With seven mates, even two date nights a week tended to mean that each of Iris's mates would only get one date with her each month. If they were lucky, they'd be the ones who got the extra date night that month. Still, none of them felt the need to complain. Iris always devoted her attention to her mates and avoided speaking about the others. Meanwhile, the others made sure they had the freedom to take the day off and spend it with Iris.
Today it was Caspian's turn and Basil was taking the day off from the clinic so that he could attend to the city leader duties that Caspian usually attended to. However, they weren't going to be leaving the house today. Iris was still breastfeeding and recovering from giving birth, so Caspian didn't want her to have to walk around too much and risk her getting hurt. Besides, they had been avoiding going out any more than necessary. They didn't really want people asking about their new cubs and it would look suspicious if they completely dodged any questions.
While it was common sense in the beastworld not to ask about another male's female, things were a bit different when it came to Iris. Since she was the official city leader, everyone wanted to celebrate her pregnancy and know about her well-being. Still, unless they actually saw Iris, it wasn't like they would push the issue. Simply saying that she was healthy, but still recovering was sufficient for most males.
However, Iris's friends were hardly eager to give the same space that others were. Iris had already introduced Holly, Fawn, and Pearl to her cubs, but they had immediately understood that they should keep the news quiet. All they had said was that the Beast Deity must truly cherish Iris and that, if anyone deserved such a blessing, it would be her. Still, Caspian had insisted on a date night at home.
Thus, Iris arranged for them to work on a fun project together at home. She asked Hazel to make some new items at the workshops and Fern to go out and purchase some ingredients to cook with. He had been a bit disappointed when he heard that she was going to teach Caspian a dish without him, but he hadn't pushed the issue. It wouldn't have helped to do so anyhow since she required Caspian's ice elemental abilities to make what they were going to be working on today.
"So, does this mean you're finally going to let me in on the surprise? You've been keeping me in suspense all this while."
Caspian asked in a light-hearted tone. Iris smiled as she pulled the molds out of her dimensional space bag. She then explained
"These are popsicle molds. I was thinking that we could make some frozen treats today. Since we have to have cold temperatures or someone with ice magic to make these, I don't plan to make these commercially. However, I figured they'd be a fun project that we can work on together."
Caspian frowned as he looked at the strange stone box. He had given up on learning how to cook after Basil and Fern came along. So, he wasn't so sure that he'd be as useful today as Iris was hoping.
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"Don't worry, these don't require anything too complicated. Most popsicles are just made with fruit juices and maybe some fresh berries. I do want to try making some homemade custards too since pudding popsicles can also be quite good. Well, pudding and custard are a bit different, but it's mostly just that custard is superior. I can handle making the custard base if you're okay juicing some fruits?"
Caspian nodded, feeling relieved that he'd be able to help after all. Most store-bought pudding mixes in the modern world tend to be things like vanilla, chocolate, lemon, butterscotch, or pistachio. However, pretty much all of those flavors weren't possible with the ingredients that Iris had access to. Well, a plain custard could be made, but she didn't have any vanilla extract. She had access to hazelnuts, but there most certainly weren't any pistachios. Butterscotch was a very particular flavor and was easy to mix up with toffees and caramels, so Iris decided to just make a caramel flavor instead since she wasn't actually that clear on the difference.
As for the fruit flavors, they had lemon, lime, grapefruit, apple, orange, and pear from their fruit trees as well as grapes, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries from the farm to work with. That left plenty of room to play around with ideas. The berries were great for adding whole into the fruit juices for the popsicles. Apples and pears could be chopped and added in, but wouldn't have been as pleasant. So, the other options were mostly just turned into juices and mixed together.
Once the molds were all full of the various mixtures, all that was left was for Caspian to slowly freeze them. Once the initial freezing was done, they could be kept in the ice boxes for a short while, but it was harder to freeze them with just the cold air created by the ice. It was like putting ice cream in a modern-day cooler, it wouldn't freeze melted ice cream, but it could prevent it from melting in the first place.
Caspian was quite impressed by how easy the entire process ended up being. Only a short time was needed to make everything and they ended up with quite a bit of finished product. They barely even used sugar either, which just made the sweetness of the dessert that much more surprising. Caspian couldn't help but feel it was a shame that this sort of thing couldn't be mass-produced, but Iris was right to think that he'd rather spend his spare time with his family than on such a thing.
Caspian didn't mind if they spent some time with others during their time together, so long as they spent the day together. So, he suggested they deliver some of the sweets to Iris's friends as well as setting some aside to share with the others in their family after dinner that day. His small mate looked happy at his suggestion, but Iris still insisted they spend some more time together and put it off for later.
The two ended up heading up to the hot springs where they walked hand in hand while they ate their ice cream. Caspian's favorite ended up being the plain custard version. He liked the eggy richness of the flavor without all of the extra flavorings. They agreed with his beast's desire for protein quite well, but none of the popsicles were particularly bad. Iris tended to like fudge pops and ice cream from the modern world more than popsicles, so she felt a bit disappointed by the options, but she still settled for the hazelnut custard flavor just fine.
She never quite seemed to forget what things were like in the modern world, but she couldn't help but feel there was no point in getting hung up on what she was missing out on. Her memories were bound to turn into nostalgia and her true feelings for the past might end up disguised. Besides, she lived here now so she needed to figure out ways to live her life and enjoy what she did have, including appreciating her mates who always supported her in all of her endeavors.