Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 30: brought to you by writhing

Grow up time, as the majority of the characters stop mooching off of Winston-the-Man-Cake and get their own house! So take off the training diapers and pull on the big kid pants, gonna talk...about...aw shucks, I don't wanna grow up. Oh, and bugs. Because this is the wild and we haven't seen enough of them.

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The temporary home, as Curtis had found, turned out to be one of the empty stone houses, though this one had been more forgotten than most. Unlike Neara's, which had been dusty but ready to move in, this one's roof had caved in and the door was missing. It was a basic large square, with the usual stone walls of closely fitted square blocks. Vines had had their way with it till the walls looked half made of greenery rather than stone, and a monstrous maple tree hung its lowest branches just feet above where the steepled roof used to be.

Shay, who hadn't had high expectations in the first place, just said, "Parker says it's going to rain a lot tonight."

"I've already set up a temporary roof in the back," said Curtis. "Come see, and if you're not satisfied we can always find another. But the closest empty home to your friend is quite a ways away."

"I'm surprised the walls are still standing." Shay stepped through the ancient doorway, brushing her fingers on a carpet-like patch of moss on the frame as she did so.

"Yes, the building techniques of the ancestors were impressive. The buildings of the City of Beasts were here long before the City itself was established."

What remained of the roof cast the main room into darkness. Moss grew in the corners and spiderwebs glistened in the square of evening light from the west window. The firepit still had blackened remains, though ferns had grown there over time.

Curtis took the lead into the back room, which, unlike the front room, had already been completely cleared of critters and moss. The light from the western window revealed a roof of large, green leaves and branches woven together and a thick, grass nest underneath. The grass had been covered with a large bear skin, of which Shay only had ideas as to how he found.

"I used the grass similar to the one back at your friend's home," he said. "And I covered my scent about the room to keep any bugs out."

"It's big," Shay said softly. "A big bedroom, I mean. It's nearly as large as the main room."

"The main bedrooms usually are, so that all the female's males may fit." She didn't miss the frown in his eyes. "I would prefer a home with multiple rooms if that were the case, but seeing as it is just us..."

The dying sunlight from the window suddenly faded to gray. Shay glanced outside to see stormclouds had reached the orange remains of the horizon.

"If the roof does not hold, I can dig us a den," said Curtis. "I didn't before because you asked for stone."

"You can clean stone and bugs can't dig through stone, Curtis," she said before reminding herself that she was dealing with a snake man who had lived on his own all his life. "You saw how easily I got sick, right? Cleanliness is important to prevent that and it will be even more important when babies come along."

Curtis slipped past her into the room. "Pity. Earth holds heat and cool better."

"Maybe you could make a den and then pave the inside with stone."

He put a knuckle to his chin. "Actually, that's..." He turned to her. "Would that please you?"

Well, she'd really like a little victorian cottage, but seeing as they had no wood polishes that she knew of--wait, pine needles...