Fauna pulls her finger along the drag-marks and rubs the residual flour between her fingers. Snail gets off his butt and moves along the wall on the counter and sniffs around the crime scene. He leaves behind round marks wherever his paws land, his hind legs occasionally twitch back to shake off the flour buildup on them. Fauna crouches down, holding the edge of the counter with her hands.

She’s looking over the flat surface, only her eyes poking out as they scan along the area, all the way to the window. Whatever took the bread is long gone, it’s not like she will find it right now. With a puff in her cheeks, Fauna gets up, pats down her dress and looks over to the still growing bread dough.

Snail is carefully watching Fauna as she moves around the kitchen, cleaning up after preparing the dough. - “Hmm…” - She stops for a second and looks at the window, Snail looks at her and then the window, then back at Fauna who puts away the flour and makes her way to the front door. All the while, her feline companion watches along with a tilted head.

She makes her way along the front of the cottage, covering her mouth to protect the world from her contagious yawns. Upon arriving at the window she begins inspecting it from the outside, Snail sticks his head outside with a meow and watches along.

- “A~choo!” - Fauna rubs her nose for a couple of seconds while mumbling. Once the snooty crisis has been averted she begins to examine the window panes and look on the ground around the windows area. - “Aha!”

She finds floury tracks leading away and into the small flower garden to the side of the house, she waves her finger at Snail, calling him over. Without hesitation he jumps off and onto the grass, his predatory senses tingling. Once inside the garden, the pair of detectives looks around. - “The sprinklers were on.” - Snail points with his paw to the still wet flowers and looks up at Fauna.

- “So, no chance in catching the culprit right now.” - With a long and slow exhale Fauna looks around the garden. The lazy flowers wiggle around, bumblebees here and there pop between flowers before flying off into the sunset. The still bright and warm sun lights Fauna’s face and her emerald green hair shines, reflecting the light.

Snail wipes his paws off on the grass and begins trotting back to the house. Before Fauna can react he attempts to jump back onto the window and inside the house. He crouches down, springs down his hind legs and aims at the open window. The ground might as well shake with the force of his push as he launches off the ground and grabs onto the windowsill.

Fauna looks with her mouth half open, closing it, then frowning a little and tilting her head. She tilts her head the other way, looking at Snail, who’s now dangling, clinging to the windowsill like his life depends on it after his failed jump. She lets out a gasp, accompanied by a slow face-palm while shaking her head. Snails struggles are cut short by his nails losing grip, ending with him flopping down on the ground. No problem for one such as him though, Snail quickly sits down and begins licking his paw and then wiping his snout with it.

As there’s no need to linger around any longer, Fauna begins to head back to the cottage while glancing at her feline companion. Once she opens the door, there’s a moment of silence. She looks at Snail, he looks back. After a couple of seconds Fauna invites him in with her hand.

- “What?” - Snail looks at her bewildered. - “I can use the window.” - His response is met with a chuckle from Fauna who props one of her hands up on her hip. - “I’m sure you can~!” - She asks him. There is another moment of silence, a battle of wits that is very quickly lost by Snail who grumbles, but responds to the invitation and runs into the house, followed by Fauna who closes the door behind her.

She goes over to the counter where the bread disappeared from once again and reaches under, opening the small fridge hidden inside the rustic furniture. A little puff of condensed air quickly fills the immediate area before dissipating, Fauna grabs a used piece of yellow cheese, it’s triangular shape accentuated with the round holes.

After taking a piece off it with her hand, she slides the big chunk back into the fridge, closing it and places the other piece by the window, just far enough that any animal brave enough to grab it, would need to go inside the house.

With that done, she looks over her shoulder and behind the sofa. The bed looking mighty enticing to her, Fauna goes over to the bed, slips off her shoes and face first falls onto the bed with Snail jumping on her back immediately, kneading it to prepare for his own nap. That gets quickly interrupted by Fauna turning around, Snail slides off her back and sits down by her head, licking her forehead before realizing it’s a rather sweaty one and giving up. A few moments pass, the sun beams pushing through the windows fizzle away as the night comes with a cold breeze. The entire cottage slowly turns to dark and quiet.

The next morning comes with with melodies sung by birds and a rhythm of rustling leaves. Fauna rouses from her slumber, lifting Snails tail off her eyes, pinching it between her index and thumb. Snail jumps from the sudden jolt, turns around and on autopilot begins to lick Fauna’s forehead.

- “Stop!” - Fauna swats at Snail, poking his nose and pushing it away which wakes him up from his trance. She massages her face, rubbing the corners of her eyes and clearing the sleep from them.

Snail stretches out and jumps off the bed and disappearing behind a wooden panel. The smell of fresh cat-pee starts to linger for a little bit in the air, while Fauna rests her hands along her torso, looking at the ceiling.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

With a swift move she throws the cover to the side and rolls herself to the edge of the bed. Snail finishes his “business” and happily trots over, into the kitchen area. He starts pacing in front of his food bowl, meowing loudly.

Fauna lifts herself up off the bed with a sharp exhale, taking a moment to sit before finally getting up and sliding on her shoes. She goes over to the kitchen and as usual picks up some chilled fish… there’s no fish in the fridge. - “Huh… Chicken it is.” - She picks up a chilled but still fresh chicken breast out of the fridge.

- “Scoot boy, unless you want your tail chopped up.” - Fauna gently shoves snail away and puts the bowl next to her, just when she’s about to start cutting, Snail starts sniffing the bowl. - “Just a second.” - She shoos him away again and cuts the piece of chicken into nice little cubes and then throws them into the bowl. Snail with the roar of a mountain lion dives into it and starts digging in.

Fauna steps away from the table and begins to dress up in her usual clothes. - “I’m going to the farm buddy, keep watch please.” - With that she opens the door and steps out. The fresh smell of grass fills her nose and after a long inhale she puts on her gentle smile and begins walking down the cobbled road.

The wind blows hard, harder than usual today. Fauna has to catch herself when breathing in every now and then, needing to cover her mouth. But she pushes forward, after a few minutes the familiar stone wall begins following the side of the road and not that long after her woolly friends are crossing the road, albeit at a leisurely pace.

- “Good morning!” - The old man standing on the other side of the herd waves at Fauna, chewing on his gum. - “A couple of minutes and we’ll be through here as usual!” - He slaps some of the sheep on their butt, only for the entire herd to stop and glare at him for a second.

Fauna crouches down by the nearest sheep. - “Come on girls. I heard there’s some really good grass further that way!” - She points over the hill, a bit east from the spot she pointed to yesterday, but the sheep just glance at her and continue their walk without paying her much mind.

The farmer gives Fauna a warm chuckle and slaps one more sheep. - “They’re a bit more grumpy than usual aye?” - He shouts over the clattering of the hooves. Fauna puffs her cheeks and pushes the air out of them when standing up.

- “If you keep slapping them, they’ll only go slower old friend~!” - She chuckles back and smiles at the farmer. A couple of minutes later, the last few sheep make it past the gate and the old man closes it behind him. The two exchange bows and Fauna continues on with her remaining trip to the farm.

Upon arrival, the farm greets her with a smile, the lush greens of the vegetable flop back and forth in the wind, the flowers bop up and down and the sunflowers are slowly waking up and taking a look at the sun. Fauna stretches out and starts walking to the generator shack, taking a quick bath in the warm sunlight.

After opening the door, it’s usual puff of dust greeting is met with Fauna waving her hand in front of her face to get the dust out of her face as she steps inside to gather the usual tools. Today is flower day so she grabs some snips a floral knife and wires to prop the larger flowers up on along with some wooden stilts to put into the ground.

While grabbing the stilts, she bumps one of them into a rake that’s been resting against the wall and it slowly tilts over, bumping into Fauna’s shoulder. She throws her tools into a bucket and stands up, setting the rake back in its place.

After letting go of it and turning around, ready to leave, the rake makes itself known again, clattering down on the ground having fallen over again. Fauna looks at it for a second before setting down the bucket and leaning over to pick it up.

She lightly lifts it and props it up against the wall again, after letting go of it it almost immediately starts tilting again but before it can fall over Fauna grabs it by the handle and lifts the whole rake off the ground and with a huff presses it against the ground and the wall again.

After letting go of the handle, the rake sits the for a second, before slowly creaking forward. It stops before Fauna needs to react. After letting out a sigh, she picks up the bucket with her tools and leaves the shack. The flowers wiggle back and forth while Fauna tends to them, making sure they don’t bend in a weird way and no weeds decide to squat on their property.

With a grateful puff of their gentle smell the flowers bid her goodbye and with that Fauna goes to check on the moss from yesterday. As expected, still there, happily living on mr.rock. In fact there seems to be a bit more of it, but after exchanging a glance, Fauna goes over to store her tools in the shed, making sure the rake stays undisturbed in it’s position.

Once all is happily stored away and the farm looks as good as new she quickly washes off her hands and makes her way back home. Fauna keeps the pace brisk, since she was delayed by the herd of sheep there’s not much time she has to make the next batch of bread.

The door lightly swings open and the sound of her boots clattering on the doorstep to get the dirt off fills the house. Snail sits by the window where they left the cheese before going to sleep, surely enough the piece is gone. - “Friends come over and take our gift?” - She asks Snail while approaching the counter.

- “Must’ve come while we slept. Wasn’t here when in the morning.” - Snail lightly scratches the counter and sniffs it. - “I’m sure it’s rats. Filthy creatures.” - He sneezes and jumps onto the main kitchen table. - “By the way…” - He points at the tart pan. Fauna looks at it, then at Snail and blinks a couple of times before pressing her hands onto her face and exhaling into them.

- “She didn’t say anything too.” - Fauna picks up the pan and looks over it for a little bit. Snail boops his head into her hand and says - “Mumei remember things? Ha.” - He sits down and yawns. Fauna puts down the tart pan and after a deep breath continues the task at hand, making bread. She grabs the bucket, now filled with cold water and kicks the stool it stood on back into its original place.

Without a word she strolls out of the house, pours the cold water on the cobblestone road and heads to the filtering station behind her house. There, as usual she fills the bucket with warm water and takes the moment to put some of it on her face. She shuts off the water and heads back inside with the bucket.

With a swift move she slides the stool into its usual position with her leg, but it catches on something and tumbles around with a loud clatter, Snail jumps off the table and to the opposite side of the house as it goes quiet. The sound of chirping birds comes in from the outside, all the while Fauna stares at the upside down stool with her mouth closed and contorted into a gentle smile as she takes long breaths through her nose. Snail carefully watches from afar, glancing between her and the piece of rebellious furniture.