Just Another Day

The air was light and the cry of the gulls could be heard in the distance. The sea spanned out before them, ever rolling in and out. The trees thinned out into farmland and little homes could be seen among the patches of crops. But there were none tending the fields. All the houses were deserted and eerily quiet. Often fresh graves could be seen beside the abandoned hovels. Some were barely the length of Shanku's tail. Some of the steads had burned and there were also black patches in the same size as the plague monsters. Shanku couldn't help but wonder if some of the fallen had managed to take a few of the plague with them.

Over the next few weeks, Rhett and Shanku helped the remaining people rebuild their damaged homes from where the reptiles had burst through their roofs and walls. Rhett would chop wood for the cooking fires or repairs and do some minor blacksmithing. Shanku would tend to the coops. She felt much more at home around the chickens than she did the sheep or cattle.

But how she loathed helping the washerwoman.

"Bah, I hate washing stinky ol' clothes!" she would growl and grumble while scrubbing a dirt stain.

"But these stink extra if you don't wash," the old washerwoman would admonish and set Shanku back to work.

One day as Rhett had gone into the general store to fetch some more feed for the chickens, Shanku waited outside on a hitching post. She was giving her observations to the poor mule beside her when she noticed a ship docked at the port. It was a beautiful fluyt and a blue flag billowed from the stern.