Adurna

Dinner Party

Chapter Five-

I tried to stifle my gasp of amazement at the beautiful interior of the vast room once I had entered. One long table stood in the middle of it. Though there were no intricate designs lining the walls and ceiling, I found the all-white walls with some evenly spaced paintings were perfect for a meeting like this. My eyes traveled to the table once more to find twelve people sitting in silence as one man spoke deeply. I recognized the low words of the mayor, but could not comprehend just what he was saying. No one sat at the head of the table, to my ultimate surprise. Instead all twelve members of the diner party were evenly distributed on each side of the table; six on the left and six on the right. It seemed to be dinner among friends rather than a ‘business’ discussion for the future of all our lives.

All of us were lined up among the far wall in the order we were put in. I searched the table in search of the story teller to be sure I knew where she was before I went out to possibly make a fool of myself. She was easy to spot with her wild, bushy red hair seated at the farthest corner from the mayor.  I scowled to myself as I read her deflated expression. Where ever Eragon sat, she would not get a chance to ask about her stories she obviously wanted. I eyed the mayor to see him speaking quietly to a young man across the table from him. Allowing my gaze to rest on the mysterious man, I saw the bored expression he wore and didn’t try to hide well. He held his head in one hand while the other traced imagined patterns in the table cloth without looking down. Dark brown hair hung freely from his head, covering the eye closest to the hand holding his head with one loose strand. I caught my breath as I saw his deep brown eyes glance swiftly up at the line of girls and traveled all the way down to me. Shaking his head with an amused smile, he spoke directly to the mayor as if he had been listening.

Who is that? I wondered, tipping my head to one side as I tried to guess. I’ve never seen him in town before and he doesn’t look familiar to me at all. The girls stepped forwards smoothly before I could ponder my thoughts further. I followed quickly and hurried over to Tammy. She grimaced up at me.

“You should be the one talking.” I whispered acidly to the loving woman, giving the mayor an icy stare, though he wasn’t looking. “I reckon the mayor doesn’t know half of what you do.”

Tammy patted my hand gently as I set the glass down before her. “Don’t I know it? He’s been going on and on about how wonderful the city is. Eragon’s barely got a word in. I swear, kid, I’d rather be at your Granny’s saloon than here.”

I smiled hugely at the bored expression she has on when she looks down at the table. “The food’s better here.”

“Not nearly.” She whispers loud enough for me to here as I nearly run to catch up with the other girls who have already exited the door. I send a wide smile back at the old woman to find the man with brown hair staring at me. I slide through before it was slammed shut, trying not to over think what that could mean. We were ushered into the hot kitchen once more as the next rotation of girls left to deliver the fowl smelling fish to the party. Sometimes it seems as if all they eat in this village is fish. I grimace as the girls walk past me and the stench hits me.

My group waits, sweating in the kitchen until, all too soon, the first group comes back with pink cheeks. One girl is still holding the plate like she didn’t want to let it go. The supervisor storms over to the shy girl with a murderous glare in her eye.

"Who’s is this? Why in the name of the gods didn’t you give them your plate? That’s all you had to do! Put the plate in front of them, that’s it!” The small girl flinches at the venom in the supervisor’s words. I feel a pang of sympathy for her as she takes the full force of the seemingly dangerous anger.

"I-It’s Eragon’s. H-H-he…said he didn’t want it, miss.” The girl, I recognized as Rebecca, looked close to tears as the supervisor stood over her with burning eyes and a scowl that could kill a swine. After a moment, the supervisor seemed to calm down enough to take the plate from Rebecca without smashing it into a million pieces. The girl sighed in relief and shrank back into the midst of her group of girls. The small section for us in the kitchen made everything even hotter. Sweat poured down my back as the miserable girls whined about the suffocating outfit. I almost joined them. Almost.