[ [ [This second story makes sense as a "standalone", but it's much more interesting if you click on the author's name and read this tale from the beginning.]]]

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The ovens, counters, and floors were liberally coated with dust and unidentifiable debris. Creatures skittered about on two, four, and eight legs – she bit back a scream with she felt something nip at her ankle.

“No lef-dovers! No!”

A scowl, topped by a bushy grey mop of hair, squatted in one corner of the kitchen. Tanned skin stretched over long, thin bones as she unfolded herself to stand. The only spots on her body with any extra weight were a sagging pair of lumpy breasts and the bloated, distended mass of her stomach, covered with a greasy apron.

“Whad? Whaddya want?”

The girl – Tweeny, she was Tweeny here, she remembered – scrunched herself as small as possible behind Recorder’s toga. He clucked his disapproval at her cowardice and gently pushed her toward the center of the room. “New one, Bella. A between girl. No training.”

Dreary faded-blue eyes searched Tweeny from the top of her stringy hair to the tip of her dirt-caked toes. Bella’s nose twitched. “Needs bath,” she sniffed.

“I am certain you can arrange that easily enough.”

Bella hefted an enormous pot of water onto the stove and nodded. “You go now, yoo-nick. I take care.”

Tweeny grabbed for Recorder’s hand. He wouldn’t leave her here... would he?

The eunuch patted her hand. “It will be fine, little one. Have faith. Do as you are told and make no trouble.”

Her wide, frightened eyes watched him go.

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“Too young! Always too young. To old Bella they give too young, not know nutting about nutting.”

Tweeny kept her attention on the wash basin before her. She was supposed to be rubbing grease into the oversized cast iron pans, but her tiny hands wouldn’t hold their weight for long. Twice now she had dropped the metal on the floor with a loud clang! that threatened to pierce her eardrums.

“If you cannot hold pans, how