“Doesn’t this house have any meat?” Sally asked as she rummaged around with her talons. She was in the cellar of the house that her group forcefully occupied. After eating boar stew for the first time, she was extremely unwilling to revert back to her life of eating fungi and bugs. A bucket filled with rice grains caught her attention. She leaned over and sniffed it before tilting her head.

Cleo came from around a corner, holding a few cobs of corn. “Did you find anything?” she asked.

Sally shook her head. “There’s no meat. Don’t you have any in your space?” she asked and hopped over to Cleo. They began to ascend the stairs towards the ground floor.

“Nope,” Cleo said. “We ate it all, except for Madison’s body.” She wrinkled her nose. “I think it might be starting to rot too.”

“Then let’s eat it,” Sally said and nodded. “I’ll ask Palan.”

Cleo rolled her eyes. “Alright, you can ask,” she said and walked into the kitchen, placing the corn down on a chair. She was too short to see over the tabletop without standing on her tiptoes. “How do they cook things here?” Cleo muttered and scanned the room. She saw something that resembled the woodstoves her tribe used to use. Cleo stuffed firewood into the opening and set it on fire with a red orb. She grumbled. “Being short sucks.”

After climbing on top of the stove, and adding water to a pot, she began to browse through the cabinets. “Angels really live extravagantly,” she said as she stared wide-eyed at the multiple bowls and cups made of glass with ornate decorations painted on their surface. She decided to store them inside of her space and stuck them in her designated shiny-stuff corner. Next to the plates was Raea’s cocoon formed from her evolution that Cleo fought with Pyre over. It was less resplendent as before, its golden luster duller now. She took it out of her space and sniffed it. Now that it wasn’t as shiny as before, maybe she should return it to Raea.

The sounds of talons clicking against stone tiles caused Cleo to turn her head. Sally had a smile on her face. “He said we can eat it,” she said and nodded. Her feathers fluffed up as she shivered and sang before she began to preen herself.

Cleo stored the cocoon away and pulled out Madison’s corpse. She frowned at the pot, trying to figure out if she could fit the demon’s body inside. She couldn’t. After cleaning up the water that spilled, Cleo cut off a chunk of meat and added it to the pot along with the corn she found in the cellar. Sally watched with interest. “Where’d you learn how to cook?” she asked. She attempted to grab a knife with her wings, but it didn’t work.

“I watched the cooks make food,” Cleo said. She pat her chest. “The best time to steal from someone is when they’re distracted by their duty.”

“Oh,” Sally said. “Makes sense. I wish I had a power like you.” She sighed. “I’m the only one who’s useless.”

“That’s not true,” Cleo said and frowned as she hopped off the stovetop. She pat Sally’s butt feathers. “You can fly and carry me. That’s extremely useful. I won’t mistreat my moun—err, friend.” She nodded.

“Really?” Sally asked. “Compared to my mom and everyone else. I just feel so small.”

“Are you making fun of my height?” Cleo asked and wrinkled her brow. She plucked one of Sally’s feathers off, causing the harpy to yelp. “You can’t keep comparing yourself to other people. There’s always someone better than you.”

Sally frowned. “I’m not sure if that made me feel better or not,” she said. Cleo shrugged and climbed back onto the stove.

“I think it’s ready,” she said and pulled bowls out of her space. She began to ladle in the stew, splitting the chunk of meat evenly. “Do you want to feed Palan or Raea?”

“Raea,” Sally said. She awkwardly cradled one bowl in her left wing and picked up another one with her right leg.

“Well, too bad,” Cleo said as she rushed past the hopping harpy. “Palan’s scary to feed. And since you already conquered your fear of him, I think you should do it. That’s an order.” She stuck her tongue out at Sally before running upstairs to Raea’s room.

“That’s not fair,” Sally mumbled as Cleo’s tail disappeared from view. She sighed and hopped up the stairs to Palan’s room which was across the hall from Raea’s. The halflings decided it was best if they stayed in different rooms in case another fire broke out. “Food’s here,” Sally said as she plopped the bowl in her wing down onto the bedside table. “Do you need help ea—“

Danger Noodle crawled out of bed and swallowed the stew, bowl included.

“Okay then,” Sally said as Danger Noodle regurgitated the bowl and spoon. She sat down and began to eat her own food while Palan’s tail lay across her lap, sapping her warmth. After she finished her bowl and was about to take the dirty dishes downstairs, a high-pitched shout came from Raea’s room. Sally scrambled to her feet, knocking Danger Noodle off her lap while Palan sat up and winced. The two ran across the hall and saw Cleo sitting on her butt at the entrance to Raea’s room.

“What happened?” Palan asked as he stepped over Cleo. Raea’s bed was covered by what looked like a layer of black spider webs. Thin strands of black light continuously shot out of the white figure lying on the bed and covered the surroundings. Palan gritted his teeth and plunged forwards, but found that he couldn’t break through the thin strands. He exerted all his strength, but the strands didn’t budge as if they were locked into place. Soon, a black cocoon had formed around the bed.

Sally and Cleo had tried to stop the cocoon from forming as well, but nothing they did helped. Palan grabbed Cleo’s tail and lifted her into the air. “What happened?” he asked again, glancing at the wriggling cocoon.

“I don’t know,” Cleo said and shook her head. “I fed her the stew by forcing it down her throat, but she didn’t seem to care. Then I covered her with her old cocoon because she seemed cold. Then those black things shot out of her body and pushed me away. I really didn’t do anything.” She bit her lip, unable to meet Palan’s eyes.

Palan snorted and let Cleo down. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.

“Raea!” a voice shouted. It sounded far away, but the three clearly heard it. They glanced at each other. The shout came again, louder this time.

“If we ignore it, it’ll stop,” Cleo said and nodded her head. “That’s the answer to every problem in life.” Sally looked at her funny. “What?” Cleo asked. “Don’t believe me? Don’t forget who the adult in the room is.” She wrinkled her nose and turned her head away.