Rainbow Snippets: Hardly worth the trouble

_{^{Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation.}}

Tracking Trouble will be taking a little break for the next few months as I share snippets from my upcoming novella, Someone Else’s Shoes. It’s a retelling of Cinderella set in the spellster universe.

This snippet continues on from last week, where Alla’s stepsister kicked a full bucket of water kicked over her…

She towered over Alla. Even with them both standing upright, her stepsister was taller by at least a foot. “Looks like you’re going to be here all day. What will mother say?” Giving a tweak to the tip of Alla’s ear, Tamara sauntered deeper into the mansion.
Alla rubbed at her ear as she watched her stepsister depart. How she loathed the distinct points and sensitivity. What use did such ears give their owners beyond a means to single out elves as a target? Better hearing? It hardly seemed worth the trouble.
With the tips of her ears still smarting, Alla sank back to her knees and set to work mopping up the water. The cloth she had been polishing the tiles with was already sopping wet and not terribly absorbent, but its sheer size meant she could wring out a decent cupful with each pass. She would need to start her work over once this outbreak was contained. Otherwise, her stepmother would complain about how the unaffected tiles weren’t as shiny.

Alla will return next weekend with more of Someone Else’s Shoes. In the meantime, check out these other snippets.