A Curious Fleet: Shard/Freeta
#3 of A Curious Fleet
Promotion was not living up to Shard's expectations. Angrily, he wiped droplets of water from his headfur and let his tongue hang out, hoping to ease the discomfort of the sticky-hot room, and hacked with more force than necessary at the carrots beneath his knife. Freeta shook her own head and tipped the contents of her freshly boiled kettle into the funnel, where it hissed into the long copper pipes between the vegetable beds. The myriad tiny diamonds of glass in the ceiling and windows focused the weak sunlight and the steam filling the air made the room feel like the inside of a boiling pot, warm enough that no frost formed on the outsides of the windows. He scooped the chopped vegetables into the basin, and Freeta held the door for him.
The room next door was, if anything, even hotter, but at least it was dry. The foxes' fur steamed, and they shook themselves, then let the heavy basin drop to the floor with a loud thunk. The head of the tiny tortoise, which had peeked out when it heard the door opening, shrank back into its shell, and Shard restrained himself from kicking it, not wanting either a broken footpaw or an angry wolverine to walk in. Freeta wrapped thick cloths around her paws and knelt to rearrange the rocks, moving cooler ones towards the charcoal-burning braziers. Shard eyed the fur and straw padding nailed up on the walls for insulation.
"Tell me, might a fire be accidentally started here? The room is stone, but with no windows 'twould drink up all the air quite rapidly..."
"I would try not to," Freeta said, stretching and cracking her knuckles. "'Tisn't worth it. If we can't be trusted with the Stone, we shan't be trusted at all." She tipped the basin onto its side, letting the vegetables spill out, and waved a lettuce leaf in front of the tortoise's nose. "Come on, little Stone, eat up and get fat and mayhap then thou'll realise what a trial it is to be in this heat."
Shard chuckled, and coughed as his dry throat stung. "I will never know how a wolverine can stand it, their fur's thicker than ours... No matter, love," he whispered, smiling wickedly as he helped her up. "We shall get the Stone fat and one day, I promise, we'll stew him in his own shell."
Freeta entwined her tail with his. "Of course we shall."