The Banquet Part One

Before Iris knew it, it was finally time for the first community dinner night. It had been a long week of crafting and lounging around the house.

All of the acorns had finished their long process of leeching out their tannins and had sat out to dry all night. The grass and cattails were finished drying and Caspian had already bagged them up and put them in the cellar.

The moment Iris opened her eyes, she was filled with energy as she felt excitement course through her. She was excited to meet more people from the artic wolf tribe and knew there were still many preparations to be completed.

Caspian carefully carried a bowl of soup into the bedroom and waited for Iris to sit up before handing it to her. Iris smiled gratefully at him before digging into the food.

"Mmm, you're actually starting to get better at this. It tastes like you used pepper this time around and the veggies are cooked perfectly."

Caspian blushed at Iris's praise. The pepper was only added as he had seen Iris use both salt and pepper in nearly every dish she made. The peppercorns had to be freshly ground every time they were used, but were clearly just as important as salt in cooking if Iris used it so often.

"We should have guests here later tonight. I can't guarantee anyone else will show up, but Holly and her mates as well as the three who helped us last week promised to be here."

Iris gave a small nod as she drank a mouthful of broth. She knew it was unlikely very many people would show up and her house certainly isn't big enough for too many guests, but she was hopeful a dozen or so new faces would show up.

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I won't pout no matter how few people show up. Besides, you're good company too."

Caspian's was sure he could grow any more red. Iris always showered him with compliments but he wasn't sure he'd ever grow used to it. However, he was sure that he was quite lucky to have Iris.

Other females often had several dozen males who had to constantly compete for their mate's attention. Even the favorite males were lucky to be able to have any affection given to them. Instead, being relied on to take care of their mate and being chosen for warming their female's bed were the privileges they fought for.

"Alright, I'm finished with breakfast. I'd like to get those acorns broken up into pieces and then ground into flour. We've got over a hundred pounds and our mortar and pestle is only so large. I worry that in itself might take all day, but we also need to finish preparing the cattails so they can be put away properly with the rest."

Caspian smiled, his little mate was always so ambitious. She never liked to leave a task half done and always wanted to strive for more. It was all he could do to convince her to let him stand by her side and contribute to her efforts.

"I'll likely need to carve the last of the leftover stone we have into containers for the cattail pollen flour and acorn flour. I'll have to carve out another section of wall, but I can gather some stone and make a larger mortar and pestle for the acorns. I'll also take care of turning the acorns into flour, you can just focus on the cattails."

That reminded Iris, she didn't exactly have a large enough pot for brewing a large amount of soup at once. Their stone stove had a pot that could hold a gallon or two worth of liquid but they'd need at least one ten times that size for tonight.

Of course, if they were going to have a pot that large, they'd need something larger than the stone oven to have it propped up on. Perhaps if they made a hole in the floor just barely smaller than the pot and then placed the large pot directly over the fire?

Iris quickly explained her idea to Caspian before also suggesting

"Maybe you should just dig out a larger dining room to the right of the main room? We won't be able to make chairs from tree stumps, but you could just use smaller versions of the rectangular stone tables to create benches at the tables to sit at.

The room could be used explicitly for banquets and all of the cooking could be done there too. Just make sure to build a counter to put ingredients and dishware."

Caspian was unsure if he could get everything done by the time dinner rolled around. However, the acorns didn't have to all be prepared today. He would just have to focus on carving out the new room and furniture first. Then, after storing any leftover stone in their cellar and making lunch, he could work on the acorns until Iris needed help preparing dinner.

"Yeah, okay, I think I've got everything figured out. Just let me know if you need any help today."

Iris smiled at Caspian, appreciating his efforts. He clearly still would prefer to do everything for her, but he always let her make the final decisions and he knew his limits. Iris doubted she'd get to do as much when she accepted more mates in the future, but she'd enjoy her freedom while she could.

Iris quickly made her way to the cellar and opened one of the bag of cattails. As there were over 150 lbs of cattails it would take quite a bit of time to sort it.

It was times like this that Iris missed music. She always used to let Spotify play one of her numerous playlists while she did chores around the house. It was the best way to pass the time. This beast world was sadly just far too quiet in comparison.

After several hours of shaking cattails to loosen the pollen from the tips, she was interrupted by Caspian calling for her. It was time for lunch. Luckily there was leftover soup that could easily be reheated.

"I've completed carving out the new room and all of the furniture you requested. I'll need to transfer the leftover stone downstairs before starting on the acorns flour."

Iris nodded happily as she finished her soup. She would have to check it out after she finished drinking the last gulps of soup. However, Iris felt that it would be a shame to only have soup to eat all day. Thinking it over, Iris decided to ask Caspian to complete a few more tasks.

"I know you're already quite busy and done quite a lot, but you may need to just delay the work on the acorns until tomorrow.

I just realized that I need some new cooking pots for our main kitchen and we need some additional wooden dishware and spoons carved out."

Caspian was not nearly as upset as Iris worried he would be about her adding yet more work onto his plate. He just nodded, happy that his little mate was finally relying on him.

Iris quickly gave a run down on the various dimensions for a set of twenty pie pans that she wanted Caspian to make. Iris would also need a nice sturdy rolling pin. She then had Caspian make fifty each of new wooden bowls, plates, chopsticks, and spoons.

As they could not go hunting due to the snow, it was impossible to make any knives from bones. As for forks? There simply was no easy way to create such a thing in the beast world. Carving stones, wood, and bones was too difficult when it came to the finer details. If they had to have the tines of a fork too spaced out it simply would not work as desired, thus defeating the point.

After eating, Iris walked into the new banquet room. It was easily larger than both their main room and kitchen combined. There was an area for cooking with counters on either side for preparing food and a large stone island dividing the dining area from the cooking area.

Caspian had done a lot more than Iris had requested. He had even created new stone divers in the walls for storing dishware and a new stone stove and stone oven for the room. The large banquet room had five tables that could easily sit a group of ten on their long stone benches. Caspian had also created a few stone braziers for fires to be lit for light.

As this room was so new, the glowing lichen would not grow to cover this room for many months. Since Iris didn't have night vision like other beast men, she quite appreciated Caspian's thoughtfulness.

Iris found that a room entirely filled with stone and made of stone was a bit too boring and bland to look at. Thus, she brought a few of the shabbier animal furs out from her bag and laid them out throughout the room. They would function both as a nice touch of color as well as a good way to keep feet warm from the cold floor.