. She would then weave the grass together into several large mats. As it would take a long time to finish weaving, she would have to spend several days on the process.

However, once the mats were finished, she would layer them together with leaves in between two large beast hides. Then to finish it off she just had to use the fish bone needles and animal tendon sewing kit from her quest reward to sew the mattress together.

A few pillows were created in a similar fashion to the mattress and some especially warm and soft animal hides could be used as blankets.

Iris had an especially tall and long rectangular slab of stone carved by Caspian turned into a table, and tree stumps were turned into chairs. By shaping and rounding the back while carving out a flat portion in front, the tree stump chairs could even have backs. However, as many of the male beasts are built much larger than the females, Iris just had two with backs at the table ends and four backless chairs for the table sides.

Six seats would definitely not be enough spots at the table with more mates and many cubs joining the family in the future, but it was a good start. The dining area was set up on the left side of the main room near the kitchen door.

On the right side of the main room would be a living room set up. Three entire tree trunks had their middles carved out to form couches and a rounded stone coffee table was created.

In the kitchen, the walls had square sections carved out with a few shelves in them to use as cupboards. A few taller rectangular stone counters were also created and placed up against the walls.

As there was no refrigeration in the beast world, the cellar was used for food storage. All food would have to be either fresh or capable of being stored long-term. Still, organization was always better, so many large wooden crates were made from vines and planks as well as many stone shelves being carved into the walls.

Over time wooden cooking utensils and dishes were created. Bowls, plates, cups, chopsticks, cutting boards, spatulas, etc. could easily be made from wood. However, it was difficult to cut anything with a knife made from wood or even stone for that matter, so Iris had Caspian especially go out of his way to find sturdy enough bones to make a few knives from.

Light was an issue for Iris, who did not have any night vision like many of the beast men, and warmth was necessary in the cold season. Thus, she had Caspian carve out large stone bowls to use as braziers in each room.

As it took several days to collect and dry wood for furniture crafting and firewood for the winter, Caspian also spent a large amount of time hunting. He then used the drying and smoking method to prepare a lot of meat for the winter.

With all the house preparations complete, Iris finally heard the system notification.

[System 316: Quest complete! Receive rewards?]

Iris confirmed and soon received her new items. In her hand appeared a medium-sized animal skin bag with a belt it could be attached to. Looking inside she saw the bag was empty and she felt a bit disappointed.

'I guess it's too much to hope for a real reward every time you issue a quest?'

[System 316: This reward should be more than sufficient for your efforts! This is no ordinary animal hide bag. It can hold an unlimited number of items and anything that can fit in its opening can be placed inside. The only exception is that living things cannot be put inside.]

'Damn! This is a great item!'