Pernicious Family

Chapter 10

 Lex's POV

Lex had all the garbage dragged out, and was sorting through the Thornberry matter. She had already set the storage tanks to self flush. Lex gets up to stretch her back and checks to make sure her hair scarf is still covering all of her hair. The storage tanks are on the same wall as the door that leads to the hallway, the wall is flat and now clean. The other flat wall is to the right of the tanks. After cleaning the glass Lex found the kitchen garden on the other side. She also cleared the 3 inch pipe half underground between the two greenhouses to entice the rodents to the Thornberry greenhouse and away from the food plants. To the right of that flat wall is the curved full glass wall that covers that last 90 degrees of the room. The double French doors leading to the court yard are on that wall. Lex looks up and sees the rounded roof. The glass is frosted and not very dirty. Thankfully the coating is still on the glass that cannot be reached without a ladder. The three rabbits in the cage were sleeping in the corner of the room. Lex sat back down with her back to the court yard, and continued to sort the plant matter. The useless stuff was placed behind her for the horses to remove, the usable thorns were placed in one pile, the usable empty seed pods another, and all the leaves were beyond usable so they are placed in the garbage pile. She has not yet found a full seed pod.

Lex hears someone walk in from the court yard. She could feel the contempt oozing off of them. She palms her knife and ignores them.

"Hay you!" A male voice yells. Lex ignores it. "I am talking to you, black robe." The contempt and condensation rolled off his voice.

He stomped his foot behind her, and Lex felt him reach for her. She turns and stands in one movement, taking herself out of reach.

"Are you the one who cleaned this up?" He gestures to the whole of the greenhouse. He has medium length brown hair and dark blue eyes. He is not wearing any gloves, which is odd. His nails are manicured and he looks soft.

Lex wonders if he has worked a day in his life. She nods to his question.

The man sneered. "Good the garbage can needed emptying."

Lex looks him in the eye and glares. He flinches. Lex drops her gaze and appropriates the proper posture of a black robe; her shoulders rolled forward, her eyes pointed towards the ground, and an all around defeated look.

Another set of feet arrive at the courtyard door. With her eyes towards the ground she cannot see the person.

"Well?" The new male voice sneered. It sounded similar to the first male's voice.

"Are you going to respond to him?" The first make asks. Lex chooses to ignore both of them and studies her shoes.

"Well father." The first male says. "It appears that the reports of this one being different are true. He has violet eyes and no facial hair. He is mute and apparently deaf too. Why he was set up in a room instead of immediately introduced to the head I do not know." The voices and footsteps head out the courtyard door and away.

* * *

The storage tanks have finished their flush. All the garbage has been dragged out. The empty seed pods are in a basket by the door. Lex found one seed pod that had seeds.

Lex checked on the rabbits, they are still peacefully sleeping.

Lex grabs a shovel, the seed pod from her kit, the seed pod from the greenhouse, two long thin thorns, her knife, two long marker sticks, a shovel, and places them all by the sick plant. She decides to leave the rabbits where they are for now. She closes and locks the double doors that lead outside.