BROVISH
Iwoke to quiet.
No soft trill from the foot of the bed. No small warm weight launching herself at my shoulder the second I sat up.
Sofia had slept at Laina’s.
For the first time, my shoulder was empty when I stood, but it didn’t feel like something was missing. It felt like watching a creature I’d kept safe find its true home. My emberkit was building a nest elsewhere, and a part of me was building something beside her, something I didn’t yet have kingdom- or surface-words for.
I went through my morning on habit. Stove on. Kettle filled. I took two mugs down from the shelf before the water boiled, set two spoons beside them, and only realized what I’d done when I reached for the tea tin.
I looked at the extra mug a long time, but I didn’t put it back.
The league yard was cool and bright, the kind of morning where the pines smelled sharp and clean. I crossed to the main building and stepped inside.
Traig had already stripped the supply room bare and turned the contents into a maze of labeled piles. He stood in the middle of it with his tablet, his jaw tight, and his hair tied back.
Drogar was moving boxes from the pile labeledanimal treatsto the one labeledliquids for dehydrationbecause, as he explained without stopping to take a breath, “Sometimes the dehydrated creatures will perk up if they have a treat.”
“You’re not helping,” Traig said, not looking up.
“I’m increasing efficiency by combining categories that are friends.”
“Treats and liquids are not friends.”
“They could be.”
“Please stop touching things.”
I stepped over a stack of pre-cut bandanas we put on the creatures when they went to their new homes. “Morning.”
“What’s good about it?”
“Traig got a letter from his parents,” Drogar said in a somber tone.
I’d grown up in a jumble of a home with seven brothers. Though it was chaotic all the time, our parents adored us.
Traig grew up an only orcling. His parents had not adored him.
We became brothers when we built this rescue, because we not only rescued creatures from the orc kingdom, but we’d also rescued each other.
“Did you burn it?” I asked.
Traig’s eyes flicked toward my shoulder. “Where’s the emberkit?”
“With Laina.”
I’d speak to him about it later, when Drogar wasn’t around.
“We’ll need to expand the human-scale adjustments sooner. Additional fire safe vents in her office, a second low sink in the bay, and door levers instead of knobs for when her hands are occupied. Also a perch installed that doesn’t block the return air.”
Drogar abandoned his box in the doorway and held up a ratty paperback novel with a human couple on the cover, the woman wearing very little clothing, the male even less. Drogar adored them. “I have some questions about human courtship. Acts of kindness for your intended seem to be quite common. Jewelry. Flowers. Or doing something nice for her that’s more subtle.” His frown grew. “You could hunt for her.”
“For Laina?”
“Unless there’s another woman you prefer to hunt for. Or a male.”
“I hadn’t considered hunting for anyone yet.”
