Chapter 106 - Comfort Food

[At Ogden Cove the same morning]

I woke up in a room though yet similar to mine in structure, but unlike mine at all. 

I sat up in bed and held my face for a few moments as memories of last night came rushing back to me. To think that there were three dead bodies in the house with trails of blood everywhere… I shuddered. 

Slowly, I lifted the covers and stepped out of bed, stretching my arms in the process.

"God," I mumbled tiredly. "I don't want to smell blood so early in the morning."

I looked around my new room for the while, and realized that this was the fifth room, the room Mama had previously locked up. She probably unlocked it the day too many guests arrived at once, to provide them a more comfortable night. 

Slowly, I looked under the bed, trying to see if the loose plank had unscrewed. It was dark and the early morning light flooding in through the small was not enough to see in the small nook, so I stood up and sighed.

I hand combed my hair before heading out. At once, I ran into Sven on the landing.

"Good morning," I said, puzzled. "What are you doing?"

Sven had a mop in his hands which he was scrubbing against the floor in order to remove the dried blood stains. 

"I thought you didn't like blood," I said, looking at him.

He shrugged. "I don't. But I also don't want a princess to live in this inn when it's in such a state."

"Quiet," I hissed as I looked at the other doors, doors which were still clamped shut. I turned to Sven again, a frown on my face. "What if someone heard you? This is supposed to be a secret, if you don't mind."

He chuckled, trying to keep things light, but I could tell by the masked expression on his face that he was struggling to stay in the presence of all this blood. The smell even bothered me.

"Okay, I'm heading down," I said as I carefully treaded over the bloodless part of the floor. "Is Mama Ruth awake yet?"

Sven shrugged again. "Dunno. Everyone was asleep when I woke up."

Sighing, I skipped down the bloody steps and peeked into Mama's room, which was dark. 

"Mama," I whispered.

"What are you doing?"

I turned around and saw Mama narrowing her eyes at me from the kitchen. 

"You're up?" she asked as she wiped her face with her sleeve. "Come help in the kitchen. Klyn's been trying to make soup for the past hour."

"What?" I asked, puzzled, as I followed her in the kitchen. There indeed stood Klyn near the counter, and I was surprised to see him with his mask off. He was handsome underneath the cover, and his lips were a maroon-ish purple shade. Overall, with his black eyes, fair skin and dark lips, he looked like a ghoul, or much better, a grim reaper ready to take my soul. I tried to hide the shiver than ran down my spine, but when I saw him struggling with the chicken, I laughed. He stared at me.

"Are you trying to shred raw chicken? Here, let me." I said as I pushed him aside and got to work on the bits of chopped chicken along with the bones. It had been a while since I had some good soup, and considering that the weather had gotten so cold so quickly, it would be the perfect comfort food.

Klyn stared down at what I was doing , his eyes fixed in deep concentration. For a while, I almost forgot what he was involved in last night and immersed myself in the joys of cooking good food.

I added all the spices and let them merge with the boiling water. Then I cracked an egg and quickly stirred the separated whites into the spiced water, which formed lovely white swirls of egg in the soup. I added in some vegetables that Mama had chopped earlier and finally put in the simmered chicken. I put on the lid to the pot and let the whole mixture sit on the flame for a while

I turned around to Mama and Klyn, staring at me in awe.

"That was surprising," Mama commented. "You managed what Klyn couldn't do in an hour in just 15 minutes. I'm amazed, lassie."

Klyn nodded in agreement. I blushed at the praise and laughed. 

"Thanks. This was nothing."

Soon, all five of us sat at the table and gulped down warm bowls of fresh chicken soup.

"This is absolutely delicious," Hector mumbled as he slurped on the comforting soup. "There's magic in your hands, Mama Ruth."

"Not me," Mama snapped as she helped herself to a second serving. She pointed at me. "It was her. She made it."

Eyes turned to me and I paused eating. 

"Wow, that's amazing. Even my wife's never made something as flavorful as this," Hector complemented and then helped himself to another serving as well. 

The only one not eating his share was Sven. If I didn't know any better, I would've taken it as an offense, but I figured that the stench of blood had taken away his appetite. I was about to say something to him when a series of crisp knocks came at the door.

"I'll check," I offered as I hopped out of my seat and unlocked the door. Opening it an inch, I peered outside and saw Reynard's familiar face staring down at me.

"You!" I said, surprised. "We're having breakfast. Care to join us?"

Reynard shook his head. For some reason, he seemed more grave than usual. Was something up with him? 

"Um, can I talk to you?" he said, putting his hands in his pockets. 

"Out here?" I asked, confused. 

"Erm..." He peeked inside past me and frowned. "Does Mama have guests over?"

I nodded as I quickly stepped outside and closed the door behind me before he could see more. I didn't want him to know what was going on in the inn. It would create such a fuss if he realized we were getting involved with assassins and dead bodies and whatnot.

"Let's talk out here," I said. "So what's been going on with you? Anything interesting happened lately?"

He muttered something under his breath which I wasn't able to catch. Then he sighed and said, "A lot of things have happened over the past few days. What about you? Anything happened that I should know of?"

I smiled innocently and tilted my head to the side. "The same old. By the way, why are you wearing that weird scarf on your head?"

"This?" he asked, touching the patterned piece of cloth. "Oh, um… Just because. I'll tell you later."

I frowned. "Okay… Oh! I just remembered. Should I just give you my hair right now? You didn't come around after the last time we talked so I was never able to-"

"That won't be necessary," he breathed, a cloud of mist forming in the air as he spoke. "Not anymore, that is."

I frowned. "Why not? OMG, is she cured? That's such good news!"

He shook his head. "Well, no. She died."

I stopped celebrating at once and stood rooted to my spot. "She… She's dead? Who's dead? Not your mother, right?"

He gave me a painfully sad smile. "Yes, her."

"Oh… I'm so sorry, Reynard. I'm so sorry. I should've-"

"No, it's okay," he sighed. "It was never your fault, so you have nothing to apologize for."

I fidgeted with my hands as I stared at the ground. Oh dear, no. If only I had given him my hair at the beginning, if only I had been more efficient… We could've saved her life. I sniffed as I thought about it. Even though he said it was not my fault, I still felt at blame for her loss.

"Arghh!" I groaned with my face in my hands. "I'm still sorry Reyard. At least you still have your father." As soon as I said that, I knew by the crumpled expression on Reynard's face that something was even more wrong. "What?" I whispered, afraid of what he'd say.

"Um, so my father died, too," he murmured, avoiding my gaze. "I just- Everything happened in the span of a few days so it was a lot to absorb, but I-"

"You're not kidding?" I whispered, which made him stop talking.

He gave me another sad smile. "I wish I was," he whispered back. 

"What are you going to do now?"

He shrugged and sighed. "I don't know. I've taken some time off work to spend it with Rosa. If not for her, I'd never have been able to cope with such great losses."

I squeezed my hands together, not knowing what to say. As someone who had gone through something similar, losing both parents wasn't something easy to get over. I opened my mouth to say something that would be of consolation, but closed it again, wondering if it would feel bad for him to hear. Reynard saw me trying and chuckled, which was the saddest thing I ever heard.

"It's okay," he said. "I'd rather you don't treat me any differently than you normally do just because my parents are dead. That's a daft excuse, anyways."

I nodded. "Of course. Anyways, so I was thinking something."

He folded his arms and leaned against the inn's wall. "Do tell."

I hesitated, then sighed. "Truth be told, I've been having thoughts about moving out. I don't think it's good to keep burdening Mama like this, especially when she's already tight on money. What do you think?"

He made a face. "Seriously? If Mama didn't like you staying at her place, she would've kicked you out long ago. The fact that she hasn't is a miracle on its own. I've seen too many a times when she turned away people from the inn whom she didn't like."

I laughed. It was good to know at least someone, somewhere in this fictional world, was willing to let me stay at their home. I don't know what I'd be doing if Mama had turned me away from her door when we first turned up here. I'd probably be hidden in an alley, living off of garbage food. 

To think that I was able to enjoy warm soup in such weather was truly a blessing.