The Darkest Dawn

Chapitre 2

Lucien had gone and fetched breakfast from the kitchen. When he returned, Audie was attempting to show Darius how to do his job, much to no avail. Darius' eyes were affixed on the unappetizing appearance of the porridge bowls Lucien juggled.

"You don't actually expect me to eat that, do you?" Darius scoffed. Lucien peered into one of the bowls. It did rather look like white radioactive sludge more so than oatmeal flakes and powder mixed with milk. Perhaps he cooked it for too long... or was it too little milk? Too much milk? Lucien shifted all three bowls on one arm and lifted a paper bag in the other.

"Maybe I can save it with brown sugar?" Lucien shook the bag gently, watching Darius eye the bag with desire in amusement. Audie takes the bag.

"I'll handle the dispensing of the sugar myself. Certainly Mr. Wood would prefer it if the man who blew up his breakfast would not also mix it with pure diabetes." Audie teased. Audie had also learned English, as all decent slaves should know a secondary language at least. Audie was quite the charming man, being trilingual and all that. This being said, the not so charming Darius Wood's tongue speaks exclusively english. Lucien's lips tightened in a straight line. It was a well known fact between him, Audie and -God forgive- Rhaelra that Lucien could not cook even if his life depended on it. Unfortunately, the chef refuses to cook for slaves and Audie has been banned from the kitchen (do not ask, Lucien still suffers minor PTSD) so Lucien is forced to grab what he can. There were often enough times that Lucien has caused the chef endless despair, that it was a miracle Lucien himself was not banned from the kitchen and that the chef had finally decided to cook for the slaves. Had it not been part of Lucien's duties to keep the kitchen spick and span, he was sure he would've been banned indeed.

Audie mixed a couple spoonfuls in each bowl, and passed them out. Each slave sat on his own bed, eating in silence. Darius finished his bowl first and said, "It's amazing what a little sugar can accomplish." Audie hummed in agreement.

Audie took Darius to Rhaelra's living quarters to show him how to prepare the master for the day. Lucien took the empty bowls to the kitchen in the meanwhile. Unfortunately for him, the chef was now awake. She was whisking egg yolks in a mixing bowl with a ferocity Lucien will never be able to muster for eggs. The Seivohn was tall in stature, and skinny too. She looked like a black shimmery Walking Stick Bug with complimentary razors, complete with the creepy bug eyes. If there was one thing Lucien hated, it was bugs.

"Good morning, Miss Vezog." Lucien greeted politely. The problem with Seivohn is that you can never tell if they are male or female unless their gender is mentioned in conversation. You can call a Seivohn a man for many years, and the Seivohn won't say a thing until it's buddy corrects you that she's a female. That was Lucien's case with Vezog. He called her a male until Rhaelra dropped the bombshell that Vezog is, in fact, a lady. There are no name cues, seeing as Seivohn names are Seivohnic and Seivohnic has no male or female pronouns as human languages do. Seivohnic is a very rough and gravelly sounding language and is painful on the untrained ear.

"Bah! 'Good morning,' uhk rakh uzegk bok." Vezog cursed in her native language. Lucien rubbed his temples in discomfort. Rhaelra had given Lucien some lessons in Seivohnic and how to be able to listen to it without your ears bleeding. Lucien had been skipping out on a couple lessons, and this was his consequence. A headache. Vezog had a tendency of slipping in and out of Seivohnic. "You always sneak in here to mix together random ingredients and see what goes boom, like crazy scientist!" Vezog complained, her Seivohnic accent sounded like a horrible version of scottish mixed with russian.

"I try to follow the instructions the best I can." Lucien sighed miserably.

"Vogk yecut vezt!" Vezog snapped. "'Oh woe is me! I try, try, try, try the same uhk mistake over and over again, never try to fix it with something new! I can't figure out why I'm not getting any better!'" She mocked an impression of Lucien.