Chapter 7

“You will take me with you, obviously.”

“We don’t have time to move at the speed of a wagon!”

“They're not my wagons, I’ll just go return them.”

“They're not your wagons? Then why in the world have we been dragging them along?”

Cináed glanced over from the fire he was building for dinner to the argument Mary and Wildemere were having. He didn’t understand why it was such an issue if Mary came with them to the capital, then again, he understood Wildemere somewhat. He had also thought the wagons were Mary’s. It made him curious to know why she was with the caravan in the first place, was she looking for a reward for returning the wagons? It didn’t truly matter to Cináed, and he went back to working on the fire.

“Leave that Cináed, if she is staying with us Mary can finish that, you come over here.”

Cináed looked up to Wildemere and noted him moving off away from the camp. Standing up he followed the grumpy knight until they were standing just in sight of the camp but still a good distance away.

“It’s time you became useful.” Wildemere threw him a sharpened stick he must’ve made during their travel. “Stab me with it.” He said without changing his frowning expression.

Cináed couldn’t believe what he heard, Wildemere wanted him to do what?

.....

Mary was panicking. How was she supposed to finish making the fire and start cooking? She had never done anything like that before. She wondered what Wildemere was doing with Cináed. Were they talking about her? She looked over in their direction and saw them… Wait were they arguing over a stick? Really who argued over a sick. Mary was just trying to distract herself from the fact that not only would there be no food started when they got back, but no fire.

Mary looked back at her nemesis ready to glare it into flame. She stared at it and the crackling sound of fire slowly built in her mind until suddenly the wood burst into flame. Did she do that? How did she do that? That was amazing, she was incredible! They would forget all about the fact there’s no food she showed them this. That was when Mary looked up and saw the smug look of the Dragon who had just lit the fire. Hope filled her eyes – a wise dragon must know how to cook!

.....

Wisely looked down at the fire happy he could be of help. But more importantly, he now had a warm spot to nap next to. Cináed was busy failing to hit Wildemere with a stick and getting hit with Wildemere’s stick in return. Wisely could hear the snaps and cries of pain as he slowly drifted off to peaceful sleep.

The smell of burnt flesh woke Wisely sometime later. He had hoped these memories wouldn’t return, that happy times would override them. Yet, with the smell in his nose he couldn’t stop thinking about the moments he wasn’t proud of; times he wished to forget. Burnt away in flame like those he now mourned. His groggy mind could see the flames once again, the only difference was the sound. Loud cursing was so different than the screams he was used to. Elegant and full of stuttering, certainly not a practiced tongue. Wisely opened one eye – his suspicions were confirmed, the young Mary was burning everyone’s food.

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Back at the farm whenever something was burnt Cináed would bring it out to the barn for him to eat. Wisely preferred the delicious meals delicately made and prepared. But he was a big dragon and food was food after all. Reaching forward wisely scooped up the burnt food and ate it down.

.....

Mary was both happy to have an excuse and mortified that all her hard work was gone. Sure, it hadn’t looked that appetizing, but she had made it all by herself. Now it was gone. Looking up she saw an exhausted Cináed and the smug-looking Wildemere coming back towards the fire.

“He ate all the food,” Mary pointed towards the big napping Dragon. Mortified at what she was doing her hand quickly dropped back to earth. Cináed looked at the Dragon and one of Wisely’s eyes opened. They appeared to have a conversation before Cináed burst out in laughter.

“He thought it was for him because it was all burnt… not that I believe him. I don’t think you burnt all the food.” Cináed amended quickly slightly worried about how Mary would take it.

“I’m not very good at cooking I’m afraid” admitted Mary.

“That’s all right I like to cook anyway, do you want to help?” Cináed moved towards the fire to get some water boiling. Mary just smiled and moved over next to him mumbling a thank you.

Mary tried to follow Cináed’s instructions as fast as she could but after almost cutting off her finger, she realized she needed to go much slower. All she was doing was cutting vegetables, Cináed had decided to make a simple stew and was heating the pot with the liquid in it. Mary hadn’t seen him add that, so she was unsure if it was just water. Then Cináed started adding some of their dried meat that had been meant for the caravan. The only positive thing to come from the abandonment of everyone that had been with the caravan was that they had a lot of dried meat.

Mary noticed that Cináed appeared to be patiently waiting for her cut vegetables and a slight blush reddened her face. Mary tried to speed up but after nearly dropping the knife she was using she stopped. She took a quick glance at Cináed and noticed his look of worry. Mary silently cursed herself for trying to speed up. What was she thinking? Cináed didn’t look impatient, he was clearly fine waiting until she finished.

“Some of us are hungry, what have you been doing all this time?”

“There is no rush, we want to let the meat soak a bit anyway.”

Even though Wildemere addressed her, Mary didn’t even look his way after Cináed replied. She just focused on finishing what she was doing. She was so close to being finished and even though she had never really held a knife like this before it was starting to feel comfortable.

“We will have to stop earlier in the day if meal prep is going to take so long.”

“Then you cook next time!”

Mary could not help herself and snapped back at Wildemere. Cináed just silently took the cut vegetables and added them to his stew before going through a bag of spices and adding something else. He had a slight smile on his face even as Mary and Wildemere snapped at each other, and Mary wished she could just ignore Wildemere and ask him about what he was adding to the stew.

“Cook, why would I cook, I am Wildemere a knight of the realm!”

“Maybe you should be Wildemere the forever hungry knight of the realm because you won’t cook!”

“I am Wildemere the hungry knight of the realm because you CAN’T cook!”

“I cooked just fine; the DRAGON just ate it!”

“Sure, then what did I smell burning earlier?”

“Naaaa, the wood was obviously on fire burning.”

“I wasn’t referring to the burning wood but the burning food!”

Mary got so caught up in her back and forth with Wildemere she barely noticed when Cináed came up sometime later to put a bowl of stew in her hands. Wildemere must not have consciously noticed either because the only difference in their back and forth was how they mumbled with their mouths full. Mary realized that if her father saw her now, he would be mortified, no lady should inanely argue with a knight with her mouth full. Mary did not mind though Wisely was sleeping, she and Wildemere were talking, and Cináed was smiling. It was a good way to end the day.