AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fox pulls a face at his brother. “You’re serious. You would rather have carrots than meat? That is disgusting.”
“It’s not disgusting,” Scratch murmurs. “It’s all food.”
“Speak for yourself,” Fox mutters, before looking at Lita.
He moves closer to our mate. “What would you like for dinner?”
I watch her reading his lips, and I wish she could read mine.
She smiles. “Anything that is ready to be cooked. I don’t know how to prepare meats.”
Nothing alive, then. I don’t fault her for not knowing. She hasn’t lived the same life that we have.
I break the lock on the barn, and step inside. The sounds and smells of the animals stored inside are strong but not unpleasant. My brothers wander in behind me and Fox is instantly enthused, gasping when we hear a loud moo.
“That is a cow, correct?” he asks me.
“It is a cow, yes.”
“I have never tasted cow,” he murmurs.
“And you will not taste cow tonight,” I tell him, watching his face fall.
“What?” he asks. “Why not?”
“We must find prepared meats for Lita.”
I leave Fox grumbling to himself as I move past the stalls of cows and sheep.
There are chickens in pens beyond the stalls, and there are a few sealed off rooms beyond that.
Lita moves to the side of one of the stalls. She leans in and picks up an egg.
“I can make something with these,” she tells us.
“You can?” Fox asks, sounding astonished.
She nods at his shocked face and looks around.
There are baskets on a shelf next to the other pen.
She picks one up and puts the egg in it.
Then she finds another couple of unguarded eggs close to the edges of the pen.
“I will check these rooms back here,” I tell everyone.
“I will come with you,” Scratch volunteers.
I lead the way and do not bother trying the door for the first room when I look in the window. It looks like a room where animals are killed. The smell of death is clinging to the air here, and it does not look like the room contains anything other than tiled walls and a floor with a drainage system.
I shake my head at Scratch, and we move on to the middle room.
It looks exactly the same as the first.
Our last hope lies behind the final door.
There’s a humming sound coming from the room on approach. Scratch slows down when we hear it, but I am relieved when I see the large counter and what looks to be a few refrigeration units at the back of the room. This must be where they store meats that have been prepared for consumption.
