Princess Lady’s siren wail roused Dite from a rose-apple wine-drenched sleep, pulling her to sit up on an elbow as her ears strained against the sound of steady rain and ocean waves. She thought for a moment that another raccoon had come in through the window to eat her dried fruits. And something did rifle in her kitchen, but in a clandestine sort of way reserved for humans and their ilk.
She gathered her knit shawl around herself, breezing into the kitchen in a cloud of sleep-stained cheeks and messy curls. A large figure—naked as a newborn—hunched over her dry storage cabinet and clutching one of her fresh bread loaves on his hand.
“What are you doing?” she hissed, rapping on his back with the sharp on her knuckles, like knocking a door. “At this hour? Naked, in my kitchen? Stop it, Lady,” she said, kicking the cat from between her skirts with a delicate foot. “You look like a maniac, you know. Although I guess lunatic would be a better term,” she said pointedly. “You’ve tracked mud everywhere. Get in the bath, and then clean your mess up. Some of the boys who visit left behind some clothes, I’ll see if I can’t find some that fit you. And an aconitum reduction,” she added, noting the too-long teeth and ears still plaguing him. “To nudge the process in the right direction. And you’ve blood all over your mouth! You better not have gotten into my swans or bunnies in your fit, Bigby. I’ll never forgive you, I mean it.”
He flinched at the strike she delivered to his shoulders, the touch unexpected, though she wasn’t. He’d heard her approach, on her soft-worn slippers, even with her feather-light footfalls. Even her reproach was sweet, delivered smartly with a timbre as dulcet as little bells chiming in chorus.
“Nice to see you too, Dite,” he said, a little jovially, as he tore another morsel of bread from the heel in his hand and popped it in is mouth. “Your animals are fine. Worse threat they face today is the thunder.”
“Broke free of my ropes this time,” he told her, holding up is hemp-burned wrists, as if in proof. “There’s a witcher in town, so I cant risk walking back to the village looking like a mess. So clothes would be great. A bath, even greater.”
“Aconitum still gonna work?” he asked, padding towards the direction of her privy. “I thought I had to take it before the moonbright. And even then, you always charged me an arm and a leg for it. You feeling generous today or something?” He sniffed the air quickly and discerned a newer scent. “Maybe someone inspired your good good today?”
kianamaiart
turnnoffyourmind
annaxmalina
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