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Crime and Punishment
Well, she decided, no one was using the barn right now. She could investigate it, right? And by 'no one was using it', she meant 'no one has been inside it all day.' That made it fair game for investigation and the like.
Besides. She needed practice. If she was going to be able to busque well enough that she could earn the money to pay for passage to the mainland, she needed all the practice she could get.
Slithering inside the barn through a small hole in the planking on the side of it, she peeked around. No, it was most definitely empty of all other sentient life. She heard a few mice up in the loft, and there were patches of grass in the sunlight through the loft doors. There were also big poofy bags of something, marked "XXX". Well. That just had to be something exciting, didn't it?
She slithered close to one. Looking around to be circumspect, just in case anyone was hiding out, she sniffed at it. She couldn't really smell anything. But, this one had a little fraying edge at one corner. Hmm. Well, she could open it just a little. No one would know. And then she'd know what was in it, too.
So she carefully grabbed some of the burlap in her teeth and pulled. It didn't go as well as she'd planned. The bag outwrestled her.
Fine, then. She had spikes for a reason. She poked one gently into the tiny hole in the bag, and jerked it along the seam.
Soft, white powder spilled out.
*SNOW!* she declared, staring at it.
She considered this for a moment and poked the alleged snow experimentally. *This isn't cold enough to be snow,* she realized. *But it looks like snow.* She tasted some. *YCCH!* she said, spitting some out and raking her tongue against her teeth. *It tastes awful, though!*
She considered it very carefully.
*Perhaps, she said, this is Summer Snow.* She stared at it for a long time, poking at it lightly with her tail. *Yes. It must be. Obviously it is very bad-tasting, very warm snow. Obviously. They must keep it here until it springs out in winter.* She continued to stare at it for a long, quiet moment. Then, she smirked.
*It needs to be properly taught how to be snow,* she decided impishly.
She pulled the slit of the bag open further. More of it came cascading out. She caught some up her nose, and she sneezed hard, sending it all flying and clouding around her.
She giggled. *No, no, no!* she declared, grinning from horn to horn. *You have to make snowflakes first, silly thing!*
The white powder continued to float down in a fine powder.
She giggled. *I wonder how you do making snowballs.* She had learned how to make those without her feet with Clet and Rudie shortly before spring came and thawed them out of the Tower. And then they'd taught her to make mudballs. She was sure Summer Snowballs were no different.
She wadded a heap together with her tail, and trying to keep it firm against the bulk of her body, she crushed it. It just went "SPLOOFLE!" and dusted the air again.
*Huh,* she said, staring at it. *Obviously this is Not Good Packing Summer Snow. I am most disappointed. If this is any indication of the winter we'll be having, I would like to file a complaint to the world.*
She giggled at herself, talking to snow.
*You know,* she told the snow giddily, *one of my brothers spent a good chunk of time in the snow.* She grabbed a pebble that was roughly oval in shape and plopped it in the middle of the powder. *It fell on top of him, covered him up, la la la.* She covered the pebble with the white powder. *And then, one day, PLOP! Out of the world he went. Where he headed, no one knows.*
she scooped the pebble out with the tip of her tail and grinned impishly at it.
*Kind of like Daddy, really. Grandma did stuff like that to him, you know,* she said, watching the pebble closely. *Only brother found his bondmate quickly and properly. Fell right on her, he did.* She giggled. *Daddy waited for centuries for Good Mistress Nabel, didn't he?*
She purred at the world. *I'm glad I never have to wait for anyone. I'm my own dragon. I don't need those bondmates.* She chirpped happily and hopped in the pile of white powder.
*SUMMER SNOW ANGELS!* she declared and wiggled about in the stuff on her back, giggling happily.
She spent a regular hour in the barn, with no one even knowing she was there. She hopped in the "Summer Snow" and tried to teach it to flake properly and to shift when she slithered through it to create wyrm-sized furrows on its surface.
Then, completely dusted white, she was caught by surprise when the barn door opened.
"SHARONA!" Good Mistress Nabel declared, staring in complete and utter bewilderment at seeing her lightly dusted white.
*I didn't do it?* Sharona asked.
"What happened! We've been looking all over for you!"
*I'm um... Getting in touch with my inner white?* she tried, blinking through the white dust on her scales.
Annabel was obviously livid. "Just wait until I tell your father," she breathed, standing very rigidly.
*Which one?* Sharona asked, looking up hopefully.
"BOTH of them," Annabel replied, narrowing her bright green eyes.
Sharona cowered slightly, ducking down. *I didn't do it?* she asked hopefully, fixing Annabel with her biggest, cutest puppy eyes. *I was dead at the time? On the moon? With Steve? I plead the Fifth! You'll never catch me alive, suckahs? I SAY SOMETHING TO CONVINCE YOU OF MY INNOCENCE!*
Annabel waited her out patiently. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave her a disapproving glare.
Sharona looked left, then right, then right back at Annabel. *Um. Um. Um.* She looked around again. Then, she shouted, *FORGET! WOOJIE WOOJIE!* and tried to slither between Annabel's legs as fast as she could.
Annabel, however, had practice with catching quick moving small things, considering she now had four children, and had raised Daddy.
Caught by the scruff of the neck between back spikes, Sharona glared mutinously at Annabel. *Just wait until I tell Daddy,* she muttered.
"Daddy will be dealing with Daddy. And I will be telling him what you have done," the woman said calmly.
Sharona pulled out the last stop and tried to wrangle her way around to cut Annabel or bite her. She actually got the woman's arm a few times with her back spikes, but her flailing was largely undirected, and she tired out quickly and resigned herself to being hauled back at arm's length to where Daddy was waiting.
*What are you covered in?* Daddy asked, swooping out of the tree he was perched in to set her down on the ground and look at her.
*Summer Snow?* Sharona asked hopefully. Maybe Daddy would buy her sweet and innocent and naive game?
*Sharona. You know flour when you see it,* Daddy told her sternly.
Sharona ducked her head. Okay, obviously not. *I was boooorrrreeeeddddd,* she whined.
"She had a whole bag opened and just flailing about in it, Ira," Annabel told him, rocking back on her heels.
*It's just flour,* Daddy said, stalking over. Löwenherzchen pranced over and licked a glob of flour off Sharona's cheek.
*And that 'just flour' is supposed to be stored up for the winter. Do you have any concept of how many people we have here now? We cannot possibly hope to feed them for the winter. It's going to be very tight as far as rationing goes. We can not waste food.*
*Wait...* Sharona said carefully, knitting her eyeridges. *I know this story.*
They all looked at her expectantly.
*There's this cricket. And these ants. And the cricket plays and frolics all summer and fall and starves to death in the winter. The ants worked hard and saved and spared all summer and fall, so they can survive the winter.*
Daddy nodded, but he didn't smile. *So. What are you going to do about it?*
*Be less of a cricket?* Sharona asked hopefully.
*And?* Daddy asked, shifting his wings.
*Noooo!* Sharona whined, flopping over. *I DON'T WANT TO HELP THE FARMERS!*
*Should have thought of that before you flopped through that flour. Come harvest time, you will be helping them. Don't plan on playing too much during those days.*
*Oh, come on, Ira,* Daddy protested. *That's harsh. It's just flour.*
Sharona pouted hopefully at Daddy, who was being a big meanie and making her do work for once.
*No,* Daddy said, still being a meanie. *She's done something wrong. She has to face the consequences. That's all there is to it.*
Löwenherzchen gave an approving nod and cartwheeled about.
*But--* Daddy and Sharona both started.
*No. That's all there is to it,* Daddy interjected.
Daddy started to protest.
*Unless,* Daddy continued nonchallantly, *you want to see how fast your collection of shiny objects can disappear.*
*That's just mean, Daddy. You know Daddy needs that to keep his Constitution high,* Sharona accused.
Everyone looked at her oddly.
*I mean. It makes him happy! Don't take his shiny away, Daddy!*
Daddy blinked for a long moment. *Go home,* he told her, *and think about what you've done. When I get back, I want you to tell me why what you did was the wrong choice.* He spread his wings and took off, then.
Sharona looked at Daddy. *Well,* she said carefully. *I'm sorry I made Daddy mad at you.*
Daddy smiled down at her and then nuzzled her head around her back spikes. *Daddy loves you,* he reminded her. *And Daddy can stay mad at Daddy, so long as our babies are happy.*
Sharona giggled as Daddy cleaned off her compass. *You're a really nice black,* she told him proudly.
*No,* he said coarsley. *I'm a very bad black.*
Sharona blinked. Then, she smiled with understanding. *I don't care,* she said. *I like you just the way you are.* She hopped up and pecked a kiss on his cheek. *If you were a good black, you'd be mean.* She giggled, then, and started heading for home.
As she slithered on, she began counting the reasons why what she did was a bad idea, and wondering just how she would wind up helping out come harvest time.
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