by Janice Jackson
Dora had already spent five hours baking in her kitchen at the Black Dragon Inn by the time the first kitchen worker appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. She had allowed them a days rest before the frantic baking that was needed for the harvest feast Karl Strange held for all the villagers and people who worked for the inn itself.
She already had sixteen sides of beef marinating in stone crocks before their baking in the vast ovens, turkeys and chickens were already hung from wire outside the kitchen to bleed out in preparation for cooking, even thirty stoats had been dressed out and were even now being seasoned for cooking. Ten suckling pigs and eight fresh ducks filled out the menu for the meal. Dora had sighed when she first saw all the meats to be used, and then she had the experience to understand that they had more than two hundred people to feed for the feast. The numbers grew every year. The fields had been plentiful, fishing bountiful, and the trees had been fruitful. Much of the harvest had already been sold at the markets across Odessa's many countries, bringing in much needed gold coins for the farmers and ranchers.
Dora set five young maids to the task of preparing the morning breads for breakfast, the older workers prepared the finer bread dough for the feast. She had already prepared Karl Strange's breakfast hours earlier so she was free to take a few minutes to herself. She seldom took breaks but today she was strangely tired.
The air outside the kitchen was brisk but refreshingly clean and easy to breathe. Dora had her favorite cup filled with hot coffee, streaming in the morning air, as she walked slowly across the courtyard surrounding the barns and stables. The faint sounds of livestock being taken out to the day pastures greeted her ears, chicken and geese and a few ducks competed for the cracked corn the young lads were shaking from the feeding buckets their clucks, honks and quacks making the tired cook smile at the normalcy of sounds. Dora discovered an old man wrapped in the dirty bandages of a leper leaning against a barn wall, the faint sounds of sniffling came from under the crusted bandages covering his head and face.
"Sir?" Dora queried, "Can I get you something to eat?" Dora knew from long experience that these poor people were hounded from village to village with little to nothing to eat for days, her ever patient heart was touched for this man's suffering. Leprosy was a cruel and ofttimes painful inflection.
The man mumbled something so low that Dora had to lean closer to hear him.
"Food. I need food." The man's voice broke with the sadness of his situation.
Dora gently patted the man on his head and ran to the kitchen to get something to fill the old man's stomach. She returned in less than five minutes with a tray loaded with sliced crisp bacon, scrambled eggs and fresh slices of still warm bread. Behind Dora one of the maids brought out a gunnysack filled with food wrapped in special travel paper. This she gave the old man to take on his journey to the next village. "May the dragon gods travel with you, my friend." Dora whispered in the old man's ear.
"May whatever you touch be with you always, fair lady." The old leper remarked, his hidden lips twisting into a secret smile. The woman would never know that it was a curse that he gave her, though it sounded like a blessing. When he had devoured the contents of the platter he rose on twisted legs and limped out onto the road that ran along side the Black Dragon Inn. He did not look back as he left the sanctuary of the Inn. His work was done for today. If anyone had followed the leper into the woods near the Inn they would have found a strange pile of torn and dirty rags lying upon the ground. The owner of those rags having long vanished back to his own lair, his work had been fruitful this day.
Dora returned with a hot cup of coffee and had just taken a long drink the steaming cup, her eyes closed to take in all the sounds around her, that was when she heard another sound. This one was one of a young child weeping in pain and fear. Her eyes flew open and she gazed carefully around to try and locate where the sound was coming from. The sounds seemed to be located somewhere in the shadows of the large barn where the horses and cattle are kept every night. Dora's normal placid aura was ruffled at the thought that anyone had caused harm to a child. Her eyes kept searching the dark shadows for a sign of the child; she kept moving closer toward the sounds hoping to catch a clue as to the maker of the sounds.
Unseen by Dora a pair of bees were also watching the shadows. Suddenly they rose from her shoulder and flew off toward the hive outside the kitchen, there another group of apiary workers conversed.
Dora felt a sudden chill run through her that had nothing to do with the weather, something shifted in the shadows and the crying suddenly ceased. Dora could not make out what moved beyond the sunlight of morning, the shadows seemed darker now. She moved another few steps toward the edge of the barn, when suddenly something grabbed at her left ankle, it left a bright blood trail down her foot. She just bent to inspect the cut and something grabbed her black hair and attempted to drag her behind the barn wall and into the deep shadows. Dora barely had time to scream out in fear when the air around her head suddenly was filled with something screaming in pain and it was not from her.
Bees swarmed everywhere, diving in anger at the mysterious creatures still hidden in the darker shadows of the barn wall. Dora managed to pick herself off the ground and began running back to the kitchen to get some men to help outside. Karl met her at the kitchen door and after seeing to it that several maids attended the wounded Dora, he joined five men outside the barn. Karl had drawn his short sword and was quickly involved with fighting with a beast yet unseen. In less than ten minutes the other men pulled several a misshapen creatures from the shadows. They had long legs in the rear and short powerful ones in the front with long sharp claws.
Karl hissed in disgust as he gazed upon the Night Stalkers. He took careful note of all the changes in these new creatures, besides being bold enough to attack in daylight. These had been drawing in Dora to kill her this close to the Black Dragon Inn. He had not had to do too much to kill these beasts as the bees had already taken most of the fight out of them before he got there to the barn. Karl knew that changes were going to have to be made to protect the workers and guests of the inn. New wards were going to have to be created.
Inside the kitchen Dora was feeling better after her leg had been bandaged and was just trying to rise and prepare to get back to work when a sudden pain deep in her chest hit her like a ton of bricks and once more she found herself on the floor. Karl had just come through the door and saw what had happened. He picked Dora up off the ground, paying no attention t her heavy weight. He took her into the small room she had off the kitchen area and he ordered Gretchen to prepare a herbal drink containing morning glory seeds and eye-bright. These were the herbs used to ease pressure in the chest. Dora's pale blue lips told him what had happened to his cook and friend. She had suffered an attack that though she would survive this time, might prove fatal if she did not take better care of herself. They would talk later after she had proper rest. There was nothing that her well-trained staff could not finish for her this day. He had Moira moved into his rooms until Dora was better. He sighed when the bees moved with her. He would have to remember to leave a crack in the door for them to move back and forth daily.
"DIET!!!!!" Dora shouted at Karl in the now empty kitchen. "What do you mean I must diet?" Dora's face was red with anger at the suggestion that she must lose weight.
"Dora, today you suffered from chest pains due to your stress of being attacked and your excess weight. Unless we get you back into shape, the next one might be stronger and you could die. I do not want you to die, Dora." Karl spoke in an even voice, though his fear for her was far greater than he would tell her right now.
"But I am too young to get chest pains, Karl. I am not old." Tears ran down Dora's plump cheeks. She hated to admit that Karl was right about the weight needing to be off. She had been far too tired lately and had been thinking that a new eating regimen was probably a good idea. She just hated thinking that she was getting older. Perhaps that was why she had been thinking of her late husband and their children that had been killed over twenty years before. Killed by the very same creatures that had nearly gotten her today.
"Dora, we have known each other since you were a young girl and I do not want to lose you before your time. We will work together on this subject. It will be better than you think. Just don't leave me, young lady!" Karl planted a soft kiss on her forehead and he rose to check on some much needed tasks. Dora needed time to think on things.
Karl was very worried about his head cook. Dora could be stubborn about her own health and he did not want to lose her, she had been his friend and cook for too many years. Karl sat at his massive desk and began writing out a letter of request to the scribal guild.
"Dear sirs;
I, Karl Strange, Captain of the Crystal Fist, call upon the Scribal Priesthood to give aid and succor for healing my Cook and friend, Dora.
I am requesting that you send a healer to the Black Dragon Inn, in the Talos Valley. I have a few members of the staff who are in need of medical services. I am willing to pay whatever the going rate currently is. A healer who understands heart complications would be desired.
Please let me know when this can be done. I am Karl Strange, Black Dragon Inn, Talos Valley. The bird I am sending this request with, shall return your response to the Inn.
Thank you for your attention on this matter. I am enclosing a token of enhanced gold with my request, please act upon this request quickly.
Karl Strange "
Karl ended his letter of request. He checked on Dora and then Moira. Satisfied that both were doing fine, he asked a few of his staff to do some herbal hunting for him. He told them he needed a pound of seeds from the foxglove plant and a half-pound of seeds from the morning-glory plants. These he would use to ease the pain and strain on Dora's chest. Karl retreated to his study and once he had locked the door, he opens a hidden panel in the wall. Taking a torch from a wall sconce, he followed the stone stars to a secret room below his study.
Karl opened a metal door with a large brass key and quietly went inside. Karl put the torch into a holder and turned toward a set of metal bars set into a stonewall. Behind the bars a few dark shadows fluttered and squeaked in excitement when Karl moved toward them. Karl chuckled and removed a leather pouch from under his shirt.
"Alright, my greedy little ones." Karl's voice was soft and tender as if dealing with a child; in his hand he held a bloody chunk of fresh meat. This he pushed threw the bars to one of the shadows. "Ouch!" Karl laughed as he quickly pulled back his fingers. "That was my fingers, not the meat."
The shadows in the cell chirped in a tone of regret for their actions. A tiny-clawed foot reached through the bars and touched Karl's fingers.
Karl used his uninjured fingers to stroke the tiny claw and then he opened the bars and instantly the small cavern was flooded with very tiny winged creatures. Karl sat back on his haunches and watched in delighted wonder at the rainbow of flashing colors darted about the room. Karl then held forth a finger and one of the creatures lightly landed on it. Karl reached up and stroked the lizard head of the miniature dragon. The bronze scales glittered in the light of the torch, it purred in pleasure at Karl's gentle touch.
"Tag, I have a job for you today. I want you to deliver this letter to the Scribal Council," Karl carefully attached a small rolled scroll onto the mini-drag's leg, and then Karl carefully carried the mini-dragon out a secret door that led to the outside, to a hill below the Black Dragon Inn. He lifted his hand and the mini-dragon launched itself into the air and darted off in a southwestern direction.
Karl returned to the cave and after an hour managed to return the other five mini-dragons to the cell in the wall. The now empty pouch he put into his coat pocket and took the torch down and left the secret room.
Upstairs Karl found Dora returned to the kitchen, she was baking cakes and bread for the inn's meals. He watched her from a sheltered nook, he wondered about the amount of food she was putting into her mouth as she created masterpiece after masterpiece. In a matter of a few hours Dora had managed to create six three layer cakes, a mountain of cookies some of the kitchen staff were removing from the massive ovens of the Inn.
Karl stepped out into the kitchen area and shouted at his cook. "Dora, you promised that you would not eat so much. I watched you eating mouthful after mouthful while you frosted the cakes."
"I beg your pardon! I am not eating that much food. I always taste my cooking to see that it is right for the staff and guests, that includes you, Karl Strange!" Dora was nearly hysterical in her anger, tears were coursing down her cheeks, she whirled on her left off and left the kitchen.
Karl felt a wave of shame rush over him for having pushed Dora too far. He shook his head, puzzled as to what was going on. He had never before seen Dora eat like that and never remember that she had consumed so much food. "What in the name of the dragon gods is going on?"
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