Guinevere's Rules

Rule Eight: Having Friends is a Good Thing

My distress must have been noticed as I pushed my dinner around because Lamorak leaned in with a grin, "You know, the food won't eat itself. Well, some will actually, when they're alive. But once it's dead it relies on you to eat it." I blinked at him the slowly smile, a small laugh bubbling past my lips. 

"I don't even know what the food is," I said softly, poking the meat suspiciously. 

Percival looked at my plate, getting involved in our conversation, "That my lady is meat from the Cockatrice, and the fruit is a strawberry." 

I paused and looked down at the fruit in confusion. "It's purple. Strawberries are red." 

This time it was the knight's turn to give me confused looks. "What type of strawberry is red?" Gawaine asked me, cocking his head. 

Sighing, I shook my head. This place was messing me up. "Earth strawberries are red. Or Mirror Realm strawberries." I mumbled. Deciding that a purple strawberry was safer than rooster-lizard meat, I picked up the fruit and bit into it. 

Albion strawberries are so different, I can't even describe how the fruit tastes but it did not taste like strawberries. It was good, but not a strawberry. In confusion, my gaze flew to Merlin, who was just laughing into his literal tankard of mead. "A little shocked Gwen?" Merlin asked happily as he drank his mead. "Magic changes the way things taste here makes some things sweeter, others more bitter, or in the case of Strawberries, makes the taste unrecognizable." 

"What do strawberries taste like in the Mirror Realm?" Geraint asked, now intrigued by my shocked reaction. 

Struggling to find the words to explain how a strawberry tasted, I stuttered. "They're more bitter, still sweet though. And juicy, but so are these. I don't know but they are completely different." 

"Clear as mud, Gwen." Lamorak joked with me. 

As I started to laugh, I noticed the knights weary gaze, still trying to decide if I was really just Guinevere tricking them. They must have decided to enjoy me as I was now and continued with their dinner. Finally gathering my courage, I tried the cockatrice. 

On the bright side, the reptile didn't throw me off as much as the strawberry did because I didn't have a taste in mind to go off of. I did, however, find that the texture of the meat was strange, like a mix between mammal and fish, which I suppose is what a cockatrice is. Once I got past that, I decided that I quite licked cockatrice. 

"How do you like it, Gwen?" Merlin asked from across the table. 

This time, I noticed that Arthur was interested in my answer too. "It's strange, but I like it." Everyone stared at me in shock. "What?" 

"The cockatrice is a beast that is relatively easy to kill and a common meal served in all houses, whether they are poor or wealthy. Like chicken." Merlin explained to me slowly. 

Looking back at the lavish way Guinevere lived and the rare, expensive taste she had in clothing and style, I could only assume that a common meat like the Cockatrice would be a meal that the Queen would snub her nose at. "So, Guinevere didn't like the cockatrice," I said, getting nods from the group around me. "Is there anything that the two of us share in common?" 

"Appearances," Gawaine answered immediately. 

I nodded numbly and went back to my meal. Rather suddenly though, I found myself somewhere else entirely. 

"What's for dinner tonight?" I heard my voice ask. It was wrong though, I didn't speak in such a posh manner, not ever. This was the voice of a noblewoman. 

"Basilisk, Majesty." Two things. One, how did someone kill a basilisk without looking at the damned thing? Two, why was I seeing Guinevere's life out of order. "Your favorite meal."