New Friends, New Enemies

After the community dinner wrapped up, there were many leftovers. Twenty-two people was not nearly as many people as it would take to finish twenty pies and nearly twenty five gallons worth of soup.

Therefore, Iris agreed to let Holly and bring any leftover pie and soup home they wanted so long as they brought their own stone containers to hold the food. The five savory and five sweet uncut pies were left for Iris to put in an icebox as Caspian refused for all the food to be brought away.

After everyone left, Caspian scooped Iris up and brought her to bed. After thoroughly exhausting her through making love, Caspian snuck away to clean up the leftover mess. Caspian had been patient with Iris all day, but he would not let her do any more work. Caspian quickly did the washing up then went back to bed, eager to get back to his mate.

The next few days were spent with Iris sitting on the couch as she weaved together long dried grass into mats. Caspian refused to let her help turn the acorns into flour or to even let her finish preparing the cattails. He insisted she should rest in the couch where she could sit warmly wrapped up with animal hide blankets.

As Caspian knew Iris would refuse to sit and do nothing, he did not argue with her weaving or sewing. Instead, he merely joined her once the other work was finished.

Each day, Caspian would feed Iris soup until dinner time when they would enjoy the leftover pies. When it came time for the next community dinner night, Iris only had one bearberry pies left. This she would save to share with Holly after the other guests left.

Knowing that so few guests showed up last time, Iris only made five pot pies and soup this time around. This time, another dosen single males showed up, spurred on by the stories of the single males that showed up the previous time. Having three females at the previous meal was quite the encouragement for more of them to show up. No single male wanted to miss out on a chance to socialize with females.

This trend continued for quite a few weeks before a new female showed up with thirty of her mates trailing behind her. As fifty single males had also shown up alongside Holly and Fawn's group, they were running out of sitting room.

Iris and Holly had taken to sitting in the main dining room where Caspian could easily invite new guests in. Meanwhile, Fawn had her own table with her mates and all the single males shared the last four tables. It became first come first served for single males with late comers being forced to sit on the floor.

Hearing there was a new female at the door, Iris joined Caspian at the entrance way. Her eyes widened in surprise at the sheer number of males trailing along with this new female. Most had silver hair and blue eyes with only a few unique looking males among the bunch.

The new female looked very proud and full of herself despite looking far worse than any of the other females Iris had seen. She was a whole female and was extremely pampered as was obvious by her not even walking on her own two feet. Her hair was a rats nest and she smelled heavily of piss, sweat, and sex.

Iris felt revolted by the smell but did not want to offend a new potential friend. She put on her friend list smile as she greeted

"Hello, my name is Iris Hart and you are?"

The new female sneered at Iris as she replied

"I'm not giving you my name, just show me to the food."

Caspian immediately grew protective of Iris, disliking this females attitude. He growled as he angrily shouted

"Get out! Get out of my house right now!"

The new female looked quite shocked at Caspian's attitude. She was quite used to being given everything she wanted as not only the tribes only whole female but also the tribe leader's daughter and the tribal beauty. Well, she was the only whole female before Iris came along.

The females mates began to puff up their chests as they stepped forward to protect their mate and they contemplated attacking Caspian. Some of them were one starred and two starred celestial beasts after all. Even if only Caspian was the only elemental three starred beast in the tribe, they would have the advantage of numbers after all.

They were preparing for to fight Caspian before storming into the house and ransacking it for the food they had heard was quite delicious. They wanted to please their mate and make her happy, no matter what.

However, Quentin who had heard the commotion, had brought numerous single beastmen to back Caspian up. Many admired Iris's beauty and appreciated her efforts to cook a delicious meal for them each week. They wanted to protect this female and hopefully gain her favor. After all, she only had Caspian and no female could have so few mates for long.

Seeing the number of opposing combatants grow in number, the new female's mates grew weary. They were not so sure they could win anymore. They no longer had the advantage in combat power or in number. Thus one of her mates suggested they should leave which was promptly met with a slap to his face as the female screeched

"I am a complete female and I want their food. It is your job to get it for me."

Caspian felt more sure of himself with Quentin and the other backing him up. Caspian likely could have taken them on if it weren't for needing to also protect his mate, but he couldn't risk it with Iris there. He quickly stepped forward and addressed the tribal leader's daughter and her mates

"You cannot just come into another's house and demand they feed you. None of your mates even brought anything with which to exchange for our food. If you leave now, I will forget the way you talked to my mate, but otherwise I will happily strike down every last man here to defend my home and mate."

Caspian knew even if he did attack his fellow tribesmen, as long as he did not harm the female, he would be in the right. Still, he felt relieved when the female's mates finally convinced her to return home. After loudly muttering

"I bet the food isn't even that good anyways. How can this lousy female with only a single mate compare to me anyway?"

The female finally left. Everyone slowly filtered back to their seats leaving Caspian to comfort Iris.

"It's alright, everything is going to be okay now."

Iris wasn't saddened by the new female's words. Instead, she felt angry. How could anyone act like that? Iris had done nothing to deserve such behavior. She quietly asked

"Who was that female? What gives her the right to act like that?"

Caspian was more than familiar with tribe leader James' daughter. She had more than once requested to mate with him due to him being the strongest in their tribe. So it was an easy question to answer

"That is Ivy, James' daughter. She was the tribe beauty and only whole female before you joined. She is just used to being given everything she wants, but you don't have to mind her. I'll be sure to protect you no matter what."

Iris was a bit unsettled by the clear threat that had arisen, but she was more angry. Even if someone had shown up to her house empty handed and requested food, Iris would have happily fed them.

It was more about Ivy's attitude and how hostile both her and her mates were. Iris simply could not understand how anyone could have the gall to act like that. It made Iris want to beat her up, but she couldn't put Caspian in danger by acting out on her anger. Thus she could only be weary of this new adversary in the future.