Everglow: The Trials Of Agaron

14 - Compliments To The Chef

Trikka stood at the kitchen bench with different types of food and condiments scattered all around the place. She hummed a little song while she sliced the food effortlessly with her knife, turning the round spherical fruits into thin slices.

"Oh, Hey Trikka."

Turning around, she saw Fischer standing behind her.

She smiled. "Hey Fisch! How's it going?"

"Yea. . . yea not too bad. You really like this kitchen don't you?"

The carcan effortlessly flipped the knife from one hand to another whilst seasoning the foods with a small shaker that contained something that looked rather similar to pepper. 

"Yep, basically my home withing a home," she chuckled. "Always wanted to be a chef, loved the kitchen since I was a kid."

Fischer nodded attentively whilst gazing around the strange alien kitchen. It was still so bizarre seeing a completely different species' architecture. 

"You work round here?" he asked, hoping to kill some time. Trikka turned to face the human, leaning back with her elbows on the bench. She gleefully twirled the knife in her hand like it was a pencil.

"Yea, I'm up at a restaurant not far from here called 'The Emerald Isle'. worked there for most my life. Started out as just a little waitress, rose through the ranks, now I'm one of the senior chefs!" Her smile was replaced by a frustrated frown as she looked at her left arm and the cast the enclosed it. "Well, was one of the senior chefs. Work kinda became nothing but a memory after this here happened."

"Wait. . . you got fired?"

"Hehe, no no. They can't get rid of me that easily. But until this heals I'm not in any position to be thinking about work."

Fischer nodded as he listened. "Right, right. Why do you still cook here if you've got that cast on? Surely it can't be easy right?"

"Oh nothing in my life has been easy Fisch. This here cast is honestly the least of my worries. Trust me, I've been through worse. And besides, the kitchen doesn't stop just because I got hurt. That and Kori is hopeless when it comes to food."

Fischer let out a quiet chuckle as he thought about what she'd just said. "Wait. . . what do you mean nothing's been easy?"

Trikka finished drying her hands with a towel covered in a blue hexagonal pattern and let out a little sigh. "Well, Kori and I are orphans. Out parents bit the dust in an ekranoplan accident when we were just kids so we didn't have a lot of options growing up. We lived in an orphanage and trust me when I say that carcan orphans don't have good tempers. I mean I can't exactly blame them. God, no-one should have to go through that honestly. We barely managed to scrape up enough to get a house like this."

"Oh. Trikka I'm so. . . I'm so sorry, I had no idea. . ."

"Ah don't sweat it man. It was a long time ago, it's all behind us now." She turned back to her food and resumed cutting it up into neat little slices. 

"Right. Well that's good to hear," Fischer stated rather blandly.

Trikka turned her head with an eyebrow raised. His sudden deflation hadn't gone unnoticed. She stayed silent for a few moments more, waiting to see if he'd respond. When he didn't. . .

"You're worried about her aren't you?" She lamented.

Fischer looked back up at her. "Who?"

"Ko. I can tell."

"No. No I'm not worried about her." He lied.

Trikka chuckled slightly. "Fischer I live in the same house as my brother and his girlfriend. I'm pretty alright at telling when someone's worried about someone else. Trust me mate, I've had practise."

She wiped the knife down and threw it on the bench. Turning to face Fischer, she now had her full attention on him. She raised her brow in a 'seriously?' kind of look.

Fischer rolled his eyes and let out a slight sigh. "Alright. . . fine. Yea. I am worried about her. I-I just. . . I don't know what's going on with her. I mean you've seen her when she has those visions or whatever. How she just collapses on the floor. I mean what am I supposed to do there? I just get so scared and everything. And I mean this whole thing has really shaken her. I'm worried about her mental health. What she's going through can't be something you just shrug off. I just wanna do whatever I can to help her through this."

Trikka bit her lip slightly in contemplation. "You know, I can't exactly say that I've ever had any friends like you two before. Yall seem very unique, I'll give you that. And yea, I'm honestly a little concerned about that whole vision thing as well. It's clear something is going on. However. I think the best way to help her would be to tell her how you feel."

"What do you mean?" Fischer snapped.

"You know what I mean. You don't exactly do a very good job of hiding your feelings towards her you know?"

"I don't have feelings for her!"

"Right, and I'm part of the royal family."

Fischer stared up at her toothy smirk with anger in his eyes. He felt the urge to fight back and defend himself, but there didn't seem to be anything he could think of saying.

Trikka turned around again and began tending to her food. "Well like her or not, I still reckon telling her how you feel is the best thing you can do for her right now. After all, there's nothing more we can really do until we know for sure why she's getting these glimpse vision thingies."

Fischer let out a big sigh as he contemplated what Trikka had just said. It was something he had secretly wanted to do for a while, but just never could find the courage to do so. And right now didn't seem like a particularly great time to do it either.

"She's already got enough on her mind. I mean she can hardly go a day without staring blankly in the mirror and muttering incoherent things to herself. That last thing she needs is for me to drop something like that on her."

Trikka nodded slightly. "Maybe. Or, perhaps that's just what she needs?"