Tuesday Tales: First Breakfast

*This post occurred before I changed the WIP title and Ghuli's name to Jonnie.*

Happy Tuesday!

These are the days I set aside to try to get my brain working with some flash fiction. As I pine for publication of my MS, The Crystal Bearer, I have set the stories in its world, Teorre. Using another prompt from 30 Flash Fiction Prompts, let's see what I can do. 25: Write a story that takes place over breakfast.

First Breakfast

The Crystalline Princess and her First Lt. Watchman were still sleeping when the Sprityn Prince awoke. The eyes of four Sprityn handmaids stared at him through a crack in the door, and they hurried in as he stirred. Prince Laris sat up and shook his head.

"No, no. I am not your Prince here, my dears. I am your lady's watchman. You need not serve me." They looked confused and a little chagrined, but they nodded and bowed. "Howbeit, I would like to prepare breakfast for Lady Ghulien and Cyan."

Their bright green eyes lit up again, and they pulled Laris out of bed and out of his room. They snuck around the northern corridor behind the bedrooms so that the two weren't disturbed. They weren't yet granted any time to themselves after the Commanding Watchman Aleksandyr's death. Laris knew this would be a hard day for them, the first full day in their new shelter.

After coating most of himself with flour and egg shells, Laris let the handmaids push him around the kitchen and instruct him on small tasks while they handled the rest. Soon, the corridors smelled of freshly cooked bacon and flat cakes, fried eggs and honeyed scraps. Laris took trays of food to the West Parlor and set them on the table. He was pouring peach nectar when the hulktroll Cyan walked in groggily from the southern corridor. He looked down at the spread and blinked.

"Good morning, Cyan," Laris said with a smile. "Sit. Have some food."

"I'm not hungry yet," Cyan mumbled, though he sat. After another moment, his eyes slid towards the pile of bacon on his plate, and he plucked a strip to chew.

Laris smiled to himself and looked up as the young Princess peaked around the corner. "Good morning, my lady. Come, come."

Ghulien hesitated, but she sat across from Cyan and stared at her plate for a time. Cyan's hunger must have found him as he began to eat more enthusiastically. Laris sat as well and started to cut into his flat cakes, watching Ghulien as she pushed her honeyed scraps around the plate. For a time, Laris thought she would let her food get cold, but he had an idea. He carefully took Ghulien's plate and began to move the food around. Honeyed scraps in two rows along one edge of the plate, an egg beneath each row. Bacon curved slightly at the opposite edge of the plate, and flat cakes off onto a separate plate, except for one small triangle between the eggs. Then, he returned her plate.

Ghulien paused, then smiled at the face Laris had made with her food. As she started to eat, Cyan looked to Laris with a grateful smile, and the three ate quietly together.