A/N: This was written for Firefly Friday's 207th challenge, "Extinct Animals". I hadn't written anything in a while so I tried to give this a try. It was fun, and I think it's cute. There's no real storyline to it, but it's a fun little bit of quirk in the everyday runnings of Serenity. Enjoy and read and review!
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters in any way, shape, or form. I just like to play with them.
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"Maybe it's some kind'a cow or somethin'," Kaylee tried to reason as she tilted her head sideways, crinkling up her nose at the drawing. Wash and she had come to the galley to fix the crew's dinner to find the cabinets and doors in the small kitchen covered with drawings and sketches of strange animals. They'd been trying to identify them for some time now.
"This one is obviously a cat," Wash declared pointing at another drawing, "or a weasel," he continued unsure of himself, his smile still on his face.
"That can't be right, when'd you ever seen a weasel or a cat with that large of a tail?"
"Well your cow's horns are facing down. You got a better guess as to what in the 'verse this is?" he chuckled as he pointed at a picture of what was apparently a horse with an unbelievably long neck.
"River's sure got an imagination on her," Kaylee mused.
"I'm sure the Captain does too, he'll think of all kinds of punishment if dinner isn't fixed when he gets settled in this room."
Kaylee immediately set to removing the pictures so they could retrieve things they needed with more ease. She piled the mountain of drawings on the table.
There wasn't much to be had in the way of food recently; they'd been flying for a little over a week and a half. All of the real food had been expended in the first days of the journey. They'd set a pot of rice to boil and attempted to stew some chunks of protein that they'd cut into bite sized cubes. Kaylee tossed in some dried herbs that she'd managed to afford by flashing her smile at a young trader back on Beaumonde. Simon had huffed all the way back to the ship, after Kaylee paid the trader less than half of his original price.
Within a half hour they'd had the meal prepared and table set and the crew had begun to surface for the meal. Jayne came in first, sweaty from the weight bench and not aware of his own musk enough to change his shirt before dinner. The mountain of drawings sat in front of his usual seat.
"What in ruttin' hell is this creature?" he said gruffly, "A broken back horse?" he held up a drawing of a long, skinny legged animal with a lump on its back.
Kaylee and Wash both shrugged. Wash went to the table to pick up the next drawing in the stack.
"Well this is definitely a picture of Jayne in the morning, or when he's sleepy, or before he's eaten, or hmm-" he was cut short as Jayne snatched the drawing of a disgruntled looking orange creature with long arms and very short legs.
"What in the specter of hell are you talkin' about?" Jayne said angrily missing the joke, "Moonbrain can't draw, 'cause this looks nothin' like me.. and she drew me naked!"
"If'n that is a picture of you naked I don't want it to be touchin' my dinner table," the three of them turned to see Mal coming in from the bridge followed by Zoë.
Soon after they'd come in, Simon, River, and Inara came in the opposite side followed by Book, he'd obviously come down and told them of the hour.
"River decorated the galley for us Cap'n," Kaylee said cheerily motioning at the drawings after she'd set down the bowl of rice.
"I ain't never seen anything that looks like this in my life," Mal said holding up the picture of what Kaylee had assumed been a variation on a cow.
"Is it some kind of cow River?" Kaylee asked hoping to prove Wash wrong, mirth in her voice.
"Elephant," River stated simply.
"Ele-what?" Jayne grumbled.
"Elephant, extinct now, terraforming doesn't support them."
"Wha' abou' dis one?" Jayne said through a mouthful of food, holding up the orange monster.
"Orangutan," River said dully.
"See I told you it weren't a picture of me!" Jayne turned toward Wash, spitting food across the table in his excitement.
Kaylee held up drawings in River's direction asking her what each of them were. So far there had been a giraffe, camel, toucan, kangaroo, moose, and koala according to River.
"They're all extinct now," Simon chimed in, "A by-product of terraforming is that it doesn't support some of the most exotic of animals. Produces too uniform a climate to provide for the wide range of habitats these animals need."
Wash fished for the picture of what he thought was a cat.
"What's this?" he hopefully added, "An exotic ferocious powerful cat whose teeth can break the bones of his prey and grind them to a powder?"
"No," River turned to help herself to the stewed protein, obviously not wanting to say anymore.
"Well what is it?" Wash demanded.
"That's a just beaver," Simon said a smile playing on his lips.