The morning before the Winter Festival, the village prepared to celebrate their strengths, resourcefulness, and skill. It was not uncommon in the years before to see families already taunting each other or arguing about the previous year's tied matches over the log toss, ale-drinking relay, or even the pie bake championship. Embarrassing enough, Sephus had entered Benj into the pie bake competition the prior year without him knowing. He had won. The pie bake was one of the more serious competitions, with a grand prize of a gold-plated cooking spoon. The contestants were also predominantly women. He was so embarrassed he left before the rest of the festivities had ended.

The next festival was a day away, and Benj spent his time trying to decide what to make for it. He would have to start working on a massive order of dragon's bread if he couldn't think of anything better to sell. It also seemed that everyone, especially their grandmothers, wanted one small order or another from the famous pie bake champion. Fortunately for Benj, they were mostly the same thing: the previous year's award-winning pie. This made it a little easier for him. He could keep the ingredients out and even make extra if he needed to.

The kitchen was hot, and the front bell rang again. "Hello, Ms. Gale!" Sephus' voice carried with the same pitch as the bell.

"Hello Sep! Are all the festivities tomorrow keeping you busy?" Benj heard Gale say through the door. She was a kindly older woman who had inherited a large sum of money following her husband's death. She was portly, wealthy, and easily flattered, basically Sephus' type of woman.

"Oh, yes. This time of year, oh, you know, keeps us on our toes," Sephus said, "And might I say,” he continued, tracing his eyes down to her feet “Speaking of toes, you look like you’ve been keeping light on yours.”

There was a slight pause to consider the implication. Benj had written the comment off as nonsense when Ms. Gale seemed to get it, or at least she feigned comprehension.

“Oh, you flatter me so, Seph. Do stop!” She giggled.

“Don’t stop?”

Twice drowned, that man would flirt with anyone, Benj swore, rolling his eyes and walking back to the solace of his kitchen. He could practically hear her blushing through the walls as Sephus shot compliments at her with the accuracy of a forest fire. He stopped listening.

He wasn't upset that Sephus was out there flirting away with old women while he was in the back, in the heat, and working nonstop to fill the countless orders. In fact, he preferred it this way, though he did need help getting firewood, washing bowls and pans, and kneading large batches of dough. Making a pie crust was easy enough, but after six hours of it, his arms were starting to feel like dough themselves.

The pies in the oven needed more heat and more time. He went to get more logs for the fire and found his pile depleted.

"Sephus!" He called out, "We need more firewood!"

In the middle of holding Ms. Gales' hand and talking about the healing properties of nutmeg, Sephus called out, "I'm in the middle of something!"

Incredible, Benj thought as he stormed outside. He's taking a break on the busiest day of the year at the busiest time of day. He grabbed two armloads of wood and walked them back to the kitchen by maneuvering the door with his foot.

He placed the wood by the stove as loudly as he could and looked up to where his water cup was. As he reached for it, he noticed the box on the mantle. A hot kiss burned on his cheek as he took the box down and carefully removed two small stones so as not to let them touch.

He slid open the furnace door under the oven and cleared the ash and coals from the middle. He placed the two rocks in, used the fire poker to position each in the middle, and nudged them together. A moment later, after nothing happened, he walked out to get another armload of firewood and returned, shocked by the heat on his face. The two round stones were glowing red with intensity.

"Ok, let's give this a try," he said, setting the logs on top of the others. After a quick round of cleaning, he opened the oven to find four golden pies. He set the pies out to cool and looked around. He didn't have any leftover pie crust but had enough dough for another loaf of beer bread. Instead, he separated the mixture into four small loaves and slid them into the oven.

Keeping the oven hot with such little room in the furnace below had been an art he had learned at an early age. Now, if the rocks worked as well as he hoped, none of that was necessary anymore—no more chopping wood, and no more, well, wood.

"I'll help you carry them to your house," Sephus said in the other room before stepping through the door. He looked at Benj and asked, "The pie?"

Benj gestured towards the pies, cooling off on the mantle with his golden mixing spoon. Sephus took one of the three pies in mitted hands.

"I'll help you clean up when I get back." He then added with a wink, "Don't wait for me."

Benj knew he had no intention of helping with anything; it was a mutual understanding. Less than an hour later, he came to a stopping point with the last orders plus two extra in the oven and had the whole kitchen area cleaned and wiped down. He was hungry. It amazed him how much food he could be surrounded by and not have time to eat. The four small loaves of beer bread looked like they turned out well.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

He took out two of the sausages he had gotten from the butcher earlier in the morning, opened the furnace, and set them on the ledge to cook. The stones were still glowing red, but the temperature had seemed to wane. That wasn't a good sign, but it wasn't necessarily bad. From his limited knowledge of relics, he knew they were powered by physical touch. So once they cooled, he would try holding them and see if he couldn't return them to their former glory.

Ever parched from the ever-present heat, he reached up to grab his cup and drank the remaining water. He then refilled it from Sephus' barrel of ale. The beer was strong and warm. He felt it would go well with the sausages, which gave him an idea.

He removed one of the small loaves of beer bread, cut a hole in one side, and hollowed out the center. The aroma of the sausages brought back memories of his childhood, which gave him another idea. He took a jar of spiced mustard and layered it inside the hollowed-out loaf. When the sausages were done, he pulled one out and placed it inside the hollow.

He could easily make large orders of this for the winter festival. If it was good, he wouldn't have to make the dragon's bread after all. He immediately made another one, making a mental note of how to prepare it efficiently. He stared down at his creation. It was beautiful.

The front door opened with a ring. He wondered why it had taken Sephus so long, but then he banished the thought.

"Hey!" He called, "Come back here and check this out!"

The door to the kitchen opened, and a girl poked her head in. "Check out what?" A girl's voice asked.

"Oh, sorry," he said, looking embarrassed, "I thought you were Sephus."

The girl's name was Melisandra, but she went by Mel. A year older than Benj, she was arguably the most beautiful girl in the village and an argument Benj had made before, often enough. She had thick blonde hair that fell gracefully around her thin neck down to her lower back. She wore a wool sweater and a long skirt that left everything to the imagination. Whenever he worked up the nerve to talk to her, their conversations came easier than he expected.

"Nope, it's me," she said with a playful voice. What were you going to show me?"

"Oh, it's nothing," he said. It's just something I was going to show Sephus."

"You're not getting out of this so easily," she said, making her way through the door and walking towards him, "I'm curious now."

Benj was glad he had cleaned up the place a little before Mel came in. He would have been thoroughly embarrassed if she had seen it in its chaotic state earlier.

"Alright," he said, relenting, "Come over here."

She moved closer to him, looking around the kitchen for the first time.

"Behold," he said, making a royal gesture with a knife in hand, "Sausage Bread!" He cut one of his creations in half, revealing the loaf with a sausage in the middle.

"Is that what you're calling it?" she asked with a quizzical smile. Sausage bread?" She paused, absorbing the expression on his face, and then added, "It's so... original."

"Thanks!" He beamed while rummaging through a drawer. "Here," He handed her a fork. "You can have half," he said, pointing towards the smaller half.

"Why do I get the smaller half?" She asked, putting on a fake pouty face.

"Uh, I mean, you could, but uh…" Benj stammered.

"Relax, I'm just kidding," she said, setting her fork down and picking her piece up with her fingers. "Even offering me this much is very sweet of you."

"You're assuming it's any good," he said, stabbing his piece, "I've never made this before. I should thank you for putting yourself in harm's way."

She gently blew on hers and took as big a bite as she could without burning her mouth. Benj followed suit.

"This is really good, and there's mustard?" She asked, disregarding all tact and talking with food in her mouth.

"I thought I could go through the trouble of dipping it in mustard, but decided just to put it in," he said and then finally added, "It is good!"

After a moment of silence, the two finished eating. Mel said, "What about calling it something like, I don't know, a butcher's roll?"

He remembered the pies he had in the oven and excused himself. Instead of squeezing past her, he walked the long way around the counter to get past her. He opened the oven, and a soft steam billowed out. His pies were perfect.

He hurried to grab the wooden paddle to remove the two pies and set them next to the others. "I don't know," he said, shutting the oven door. "I came up with 'Sausage Bread,' and I kind of liked it.

Just then, the door opened with a ring.

"Benjos, my sweet, sweaty kitchen boy, I did it!" Sephus's voice came from the front room. "Let's just say she got some pie, and I got s—" he stopped mid-sentence after pushing through the kitchen door and noticing he and Benj weren't alone.

"Hi," Mel said quickly.

"Why hello, uh," Sephus said, "don't tell me, Margo, May, uh… Melisandra! What a pleasant surprise!"

"Thank you, Master Sephus," She stepped down from the stool she was on. "Benj was just helping me with the two pies I ordered."

Benj immediately took two pies off the shelf, checked to see how cool they were, and handed them to her.

"Yes," he said, "That will be ten marks."

Mel set the pies down, reached into her coin purse, and produced the coins. "Here," she said, offering them to Benj.

"I can take that," Sephus said with a smile, holding out his hand.

"Yes, of course," she said before giving Sephus the money.

"Would you be needing help carrying those pies home?" Sephus asked in the most grandfatherly way he knew how.

Benj shook his head.

"No, thank you," she said, picking up the pies again. "I'm a short walk away."

Both men scrambled to open the door for her as she left.

"Oh," Mel said as she walked outside, "Thanks again for the… Sausage bread."

Benj watched her walk away. After a moment, when she was far enough away, Sephus slapped him on the back. "That's a right fine woman you got there," he said, "Gave her the ol' bread sausage and everything!"

"It's 'sausage bread,' and it's not what you think," he said, visibly flustered.

"My boy, when I was your age, we called it something different," Sephus said, "but you make me very proud you do!" He had a toothy grin.

"No, it's something I made," Benj deadpanned, "-with sausage."

Sephus' smile dropped into a somber line. “Well, I’m not surprised but I am disappointed,” he said dismissively. "Show me this sausage bread."

Several moments later, Sephus had a piping hot sausage bread in one hand, a tankard of ale in the other, and a big smile in the middle. "This, my boy Benjo, is excellent!" He exclaimed, "She helped you come up with this? We need to put beautiful women back there with you more often!"

"No, I came up with it..." Benj began before Sephus cut him off.

"We'll sell this at the Winter Festival!" He said, sloshing his beer as he yelped with excitement.

"I could teach you how to do it," Benj offered, "They're really fast to make, maybe I'll have time to attend more events this year."

"Nonsense, my boy," Sephus said. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I haven't done anything useful in four years!"

"Oh, I've noticed."

"I'll order forty sausages, no, sixty, and you can make them all and sell them!" Sephus was drunk on excitement and ale. There would be no talking him out of this one, so he wrote the orders down.