#creag

“Rosemary.”

“Alright. And this one?”

“Burdock root. Because it looks like a bird’s leg. Bird. Burd-ock. Burdock root.”

“Must be a weird lookin’ bird if it’s leg’s lookin’ like that. Now, how ‘bout this one, then?”

“Cloves.”

“And this beauty?”

Nenani crossed her arms, regarding the dark haired Vhasshalan with an unamused look. “...Yale, that’s a weed.”

He waved the plant in front of her teasingly. “Aye and this weed’s got a name.”

“Creepy thistle.”

He laughed. “Creepin’ thistle, Dumplin’. Creepin’. Not creepy.”

“Looks creepy to me. It’s all spiky and stuff.”

“Yeah, it does a bit. Hmm. Well, what about this one?”

“Oh! Ooh...uh, that’s the weird sage. Clearly...no, uh...clarly...larlee la-la-larry sage.”

Yale draped a hand across his eyes and chuckled. “Heh he he. Clary.”

“Yeah. Clary sage. That’s what I said.”

“Wasn’t even close.”

“...it was kind of close.”

“Not even a bit. All right, next one.”

“Yucky soap leaf.”

“Huh? Soap leaf?”

“It tastes like soap. So it’s yucky soap leaf.”

“Okay, well what do the rest of us call it then?”

“...uh...coree...coriander?”

“Asking or tellin’ me, Dumplin’?”

“Um. Telling.”

“And ya’d be correct. Heh. Yucky soap leaf. And just how is it ya know what soap tastes like, hm?”

“You never accidentally ate soap?”

“How do you accidentally eat soap?”

“...I thought it was cheese.”

Yale laughed loudly. “Yer a weird one, Dumplin’.”

Nenani huffed, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment. “It does! Soap looks like cheese!”

“What part of the world do ya come from that soap looks anything like cheese?”

The door to the spice room opened and Farris walked in, carrying a leather bound journal and a piece of parchment that held his focus.

“Farris!” Nenani called, standing up from the collection of jars and ramekins of herbs that surrounded her. “I have a question! Does soap look like cheese?”

Farris paused, looking up from his paper, eyeing the small human in confusion. “What kind of question is that?”

Yale just laughed louder. “Yer not gonna be convincing anyone of it, lil’un.”

“It does! Cheese looks like soap! Or...soap looks like cheese.”

“And why,” Farris asked, walking over and handing the paper to Yale. “...does it matter?”

“She’s tryin’ to save face, is all,” glancing down at the paper. His eyes flickered back to Nenani and he grinned. “Seein’ as she just admitted she’s eaten soap thinkin’ it was cheese.”

Both giants were laughing at her now and her face was as red as a tomato.

“It. Looked. Like. Cheese!” Nenani insisted vehemently.

………………………….

Fall ebbed away to winter, bringing with it colder temperatures and rain. The courtyard was constantly covered in mud much to the workers’ displeasure. And with the changing of the season came a shift in the style of food the kitchens prepared. Harvest time had brought an absurd abundance of vegetables of all kinds, but it and the beef and venison of the summer months was now used up. They were largely replaced with fowl and boar. And the salted Lippers. A winter staple as even in the frigid temperatures of winter, the Lippers still thrives under the frozen lakes and rivers.  

For one week straight, Saen and Yale did nothing but make jams and marmalade with the last of the summer fruits that had been stored in the warmer pantry. They had the entire long table covered in empty ceramic jars and there were three different cauldrons bubbling away inside the hearth, filling with crushed fruits and copious amounts of sugar. Nenani helped out on the day they were making black currant jam and ended up hopelessly staining her hands and face a bright purple. Saen showed her how to get the stains out with lemon juice and then had to teach her how to not get the lemon juice in her eyes.

Just as the days had turned colder, signaling an early and likely long and harsh winter, Lolly was able to finally make her promised visit to check how Nenani was settling and to deliver to her a few much needed things. Such as the clothes she and the ladies had finished as well as a coat, scarf, and a quilt. All of which had been delivered quite fortuitously as that particular day saw the first real frost and Nenani was not a happy little human. She’d been huddling miserably near the hearth, as close as anyone would let her, trying to keep feeling in her toes. Giants, it seemed, were much less susceptible to cold than humans. So when Lolly presented the gifts to her, Nenani quickly and happily put the coat on, wrapped the scarf about her neck, and then snuggled into the quilt.

“Ya look like a pillow,” Quinn commented with a laugh as he walked passed.  

“A warm pillow!” Nenani corrected and huddled further into the quilt. Before Lolly left to tend to her own duties, she brushed out Nenani’s hair and redid the braid as she had done the first night and showed the little girl how to do it so she could keep her hair from looking like a wild brush all the time.

Yale would spend a few hours every week teaching her how to identify various herbs and spices and how each was used. Nenani was surprised to learn that Farris’s job as Spice Master did not simple include managing the spice stores and grinding up mixtures to make food taste better. He was tasked with ordering and managing all spices, herbs, and salts that came into the castle and not only for culinary purposes, but medicinal ones as well. And whatever supplies Maevis required for his magical experiments. Despite her assumptions, Farris was a walking library when it came to plants and herbs and the like.  

As for Yale, she learned that he was not only Farris’s assistant, but also protégé. He was being groomed to one day replace Farris when the day came that the red haired giant would retire. There seemed to be a running joke among the staff that Farris would never retire and would be well into his nineties and still be going strong.  

“It’s a known truth,” Saen was saying. “Nice fellas die young and fuckers live forever!”

“Sorry, lad,” Avery laughed, clapping Yale on the back. “But in all likelihood, we’ll all be dead before our time and the only ones left down here will be Farris and Bart with their false teeth and rheumatism.”

…………………………..

“He thinks he’s so clever,” Jae said as he lead Nenani through a new portion of the tunnels that snaked all through the Vhasshalan castle. Lighting their way were the glass orbs sitting in their brackets, a bright brilliant light hoping from one to the next as they moved along the path. “Hiding it in plain sight. But he has drastically underestimated the amount of time I have on my hands these days.”

“So why are we hunting for Maevis’s secret blackberry bushes?” Nenani asked, still unsure of their current endeavor. She liked Maevis and it seemed in poor taste to go ravaging something of his in such a way. It seemed to her that if he went to such lengths as to hide these bushes, they were not meant for conniving little human hands to go plucking at their leisure.

“It’s just what I do,” Jae replied as though it were explanation enough. At her dubious silence, he explained further. “Look, when I was a kid and still trying to get use to this place, Maevis came up with this game where he would hide stuff around the castle and if I found it, he’d give me a treat. For the last year or so he’s been planting blackberry bushes in weird places. I found them all but one and since it’s winter, I’d given up finding it at all until spring. That is until last night.” He turned to face her, eyes alight with a mischievous gleam that was beginning to become more and more familiar. “The inner gardens. I never go there anymore, but it’s the only place left where he could have planted one.”

“Why don’t you ever go there anymore?”

Jae shrugged at the question, blasé and aloof, but there was a strange tension to his eyes that hinted at something more. “I just don’t. It’s right under the Queens apartments and I’ve made it a personal rule to avoid her and her walking mountain man.”

By now, Nenani had become well acquainted with the fact that the new Queen of Vhasshal held a very poor opinion on humans. While never having met the monarch herself, Jae kept her well informed in regards to the reasons why it was best he and her alike should avoid any meetings.  Nenani’s impression of her had been largely formed by the snippets of information supplied by others. Ever since the royal wedding, Jae had put himself into an odd sort of self banishment as he tried to avoid the Queen. As such, he spent a lot of time down in the kitchens with Nenani. Farris did not seem to mind and Kol was quite happy to have Jae hanging around.

“Like the ol’ days!” the baker replied with a grin. Nenani recalled that particular day quite well, having had the misfortune of falling into an open flour sack. Kol and Jae were breathless with laughter as Quinn fetcher her out while barely hiding his own mirth. Even a deep soak had failed to get rid of all of the flour and she was picking bits of dried dough from her hair for several days after.  

“I am just thankful he doesn’t know about the tunnels,” Jae said in reference to the Queen’s personal guard. “Gods above, can you imagine how he and the Queen would react to knowing how easily I can get around the castle? Should that day ever come, don’t be surprised to find traps set at all the entrances.”

“Why does she hate you so much? The gravy thing was an accident,” Nenani offered.

“You underestimate a high born ladie’s ability to hold a grudge,” Jae replied. “She hates humans in general. I’m just a special target.”

“Why don’t you ask the King to talk to her? I mean...you get along with him right?”

“Warren? Yeah, we get along fine. But it’s not my place to tell him how to arrange his marriage.”

“Well, I didn’t say you had to rearrange his marriage. Just ask him to stand up for you. Enough to make you feel safe enough to sleep in your own bed.”

“What? Getting tired of me already?” Jae laughed and elbowed her teasingly in the ribs. “Don’t want me in the kitchens, is that it? Thinking I’m moving in on your territory? Well, I got news for ya girly. It was my turf years before you came along.”

Nenani wanted to smile at his joking, to shoot back a quip, or a jab. However, she could not help but feel a little sad. “It doesn’t seem very fair that you need to hide. In your own home.”

Jae sighed, his eyes narrowing. “Look. Can we just talk about something else?”

“It’s not fair,” Nenani told him flatly. “It’s wrong.”

She had expected Jae to brush her off as he was want to do. But instead, something flashed in his eyes. A kind of uncertainty. Fear. “Sure it is,” he murmured. “Not like I have any other place to go. But like I said, it’s not my place to dictate what the King does. If the Queens hates me, that’s my problem.”  

He sighed and was quiet for a moment and then turned about face and grinned brightly. “Besides, I have so many hiding places around here they couldn’t get me out if every giant in Vhasshal tried. They’re stuck with me.”

Nenani tried to smile at that, but was unable to shake her displeasure. Barely more than a month had passed since she arrived and in that short span of time, she had settled into her new life fairly well. Everyone in the kitchens were nice to her, even if their endless teasing was very tiresome, and they looked out for her. She was learning all sorts of neat things from Yale and Farris and it was wonderful. She wanted for nothing.

It already felt like home.

But whenever Jae stopped by, he always looked a little more sad, a little more tired than his last visit. A little more less of himself. But it would disappear behind a smile or a joke and it was beginning to irk Nenani that he would dance and glance around the issue.  

“I know what it’s like,” she reminded him. “To feel like an outsider in a place you use to call home.”

Jae stopped to face her and his expression was of mild shock and then a small smile. He patted her shoulder and nodded. “I appreciate the concern, Nenani. You don’t have to worry about me. I can take care of myself.” He sighed. “The truth is, I’m staying away from the Queen so she and Warren and do what newlyweds do and get on with their own affairs. He worked so hard for this marriage to happen, this alliance. It’s not just about me or my comfort. I can’t be selfish The stability of the entire Kingdom rests on this marriage being successful. Best if I keep my distance. You may have noticed, but disaster kind of follows me.” A pause and in a small, regretful voice, he murmured, “You’re not the only one going around thinking their cursed.”

“You’re not cursed,” Nenani offered seriously. And then grinned. “Just a little clumsy.”

Jae laughed and tugged on her braid. “You spend far too much time in the Kitchens. You’re starting to sound like them now.”

Nenani just grinned as they continued on down the tunnel. “Just think, I might even start cursing.”

Jae laughed, a pure sound that was as loud as it was genuine. “Such a rebel, you are.”  

……………………….

The inner gardens were located in the heart of the castle’s keep in a round atrium surrounded by intricate columns made to resemble large trees stretching upwards, the leaves and branches of their canopies making up the decorative arches between the supporting columns. Like the spokes of a wheel, bright blue and green tile walkways lead from the outer rim to the center where there sat a grand fountain of white marble.

“You should see it in the spring,” remarked Jae when Nenani stood silent and dumbstruck with the beauty of the gardens. Even as bare and flowerless as it was, the space was magnificent and its sheer size only added to awe of it all. “And when all the flowers are in bloom? So long you aren’t allergic or nothing.”

“So,” Nenani asked, looking about the thin and leafless brambles and skeletal bushes. “What does a blackberry bush look like in winter?”

They set about looking for the illusive plant with Jae having given her vague description of what to look for. After mistaking hibernating rose bushes three times, Nenani began to wonder if perhaps Maevis had not hidden the bush in the inner gardens after all.

“No, he must have!” Jae reiterated firmly, but with an edge of exasperation. “I mean, where else could it be?”

“...maybe it’s metaphorical?” Nenani offered inanely, straightening her scarf a bit.

Jae stared blankly at her. “The worst part of that idea is that it’s not outside the realm of possibility.”  

Climbing onto the fountain's edge and sitting on the rim, the two humans used the improved vantage point to score over the area. As time went on, Jae became increasingly exasperated.

“Dammit,” he said at last. “I was so sure it would be here.”

“Maybe we should head back to the kitchens,” Nenani suggested. The sky was gray and it seemed to be getting colder.

“I’m calling shenanigans,” Jae told her. “I think Maevis is lying about there being another bush.”

Cold, empty handed, and disappointed they clambered back down off the fountain and headed back to the tunnel’s entrance set in the wall along the floor. It sat flush with the rest of the stonework and the only way to open it was by pressing a spring locked trigger disguised as coffer near the floor. The stone molding around the hallway was covered with the decorative recess squares and the only distinguishing mark on the door’s opening mechanism was a seven petaled flower at its center.

Suddenly, Nenani felt Jae’s hand grab her arm.

“What?” She asked, turning to face the young man. However, he was not looking at her. Rather, he was staring ahead, eye wide open and face pale. Nenani followed his line of sight and her heart skipped a beat.

Further down the hallway, close to the tunnel’s entrance, was an unfamiliar giant. He was massive, perhaps a full head taller than Farris or Bart and wide. Much wider. Head to toe, the massive figure was clad in black and brown leather, the hilt of a long sword poking up from behind his left shoulder and another sword hung at his hip. His large hand was caressing the hilt of the one at his waist, dark eyes focused on the two smaller beings.

“Who…?” she whispered unsteadily.

“Creag. His name is Creag,” Jae said, voice low. “The Queen’s man.”

Nenani had not felt that particular kind of innate, primal fear since she first came to Vhasshal, when she thought the King meant to have her executed for theft. But at that moment, standing in the very large hallway, and facing the largest being she had ever bore witness to, it all came flooding back. Her insides twisted and the panicked swirling of her thought kept her feet rooted to the spot. Like a spooked rabbit staring at a wolf.  

Jae’s grip on her arm tightened and he whispered to her, “When I say so, make a run for the corridor behind us. Take a right at the first turn. Then two door down there’s another entrance at the corner near a table. It’s got a vase on it. That tunnel’s a near straight shot to the Library. I’ll meet you there.”

“W-what are you gonna do?” She asked, matching his volume.

“He can’t see us go into the tunnels,” he replied. “I know some short cuts. I can lose him easily. He’s got more reason to come after me than you, so I’ll draw him away.”

Jae straightened his posture and took a step forward, putting himself between the glaring giant and Nenani.

“Are ya just gonna stand there looking pretty or are we gonna have to have some words?” Jae asked, voice bouncing oddly in the large hall.

Creag took one large step forward, the leather of his person creaking. “You were warned to keep away, rat.”

Nenani could not help but flinch at the real and palpable malice in the giant’s words and she was begrudged to admit to herself she had never bore witness to a giant with truly malicious intentions.

“Yeah, well I’m not much for following orders. Especially the stupid ones. Even more so when the one throwin’ ‘em around doesn’t have the authority to say shit about it.”

Creag drew out his sword and took another series of menacing steps. “I have all the authority I need right here.”

“And we have the King’s protection,” Jae threw back in a voice that belittled the degree of danger. “Or did you forget the part where Warren told you to leave us the fuck alone, huh?”

Creag sneered. “You may have wormed your way into the King’s confidence, taking advantage of his good will and charity, but I see you Silvaaran rats for what you truly are. Murders, treacherous scum. You lot committed regicide once. I will not permit it to happen again.”

“You think I’d want to kill the King? Big guy, you’re even dumber than ya look,” Jae shot back, clearly offended. “I’m his ward.”

“I will do what I must to keep my Lady and her progeny safe,” Creag snarled as he gripped the hilt firmly. “You will not fowl the air they breath with your presence.”

“Progeny?” Jae asked, the word falling clumsily from his mouth.

“The Queen is with child.” Nenani heard the words and while she was not so surprised, she was concerned. She stole a glance up at Jae’s face. He seemed...blank.

“...is that so?” He asked absently.

“And now the King can bring an end to this fallacy of yours,” Creag replied, a cruel smirk on his lips and began to walk towards them. “He will have a son of his own. A real son. Not some pet with which to pretend and waste his affection on faux familial bonds.”

The living mountain’s words seemed to strike a chord with Jae and his confident stance slowly drained away. Nenani could see the emotion in the young man’s eyes. “Jae,” she called. “Jae?”

He didn’t answer. Creag was nearly on them and she was near to panicking. “Jae? Say something!”

Again, no answer. With startled glances between Jae and the fast approaching Creag, Nenani did the first thing she thought of. She slapped Jae across the face. “JAE!”