Chapter 8

Royal feasts

When I passed the enormous golden gates to the palace, I was stung for a moment by the terrifying beauty of it. All those tapestries, all those paintings of long dead firelords, the golden ceilings and the sculptures. It overwhelmed me so much that I almost overlooked the door to the dining-hall. The hall was not as enormous as I thought it would be, but still quite vast and it had a domed roof. A snappy looking fat lady in a way too small dark red suit turned out to lead this excessive dinner party.

'So, you came here to help us with the preparations of the dinner, didn't you?'

I nodded my head, trying not to inhale the oppressive vapour of the lady's perfume.

'Great, I've got just the job for a girl like you. Remember, it must be eerily close to perfect. The parents of the will-be firelady will come over tonight, and they demanded nothing but the best.'

I looked around and saw dozens of servants decorate the hall with candles and tapestries. I wondered if I was meant to become one of them. The obesed authority though had different plans.

'Follow me.'

I followed her as fast as my feet could follow, but her bulky short legs were faster then they looked. She was taking me to somewhere in the rear of the palace, and pitifully I didn't even have time to take a good look at the beauty of it. Before I even noticed, I got introduced to the head-cook; Zama.

'Good evening madam, I'm Mera Lin. I think I'm sent here to help you prepare the dinner, or something like that.'

'Please, just call me Zama. I'm glad they've finally sent some extra support, it's a vast amount of work.'

'Well, don't expect too much from me. I'm just a gardener.'

'Many hands make light work, they say. I think I have a task for you even a gardener can handle.'

She smiled. She looked like a nice women, with her sparkling brown eyes and cheerful dimples. Like a cosy and chatty mother of the kitchen.

It came down on; me garnishing the salads. I never did it before, but it was plain easy. I liked this way of effortlessly earning money, and the best of all was: Zama liked the salads, though they looked like hurled lopping to me.

'Next party I'm asking you again, you really seem to have an eye for this.'

'Thank you, I'm honoured', I grinned.

'You knew firelord Zuko was celebrating his 17th birthday in about nine days, didn't you?'

'To be honest, I didn't. Though I would be glad to help you again, it's a lot better than abridging trees.'

She looked stunned when I told her I was unaware of another presumably exorbitant royal feast.

'You didn't? Aren't you supposed to learn those things at school?'

It sounded reproachful, but I remonstrated it wasn't meant that way.

'I left school two years ago, so I'm brainwashed at the Ozai-era.'

She began to understand my uninformed situation, I saw it in her eyes.

'Then forget what I just said. But you are completely alien to the new royal family?'

'At least I know the name of the firelord is Zuko.'

And I only knew that because she just told me. I could care less about the royal family and whoever it existed of. They were just all the same boring futileness to me.

'Maybe I can point out some important details to you after the next feast, so I can also show them to you. Too bad that the firelord himself is absent today. Congress in Omashu, or something like that.'

She seemed so exited about teaching me stupid facts about the royal family and it was so rude to abstain.

'Well maybe I just…'

No, I couldn't find a good excuse.

'…why not, sounds fun.'


Mera Lin's naivety is almost cute, for not knowing who the guy behind the bower was :P

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