Defekt

1: Sparked to Blazing

     Moonlitsilver stood for a moment to stretch, a cool breeze ruffling her fur. She pulled her skirt up higher, holding in it the little grains she had been picking up from the dirt after harvest. Her back ached, though not as much as she made it out to be. At this point, she was too tired to continue reminding herself it was a useful task that might save a few lives from starvation, especially with the government cracking down and taking bigger and bigger chunks out of the fruits of peasant labor. 

     "Moonlitsilver Linh!!" the sound of the creaking door hit her ears, a thud, and a canine's yelp. 

    "Mooom!" came the disgruntled whine from the doorway. 

    The little lynxmaid froze, her fur prickling.

   "What the absolute HELL are you doing standing up?! Get back to work! Except this pathetic excuse of a shack is a wreck and you'd best get your sad ass in here before I leave you out here for the winter!" 

   She sighed, said nothing, and bent again, picking up a few more loose grains as she made her way to the door.

  "Yes, mama..." she muttered, "though I don't see Ambien doing any work around here...he's been sleeping in the doorway since around noon, he didn't get up when everyone else did to switch the shifts..." 

  Sendra Winterbane, a stocky, thick furred lynx, smacked Moonlitsilver on the back of the head as she passed, "Just get all that damn grain put away, take it out to the communal stores, and get the hell in here to do your work or you aren't sharing in any damn bread." 

    "But, Ambie--"

   "He works!!" 

   "Yeah. once in awhile he traipses into town, sings a ditty, and comes home. What of it?" she grumbled to herself, but trudged in anyhow to do as told. 

   Marinia Deux had been demanding more and more of what the peasants produced, though they were not the only victims. Merchants had less and less freedom over their work as well. Moonlitsilver sometimes understood why her mother was always so biting and cold, other times she did not. As of now, she just wanted to sleep and sleep a long, long time. 

   Sendra just kept grumbling to herself about how she was cheated out everything the Keiser had promised, kept muttering she would have been better off joining up with Boskofnia or not joining up with a military at all. 

  "...oh, and sweep the goddamn floor..." was the last mutter as Moonlitsilver wandered past, lowered her ears, and reluctantly did as told. 

  It was getting late. Moonlitsilver was checking through things to be sure all was in order, that there was nothing left to be complained about. Finally, finally she could just rest. The constant bending from gleaning earlier in the day was now starting to catch up, and she wondered why she had even been wincing beforehand. Now was a better time for that sort of response. Sighing to herself, she felt all was in order and done and she could take a tiny piece of bread and head to sleep. 

    "What the FUCK--"

   She froze before she could lay down. The little 'doorway' was soon blocked out by a stout figure.

  "Moonlitsilver, what the absolute FUCK is going on here? What did you do?? Did you take it and throw it on your way to the grain stores?!" 

  Fur prickling, she went from half asleep to sharp faster than ever, "Wh-what?" she stuttered. 

 "This!!" a bottle came flying past her face and smashed against the back wall. Sendra was heaving with fury, her fur all on end, ears flat back and eyes wild, "Who the hell thought they could take my fucking mead?!"