Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 141: brought to you by bedtime stories

Previously, on Yugioh!...probably thought you'd never hear that again. BUT today on "Dem Babeh Sneks": Daddy Snek obliges the baby sneks with a grand tale of his adventures with the deep sea merfolk! And we are reminded that Daddy Snek is actually middle-age, despite his luscious youthful looks and naive way with women.

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The day for all the baby snakes to come home came on a dark, stormy evening. The weather had not yet reached typhoon proportions, but the wind still howled till it pitched like a scream, and the rain rat-tat-tatted on the roof.

Despite this, inside it was warm, dry, and the great noise fell to a gentle background, in part because Shay had covered the closed window shutters with extra furs--the kind that had too coarse of hair or fur to use for clothes or blankets.

The snakes babies, dragon included, spread out the room and tried playing until their father threatened to kick them back outside in the rain. Thus, they now huddled in a pile next to the fire, their heads poked out on the side that faced everyone else who had gathered on the soft pelts about the fire to enjoy each other's company. Miur carefully redid his braids, as his hair had grown. Parker wove reed mats for his hut. Ryan busied himself with hanging herbs and meats from the rafters with the help of Curtis, while Shay rested against the soft cat-form of Harvey. She had another weaving project nearby, but she had dropped it in favor of investing herself fully in hugging the leopard besides him.

She found time with Harvey precious, as he'd often sacrifice his time with her in order to keep the peace with her other two, jealous mates.

The three little girls, partially hidden by the bodies of their long brothers, finally stopped scabbling around and situated themselves in pockets of snake coils here and there.

"Daddy," pipped Luna from beneath Dice's tail. "Tell us about the merfolk."

"You want to hear that again?" asked Curtis in disbelief. "You lot have been having nightmares on and off ever since."

"No! New story!" crowed Dawn from the very top. Of course she'd be on the top, as she had to be with everything else.

"Are there different kinds of merfolk?" asked Sky from the side. She said her word as clear and clean as she could, as her latest obsession had been speaking as grown up as she could, something Shay and Parker couldn't get enough of.

"Yeah, more merfolk," chirped Dawn.

"Good merfolk?" asked Luna.

"No, bad merfolk! Scary merfolk!" Dawn stood upon her great tower of snakes with her hands arched above her head like claws. "Merfolk with teef! Bite bite!"

"Snake merfolk?" Luna blinked.

"Wouldn't those be eel beastmen then?" said Parker.

All three girls wrinkled their noses. In their human forms, their sense of taste was much more acute than their brothers, and one of the ousted foods from their pallet had been eel.

"Yucky eel."

"Blegh."

"BLEGH!"

"Evil eel merfolk, taste like poo!"

"I don't know if tasting bad decides whether you're evil or not," said Shay with a chuckle.

Curtis twanged a leather cord he'd just finished knotting to test its strength. The weight of the dear husk pulled it into a soft, mellow note.

"Well, there was one time..."

Even the boy snakeheads perked up. Forked tongues started to flail on mass.