Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 82: brought to you by single parenting

Because it takes two to tango, two to deal with the aftermaths of the tango, and two to get enough naps in when the children of said tango bring the cold bug into the house, or for any other reason, really. Parenting, while makes life worth it, is also freaking tiring. But, then, life's tiring, ain't it?

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Three little girls ran around in her dreams, giggling as they dodged the coils of their brothers in a peculiar sort of hopscotch game they'd come up with. Lazy Boy napped in the sun nearby, having grown too large for his sisters to comfortably leap over.

"I told him to leave," said Curtis from where he sewed in the shadows, more to keep his hands busy than out of necessity. She wasn't here, but his hands had memorized her shape, and they moved almost without his attention to drape her figure in his mind's eye.

Ryan, laid beside him with his chin on his paws, snorted. His back leg was still healing from the gnarled snare trap the rabbits had set up when he ran after Shay. They had coated the string in tar and something knifelike, so the more he struggled the more flesh had torn away, fed through by his own strength. Harvey had had to go in afterwards to forcefully tie his tendon back into place on his bone, just in hopes of healing it. Only heavy doses of a sleep drug on his part managed to keep Ryan down this long so it would heal at all.

Even now, he only listened to Curtis with half a mind, his muddled dreams far away in the mountains with his wife.

"I gave him today. If he's not gone by tonight..." Curtis sighed heavily, his hands falling into his lap. "But what would I tell Shay? She's so soft on them..."

"She'd understand..." Ryan mumbled. "She understands."

"She tries to," said Curtis. "I don't want to have to make her try. She tries so hard as it is."

A slow, short rumble ran through Ryan. "To make them happy."

"I'm truly talented that I can understand you at all, you idiot cat. You should be grateful." He picked up the dress again, one done with all the colors of her daughters skirts of pale yellow, sky blue, and green.

Ryan mumbled on. "Make them happy."

"Are you talking about the children?"

"Duh. Stupid snake."

Curtis just rolled his eyes. "If it was up to me I'd just let you run your leg off and die."

"At least I can handle the cold without falling asleep."

It was the clearest he had spoken yet and it made Curtis stiffen.

True. Curtis would have already been up and over the mountain if it weren't for his cold-blooded nature. He had already made it three-quarters of the way up when he blacked out from the cold, which was punishing even on the most well-suited of beastmen. Only Muir had been able to go high enough to drag him back, and he only did so because Parker and Harvey threatened to tell Shay if he didn't, and when he did every feather of his wings had crystalized with ice.

Curtis had tried to find a way around, tugged forward by his beastmark on Shay's body. But all around her had been steep, merciless mountain. The rabbits probably had a hideaway in there, led to by burrows, but until he found them, it was the only way.

Leaving only Ryan as their best bet to bear through the cold and lack of air of the mountains.

If only his leg would damn heal. Which it would if he would just stay still.

Knowing how his words affected him, Ryan gave a croaky panther laugh and rolled onto his stomach, paws in the air. The only reason Curtis understood his cat language at all was due to his experience in the forest. He'd known some panthers in his younger age and had dealings with them before they'd been killed off.