30. Kitchen
1534 Words
Elkie and Dorseti are at the nurse's desk. "You both have dates for the ball in 3 days."
Elkie jumps up. "Who am I going with?"
"Tye or Tre."
"I pick Tre."
"Why?"
"It would be awkward going with Tye since I kissed him when I was drunk."
"Elkie with Tre. Dorseti, that means you are going on a date with a prince. Don't get drunk and kiss him. I can't have both of you awkward around him."
"People are talking princess."
"About what?"
"You and Tye."
"What about me and Tye?"
"You 2 like each other."
"We did. But we can't do that anymore. We're only friends."
Dorseti smiles. "I overheard Omar and Dipak. You can't tell where you heard this. You were unconscious, and I was hiding in a wall."
"That's why you 2 are my friends. Go on."
"People think that Tye is your mate. Dipak is refusing to let the testing happen because Tye's to young. Dipak thinks Tye wouldn't be faithful to you for 14 years. Dipak says he would end up breaking your heart. Omar said Tye will be of age in less than a year. It's not like he's that young. But Dipak will not budge."
"Then Tre started in about how it's a possibility for anyone to be your mate. Tye and anyone else included. And that people should stop speculating. And testing traumatizes you. Then he started going off about the island. Whatever that meant." Elkie smiles. "I can hide in the walls too."
Dorseti goes on. "I heard more. I heard Omar and Kane after that. Kane doesn't know what to think of the mate thing. He says you're both young and should wait. But he agreed that you 2 should spend time together to see if a bond forms. So he told Omar that he won't get in the way of you and Tye spending some time alone."
"Did either of you get what Tye thinks? Or is this all behind his back too?"
Elkie nods. "I heard him and Omar. He knows. Some of it anyway. He knows Dipak is refusing the testing. He knows why. He didn't say much about the reason. I know he sat with you when you were unconscious though. A couple of hours a day. He would watch you."
"Well, he's probably bored. Not like he knows everyone well enough to go off and do stuff. Or I don't even know if anyone gave him a tour of the castle... I don't think anyone has ever given me a tour of the castle."
"We've never had one either."
"Let's get him and give us a tour." We stand up. "VITCHEN WE'RE LEAVING."
"Ok."
Dorseti cracks up laughing. "Try not to sound so happy Vitchen."
"Sorry."
We get up to the kings office. I motion for the guard to stop and not announce me. Then I make him come halfway down the hallway. "Summon Prince Tye Ashton Yanin to the hallway outside the door by Princess Hypatia Nadine Sandu. And make sure you point to the door, so he doesn't get confused."
"Hallway outside the door?"
"Yes." I bust out laughing. Elkie pinches me so I stop.
We all tiptoe behind the guard to the door.
"Prince Tye Ashton Yanin you are being summoned outside that door." The 3 of us crack up laughing. "By Princess Hypatia Nadine Sandu."
"WOMAN GET IN HERE."
The 3 of us go in and lean on Dipak's desk. They are all laughing.
"I AM SO FUNNY."
Dipak rubs his eyes. "What are you doing?"
I'm laughing to hard to answer.
Elkie takes a step forward. "We were talking in the medical area about how... What the hell were we talking about?"
Dorseti puts her finger up. "OH I KNOW. Tye is new and probably hasn't had a tour yet. And then the princess said she has never had a tour either. And then we realized we haven't either."
"None of us know where s**t is. So, we're going on a tour. Figured we would take Tye. So he can learn too. Since he's new here and none of us know where anything is."
Dracul rolls his eyes. "You've all been here for hundreds of years."
"Yea but you keep building wings and s**t. I've never been past this one and the advisor wing. Medical area, and ballroom. How many castles do we have now? This may be a long ass tour."
"LANGUAGE PRINCESS."
"Sorry daddy."
Tre rubs his eyes. "Stick with this castle. Take your tour." I smile at him.
Kane stands up. "I'll go with them. Make sure they don't get into trouble."
We get down to the advisor office level.
Kane stretches. "I have better things to do. Summon me if you break anything or get stuck."
"I'm so glad it was you that said you would watch us."
"I don't want to know what you have planned. Just summon me for trouble." He roams away.
Dorseti smiles. "Yay the grownup left."
Elkie shakes her head. "Dorseti, we're grown-ups."
"Yea, but we don't act like it."
"Ok this is the advisor hall. The advisors have offices here. This is Dipak's advisor office. I think they are all the same. This is his desk." I open a drawer. "And this is the alcohol drawer." I pull out a bottle of stuff that burns. They laugh. "I actually haven't been through his entire desk in a while. Give me a minute." I go through the rest of the desk. "Nothing here to get him in trouble. We're good. Let's go find some cups."
I go in the bookshelf and down a level. "I have no idea what's here."
The girls open the doors. Tye puts his eyebrows up. "You really don't know what's here?"
"No. I have no idea. I've only ever used the tunnels here before."
Dorseti yells, "IT'S THE KITCHEN."
Elkie yells back, "DOES IT HAVE CUPS?"
"Well, I would assume that the kitchen has cups girls."
"So how do you get food?"
"Dining room and Mary. Until very recently. Mary taught me how to use servants to get things like food." He gives me a weird look. "Yes, I never used servants. I had no idea how to until they gave me that apartment and some servants to go with it. I learned."
"I FOUND CUPS."
"You know you can come in here and get food?"
I stop what I'm doing and stare at him. "Whenever I want?"
"Yes."
I keep staring. "Like I can go in now and tell them I want fish and they will give it to me?"
"Where do you think the servants get it?"
"The river."
He shakes his head. "No. They get it from the kitchen."
After a long pause, of me staring at him. "THEY HAVE CAKE!" I run in the kitchen. "I NEED CAKE."
Tye runs in behind me. I hand him the bottle of alcohol and go for the people standing there. "Cake me."
He loses it. "You said 'cake me.'"
"Can I have wine here?" Dorseti is staring at the ceiling. Elkie is trying to balance cups and Tye is trying not to cry. He's laughing so hard. He see's the 2 of them and starts laughing harder.
"Well you are the queen. Would you like some wine with your cake?"
"Yes please. 4 cups." She gives me a weird look.
"1 for each of us. I'm not going to drink all 4." She finally gets it.
"I need to sit down. HEY YOU 2. come over here and sit at this table. Quit stealing all the cups. I'll explain how this works."
"WAIT ON ME!"
He blinks at me and about falls over. "Come sit down. They will bring you your cake."
We all sit at the table with him.
"Alright, this is the kitchen. They feed you when you are hungry. Come in here and tell them what you want."
Elkie balances her cups on the table. "They will give me fish whenever I come here?"
Dorseti sits up quick. "Or bread?"
"Yes."
The servants give us all cake and a cup of wine.
"I can come here and tell them to send fruit and cake to the medical area and they do that?"
"Yes."
Dorseti shakes her head. "I thought only your boys could do that."
"Me too."
Elkie's confused. "If it's this easy, why don't they do it all the time?"
Dorseti laughs. "Because they want to make Nadine think it's something special. It's really just this."
"It looks like we are getting our own cake and fruit from now on. They will have to come up with something else."
When we are done, I go back up to the girl in the front with the 3 of them following me. "Please send cake and fruit for 5 people to the nurses' desk, in the medical area, daily, 2 hours after lunch."
"Yes ma'am."
"Thank you. Also, send fruit, cake, and wine to the king's office now. Enough for 15 people or so. Place it on the conference table. And can you refill our cups?"
"Yes ma'am."
We all leave happy, with our full cups.
- Writer
