"Did anything seem off about Nugget to you?"

"I try to avoid looking at her if I can." Trizel set down a barrel next to two others and leaned onto it. "I just always get the feeling that she is right on the verge of attacking me."

Ted looked out of the kitchen door and shook his head. "It was almost like she was limping." He turned to Trizel as he asked, "Do you think something happened?"

"Honestly?" replied Trizel. "I do not really care. I do not really like that pompous bird, and whatever she does, I want nothing to do with."

"Except for eating her eggs."

"I mean, sure. I suppose you are right about that. Though I do not really see what that has to do with her besides maybe preferring that she stays alive."

Ted sighed. "Alright. I can't force you to like her."

"You do still remember our first meeting, correct?"

Ted dried his hands on a dish towel and shrugged. "That feels like so long ago now. Besides, we had just met, and the first thing I did was grab her. I was kind of asking for it."

"For grabbing a chicken? I think you are defending her too much," scoffed Trizel.

"It's not that. I just. I guess I can see her side is all."

Trizel shook his head. "Sometimes it feels like you are a completely different creature from me."

"Well, we are from different universes...or something like that." Ted chuckled.

"Perhaps, but we are both humans, and both men. No matter where you are from, there is something tied into that."

Ted opened his mouth to continue arguing but decided against it. Besides, he knew what Trizel meant, or at least he thought he did.

"Now, are you planning to retry the beer or that mead?" Trizel asked.

Ted was caught a little off guard by the question but lowered his gaze towards the floor. He rubbed the back of his head as his mind thought through the question. "Well, the wheat beer was more of a one-time thing. Nugget just happened to find the ingredients I needed, and I used all of them to make the one batch we had. Then I fed her the leftover mash, but we wouldn't have been able to make anything out of that anyway."

"Well why not? Could you not simply use more water? Does getting wet really make it lose its flavor?" asked Trizel as he stretched his arm.

"The way we cooked it was to draw out as much of the sugars as we could from the grains. There was probably some still in it, but it was probably nowhere near close enough to make anything alcoholic, let alone anything that tasted like beer." Ted explained as he leaned back against the counter. THat strange lizard thing destroying both of the barrels was frustrating. He was furious at that thing, but also knew it likely didn't know any better. It wasn't its fault, but it still ruined all of his hard work. Especially when gathering the honey was so difficult, and the beer was essentially a one-time thing. If it had been rum, or pine beer, he would have been frustrated, but it would've been much easier to make more of that.

"We just had enough for that one batch, and I made a million mistakes trying to do that, but it still came out somehow." Ted continued. "Same with the hops, except it extracted their flavor really. There were just some basic nutrients left that are better used as feed for animals or fertilizer for crops."

Trizel rubbed his chin. "Well, why didn't you throw any of it into the time machine to try and make more from the seeds?"

Ted paused and let out a frustrated sigh. "Dang it. I was too excited to make something. Of course, I messed things up again. Why do I always have to ruin everything!" In his frustration he had accidentally said the quiet part out loud.

Trizel stared at him, shocked. "Apologies," he finally said after he regained some composure. "I did not mean to insinuate you had ruined anything. It seems I should have held my tongue."

"You didn't say anything that wasn't true," Ted sighed in frustration. His face scowled as he ran a hand back through his hair. "Besides, that's my power. Being able to screw up anything I touch."

Trizel stayed silent for a moment before he walked up to Ted. Without a word, he embraced him in a warm hug. Ted froze up as the giant's arms wrapped around him and held him tight. "It can be hard to see your own nose, Ted. So, allow me to tell you that you have many wondrous skills the rest of us could never dream of having. Even if we had all the supplies and equipment, none of us could create anything close to what you have and continue to."

Trizel pulled back but kept his hands on Ted's shoulders as he stared into his eyes. "Do not be so blinded by your perceived faults that you miss how far you truly excel."

Ted turned his eyes away from Trizel. His words were nice, but he couldn't accept them. They felt hollow, flat. He didn't know. He didn't know just how bad Ted really was. All his failures. All his shortcomings. But Ted did. He could see them all plain as day. He was nothing more than a pathetic jumble of failures squished together into the facade of a man. That's why, despite any sense he might have made, Ted could not believe Trizel. If he could miss so many obvious things, how could he know anything about him? How could he say anything he did was good?

Trizel tried to move his face to look Ted in the eyes, but it was futile. He let out a sigh and took his hands off of Ted, but not before he patted him on his back. "Perhaps you should take a day to rest Ted? It seems you need to unwind more than any of us."

"Isn't that what the alcohol is for?" Ted forced a smirk as he tried to bury the pit of hatred that had been growing in his gut.

Trizel smiled genuinely. "Aha! I suppose it is at that. But I still think you should take some time to rest."

"Where? Out in the fog at the carnival? Yeah, that doesn't really sound all that relaxing." Ted said as he forced a chuckle. All while his mind started to remind him of more and more of his past failures. "And the old spot where we'd watch the purple thing down below was blocked off by the flood, and now I doubt I'd be able to see anything but a bunch of fog."

Trizel grumbled as he rubbed his chin. His eyes lifted up, as if searching for answers. "That is true. The best we have are the rooms here, and Nugget has chosen to squat in yours it seems."

"Hey, don't worry about it Trizel," Ted said as he forced his mouth to smile, but his eyes and the rest of his face, didn't move with it. Making it obvious the smile was fake. "I'm the Innkeeper, right? So, I have to make sure all the guests have plenty of food and alcohol. It's not hard work and I like it! Really. Taking a break would just make everything more complicated for everyone."

"I see," nodded Trizel as he looked down at Ted, who immediately turned his gaze away.

"But I think. I think I'm going to go check on Nugget at least," Ted said as he started to leave the kitchen. "I know you don't care about her, but I just need to make sure that she's alright."

Trizel watched Ted with a suspicious look on his face as he left.

The Oasis was quiet. Ted made his way out through the main room, and up the stairs. He approached the door to Nugget's room and noticed that it was open. He knocked on the doorframe as he called out, "Nugget, are you in there?"

There was no response, but he could hear the water running in the bathroom. He slowly walked inside and looked around.

"Nugget? Are you here?" he called out.

He was answered with nothing but running water again. So, he slowly got closer to the sound. The door to the bathroom was also partially open. Carefully, he put his hand on the door and slowly opened it.

Squish

Ted looked down as he stepped into a small pool of water with faint traces of pink in it. He turned his gaze up towards the bathtub to see Nugget holding her wings out in front of her, as if to block ted's view of her. She looked more startled than anything else, but behind her, Ted saw that the faucet was still running with the water overflowing out of the tub. He seemed to forget Nugget for a moment and rushed forward to turn off the tap. He let out a sigh as he looked down at the water that had almost filled the entire room. He let out a sigh and turned back to Nugget, who looked embarrassed, but had made no noise since Ted entered for some strange reason.

Ted raised an eyebrow at Nugget and put his hands on his hips. He could still feel the weight of his failures pushing down on him, but this mess seemed to take priority for now. "Nugget, what happened? First, the doors were left open, and now you left the faucet running? What's going on?"

Nugget looked away from Ted and slowly lowered her wings. Underneath, her feathers were in terrible condition still from her fight with the wolf.

Without thinking, Ted immediately got down onto his knees, soaking his pants in the process. He leaned closer to try and inspect her. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Nugget didn't reply, and just turned her head further from him. His fingers slowly and gently traced over her out of place feathers. Then he glanced down and reached under to touch her leg.

"BAKAW!" Nugget screeched out.

Ted quickly withdrew his hands and looked down at her with concern. Nugget kept her gaze away from him, but slowly returned her wings to her sides.

"Oh man, that doesn't seem good at all." Finally, Ted nodded firmly. "Alright, stay in there for now. I'll clean up this mess in here and see about getting some more blankets and pillows for your little nest. I'd try and make it comfortable for you, but you're probably the best at telling what'll feel best for you, okay?"

Nugget slowly nodded her head.

Ted put his hands on his knees and stood up with a small grunt. "Okay. I'm going to see if I can find Sid, I'm sure he..."

"Ba!" Nugget turned towards him and let out a cry when he mentioned Sid.

Ted looked down at her quizzically. "What, you don't want Sid to check on you?"

Nugget shook her head.

Ted let out a sigh as he rubbed the back of his head. "But he's more likely to actually be able to help you here. Are you sure you don't want him to check in here?"

Nugget turned away from Ted and slowly nodded her head.

"What about Og'drimun, with his magic maybe..."

"Bawk!" Nugget seemed even more upset at that suggestion.

"Okay...so you only want help from me?"

Nugget paused a moment and then nodded her head.

Ted rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That's not..." he looked back at her. She seemed almost vulnerable, so unlike her usual self. "Alright. I'll see what I can do."

Ted walked away and made sure to close both doors behind him. First, he was going to need at least a few towels to clean up the mess in the bathroom. Then he could worry about how he knew absolutely nothing about how to take care of an injured chicken.