Unanswered Questions Part Two

Basil took over the cooking while Iris and Holly played games and ate meringues. Caspian put away the sewing so he could attend to guests. Caspian knew none of them could handle all the work alone and was ready and willing to play his part.

As Holly and Iris played checkers, they had some friendly conversation. Holly remarked

"These sweets are quite good! What did you call them again?"

Iris smiled as she explained

"They are meringues, I actually made them using the whites of the eggs you gave me. I still need to figure out what to do with the yellows so they don't go to waste. Maybe some scrambled eggs tomorrow?"

Holly swayed her tail happily as she replied

"I'm glad the eggs are so useful! Are you going to be selling these tomorrow at market too?"

Iris nodded, but found a question came to mind as she inquired

"By the way, how do your mates get into the city? I heard males have to be one starred celestial beasts to get in....."

Holly giggled as she answered

"Yeah, but they have to make an exception in smaller cities in market day. I have to pay a fee of an uncolored crystal per mate under the limit, but it's worth it to buy your stuff."

Iris frowned as she considered just how much money Holly had been wasting to buy her goods. Holly had four mates so she was wasting four whole crystals every week, it was no wonder she was always short on money. Iris hesitated as she asked

"How do you always afford such a high fee? Do your mates sell goods as well or?"

Holly shook her head as she replied

"No, my mates just take turns accepting jobs issued at the city. Any day of the week, any beast is free to go up to the bridge and talk to a Golden Tradesmen about work.

They have a separate building just inside the city walls just for jobs. Since the Golden Tradesmen are one of the few groups taught to write and read, they write down jobs those in the city need done, give out the jobs to qualified beastmen, and pay them.

The person requesting the jobs pay a fee so the Golden Tradesman make a good amount of money for helping the city out. Honestly, a lot of females like to mate with Golden Tradesmen as they make good money. I'd be a bit sad, though, as they frequently have to travel and aren't home a lot...."

Iris was a bit surprised as she hadn't noticed any of that during her visits to the city. Iris felt better that Holly's family had a steady source of income. However, Iris still felt like it was dumb that she couldn't just directly sell to Holly within the tribe and skip all the hassle.

When a few more females showed up to dinner, Iris decided it was time to pass out the gifts. Caspian helped Iris pass out the gifts to the other three females while Iris gave Fawn and Holly a box of beauty products. Once all five were passed out, Iris explained

"My mate Basil, who is a witch doctor, and I made these gifts for you all as a token of our appreciation. Inside you will find a bottle of lotion that is good for softening your skin. To use it, you only have to shake a little out of the bottle and rub it into your skin. It has some herbs good for sun burns and inflammation in it so it should relieve any soreness as well.

After that, there is another bottle with a liquid soap that comes in one of three scents. I put different scents in each box, but they include rosemary & mint, cinnamon & jujui berry, and lavender & chamomile. This liquid soap should be good to wash your hair or any other part of your body. It has a consistency closer to water so you'll just need to pour a little into your hands or onto a beast skin and then it will lather up easily.

This is great for making one smell similar to the scent of the soap and removing dirt and grit from one's body more easily. I included a solid bar of soap in the same scent as the bottle that works similarly.

The last thing you'll find in there is a comb made from animal bone. It is meant to comb your hair with and is used similarly to the way one might run their fingers through their hair. We carved flowers and vines into the handle to make them prettier for you all.

I actually use similar products to these on a regular basis so I can vouch for their use. If you like them, I'll be selling more in all of the scents at the Blue Lake City market tomorrow. You'll be the only ones to get free samples, but you're free to tell others where to get them.

While I've got your attention, I'd also like to explain the rules for the new game we've got for tonight. I sell both this new game called Checkers and the previous one called Manacala at market each week. I also will have many of these meringues I prepared for dessert tonight for sale tomorrow."

Many of the females felt unsure if such products were necessary. However, the scents were quite pleasant to their senses and they all quite admired Iris's beauty. Many felt that it couldn't hurt to try the products out and see what the effects would be like.

Iris briefly explained the rules of Checkers and many were quite eager to play. While some still wanted to play Manacala, since there were only ten copies of each game available, this was for the best. After all, the games were all two player games and most families had more than four members in them.

Due to word spreading of the cookies and new leisure activity the previous week, many more families showed up this week. There were a total of ten females and their families who showed up counting Iris, Holly, and Fawn's families. This meant that the food went quite fast and families could only have a single copy of each game to borrow.

Thankfully for Iris, there were not many more females in the tribe so she wouldn't have to worry about much more showing up. The evening dragged out late into the night, long after the food was finished thanks to the great entertainment the games provided.