The Book of Many People

Bathtime With A Side of Awkwardness

Note: This chapter is possibly unfinished. I sort of lost the feel for it at the end, but there still seems to be something I can tack on there that'll make it better. I may or may not revisit this in the future. For now, however, I'll just continue writing the next segment. We haven't seen Hallow or Rhyme in a while... *dignifiedly sips from the souls of my enemies*

Celestar had a lot of rather large water containers. The largest one seemed to be something he'd discovered entirely by accident, and decided to patch up for no particular reason at all. It sat outside by the lake, gathering leaves and twigs and whatever else blew through the air, generally not being very useful, unless one wanted a particularly large pile of things you could just scrape off the ground anyways.
It was pretty much a giant barrel that had been sawed in half. There were a few holes in the bottom, which Celestar had attempted to fix with crude wooden boards, and it seemed that he had largely succeeded. Pitch was slathered between the cracks of the entire thing, and the inside seemed to be lined with hardened leather.
After cleaning the tub out, Yute had helped Foss fill it with buckets of hot water. Yute was, by now, reasonably sure it was waterproof.
"I think that's all we're going to need," said Foss, as they dumped what was probably going to be the last kettleful of steaming hot water into the tub.
Yute nodded. "I agree." He tested the water with a finger and smiled. "It's nice and hot!"
Foss grinned. "I hope Vraide and Tenn are done with whatever they were doing with the soap. I can't wait to get in this!"
They shared a moment of happiness, standing together, hands braced on the edge of the enormous tub (it was more than big enough to fit all of them, plus Celestar and Kaia and Lore), basking in the warm blue light of the sun.
All of a sudden, Tenn stormed past them, a shadow on his features.
Yute looked after him and frowned. "I wonder what happened?"
Foss shrugged and made a face. "I don't know. I guess we'll find out soon, though. Come on, let's take this back to Brith and tell him he's done."
Yute nodded, and they hefted the kettle up to deliver to Brith.
When they got to the grumpy cook, the first thing Yute noticed was the sad, grim expression on his stubbly face.
"Hey, Brith, what's wrong?" He asked.
"None of yours, Yutafrey," Brith growled in a warning tone.
Yute blinked. He wasn't used to Brith being this hostile, not towards him. He and Tenn and Brith had been together the longest. Briteharn could sometimes get snappy with Lore, Foss, and Kaia, but he never barked at Yute.
"He was just being considerate," said Foss in a mild tone. Yute knew that mild tone; it was a prelude to explosive anger.
"Hey, Foss, Brith is just upset," he said gently. "Don't worry about it."
Foss frowned, but made no further comment on the matter. He did, however, inform Brith that they needed no more water. The grizzled cook nodded and called for Vraide.
Vraide walked out of the hut carrying a lot of bottles of soap, by himself.
"I thought Tenn was helping you," blurted Foss, before he could remember the events of the past few minutes.
Together, the two of them took the heavy bottles from Vraide's hands, leaving him with a manageable amount. Brith had gone to gather Celestar's equivalent of towels.
Smiling gratefully, Vraide said, "Thank you, Foss, Yute."
"You're welcome," said Yute. "Hey, Vraide, whatever did happen to Tenn? Foss and I just saw him storm by us without even a hello."
"Yeah," said Foss. "Does it have something to do with how grumpy Brith is? I mean, he's not usually the most cheerful of people, but this is a little outside the normal range of surly."
Vraide heaved a sigh. "You know how Briteharn feels about his beard."
For Yute, that answered his armload of questions. For Foss, not so much. Yute had known Brith long enough to understand his problem with his more-human-than-most heritage, but Foss had barely been around him long enough to know his full name.
Foss looked to Yute. "What's going on?"
"I'll explain later," said Yute. "First, let's get clean. I don't want this grime on me a second longer than it has to be!"
"I hear you," agreed Foss.
Being generally faster, Yute went after Tenn while Foss went to fetch Brith and Vraide. They retrieved their friends, and all five of them got into the enormous tub, making various noises of contentment as they sank into the hot water.
"Not that I'm complaining or anything," said Tenn, "but why in Night's name does Celestar have such a large tub?"
"I have no idea," said Vraide. "Judging from what I've seen in his storage, I'm guessing he found it, liked it, and lugged it here. He seems to have done a lot of that."
It occurred to Yute that Celestar might not appreciate them snooping through his belongings. "Hey, Vraide," he asked, "Do you think Celestar will be upset with us for using his things?"
"I'd thought about that, too," said Vraide. "But honestly? I don't think so. He seemed like someone willing to share."
Foss asked Vraide about something. Yute wasn't really sure what; he'd stopped listening. Instead, he'd become aware that Tenn and Brith hadn't said a single word to each other. Usually when Tenn got angry, it was because something had made Brith angry, and he was angry that Brith had to be angry. It was now becoming increasingly clear that Tenn was actually upset with Brith.
How? Why? Brith must have screwed up extraordinarily to earn this ire from his best friend. Tenn wasn't the sort that got angry at the drop of a hat; that was Foss, and Brith, if the right thing came up.
Yute shook his head and continued washing himself, scraping decades' worth of accumulated grime off his skin. Whatever was going on, it was between Tenn and Brith, and it wasn't his place to interfere.