NOVEL NEXT 58- Prepare for trouble, and make it double!
58- Prepare for trouble, and make it double!
4/1/6/4353 M.A.C - Muchiri- Ashrama - Morning
Big sis really went all out last night...
Although some of the previous night's rioters had felt guilty enough to clean a little after themselves, the Hen house's common room was in a sorry state. Arctic tried cleaning as much as he could, but he had no way of replacing the broken mugs, let alone the many bottles that had been pilfered from behind the bar.
If I make the place look as good as I can, maybe the mistress will take it easy on Big Sis.
Arctic did his best to wipe down the chairs and tables, but he kept noticing chips in the wood that he didn't think had been there the previous day. Furthermore, a few of the tables had developed a noticeable wobble, indicating further potential damage to the underlying structure. Luckily, the plush, cushion-laden sofas had been left out of the carnage as they lined the walls, well out of the way of where the mosh pit had developed.
Well, at least she didn't set the place on fire...
A few staff members and long-term residents were already starting to gather in the common room, despite the relatively early hour. Arctic rarely stayed up all night as Emi did, choosing to work the day and evening shifts. Thus, he had grown accustomed to being mostly left alone until lunchtime, when the staff would appear to attend to the day's customers. Although the Hen house doubled as an inn, it was a pleasure house first, and breakfast service was close to nonexistent. If someone woke early, which was rarely the case due to the lively atmosphere in the common room getting in the way of people sleeping until the early hours of the morning, they would be met with Arctic setting up for the lunch crowd and dusting the counter by his lonesome.
Today? Today was different. The abrupt end to the previous night's festivities had sent both the usual customers and the staff to bed a lot earlier than was the norm. The unusual morning activity had left Arctic somewhat at a loss. Most mornings, a few cold cuts and the leftovers from the previous night sufficed to feed the select few people who dropped by looking for breakfast, but too many were showing up this day. To make matters worse, the cook wasn't part of the day's early risers.
"Hey Fabio, if you are the real Fabio, can you take care of the cooking? We don't have enough leftovers for everyone."
Fabio yawned and leaned over to scrutinise the writing on Arctic's exposed midriff, his eyes still adjusting to the light of day. As Fabio got the gist of the message, he began to pout and moan.
"I just woke up... Can't you do it? You'd think you'd be trying to make yourself useful after what your sister pulled last night. I always knew she was trouble!"
Yup, seems to be the real Fabio. Guess I could try; how hard can it be?
****
"Hey, stop running around like a lunatic! I can't read you if you keep moving!"
Arctic had burst out of the kitchen while waving both hands above his head frantically, the Mimic Macaque equivalent of screaming at the top of their lungs, and raced his way to Fabio. Fabio firmly grasped his shoulders to hold him in place, and Arctic settled down.
"Alright, what's up? Did you cut yourself or something?"
A single word quickly formed in large misshapen letters across Arctic's midriff as he pointed toward the kitchen, the hastily formed words betraying his panic.
INCENDIUM!
"Fire? Wait! FIRE!?"
Fabio looked towards the kitchen, and his eyes widened even further as he spotted a trail of smoke escaping through the crack above the door. As he looked back at Arctic, his gaze settled onto patches of singed fur on his arms
"What did you do? Try to punch it out? Damn it, we need some water!"
Arctic hurried behind the bar and retrieved a large bucket half-filled dirty water with a stained wet cloth hanging over the side.
This might not be enough; let's grab some of these as well.
Arctic haphazardly grabbed two of the larger remaining bottles and started pouring their contents into the bucket to quickly fill it to the brim. The resulting mixture sloshed around as Arctic rushed back around the counter and toward Fabio.
"Give me that and go find some more as quickly as you can!"
Fabio urgently snatched the large bucket from Arctic and rushed toward the kitchen door, yelling at the other people present all the way.
"Hey, can't you see the smoke? Help the monkey get water!"
Arctic made his way behind the bar again to access the beer taps and placed the largest mugs he could find beneath the five nozzles and opened them fully. Other patrons started yelling as they rushed outside, whether to find some water to help or get out of harm's way, Arctic did not know. An adrenaline-fueled Fabio heroically kicked the door down, rushed into the kitchen, and started a backswing with his bucket, intent on saving the day.
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"What is going on down her-"
BOOM
Just as the Mistress made her way down the stairs, drawn by all the commotion, a loud booming sound erupted from the kitchen. A billowing cloud of black smoke puffed outward, immediately followed by a panicked Fabio running for his life, his burning nipple-tassles swinging side to side with every step, his body covered in greasy soot. The fire behind redoubled as the acrid smell of burnt alcohol followed him into the room, and Fabio tripped, falling to the ground at the Mistress's feet, his flaming tassles smothered by the floor.
Oh shit! Why is the fire even bigger than before!?
Arctic's tribe was accustomed to cooking over an open flame without a pot or pan, making this the first time he'd witnessed an oil fire, and thus he had no idea that water was one of the worst things you could throw onto it. Even worse was the fact that with all the alcohol he had dumped into the bucket, the alcohol content of the mixture had been somewhere between wine and whiskey. Not quite alcoholic enough to catch fire with a small flame, but potent enough to catalyse the explosion and feed the resulting flames.
The Mistress took one glance at the prone Fabio before her and immediately rushed to the kitchen along the most direct route, which meant stepping onto his back.
Huh?
Arctic blinked as he saw the Mistress use Fabio's spine as a launching pad without him doubling over in pain or even showing the slightest sign of discomfort. He noticed a familiar pair coming through the front door, out of the corner of his eye, but the mistress's graceful dash captured his full attention.
Is she dancing? Did she go cra-
As the Mistress reached the kitchen's open doorway, she broke out into an entrancing dance in front of the flames. Arctic was about to run to try and drag her back, but her graceful spins started dispersing the smoke, revealing the aftermath of the explosion.
The explosion had indeed spread the fire to most of the room, but the upside was that the large vat of blazing oil had been dispersed into smaller, easier-to-extinguish puddles. The downside was that if the situation was not remedied promptly, the entire kitchen was at risk of catching fire. Still, Arctic could feel the heat from over a dozen feet away, and so he started worrying for the mistress once more as her dance carried her further into the kitchen. Arctic started pouring one beer mug after another over his head, soaking his clothes and fur, and then dashed to help the Mistress out.
I'm coming!
Arctic wished he had a voice, thinking his yell might have snapped the mistress out of her episode, but try as he might, the only sound he produced was akin to raspy, heavy panting. The flames closed around the twirling mistress, licking at her legs and threatening to set her dress on fire, but she kept dancing, seemingly unbothered. Arctic halted as he once again noticed something unnatural. One of the flames fed by an oil puddle near the Mistress started growing thinner and longer, languidly coiling around her like a snake charmed by her captivating form, but never making contact. The Mistress lowered her stance and spun with one leg out, her foot brushing the surface of the floor, disconnecting the thin tendril of flame from the puddle as she thinned it out. The fire snake, cut off from its fuel, gently dissipated into the air.
Arctic stopped, his mouth agape, his brain trying to record the scene to the smallest detail.
"Beautiful..."
A quiet, awestruck voice sounded out next to him, and only now did Arctic notice that someone else had dashed toward the danger with the intent of saving the mistress, only to stop and realize that she didn't need any help. Senior Brahmin Viraj stood beside him, eyes transfixed on the Mistress's performance as she moved through the sequence again and again, flame after flame, until only fading afterimages lingered, burned onto their retinas.
"WHO IN THE BLAZES IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!?"
Although the flames were extinguished, the mistress's anger burned bright as she stomped her way out of the kitchen, all her bewitching grace leaving her movements. She looked around from face to face, intent on singling out the culprit, that is, until her gaze landed on the Brahmin.
"Oh! Senior Brahmin Viraj. How are you doing on this beautiful morning?"
The Mistress immediately put her metaphorical mask back on, her dulcet tone returning as if she hadn't just been yelling at the top of her lungs. Senior Brahmin Viraj dipped his head slightly, avoiding eye contact with the Mistress, and then hurried back out the door without saying a word.
That's not good!
The Mistress's expression froze, her smile sharp enough to be considered a weapon, and everyone went still, afraid to become the target of her ire.
"Is it over? What happened?"
Fabio finally got back up to his feet and rubbed at his eyes, spreading the soot around and not doing much good. He stumbled, his vision momentarily impaired, and grabbed the shoulder of the closest blurry figure to steady himself.
"Could you give me a hand? I need something to wash my eyes."
The mistress's head slowly pivoted, and the few people still present winced in sympathy for the soon-to-be-late Fabio.
"Sure, I'll help you, but first, why don't you help me understand what exactly happened here."
There was no heat in her words, in fact, her tone was so ice cold that Fabio visibly shivered in fear as he pulled his hand back and tried to walk away.
"Uh, you know what? I think I can deal with this mys-"
Fabio's sentence was cut short as he walked into an obstacle, a suspiciously Mistress-shaped obstacle. Arctic and a few of the unlookers rubbed at their eyes, having missed the moment in which the Mistress took a series of lightning-fast paces to outflank Fabio.
Damn! You will be remembered. I'll light some incense for you.
Fabio dropped to his knees and immediately started snitching as he pleaded for his life.
"I did throw the water, but the idiot monkey is the one who started the fire! Not me! I swear."
Forget about the incense! I'll light what's left of your stupid hair on fire, you snitch!
The Mistress turned to Arctic, a murderous glare boring straight into his soul. She then pointed at the floor, where Fabio was kneeling. She did not need to utter a single word for Arctic to drop to his knees and shuffle to her feet in prostration. After exaggeratedly bowing as he knelt, a move Emi had told him was called "dogeza", he presented his belly like a vanquished animal and made some words appear on it. The mistress's gaze softened after reading what the young monkey had to say, then her eyes shifted to Fabio, and the anger returned. Fabio blinked uncomprehendingly and turned to find out what magical words Arctic had stumbled upon.
You shouldn't have thrown me under the cart!
"So, you decided it was a good idea to send a teen monkey, who had zero cooking experience, into the kitchen to cook for you and the others? Is it true he asked you for help, but you just sent him to do it himself with no supervision?"
Fabio realised he had been painted into a corner by his own actions and looked down at the floor in contrition, accepting his defeat, but not before locking eyes with Arctic one last time.
Yup! Gotta make sure to lock my door tonight.
Arctic started moving away, thinking he was off the hook, but the mistress put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down.
"Where do you think you are going? He might be responsible, but you are also partially at fault here. It is only fair you share in the punishment."
The other people in the room quietly slinked away to avoid any chance of being caught in the crossfire as Fabio gave Arctic an evil and self-satisfied grin.
Are you an idiot? Why are you smiling!? You are also about to get chewed out.
Just as the Mistress was about to start tearing the pair a new one, a large owl walked down the stairs and into the common room, none the wisest, her arms coming out of her plumage as she stretched.
Bad timing Big Sis!
"Ah, Emi, you are just in time. Why don't you kneel next to your brother?"
Although her sentence was phrased as a polite question, her intonation made it clear that this was an order and not a request. Emi silently made her way to Arctic and knelt, awaiting her judgement in silence, a look of resolve on her face.