Bad night, bad sleep, good breakfast

The cub had taken barely fifteen minutes.

It was a first degree burn, but nothing more, and the “Spirit moved MRI” did not show anything.

I expected worse, but it seemed that just applying some salve for some days would be enough, while making sure to clean the area well.

Naturally the Queen took it differently.

“She will stay here until she is healed. I shall not lose a cub like this, Listener. When she is healed, bring her to me.”.

Worrywart, as I had said before.

Which is why I had a big bear sleeping in the middle of the room, three smaller bears around her, and the smallest one on a bed, bandages running all around the back to keep a cotton swab with the salve directly on it.

Loosely, naturally..

Tomorrow morning they would go out, she still had preparations to do for hibernation, and I did not have food here to host five bears for ten days.

Only for “little Lis, in the best of my abilities.”

Again, a thinly veiled request by her mother.

When did animals become so needy? They were never like that in Chambery, I am sure of that.

At least they were not the dumb idiot on another bed, who was staring at me with her blue eyes, shining in the dim lit room in a way that almost scared me.

Almost, because I had to wrap almost her whole body, after making Ingrid clean her.

So she was practically the Michelin man glaring at me.

“How dare you undress me and then look at my form! I will have you lashed for that, Peregrino!” she grounded out, and I sighed.

Another reason why I was a veterinarian and not a medic.

Animals were never this annoying, even when they tried to bite you.

And, after being able to listen to actually what they were saying, they were far more logical than people, above all to people who were helping them.

“This indignity will not go unanswered! After I will be free-”

I looked outside, and the moon was already going down.

And we were in late autumn, meaning I had passed what, two hours making casts for this idiot?

I had used a quarter of the cotton I had! I would have to ask for even more silver to the moles for it, you know how annoying and dangerous that was?!

Above all, it was almost winter! I may get some from the village if we do one last travel there, and it’s a big if, but it’s not like it was expected!

Make her talk.

Let her heal.

You kept your oaths to us, now let her out

No! She is unknown, not danger!

And the spirits were still undecided, so I ignored them.

I was out of will, energy, and many other things to give that night.

“If you try to get out of that bed, I will strap you to it, clear?” Ingrid had already taken another bed, I would not make her go out at night alone.

We had already done something stupid, it was better to not add to it by making someone go out alone.

Also, it was one of the beds here because she snored like a tractor.

Oh, and the elf was now pouting, but stopped trying to move while being in her casts, or to talk my ear off.

Or at least, I dearly hoped that, because I had been around too much, and I needed to sleep.

Said, or rather thought, that I used the wood ladder to get on the upper floor, already somewhat heated by the below fire and still not being so cold that I would need to start its own.

Downside, it was as dark as tar, and I stumbled towards the bed, finally, after my focus had finally dwindled and all the things I was forced to do had been done, my tiredness crash me on it.

I didn’t even get off my clothes before falling asleep, the moon still shining through the yellow stained window, the rough wool and pelt feeling warm to my skin, and the sounds of the calmed forest helping me sleep.

“Wake up! Wake uuuuup! Smeralda got her eggs taken, same for Romia and Ella! All by your small friend, Listener! Wake uppp!”

Damn it.

I slowly opened one eye, crusted over, and looked towards the window.

It was barely day!

I just wanted to stay in!

“Wake uuuupppp!”

“Ferme ta gueule, Romeo!” I shouted back, darting up, my clothes rough and rigid due to not taking them off to sleep.

After there was no answer, I lied back on the bed, and closed my eyes, drifting off.

Drifting off…

Why do I smell eggs being cooked?

Or why do I smell honey?

“Oi, lazy bones! I heard you shout at the poor rooster, so wake the Hel up! We need to say to the others what we found after this!” Ingrid’s voice, as delicate as a road roller, came roughly from where the kitchen was.

Grumbling I got up, dragging my legs one after the other, the rows of self-written books, trying to put down any knowledge I had, any memory I had, down, barely kept in order on shelves built by Thorin.

I reached, with great difficulty and many pains in my body, the kitchen, where Ingrid had taken control of what I had cooked the day before.

Why do I know that? Because she couldn’t cook.

And why was I aware of that? Because I had seen her cooking.

She had almost burnt down Erik’s house.

Save us!

Stop this one!

We had to stop the Iyesi four times!

Burn! Burn!

“Ingrid, close the stove. It’s ready.” I grunted out, still very much not awake, and took one of the chairs I had.

This one had been built by me, and I could feel it under my backside.

It was very uncomfortable.

“Oh, really? But Grandma said that I should cook it for ten more minutes.” And your grandfather, against all norms, was the one who cooked at your house, for good reasons.

I didn’t say it, she had hot things close to her, so I simply put a heavy cloth on the table.

She got the hint, and an extremely thick porridge was there, something that I was sure was perfectly fine the day before.

Now it looked like cement.

But I did not say anything, her green eyes waiting for me to eat, so I took all the bites possible and prayed for help for my stomach.

When she turned away, and looked at several drawings all around this room, she stopped at a particular one.

“That one is new. It looks like a bird, but it’s…man made. Is that something that was in your world, Victor?” Her tone was far softer, but still curious.

Well, she already knew a lot, not like it would hurt to answer: “It’s an airplane. It was created to fly, yeah, with an engine and wings.”

And a lot more, but I was a veterinarian, not a physicist.

She continued to stare at the white and red plane, the one that Luke was learning how to fly.

My drawing was far too good to show how much of a dump it was, really, and Ingrid being in awe at that was too much.

Then, turning back towards me, she asked, her eyes far too bright and her smile far too wide for so soon in the morning, while I was still trying to see well in the fog that was waking up so soon: “What will be next? I want to hear more!”

I smiled at that and, with a newfound serenity, I answered: “The church at home. My sister got married there, and I don’t want to forget that one.”

Ingrid made a strange face at that, and looked away.

“Boring.” She said in a small voice.

“Well, that’s the next thing I am drawing, so do you want to hear about how she and Manuel met? It had to do with a car accident.” I answered easily, and she turned back towards me, her smile back and her ears waiting for the story.

The porridge got cold when I finished.