"I am goin' to kill them."

Vannan coughed, hacking up half a mouthful of water, and she picked a slimy piece of seaweed from her mouth with disgust, throwing it to the ground. Nearby, Ascrod followed in her wake, trying to rub his sodden arms for warmth. He and his older sister's pelts sagged with water, dripping off their frames.

"I want to boil both of their heads when we catch them," Ascrod said, shaking as they ventured up the empty rock beach, "but you did make Predak mad, and t'was the same with me and Gelltor, so it shouldn't come as a surprise."

"Enough," Vannan grumbled, flicking a water droplet from her ear. She was far from being in a good mood, but she didn't voice any more anger to her younger brother. It was hardly Ascrod's fault. She had gotten most of her yelling out of her system while they were pursuing their guilty siblings anyway.

Vannan should have known better than to follow Gelltor outside when he said he wanted her to see one of the shallow pools behind the castle. But he had kept insisting she come, and after their mother's furious outburst towards him in the morning, Vannan thought he deserved some humoring. For all of his and Ziral's turns towards bad temper, Gelltor always ended up paying for it, and it was pathetic in a way that needed nurturing when it didn't need mockery.

Vannan and Gelltor had headed out of Castle Marl with Ascrod tagging along, the latter tired of playing with Lantur and listening to Mokkan and Ziral's discussions about dulling mother's bite again, and the trio of Marlfoxes had slipped out into the mist and darted down the shore.

Now, as cold water squelched between her toes and left faint tracks behind her on the rock, Vannan believed she should have humored Gelltor with a smack instead. She had suspicions when Gelltor appeared without Predak and let Ascrod come along without a peep. Gelltor was seldom seen without the other middle sibling, and he was still sore from Ascrod's honey-tail prank that had landed him in trouble with the queen in the first place.

Vannan believed he needed to get over it; it was hardly Ascrod's fault that Gelltor had not been sharp enough to see the trickery coming. Being swift and vigilant was necessary in life, and she had told him and Predak as much multiple times when they bothered to listen. He still hadn't gotten over the prank: Gelltor was not one to simmer down easily. But the middle sibling hadn't so much as side-eyed the second-to-youngest one, and Ascrod had eventually pulled out of Vannan's shadow, where he always hid when threatened, and trotted along with a jaunty smugness.

When Predak had burst out of hiding while they were observing the shallow pool and shoved both of them into the water with Gelltor's help, Vannan decided a little too late her suspicions were justified.

Ascrod coughed, shaking himself and trying to fluff up his tail for warmth, but he remained a dappled melting mess. He shivered as he picked a fleck of weed from his shoulder fur. The mist was growing chillier, turning the sand and pebble banks that swept down from the rock dull and as pale as the Marlfoxes' eyes. While Vannan had warmed up by chasing Predak in circles and threatening to wring her neck, Gelltor had tripped an angry Ascrod into the water—again—before he and Predak split down the beach in opposite directions, disappearing into the fog with their laughter ringing over the shore long after they left it empty.

Vannan, for all her fury, was unable to catch her younger sister before Predak zinged away, and she hadn't had the chance to pursue the slower Gelltor since she had to go rescue a floundering, snarling Ascrod from being suffocated by his wet cloak. Now the only things left outside were two sulky and wet Marlfoxes.

No doubt Predak had vanished into the wormholes of secret passages at the castle base, Vannan thought. By now she and Gelltor were having a chortle as they hung out of her quarter's window and tried to spy their siblings trudging back into the castle. I need to have a word with Ziral about teaching her those passages, Vannan thought, and she grimaced.

Ascrod coughed again, and Vannan turned around. He still resembled a miserable, sodden ball, even though his fur had managed to puff out again. His wet cloak slithered from the crook of his arm in a dribble of black cloth.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Vannan said, and Ascrod rubbed his head, cuffing his ear in another attempt to get out the last bit of water.

"Yeah," he said, inching closer to Vannan to try and hide in case any stray water rats were watching. Ascrod did not like being seen smaller than he already was, especially by the rats. "Just cold."

"Well, hurry, and mayhap we won't freeze," Vannan said, ushering her brother forward. The last thing she needed was for Ascrod to get sick when she needed someone to converse with besides the others.

With the moods Ziral and Mokkan had been in, she thought, a beast would believe growing bigger was the same as being completely broken and stretched out in a fishing net for the gulls. Vannan ached now and then, but she hardly stooped to the snide snaps or slights Mokkan or Ziral did when in pain... mostly. Attempting to shut Predak in the cellar more than once didn't count. But as for Predak and Gelltor, she did not want to speak to them now, and since Lantur was teething—no, she wasn't going to poke that pike's nest. Speaking to mother was out of question.

If Ascrod got ill and couldn't talk to Vannan, Gelltor and Predak were going to answer for it until he recovered, or be hung up by their tails.

"Mokkan and Ziral will make room around the fire," Vannan said, wiping her paws. "They've been there long enough."

"I hope so," Ascrod said. "Lantur is goin' to have a fit; this cloak is hers," he muttered, looking down at the sodden cloak in his grasp.

"Fires are good for dryin' out more than foxes," Vannan said, and she gave Ascrod a comforting pat on the back. "What she won't know won't hurt her."

Which was a complete lie. But really, it was only a cloak, and if it shielded Ascrod or his older sister from any future scolding, it was a deserved lie.

Vannan and Ascrod headed back into the castle.

Requests are the same as stated at the end of the first chapter.