Alina Nivar: The Moonstone

II: Good News

It was almost noon. Alina had already arrived at the kitchen when a boy a couple years younger than her rushed in.

"A-Alina Nivar?" he said panting.

Alina nodded.

"Dolint wants to talk with you in the cooks' room" and with this words, he left quickly.

Alina gasped. Some of the assistants around her gave her a surprised look. She tried to look calm, but in the inside she was trembling. What could Dolint want? Had she done something wrong? She walked towards the door that led to the cooks' room. Holding her breath, she opened it and went in.

Dolint was in there, sitting in an armchair. Her brown hair was tied in a bun as always, to keep it away from her face while cooking. With a gesture, she pointed at another armchair in front on her.

"Take a seat."

Alina was too nervous to notice the room where she was. As she sit, Dolint said:

"The princess noticed the different presentation in her plate. Your highnesses the king and queen did so too." Alina bit her lip. "The princess was impressed, and said she wants that kind of presentation in every dessert she has."

Alina was so relieved she would have fallen to the ground if she wasn't sitting.

"So... What you mean is..."

"After that your highness the queen asked me who was in charge of the presentation," Dolint interrupted with a half smile. "I told her that I was in charge, but that it was your idea."

Alina was speechless. Dolint continued.

"You're now in total charge of the presentation of every dessert princess Rosette recieves. I'll keep an eye on your work, Alina."

Alina tried to talk, eyes wide open.

"Me? In charge of the presentation?"

She felt so happy she could barely breath, but she did her best to keep her composture. Me, she kept thinking to herself as she left the room. In charge. I'm in charge. Of the presentation. No, the princess' presentation. She's the royalty. I impressed the royalty. I impressed the princess. With food.

She blinked and noticed all the assistants looking at her expectantly. After an instant of total silence, a bunch of them surrounded her, asking questions like:

"What happened?"

"What did she say?"

"Were you fired?"

"Woah, everyone, let her breathe!" Another assistant, some years older than her, quieted the crowd. "So, anything you should tell us?"

Alina gave the assistant a thankful look and said calmly:

"From now on, I'm in charge of the princess' desserts' plate presentation." a lot of mumbling and whispering filled the room.

"But you're an assistant!" someone said.

"It was your Highness' orders, " Dolint said as she entered the kitchen. Everyone shut up.

Thankfully, cooks chose that exact moment to enter the kitchen and broke the akward silence. Everyone dispersed and Alina quickly ran to get instructions. This time she helped to get the cookware to the cooks and got the spices for the main plate.

When lunch was done, it was time to start with the desserts. Alina smiled to herself. She looked at Dolint, who pointed at another table where a cook was giving instructions to an assistant. Alina rushed there.

The cook looked young, around 25 years old. He had a dreamy look in his eyes, but it looked like he knew what he was doing. He raised an eyebrow to Alina.

"And you are?"

"Alina Nivar, sir. I'm in charge of the princess' dessert's presentation."

"Oh, right. But you're still an assistant, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Don't go "sir-ing" me out, Alina. But do me a favor and get me some chocolate syrup and sugar."

Alina quickly dissapeared in the crowd to look for the ingredients the cook told her. Some other people would have thought that the cook wasn't in his right to treat them as common assistants, after being given a responsability as important as Alina's, but she didn't. She was aware of her position, and the fact that she played an important role in something didn't mean she was important. That cook was making the dessert, for Suro's sake.

Alina grabbed a jar of chocolate syrup and a pack of sugar and rushed to the table. The cook nodded and started cooking. The girl watched him cook, waiting to see if he asked her for something else. When the dough was ready, he asked one assistant to get the mold and Alina to warm the oven up. She did exactly as he said, and a moment later the dessert was in the oven. The cook sighed and smiled to Alina.

"Now we just have to wait and you do your work."

Alina smiled back. A little.