44
The idea of attending your monotonous evening job at the laundry after the extraordinary events of the past twenty-four hours seems almost laughably absurd, but at this point you'd still rather not draw too much attention.
Gotta keep up the charade that everything's normal, you think to yourself. At least there's some entertainment tonight to keep my mind off of things.
You almost forgot about tonight's play, an event that you've been excited about for weeks!
You're already halfway to the laundry when you remember that you promised to swap jobs with Tiva tonight if you lost her challenge climbing the ropes onto the bridge. Despite everything that's happened, you know very well that Tiva will never forget winning a bet.
You sigh and change direction, dragging your feet on the way to Razor's metal shop, inwardly groaning at the idea of even a few hours' physical labor in the sweltering heat.
Razor rolls her eyes when you tell her that Tiva swapped duties with you for the evening, but she doesn't offer complaint, simply pointing you down to the belt to work with Haken's crew.
A large muscle-bound brute of a wolf, Haken is popular with other adults, but he's never been overly friendly with you. He rumbles a low growl when he sees you approach instead of Tiva.
"It's just like her to skip out on hard work and leave me with a replacement like you," he huffs. "I don't suppose you have any metal-shaping experience?"
You shake your head, and Haken groans. "Of course not. That would be too convenient, wouldn't it? What skills do you bring to the table, little wolf?"
You tell Haken that…