What Makes a Monster

♱Twenty-One♱

Wallie P.O.V

Even with the arrival of the guests, the estate is not in any less of an uproar. Actually, it might have worsened.

Higra is her usual stern self, but she's quadruple checking everything. Although everything has been thoroughly cleaned then inspected for perfection, we are to repeat our work to make sure it remains that way. I've always been a fast worker, but this pace is nearly unbearable so I'm not sure if I'm relieved or concerned to see Elamir when she finds me and says, "Higra asked that you help in the kitchen. With so many guests, we're rather understaffed."

Elamir disappears without hearing my response, not that I would argue. Especially with how frantic she is, hair sticking out of her bonnet from rapid movements, even her breathing is a bit erratic. She's rushing, we all are, so I bolt to the kitchens in hopes to help.

Sure enough, there is plenty of work to be done in the kitchens. With six guests there must be both breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared as well as snacks and drinks should they wish to munch throughout the day or evening. And they eat far more than Lord Makai does, which still confuses me because I wish to know if the food actually does anything for him!

Anyways, I'm not much for creating a full blown meal, but the basics such as chopping vegetables or stirring a bowl of whatever this brown stuff is is doable. (Gravy maybe?)

The kitchen staff are not workers I see as often so I'm a little taken aback with how quick the gossip begins. Perhaps this is the place it always comes from because everyone seems to be pro's at it.

"Say, anyone have any clues why our guests are here?" The head cook asks while moving about the kitchen with, dare I say it, inhuman speed. "The High Priest brought yet another carriage in today. None have seen what was within, but it is clear it's not another guest."

"All I heard is that it's royal business, otherwise it would have been the High Priest or the Grand Knight sent rather than both," a butler responds, swinging open the cupboards for who knows what.

"The High Priest and Grand Knight are in the king's pocket so their business is always royal business, but you make a fair point." The girl beside me decorating some frozen desert smiles. "However, I heard The Red Lady is on the move."

"The Red Lady?" I ask, hesitating momentarily in my work.

Great, now I'm in on the gossip.

"You haven't heard of her?" One of the men asks yet he runs right by me to take drinks upstairs. Guess he'll be filled in when he returns? I'm almost impressed with how the kitchen staff gossip, it's like they built their own system!

"You know of the other vampires, don't you?" Another worker inquires from across the room. He doesn't even look back at me, turning the meat over the roaring fire while speaking. "There's three in total, after all."

"I know there's three, but I don't know much about the other two," I respond, looking to the girl next to me since she brought up The Red Lady.

"Well, obviously there's Lord Makai." She gestures up as if to point to him. "He's the youngest and, by word of mouth, the weakest."

The weakest? Seriously? I can't imagine one stronger though...

"Then there's Quelen Jakeen, a nomad that is nearly 9,000 years old. They say he wanders wherever he pleases, being seen and heard very little. There's even disagreements upon his appearance so the claimed sightings are nothing more than rumors. If you ask me, he's the best out of the three, never causing trouble."

I want to ask who "they" are and how they know he's a wanderer if so little is known of him, but she's still speaking and I doubt she has an answer anyways. That's why this is called gossip and not facts.