Breakfast of Champions

“It’s good that you were able to reunite with your friends, however It’s been a long day and it’s turning into a lengthier night. How long is your story?”

“I wanted to get all the backstory out of the way all at once, so it’ll be like an hour tops.”

Luna sighed, this was not her night. She wasn’t particularly keen on getting involved with the elves even in a state of disarray. She was interested in their current situation but only tangentially, she had no intention of going backward if she could help it.

“We’ll reconvene in the morning.” She pushed herself up from her desk, “You, Otherworlder, how would you like to be addressed?”

“Kara. I feel like that’ll make things less confusing.”

“Very well, Kara, you’ll be staying in my room tonight.” Luna began to walk toward the exit. A coughing sound interrupted her march. She heard Katya mumble something about a dry throat. Luna smiled in an equally dry manner, “on the floor, of course, you’re still a prisoner for the moment.”

Luna caught Katya’s satisfied smile out of the corner of her eye and proceeded out the door. Bellamy threw Kara over his shoulder and followed. Everest and Katya were the last out.

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EVENING – 3 DAYS TILL DISPLACEMENT

“I wanted to thank you for the make-up, Miss Randran.” Kara was walking to her room when she noticed warm lamplight rolling through a crack in the door. Any sensible person would have ignored it and continued walking, what happened in one’s bedroom was no one else’s business, but the voice she heard was Chloe’s, Kourtney’s new voice. Her curiosity spilled over with light and she approached the door.

“It’s a lost recipe, passed down from my mother, and hers before her. Such things used to be popular, even among us elves. Human made products of course became less common in the Demi-Zone after the war. There’s quite a bit of bad blood as you can imagine. Still, a woman seeks beauty, and those who seek, shall find. We make do with what we have, in any case. I have less and less friends as I get older and so my daughters have become more or less the only ones I can talk to about these things.”

“I’m sorry…I-”

“No. You and I, all of us who live in this world and beyond, we are all at the whims of fate and time, and whatever gods lie in between. There’s nothing to apologize for, you are not responsible or complicit in any compacity.”

It was strange to hear such words of wisdom coming from someone who looked like a pre-teen, but what startled her the most was how calm and introspective Kourtney was being at the moment.

“Your hospitality means a lot. I can’t promise the same kindness in return.”

Elar leans forward off the edge of the bed and extends her hands toward Chloe sitting cross-legged on the floor, “Chloe and I were not on bitter terms, but she had a rambunctious soul and so I rarely saw her. We didn’t have the same connection as I had with…” She opened her mouth then closed it, her hands took on a slight tremor, “Cambria was by far the smartest and most grounded of all of my girls, I’m selfish for saying so, but I wish it hadn’t been her.”

“Do you think she’s dead?”

“She had a good head on her shoulders and a strong curiosity about the world, much like her older brother. It’s a terrifying mix which invites trouble. She’s been gone so long, I’ve begun to doubt her return, I suppose I’ve come to consider that it’s a possibility that she…”

“I shouldn’t have said anything. I should go.”

Kara backed away nearly running into Randran. Kara covers her mouth to keep herself from screaming. He holds a “quiet” finger up to his chin.

“It was still nice chatting with you, hehehe.” The girl began to giggle bringing a childish smile to previously mournful visage.

Kourtney smiles up at her in return.

Randran pushes past Kara, “You should head up to your room”, he whispers to her as he passes. He enters the room making sure not to swing the door too wide. “What’s happening in here? A bit of girl talk?”

Kara decides not to eavesdrop further and quickly proceeds up the stairs and into bed.

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MORNING – 2 DAYS TILL DISPLACEMENT

Kara sat at the table in the kitchen of the mayor’s tree shaped residence. It had resembled a large willow tree from the outside but it was far more modern on the inside. They had running water and a refrigerator, unfortunately the toilet was little more than an outhouse. Their furniture was also fairly modern. Randran had noted that a lot of it was stuff acquired and passed down through generations of mayors so it was all pretty much one of a kind and therefore priceless. Although he had been casually showing it off his words still felt like a warning more than anything.

Kara replayed last night’s conversation in her head, Kourtney was the idiot who couldn’t read a room if it was made of text, and yet she was listening intently and even empathetic toward Elar. It was incredibly unlike her.

Crash!

A vase crashed to the ground by the archway leading to the kitchen from the living room. Kourtney appeared as if on cue, “I’ll pay for it, it’s fine.”

“It’s a priceless family heirloom.”

“I’ve got it. I’m sure this Chloe girl has rich parents, I’ll just ask them.”

“I can’t” Kara put her fork down and pushed away her plate.

“Ooo, what that, can I eat that? You don’t want it right.”

“Sure, go ahead.” Hubie (formerly Little Bird) shuffles onto the table and honks at Kourtney when she attempts to take the plate. Kara had finally decided on a name for her new pet bird.

Kourtney stares down at the bird and the bird stares back. Kara can hear the strum of a twangy acoustic guitar in her head as they face each other, “There ain’t enough food right there for the two of us.”

“I reckon you’re right.”

“Cut it out, this isn’t Shanghai Noon, it’s barely 9.” Kara pulled off a piece of the sausage and potatoes on her plate and placed them on the table then slid the plate over to Kourtney. She took a seat at the table. With that standoff settled the sound of another pair elf feet descending the stairs reached Kara’s ears. Moments later Camden turned the corner and graced them with her presence.

Hubie happily snapped up the sausage and potato. Was that healthy for a bird to eat? It wasn’t actually a bird strictly speaking…it’s probably fine.

“What’s up buttercups? You know where pops is?”

“Haven’t seen him yet.” Kara responded, “Is that really what you’re going to call him?”

“Me and my dad weren’t on the best terms, and this guy seems like a cool dude; plus, for the time being, we’re his daughters.”

“Pops is just a little-”

“I like it.” Piped Kourtney

“Of course you like it.”

“Do you not like it?” She grabs the last piece of sausage off Kourtney’s plate.

“It’s not that I don’t like it, well, I guess I don’t, but it’s not because I don’t like it, even though I don’t, It’s not justbecause I don’t like it, though Dad feels wrong, and Daddy is gross; look, what I’m saying is we have to call him whatever his other daughters called him. For all intents and purposes, we are supposed to be Castella, Castanetta, and Chloe. Outside of this house we have to act like they did.”

“Point taken. Speaking of, and going back to my original question, we need to meet with pops and properly discuss future plans.”

“I’ll let you know when I – there he is.”

“Hey girls.” Randran enters the kitchen seeming as though he’d been up for a while. Kara was a light sleeper but she hadn’t woken when he left the house, in fact she’d barely noticed him come back in.

“Hey, pops!

“Poppphs!” Kourtney attempted to greet him but had a mouthful of pancakes.

“Hello, what that you’re eating?”

“Panphakes” She attempted to explain.

“Ah, I see.”

“They’re called pancakes. I made them with the ingredients you had in the pantry and fridge.”

“Ah, now, I see. Well, I’d love to try some at some point.” He and Camden pulled up a chair.

“We were just discussing our future plans.” Camden started.

“Oh! Good! As it happens I was out making some arrangements.”

“What sort of arrangements?” Kara followed up.

“I don’t want your situation to become public knowledge for a number of reasons. In time I’m sure I can come up with a reason for your departure, but for at least the next couple of weeks you’ll need to keep up the charade of being my daughters.”

“We can’t shhtay here?” Kourtney blurted out like this was a big shock.

“What she means is, is there any way we could stay inside and keep to ourselves?”

“Unfortunately, my girls were extremely outgoing types and were constantly working on projects all over town. I’m afraid I’m not even completely in the loop about all of them.”

“That’s not good.”

“Yes; however, in the long term, if you plan on going into the world you’ll need to be educated on it’s working and the current state of things. To that end, I’ve talked a friend into tutoring you. He’s already been made aware of the situation, I trust him wholeheartedly, and due to certain circumstances, it would not be unusual for him drop by here regularly.” Randran smiled reassuringly.

“I’m worried about these unknown projects. We were probably working closely with people who would easily recognize that we were acting differently, on top of that if they required some kind of specialized knowledge that we clearly don’t have…” Camden stopped there.

“Exactly, I am worried about that as well, and there isn’t much I can do in that regard. I can mitigate and give you some extra time to acclimate, but when time is up you’ll be on your own.”

“What do you mean by mitigate?” Kara asked.

“Right, I’ve made some temporary arrangements to keep you occupied, and also, hopefully bolster your education.”

““Keep going”” Camden and Kara were on the edge of their seats, he was really milking this scene. Kourtney was occupied with chewing. There’d only been three pancakes on the plate, how was it taking her so long to eat them?

“You’ll be assisting the school. As I understand it you were university students before coming here, so I don’t believe you’ll have any issues.”

“We're going back to school?”

“Sshoool!”

Randran looked at us with a calm smile, “Yes, indeed.”