Chapter 251: (Hesstla) (2/2)

It was warm in the cabin and Dambree felt a sudden fatigue come over her.

Nee crawled across the clean wooden floor, kicking with her little feet, her hocks and knees flexing like they should, getting stronger every day, until she reached Dambree. Dambree looked down at her baby sister as the infant grabbed tightly onto Dambree's heavy pants and slowly, tremblingly, pulled herself to her feet, hocks and knees shaking. She reached up and smacked Dambree's knee, obviously trying to reach up.

”Not quite big enough, are you?” Dambree chuckled, resting her hand on the heavy Terran soldier's pistol that rode in a holster on hip. ”Good girl to stand. Good girl, Punee.”

Punee glared with her beautiful amber eyes and dropped back down to her hands and knees, crawling back over to the couch.

”Any problems?” Dambree asked, kneeling down and undoing the laces on her heavy boots.

”Nee at a bug,” Dambree's little sister Tru said as Dambree got off the boots.

”Tough shit for the bug, I guess,” Dambree said. She flexed her toes and her mid-foot joint and sighed.

”Tru called me a stupid-head,” Elu, her little brother, said accusingly as Dambree walked through the cabin's main room.

”Don't call your brother stupid,” Dambree said, leaning over and smacking her sister across the back of the head.

”Ew, those fish are stinky,” Tru said.

”You won't say that after I cook them,” Dambree said. She set the fish on the counter and reached out and got a little rod that Mister Mewmew had given her. She tapped the end, then slid the rod into the gills of each fish.

After a second or two a little LED turned green and she'd go to the next fish.

None of them had atom smasher sickness.

She smiled to herself as she got out the heavy pan and put it on the stove. She checked the bottom door and saw that the coals were still burning.

”Thank you for making sure the stove didn't go out today, Elu,” Dambree said, opening the cold box and pulling a bottle of fizzybrew out.

”I don't want to eat cold food from a can again,” Elu said as Dambree took a deep drink off the bottle.

Punee managed to pull herself up and look at the low table next to the couch, smacking it with her little hand. When she saw that what she was after was missing she glared at Dambree.

”Sorry, Nee, it's not for babies,” Dambree chuckled, putting her hand on the pistol. ”Good girl to stand up, though.”

Nee just glared and sat down.

Dambree smiled as she started following the instructions on how to clean and prepare fish for eating.

It was warm in the cabin.

And the echoing boom of the war was just a reminder to stay where they were.

Dambree wasn't even aware she was humming a song as she made her little brother and sisters a dinner of fried fish, vegetables, and a self-heat pack of starches.

Her day had gone so good that she just laughed when Punee tried to bite her when she was feeding her starchy goop.

”I love you,” she said to the baby. She looked at her little brother and sister. ”I love you.”