Chapter 95 - 96. Pumpkin Cake
I wanted to have a simple life, as simple and enjoyable as a cup of warm sugar-free coffee. On Monday, I woke up an hour earlier to make pumpkin cookies. At first, I thought I would only make ten jars but I ended up finishing thirty jars. I packed twenty jars and twenty jars for Mrs. Lim, and the rest would be delivered to my teachers and friends, while the rest of the pumpkins would be processed for other dishes.
I finished all my making cookies at around ten o'clock in the evening. It was quite a long time considering the number of jars of cookies I had made. I sent a courier to deliver the jars to Mrs. Lim's because I would not be able to do it myself. Thirty minutes later, a long thank you as long as the national anthem sang along through my home phone.
"still awake?" I texted someone via text messages.
"I am"
"Have you eaten? If not yet, come by to my house. I cooked fish soup and some pumpkin cake." I replied
"1.25 I will come"
His name was Rey, my friend in college. We were not close friends, more precisely not close. We often had arguments and fights over simple things. But we did not take all those fights seriously and the fights often ended up in laughing at each other or watching cartoons together. After graduating, he continued his father's business in Euron.
At 1.30 that man arrived. He was still wearing his work clothes. Once he arrived, he went straight to the living room and lay on the sofa.
"I have some nice tea. Would you like to have it?" I offered him.
He was just quiet, looking exhausted. He covered his face with his hands and probably fell asleep. I looked for his bag that had been thrown somewhere, and after I found it, I put it on the table. I started warming up the food, bringing him tea and some snacks.
"Have some of this or you'll get sick." I warned him.
He sat up and massaged his temples. "I have terrible dizziness," He complained.
"Are you drinking again?" I asked him probingly.
"I got some mistake in my assignment, so I had to recheck it from the beginning last month." He said, looking so tired.
I smiled listening to him and tried to cheer him up. "Sweet food can improve your mood. I made pumpkin cake and chamomile tea. Try it." He smiled and looked very relieved.
He often stayed and occupied my brother's room. Sometimes he went home bringing some groceries so that we could cook and eat together at home. He would take anything from here, cake or chocolate. This house was like a second home for him.
"This is nice," he complimented the cake.
"You can get some for home," I offered, and he smiled happily.
…
The previous owner called this griffin Ace. It was a hunter-type. I bought Ace with five pouches of gold. At that time Mickey took me to the Darkmoon and he suggested that I bought that griffin. Ace was very obedient to me. I felt so much content with Ace and I could be very honest with my own condition. He had very good sight and because he was still so young for a griffin, this boy sometimes got difficulty controlling himself when landing.
Today Ace took me flying high. My ears were a bit deaf because of the changing of the weather pressure. The weather up here was lower than the one down near the ground with a thin oxygen layer. I tightened my grip on Ace, eroding space to get some warmth from my boy. From a distance, I could see something glistening like a lantern in August on the city anniversary. The two lantern-like lights were flying side by side.
"Ace, take me closer to those things." I pointed in a direction. He understood and turned to fly in the direction I wanted.
The city people called it the hell bird, Mickey named it a stone bird, and I preferred to call it a loyal servant. They flew side by side. Their feathers were soot in color, their feet and beaks were dark as night, and their eyes were orange to red flame-like a Momiji in the autumn with darker ring-like circles around their neck and wings.
On each bird, their claws held dark gravel. If you knew where the gravel was from, you would certainly avoid it. The glistening lights were from their eyes, while the hot air covering their body was from a peanut-sized stone carried under their claws. It was the hottest hell stone.
Ace and I just watched them flying slowly. We were following them from behind. After an hour, those birds split. They swooped down like a plank dropped horizontally, and just before they hit the ground they shot off so fast leaving a thin line of red light that faded away with time.
"Their service is quite expensive because hell stone is getting hard to get." Mickey had told and of course, he had some of them. Silently I kept asking myself who sent messages for their service considering the cost of hell stone that was getting harder to get? I assumed it might not be human and not ordinary messages they would deliver.
…
At four in the morning, Ace took me home. After saying goodbye he flew high to avoid being seen by humans. I went down to the kitchen and made my breakfast ready. I had never done it this late because I usually finished with cooking stuff and started getting ready for school. Luckily, today was a holiday.
The sky was still dark when I went out to pick up some vegetables in the three-by-three-meter garden plot I made behind the house. A bamboo basket accompanied me but that was not the one making my morning special, but a bird I just met some time ago. One of them was perching on the lp of the basket. Its eyes were bright red, indicating that it already had an owner and of course a duty that it had to be carried out.
"Any messages for me?" I asked politely.
That bird flew closer and from its small beak, it spits out something, a thin paper sheet covered with stomach fluid.
"Have you eaten, little bird?" I asked it as it flew closer. I gave it some ripe strawberries from my garden and it ate the fruit very quickly with its little beak. I took that paper and wiped the wet with my hand.
I got bored when reading that letter but I tried to finish it anyway. "Come with me. I have some food for you before I reply to this letter." As I said so, I walked back to my room. My plan for gardening was put off for today.
I gave some seeds and milk to that little bird and it looked like I really enjoyed it. While it was eating, I was writing the reply for its master. I gave the letter to its beak once I rolled it neatly. That bird swallowed it quickly. "Be careful on your way home. Make sure your master receives it well."
The bird did not reply, it just jumped out of the window, flew, and the next second was gone like a shadow.
…
I did not tell Mickey about that letter because I knew for sure that he would not like it. while I was preparing breakfast, that tubby came to me. He seemed to just wake up as his fur looked messy. He stretched his body as he was near me.
"Tha, prepare my meal please," He commanded me to pour milk into his bowl and his fish cakes in the bowl full.
I just stared at him in surprise. He froze in front of his bowl with an unpleasant expression. "Tha, where is my snack? Fish with delicious sauce? I want it, please." He was talking about his wet cat food.
"No extra snack for this morning. That is enough now." He walked towards me. "Look at your belly! Fat clumps up there. Like a small hill sway to the left and to the right as you walk. You had better start on a diet from now on!" I snatched him and put him right in front of his bowls of food and milk. Meanwhile, someone came out of my brother's room.
"I have prepared cake and tea for you. Don't forget to bring some when you leave." I took my bag and got ready to leave.
"Shouldn't you be taking a day off today?" He asked.
I took my jacket and an umbrella. "I must go to the town for a while," I replied to him, taking a key. "Rey, don't forget to lock my house. And you Mike—I have set the automatic food machine, so take care of the house well.." Mickey stopped his meal immediately and looked at me in annoyance, and I knew what he meant from that look.