MADNESS by M. L. Banner

Author:M. L. Banner [Banner, M. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Toes in the Water Publishing, LLC
Published: 2018-05-25T22:00:00+00:00

20

Taufan the Ferret

Taufan finally zeroed in on the source of the scent it had first gotten wind of.

The ferret had never been outside of the three-meter by two-meter chamber its owner shared with the other roommates, so every square meter of the ship was new to it.

Taufan didn’t understand what was going on, and certainly couldn’t comprehend why. It was a ferret, after all. It only knew that it was confused, lonely, and very hungry, all at once. These feelings were as foreign as the hectares of ship it’d already explored. Until today, it’d only experienced its little belly being filled when it wanted food, and the love of its owner and its owner’s roommates.

Now it had felt the pain of hunger all day long and was unable to find any food. Twice, it thought it had a chance of getting fed. Earlier, a big man tried to feed it, but a larger animal chased it away. And then a man looked like he might offer it something on a tray, but then Taufan smelled something far more appetizing.

A crew member had left a restricted doorway open. And through that doorway, down a stairwell, is where it caught wind of the glorious smells of fish. Lots of fish, along with other foreign but equally tasty aromas. Taufan wasn’t finicky. It only knew the taste of fish, and it was so hungry right now. Even the humans it raced by looked like food, though it had never thought of its owner and his roommates as food before. It was then that Taufan became frantic. It burst into the vast main galley where all the food was being prepared for the ship’s guests.

Because the ship was missing half of its kitchen staff, and dinner was still expected on time, many of the kitchen crew found themselves working two jobs. And amid the craziness of everyone racing around the kitchen, no one even noticed the small ferret scurrying inside and then working its way toward the aromas it’d been attracted to the whole time: the fish prep area.

Taufan had only experienced cooked fish, from the tidbits that Jaga and his roommates would bring it each day from their own dinners. Jaga was a fish fan himself and therefore so was Taufan. But the smell of fresh salmon was almost too much for the starving ferret. Like a guided missile, Taufan rocketed as fast as its little legs would accelerate it to its target, working its way around all impediments with ease.

It hopped onto a bucket beside a haphazardly abandoned cleaning cart and followed the makeshift staircase up the cart and onto a counter, bringing it belly-level with the kitchen crew. It remained unnoticed.

Without pausing, it scurried up several pots to a long shelving unit that stretched across the many stainless-steel food prep areas, almost the entire length of the kitchen. At the end of this shelf was the fish prep area.

The kitchen crew took great pride in making sure that they followed rigorous safety procedures for handling food.

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