Chapter 8 - chapter 8

Chapter 8
The double doors flew open and there stood my new teacher.
I took a couple of steps backwards.
“Ahhhhhello!” I changed my rather rude scream into a hello at the last second. I had a right to scream though. Why hadn’t D.B.R-I mean ‘Mark’ warned me? I was excepting well, you know... something human?
What greeted me at the door was a man who looked, according to his body, to be in his early twenties. He had a huge hawk head perched on his neck. Complete with brown and white feathers and two round beady golden eyes. Those eyes were pointed in my direction of course. Where else would they be? He was wearing lot’s of warm looking clothes. I shivered. I must look a right mess, with my soaking wet hair and dress.
“Hello there.” he said. He didn’t sound unfriendly. “Well come inside! You must be freezing! That idiot. He could have given you some proper clothes.”
I suddenly realized that I still had Mark’s cloak.
“Oh!” I said stepping over too the spot where he had gone to see if I could get the ground to take in the cloak.
“Oh it’s ok.” The Second Council Member said, clacking his beak a little as he talked. “We pretty much have an unlimited supply of them. He won’t miss it. We can call them out of the air when we need them. See?” He waved his hands and a pure white cloak appeared out of nowhere. He flung it over his shoulders and shook his head a little so his feathers shook too. “It’s not magic, magic isn’t real. It’s just a complicated branch of science.”
“Oh.” I said again, not understanding in the least.
“Well come in! It’s so cold and all you have is that self-centered idiot’s cloak. I’ll start a fire and cook something and we can eat and talk.”
“Ok.” I said stepping inside. I kind of liked this guy. He seemed really nice and friendly. Plus he was going to feed me.
He shut the wooden doors behind us and my eyes started to adjust to the dimness of the castle.
It was furnished just like I would expect a mid-evil castle would be. Big wooden furniture was all over all of the rooms. Huge thick rugs covered the hard stone cobbled floor. Tapestries were draped over most of the walls and there was at least one fireplace in every room.
“Hey! Wait!” I exclaimed. The Second Council Member turned to me.
“I’m Allison. What’s your name?”
“I know what your name is.” He laughed. “Mine is Akhom. It means ‘eagle’ in Egyptian.” he said pointing to his head as if it wasn’t obvious at all.
“Really? That’s so cool!”
He looked at me for a few seconds and then burst out laughing.
“Your funny.” he said poking me in the shoulder. “Now come on! I’ll start a soup. Do you know how to make a fire?”
“Ummmmmm...Maybe?” I had never done it before but how hard could it be? All you had to do was pile some wood and light a match right? Did they have matches here?
He laughed again. “I’ll show you.” We were in the kitchen now. A fireplace, a smallish wooden table and a few chairs were placed in the room. The floor was that same cobbled stone look as in the rest of the house. There were no carpets but the room had a cozy feeling to it. There were large clay pots and spoons and other food cooking implements hanging on the walls from small hooks. Akhom took down one of the larger pots and set it on the table. He also pulled out lettuce, some sort of dried meat, carrots, tomatoes, and other foods for the soup.
“You try to get that fire started.” He said gesturing to the fireplace and taking out a knife to start chopping the vegetables.
“Right.” I said going over to the fireplace. I squatted down next to the grate. I grabbed a few logs from the pile on the ground and placed them in the grate and looked around for a match. Locating one I struck it on the stone and tried to light the fire. I failed and the match went out.
“You need to start with smaller sticks before you put the bigger sticks on.” Said Akhom glancing up from his soup making.
“Oh, ok.” I said reaching for some smaller sticks.
After several tries I finally got it. I stood up and warmed myself on the flames.
“I’m no better than that no good, selfish moron!” Akhom suddenly burst out. “I haven’t gotten you proper clothes!” He then ran out of the kitchen and left me alone by the fire.
“Oh! It’s ok! I forgot too!” I yelled after him. I wasn’t sure if he heard me or not. I pulled Mark’s cloak closer around me. I could smell him on it. He smelled like vanilla and eucalypts leaves. I inhaled deeply and then stopped horrified. I took the cloak off and threw it across one of the chairs. No. I couldn’t feel that way. It was pointless.
...So why couldn’t I stop thinking about him?
Chapter 11
Akhom returned shortly with long brown pants and a long-sleeved light blue, corset-ish shirt. He also had big hiking boots that laced up over the ankle. He left the room again so I could change. I slipped out of the old clothes and pulled on the shirt and the pants and the boots. I loosely laced the corset up so I could still breath, unlike the ladies in older times who deprived themselves of breathing so they could look skinny. I finished tying up my boots and straightened up.
“Akhom! You can come back now.” I called, scooting closer to the fire.
Akhom entered and went back to the soup.
“Everything fits then?”
“Yep! Thank you so much!”
He laughed again. “You’ll have to use Mark’s cloak for a cape. I don’t have any that are long enough.” I glared at blue cloak that Mark had left here.
“Wonderful.” I said under my breath.
“The soup is ready for cooking!” Akhom said, picking up the pot and setting it over the fire on two poles so it balanced there, cooking. “Now then...” Akhom sighed, stretching out on one of the chairs. “I haven’t had company in so long.”
I sat down in a chair by the table and, still cold and wet, grabbed Mark’s cloak and wrapped it around me. I tried not to breath in through my nose for the first few minutes but eventually gave in. The sent of vanilla and eucalyptus wafted around me and I unconsciously breathed in deeper.
“So.” I said staring at the steam rising from the cooking soup.
“So...Tell me about your life on earth.”
“Um ok.” so I retold my story. I told him about reading everything I could get my hands on and riding horses and how the chandelier in our living room made a beautiful pattern of light and shadows on our walls when it was turned on. I told him about my field and how I had gone there to read, draw, and sing even sometimes even though I hated singing around people. I told him about going to my cousin’s farm and wandering through the gardens, picking blackberries and eating them until I was sick. I talked about my best friends and my family and how school had been going. I talked and talked until the soup was done.
Akhom listened without comment. When I was finished, he got up and stirred the soup a few times and tasted it. Proclaiming it done, he took out a couple of rags and lifted the soup off of the fire and set it on a slab of wood lying on one of the counters.
“Will you get two bowls out of that cabinet please, Allison?” He gestured in the direction of one of the cupboards on the wall. “And spoons as well? They’re in the drawer below the bowls.”
I got the bowls and the spoons and set them on the table. Akhom poured out the soup and set the pot down on the counter. He also got a round loaf of bread and a knife.
We ate the hot soup in silence. I blew on a potato to cool it and watched the steam rise up from my bowl. The soup was delicious.
“You’re really good at making soup.” I complemented shoving more into my mouth and dipping a hunk of bread into the broth with my other hand.
“Thanks.”
“Do you live here by yourself?”
“Yeah.” he said sadly. “It wasn’t always like that. I had a wife and a daughter but...” he paused.
“Go on.” I pressed.
“Never mind.” he said, eating a carrot.
“Well at least tell me where you came from.”
He was silent. Looking at me he said, “Egypt. I was a normal human for the first few years of my life.” he gestured to his feathered head. “No beak. Just regular. I met Oseye and we married a few years later. Then we had little Sheriti and I was the happiest man around. Then- well...um then-” he rubbed his eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it. Sorry.”
“That’s ok.” I said wondering what had happened. “I’m sorry for, uh, whatever happened.” He laughed, shaking his head again.
“No it is completely my fault.” He stood up and cleared the table.
“Come on. I’ll show you to your room!” I grabbed my dress and sandals from where I had left them near the fire to dry and followed him out of the kitchen. We traveled up a flight of carpeted stairs and through a few hallways. He opened a wooden door and led me into the room.
“Good night!” he said. “If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to call! I don’t sleep much. I don’t need to. I’ll start teaching you tomorrow after breakfast. Sleep well!”
“Thank you. You too.” he shut the door and I looked around the room. It had a smallish bed in a corner and a large window that showed an amazing view of the moors. The moon had risen and I went to the window to see it better. The silvery light bathed the long grasses on the rolling hills and turned them into a grayish-green color.
I don’t know how long I stood there. It might have been ten minutes, a half an hour, an hour, two? I finally sank onto the bed and crawled under the scratchy blanket. I fell asleep, fully clothed, almost at once but not before wondering what had happened to Akhom and his family and also what Mark was doing at this moment. I wrapped his cloak around me and slept in a cocoon of vanilla and eucalyptus leaves.

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