The horrible morning continued on for what seemed like an endless age for Nosal. With him having to peel and wash a seemingly endless supply of roots and vegetables. What then followed was him having to trim the fat off a horrifically huge slab of meat, before having to “devein” a whole bunch of the monstrous-looking carcasses of a creature called a Crevettkor. These torturous tasks where carried out with constant reminders “to clean as you go!” by his senior, who continued to created dish after dish in her seemingly demented fashion along with cooking flames roaring like an inferno.

Finally after what seemed like forever, breakfast was completed with Flowing-Reeds standing before a long table that was wholly laden by her completed work. The Desert-Kobold nodded away with a slightly dissatisfied frown on her face and her arms akimbo as she surveyed her finished feast.

“That’s enough for now Nosal,” she spoke without turning around to address the boy. Who still slaved away over the sink as he failed to de-spike a particularly thorny looking dead creature.

“Pffeww,” sighed Nosal with a musk of joy at being able to come to a rest after having worked all morning. The young ten year old Capyban was not unused to hard work having grown up on his father’s ranch. With Spring and Autumn being the toughest seasons to work, with back breaking labor as they tended to the their crops. But he had never worked in such a high-intensity and extremely hot environment such as in Xerneg’s kitchen that morning in his entire life.

It did not help that the seemingly quiet and proper-looking Flowing-Reeds Fem, had turned out to be such a demonic taskmaster behind closed doors. He was sure that after today, he would never see the Kobold girl who was just few years his brother’s senior in the same light ever again.

“Just leave the Jadecomb in the sink, but make sure to empty it of water so it doesn’t soak into and destroy the meat inside,” she instructed before snapping her clawed fingers and producing a crisp, sharp “clack.”

Nosal was left slightly startled by the sudden noise. But he happily obliged by dropping the spiky Jadecomb that was playing havoc on his poor hands into the sink. The boy had bumbled badly in his attempts to carve off the spines using his tiny brown knife and was left with many splotches of dried blood on his hands. For even in death, the Jadecomb was able to cause pain by viciously prickling his hands multiple times. But even as he did so, Nosal bravely held back from shouting or crying because he didn’t want to seem weak and scared on his first day.

But his injuries did not go unnoticed, for his senior quickly crossed the room and held out her right hand with the palm facing up.

“Hands,” she demanded before snapping her fingers once again and startling the nervous boy.

I’m going to have to learn how to do that trick, Nosal thought even as the boy was racked with nervous fear at having to present his injured hands. He felt like he had somehow failed by messing up and hurting himself, but he still held a stiff upper lip even as his eyes were glued down on his feet.

Flowing-Reeds then grabbed onto both of Nosal’s smaller hands with their blunted black fingernails and into her own sharply-clawed right hand. Nosal was slightly startled and try to pull back, but she easily held on in a firm grip before mumbling out a incantation.

“ Et cocket placere exi-go is-style daemonia et sanitate perfi-cio,” was what the boy heard her say, before a hot blue bubble of water enveloped his hands and caused the boy to shout out in alarm. The heat was extremely intense on his prick-wounds, but the spell quickly dropped in temperature until all that was left was just a cool sensation. They whole duration of the spell was barely even a few seconds, with the angry red prickles having turned into small pink blips.

“What was that!” Nosal exclaimed with his musk of fear once it was all over whilst pulling back his hands once they were released from the grip.

“Oh don’t be a wuss,” she snarled back before lifting a corner of her mouth and exposing her sharp canines in a lopsided smile. Nosal was left feeling suitably cowed by the menacing look, as he nervously stood there wringing his hands behind his back and once again staring at the floor.

“I only healed you, using words of power to boost my spell….. which I’m sure master would be happy to teach you one day,” she continued before stepping past the boy. Nosal turned to follow her with his gaze and was left staring at the back of her head as she proceeded to wash her hands from the tap.

“Honestly, you didn’t do too bad for your first time helping to cook for master,” she continued as her shoulders moved to the motions of her washing her hands. Nosal then heard the “fasheessshhh” sound of the running tap come to a stop as his senior turned around to inspect the rest of the kitchen. She did a couple of rounds around the place as she mentally catalogued the rest of the prepped and unprepped ingredients. But as she was doing so, suddenly a frightful aberration lumbered into the kitchen.

It had a featureless metallic mask on its perfectly circular grey head, which sat atop a impossible thin stalk for a neck. The horror’s body was just a huge metallic rectangle that contained a mixture of cogs and gears that turned in mesmerizing silence as it moved. Attached to the bottom and to the sides of this torso, was a parody of limbs that was carved out of some wood with what seemed like too many elbows. Finally, covering all over its body were endless lines of green runes.

Seeing her junior’s look of extreme terror as his face paled a unnatural color, Flowing-Reeds explained who the newcomer was. “Pay it no mind, it’s just master’s golem called Jas-kinthalok or Jaskin for short… and yes I was horrified of it the first time also, but it’s harmless and only made to carry out basic orders, such as taking away the food like it is doing right now,” she explained in a matter-of-factly tone.

But Nosal still followed the horrific creature with his eyes as it walked across the room and towards the food, having been made so scared he was left paralyzed.

“We did pretty well so far this morning, so we should have some time to talk in the dining room before master wakes up in half an hour or so,” Flowing-Reeds continued as she absentmindedly looked upwards, having moved on from explaining who the golem was.

But Nosal was still gripped in fear as he watched on with cold panic swirling inside him, as the golem’s arms each split into four with a silent pneumatic hiss, as it easily loaded up on all the food before leaving the kitchen.

Looking down to see her junior was still deathly pale and staring at entrance to the kitchen where the golem had left through, caused Flowing-Reed to snap her fingers in front of the boy’s face.

She sighed down at the boy who now looked up to her before saying, “this will not do, we cannot be having you ogling all day at pointless things, come follow me,” before she quickly turned on her heels and headed out the kitchen.

Nosal on the other hand was left standing where he was. For even with the many creatures he first thought scary on the ranch, he had never seen anything so alien and lifeless like that golem.

“Are you coming or what?!” shouted Flowing-Reeds as she angled her head back and into view of the doorway of the kitchen. This jolted the confused and scared boy out of his panic and into a run that was all knees and elbows as he sought to follow his senior.

“And don’t forget your bag,” she stated to him as she stood waiting just beyond the door.

This left Nosal feeling foolish and slightly sheepish along with the bundle of nerves he already had as he quickly swiveled back. He then quickly ran back into the kitchen to retrieve his backpack that he had carelessly dropped on the floor before running back to the waiting Desert-Kobold girl who was tapping her foot on the carpeted hallway.

“Oh and I hope you brought some pen and paper, seeing as to how master reaaaally loves teaching with words and lectures during his meals... but it shouldn’t matter considering how we have lots of both here,” Flowing-Reeds continued once he was out of the kitchen and trailing behind her once more through the lavish corridors.

“It’s probably patience that you’ll be needing more of,” she then added in a trailing whisper that Nosal barely heard.

The boy wasn’t sure how but between the spooky atmosphere in the hallway and the eerie golem from previously, he somehow was left feeling more scared after what she had just said.