Page 15 of Her Rabid Beasts

“Hundreds and thousands.”

“What?”

“Sprinkles. She giggled the last time we saw them at the buffet. I think…” she trails off and stares into the distance.

I bend down to try and get to her height, but she’s so much shorter than me. “Min-nie,” I sing impatiently.

“I think the sprinkles reminded her of fairy bread from her childhood. Like from before… everything went bad. All kids love that stuff.”

“What’s fairy bread?”

She gapes at me like a blowfish. “You don’t know what fairy bread is?”

My growl is soft, but still threatening enough to let her know I don’t like her assuming I’m stupid.

Then something extremely unusual happens. Minnie’s face goes all soft like she’s sad. Her voice is only a kitten’s mewl when she states, “You never had fairy bread as a kid.”

“No,” I say flatly.

She takes a deep breath and blows it out like Scythe does when he’s about to lose his shit. “Come on, then. Where’s that contraband phone I know you have? I’ll show you.”

Four hours later, I return to my regina, proud as punch with a paper plate balanced on my knees as I paddle back to her on the rickety old dragon’s boat. This time, I bring along Eugene, with his brand new, custom made goggles. The little chicken knows what his job is and I never want Aurelia to be alone while we’re all in class.

My regina and Henry are in the same position as when I left them and I worry about it, because does that mean she’s not movedallday?

As soon as the boat slides up the slope, Henry zooms right for me, squeaking like prey, probably excited by all the colours on the plate.

He’s so soft and squishy, with tiny bones I probably wouldn’t even notice?—

As if she knows what I’m thinking, Aurelia lets out a short growl and I snap out of my imagination. Henry levitates back to her and stares at me accusingly.

I try not to look at him and grin at her as I make my way to my designated safe spot a little way from her nest and instruct Eugene to sit by my side. “Regina, I made cookies! Look, they’ve got sprinkles on them and little stars, see? Minnie helped me.She said it was alright if they were all in the shape of Australia. I’m not really good at making them round, but Australia I can do as long as we ignore Tassie. And…” I excitedly point to the triangles of bread covered in butter and hundreds and thousands. I had to eat the first few slices because I was too rough with the butter knife and tore the bread. “Fairy bread!” I announce, going on my knees to push the plate forward as far as my arms will reach.

She blinks once at the plate but doesn’t move.

I lean forward on my knees again, this time shuffling a tiny bit forward to push the plate just a little bit closer.

My regina growls her displeasure, and I sit back on my haunches. Henry lets out a squeak of a question, and when she makes no reply, he carefully levitates himself to the plate, and without taking his eyes off me, leans down and takes a tiny sugary star in his beak and floats back to Aurelia. He offers it, hovering right near her mouth as if he wants to feed it to her.

Aurelia opens her beautiful incisor-filled mouth and Henry drops it onto her tongue. She closes her maw and moves her tongue around like she’s swallowing it.

Something in my chest twists.

That should be me. Feeding her, brushing her coat, cuddling with her.

“Henry, you dirty fuck,” I grumble, pulling the plate back towards me. I stare it for a moment, trying to think. After a moment, I tear off a piece of fairy bread and wave it through the air.

“Go on, nimpin. Take it and give it to my regina.”

Henry eyes me suspiciously. His gigantic eyes are far too big for his head, which means he can see really well in the dim light of this cavern. But he doesn’t move forward.

“Suspicious little bastard, aren’t you?” I say. “Well, you’re not as dumb as you look then. Ready?” I lob the piece through theair as slow as I can and the tiny thing zips upward and meets the bread as it crests, catching it in his beak. He offers it tomy regina, and she opens her sweet little mouth.

Satisfied, I settle back on my ass and Henry and I begin our game.

Chapter 7

Lyle

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