Memories of the Reaper

Chapter Twenty-One

Hazel Dominguez was furious, for more than one reason.

"Yeah... Leave it to the woman to give cooking lessons," Hazel grumbled. She grabbed the rabbit's pelt with exaggerated force and made a small incision with an all-too-large knife. Pointing the knife at him, she added, "Kendra gets to teach you combat skills while I get stuck playing the mom. Do I look like a mom to you?" Without waiting for a response, the Lady of Shadows ripped the skin from the animal, starting at the center back and continuing until the skin was bunched up around its neck and ankles.

Derek Grey responded cautiously, "I think that you could be a good mother if you wanted to be, Lady Hazel."

"Way to straddle the fence on that one, fledgling," the reaper told him. "You should have been a politician. Politicians are usually late to things, too, ya know."

Derek didn't know if that last statement was true, but he nodded his head all the same.

This is Hell's Kitchen, he thought.

The fledgling had arrived five minutes late by her time, though he didn't understand how he could be late when there had not been any set time for the lessons. When he voiced his objection, she threw a pan of scalding water at him. It had only missed him because he had dropped to his stomach. Her temper had only grown from there. She had handed him a bunny carcass of his own, but when he told her that he had no experience in butchering a rabbit, or any animal for the matter, the reaper almost threw him out. Hazel had been periodically telling him the steps to field and butcher the animal. She taught him how to deskin the animal ten minutes ago, but the lesson was still an ongoing experiment in what-not-to-do. So, he just tried to mimic her actions as quietly as possible. Blood dripped down from the flaps of half-cut meat and had been soaking his skin long enough for his fingers to shrivel like raisins, but he didn't dare ask for gloves.

The fledgling didn't dare ask for gloves.

"Let me see." Hazel peered at the butchered rabbit carcass he was preparing before glaring at him. "You seriously have no idea what you're doing, do you?" she asked him.

"No, Lady Hazel." Derek had been preparing the wild game for some time now, but it was still his first carcass while Hazel had just started her third. Even her shadow had prepared two rabbits on its own in addition to its other tasks.

Great. Her shadow is a better cook than I am, he thought dismally.

Hazel pointed to a cut he had made in the carcass and then to an organ beside it. "Don't cut the colon or the bladder, or else you'll have a hell of a time getting the meat to taste right," she told him before giving him back the carcass. "How did you survive without knowing how to do this, anyway?"

"I haven't prepared a home cooked meal in a long time, Lady Hazel." If ever, he thought but didn't add.

She looked at him crossly. "Then, what did you eat? How did you eat?"

"Lady Hazel, the cafeteria staff prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all of the students."

"Kids," she muttered to herself. "So dependent on everybody else that it's a wonder how they function at all. It's hard to believe I was once like you..."

"Hey, just because I don't know how to cook doesn't mean I'm dependent, Lady Hazel," Derek told her defensively. He considered himself to be highly independent.

"Oh really? Do you know how to hunt for game or take care of livestock? Skin the animal and roast it to make sure that you can't get a virus from it? Do you know how to tell the kidney from the liver? What animals you should and shouldn't eat depending on the color of their organs?"