If I could just reach a little further...

Briar rolled a barrel into place after doing some work in the castle's wine cellars, sighing as she stepped back and made sure they were all properly in line. There wasn't a whole of of things to do in the colder months since there was no grapes or berries to be harvested, but she did still need to maintain the wines that were fermenting and make room for more barrels to be started as some were emptied. Of course she was careful to never push herself too hard, but she was just too stubborn to completely stop her work simply because she was pregnant–at least until Gwynevere told her she must. With a finalizing nod approving of her own work, she turned and made her way back up the stairs that led out of the cellar and back up to the pantry and kitchens above. The last thing she wanted to do was do a bit of cleaning down there since there was some sticky places where some wine had spilled.

That task sounded simple enough, but she encountered her first roadblock as she went into the kitchens to retrieve a bucket in order to go gather some water to rinse the floors with. Whoever had used the bucket last had put it away on a fairly high shelf above one of the counters that ran along one wall of the kitchens. Normally that wouldn't be much of an issue since it was reached easily enough by putting her front paws up on the counter and reaching up to the shelf above, but that was slightly more difficult with her rounded belly full of pups. She huffed softly with a little frown. "Who decided to put that up there? Oh right... me," she muttered to herself before beginning to hoist herself up with a bit of effort and began trying to reach up to the shelf with her belly getting in the way of getting as close to the counter as she normally would. It always seemed to be just a hair out of reach no matter what angle she tried to reach from, evading her reaching teeth and paws again and again.

"Briar Carpathius"