The Banquet Part Three

However, before the male could even open his mouth, Quentin pushed him away. He quickly stepped forward to greet her.

"I convinced some of the single males of the tribe to join your banquet. Can we go inside, I'd like to greet Caspian."

Iris nodded and brought Quentin to see Caspian who was tending the soup. Seeing all of the single males, Caspian felt conflicted. He didn't want his mate doing all of the cooking but he also did not want her exposed to all these single males.

Quentin knowing Caspian was aware of the issue now, quickly offered to help with the cooking. As first mate, Caspian would not be able to refuse Iris if she wanted to take another mate, but he could certainly chase away less trust worthy males. Thus, Quentin hoped to gain Caspian's trust and create an opportunity for him to get closer to Iris at the same time.

Caspian quickly went to Iris, giving her a warm hug as he sniffed her. Thankfully she didn't smell of other males. He then gratefully looked at Quentin and nodded.

"Quentin will help you cook, Iris. I'll greet the others at the door. Let me know if you need any help."

Iris was entirely unbothered by such issues and was only too happy to be able to focus on cooking. Besides, now she could socialize with her friends when she wasn't cooking.

Iris went over to where Quentin was stirring the soup with a large stick. It had been stripped of its bark and was often used to cook soup in the main kitchen. While a bit short for the newer larger pot, it was better than nothing.

Caspian had already finished chopping vegetables and seasoning the soup as he usually would. However, Iris felt it would be better if she adjusted the seasonings to be to her tastes.

She scooped some soup up in a bowl and tasted it, taking note that Caspian had not adjusted the salt or pepper to the larger container. She would have to add additional salt and pepper alongside the greener herbs.

Finally happy with the taste, Iris instructed Quentin

"This soup will need a bit longer to cook. You'll need to stir it regularly to ensure nothing burns to the bottom. Check the potatoes for doneness every now and again. When they are soft and easily break apart, the soup will be ready to be served."

Quentin nodded, feeling happy to be relied upon. Females don't give tasks to males they don't like in the beast world. Therefore, Quentin could only feel lucky to have gained Iris's trust.

Iris carefully monitored her last batch of pies as she waited for more people to filter in. Holly was sitting with her four mates at one table while the group of nine single beastmen who had come with Quentin sat at another table.

As beastmen had to be invited by a female in order to eat with them, which would be seen as interest in becoming mates, the segregation of the groups was unavoidable.

Sadly, even up until the point where both the last of the pies and the soup finished cooking, no one else had shown up. This made Iris feel quite disappointed. Still, she could only hope some people would show up late.

Iris began to cut the pot pie and bearberry pies into eight slices each while Quentin scooped out bowls of soup. They placed the bowls and plates full of pie onto the stone island for others to take.

As it is standard for females to get their food first then children then mates beastmen and finally single beastmen, Holly came up first. Holly was excited to finally eat the delicious food she had been eyeing for quite a while now. She began to grab plates full of pie while having her mates carry anything she could not. However, when she saw Iris's forlorn expression, she paused her actions.

"What's wrong? Everything looks delicious and there will be plenty for everyone to eat."

Iris just shook her head. She had simply gotten her hopes up too much. She had expected a larger turn out than this and found it quite disappointing that so few had showed up. She tried to force a smile as she reassured Holly

"I'm okay, really. Let me know how you like the pot pie and bearberry pie."

Holly nodded enthusiastically as she assured Iris that she would be sure to do so. Then she offered

"You and your mate can sit at our table. I have so few mates that we don't even take up half of the table. Besides, I enjoy talking with you."

With that, Holly happily wandered off with her tail high in the air. Iris wandered off to see Caspian after the pies were served. He was handling the food that the single males had brought over. As all the single males were meat eating artic wolves, they had each brought a large dried prey over. Since they were not smoked as well, Caspian felt it would be a shame to keep it with the other meat he had painstakingly prepared.

Iris just shook her head at his antics. Food would go bad faster if they were not both smoked and dried but it was unecessary to rearrange the cellar over such a thing. Iris would just be sure to use the dried meat first so that they would not be wasted and that would resolve the whole issue.

"The food has all finished cooking and been served. I only put out five pies of each kind as it doesn't look like we have very many guests."

Caspian could hear the sadness in his mate's voice and went to comfort her. He wrapped his arms around Iris and stroked her head as he reassured

"It's okay. We can just put the pies in the ice boxes and you can enjoy more of the pies by yourself. Besides, it's still possible for more people to show up later. You should just enjoy yourself and not worry so much."

As beastmen had no way to tell time, what Caspian was saying certainly held truth. However, Caspian could only promise in his heart to spend more time trying to convince people to join the feast next week. He may not like his mate working so hard for others sakes, but he felt even worse seeing her so upset.

Iris took a shaky breath as she tried to psych herself up. It was best that she put on a happy face and enjoy herself or her mate and friend would worry.

"Alright, let's get some food while it's still hot. Holly invited us to sit with her. I'm not sure anyone else will show up so it's not great for you to be stuck watching the door."

Caspian was unworried about this. He would sooner make others wait at their doorway then miss out on time spent with his mate. Besides, if Quentin wanted to play friendly with him, perhaps he could force him to watch the door.

Caspian followed behind Iris as she got her food. She could not hold both soup and two plates of pie at once and she probably couldn't eat that much anyways. Thus she merely grabbed a plate of each pie, opting to omit the soup.

However, Caspian would not have this and chose to make two trips so he could grab them each a bowl of soup as well. Even if Iris could not finish all the food, she had worked hard to make it and Caspian would not let it go to waste.

After grabbing food for his mate, Caspian excused himself to go pester Quentin about guarding the door. Quentin was uninterested at first, but under Caspian's threat as an elemental beastman of two stars higher than him, Quentin could only relent. Quentin could only comfort himself that he was doing a task that benefitted Iris and he had already gotten to spend time with the female he liked.

When Caspian returned to the table, he was happy to see Iris happily eating her food. In between bites of food, Iris conversed with Holly.

"The food is really delicious today. I'll definitely be sure to show up every week for food at your house! Although..... I do worry that we don't have anything as nice to offer as we did today."

Holly happily chattered at Iris. She had already devoured two slices of pot pie and was working on her third. Iris was unbothered by sharing food with such a dear friend and could only reassure Holly

"Don't worry so much about that. The company of a good friend is far more important to me than sharing our food with you."

Holly's mates would never let someone else provide for their mate without returning the favor. Even if they had to not eat that week to ensure they could afford to offer their share of food in exchange for the food Holly desired, they would happily do so. Still, they kept this to themselves.

"How did you make this sweet food? I've never had anything like it before. It's just so amazing, I wish I could eat it more often...."

Holly sighed dreamily as she scooped up another bite of bearberry pies to eat. Iris was happy to describe the process of making the pie, but sadly had to explain to Holly that she wouldn't be able to make anymore without more honey. Hearing this, Holly lamented

"I really wish I'd known about the honey before the snow fell. While the nests are guarded by too fierce of creatures for any of my mates to obtain it, I'd happily have traded for some so you could make more of this."

Holly decided that if she couldn't have anymore of this pie before the rainy season then she would just have to eat more of it today. She quickly sent one of her mates to get her more pie.

Meanwhile, Quentin came rushing over to get permission to allow a new guest in.

"I've got a half orc female and five of her mates requesting entry to the banquet. Since I can't invite her in myself, you'll have to do so yourself."

Iris's eyes lit up at this news. Thus, she eagerly followed behind Caspian to meet this new guest. Caspian made Iris wait inside the house while he invited them inside. He didn't like Iris being exposed to others anymore than necessary.

When Iris saw the new female she was greeted by the site of long silvery hair and ice blue eyes with white pointed wolf ears and a tail. The female was slightly taller but heavier set than Holly. However, unlike Holly, this female held her head high, as if daring anyone to say something negative about her.

All five of her mates had silver hair and varying shades of blue eyes, indicating they were part of the artic wolf tribe. They stood close to the female, closely guarding her. When Iris stepped forward to greet the new female, they all tensed up, ready to protect her. Iris backed off a little as she greeted

"Hello, I'm Iris Hart. Welcome to my home, the dining area is though there."

Iris pointed in the direction of the banquet room as she eagerly looked at the new female before her. She was hoping the female would offer her name, but she did not. She merely stood there looking at Iris, waiting for her to move out of the way so that they could go eat. Iris tried again to offer a friendly smile as she asked

"What's your name?"

The female sighed, feeling irritated by the overly friendly female in front of her. She was used to complete females either ignoring her or trying to bully her. She was entirely too unused to bring treated in a friendly manner and just wanted to eat. Still, it would be better not to ignore the home owner when in another's territory so she forced a smile as she replied

"I'm Fawn and these five are my mates. We heard you are hosting a dinner in exchange for a donation of food. I'm hungry, can we eat now?"

Iris's smile faltered at Fawn's continued lack of friendliness. She had only met Holly and was not aware of just how cold other female's attitudes could be. She quickly led the group to the food counter while Caspian accepted the meat they brought.

Iris then headed back to her seat at Holly's table looking disappointed. Holly was feeling full and no longer eating which allowed her to notice Iris's soured mood more easily.

"What's wrong? That new female didn't bully you did she? You could send Caspian to beat her mates, he'd easily win since none of them are awakened beasts."

Holly knew the cruelty of other females all to well. Unless you were a whole female it was all too common to be bullied. While Fawn was also a half orc, she was at least an artic wolf within an artic wolf tribe. Thus, she was treated far better than Holly who was neither an artic wolf nor a whole female.

"Im not making Caspian start fights for my sake. Besides, she didn't bully me. She just wasn't as friendly as my sweet Holly."

Holly blushed at Iris's compliment. She understood Iris's issue a lot better now. Holly felt that it was strange that a whole female like Iris had so few mates but knew that whole females were used to being treated well by everyone. So even being treated coldly could make them upset. Still, while Holly wanted to cheer Iris up, there was only so much she could do.

"The cold season is so boring. I wish I had cubs to look after. At least Ive got these weekly meals to look forward to, you always cook such delicious food!"

Holly's attempt to change the subject was not missed by Iris. Still, she could only feel appreciative to have such a good friend. With, Caspian coming back and wrapping one of his arms around her, Iris tried to cheer herself up. It'd be best to enjoy Holly's company while she could.

"Yeah, I try to keep myself busy with hobbies. I've actually taken up sewing clothes lately. Oh yeah! I've actually got a dress I made for you! It's only made from leopard skin, but it should look quite cute on you. Besides, it's got long sleeves for added warmth."

Iris fished the dress out from her bag before handing it over to Holly. Iris was immediately greeted with Holly's joy filled expression as her red panda tail began to sway happily back and forth.

"Wow, is this really for me? Thank you so much, I'll be sure to wear it next time we meet!"