Anna was put in-charge of the cooking from here on out. Which in a way, Anna was thankful for.

No telling what she would make, or even if I would like it.

She was shown which ingredients were edible, which were used for cooking. Where salt was kept, and so on.

She was also given permission to use things not for cooking to cook with. Provided they were as tasty as the dish this afternoon.

I am so glad she liked that. What is that old motto? To reach a woman’s heart is through her stomach? Or was it a man’s? Either way! It works!

She felt, disconnected in a way. While she was worried about if she was ever going to see home again. She realized that she also wasn’t even that eager to begin with.

What did I really have back there? Besides my shop?

And as she thought about it. She couldn’t come up with a logical answer.

She swallowed before looking towards Lilian.

Maybe I could find a reason to stay?… She thought to herself dreamily.

No! Stop! Bad Anna! Bad! She shook her head as the characteristic celibate pent up lesbian urges, reared their ugly head.

Come on! What is wrong with you?

She is grumpy! Mean! Hard and harsher! Strict… Sweet… kind… thoughtful… caring in her own special way… and those muscles!

She was pulled back to reality by the thought of Lilian’s muscles invading her mind.

She shook her head.

WAKE UP ANNA! This is no time to be having an intergalactic girl crush on what might very well be an extraterrestrial! For god sake! Is she even human?! Could we even have sex?

As she thought this, another matter was brought to mind.

Hey?… wait a second.

“Umm… gratal?” She called out to Lilian, not forgetting to not call her by the correct name.

I don’t want to anger her.

“Hmm? Yes gack’tug? What is it?”

She winced at that name assigned to her; she hated it.

“I was just wondering… Do?… Do the things you call humans… look like me?”

She received a blank expression at her absurd question.

Which made her hold up her hand to stop Lilian from speaking.

“Okay! Your expression says it all! I just… being from another planet and all, I was wondering if what you called humans even looked like me.”

Lilian was quiet as she thought on what Anna just said.

“Hmm. A fine question really, but alas, still a pointless one, even with the context: yes, humans, even on Rayala, still look just like humans from your world apparently… if you are anything to go by.”

She didn’t know why, but Anna released a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“Thank god! If they had like three heads or four arms, I think I would have gone crazy.”

The produced a chortle out of Lilian. Which Anna thought sounded delightful.

“No. The only thing with four arms and the only thing with multiple heads are trolls and ogres respectfully.” Lilian informed her.

Anna froze as her hand hovered in-front of another container.

“T-Trolls?… Ogres?!” Anna squeaked.

“Aye, they are both kinda nasty. Worse part is how equally deadly they both are.”

Anna gulped at hearing this.

“W-W-Why is that?!” She asked with a quivering voice.

To which Lilian just shrugged.

“For ogres, it is mostly because of their size and strength. They can range from as tall as a house, to as large as Falaris’s castle walls.”

“How tall is that?!” She asked panicked.

“Hmm… I think it was about a hundred meters?”

She felt herself go pale.

Oh god!

“But if you ask me, I would rather fight ogres than trolls.”

“How are they worse?!”

“Well, for starters. They have four arms, making them a considerable foe to any level of combatant. They are a nimble and quick, especially inside they home of a swamp forest. They also have the nasty ability to regenerate lost limbs and and fatal wounds.”

“Oh god! They sound terrifying!”

“They can be, especially in large groups, but their agility is worthless in an open field. Their regeneration makes them quite reckless in battle. Most of all, while you could piercing their hearts, isn’t always guaranteed to kill them, while slicing their heads off is.”

“I bet that’s not easy…” Anna comments.

“Gods no! It is harder than killing an ogre, especially if the troll is well trained.” She lifted a hand from her task of making boots. “On the other hand, ogres are generally slow, dumb, only think about their next meal, and are generally easy to trick. But their strength and size is undeniable. So they are not to be trifled with.” Lilian told her firmly.

This only made Anna gulp again.

“I hope I don’t have to run into any of them… they would tear me apart.” Anna murmured fearfully.

“You don’t need to worry about trolls, they have two critical weaknesses they avoid, like humans avoid a plagued town. They hate both fire and cold. They catch fire easily do to their plant like connection to nature. They also will not be found in the mountains like this: it will freeze their blood to ice within minutes.”

Anna sighed in relief.

“And ogres?”

“Oh, they live on this mountain.”

Anna could hear the record needle scarping across the record inside her mind.

“What?!…”

“Mmm hmm…” Lilian murmured. “Best not to venture to far away from the cave without me. Lest you run into an ogre yourself.” Lilian leered at Anna.

Oh! She is teasing me! Hehehe!

“Oh I will! I won’t go far away from you.” She assured her.

“Good. Because you are more likely to run into wolves and gawanta than an ogre. But it is best to be safe than sorry.” Lilian said matter of factly.

She heard the record shattering in her mind this time.

She wasn’t joking…

“So there really are ogres living on this mountain?!” Anna asked panicked.

“Afraid so.” Lilian confirmed as she inspected her work.

“Then why do you live here?!”

Lilian look over at her with a glare.

“This is my home; I am free here. And not a single person can come or tell me what to do. That is why.”

Lilian said this to Anna with such firmness, that she didn’t even question her on her reasoning.

In Anna’s mind at that moment. She wondered what was scarier.

A hungry ogre?

A charging troll?

Or an angry Lilian?

*GULP*

If someone forced me to choose? I would never want to see Lilian angry.

They moved about that afternoon until evening. Lilian occasionally calling Anna over to check the size of her feet.

Which, if Anna admitted, made her girly parts tingle as Lilian touched her crus and foot as she got the measurements her feet.

I am hopeless. Anna realized.

“Are you ticklish?” Lilian asked her.

“Excuse me?!” Anna squeaked at the unexpected question.

“You just keep squirming in place while I am measuring you.” She shrugged. “I was just worried I was accidentally tickling you.”

Anna had to turn her head and cough at the accidentally direct question of her predicament.

She also felt her face going red.

“N-N-N-No! I-I-It- It’s not that… I just-“

Quick brain! Think of something! What do I pay and feed you for?!

  

“I just… NEEDTOUSETHEBATHROOM!”

Oh…..

My…..

God…

IS THAT SERIOUSLY THE BEST YOU CAN DO BRAIN?!

If her face was red before, now it was as red as a tomato.

I just want to die. Go crawl into a cave and… oh wait… already in one! Hehehe…..

But as luck would have it, or maybe it was because of Lilian’s ignorant obliviousness. Lilian didn’t mind her slip up. Without missing a beat, she pointed out helpfully.

“It is in there.” She points to a one of the five hole closets. “At the end of the deepest part in there is a little stream with a running water source that flows into an under ground waterway system.”

“O-O-O-Oh! How convenient!”

“Truly!” Lilian agreed. “It is one of the marvels my father discovered when he found this place. An excellent source of water that will last a person a life time along with a secure home that only an ogre or mother Rayala could destroy but never would.”

“Mother Rayala? The planet?”

Lilian looked up at Anna with wide eyes like she had just heard her say something crazy.

No! Don’t look at me like that while holding my foot!

“I forgot that you had just informed me that you were of another world… you called your world Earth, correct?”

“Well… that is… that is the most recognized name of my planet… it had many names.”

“Ah! Did no one on your planet know your planet mother’s true name?” Lilian asked her with a sad voice.

“…No… I doubt it. Maybe once upon a time, a long long time ago, but no, I doubt anyone knows its true name now, if it had one at all.”

Lilian nodded her head at her while wearing a sad smile.

“It most assuredly did at one point. A shame that your shamans forgot it.” Lilian said as she let go of Anna’s foot; much to Anna’s disappointment.

“Shamans?”

She looked up at her again.

“No?! Do not tell me you had no one on your Earth that connected with her?! With nature itself?!”

“I mean! We did. But they were so few by the time I was taken from there. I doubt there had been any sort of true shamans that were actually connected with nature like you’re saying. They would more likely be people just pretending they could.” Anna explained.

Lilian gave a sigh.

“That is unfortunate. It is a sad thing if people forget Rayala’s… or, correction, a planets true name.” Lilian spoke lamentingly with a small ammendment.

“Yeah… I was having trouble with my shop back on Earth selling my wares because people just didn’t care to buy them anymore.”

“Oh! You were a merchant? What did you sell?” Lilian asked her curiously.

Anna lifted her head high.

“I was a florist.” She told her proudly.

“What is that?”

“It means a was a person who sold flowers and plants.”

“Flowers?”

“Yes!” Anna shouted in frustration.

“Like a flower girl in the streets?”

“I had a little more variety than what a common girl on the streets would sell!” Anna said indignant.

“Oh! Pardon me madam merchant of flowers!” Lilian said to her with a grin, that looked like a cat that ate a canary.

“Fine! Laugh! Everyone else did. Flower shops were a dying profession, I get it.  At least they were where my shop was.” Anna’s voice turned melancholy as she remembered her failing shop.

Lilian rolled her eyes at Anna’s mood swings.

“Did you not have to use the latrine?” Lilian reminded her.

“Oh… right…” She then grabbed a candle. But stopped as she stood in-front of the passage.

“What is wrong?”

“Umm…” She looked at Lilian with an embarrassed expression. “What do you use to… umm… clean yourself with?” Anna asked hesitantly.

Lilian look at her like she was daft again.

“A rag.” She told her matter of factly.

“But what if you are going… umm…” Anna trailed off, not able to finish her sentence.

“You mean if I am defecating from the anus?”

Anna felt her head goes red again at hearing Lilian’s descriptor.

“Yeah…”

“A rag.”

“*GASP* The same one?!”

“If necessary!” Lilian shouted at her back. Her cheeks slightly darker as well. “But I would humbly suggest that you wipe the front end first, before your backside, and to rinse the rag thoroughly before reusing it.”

Anna put her hands up, covering her face.

“…Oh God!…” She said into her hands.

“Get used to it.” Lilian told her. “I do not know how you defecated on your world, but be glad that we have a semiprivate latrine.”

“Oh God!” Anna said as she walked down the pathway in a hurry.

Anna could hear Lilian laughing as she walked deeper into the darkness.

————————————————-

It was hours later, after the Anna’s bathroom mishap. They had dinner, talked some more about Anna’s world different names. Lilian seemed almost fixated on that maybe, one of them Anna had mentioned was Earth’s true name.

“What difference does it make? I’m not there now? Wouldn’t it be better to know your planet’s true name, than for me or you to know mine.”

“But it is just so sad though. If you told any shaman this, they would weep for a day at hearing how your planet was mistreated.”

Anna scoffed at that.

“It was far worse than that I’m afraid.” Anna confessed.

“How can it be worse than that?!”

“If forgetting its name is bad enough for your shamans to weep. We were basically filling it up with poison. Making the very air and waters we breathed inhospitable for us to fish, eat, breath or drink from.” Anna explained.

She had seen Lilian’s cheeks lose the blood inside of them from her shock at what she had said.

“What?! Why would you do such a thing?!” She shouted in anger.

“Woah! Easy! It is not like I did those things!”

“But you condoned it!”

“What?! Hells no! I donated a great deal of money to help rid the planet of those horrible things! But we’re talking about a group of people that was trying to bale out a sinking ship with a spoon.” Anna explained with an allegory. 

“………” Lilian looked at her with distress, as if she was some sort of alien monster.

Well… I mean I technically am an alien… right?

“S-Stop looking at me like that! I am not a disaster coming from another planet to yours! I promise! I don’t even know how to create the stuff that would poison Rayala. So there isn’t a need to worry about me doing anything.”

“It is not about you doing anything. It is how fortunate you are that you escaped that place.” Lilian points out.

Anna freezes into place she contemplates what was just said to her.

Huh? Maybe I am lucky. I never looked at it that way.

She gives Lilian’s form a once over.

Very lucky.

She shakes her head.

“Anyways! Enough about my world. Let’s talk about yours. What is your planets true name?”

Lilian shrugged.

“I don’t know.”

“What?! After all this time of giving me flack about not knowing it. You don’t either?!” Anna asked in mock outrage.

“It is not my place to know her name. I know her respectfully by the name passed on to her by the shamans to her people.”

“So only the shamans know Rayala’s true name?”

“Rightly so.”

“Why? If it is so important to know her true name, why doesn’t everybody learn her true name.”

“That!…” Lilian started to say but then stopped. “Is something I am not quite sure of… I know it has something to do with the fact that, shamans become shamans, after learning Rayala’s true name. But that until they learn it on their own, they will only remain an apostle of another shaman until they do.”

“But then how do they learn it?”

“I do not know! I am not a shaman, nor an apostle! How am I suppose to know!” Lilian argued.

“Ugh! And here I was thinking I was a horrible person for not knowing her name! But it seems like it is more of a privilege than a right!” Anna growled a little frustrated for being teased.

“It is a privilege.” Lilian said placatingly. “But it is also important that they know it; if only a few of know it.”

“UGH! That doesn’t make any sense!” Anna argued.

“And you do not know what it is you are arguing against, you just wish to be right against me.”

“Yes? So what?! As long as I am right! That is all that matters!” Anna told her with false conceitedness.

“Ugh! You are impossible.” She growled with false anger as she got up from the table. She then shoved the finished boots towards Anna. “Try these on, tell me about if they fit properly.”

Anna held the boots in her arms, looking at them with a great sort of care.

Lilian was busy rummaging through the furs and leathers closet.

“Well?!” Her raised voice slightly muffled with half her body stuck inside. “Do they fit or need adjustments?!”

After pulling free of the closet, Lilian stands there staring at Anna’s back, as she stands there stroking her boots.

“Gack’tug? Why are you petting your boots.”

“Because…….”

Lilian rolled her eyes as she walked over to spin her around to face her.

“That is not an answ-“

What she saw made her shut up, as well as her heart seize up at the sight.

Anna was staring down lovingly at the boots, while cradling them in her arms. Tears streaming down her face, added to this already weird scene.

“This is why I couldn’t answer you… *SNIFF* I remember before that you didn’t like to see my tears, but…”

Lilian wanted to roll her eyes at what she had just heard, but she was just to confused.

“I do not understand? They are just boots? You had seen me working on them all afternoon and evening, along with the fact that you helped get the materials ready. So why is it, only now, that you are emotional?” Lilian asked her in genuine confusion.

“….I don’t know either?!….” Anna admitted after a while. “….I guess it’s because this is the first gift I’ve received from someone else in a while…. Maybe that is why?!…” Anna pondered.

Lilian finally did roll her eyes.

“This is just silly. They are just boots. I will be making more or fixing those up later before winter is over.” She assured Anna.

“I know… *SNIFF* I get it… I guess I am just the sentimental type.”

“Kkghh! You are incorrigible.” Lilian threw the furs and things she had at Anna. “There is your bedding. I will get your blankets you came with for you. Then you can sleep out here.”

“Wait? We’re not sleeping in the same room?”

“Of course not! Who would be seen sleeping with their guest? An uninvited one at that!” Lilian snarks. “Besides, I do not wish to step over you in the mornings as I wake.”

“…Guess that makes sense…”

Lilian rolls her eyes at her behavior.

“Of course it makes sense. Now, stop making nonsense, and get ready for bed. We have an early day tomorrow.” Lilian warns her. She then walks into her room briefly to retrieve Anna’s things before coming back out to toss them to her as well.

“Goodnight and sleep well gack’tug.” Lilian tells her before moving into her room, closing the door behind her.

“…..Goodnight…..” Anna felt like Lilian was in a hurry to distance herself from their camaraderie they were just having with each other. Like the emotions she was feeling were scaring her.

But what the hell do I know… I got a B in psychology.

She laid down everything on the table before spreading the furs onto the floor. Then laid the pillow down, then tried the spot first to see if that spot was to uncomfortable to lay on: it wasn’t. She she reached up to pull down her blanket and pillow. She leaned over to blow on the candle, the curled up and had gone to sleep.

————————————————-

What only seemed like hours. She felt a shove on her shoulder.

“Get up. It is time that we started our day.”

“*YAWN* Already? But it feels like I just feel asleep…” Anna murmured her complaint.

Lilian went about with her candle. To light the ones in this room.

“Yes, it will feel like that at times. Get used to it.” Lilian told her firmly. “Make us breakfast.” She ordered.

Anna was sort of upset at being ordered to do something so early in the morning. But she let it go. It was still a whole lot better than Sheila.

“*YAWN* Yes your majesty.” Amma quipped teasingly. She flipped the covers over to get up out of her bed. She moved towards the closets to look for something for them to eat, when she noticed that Lilian had stopped moving and was trembling.

“Lilian what is-“

Before she could even blink.

She was pressed up against the wall, held up by her throat be Lilian, staring up at her with an angry expression.

“I will forgive you this time for your misspoken words of ignorance,” She growled in anger, her eyes like shining amethyst quartz. “But! Do not! EVER! Call me your majesty! Princess! Or any royal moniker again! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!” She yelled at Anna.

All Anna could do was hold on to the hand that held her by her throat with both of her own. She couldn’t even breath. Her eyes were watering, her body trembling in fear.

Lilian then let go, dropping Anna to the floor. She curled up onto her knees and elbow desperately gasping for air.

“*GASP* *COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH*”

After coughing for almost a minute: her body trembling in fear the entire time.

She finally looked up at Lilian. Who had not moved since she let Anna drop to the floor.

She to was trembling for some reason. Anna suspected it was most likely in rage. Lilian was also staring down at Anna. But she staring so intently. That she suspects she wasn’t actually seeing anything at all right now. Her eyes looked glassed over with emotions.

“……I’m!….. *WHEEZE* *COUGH* *COUGH*……. Sorry!…..” Anna barely was able to wheeze out.

Her words shook Lilian out of her stupor. It was as if she was seeing Anna on the floor, tears down her face, trembling on the floor for the first time since she was dropped there.

Lilian bent her knees, reaching down with her hands.

But Anna’s instincts were to curl herself tighter into a ball, her arms covering her head.

Lilian saw that her actions now, along with her previous actions, were not going to help her in this situation.

She turned grabbing an axe from its place in the wall. Then moved towards the door.

She rolled the door to the side before stopping there. She turned her head to the side to glimpse at Anna. Who was just barely peeking at her through a gap in her arms.

Lilian felt her heart seize once again at the sight of her gack’tug’s form. She also felt a trembling in her very soul for what she had done.

“Make sure breakfast is done by the time I get back.” She said words she didn’t mean. She then walked through the portal of the doorway outside, rolling back the door after she left.

Anna stayed there, trembling on the floor. Scared out of her mind at what just happened.

I have to get out of here… it’s not safe… she is so powerful! So dangerous! One wrong word said and I could’ve been killed!

She already felt the bruising forming on her throat. She didn’t even need a mirror to show her the results.

She gently brushed it with her fingertips, wincing at the contact because of how sensitive her wound was.

She lifted me like I weighed nothing! She probably could have snapped my neck with one hand! Oh my God! I’m so scared!

She didn’t know how long she laid on the floor trembling.

But she knew what got her up off of it.

I have to get breakfast made! She could be back any second!

As she tried to stand, her legs wouldn’t carry her. She fell forward, falling back down to land across a chair that was pushed out.

“Ha ha…. Hahahahaha!” She started laughing hysterically as tears streamed down her face.

Oh my God! I have never been more scared in my life!

*HIC*

Her laughter quickly turning into sobs as she knelt on the chair there.

*HIC*

Oh God! Terra! How did this happen?! Did you do this to me?! Was it that necklace you gave me?!

She reached down into her frayed pajama tops. Pulling out the large ruby amulet, with burnt looking gold chain on it. A vine figure wrapping around the outside edge of it.

She looked down at the cracked jewel in despair.

Is this what my life now is?! Is this what my wish really granted me?

*HIC*

I just want to go home!

She sat there for another length of time. Waiting for the strength to return to her body.

After a long, long while. Her body finally stopped trembling long enough to let her stand up completely. Albeit, slightly shaky.

I have to leave. Breakfast or her orders be damned!

She reached down for her boots: the boots that Lilian made for her.

Her hand froze before touching them.

She looked at them, the white spotted fur on the cuffs of the boots. The strong leather hand sew together. Made just for her. Her hand reached the rest of the way down. Picking up the boots, bringing them up to place them in her lap.

 

Why? 

 

Why is she so kind one minute? Cordial the next? And then suddenly so filled with rage a moment later… I just don’t understand.

She thought to herself as she stared, hunched over the boots in her lap. Her tears dripping down her face and nose to fall onto the boots.

 

This can’t be happening…

 

I can’t do this to myself again!

 

She knew in her heart what was happening. Despite everything in her body and mind telling her not to let it happen.

  

How could you fall in love with someone in just a few short hours? It hasn’t even been a full day since we have met her…

She reached up to clench at her chest where her heart was.

“…Why can’t you ever pick someone that is good for us heart?! Why do you always pick the ones that hurts us?!…”

            

*HIC*

               

*SNIFF*

                      

*HIC*

                       

*HIC*

                     

Anna sat there crying for only God knows how long.

Eventually, she ran out of tears to cry. So she put the boots back down.

She started moving about to get breakfast ready. But she was mostly on autopilot. She moved from the pantry closet to the other room with ingredients.

She carved a large chunk of meat from the stuff that was hanging. She then added in a some random herbs she found, along with some sort of alcohol. She then put these things on to plates off to the side.

She wasn’t sure where she got it from. But she had found some wild race of all things. She threw it into the pan, to cook a little and to soak up the juices of the meat left over in the pan.

She then then threw just a bit more of the alcohol she found in with a bowl full of water. She took third wooden plate, laying it on top of the cast iron pan to act as a lid.

She then backed up to sit on the stone slab, which was apparently Lilian’s bed.

She let me sleep here when she first found me…… Anna mused as she rubbed her hand back-and-forth over the furs. She then found herself laying down onto the furs.

She found herself smelling the furs.

Is this her scent?

She smelt a sweaty human like musk stuck to the fur.

There was also a hint of whatever she used to clear herself with.

It is only slightly noticeable. Lilac? Honey? She wasn’t sure.

After a while just soaking up Lilian’s sent to heal her wounded heart.

The irony of which is not lost on me. Anna thought to herself. She then got up and checked the rice.

Just about right!

She then stirred it fluffing it up before letting it sit for just a bit longer. She then added the partially cooked meat back into the pan after scrapping the rice to one side.

Hope she likes it.

As she had this thought she worried about herself.

This isn’t healthy Anna… we should leave… just, grab the boots…

And there it was again.

Every time I think about leaving. I also think about the kindness she has shown me… making it that much harder for me to just get up and leave.

I hate that I am this way.

I was like this with Sheila as well… but I can’t explain it… Sheila was… or rather is a drug. Every time she came back. I promised myself this was the last time, and never again.

But Lilian though… she is?

*SIGH*

Something more…

Like a thing I can’t live without. Like T.V. or the Internet…

Huh?…

Anna just had an epiphany.

I don’t have those anymore… guess they aren’t so bad to live without after all… glad I had them at the time though! Wouldn’t have know how to skin that animal otherwise!

She got back up to looking at the meat and rice.

After sampling a bit of rice.

“Perfect!” She declared.

She then added the two shanks of meat to two plates, then two piles of rice on both plates.

Now one last thing.

She took a pinch of salt, a glug of alcohol, and a bit more crushed up herbs and water. Throwing it all from a single bowl into the pan.

It sizzled and hissed from the heat of the pan as steamed raised up from it. She then stirred it around the pan with a wooden spoon as she swirled the liquid around the pan to break up the fond at the bottom of the pan. Once a nice brown thick sauce remained. She poured that over everything.

“There! Maybe with this, she won’t be quite so angry.”

She felt as if a record had scratched to a halt.

What did I just say?!

Did I just think for a second… that I was the one at fault here?!

She felt herself get angry at the moment. Almost burningly angry. Not at Lilian, but at herself

What the fuck is a matter with you!

She realized that this whole time, she had been in a daze from her terrified sadness from how she was treated. Now she was cooping with cooking, while also brushing the issue under the rub by pretending she was happy and nothing happened.

Good thing I woke up! God! I hate myself!

She looked down at the two plates she made.

I should take both of these to the toilet and flush them down-

*Gguuurrrruuurrr*

She heard a distant rumbling of the front door rolling away.

Shit! She’s back!

She folded the hem of her pajama shirt up to grab at the hot pan to get it off of the stove so that it didn’t continue to burn.

She then grabbed the two plates to take them to the other room.

Okay… you got this Anna. You’ll be okay.

She slipped out from behind the open door of the bedroom, out into the main room of the cave.

Lilian stood there. Snow on her shoulders and hair. A bundle of wood in her crook of her arm. A pensive morose look on her face.

She looks so sad… Anna thought with pity.

But she shook herself from that dangerous thought.

No! She is the one who is dangerous. She doesn’t deserve my pity!

She then ignored Lilian to place the plates on the table.

“Breakfast.” Anna told her flatly before sitting down.

Lilian looked from Anna to the table where her plate lay.

She then sighed before dropping her bundle of wood. It scattering with a clatter as it landed on the floor.

This made Anna startle at her place at the table.

God I am pathetic…Anna thought as she jumped at the sound.

She watched as the imposing figure of Lilian sat down across from her. She took a look down at her plate. She picked up her wooden fork before pointing with it at it the rice.

“What is this?” She asked curiously.

“What do you mean? It’s rice. I found it in your pantry.” Anna informed her flatly while she continued to eat her food.

“……” Lilian stared pensively at it for a long while before commenting. “I don’t have anything like that in my food storage.”

Anna froze. While she was in a stupor herself this morning. She knew for a fact that she had gotten the rice from a bag on the floor in the food closet.

I did right?

“Well?” Anna said with snark. “If it wasn’t in there? Where did I get it?!” She huffed with an angry breath.

“………” Lilian was quiet for a bit. “I suppose you’re right….” She then picked up her fork before digging in the sauce covered rice. Which she brought it to her mouth.

*HISS* Lilian breathed in sharply through her nose.

“MMM….” She moaned as she slowly chewed the rice.

Anna had stopped eating altogether as she watched Lilian take her first bite. She gulped herself, but she had nothing within her mouth.

“Ummm… mmmm… ‘hat ‘s th’sss?! It’s ‘O ‘ood!” Lilian said with a mouth full and a smile tugging at her lips.

Anna felt the hardness of her heart that she had started to build up almost instantly melt away at Lilian’s exuberance of her enjoyment of her meal.

God! I really am hopeless.

“That is the power of rice.” Anna quipped. “It is pretty bland, or at best, earthy flavored on its own. “But when you cook it with other things.-“

“It absorbs the flavors it cooks with!” Lilian finished for her, realizing what she was leading to.  “And what is this liquid on top?! It tastes like the whole meal in liquid form!” She scarfed into her meal with abandon of table manners.

But once Lilian sliced into the meat.

She had a stunned expression on her face.

“MMMMMMMM!” She moaned loudly, stretching her legs and arms in her seat, as if this was the best thing she had ever eaten. This was also making Anna squirm slightly at the noises Lilian was making.

“What is this?! Is this really the same meat we had yesterday?!” Lilian asked Anna with a look of disbelief.

This only made Anna bite her lower lip to stifle a giggle she felt try to worm its way out of her.

Don’t just start forgiving her yet! Stay strong! You can do this!

“Y-Yes! That is right… that is the same meat from yesterday.” Anna assured her.

“I don’t believe it!” She looked down at her plate. “I almost cannot believe it! This is one of the best meals I have ever had! Even back in the ca-“

Lilian stopped herself from continuing. Her face changing from fascinated and exuberant, to hard and sullen.

God! What now? Anna wondered in distress at her shift in mood.

Lilian sat back up in her chair proper. Seeming to remember some sort of manners she had not been displaying up to this point.

“I apologize for the lack of decorum I had shown just now.” Lilian said to her.

Now is my chance. Anna thought.

“Thank you. But if anything, I want an explanation about this morning… I think I deserve one.” Anna expressed with a firmness she wasn’t aware she had. Her hands were still trembling at having said what she did just now though.

But I did it! I can be proud of that.

Lilian had closed her eyes as she had her head tilted down, as if she was in a trance.

“You are right. You do deserve an answer: I should not have treated my guest in such a way.” Lilian looked up at her with serious issues eyes.

“But I do not have one. Because I did not believe myself capable of doing that.” She informed Anna.

“……” Anna sat there in shocked disbelief. “That is it?!….” She whispered to her. “That is all you have to say to me?!” She whispered  her disbelief a little louder.

“What more could I say?” Lilian argued. “That I should apologize to you for nearly killing you? That what you said had made me so angry, that I nearly lost control of myself!” Lilian shouted at her, making Anna feel smaller in her chair. “What is it you want me to say?! I had no Rayalan idea that I would do such a thing when you called me… that… And even afterwards gack’tug, I had nearly no control over myself. I was just so…” She clenched her eyes shut again before opening them when she spoke.

“Angry. I was so angry to hear you call me that; that before I had time to reason or even realize what I was doing: I was already holding you up, spewing those words at you.” She looked at Anna with a glower.

“Do you want an apology?! Sure! Maybe you even deserve one! But I did not know I was going to do that. I wasn’t even halfway aware of what was happening until it was over! Do you want me to take back what I said?! Then NO!” She shouted with a slam of her fist on the table. “I meant what I said then.” She pointed at the cowering Anna on her chair. “Don’t ever call me with a royal moniker again! Don’t even hint or suggest such a thing! Don’t call me by name! In-fact! It will probably be for the best, if you just only refer to me as gratal! and nothing more! Do you understand me?!” She shouted desperately at Anna.

Anna by this point, was curled up in a ball onto her chair; her legs brought up to her chest. Her arms wrapped around her legs, as she trembled in place.

All she could do was nod. She was sure her voice would fail her if she tried to speak.

Lilian huffed a breath.

“Good.” She said calmly now. She was hating herself for causing the person across from her such fear. She really hated herself.

I really am just like my father. Lilian thought to herself.

“Let us finish our meal.” Lilian told her companion.

“………” Anna for her part just stayed curled into place. Too scared to make a sudden move.

She wanted to say that she wasn’t hungry anymore, but feared what reprisal that might get her for saying such a thing.

With a trembling hand, Anna reached out to pull her plate towards her. Which wobbled uncertainly. She reached with her other hand towards her fork.

Lilian saw this and almost told her to sit properly at eat her food like a person.

No… I have said enough… let’s just… let her do what she wants. I have done enough to strain what we had been building anyways. Unintentionally as it was; this is for the best. She will leave soon, and I will be back to my mountain before I know it.

Anna on the other hand, who was trembling in her chair as she tried to choke down her food, had only one thought.

I have got to get out of here!