Glimmer strolls idly back into the kitch of the Shady Corner through the back door. She looks around slightly for the chef and says in her most aggrivating shrill voice "Oh CUUUUUPCAKE!!! I'm back dearie!" Glimmer eys a knife and some onions and begins to chop them as she awaits a reply.
"Quit yer' yippin at me. You sloshed me with water and hit me with a pin. I oughta cut you in your man bits. But I'd rather not ruin this knife trying to saw through the shrivels. And as for who let me out, those two mush mouths as you called them came by after you left thinkin' they could talk to me as only I'll allow you to. When they let me out, I ran straight back here. I do feel so much safer around this kitchen than out there on my own."
"You wouldn't be the first lady who's threatened my gibblets," the cook jokes. "And I know a thing or two about the boys. They may be fools, but their fine soldiers - obedient, dependable, trustworthy. All fine traits of people that I choose to keep in my company." The cook walks behind Glimmer and gently strokes his hand up and down the back of her wings. "You wouldn't be lying to me, would you?"
"Well of course I'm lying to you. I don't doubt my friends anymore than you do your men. Just making sure there was no misplaced trust. I had no help at all actually. I'm quite capable of taking care of myself, shocking though that may be. But I figure I'd be of much more use in here than out there. And don't worry pet, I'll cut them larger. I'd like to make this as nice as can be managed, considering I can't run all of you out of town. So what do you say? Can we at least manage our time wisely. My friends have to eat too."
"Now missy," he begins lecturing, "I don't like being lied to in my own kitchen. Just as much as I don't like Elves, or Uordeq, Dwarves or Fairies." He begins to blush a little. "Except maybe you, maybe a little bit."
Regaining his composure, and a stern tone, "If you're going to work in my kitchen, we're going to have to set some ground rules. The first is TRUST," heavy emphesis being placed on the last word, "we must trust each other, and the men must trust the kitchen staff. They eat what we feed them, when we feed them, and the do so without questioning. They must trust us, and I must trust you not to harm them - undercooked bird, the wrong herb in the dish, cleaning solution in the soup - we've seen it all, and its not pretty."
Glimmer holds her tounge for a few seconds and fiddles with a charm she's trying to attach to her necklace before replying "I know all too well of seeing things that aren't pretty. And I agree trust is important when earned. Now if you'll go back over and finish preparing your stew, I'll bring the onions right over for the final touch. I'll prepare some tea as well."
As the cook continues working on his stew, Glimmer removes three small viles from her pouch as quietly as possible. She picks up a large spoon and coats it in the stuffs from 2 of the viles (apply to blade mechanic). She dumps the last vile into her teapot and quickly stashes the empty viles in her purse. Glimmer then adds her tea leaves and water to the pot and let's the tea steep. (20 TOX) She then gathers the onions up in a bowl in one hand and her spoon in the other. Glimmer walks to the stew, empties the onions into the pot and begins stirring them into the stew mixture. (40 TOX)
The cook swats at Glimmers hand as she tries to stir the onions into the stew causing the spoon to fall into the pot. "It seem the second lesson you're going to need to learn is OBEDIENCE, and knowing your place," he continues the lecture. "I'm the cook, and you're my assistant, if this is going to work between us, that is how it must be. A mere fairy can't be addressing the officers, and certainly not Field Marshal Douglas, should his excellence arrive. And as such, you do as you're told in the kitchen and prepare only what I instruct you to! You may however make me some tea, and I'll continue to prepare the meal for this evening. Go, and be off with you. Flitter away and do whatever it is that fairy's do."
The cook plunges his hand into the stewpot to retrieve the poisoned spoon, licking his fingers to clean them before continuing to stir the pot until it comes to a boil.
Glimmer giggles softly at the sound of the cook saying "Whatever it is that faeries do" knowing that that is exactly what she is doing. She prepares a cup of tea for the cook and brings it to him, placing a hand on his neck and rubbing it gently as she says "Oh Chefie. It really doesn't have to be this tense. I'm sorry for causing trouble with you by addressing the men in the dining area. I only wanted to help so you could continue preparing the meals." Glimmer abruptly turns away from the cook and lets loose with a wet, hacking, chesty cough. "Damn plagues that be!" she squeaks as she catches her breath.
The cook sits down on a stool in the kitchen and begins to calm a little as Glimmer rubs his neck gently. His shoulders slump and his head tilts forward as he lets out an exasperated sigh. He looks down at the tea that she offered him and dips his little finger into the top of the cup to test for temperature and flavor.
Calmly, he takes a sip from the tea cup set before him and leans forward and tips his head down motioning for her to rub lower. "And you don't have to be so vile," he replies, drinking deeply from the cup, finishing it quickly and setting it down on the table again. Moments of uneasy silence pass and the cook begins to take on a sickly white palor. Picking up the teacup again, he hands it to Glimmer, "Would you be so kind as to fill it again, and join me this time?"
Glimmer takes the cup gently and says "Of course. And I'll try to mind my tounge." Glimmer refills the cook's tea and pours a cup for herself. She takes the two cups and and sits down beside the cook, handing him one of the cups. She drinks from her cup and encourages the cook "Drink it while it's warm. It'll sooth your stresses. How did it come to be that you fell into the company of these men. You seem an honorable man. I understand loyalty and dedication. Are you aware of what all the soldier's have done?" Glimmer begins a gasping cough and finishes her cup of tea to catch her breath. (Resis Tox)
"I know what the soldiers have done, we follow the prophecy," he replies, sipping from the tea cup again. "This town is special, isn't it? What is it that makes you strong, that makes you so damn stubborn?"
He takes the teacup to his lips again, sipping slowly this time, "I should have known better to trust you, you poisoned me, havn't you?" he gasps as the charm around Glimmer's neck breaks. Barely able to utter the last words, the teacup falls from his hands and shatters on the floor. The rotund man slumps over onto the table and then rolls over lifelessly onto the floor dragging several pots and pans with him. They clatter on the floor noisily as the cook lays limp at Glimmer's feet.
Two armed soldiers enter the kitchen. Seeing the fairy standing over the fallen cook, one man raises his sword and drops it heavily across glimmer’s delicate head. The flat of the battle worn blade nearly crushes her skull. A hollow thud can be heard as she falls to the wooden floor.
The other man rushes to the side of the cook and checks for any signs of life. When he does not find any he shouts, ”Man down! Man down! Call a healer!”
The other man checks the pulse as well and feels the cold setting into the corpse. “Haven’t you seen enough dead men to tell that there is no healer that can fix this? The man says as he rises to his feet. “He’s worm food, but” the man pauses to survey the sleep fairy, “we have a gift for the Field Marshal.”
With that Field Marshal Douglas enters the room. “You call for me Sergeant?”
Standing in attention and clearly shaken the sergeant calls “Attention!” The other man stands in attention stiff as a board.
“A present you said I believe, Sergeant.” the Field Marshal speaks coolly as he rounds the counter and enters the kitchen proper. “Ah what have we here?”
“A corpse sir!” the sergeant states loudly.
“I can see that you FOOL!” the Field Marshal backhands the Sergeant. Douglas steps over the cook and comes to stand over Glimmer’s unmoving body.
“Take the body to the pile, and get this sub human to the brig she will be sentenced once she wakes. Do it now, unless you want to join the cook.” Douglas says in an icy tone.
The men quickly carry out the Field Marshal’s orders, dragging the corpse and the fairy by their feet. Swiftly passing the man dressing the deer.
The field marshal looks up and meets the gaze of the hunter. “Keep your hands at your work sub human, my men will be hungry by morning.” the Field Marshal storms off his red cloak with white trim training behind him into the hall.
The men leave the tavern with their captive and return to the center of the encampment.
The portly cook walks back into the tavern followed by two soldiers carrying assorted large crates, bags, and boxes and stops short of the kitchen door as he hears Glimmer's shrill voices. "Darkest fiends of the pit bite me in the arse if I ever expected to see those shiney wings in my kitchen again." He looks inquisitively around to the soliders sitting by the kitchen door and asks, "Which one of your sorry louts let that giant piece of trouble back into my kitchen? Speak up mush mouths, or has the plague rotted out your tongues and turned your brains into last week's pudding?"
The soldiers look amongst themselves, not having paid any attention or mind to the fairy going in and out of the kitchen for the last few days and shrug unknowningly. Infuriated, the cook storms into the kitchen and picks up a large frying pan, slamming it down next to the onions Glimmer had been preparing. "Too small, sparkles!" he screams, spitting to get his words out and tossing the plate of onions across the room, "and what spirit of the nether released you from the stocks and let you back into MY kitchen?"