Big Trouble

by Andrew Seiple

  One was that a brownish sort of hollow rectangle appeared in front of her, and slowly filled up, left-to-right, with solid gold color.

  The other was that the ingredients required to finish the recipe disappeared from the tables around the young halven, popping into one of the dough sheets and expanding it upward and outward. From ten feet away the oven crackled, releasing a glorious smell of walnut pastry even though the dough was nowhere near the fire.

  The entire process took thirty seconds from end to end. When it finished, she opened her hands to catch a round, plate-sized brown cake, hot and fresh-baked and smelling of earthy goodness. It was called dinoche, and it was a special treat that the villagers only got at the harvest fest. The walnuts that made up the bulk of the stuff just couldn’t be found in sufficient quantities for everyone to get some outside of a few days in fall.

  The first pastry was done... but Chase wasn’t.

  With a sidelong glance at Millie, Chase took the pastry and turned her back to the girl, scratching at the bottom of the heavy cake with a small knife. The scraping against the crust was quiet, and Chase frowned, scraped harder, until she was sure Millie could hear it. Then she smiled and turned around, meeting the puzzled girl’s eyes with a cheerful grin. “Here you go!”

  “Okay...” Millie shot her a look, then took the cake, and hurried out of the room.

  Chase got to work on the next cake, but she left the honey out of this one, mentally removing it from the ingredients list. She scratched the bottom of this one as well, but did it more clumsily, marring the crust and carving out a small section. This one she set off to the side. Then she resumed baking, adding the honey back in and finishing up a third just as Millie returned.

  Words trickled up from Chase’s vision, as the last cake baked;

  Your cooking skill is now level 14!

  But this was expected, so Chase paid it no mind.

  When the smaller child reached out for the marred cake, Chase slapped her hand.

  “Ow! Hey, what was that for?”

  “Don’t take that one. I screwed up the... uh, never mind.”

  “The what? You baked it wrong?”

  “No, the baking part went fine...” Chase finished the next cake, turned her back on Millie, and worked her knife again. She glanced over, caught Millie trying to sidle around the tables. “Don’t look!”

  “Why shouldn’t I look? What are you doing?”

  “It’s a Cook thing. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “I’m a Cook!”

  “What level?”

  “Five!”

  That was higher than Chase. For a moment she despaired, but... well, Millie didn’t know Chase was only level three at the job, now did she? The strategy could continue.

  “Only that?” Chase asked, frowning. “Oh, don’t worry about this then. You don’t need this trick at that low a level.”

  “What trick?”

  Chase handed her the carved cake. “Don’t worry about it. Here, run this back.”

  “Tell me the trick! What does it do?”

  “What do you care about it? You didn’t want to help cook these anyway. You don’t need to know it.”

  Millie took the cake, heading to the door, glancing back every few steps. Chase watched her go then turned back to baking, hiding her smile. Just a little more...

  The next time, she didn’t hear Millie approach until the girl asked her “What are you cutting, there?”

  Chase jumped, startled, and glanced down. Millie had wormed her way under the tables to get a peek at Chase’s knifework. She put on her best frown. “I’m not telling you! It’s a secret!”

  “Tell me! I’ll... I’ll help you cook the cakes.”

  “No! I can handle it fine. This is why it’s my job. You’d just slow me down. Have you even done this before?”

  “Well, no...”

  “Pfft. Just carry the cakes. We’re wasting time.”

  “No, tell me! I’ll... I’ll owe you one or something.”

  “One favor?” Chase raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know...”

  “Two favors! And I’ll tell you a secret, too.”

  Inwardly, Chase cackled. Outwardly, she made a show of considering it, before nodding. “All right. We’ll cook these together and run them to the Mother in batches. That should save time, and my hand IS a little twitchy today. It’d be nice to have someone fresh to help with the sweetest cuts.”

  “The what?”

  “Look.” Chase held up a just finished cake, turned it over, and painstakingly scratched a symbol into the bottom. It was a nonsense symbol, just a star with a few twisty curves in it. “The sweetest cut.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it? That’s it?” Chase raised her voice in indignation. “Try a bit!” She shaved off a tiny part from the side, and handed it to Millie.

  The younger girl eyed her uncertainly, then popped it in her mouth. “It tastes like dinoche. I don’t notice anything different.”

  “Right. Because the cuts were proper. Now try THAT one.” Chase pointed her knife at the one she’d made without honey.

  Millie eyed it, peeled off a small chunk, and ate. Her eyes went wide. “It’s bitter!”

  “Right. That’s because I messed up the cuts.” Chase lifted up the cake, showed her the raw gouges on the bottom. “All the essence of the honey ran out! The humors of the cake are imbalanced! It’s all caloric now, and that’s no good.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a higher order cooking thing. The four humors,” Chase smiled, recalling that book she’d found in the old trunk a few years back. Something about physickians, and getting unsick. It had lots of impressive sounding ideas and words, and best of all, she was certain Millie hadn’t read it. She could use anything she needed. “Caloric, Flame-atic, Soggywine, and melon-colored.”

  Millie bought it, so Chase spent the next few batches cooking merrily alongside the smaller girl and showing her the proper cuts to make to balance the essence of the honey without letting it all escape the cake. It was all nonsense, of course, but it got the job done in half the time.

  In between batches, Millie told Chase the big secret.

  “My brother went out last night.”

  “Out where?”

  “I don’t know. He took his pitchfork and headed out into the night.”

  “That doesn’t seem like much of a secret,” Chase said, but her thoughts went back to his father and that sword. Here was another one of his peers out on what had to be the same errand.

  “No, that’s not the secret! The secret is that he didn’t come back alone.”

  “What?”

  “There was a woman with him. A dwarf.”

  “What?” Dwarves were not a thing that Chase had ever expected to see for a very long time. Oh sure, they were out there in the world somewhere but definitely not anywhere around Bothernot. Chase scrutinized Millie through narrowed eyes. She didn’t seem like she was lying.

  Millie seemed to get the message. “It’s true! She’s in our summer kitchen now. Tollen’s watching over her.”

  “Okay, now I’m sure you’re pulling my leg. Tollen’s our hunter. He’s out trapping coneys.” Fresh coney stew, cooked in an enormous pot, was one of the highlights of the festival. No coneys, no coney stew. And they had to be fresh, the meat just didn’t keep so well otherwise.

  “No, he’s not! He’s sitting at home, making sure she stays in the kitchen.”

  Chase almost dropped the cake as it formed, managed to catch and set it aside. “This is a lot to believe.”

  “Yeah,” Millie nodded. “It’s why I haven’t told anyone. Um, that and Dad told me to keep it quiet. So please don’t tell anyone, okay?”

  Chase blinked. Now you tell me this? Not too smart, Millie. But she could understand where the younger girl was coming from. This was a big secret. She must have been bursting for a chance to pass it along.

  It was also a secret that couldn’t be kept for long. Tol
len’s absence would be noted sooner or later. The lack of rabbits was going to be an issue, and soon... and surely Millie’s parents knew that.

  Something was afoot, here. The adults were acting beyond strange. It was time to put wiser heads on the matter. Glancing out the window, and marking the sun, she nodded in satisfaction. Just enough time, if we hurry.

  Chase put a smile on her face. “Well! You’ve kept your end of the bargain. Almost. Let’s get this batch done!”

  Midway through the final task, Chase felt energy rush through her, as words appeared directly in her view.

  You are now a level 4 Cook!

  LUCK +1

  PER+1

  Chase exhaled. She knew what was happening, here. She had finally gained enough cooking-related experience to level up as a Cook. Leveling up in any job refilled all her pools of energy. She was both glad for the boost and the attributes that came from leveling, but sad for the fact that it was wasted on the Cook job. That one hadn’t been her choice but her parents’ choice. It was another stone weighing her down and tying her to Bothernot.

  But there was nothing to be done about it right now. Chase shook her head and bent to her task, hiding her unease. There would be time to mourn what could have been later.

  Twenty minutes later Millie was carrying the last of the cakes to Mother Bloom, as Chase hiked up her skirts and darted into the fringe of trees just south of the church. From there, it was a short hike to another part of the village entirely. It would have been even shorter if she’d taken the road, but you couldn’t do that. Not without people seeing, and that risked the secret that she and her friends had worked so hard to preserve.

  The old people had the church steps to sit on and talk about how horrible young people were, but that wouldn’t work in the other direction. Couldn’t talk about how terrible adults were in public, or you’d get in trouble. It was a horribly unfair situation, but there was nothing to be done about it.

  No, the ideal conspiring spot was down in the grange on the edge of town. The grange was a big barn that only got used for special occasions. Special occasions like the harvest festival that was on for tomorrow. The ranchers and farmers moved their stock in for the judging and competitions and left it empty the rest of the year.

  Which had caused a lot of fuss among the village youths a few nights back, as the kids had to scramble to clean up the place, hide the empty wine bottles and the pipes full of tobacco and more forbidden herbs.

  They thought they’d done a pretty good job of it, but they hadn’t. And the village grownups who were responsible for stocking the grange and preparing it for the festival would smile and remember how they’d used it as their hideout when they were younger. And they cleaned up the contraband that the kids missed and didn’t say a word. The years would pass and the kids would be grownups, and then it would be their turn to clean up the grange and smile at the memories whenever they found another half-drunk bottle of Barleyman’s finest, or a somewhat suspiciously stained blanket, or an ancient book full of naughty woodcuts.

  The adults were content to smile and say nothing, which was why the teenagers of the village, Chase included, thought that they were getting away with having a secret hideout in plain sight.

  The downstairs of the big barn was busy even at this late hour of the morning, the lowing of cattle and whickering of ponies mixing with the calls of the farmers as they doled out food, combed manes and hides, and tended the assorted livestock.

  The upstairs, however, was free. And there, in the hayloft, Chase and her cronies huddled and tried to keep quiet as they spoke. Sometimes they even succeeded.

  The first order of business was to find a certain missing toy...

  “And you’re sure it wasn’t yours?” Chase asked, squinting at Petunia Gooli.

  The shorter girl nodded, sending her brown pigtails bouncing. Beside her, her sister folded her arms, and squinted at Chase with suspicion. “We don’t have a stupid fox toy, and we didn’t take it from your house last night.”

  “I didn’t say you’d taken it,” Chase held up her hands. “I was asking if you’d seen it. It’s not where it was, and I know I put it on that shelf.”

  “I’m still not sure Da didn’t take it,” Greta offered, from where she was sitting with her tight circle of friends. She and the other older girls had claimed the hay bales to the right. The boys were on the left, though there were a smattering of siblings who hadn’t chosen a side and sat in little family groups instead.

  The older the youths got, the more likely they ended up on one side or the other. Chase knew why. In a few years, she’d probably be doing it herself... no. No, she had plans. She wouldn’t be here in a few years. She’d dodge that arrow before it hit.

  “I don’t think Dad came back home,” Chase said. “Mom didn’t have any new dishes in the sink this morning. You know she wouldn’t have let him leave again without first breakfast.”

  “Maybe she... cleaned them? Before we woke?” Greta asked uncertainly.

  “Yeah, right.” Chase showed her clean white hands. “You know she doesn’t miss a chance for me to do them. I did them this morning and the only ones that weren’t from first breakfast were from last night. Nothing new. Something’s going on.”

  “Yeah,” Burt Crabapple said and instantly most of the young women looked to him. He cleared his throat, looking away. “My Mom was out too.”

  “And Benjy,” Loosy Lapin added in, staring at Burt. “He’s gone off with them, wherever they are.”

  “You think they’re together?” Greta wondered.

  Of course they are! Chase thought but kept it to herself. “So we’ve got mysterious windstorms, voices, fox puppets that appear out of nowhere and disappear just as easily, and a conspiracy of people wandering out without saying why. What’s happening here?”

  “Maybe the fox puppet was from the circus folk?” Jander Hoodwinkle said.

  Chase’s ear quivered. “Circus folk?”

  “My grampa said that circus folk were coming here for the festival,” Jander said, looking around, shrinking a bit now that all eyes were on him. “He saw one after the storm! Saw a stranger! The man said he had a circus and wanted to bring it around to town. But Jilly went out to tell them they couldn’t come here after all.”

  That was surprising. “Why?” Chase asked, leaning forward.

  “I don’t know.”

  “We could have had a circus here?” Chase said, ear twitching harder. “And they just decided no?”

  “I bet that’s what it is though,” Greta said. “For the fox, I mean. The river’s up by the road, and they could have dropped like a box of puppets or something, and it could have come downstream.”

  “Then why did it disappear?” Chase shook her head. “I know where I put it. Mom said she didn’t touch it. You denied it too, and Dad’s out, so...”

  “We don’t know if it’s even worth worrying about,” Burt said, shrugging. “A puppet’s no big deal, why worry about it? But the adults are acting funny. That’s definitely a thing to worry about.”

  Chase debated mentioning the dwarven woman but dismissed it. She wouldn’t have gotten any benefit from leaking this secret, and she needed to verify it first, anyway. Millie had seemed honest, but this was just a bit too outlandish to take at face value.

  The informal council deliberated, talked things over, and came to a conclusion. They’d watch, ask questions, and meet back at the grange tonight after the festival.

  They peeled off from the group in ones and twos, climbing down the ladders at the corners of the loft and quietly slipping out into the village. And the farmhands working in the grange smiled to themselves and pretended not to see the youngsters.

  Greta and Chase and Burt were three of the last ones out. The big blonde looked over to her younger sister, but Chase waved her on. Greta looked at Burt... and Loosy grabbed her arm, shooting a glare at Burt as she went. For a few seconds, Chase and Burt were left alone in the loft.

  Just as
planned. There was some business that Chase needed to wrap up.

  “Burt. Half a minute,” Chase said.

  He half-tensed up, wary. She shook her head and took his arm. “People are starting to notice that you and Loosy are hitting problems.”

  Burt closed his eyes, worry lines wrinkling his forehead. “Did you tell?”

  “I had to tell some of it. But not why there are problems. And I won’t.”

  Burt slumped and the tension rolled out of him. “Thank you.”

  “You’re not going to be able to hide it forever,” Chase said, looking up at his handsome face. A very handsome face that only truly smiled when he looked at very handsome men.

  “I don’t have to. Just another year, then I’m my own man. And I’m free to leave.” Burt’s ears twitched under his short-trimmed hair. “Got an uncle in Venivici. I can help him with his trade caravans. Folks are... different out there. People don’t mind... well.”

  “Well,” Chase squeezed his arm, then let go. “Just stall until you can’t any longer. And don’t break Greta’s heart if it comes down to it. And if you need me to run interference, you know my fees are reasonable. Now come on, Loosy’s going to get jealous if we stay up here much longer.”

  Loosy did shoot a few suspicious glares at Chase, but Chase gave her quizzical looks right back. Loosy marched over to Burt, grabbed his arm, and yanked it around her waist.

  Chase shrugged, and looked over to Greta. “Shall we?”

  “Let’s.” Greta led the way.

  “You’ve got the list?” Chase asked her sister.

  Greta smiled and pulled out a wrinkled piece of much-abused parchment. Paper was dear in the village, so every scrap of it was full up of cramped writing. “We’re in charge of the ribbons this year. Should be an easy task.”

  “Ugh.” Chase wrinkled her nose. “So long as you’re the one climbing up on the poles and tacking them in place.”

  “Depends. What’ll you give me?”

  Chase glanced back over her shoulder, at Loosy’s hand around Burt’s waist, and the way the young man’s shoulders tensed up under his shirt. “I think I could do you a secret about Loosy’s first boyfriend.”