William found the cafeteria. It was late and the room was empty. He was grateful for this. The man standing behind the service line seemed to know what William had been through and he served William a huge helping for his tray and he matched the oversized helping onto a completely different tray. William wondered who that was for. He wasn’t sure he could finish the massive amount of food on his own plate. His stomach was trying to eat itself and the pains were increasing. Of course, the smell of the food wasn’t making things any easier. He tried to move fast to sit down somewhere. He picked the closest seat he could find and eased himself down.
When he was situated, the guy placed the second tray down next to William. Without a word or a glance, he turned and went back to the service line and immediately started to clean up. William looked down at the steaming pile of food in front of him. Now that he could eat, he found that he was hesitant. His stomach was crunching in on itself and he knew he had to eat but the pain itself made him not want to touch a bit of his food.
He scooped a forkful of food and ate it. The food melted in his mouth and slid down his throat. The food was a little bland but very warm, and very good. The stew was similar to what he had eaten yesterday. The potatoes were perfectly cooked and they crushed and flaked under the slightest pressure from his fork. Before he knew it, his first tray was clean. He looked up to see that the guy was standing against a wall. The service line was clear and he was waiting for William to finish. He didn’t scowl at William, nor did he smile. He was extremely stoic in that respect and he reminded William at once of Aiman.
William didn’t want to rush because his stomach had still not relaxed from the muscular dissidence that it had experienced before he started eating but he didn’t want to keep the man waiting any more than he had to.
William finished quickly enough and even though he had eaten a great deal he found that he was not full to the point of bursting. He smiled at the joke that he and his friends had made up so long ago. The feeling of being fat and not being able to move after a huge meal, they had dubbed that being overbese. Even though he had eaten more than he could remember ever eating in his life, he did not feel overbese, in fact he felt like he had eaten either just enough or maybe even too little. He shook off the feeling of still being just a bit hungry and returned his trays to the man standing behind the counter. “Thank you.” Was the only thing William could say before the man nodded, not rudely, and turned back to wash the two trays. William left the cafeteria and returned home.
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When he entered his room, he found it empty. Ares had always been there to greet him or give him some advice or answer a question that he might have. Tonight however, the room stood silent. William felt a sense of foreboding because of this. Over the time he had spent in his forest and even the short amount of time he had spent here, he had grown accustomed to the routine of things. Having Ares meet him in his room at night was routine. The break in normalcy was distressing.
William looked around outside his door, back down the empty ramp. He scanned the surrounding areas but could see no one. The streets were empty, and the cavern lights had dimmed to such an extent that he couldn’t see too far anyway. It was night. Heaving a sigh, he shook his head and reentered his room.
The next morning, he awoke to find his room empty. Ares was not waiting for him with any order or command. He should have been happy because of this, but he wasn’t. It only served to emphasize what he had felt at coming home to an empty room. Without knowing what else to do he got up, got dressed, and grabbed his stuff to go to the bathroom.
When he came back the room was still empty. The feeling of something not being right didn’t leave him but he decided to accept it. If I don’t have a teacher today, I might as well make the most of it. As if in answer to his resolve his stomach grumbled and echoed off the walls of his room. He was surprised by the volume of the grumble. He clutched at his abdomen. He was starved. Even after all he had eaten last night, it felt like he hadn’t eaten in days. First order of business, food. Smiling to himself he shook his head and headed down to the cafeteria for breakfast.
When he got to the familiar rectangle building, he was a little shocked at the noise that was emanating from the room. He could just see inside the doors and the tables that had been mostly empty the last few times he had been here were mostly full. He saw a lot of empty spaces at the tables but people had filled the room rather nicely. Shrugging his shoulders, he moved into the cacophony of noise.
He walked along the inside of the room, staying close to the sweating walls. The humidity in here was always noticeable and the heat from the kitchen filled the space like a central heating unit. It was not unpleasant, but he could feel the slick wetness on the wall next to him.
He walked up to counter and grabbed a tray. The same man from last night was standing there. William nodded to him and he nodded back. He took his tray and filled it to capacity once again, only this time instead of a beef stew and biscuits, he found himself looking at a mound of scrambled eggs, a tall stack of pancakes, and biscuits smothered in some kind of sausage gravy. The smell made William’s mouth water. He thanked the man, who returned the pleasantry with a nod. William turned and found an empty spot at a nearby table, and began to ravenously tear into his breakfast.