Chapter Two

"Yay!"

I went over to the kitchen and started making supper. Drake and Skye were busy scribbling notes down on pieces of paper and filling in the spaces on the pages. The smell of the food wafted around the kitchen. I divided up the meal into three separate bowls and put them on to the table. They put down their homework started eating.

"Skye where are your cats? Was she able to catch anything today?"

"She's upstairs with the kittens. She has caught two birds and a mouse today."

"Did you sell the feathers, grind the bones, and store the mouse hide?"

"Yeah, we sold the feathers and bone powder for four entire coins and cleaned up the mouse hide and then added it to the stockpile upstairs. We spent the three coins to buy you more string though because we saw you were running out of it though. We hope you are not mad."

"Why would I be mad? You helped me and did what you thought would benefit us all, and it will. Thank you for helping me."

Skye whispered something to Drake and Drake shot him an irritated look and then went back to eating what remained of his supper.

When supper was over the sky was almost black and the moon was out. Then in the candlelight, I helped them finish their homework.

"Do your shoes have holes in them yet?"

"My shoes don't but Skye's shoes do although he won't ever admit it."

"My shoes are fine the do not need fixing!"

"Skye where are your shoes? Let me see them please."

Skye reluctantly went into the other room and then brought his shoes back.

"Did you feed her today," I asked as I took the shoes from him and looked them over.

"Yeah, she got the rest of the birds and mouse."

"That's good, make sure you keep her well-fed right now when she's caring for her kittens and feels like she needs to hunt more so she can teach them how to hunt."

The shoes had a few small holes scattered across them. They looked like they could be easily fixed up.

"You two get ready for bed so you will be ready for school tomorrow."

They went into their room while I put the shoes upstairs for fixing. Blanche was sitting at the top of the small stairs with her white fur glowing and her amber eyes gleaming in the darkness.

"Hello Blanche, how are your kittens doing today," I said as I pet the back of her ears. She meowed back in reply showing her sharp teeth. Suddenly Ember leaped out from behind her and pounced on to Blanche's tail. Ember's black fur was nearly invisible with only his bright green eyes giving him away in the night.

Blanche's ears swiveled towards the other room and she suddenly turned and went into the other room with Ember following right behind her. I went in with them and there the other two kittens were playing with each other in an empty box. I opened one of the boxes with the sewing material and starting fixing up the shoes with the mouse hide.

The shoes got mended fast and by the time they were done Blanche was sending her kittens off to bed. Before going hunting. Then I went back downstairs and put the newly mended shoes by the door with the two other pairs of shoes. I went in to check on Drake and Skye and they were both already in the bed they shared snoring in sync together.

I quietly turned off the lights and then went upstairs and got ready for bed. The small bed was stiff and the blankets were small but it was home to me.

***

I woke up with the light coming through the broken window and Blanche sitting on my stomach and pawing at my face with a dead rat in her mouth with her ears flicking in irritation. "You have to sleep sixteen hours a day so don't give me that look and I didn't ask for a rat in my face to start the day but thanks anyway, I guess." I slowly sat up giving her plenty of time to get off. She jumped to the ground and headed off to show her kittens the rat and whatever else she had managed to catch in the night.

I got up and got dressed and then went to check on the kittens. They were all nestled up in the box together. The box was surrounded by all sorts of dead animals from rabbits and lizards to mice and sparrows. "Blanche were we all asleep for a few days or did a lot of animals just throw themselves at you?"

I continued down the stairs and checked on my brothers. They were still asleep in their bed snoring loud enough to wake the dead. I went into the kitchen and to my shock, there was a rabbit on the table. I quickly put the rabbit upstairs and then started making omelets.

Once the omelets were done I woke up Drake and Skye. They could smell the omelets and they got dressed as fast as they could. I went upstairs to check on the cats. The kittens were now bouncing around and playing with all the carcasses. Balanche was watching them from her perch on top of the boxes.

I went back downstairs and the twins were already at the table eating. When we were done I started washing all the dishes.

"Skye, Drake I'm going to work can you clean the animals that Balanche brought back over the course of the night?"

"After that, we are going to get our ice cream as you promised, right?"

"Right after lunch, we will go get ice cream together. I'll be back in about three to five hours."

"Bye, we'll see you when you get home from work. If we have any extra time we'll see if we can catch anything at the docks."