[Trade] Spring Cleaning

Fearn walked the halls of the Court's main building with an encroaching sense of disgust. The Iguanodons had been so haughty and lording it over her and the other surface dwellers; she had expected their home to be less filthy! The clearing in the jungle that served as the court's main base of operations had been bad enough, the plants grew out of control and the nesting areas were in complete disarray, but the indoors were a different story entirely. Fearn wrinkled her nose at the hundredth cobweb she had seen that day and her tail flicked like a nervous twitch. The human structures on the islands were always a little worse for wear without any effort to clean them up, but if the Iguanodons were to be believed they had been here for centuries and let it fall into disrepair. She could excuse the prison cells she walked by, cleared out dirt floor recesses with bamboo poles acting as prison bars, the problem was that she hadn't realised when she had crossed into the guard's quarters until she noticed the lack of bars.  She had to do something about this, she wouldn't let herself stay in such squalid conditions. When her foot landed into some unidentifiable plant slop, she had reached her limit.

"You!" she barked at a young Theri she found wandering the halls. The hatchling stumbled back in fright before her face softened in recognition.

"Fearn? What's wrong?" Alkonost asked in concern. There were enough surface dwellers around here now that they had begun to group together, learning each other's names and trying to work around the strict Iguanodon regime. Alkonost was barely out of her egg, a Therizinousaurus somehow barely taller than Fearn and the Anteo had instinctively found herself protective of her. She was easy to pick out in the crowd too, her pale purple colouring acting like a beacon for the motherly Anteo to hone in on. The thought of the hatchling also living in this squalor sent Fearn into a deeper rage. 

"This place, this court," Fearn hissed, "It's so foul, how can anyone bear to show their home to strangers when it's this filthy?"

"Maybe that's why they're so angry we're all here, they didn't get time to tidy up," Alkonost joked half-heartedly. 

"Perhaps," Fearn mused, missing the humour when she was so perturbed by the mess, "But still, no excuses, this place is uninhabitable." Alkonost nodded, though she didn't understand the big word the Anteo had used. 

"What should we do?" she asked, wide eyed at how worked up Fearn was getting. 

"We should take a section of this nasty building and clean it, that's what we should do," Fearn said decisively. 

"Oh, do you think they'll let us?" Alkonost asked nervously, glancing up and down the halls like she was expecting an Iggy to come lunging for them both at the thought of some housekeeping.

"They'll probably appreciate someone finally cleaning the place properly," the Anteo snorted, "Now come along, we can't do this empty-handed."

Through sheer ingenuity and force of will, Fearn has assembled a kit of what she believed were essential cleaning tools. A bucket of water had been the easiest to find, just asking to borrow one from the docks around back had been met with an enthusiastic affirmative from the large grey Iggy working there. It had taken a few rinses to cleanse the smell of fish from it but it was now a perfectly apt mop bucket. A sweeping brush had also been crafted at the river, using the drier reeds left behind by the retreating waters to act as bristles. A few swift tugs and Alkonost's tail feathers were now a feather duster, tied with a length of twine around a bamboo stick the guards had discarded for being excess to their building requirements. They were lacking a mop, but looking down at the dirt floors, Fearn felt like they would need the water in the mop bucket for other things anyway. With more bamboo poles, she sectioned off a dead end of four small rooms for her and Alkonost to work in. These had been the barracks many opf the surface dwellers had been hurried into as overnight lodgings, it only made sense to start here.

"Are you ready?" Fearn asked her young cleaning apprentice.

"Um, I think so?" Alkonost replied, clutching her feather duster tightly, wondering why the Anteo was talking like they were about to fight. Fearn nodded and began to drag the broom across the floor in her teeth. She caught dried leaves and other debris in its bristles and swept them towards the entrance of the room, into the hall. She designated her ending point as the pile, telling Alkonost to shake off any dirt onto it. The Theri was on her tip toes, waving the feather duster back and forth in the corner to swipe up the spiderwebs that had layered tenfold in the old crevices of the room. There had to have been at least ten generations of spider building webs on top of each other like the houses in the Dead City. The hatchling was doing a good job at clearing them out, barely flinching at the scurrying legs that fled from her feathers. She scraped the webs from the duster with her claws and managed to shake them off into the pile. Fearn kept sweeping, stopping every so often to check on the Theri and make sure she wasn't being overwhelmed or was choking on the dust they were stirring up. By the time she was happy with the state of the floor, they had attracted some attention.

"What are you doing?" a flat voice asked from the other side of the bamboo poles. Alkonost squeaked and ran to hide behind Fearn, who gladly blocked her from the gaze of the black and white Iguanodon looking in at them.

"Balckmist," Fearn greeted stiffly, "This place is filthy." The Iggy flinched, like the insult had been a physical blow against him. "But no need to worry, myself and my young charge are working on it." She brought a paw down on the pole to swing it upright, barely missing Blackmist's chin. With the way cleared, the crested Iggy stepped into one of the rooms and he looked around at the vastly improved state of the room. There was still work to do, but it was far better than it had been, down to refreshing the straw piles that served as bedding. Blackmist cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Very well, carry on," he said, stepping back to the hallway and letting Fearn bring her barrier back down again.

"We will, don't worry," she replied in a sickly sweet voice.

"We'll do a really good job, Mr. Blackmist!" Alkonost enthused, her sincerity punching a hole into the tension around them. The Iggy let out a long sigh through his nose and looked between the two of them, Alkonost's shining eyes and Fearn's barely restrained rage. 

"Let me know if you need anything," he said finally, backing up since he couldn't turn around in the narrow human hallways. Fearn huffed like she had won a victory and returned to sweeping, dragging the broom down the stone walls instead. Alkonost watched her in awe until the dust threatened to blind her and she covered her face with her feathery arms. There was still so much to do, but now she didn't feel on edge from the Iggys catching them like they were doing something wrong. Renewed in her enthusiasm, Alkonost darted into the next room to keep gathering cobwebs.