The Forgotten Hero

Chapter 14

                Verna opened her eyes as the sun peered in from the window.  Sitting up from her position she noticed something fall off her shoulders. Looking down, her cheeks became tainted with a light pink. It was Rufus’s jacket. She must have fallen asleep at her laptop and he placed it on her. A small smile appeared on her face, he wasn’t as cold as everyone said he was.

                She picked up the jacket and folded it before placing it on the table. Her feet carried her to where she thought the kitchen was. If he did something nice for her, she’d try and do something nice for him. Verna opened the door and found the room Reno disappeared from the day before, her instincts were right. She opened the fridge and her eyes scanned the different items in there. She then walked over to the pantry and compared the things in there.

                A grin spread onto her face as she grabbed flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, some eggs, vegetable oil, canned blue berries, and lemon juice. She quietly took out a bowl, Verna wasn’t sure if Rufus was still sleeping, and began putting the correct ingredients together. She placed them in the oven and began to clean up the mess she managed to make and put the left over ingredients up. The girl bit her lip if she tried to decide if this was enough, after all she had no idea what kind of food Rufus liked.

                Verna opened the fridge and got the eggs back out as well as some bacon. If they were in his fridge chances are he liked this food. She began making an omelet as well as allowing the bacon to simmer. She turned away from the stove as she noticed something walk into the room.

                Verna smiled at who walked in and knelt down to the floor, “Good morning, Dark Nation!”

                The panther looked at her and walked over allowing Verna to pet it. Verna laughed lightly as the panther gave a low purr. It was an entertaining creature, one that she’s only seen in documentaries or books. If she were to tell her younger self that she got to pet one, she wouldn’t believe it.

                “Now what do you eat, Dark Nation?” Verna stood up and crossed her arms. “I’ll have to ask your owner when he wakes up. Typically your kind eats meat, but I’m not sure if it’d be appropriate for me to give you some!”

                “Do you always talk to animals?”

                Verna looked up as Rufus entered the room, “Um…Yeah…” Verna looked away slightly embarrassed. “Why do you ask?”

                “Some people say that it’s a sign of insanity,” Rufus stated with a smirk.

                “Then those people are obviously never around animals,” Verna huffed a strand of hair out of her face. “Where do you stand on that?”

                “Those people would call me insane,” Rufus walked into the kitchen and examined what she was making. “I talk to Dark Nation all the time. What are you making?”

                “Blue berry muffins, omelets, and bacon,” Verna shifted uncomfortably, “I wasn’t sure what you like, sorry.”

                Rufus glanced at her and moved some hair out of his face, “Why are you apologizing?”

                “I don’t know,” Verna shrugged. “I just don’t want to make people mad or offend them in any way.”

                A timer went off causing Verna to search frantically for oven mitts. She kept looking until she heard Rufus opening the oven and pulling the muffins out with an oven mitt on his head. Verna sighed and leaned against the counter as he placed them on some heat protectors. She should have just asked him where they were.