Vale kept to herself the past few days, spending most of her time tidying her home in the Ascendants’ observatory. She’d snatched a pretty good suite when she arrived, as her rooms had an doorless layout with ample space for her bed, living area, and kitchen supplies. So far, she’d only figured out how to use the damn oven – the smell of spiced pork carried through the space, making it obvious what she cooked. And why shouldn’t she cook? This was a special occasion; she thought reuniting with Clarence would be simple, but she hadn’t counted on him becoming leader of a group of animals.

Her ears flicked as he walked through the open doorway, a grin appearing across her face. “I’d be more surprised if you didn’t muck up the goods, Clare-bear. Maybe you should take up gardening? Maybe you’ve got a green thumb hiding behind those butterfingers,” she joked, moving to close the door behind him. This was going to be a proper sibling bonding diner – she didn’t want any of these crazy animals barging in here, especially when she needed to worm some spilt tea out of him.

“And yeah, yeah, we can definitely watch those… disk musicals?” she said with a slight nod, though she honestly had no clue what he was talking about. Musicals, obviously, she knew about – but Vale hadn’t encountered ‘movies’ yet. Sure, she heard how Clarence loved them, but the jaguar never bothered to sit down long enough to actually watch one. “Go ahead and set it up, the roast’ll be ready in a tick,” she added, tapping the handle of the oven for emphasis. In all honesty, she didn’t know how much longer – she managed to set the timer on the oven correctly, but then she pressed some damn stupid buttons and all it displayed was the temperature. But she was pretty sure it’d ring soon.