A month later, it was finally time for the opening ceremony for the pool. Thanks to some help from Pearl's family, Holly's family, and the Golden Tradesmen, everything was ready on time and Iris was looking forward to having quite a bit of fun.

Most clothes in the beastworld were made from thick leathers and furs that would keep one feeling far too hot. Even during the hot season, the most one could do was to wear shorter dresses or remain at home where nudity wouldn't matter all that much. However, much of that had already changed in Blue Springs City. Thanks in part to the trip from the Arctic Wolf Tribe over to their new home, Iris had been able to discover all sorts of other materials to make clothing.

Wearing clothing and accessories made from snakeskin, feathers, and even plants. The last one was quite a bit more complicated to make properly as just using normal grasses would result in really bad paper-cuts, among other problems, just from wearing it. However, other types of plants were similar to hemp or cotton. They grew wild and some of the members of the Rabbit Tribe were quite skilled at manipulating it into usable material for making clothing. It was still a very rough product that barely resembled modern-day equivalents, but it was still an excellent alternative to wearing heavy furs all year long.

Still, the only thing that was suitable for making bathing suits was snake and reptile skins. These were more abundant in other areas, but took quite a while to be delivered by the Golden Tradesmen, even with their well-established network of traders. In fact, as strange as it was to think about it, there were even Snake Tribes and mixed tribes with reptile beastmen who had to shed their skin. The better pieces were always saved to clothe their mates and daughters, but the rest were often sold. This helped single males save up crystals for a dowry to give their future mates as well as won the mated males points with their beloved females.

So, after a couple of weeks, a ton of snake and reptile skins were brought to Blue Springs City, leaving the Golden Tradesmen much richer and Iris a bit poorer. Pearl's family still wasn't as established as they needed to be to purchase the product outright, but Iris worked out a contract so they could eventually purchase all of the materials. In return, they would prioritize Iris's request for them to make bathing suits in time for the pool opening. This way no one had to go naked into the swimming area, making the females uncomfortable, and Iris would get to enjoy an entire season of poolside fun with her friends.

As for what Holly's family was responsible for. Well, let's just say that they were doing what they did best. Iris taught them a few new recipes for shaved ice and ice cream and the rest of their menu was things like chilled soups and iced drinks that they were going to serve poolside during the party. As always, anything Holly wanted to add to the teahouse menu after helping with an event was fair game. However, she was warned that Caspian wouldn't be refilling their ice stores any more often than they were now.

Popsicles would have a hard time properly freezing in a mere ice box. Stone wasn't a proper insulator and the ice itself steadily melted, so it was hard to freeze liquids into solids. Ice cream was a bit better since it didn't have to be completely solid and some salted ice would chill things down a lot faster. However, the shaved ice was the best option for someone who had ice, but not ice elemental abilities. All you had to do was shave the ice down and then pour some sweet syrupy goodness over top of it.

Iris smiled as she walked through the threshold to the pool building alongside several of her mates. It was already pretty busy with several females and their mates bunched up here and there. Just for today, single males had been banned from attending, but they would get the same treatment tomorrow while everyone else was banned from that party. So, the females felt quite comfortable donning the strange attire, which was a bathing suit, and splashing around with their mates in the pool. Iris was quite excited to do the same with her own mates.

However, first, she wanted to greet her friends. Knowing her all too well, Caspian pointed across the room at Holly who was nervously sitting on a pool chair watching everyone else. Iris felt a pang of concern for her friend and quickly made her way across the room. As soon as she saw Iris, Holly's eyes lit up. Still, she seemed quite embarrassed as she held an animal skin around herself and nervously stood up to hug Iris.

"What's wrong? Do you not know how to swim?"

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Iris asked. Holly shook her head as she replied

"Well, no, not really. That's not the problem, though."

That didn't exactly surprise Iris. Most of the females here didn't know how to swim. However, that didn't seem to stop most of them as they hung out in the shallow end, had their mates carry them on their back as they swam, or even asked their mates to attempt to teach them how to swim for themselves. While Iris felt like addressing this issue was important, she could quite easily guess what Holly was alluding to the actual problem being.

Before Iris came along, most people would just eat meat. While it was raw and quite unpleasant, it was also quite high in calories and could easily lead to gaining weight, even without the sedentary lifestyle most females led. Now that eating veggies and properly cooked meals are an option, many of the females could easily lose some weight just because they were naturally indulging in fewer calories. Add in the fact that most females were also joining in on the morning exercise sessions and, well, their tribe almost seemed malnourished compared to everyone else.

Holly, however, had things much more difficult than most of the others. She always tried to do some light exercises in the morning and she loved to eat plants. However, she was also surrounded by delicious food, including calorie-heavy sweets, all day long. Her mates were hardly going to complain about how chubby she still was and would only encourage her to eat whatever her heart desired. However, that left Holly in the awkward situation of seeing how much different everyone else looked while she largely remained the same.

Iris sighed, really not sure how to even tackle such a topic. Decisions related to diet and exercise were very personal, even in the modern world. Here it was unheard of to even want to be skinny or to care about how fit a female was in the first place. Trying to comfort her friend while being in such dangerous and complicated territory was like trying to balance on a tightrope. Still, Iris had to try to comfort her friend.

"Well, I can understand how strange it must be to see everyone else's bodies in such an intimate way. It's certainly different from what I'm used to as well. However, it isn't worth missing out on having fun because you're worried about how different you look from everyone else.

If you're really worried and want to do something about it, we can have a talk about what you can do on another day. You'll have to bring all of your mates and we'll go to the clinic so we can get a witch doctor's opinion as well. However, even then, it won't be an easy or fast process and you have to decide for yourself.

For today, though, why don't we just focus on having some fun? I'm sure Pearl and Fawn have to be around her somewhere. Maybe we can all hang out in the pool together? I know Pearl loves the water, so I'm sure her enthusiasm will rub off on you a little too."

Holly still felt a little strange about everything, but she knew Iris was right. Her mates gave her encouraging looks and so she smiled for their sakes before allowing Iris to take her by the hand and lead her to the shallow end of the pool.

Caspian looked warily at his mate and her friend. Somehow life seemed more complicated now than it had ever been before. A female worrying about her body looking different from others was unheard of. Maybe if she was the only one born from a pregnancy and all of her siblings were of a different tribe then questions might be asked about why they were different, but that was the only thing Caspian could think of.

Basil, unfortunately, wasn't here today. Fern and Birk were given the day off while Ember agreed to stay home. Whenever Hazel and Basil weren't working, they'd help out with the cubs. However, otherwise, no one wanted Iris to feel alone, so they always made sure that half of them could join her whenever they attended public events like this. Caspian still felt a bit strange, though.

Leaving his young wolf cubs at home with Ember was certainly not his first choice. Fern and Birk both seemed more nurturing and capable of caring for the cubs. Really, Caspian was a bit curious how Basil could so easily leave his cubs in the care of others all of the time. He would lose his temper and worry whenever Rosemary fell sick, yet he otherwise seemed to be unconcerned with who was taking care of the cubs.

Caspian frowned, perhaps he, himself, was the problem here. Maybe he should put more faith in the other members of his household. Iris wouldn't have chosen to accept males who weren't untrustworthy anyway and Ember had been around for so long that surely he had proven himself by now. Ember was a bit of an overconfident brute, but he had been working on his anger issues and he had grown quite a bit as a person.

Shaking his head, Caspian tried to set his thoughts aside so he could enjoy the pool party. Iris seemed quite happy as she bought a round of ice cream for all of her friends. They sat talking happily together and Holly seemed to forget her worries as she did so. Caspian smiled, his mate really did seem to know her friends quite well. He was lucky to have such a thoughtful and kind mate.