Rasil was absolutely certain that life could be a lot better than it was. He wasn't unhappy, not really, but he didn't know if he was really happy, either. He didn't exactly want for anything, but he figured he could certainly do without a few things!

"You useless, worthless, brainless--!"

Or, really, without one thing, because without that one thing, everything else he didn't like would probably change for the better.

"How many times-- don't eat-- rrrrr!"

Rasil reluctantly spat out his current treasure, a large copper piece he'd been gnawing on for the past hour. He enjoyed the metallic taste, and though he knew it would choke him if he tried to swallow it, he could enjoy it without killing himself just be sucking or chewing on it. It did, after all, fit inside his mouth well enough. That didn't entirely appease Keshnarmeynee, however, as he knew it wouldn't. She just kept inarticulately stammering and growling through her fury. He hated when she did that; her growls tended to throw off how he perceived her and the rest of the room.

"It's not as if it's even an expensive coin," he muttered under his breath. He'd barely escaped with his life the one time he'd sampled a gold coin he'd stealthily slipped from the latest stack she'd brought home from wherever she got their money. Copper tasted better, anyway, he'd decided, but it had been a novelty to chew on the soft gold. He might even have managed to gnaw off enough to swallow, if he'd had the time.

Unfortunately, he hadn't muttered quite soft enough, and Kesh heard him. "THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" she roared, and he cringed back and down, afraid of being spat on as much as of what she might intentionally do in her temper. He wished mightily that Gibelettes or Verklei had been the one to find him with his current chew-toy, because they didn't yell so much-- or even better, Iszgih, because he'd forget what he'd been saying mid-scold and usually forget to take away whatever he'd been chewing on, to boot!

Thankfully, their underground abode wasn't all that big, and nobody could not hear Kesh in a temper. ::Oh, Keshna, he's not hurting anything,:: Verklei sent, poking her head in.

"He needs. To stop. Eating things!" Kesh ground out, obviously furious and even more obviously trying to keep a tether on her formidable temper.

"But how will I know what they taste like if I don't try them?" he protested, feeling like he was being perfectly reasonable.

"Because you're not supposed to eat them!" Kesh snarled. "Nothing you manage to put in your mouth is even for eating!"

"That's not true, or I'da starved by now!" he countered, then hunched down again, throwing his wing-arms over his head in a vain attempt at protecting himself, at her wordless roar. His whole world vibrated with it, disorienting him, and he squeezed his eyes shut to cut off the worst of it. Somehow, he always managed to make her angrier when he spoke, but he just couldn't help himself, sometimes.

"Stop it!"

He opened one eye cautiously as the roar cut off into mere growling, which wasn't quite as bad. Besides, something was blocking the worst of it-- Giblettes! He lunged forward to cling to her leg, tempted to cry, "My hero!" but he thought that would probably not help him any. But she was. While something about him always managed to make Kesh mad at him, something about him always managed to make Giblettes mad at Kesh. More often than not, it was her who stood up for him against the angry caetran.

"He's not hurting anything! Just leave him alone!"

"Then you keep him away from the money!" Kesh countered with another snarl. "I get enough trouble with clipped coins without him adding more notches!"

Rasil was tempted to protest that he really couldn't chip the copper coins-- his teeth, though tougher than many others' because of his tendency to chew on anything he could get them around, weren't that good-- for once he kept his mouth shut. He even managed not to nibble on Giblettes's scales out of sheer nervousness, though it took an effort. She probably wouldn't have been pleased. Besides, she was hunching now, much the way he had. Giblettes, he'd figured out, wasn't exactly brave, but she stood up for him and his sister, anyway. Since he wasn't the bravest thing around, either, he knew how she felt-- he stood up for his sister, when Kesh yelled at her, as much due to Giblettes's example as because Zourin needed defending. Zourin, after all, was probably the most cowardly thing he'd ever met!

Somehow, Giblettes managed to back the two of them out of the confrontation-- with a promise on his part that he'd never chew on her coins again, though he didn't know if he'd remember to keep it in the future-- at last. He slid off her hind leg as the caetran turned and stalked away, and Giblettes sagged back against the wall.

"Thanks," he mumbled. Whether or not he respected her or appreciated her help against Kesh, it was still embarrassing to be rescued all the time.

"Don't mention it," Giblettes sighed. "Now-- go keep your sister company. And try-- please try-- not to eat anything?"

"I'll try," he said in a small voice, feeling bad because he knew he would forget as soon as something that looked tasty caught his eye, and even though he didn't see anything wrong with sampling it, it kept getting Giblettes in trouble. That wasn't very nice of him, but he couldn't help it. He'd tried, and failed. Verklei had told him once, when he complained to her about it, that he was too young to expect great feats of willpower, but he told himself she didn't really know how it worked, with him.

Well, at least he wasn't as bad as Zourin. He found her sitting in the bathtub, standing under a water-spell and shuddering. She didn't trust the actual, mechanical-magical plumbing system that was installed-- it had to go through all those pipes, after all, which could have all sorts of dirt or bacteria on them-- so Giblettes had purchased her a spell for creating water on the spot. "What got you dirty, this time?" he asked with a smirk, sitting down.

::I accidentally stepped on a spider,:: she said tightly, with her mind rather than her mouth, since if she used her mouth she might swallow water. Even magical water could possibly have germs, after all, even though it was at least better than piped-in water. It had been absolutely impossible to live with her before they'd moved into this "state of the art", daemon-enhanced cave system. ::It was all-- all-- gooey,:: she finished with another shudder.

"So you're washing everywhere, even though it was just your paw that got gooey," Rasil commented. He loved picking on her-- brothers always picked on their sisters, so he was just following in the grand tradition! The fact that she was so wonderfully easy to pick on wasn't his fault. He'd learned not to get her too dirty, though: Giblettes tended to yell at him when he threw his sister into true hysterics. After a few times dealing with the both of them-- and an enraged Kesh yelling about the noise, for that matter-- after he'd lobbed dirt or, worse, animal manure at her had been enough to cure him of that particular trick.

Verbal picking, however, was fair game.

Zourin glared at him. ::You have no idea how quickly germs spread, do you?::

"You've only told me a hundred times," he answered cheerfully, but after a moment he took pity on her and hefted a bar of soap with one wing-paw. "Want me to get between your shoulders for you?"

::No! No, no, that's okay-- Giblettes will do it. She'll be back in a minute, she promised she would.::

Rasil scowled at her. "Just trying to help."

::If you kept yourself cleaner, maybe I'd even let you!::

"How much cleaner do I need to be!" he laughed, and, as much to annoy her as because he'd not tried this particular bar yet, he popped the soap bar into his mouth.

It wasn't really all that tasty, but Zourin's squeal of "Rasil, that's so gross!!" was worth it. He spat it out into the bathtub and watched her dance from foot to foot to avoid it, eying it warily.

"Dirty soap!" he laughed, feeling bubbles foam up around his teeth and swallowing them gleefully.

"You're so gross!" Zourin exclaimed, pointedly turning her back on him and hunching under the flow of water. Still snickering, he waltzed out the door again, leaving her to her soap and her sulk.

Chapter Six

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