Frozen like a statue, neither me nor Cain moved.

“I said, what the hell do you two think you are doing?” Papa repeated himself, his voice lower, sounding even scarier.

He looked left and right, his frown deepening, mumbling something about the villagers.

“W-we... erm... we...” Cain tried to speak, but couldn’t find the right words.

‘W-what to do, what to do? AH!’

While I was panicking, my eyes shifted everywhere. Mr. Harber was fixing his counter, Ms. Kali was returning home with a basket so full it looked like it was going to explode any time now, and Grandpa Will was telling a story to Ben, who was holding his wet ball. All of them were glancing towards us but none did anything. Then my eyes crossed Papa’s, and the switches they took between me and Cain locked on me.

‘Yikes!’

Mr. Orion tried to calm him down, but I was too afraid to hear what he was saying.

“You play game without me!?” Theodore yelled loudly so much so it snapped me out of the fear.

Shocked, Papa and Mr. Orion looked at him puzzled, while me and Cain looked at each other, blinking in confusion.

‘What?’

He came out of Papa’s leg, looking all serious and angry, his hands thrown in the air. “Why did you start without me!?”

“Ah... ah... yes, sorry.” Cain said slowly, trying to figure out what Theodore was talking about. “You... you weren’t coming so we started without you. Sorry Theodore.”

‘Oh!’

My eyebrows flew upwards, realizing what was going on. Theodore was so smart to come up with such an idea. He walked closer until he pushed me, making me take a step back.

‘Why did it have to be me thought!?’

“Haha, that’s a point for me.” He said proudly, giggling for getting a ‘point‘.

All three of us turned to see Papa’s and Mr. Orion’s reactions. Mr. Orion was smiling, while Papa raised an eyebrow, his eye twitching.

Seeing that we hadn’t proved the game to them, Cain continued the play. “H- hey, that’s not fair Theodore, Lyon wasn’t ready. The point doesn’t count.”

“Y-yeah,” I said still surprised.

“It does!”

Once again, we all looked at Papa and Mr. Orion. Mr. Orion held his laughter and shook his head, while Papa massaged his forehead and sighed heavily.

“So you’ve just been playing a game, huh?” Papa asked, still not believing us.

Cain cleared his throat and took the lead. “Of course we were. Father, what did you think, that we were fighting? Lyon and I would never do such a thing. Right, Lyon?”

He smiled from ear to ear. He tried to look as friendly as possible, but he looked ugly more than anything, much scarier than the Cain from a few moments ago.

‘Ew! That’s so scary, take it away!’

“Y-yeah, never. It looked like that because I was a point ahead and Cain didn’t want to lose. Right, Cain?” Together with his smile, his eyes squinted and his eyebrows reached close to his hair.

‘Stop smiling like that, you freak!’

“Are you sure Lyon? I remember winning right in the end.”

“No, no I saw it, Lyon was ahead,” Theodore answered for me.

‘It’s not even real why are you mad about it? And I did win hmph!’

Papa and Mr. Orion looked at us skeptically. Cain, seeing that he wasn’t going to win the fake game any time soon, decided to change the topic, and thankfully drop that smile of his. “Father, Mr. Orion why are you here?”

“There are two reasons.” Mr. Orion said while lifting a finger. “One is Lyon. He was supposed to visit for his injury. Seeing that he didn’t, we decided to come and find him.” Mr. Orion tapped his foot and looked at me with a look that said ‘I shouldn’t have let you leave yesterday’.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

‘Oops.’

It didn’t last for long however, because he then raised a second finger. “The second, funnily enough, is you and Theodore. Since tomorrow Zephyr will be returning, and it’s been more than a month, we decided to celebrate. We found Theodore on our way here and the two of you ‘playing‘ “.

Theodore gasped before taking my hands and jumping up and down. “Celebate! Celebate!”

‘Ouch! Ouch! Theodore, it hurts! Ouch!’

“Alright, alright Theodore, calm down.” Papa came to my rescue. “Lyon is still wounded, remember?” He pointed to the bandage that was barely showing out of my shirt.

Theodore’s hands flew to his mouth. “Sorry, Lyon!” His voice came funny through his hands, his eyes wiggling.

“It’s okay,” I said with gritted teeth.

His eyes trembled more, but before tears could form, Papa’s hand reached from above and played with his hair, making him feel better.

“Alright, we’ve entertained enough eyes.” As he said that, he looked left and right angrily. “Let’s first take a look at Lyon and Cain, just to be sure they’re fine after their ‘game’ and then we can celebrate. How does that sound?”

Gulp

‘H-he didn’t believe us at all!’

“Yay!” Theodore yelled happily unconcerned.

Mr. Orion treated me first. Thankfully, the scar hadn’t reopened, it was only sweat. I was worried there. He said that it is normal to be itchy and it was proof I was healing. Even better, he didn’t have to use his quint. He asked but I refused immediately.

‘Never again!’

Cain, on the other hand, didn’t know any better and when Mr. Orion asked, he accepted. When the blech-water touched him, me and Theodore laughed so hard! Even Papa chuckled a little. He was all relaxed and tried to look like he was better than the rest of us, but once the water touched him, his face dropped and he jolted out of the chair.

‘Who’s the stupid one now?’

As it turned out, to celebrate Mr. Orion was going to cook a ‘grand meal,’ and Papa shared Twilight’s stories. It’s always good to read the story, but when Papa says them, they are even better! He uses more difficult and cooler words than the book like he knows the story better than the author himself.

‘How cool is that!?’

“Lyon, could you fetch me a few onions? They are in the bag right behind you.” Mr. Orion asked.

“Yes,” I said and did as he asked.

While Papa was telling stories, the smell reached the room all the way from the kitchen. At first, it was a smoky one, but soon it blended with a sweet flavor. Both Theodore and I drooled over it, so we ended up going to check it out.

Mr. Orion’s kitchen was really big, bigger than ours, with many burners, many different tools, and many different pots. He had spatulas, giant spoons, and giant fork-like things, each looking very similar to the other but always having a small difference. The same went for the pots—some were large and cylindrical, while others were broader with flat bottoms.

Most of the smells came from the smaller pods. When Mr. Orion saw our hungry gazes, he let us stay and watch, as long as we helped him by bringing him ingredients and tools. At least those we were close to and could reach.

“Here!” I said, giving him a handful of onions.

“Thank you, Lyon. Now pay attention.” Mr. Orion said and began peeling and slicing them thinly.

Some he sliced into rings, and others chopped in small pieces. In the meantime, he put oil (that greenish-yellow water) into an empty ‘pan’ (as he called these smaller pods) barely enough to cover its surface, before heating it. Then in an empty bowl, he added the flour and dipped the onions.

Theodore and I had many questions, but we didn’t want to annoy him while he cooked, so we watched silently.

Seeing our sparkling eyes he couldn’t help but chuckle. “Heh, if you’re impressed with this, just wait until I put them in the pan.”

When he put the first onion ring in, the oil sizzled. Surprised, both me and Theodore jolted back.

“Haha, don’t worry, come closer, this is the best part.” Mr. Orion laughed and added the rest of the onions.

Immediately, the oil started popping and hissing loudly as small, very, very tiny bubbles burst at the outlines of the onions.

“Wow!”

Mr. Orion’s smile grew to our reaction.

I was afraid because onions burn my eyes and make them watery, but these didn’t. Instead, a hot sweet smell tingled our noses, as their color slowly changed from white purplish to golden brown. When Mr. Orion took the first one out, he ran the back of the knife through, making this satisfying, crispy sound.

Meanwhile, in another pan, there was a lot of meat inside. That’s where the smoky smell came from.

“Unlike onions, meat is trickier. You can never know what germs it carries with, so it’s always best to heat it.” Mr. Orion explained.

“But you’re not here for cooking lessons. Take a look at this.” He said and took the pan by the handle. He shook it a little and the meat inside shook right behind it. Suddenly, with a quick movement, the meat spun and flipped in the air, landing back on the pan on the opposite side.

“Wow!”

“How did you do that!?”

He laughed and put down the pan.“It comes with practice.”

The show, however, had just started. From then on, he went around the kitchen performing different tricks with different tools and pods, each one as impressive as the last. My favorite was the throw and the catch behind the back.

‘He didn’t even look behind him, how did he do that!?’

“Alright,” Mr. Orion began when he was finished with his performance, “it’s almost finished. You can go back now. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

“B-but, we can help!” That is what I said, but really, I just wanted to see more.

“Aw, thank you, Lyon, and you too, Theodore. Both of you were very helpful.” He said and patted our hair. When he stood back up, however, he looked worried and turned around. “Ah.... I shouldn’t tell them or...” He said to himself, forgetting we were right behind him.

“Tell what!?” Theodore asked before I could.

“Please tell us!” I said, a little less loud but just as panicked as Theodore.

Mr. Orion didn’t even hear us. Instead, his furrowed brows deepened. Thankfully, he continued speaking out loud. “Ah, if I let them help further, then they’ll see that, and the surprise will be ruined. Ah, what to do, what to do...?”

‘S-surprise!?’

Theodore and I jumped back, gasped, and our hands reached for our mouths. We couldn’t make a sound! Mr. Orion couldn’t learn that we overheard him!

Looking at each other, our cheeks looked like balloons ready to pop.

“Quick, Papa is calling for us! Let’s go, Lyon!” Theodore grabbed my hand and dragged me to the other room.

“Ah yes, I hear him! Sorry, Mr. Orion!”