Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 107: brought to you by a bomb shelter

My poor cat is being used as a pretend anti-aerial gun by my seven-year-old right now. It's amazing how he just puts up with it. Anyway, story time! Snake babies. Fighting spouses. Angry spouses! And one angry to-be spouse making his spot in the world--who has spots! Dang, I wanna pet some manly kitty ears. But my cat's had his nards chopped, so....

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The roof took a considerable amount of time to finish, what with finding tar and putting all the shells right. Then there was hammering in the window shutters, which took a considerable amount more effort and care so that the rock wouldn't complete crack, but, according to Curtis, animal hide wouldn't do as the storms in this area could have terrible winds that would make shreds out of animal skins. It was also why he had instructed the foundation of the house be built deep in the ground, so that the walls would be half-submerged in earth. There were stairs leading down to the front door. This was to insure that we'd be protected should these great storms come.

A god must have been looking out for them, for they had no sooner finished the last window shutter and door when one such great storm swooped in.

Luckily, the boys had been having fun practicing making dens around the property so they had somewhere to curl up, though they gave Curtis very sad puppy eyes when he told them to endure outside. That being said, their dens ended up failing as the rain flooded them, and, one by one, soggy snake boys came to the door to pitifully putter to Shay.

"It's almost night," said Shay. "Wouldn't it be okay to let them in?"

"How will they learn how to endure a storm if they rely on someone else's efforts to be safe from it?"

"Didn't they help build the house too?"

Curtis winced. He couldn't deny that.

Thus, the main living room, which Curtis had designed extra large, still got a bit crowded as six large and wet juvenile snakes piled in and tried to make their own space. With a snap from their father they piled into a corner ontop of each other, making a literal mountain of red scales. Lazy Boi was the last to join the pile, his head lingering around her hips. The only reason he hadn't run away earlier was because Shay had readily reacted to his impolorings for affections. Curtis had to smack the boy's tail with his own since Lazy Boi's head had been being held and patted by his mother.

"Don't try me," his hissed.

So, soon, Lazy Boi joined the pile.

The first fire was built into the fireplace, which was large enough for Shay to sleep in laid out if she wanted too. Parker and Harvey set to work getting the stone pot in place for rice and another for fish broth. Harvey had found some particularly fat root veggies the other day that looked like a carrot and a potato had a mutated, splayed finger baby, though they had a sweet smelling insides.

Miur had also been pushed to a corner, and Parker would have too had he not claim the title of best cook in the house. The arrangement was only temporary, as both Curtis and Ryan insisted the two guardians make their own shelters outside the walls of the main house. But since they'd given all their time to building the main house, they hadn't gotten to their own yet.

The girls did a fair bit of dancing around the fire in the new fireplace before scattering to their new room. The howling wind and rattling window shutters excited them, and every boom of thunder would an illicit an excited shriek which would set all the kitty-cat ear males wincing with hands over their heads.

"Girls," Ryan moaned. "Please, enough with the screaming."

Curtis was the one who managed to make them stop finally, saying he'd lock them in their room and use the mountain of boy snakes to block the doorway.