Monthly Dilemma

After briefly helping Iris with her preparations, Caspian headed out for the rest of the afternoon to hunt. This left Iris with quite a bit of free time to herself. Luckily, Iris had some materials to craft with.

Iris pulled all of her sewing supplies and furs out of her bag and laid them out around her on the floor. Currently, she only has one set of clothes to wear, but it would be better if she had a few outfits to rotate between. Besides, the beast world was essentially nothing but wilderness which meant her clothes would easily end up dirty. As someone from the modern world used to being able to shower and wear clean clothes daily, this did not appeal to Iris.

As such, she quickly got to work sewing a new animal hide dress. She chose one of the animal hides with thinner fur and began to take her own measurements with it, marking where to sew. While tube-style dresses were common in the beast world, Iris preferred something with a bit more style. Iris wanted something longer and warmer to match the colder weather but still somewhat cute.

Thus she decided to go with a long leopard skin dress that hugged her curves and flowed outwards a little bit at the bottom. It was still minimal on sleeves with only extra thick straps that sat along her shoulders. Her hooded cloak and boots paired nicely with this new addition to her wardrobe.

When Caspian came back and saw Iris dressed up in her new dress, he felt that she looked like a queen who ruled over all the beasts. He kept reaching out and touching her as she prepared dinner, not believing how beautiful she looked in her new outfit. Caspian had never seen such fashion in the beast world and despite the dress covering more of her skin, he felt that she looked just as lovely in this outfit as she did in the previous one.

Iris quite enjoyed Caspian's fascination whenever she made anything new but she found that it was annoying to be constantly grabbed while cooking. Thus she repeatedly swatted his hands away, but it did not stop Caspian at all.

That night when they went to sleep, Iris could only relent as Caspian once more wished to make love to her. It seems that the more Iris impressed Caspian, the more he wanted to show his love and devotion to her.

The next morning Iris awoke to Caspian carrying in a plate of rabbit kebabs. Iris ate the food, feeling quite hungry and sore after being thoroughly fucked the night before. The meat was, luckily, fully cooked, if a bit bland and burnt around the edges.

"Looks like your cooking has improved, Caspian. Maybe you'll even be better than me one day."

Caspian smiled at his mate's praise. Even though he knew he was nowhere near as talented as her in the cooking department, he was happy to be able to please her with his progress. After Iris finished eating, Caspian brought her dishes away to be washed while Iris went to the bathroom.

Upon hearing his mate cursing under her breath, Caspian rushed to her side. He looked around on high alert, wondering what could have upset her. Seeing that there were no intruders, he looked down at his mate in concern. She was sitting on their stone "toilet" and looked quite disgruntled.

Caspian coughed awkwardly as he looked away. He knew Iris liked her privacy in the bathroom and did not like him to disturb her. Besides this, she was still naked from the night before with only an animal skin loosely wrapped around her. Iris might not be modest about nudity in the bedroom but her red face and frown seemed to suggest she'd rather if Caspian were not here at this very moment.

"I heard you angrily talking to yourself and thought something had happened."

Iris sighed as she continued to sit down. She had just started her period this morning and was beginning to bleed lightly. Thankfully the first day was always light so she had the chance to catch it before it ruined all of the bedding. Still, Iris had not remembered to prepare anything for her getting a period despite it being a monthly affair.

"I'm bleeding..."

At Iris's words, Caspian's eyes grew bigger in panic. He stuck his nose in the air and noticed the sweet and slightly metallic scent of blood. There was not much as he hadn't noticed until just now. However, this still worried him all the same.

"Where are you bleeding from? How bad is it? Should I bring you to the witch doctor? I should bring you to the witch doctor shouldn't I?"

As he said this last bit, Caspian went to scoop Iris up and into his arms. However, Iris was quick to push Caspian away before explaining 

"I'm not injured, it's just my period. This happens every month that I don't get pregnant and it's perfectly normal, just a bit inconvenient."

This explanation confused Caspian quite a bit but did make him pause his actions. Females in the beast world did not bleed monthly. The closest thing they had was when they went into heat each year they would bleed for five days then be extremely horny.

They would then mate in the hopes of getting pregnant with a litter of cubs. As pregnancies in the beast world lasted a mere six months, females went into heat every year without interruption. However, none of this registered as relevant to Caspian as it was too different.

"I don't understand what a period is or what it has to do with pregnancy."

Iris shook her head, feeling embarrassed about having to explain menstruation cycles and the birds and the bees to her mate. Still, she embarrassedly explained everything about eggs and sperm as well as how her inner lining would shed each month if a baby was not produced.

Caspian listened intently and began to try to relate it to how females in the beast world worked. Once everything finally clicked for him, he cautiously asked,

"Wait, if this happens each month then that means that you have the potential to get pregnant twice a year then, right?"

Iris made a face, feeling exasperated to still be talking about this. Especially while still sitting up on a cold, hard stone pot.

"No, since pregnancy lasts nine months and then breastfeeding prevents you from getting pregnant for a while, it's more likely to happen once a year at most."

Caspian shook his head, this did not match up with his experiences.

"Beast pregnancies are only for six months. Our young only drink their mother's milk for a mere month as well."

Suddenly it dawned upon Iris that Caspian was right, there was indeed a possibility that she could get pregnant twice a year.

"Fuck, you're right. How do your females stand that? Getting pregnant so often must suck for them."

Caspian was surprised to hear his female's disdain for getting pregnant. He began to worry that she would not want his cubs.

"Our females only go through heat once a year and they don't always produce offspring during that time. With the ratio of males to females already being so different, pregnancy and cubs are cherished here. Do....Do you not want to have cubs?"

Caspian looked sad as he said this last part. Iris felt conflicted as she never planned to have more than a few children in her lifetime. Having a litter of cubs almost yearly sounded like Hell. Especially when you consider that pregnancy can have very real and permanent negative effects on women's bodies.

"I wouldn't want to get rid of any children we might have but I don't want to have cubs so often."

Caspian nodded at this, understanding that there was hope for him yet. Still, he would likely have to share his mate with other males in the future. Caspian would have to work hard to ensure he held a place in Iris's heart if he wanted to be able to have cubs with her since she did not want to have very many.

Iris, however, wanted to move away from this talk on future matters and get her problem sorted. It was painful to sit here like this for so long and she did not want to freely bleed on all of the furniture. They had worked hard to make the furniture they had and Iris did not want their efforts to go to waste already.

"I need something to soak up the blood. We had something we called pads in our world that could hold a lot of blood but needed to be changed out for new ones, but I'm unsure what to use here."

Caspian, chuckled, entirely unworried about this matter.

"It's alright, I'll just have to hunt some sheep and talk to the witch doctor. He keeps many herbs and blood moss for just such occasions. For now, why don't you just use that animal skin and rest on the couch? I'll be back as soon as I can."

Iris had very little idea what hunting sheep or herbs and moss had to do with her problem. Still, she obediently did as Caspian requested and waited patiently for him. As it took quite a while before Caspian returned, Iris ended up falling asleep on the couch.

Caspian gently woke Iris up and showed her what he had brought home. He had wool skinned off of a sheep much like any other animal hide and some moss and various herbs. Iris just looked blankly at them, unsure what to make of them. Caspian brought Iris her bag and handed it to her before instructing

"Here, hand me the sewing supplies."

Iris quickly pulled a fishbone needle and some sinew out of her bag. She carefully handed it to Caspian, curious as to what he planned to do. She watched as he cut the wool into strips and then stuffed some crushed lavender and blood moss inside. Caspian then quickly sewed it together into a long rectangular shape before using some sinew to tie the pad to a clean pair of leopard skin underwear. He then handed it to Iris to put on.

Iris stood up, careful to use the blood-stained animal skin blanket she had been using to cover the floor. She looked down at her blood-stained thighs in concern. It wouldn't help much if she put the underwear on while covered in blood. Seeing her dilemma, Caspian quickly ran out to get her water to wash with.

Finally, Iris was able to put the clothing on alongside her skirt and tank top that had been washed the night before. Her new dress was nice but not as convenient for changing a pad as a shorter skirt would be.

Caspian picked up the other herbs he had brought and explained,

"These are herbs good for relieving pain. They're best when boiled with hot water like how you make your teas. I'll go make some now."

Iris felt quite happy despite the cramping and exhaustion she was feeling. It is nice to have someone to take care of you when you don't feel well.