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"Red red wine..."

Mark led his friend to an inconspicuous door in his house.
"Be careful. I'll go downstairs and turn on the light." Said the man as he went downstairs, and a few seconds later turned on the lights, so Esteban could slowly walk down the old concrete stairs.
"Oh? I didn't know you had a basement." Asked Esteban.
"Well, this is an old-style house made by Earth standards, - so basements are not so rarity here." Answered Mark, leading his friend into a small, cool room.
"Basically nobody using basements in our time - so I using this place for my own needs." Mark smiled.

"What, what is this?" Estaban asked as he saw a table with several large industrial glass bottle kegs, with an amber liquid inside that seemed to be still fermenting, inflating a row of blue medical latex gloves that were hermetically worn around the necks of the bottles.
"This... This my friend is homemade wine.
In the old... In the very old days, my parents sometimes did this at our house back on Earth, then I forgot about it, - and now when I have the time and opportunity, I decided to bring back some of my forgotten memories.
"Homemade wine?" Asked Esteban as Mark poured some liquid into a large half-liter glass jar, and after taking a few sips, gave the rest to his friend.
"I'm sure you'll like it!" Mark replied with a smile, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Is it ever safe?" Asked Esteban after taking a few sips.
"No..." Replied Mark, and both men giggled as they looked at each other.

"Strong stuff..." Esteban cleared his throat, taking several large gulps of liquid. "But I like it.
What did you put in there anyway?" Esteban asked.
"Well... Grapes, some local fruit, and those little red berries that grow near Emily's beds.
I don't know what they're called..." Answered Mark, refilling again the glass jar that served them as a makeshift glass.
"Your face is turning red." Smiled Mark.
"Yours too." Esteban laughed. "But don't worry, Lillethe promised to pick me up by car after work."
Both men giggled again, this time trying the wine from a different bottle with a bone skull sticker on it.

***
Emily sighed as she looked into the living room.
Mark was sitting at the table, and with a smile hugging his friend's shoulder, was telling him something while Esteban with a distracted look, just nodded his head in agreement with his friend.

"Hy's so cute. I want to hug hym." Said Mark.
Both men giggled looking at Lillethe, who absentmindedly looked around and wiggled hys ears, after which sticking out hys tongue from the strain, hy was able to stand on hys feet ...on the second attempt, and cautiously stepping with hys paws, hy approached the window with an uncertain step. And tilting her head to one side hy opened hys mouth, somehow looking out through the window in surprise.

"They're all totally drunk..." Emily sighed as she left the room. The woman knew that Mark and his friends were calm when drunk, and safe, - so Emily with a calm heart left them to continue their strange pastimes, and attended to her household chores.



***
EXTRA.
The next day it started out nice and sunny...
"Good morning!" Said Emily opening the door.
"Uggh...My head..." Sighed Lillethe rubbing hyr temples with hys palms.
"I hate these two..."
"A coffee?" Asked Emily looking at the skunktaur.
"Yes, thank you. You're very sweet..." Answered Lillethe flicking hys ears.
" But why did I wake up locked in the closet?" Asked Lillethe looking at the boxes and clothes hanging on the hangers around.
"Long to explain." Answered Emily going to the kitchen and leaving Lillethe with a puzzled expression on hys face.

***
Also, inflated surgery gloves are on the neck of large glass industrial bottles to prevent oxygen from oxidizing wine. It is an old trick.

A little annoyed Emily sighed looking at two drunk men who hugging and talking, time for time watching funny Lillethe.
Usually person feels sober - just can't stand on his feet.
But then they take one special "Red, red wine," as Mark calls it. This acts like an impact drill - so even Lillethe wandering around totally chopped off, doing ...something...
Done privately.

***

---

Also please note that my story is in the process of being written, and most of these small fragments that I published are not in chronological order.
(Chronology always was a real pain for me.) So when I finish my plans I will try to put everything in order. If I can...

The story and all characters belong to me  Marksan
Esteban Melinao and Lillethe skunktaur belong to  Ben Zider
The wonderful drawings and most of character desighn are kindly made for me by  sethtriggs For which I am very grateful for his help in portraying all this - because without his vision and pictures I would never have been able to tell this story. He really did a lot for me.

We still have "Tales of Chakona Discord for fans" - a cozy place where we usually gather. But after the recent ...flooding infestation, the rules were changed slightly. So ask around for an invite PM.
I am nice with talking to people. I swear. )))