Author's note: I don't remember which of my 'Spirit of the King' readers asked me for this, but I remember being asked if I could do it. This fic will follow chronologically along with Spirit of The King but take place back in Emelka with Chibi, Grougal, Elely and Flopin. These chapters will probably be pretty short to start off with, I want to make an arc where this one and Spirit of the king tie in with one another down the road though, so maybe longer chapters then…
Chapter 1: Gobball Stew
The grill sizzled as the steak was dropped upon it, seasonings followed shortly after and followed by vigorous stirring of the pot next to it. A ladel was dropped into said pot and brought to the cook's lips as he surveyed his work, judging carefully it's quality.
"Perfect." Alibert said satisfied, "sure to make another satisfied customer!"
The steak was flipped the once red meant having turned brown and sat allowing the other side, still red, to cook. A pair of curious eyes watched with great interest as the master chef, cooked and stirred and seasoned the food. She was not hungry nor did she wish to steal the delicious morsels, she only wanted to learn what the man did to make his stew so tasty.
"What did you just put in there?" the little girl asked curious.
"Ah-ah-ah," the chef replied "If I went around telling everyone the secret to my famous gobball stew, It wouldn't be so famous anymore."
"I just want to cook some for papa," the girl replied with a huff "He's always hungry when he gets home from an adventure."
"I can cook him a meal if that's what you want." Alibert said with a smirk.
"But that's not what I want!" the girl said angrily "I want to cook the meal, It's pointless if someone else does it!"
"Ah," Alibert said with understanding "You wish to perform a good deed then, hmm… I may be able to help you."
"Really!" the girl said her eyes shining like diamonds.
"Yes," Alibert said "But Elely, I am not going to teach you to make my gobbal stew."
"Aww," Elely uttered dejectedly "But no one's gobball stew tops yours."
Alibert smiled with pride "You're right, no one's does, yet. But I can teach you how t make a basic Gobbal stew recipe," he said "and give you some pointers on when to use what kind of spices, then you can make your own gobball stew, a unique stew just for your papa!"
This seemed to satify the little girl, who smiled happily "When do we start?" Elely said excitedly.
"After the restaurant closes," Alibert said "I need to make sure my customers eat."
"Awwww," Elely uttered again
"Why don't you go play with Chibi and Grougal for now," Alibert said "And see if you can find your brother, he said he'd help me with a couple errands today."
"Okay," Elely said as she pushed herself off the stool upon which she sat and landed lightly on the floor, her bare feet pitter pattering on the wood as she rushed out of the kitchen to find her brother.
"Percedal is truly lucky," Alibert said "His children are very well behaved for their age, Yugo was never so compliant when he was six."
It had taken almost the entire first day but Flopin thought it was worth every hour, he had managed to build a target range for his use just outside the Emelka proper area, barely within the borders of the forest. After a quick test run he could head back and see about those Errands Alibert wanted him to run.
He pulled out his bow and pulled a lever to get the moving targets going as his mother had shown him. He rushed out and knocked the first arrow firing arrows of power into each of the targets in turn while jumping rolling and flipping around, when he was done he surveyed his work, forcing the arrows to stay rather than disperse, he clicked his tongue in annoyance as he had missed the center on two of the targets.
"Not good enough." He said with a sigh, waving his hand he dispelled the arrows and folded his bow for storage, pulling the lever again he caused the moving targets to stop and pushed his bow into the small of his back, he began to march back towards Alibert's Inn.
A pair of eyes had watched silently and despite the difficulty of doing so, the cra had in fact impressed him. Dragon wings flapped as the person who owned the eyes flew forward towards him.
"You're hard on yourself." The dragon said
Flopin whirled quickly, drawing his bow and pulling back an arrow, an unfortunate side effect of the battle he once fought in the skies, Suprising the young blonde was often a bad idea.
"Calm down!" Grougaloragran uttered somewhat angrily "I was trying to help!"
"You, help?" Flopin said with a chuckle "That'll be the day." Replacing his bow in the small of his back he turned again and continued his walk.
"I really mean it!" grougal said "Chibi is… Well…"
"Chibi is what Grougal?" Flopin said, curious. The blonde was sure that if the dragon could blush he would be doing just that.
"Chibi has been odd lately," Grougal said "He doesn't seem to like playing with me or even having me around, though he tolerates me."
"I wouldn't want you around if you attacked all my friends on sight either," Flopin said bluntly "Maybe you should do something about that."
"But what would I do?" Grougal asked "Guarding him has been my entire life."
Flopin frowned he'd never seen this side of grougal before and he wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable with it either. When grougal was being a defensive angry jerk he was easy enough to deal with, a few arrows and a harsh word from chibi and he would back down, but now… now he wanted to change? Flopin wasn't sure what to think, it would mean he'd have to think before striking in the future, something he wasn't always good at anymore.
"I don't know." Flopin said "I don't have a brother, ask Alibert."
"But you have a sister." Grougal said "You protect her, but she doesn't get mad at you for it."
"Girls aren't boys," Flopin said "They don't mind being protected sometimes." Flopin said.
This answer was too easy for Grougal, he didn't like it, and he didn't want to ask Alibert either, the older man was always busy in the kitchen and always wanted him scarce, it made him jealous, that chibi found it so easy to bond with their adoptive father and he was always so…. so… far away? He wasn't sure how to describe it.
"I've gotta run an errand for Alibert," Flopin said "I'll see you later.
As the dragon landed on his hind legs, a manueuver he recently learned from his brother Adamai, he huffed in frustration, Flopin was right, he was always attacking everyone, the only one he never attacked on sight was Elely, because she was always so nice to him.
"Grougal!" a voice said snapping him out of his reverie, he turned an orange haired girls was approaching him… speak of the devil.
"Hey where's Chibi, I wanna play hide and seek!" Groougal frowned and looked away.
"What's wrong Grougal?" she asked, when he didn not answer she was silent a moment before speaking up again "You're emotions are all twisted up in knots, I can't tell what's the matter."
"Stop looking at that!" Grougal said angrily, little girl and her emotion power, he felt violated when people saw into his mind, even just a little bit, it was his sanctuary.
"Sorry," Elely said "I just wanna help."
"Then find out what's wrong with Chibi" Grougal said anger again evedent in his voice. What was he doing? She was always so nice to him, why was he being so mean back, he hadn't treated her like this in a very long time.
"Oh, no!" Elely said "Is he okay? Is he sick?" she was holding him by his shoulders and staring into his eyes with big green saucers full of worry and concern.
"No, nothing like that." Grougal said sighing "He's just… he doesn't want me around, it's weird and uncomfortable."
"Oh," Elely said simply "My mama calls that growing pains, maybe he just wants to be left alone for awhile.
"no," Grougal said "he doesn't have a problem playing with everyone else."
"Okay," Elely said "I'll go see what's wrong, you stay out of trouble okay!"
"You're not my mom!"
"No," elely said "But I think she's coming to visit tomorrow."
"What!?" Grougal replied, but before he could take the question any further Elely had already run off behind the hill to find Chibi.
Careful hands turned another crisp page setting it right before it's little fingers moved beneath the words, barely audible whispers emanated from small lips and their owner quietly read to himself. The other hand reached up and scratched the white hair that was mostly hidden underneath a black hat with odd rabbit ear like protrusions at the top.
Chibi sighed, he was trying very hard to understand things, but sometimes he would run into one of these bigger words that he just didn't get, or a figure of speech he had never heard used before. Fortunately Ms. Hildi was usually around to help, he picked himself up from the bench he was sitting on and sought her out at the front desk. She sat with her back to him scrawling something on paper.
"Ms, Hildi" his small voice asked.
The large eniripsa turned to face the small eliatrope boy. "Ah Chibi," she said "Another tough word?"
"Yes," Chibi said "What does I-n-q-u-i-r-e mean?
"Inquire?" Ms. Hildi asked
"Yes." Chibi said with a small smile, at least he knew how to pronounce it now.
"I means to earnestly ask," Hildi replied "Or to ask with intent of discovering more that the question says."
Chibi scrunched his face up in confusion "Like how?"
"Well…" Ms. Hildi began "Like if you wanted to discover what someone is thinking, but instead of asking that you ask 'what's wrong' instead."
"So.. indirectly?" Chibi asked using another word he had recently learned
"Yes!" Ms. Hildi said placing her hand on the little boy's head and scruffing up his hair through his hat.
"Okay!" chibi said "Thank you Ms. Hildi!" he said happily and pitter pattered back to his bench to continue reading.
Hildi returned to her notes and for a brief moment before hearing the door open and the little bell she had on it ring. She looked up and saw a young Iop girl walk in look around briefly
"Is Chibi here?" she asked.
Ms. Hildi Raised an eyebrow but pointed down the aisle to the bench on which the little eliatrope boy say quietly reading a book.
"Thank you!" The little Iop girl said running down the aisle towards him.
Hildi shook her head, Chibi was certainly good at making friends, she could never keep track of them all.
Chibi turned as he heard the clomping sound of shoes on wood approaching quickly, before him stood Elely who sat on the bench next to him.
"What'cha Readin'?" she asked him.
"A book about bounty hunters," Chibi said "papa says he used to be one, so I wanted to see what it was like, it seems pretty exciting."
"Hmm… My daddy always said that bounty hunters weren't very honorable." She said bluntly "and if Alibert stopped to run an Inn instead they probably aren't."
"Papa says something similar," Chibi said "He says he couldn't separate familys over stupid things like apples and bread anymore."
"Then they must be pretty bad." Elely said
"Papa says he worked with Ruel before," Chibi said "but Ruel gave up bounty hunting not all that long afterwards, according to Papa Ruel never does one thing for very long anyway."
"I talked to Grougal a few minutes ago." Elely said randomly changing the subject.
"Oh?" Chibi replied his voice growing a little thicker and his head turning away. "what did he say?"
"he said something was wrong between you and him," Elely said "And you got angry and irritated when I said his name just now, so I guess it's true."
"Hmm." Chibi grunted back at her, he didn't like having his emotion pried into, but he knew Elely couldn't always help it, she was still learning control over that particular aspect of her power.
"What happened?" Elely asked
"Same thing that always does." Chibi said in annoyance.
"You mean he attacked your friends again." Elely said
"Yeah," Chibi said "No one wants to play with me anymore, they're afraid my brother will burn them alive or something."
"He's just trying to protect you," Elely said
"I don't need protecting!" Chibi nearly shouted, Elely cringed backwards at his words. What? No, he didn't like getting looked at like that, it was just like how people looked at grougal all the time.
"I'm sorry." Chibi said taking a deep breath
"Is everything all right Chibi?" Ms. Hildi's voice came from the front desk
"I'm fine Ms. Hildi." Chibi replied
"I've never seen you this upset before," Elely said "he must've really made you mad."
"Yeah I guess." Chibi said sighing "I just want to be able to have fun, and do what I want without Grougal getting in the way all the time."
"Hmm…" Elely hummed in thoughtfulness "I think it might be like my brother and me, he just needs to give you your space, if he did that everything would be fine right?"
"Right!" Chibi said more happily this time, she understood, this was good, she was living with them for awhile so maybe she could help.
"I'll talk to Alibert later," Elely said "He's gonna teach me how to make stew."
Chibi blinked "Really, he doesn't usually want to, at least not unless it's me or Yugo."
Elely shook her head "He's just gonna teach me a basic stew."
"That sounds more like him." Chibi said
"But until he's done working today I have nothing to do." She said "so let's go play."
Chibi closed the book "I guess so."
Author's Note: So a little shorter than Spirit of the king chapters but longer than I intended. Chibi and Grougal aren't getting along, but hey every story needs some kind of conflict even if it's cheesey childish stuff so yeah…