The Flirty Witch Doctor

"I want to go to Basil's for herbs! Then we can go back to our inn for the night."

Caspian's felt jealousy surging within him. He usually felt protective of Iris but he had promised he wouldn't stop her from taking any mates she wanted. Yet, hearing her say that flirty bastards name somehow set him on edge.

Still, Caspian wanted to be the best first mate he could be. So, he swallowed his jealousy and nodded as he began to walk over to the witch doctor's home with Iris in his arms.

Basil sniffed the air then peeked outside. Seeing his favorite female outside, he tried to hurry up his consultation with his current patient. A female who lived in the city had started her heat and needed pain relief herbs, wool, and blood moss. It was just a routine check up and there was no need to take his time to avoid mistakes. Thus he just thrust the supplies into the males arms before ushering them out the door. They could return later for payment.

Caspian brought Iris inside the stone house and closed the door behind him. He then put Iris down, letting her freely roam within the safety of this enclosed environment. Iris pulled her hood down, breathing a sigh of relief as she sat down.

Basil was taken aback by Iris's beauty. It seems rather than him remembering Iris as more beautiful than she actually was, it was the opposite. She actually looked far more breath taking than she had during the harvest season.

Basil transformed into his half orc form as he carried some items out from storage. He had seen Iris with her female friend when he went out earlier that day. Seeing Iris interact positively with a half orc female and even openly staring at her tail, Basil suspected Iris was one of those females who were a fan of soft and fluffy tails. Basil was hoping to show off in front of the female he admired using his especially soft fox tail.

Iris was caught off guard as something soft brushed up against her. Looking around, she noticed Basil had entered the room. Noticing his big poofy black and white tail, Iris was stunned. She stared openly at it as she recalled seeing a cute black and white fox during her last visit to the city.

Basil was pleased as he saw Iris did in fact like his tail. He curled it around him and to the side as he sat down across from Iris. Placing an animal skin on the ground, Basil explained

"I've been trying out some of the herbs ever since your last visit. It's been quite interesting to experiment with seasoning meat and making teas with them. I brought out the herbs you bought last time as well as some new plants I thought you might be interested in."

Basil brought out three strange looking plants that Iris had never seen before as he continued

"This is a type of berry that is very tart. It seems to go pleasantly in teas alongside this vine which produces a rather sweet taste similar to honey. This leaf had a sort of spicy and savory flavor and is great to wrap meat in when you cook it."

The berries looked like what you would expect a poisonous berry to look like. It was an alarming bright yellow color and was small and round like a blueberry. The vine was a strange white color but otherwise looked just like the green vines she normally used. The leaf was a brownish red and resembled banana leaves.

They were all clearly unique foods to the beast world as Iris couldn't imagine such thing existing in the modern world. Due to her unfamiliarity with such foods, Iris was hesitant to believe they were real foods as she asked

"Are you sure these are safe for consumption? Have you actually eaten them yourself? I've never seen such things before....."

Basil chuckled as he leaned forward to look Iris in the eyes. He smirked as he saw her blush and look away. He picked up one of the yellow berries and plopped one in his mouth. Iris felt worry well up as she observed him. However, nothing happened.

"Yes, as I said, I've been doing experiments. This yellow fruit is called a jujui berry and it's usually used for nutritious medicines for pregnant females. This white vine like one is known as a sweet root and is used by some tribes in southern regions of the beast continent to disguise the bitterness of medicines. We just don't use it as often around here. This umai leaf isn't actually usually used as food. I just kind of observed a wild animal eating it and decided to try it myself."

Basil shrugged as if this was no big deal, but Iris felt horrified. She loudly exclaimed

"How could you put yourself at risk like that?!?! What would those in the beast city do if you stupidly died from poisoning yourself?"

Basil felt sweet as he covered Iris's hand as he playfully asked her

"You're showing so much concern for me. Does this mean you like me?"

Iris turned crimson but turned away, refusing to answer. She felt her heart racing as she found herself actually enjoying the warmth of his hand on hers. Caspian loudly cleared his throat as he snatched Iris's hand from Basil and put it in his own lap.

Basil was amused by Caspian's discomfort. Caspian felt irked by this flirty fox who kept openly trying to seduce Iris in front of him. Caspian wanted to beat the fox black and blue to teach him a lesson, but didn't want to upset Iris. Still, he was beginning to find this visit exhausting.

"We should hurry up. We still need to find you food for the night and go back to the inn room so we can get some rest. We will head back to the tribe at first light since I know you can't sleep well on that stone bed."

Iris knew Caspian was worried about food. There were no plants for sale today and no fire to cook meat. It would be difficult for them to find any sustenance within the city today. Basil was very smart and could easily guess the problem just from what little knowledge he had. Thus, he acted innocent as he offered

"You can join me for dinner. I know you mentioned that you cook your meat over a fire. As a witch doctor, I'm one of the few people in this city they will allow to use fire without batting an eye."

Caspian wanted to pounce on this insolent fox and rip his throat out. It should have been obvious that he was trying to leave and take his mate away from his overly friendly advances.

Of course, Basil was more than aware of Caspian's animosity towards him, but he didn't care. Basil just looked to the little female in front of him for an answer since he knew females had the final say.