Rabbit Tribe Part One

A few days after they exited the desert, they came upon the rabbit tribe's lands. Thankfully, everyone had readjusted their sleeping schedule after leaving the desert. So it would be possible to hold another meet and greet if the tribe leader agreed.

Currently, they were in a plains area with very sparse trees, but water was more easily available. In another week they'd be in a wetlands area with lots of trees so the tribe was less worried about things like heat stroke.

When Iris and her mates approached the rabbit tribe's land, she could easily see the entire village. They appeared to have very short homes built out of a mix of earth with grass growing from it, stones, and sticks forming a huge opening in the ground. These reminded Iris of rabbit boroughs, but much larger and reinforced by stone and wood.

Iris watched as many males spilled out of the boroughs before forming a defense line behind a male beast who led the pack. Iris could see that the hair and eye colors varied quite a bit in this tribe. There was everything from white, brown, and black hair to even slightly more exotic shades like grayish lilac hair. As for eyes? The variations were just as colorful.

Iris even managed to spot one rabbit beastman among the fray who had white hair with lilac highlights and startlingly pink eyes. Iris found this male quite appealing to the eyes as well as very exotic looking. However, Iris soon turned to look at the pack leader as he addressed them.

"Hello, I am tribe leader Ivan. I apologize, but we do not have a witch doctor to greet you. May I inquire why you have come to our tribe?"

Caspian stepped forward to explain, having already grown used to his role as tribe leader.

"Hello, I am Caspian. I am the leader of a mixed tribe traveling through the area. This is our witch doctor Basil and our tribe's best warrior Ember. Our mate is with us as well, but the rest of our tribe has remained off of your tribe's lands as we don't wish to cause trouble.

We would like to arrange for a meet and greet as well as potentially arrange to trade supplies with you. We have materials as well as crystals to offer in exchange."

Ivan nodded in understanding and sent most of the males behind him off to arrange things. Then he turned back to Caspian to continue their conversation

"Alright, we can do that. You can have your tribe come in and freely trade with us. I'll have my tribesmen set up a temporary market for you to look over what we have. We are largely a farming tribe who foraged for our food so we won't have many furs or meat to buy. However, many of our tribesmen specialize in other things like weaving baskets or tailoring clothes.

As for a meet and greet, you can set up your sleeping arrangements close by and I will have the single males in my tribe who are interested sent over. I expect you'll be leaving again in the morning?"

Caspian nodded in confirmation as he replied

"Yes, we are just here for supplies and to find more mates for our females. We plan to travel further out tomorrow as we need to reach where we will be settling down by the end of the hot season. Don't want to risk getting caught up in the cold and snow when the cold season sets in."

With that, everyone went their way. As rabbits don't often hunt due to being herbivores, they tend to be on the weaker side compared to other tribes. This meant that tribe leader Ivan couldn't afford to upset his visitors who appeared to be much stronger than his tribe. If they wanted to, they could easily pillage their village. So Ivan had to hope showing them an abundance of hospitality would be enough to ensure everything went smoothly.

Caspian returned to sort things out with their tribe right away. This left only Basil and Ember to keep Iris company. Basil decided that it would be good to offer his services to the villagers as a witch doctor and turned to Iris to explain

"Can I borrow your bag? It would be a good opportunity to recruit others to our tribe if I show goodwill by treating their people's ailments and selling them medicine. It would be good if more single males joined our tribe before we reach our destination and mating isn't the only way to do so."

Iris felt that Basil's idea was quite good. Besides, Basil and Caspian wouldn't be far away and there was still Ember to protect Iris. As it would take quite a while for the temporary market to be set up, Iris decided to wait on an animal skin blanket while resting in Ember's arms. She could easily see as all the rabbit beastmen rushed to and fro setting everything up.

Iris's eye was caught once again by the beastman from before with the pink eyes. He was surrounded by many little rabbits as he ushered them home. A small and cute half-orc female thanked him before returning inside. The female wasn't overly affectionate with the beastman, but Iris could only assume they were mates.

Iris felt slightly disappointed by this. This beastmen was the most exotic and interesting looking in the village. Iris told herself that it only made sense that such a good male would already be mated.

As Iris observed the others, she took note of the sorts of goods they were arranging for sale. Many of them used woven grass mats along the ground instead of animal skins. Then they arranged various herbs, plants, and woven goods along the mats.

Despite this being a plains area on the other side of a desert, there were still useful plants around. Long grasses could be used to weave baskets, mats, and even bags.

As plains biomes have many flowers, there were also many flowers for sale. Some flowers were dried and mixed with herbs to make potpourri while others were woven into grass crowns and jewelry with both fresh and dried versions available.

While rabbits did not tend to hunt, there were many birds around so there were also goods like jewelry and clothing that incorporated colorful bird feathers. Iris could only assume that the hides and furs were bought or traded for from other tribes or cities.

Food-wise, there were prairie turnips, groundnuts, wild onions, wild plums, and annual sunflowers.

The prairie turnips were a lot different from your standard turnips as they are small egg-sized turnip-shaped plants that are part of the bean family and very starchy. They have the flavor of raw peanuts, store well, and can be dried. Cooking-wise, they can be used in soups and stews, or their roots dried and pounded out into a bland flour.

Groundnuts grow on vines with violet-brown bean blossoms. They can be eaten raw, boiled, roasted, or fried similarly to a potato. These could also be stored quite well and grew abundant in the prairie lands of the rabbit tribe.

Wild onions were similar to the onions Iris had previously grown but the bulbs were much smaller. The wild onion also had a smell that reminded Iris of a mixture of garlic and onions rather than just an oniony smell.

The wild plums are small and oval in shape and range in color from yellow to red to violet. From Iris's "Ancient Flora & Fauna" book, she knew these could be eaten raw, dried, or even turned into jam.

As for the annual sunflowers, their seeds were much smaller than your standard sunflower from the modern world, but were otherwise quite similar.

Iris found all of these goods quite interesting as they differed a good bit from what Iris had seen previously. She couldn't help but feel quite excited to begin her shopping excursion.