Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 54: brought to you by politics...yay

They almost die! And honestly, that's the most exciting thing about this chapter. Everything else beforehand is just... means to an end.

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The blizzard had driven most of Neara's household into madness. Theo thumped his feet on the walls until Orson threatened to rip them off. The shortbirds had been thrown into a hastily-dug hole by the fireplace, a thick cover of hides and wood protecting them from the bitter blasts while the fireplace warmed the earth around them. Winston took it upon himself to visit them every day with fresh food and to collect the eggs. It was a dirty affair and he would leave the eggs outside the door while he threw himself around in the snow to clean himself. He brought back snow for Neara to bathe with, filling the stone pot with crystals clinging to his fur and tail. Orson, after learning the hard way, shielded the fire every time he opened the door.

Winston went hunting twice during the storm, bringing back enough kill for himself and Neara. The herbivores refused to eat, saving their grasses and nuts for the young lambs, who had absolutely no sense of the danger they were surrounded in and complained loudly of the cramped quarters.

Orson lovingly brushed his children every night, the stiff fibers combing through their scratchy coats and making them look like puffy brown clouds. "It's important to keep them fluffy so they stay warm. I don't know why, but my mother always did this to me and my brothers. I remember her warm hands." He smiled to himself. "I think you would have liked her."

"Was she the one who taught you to be sarcastic?"

"I'm only sarcastic because you don't know anything about this area. All you know is warm sands and the ocean." He carefully rubbed the nose of the larger one with his thumb. "If you weren't so stupid, I wouldn't have to be sarcastic."

"If you weren't so sarcastic, I wouldn't have to be so condescending." Neara stuck her tongue out at him. "You're not the one who figured out how to make rice flour."

"I also didn't almost get my head crushed in by routine ice fall, now did I?"

"Shut up."

"No, you shut up."

"Super comeback, Sarcasm King."

"I think Neara is right!"

"Shut up, Theo. Following her lead like a duckling won't make her like you."

"I'm going to hunt."

"Winston, we're sorry, come back."

Unfortunately for the quiet-loving Winston, the oppressive storm failed to dampen the fighting spirits of Neara and Orson, who were at each other's throats daily. If they weren't arguing about the children, it was about food or the fireplace, or firewood, or Theo, who frequently inserted himself into their spats.

"Look, all I'm saying is Neara has a point. You shouldn't expect her to go vegetarian just because you are."

"Nobody is talking about that, Theo, get off your high tree." Orson rolled his eyes and pointed a finger at him. "And anyway, nobody cares that she eats meat. All I said was that it's disgusting that she does it in front of me."

"Well, we're married, so you're going to have to get used to it."

"Would you eat our child?" He snagged one of the passing lambs and held it up, its legs thrashing wildly.

"Of course not, you idiot. I have to eat meat to survive, and you and I both know wild animals aren't the same as beastmen."

"What if you couldn't tell the difference?"