StarShower

One

Talion

Elle stirred the batter in the wooden bowel, making sure to use the matching wooden spoon. Everything had to be precise in her bakery – after all, this wasn't just any ordinary shop on the side of Main Street. This was the King of Talion's kitchen, and Elle was its mistress. Setting the spoon aside, she carefully poured the thick, sweet-smelling concoction into a metal bread pan, selected with care from her vast collection. She made hundreds of loaves of bread in a day, not to mention an endless number of cookies and her infamous cakes, but she remembered every single sweet she made. Each one made its own impression on her. She had long decided that the ability to bake was the greatest gift her father had ever given her.

The bakery's air filled with an overwhelming sweet smell as Elle swapped the cookies in the oven with the still unbaked bread. She hummed a mellow and cheerful melody as she laid the cookies onto the metal rack to cool. Each one sat a perfect distance apart, each row and column a flawless straight line. She became so absorbed in her work, that she almost didn't hear the racket emanating from beyond her safe bakery walls. It sounded like shouting, angry shouting, and Elle felt her heart drop. It was a sound that frightened her to the core; it was a sound she wished never to invade the four walls of her sanctuary. The noise grew closer, the shouting now accompanied by the beat of heavy boots against the palace's stone floors. Someone was running, and by the sound of it, there were many pairs of feet involved.

Before Elle could draw in a breath of air, the door flung open, ricocheting off the wall behind it, only to be forced all the way open again. A mail-clad man raced into the room, darting in every which way as if looking for something.

"Dammit!" he growled, knocking Elle's cookies to the floor. "Where the hell's the exit?"

Elle pointed, wide-eyed, at the doorway through which the man had just come. She didn't need to be told to realize that she had given him the wrong answer. Neither she nor the man had a chance to make a move before another figure chased into the room. This time the stranger came in the form of a girl, much the same age as Elle. The girl leapt onto one of the counters and squatted like a cat ready to pounce, her face level with the man's. A wry grin dominated her expression as a pair of slick, black wolf ears laid themselves flat over her head, an equally dark tail swishing back and forth as if its mistress were engaged in some exciting game.

Elle gasped. She'd never had a Demi-Wolf in her bakery. She'd never had a Demi-anything in here. A dark cloud of smoke drifting from the oven snagged her attention just as the man backed away from the wolf girl, his trembling hand grasping tight to the hilt of a small blade. Elle moved for the oven, afraid that her bread was already ruined, but she never reached her destination. The man grasped her by the arm in one of his bulky hands and held his knife to her throat. She dared not move as she saw her own reflection staring back in the wolf girl's hazel eyes.

"Back away," the man said to the wolf, "or the baker gets it."

Elle had to fight away frightened tears when the other girl slowly straightened up and took a step in retreat. The girl trailed across the counter, her back to the others as if she were going to leave the room without another question. Elle screamed as a crack! as loud as thunder pierced the air. She felt a warm liquid over her back as the man's grip disappeared, replaced by his dead weight upon her. She forced the bleeding body off of herself and crawled out, her eyes meeting the Demi-Wolf's. The strange girl held a gun in her outstretched hand, and Elle realized that she must have shot the man. But the girl moved with such speed, that Elle hadn't even seen her draw the weapon.

"You saved my life," Elle choked as the black smoke veiled the room.

The wolf girl returned her gun to its holster, fastened around her thigh. "Your bread's burning," was all she said as she wrinkled her nose and leapt off the counter. Elle tried to follow her savior out of the room, but by the time she reached the door, the Demi-Wolf was nowhere to be seen.