11:16

When Caroline came out of the kitchen, balancing the tray of drinks she was still holding her breath. She knew it was ridiculous and likely to cause her to pass out, but the lingering odour of wet beaver was a bit overwhelming and, new leaf or not, it was going to take a while to get over years of disgust.

She stepped over the small slightly damp rabbit in the middle of the living room floor. He, very definitely a he from his posture and the rage-like quivering that seemed to emanate from his tiny body, was apparently already half way into winter and his fur was an odd motley of nutmeg and snow white.

After passing the beaver his new martini, she bent down and handed the mojito to the patchwork rabbit. “We don’t have any fresh mint, so I used an infusion of dried. I hope that’s ok.” Without waiting for his reply she passed the two longnecks to the kids on the couch, grabbed the last bottle herself and, tucking the now empty tray under her arm, took a long pull from the Corona, lime bouncing in the bottle as she tried her best to drain it.

Tilting the bottle back down, she took a long breath and turned to the last occupant of the room and asked again, “Are you sure you don’t want anything? There’s a pretty well-stocked bar in there,” gesturing back to the kitchen with her bottle.

Caroline had been here about 45 minutes, and most of that had been in the kitchen, puttering around. When she first arrived the beaver had asked her to wait before saying anything and then watched her fidget for about 5 minutes before he shooed her off to the kitchen to fix drinks and see if there was any food to rustle up. Between her twitchy need to escape and the guilt she felt every time the blood soaked bandage slid out from under the robe he was wrapped in, she was glad to take on the hostess role.

She’d just chopped up some fixings for natchos and was waiting for the oven to heat up when Rowan popped her head in and told her in that odd drawl that the beaver said there was another guest coming and see if she could find something to make a half decent mojito.