Regis blinked cartoonishly, then leaned forward and gingerly took the mushroom from her hand, chewing it with such clear dejection that Ellie took pity on him and tossed over a chunk of her eel, giggling when he pounced on it and swallowed it with a single bite. “It’s important you eat a healthy, balanced diet, Regis,” she lightly scolded. Regis eyed it uncertainly, then said, “Maybe some more of that meat instead?” “You get plenty of aether,” I mumbled as Mom held out half a mushroom. “Would you believe this man never feeds me?” Regis’s oversized puppy eyes gleamed as he stared up at my mother like she’d just given him an award. Don’t you think with everything he's done to help out around here, he's earned it?” “He's going to keep asking for stuff like this if you spoil him, Mom,” I said around a mouthful. Mom cut off a burned end from the slice of meat we’d given her and fed it to Regis, who took it right off her fork. Ellie delivered stacks of slightly burned meat, eggs, mushrooms, steamed greens, red beans, and a coil of some kind of eel-caught from a nearby underground lake-that Ellie insisted was delicious, and together we filled up three plates. Regis scooted back so that he was directly in front of her, and she began petting him behind the ears.Įllie and I pushed and shoved at the stove, but in the end I let her claim victory, instead grabbing a handful of wooden plates and utensils to set the table. Her motions were still slightly sluggish, but her gaze was much more steady than it had been just the day before. I pulled out a chair for her, and she eased into it with a grateful, tear-streaked smile. “I guess it’s just…waking up to something like this…it’s been a long time.” “Why am I crying?” she asked herself with a laugh. “Huh? What do you-oh.” She wiped at her cheeks with the back of her long sleeves. “Oh,” Ellie mumbled quickly and quietly, “Mom, what’s wrong?” It was then I realized there were quiet tears running down Mom’s cheeks. “Arthur was mostly just in the-ow!” she yelped as I let her tumble to the floor. “I tried making breakfast,” she grumped, her arms crossed. “It’s not much, but Ellie and I tried making some breakfast.” “Good morning,” I said, waving with the hand suspending Ellie upside down so that my sister bobbed around like a ragdoll. The whisper of soft turnshoes on stone tile drew my attention to the kitchen doorway. “Hey, not fair!” she shouted, swinging her arms as she tried futilely to land a punch. I grabbed her ankle and yanked her leg out from under her, holding her upside down with her hair pooling on the tiles beneath her. “I’m not sure that’s something to brag about,” I pointed out, laughing.Įllie’s leg shot out and thumped against my thigh. “I can do more with rat and mushrooms than you can with the whole royal pantry, I bet.” Just toss it over to me.”Įllie dropped a handful of cut-up mushrooms in with the meat and grease, humming with irritation. “You know, that looks pretty much irreparable. Regis was sitting in the middle of the table, watching with interest, his nose twitching with every waft of meat-scented air. “This coming from the girl who's been eating nothing but fish, rats, and mushrooms for the last how many months?” I dipped my fingers into the saucer of water I’d cooled the pan with and flicked several drops into her face as she struggled to flip the slab of meat I’d burned. “Just let me do it already! Who mixes water and hot grease, anyway? Have you ever even cooked before?” I cursed and pulled back.Įllie slapped my hand away from the pan heating on the stove. Water hissed as it hit the black iron, sending up a cloud of steam. The scalding metal sizzled against bare bone, charring it black as the flesh around it melted.
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