Lord and Master

Chapter Seven: Companionship

Isidore held his wooden bowl to his face and sniffed the beautiful aroma of elfish cooking. Ahhh! This is goanna be delicious! He thought and relished himself in the cookery. Celeste has just arrived wearing a blue gown her short red hair tied up into a little ponytail. Studying her, Daugion was the first to speak, "What's the occasion?" he broke out into a laugh and Isidore doubled up.

"Morning Master Durion!" she said, in return and was welcomed in the same response. She traversed to him and Daugion, beaming gleefully at them. Isidore and Daugion exchanged "what's-up-with-her?" looks.

"And where have you been madam?" said Daugion, sharing a laugh with Isidore once more.

"It's none of your affair," she said, helping herself to some elf bread and then a cup of warm beverage, "And to you Isidore? What a fine looking gentleman you are this morning."

Huh? Startled and confused, Isidore was speechless leaving Celeste clucking like a chicken as she laughed, and Daugion glowering at her with suspicion. Isidore smiled not knowing what it meant and why Celeste was cracking herself laughing. At long last she subsided into a small chuckle, "Men," she remarked shaking her head and taking a sip from the mug, still grinning.

"What's up with her?" Daugion asked staring at Celeste while taking a chomp off his elf bread.

"Why don't you ask her!?"

"Me?" he retorted, looking all of a sudden horrified.

Isidore plainly shrugged, "Why not?" and smiled broadly.

"Argh you rascal... you're not goanna fool me that easily!" and with that, Daugion consumed the rest of his bread and got up to wash his cutlery, leaving Isidore dazed. It was him and Celeste now. An awkward silence arose between them as Isidore sat and glanced at Celeste who slurped up her drink slowly, appearing to be deeply interested in an ant crawling on the ground. Finally he broke the uncomfortable silence.

"So where were you really!?" he asked rubbing his shoes against one another, producing a small cloud of sandy dust as he tried acting casual.

Celeste disentangled herself from her pensive sessions and considered him for a while before asking, "Why are you interested? I'll show you soon, don't worry you'll find out!"

"When will I find out? Does anyone else know about this? Does Durion know about you going off somewhere?"

"Well, yeah! I don't see why he wouldn't know about it!" she said and decided to look away from Isidore's fetching eyes, almost as if she was embarrassed. Isidore broke off from his curiosity when she did this and decided to talk about another topic so that the silence wouldn't come back, but unfortunately he couldn't think of anything else to talk about. He looked away and glanced back realizing that Celeste too was thinking hard for something to say. Soon they were rescued by Daugion who came by just to pack his cutlery back into his leather bag.

"What are you two doing here with your breakfast finished!? C'mon you two love birds! Go do something-"

"LOVE BIRD'S? DAUGION! WE'RE JUST FRIENDS!" Celeste burst out in rage but her face began blushing up a light pink.

"Calm down! I was only playing a fool!" he said hastily, hoping she wouldn't erupt like a reckless volcano again.

"You're right about the fool part Daugion!" began Celeste as she stood up and walked five paces in the direction of the river before stopping and then turning around to look at them, "In fact I think that it was the brightest thing you've said so far on this trip, Daugion!" after adding her satisfying oomph she disappeared between the trees and bushes.