I looked at them a little skeptically. They aren't here to nitpick, right?
"Look, if you're here to tell me the dust is bad for the pups, I've already cleared a spot for them downwind."
"We aren't here to complain, Arinya," the scared woman said, stepping forward.
She looked at the beavers already hauling away brush and then looked at her own calloused hands.
"We've lived in this kingdom since we were pups. We've watched the men build, watched them hunt, and we've sat in our huts waiting, stood at the side, watching, and sat at the center, feasting. We were content to just be 'females' because that's all anyone ever asked us to be."
Talia nodded, her gaze fixed on the nursery in the distance where the sounds of pups playing drifted over the wind and over the sound of the construction over here.
