A Demigod in Wonderland? (TWST x PJO)

Chapter 5

"Welcome back. Seems like you got plenty!", Trey smiled at us as we lugged our baskets full of chestnuts across the cafeteria kitchen.

After slipping away from the students, who I learnt later were Savanaclaw students, I was slightly worried Grimm and I would never be able to eat the tart-*cough*-I mean, meet up with Ace and Deuce. The chances of finding a chestnut tree were as slim as finding them together in one place. 

But lo behold, the Fates decided to show me some mercy because we four stumbled upon a grove of chestnuts at the exact same time. Fortunately, Deuce grabbed some tongs and baskets so we wouldn't have any trouble gathering the chestnuts.

After settling the baskets on the counters, Trey inspected the pile we got. "You got a good harvest, alright, more than enough to make two tarts."

Grimm beamed. "Yay! Now you can make us some massive tarts!"

"Of course, it'll be much more work to peel all of them, so... good luck with that!", Trey grinned. 

"We're going to be here for a long time, aren't we?", Deuce sighed. "It doesn't matter, we've come too far now", I said, tying my apron. "We gathered the ingredients, we're making that tart!"

"This is the first time I've seen her so excited about something", Grimm said.

"She's more excited about getting her tart than doing all this work", Ace whispered back.

We followed Trey's instructions and peeled, boiled, and mashed all the chestnuts we had brought. By the time we started to stir the paste, my arms were killing me. 

(I kept repeating 'For the tart' under my breath so many times, I think Deuce got a little creeped out.)

Finally, it was over. Well, more like we completed making the paste. Trey had already set up the tart shell before.

"I just need to add butter and sugar to the chestnut paste", Trey told us. He pulled a bottle from his apron pocket. "And a sensible splash of oyster sauce - that's my secret ingredient!"

"Oyster sauce?" the trio chorused. I stared at Trey, confused.

"Yep. The umami of the oysters gives the cream a deep, savoury flavour", he showed us the bottle. "I use this one here the Walrus's brand Young Oyster Sauce. It's used by all the best bakers."

"Really? But isn't oyster sauce super salty?", Deuce asked.

"Well, I think it's bonkers", I replied. "There's no way people actually use it."

"How would you know?", Grimm said. I stared at the distance solemnly. If you have once been given a cupcake with salt in it before, racoon, you'll know.

"Some folks put chocolate into curry, don't they? Maybe it's the same idea", Ace said.

Trey's straight face wobbled a bit. Gotcha there.

He burst out laughing. "Ah ha ha ha! I was kidding! No one in their right mind would put oyster sauce into a pastry."

"Aw, man! I thought you were super serious right now!"

"Two seconds of using your brain, like Willow, would have told you it's not a thing", Trey snickered. "Let that be a lesson to you. Not everything you hear should be trusted. Learn to doubt a bit, okay?"

"Did you hear that?" I asked Grimm with a smug smile. "Use your head like I do."

 "Since when are you this catty?", he grumbled. 

"Alright, next we add in the cream—,", Trey stopped mid-sentence. "Well this is bad..."

"What happened?", Ace and I asked in unison.