Danika

Chapter 4

Adamina: 

Adamina awoke from her sleepy state of mind to a knock on her door. "Supper's ready!" she heard Danika say from the other side of the door.  Rubbing her eyes, she opened the door.

"Were you sleeping?" Danika tucked a lock of hair behind her left ear.

"Not fully," Adamina answered, "I was trying to, but I hadn't quite fallen asleep yet".

A small chuckle escaped Danika's lips. "Well, you can go sleep afterwards, but I'm guessing you're quite hungry, since you must've not eaten for at least almost a day, though I guess since you were asleep for the first half of the day, that time doesn't really count".

Adamina blinked. "You're right, I am quite hungry," She had not noticed this until now, having been busy paying attention to what Danika was saying while looking at the floor and avoiding eye contact with her.  Were there any mice in the walls? She hoped not.

"Are you coming?" Adamina looked up to find Danika standing on the second step down the stairs. She'd been too busy trying not to pay too much attention to Danika that she'd stopped paying her any attention at all.

"Of course," Adamina hurried over the creaking floorboards over to the stairs, following Danika down them.

At the bottom of the stairs was a door on their left hand and two on their right. Danika opened the nearest door on their right. "This is the kitchen, we don't have a dining-room, so we just eat here".

Inside the table was set with plates, cups, forks and knives, as well as a bowl filled with something Adamina barely recognized as a vegetable called potato, something she'd not tasted a lot of, due to her royal blood, and a small, white fish she didn't know the name of.

"Hello Adam, I trust you have gotten some rest?" Mr. Evenstad asked.

Even though it didn't seem like he wanted an answer, Adamina answered: " Yes, a little".

"Anyway, please have a seat and I hope you enjoy the food," Adamina couldn't tell if Danika sounded stressed or embarrassed. 

"I'm sure I will," she replied, pulling out a chair and sitting down.  She cut the potatoes on her plate into thin slices  before cutting off even smaller pieces from each slice and, at last eating them. Danika cut off small chunks right from the potato and then ate them.

The potato actually tasted better than Adamina remembered, though it had a texture like that of wet flour. The fish, however, was a totally different story, though Adamina guessed it was edible, it didn't exactly taste good. Even so, she ate two whole pieces of it, though she couldn't tell whether it was because she didn't want to dissappoint Danika, or because she was just incredibly hungry from the almost two days she'd spent with little to no food. 

"This tastes great," she told Danika, not even knowing whether she really thought so or not.

"I'm glad you liked it, though it's not really that great food, but we are at least lucky enough to have this much fish, just a few towns over they are only able to attain enough fish for one meal a week".

"Seriously?" Adamina forgot that she was disguised as a fatherless and jobless boy, not some stuck-up rich royal. Trying to regain Danika's total trust she added: "My father was a fisherman before he died, so we mostly survived on fish with a few potatoes or anything else we could get, I guess fish must be to them a little like vegetables were to us".

A/N: So here's another chapter. I have at last reached the 2000 word goal, it took much longer than anticipated. As always any feedback is appreciated, especially now because I will soon be editing these first four chapters before entering ONC. Also please tell me if you see any spelling errors, I try my best to catch the errors, but I know well how easily they can slip by. Have a good day and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.