Days continued to pass by and soon enough it was once more the harvest season. This officially made three years in the beastworld now for Iris. Her young fox cubs were also now two years old while her wolf cubs were half a year old. Iris didn't normally think of things in such time frames, but the harvest season was special since that was when this new chapter in her life had started so long ago.
This was also when Ash was due to return to their city. While she had denied her feelings for him, insisting he was nothing but annoying in the beginning, things were different now. She couldn't help but feel excited to have her husband return to her side, to know that he was safe and sound by her side. She missed his snarky remarks and how lively things were with him around.
Iris had had plenty of reservations about how well he would even fit into their family. However, Ash ended up bringing some much-needed balance. Ember was constantly having his limits tested, but he also finally had someone who could match him in combat. Basil was rarely bothered by the others in the family, but Ash did a good job of keeping him on his toes. Having someone else who could talk at length about intellectual subjects and socialize easily with others meant that Basil had to work harder to stand out.
Even Iris's friends had grown comfortable with her new mate's presence. He often lingered around Iris, even when she was spending time with her friends. He easily joined in on their conversations without being overbearing to the point of making the others uncomfortable. Ash even seemed to know how to read the room quite well and always excused himself long before anyone could issue any complaints.
Of course, Ash had also mellowed out by quite a bit after he had become mates with Iris. He didn't always reply to every little thing with barbed remarks. There was never a time when Iris had to worry about the weaker males being bullied by him and Caspian was left to act as the city leader in the day-to-day. Instead of forcing things to go his way, he waited for the others to come to him for advice before giving it.
Iris sighed, getting Caspian's attention who was sitting nearby on the floor.
"Is something wrong?"
Iris was supposed to be looking over the plans for the upcoming harvest festival and preparations for the cold season, not thinking about Ash. Forcing a smile, she offered up some reassurance
"No, everything's fine."
Caspian's expression was pinched as he looked over Iris's features with concern. Seemingly making up his mind, he nodded before standing up.
"Come on, I know what will help. You probably just need some fresh air. I'll let Birk know we're going out. We'll have to stop by and let Ember know we're going to be away from the house too."
The wolf cubs were growing up quite well, but only the boys were allowed to leave the house. The girl cubs were being hidden away until they were much older. As part of that, Iris's mates insisted that one of the stronger males always had to be home, if not two of them. Birk was quite strong, but having only one person to look over so many cubs wasn't ideal. Luckily, her mates had a lot more free time on their hands. Iris wouldn't have even been surprised if Ember was on his way home already since he usually just went out for a quick perimeter check and to talk to the lead guards of each section before heading back home.
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After finding Ember, Caspian quickly informed him that they'd be going out to walk around the city. He nodded in confirmation, clearly understanding what was expected of him. Still, Iris could tell he seemed disappointed that he wouldn't be able to spend time with Iris during his downtime. Iris wasn't sure why her mates never seemed to get tired of spending time with her. Having some space sometimes was good for one's mental health, after all. Still, she wasn't about to start an argument over it. Instead, she leaned in to give him a quick hug and kiss before asking
"I'll see you later, alright?"
Ember seemed to feel much better as he gave her a bright smile and said
"Alright, love. I hope you enjoy yourself."
As it turned out, Caspian really did just think that Iris would feel better having some fresh air. They headed to the agriculture area where he explained
"The ranch workers have been having a lot of luck with catching new jungle fowl and aurochs this year. There are a lot of new, young calves and chicks this year as well. We've been having them catch extra since a few days ago to prepare for the upcoming festival. It'll mean that we have to feed some of them for longer than we usually would, but we should get more eggs in the meantime."
Iris nodded, impressed by his foresight to plan ahead this time around. That was likely to make things far easier than catching all of the meat the week of the festival.
"It might be good to have some of the new additions breed with the older beasts while we have them as well. It'll bring some variation into the gene pool and ensure we don't end up with so much inbreeding later on down the line."
Caspian blinked in confusion, pinching his lips together to avoid asking what she was talking about. He was fairly used to Iris saying strange things he didn't quite understand, but sometimes he still found himself caught off guard. Iris laughed at his expression before explaining
"Basically, it's like how we want our daughter to mate with males from outside our family, not with her brothers or even the males born from Fern's sister. It can cause disabilities to appear from birth if those with similar genes mate with one another."
Caspian flinched as he imagined his daughter giving birth to cubs with a broken arm. Inbreeding was rare, but not unheard of in the beastworld, but the world was still too new for there to be the sort of birth defects one might see in the modern world. Well, brother and sister didn't become mates as that would be far too weird, but even Caspian had noticed it when Alicia tried to encourage her male cubs to socialize with Rosemary. While she was a fox cub, he still thought of her as family and he couldn't help but feel protective of her. Even if he was glad that his wolf cub daughters were hidden away from others, he knew that he'd still have to be more proactive in keeping Alicia and her cubs away from Rosemary in the future to prevent such a horrible thing.
Iris hadn't meant to stir up such fears for her wolf husband. She was purely thinking of the other benefits that the over-preparation for the festival could bring. Iris could tell that Caspian was distracted as they continued to walk through the city, occasionally discussing the various improvements and changes that had been made in recent months. However, she had no real way of connecting the dots to figure out just what was bothering him.
The issue would resolve itself by the next morning, though, so Iris easily forgot about the issue. Caspian ended up talking to the others about a plan to better protect all of their daughters. Fern wasn't entirely amused by his sister being implicated in such a way, but it wasn't really like he could argue against the others wanting to ensure the cubs didn't mate with their cousins either.