Sorrel

Krone

(στέμμα)

"Hera, Hera"

My eyes shot wide open. Heart racing, streams of sweat all over my face, and breathing rapid and heavy.

"Are you okay?"
Nikól handed me a cup of water. I drank it all and sat up."What's up?"

I turned to her startled as though I had never seen her before. Her long, reddish-brown hair fixed into wispy bangs at the front and a messy bun at the back. Her slightly plump cheeks leading to her slim mouth, sitting beneath her roundly pointed nose. Her ears guarding either side of her head and her eyes, curved beautifully with... clear Gray Hex silver irises. No wonder her sculpts had amazing builds - they reflected that of her face.

"Bad dream" I said quenching her obvious thirst for an answer. "Just a bad dream"

Hercules, on the ground stared at me but as I spoke, pranced away. Nikól changed from standing in front of me to sitting on the floor legs crossed and arms on her laps.

"What happened in the dream?” Her voice was fluent with her face fixed on mine, patient. I on the other hand was thinking fast and unsteady to answer. After a moment I sighed.

"Wolves, I was chased by wolves"

She tilted her head a gentle degree making her doubt clear. "Seriously? Just wolves?" She slowly straightened her head and smiled demonstrating her statement.  "Sure it wasn't groups of demons, teeth razored and everything? You were trembling"

I smiled weakly. "Nah, just wolves, forget it" A play frown replaced her grin before her face became stable. I couldn't tell her the actual dream. I knew fully she would be put down which would in turn put me down. I got on my feet, pushing my hair back, straightening my shirt."Let's get working on dinner, it's getting late"

It wasn't a total excuse from our conversation. It was near sundown when we were at the garden, it was proper dusk now and none of us had eaten since brunch.

We were in the kitchen getting the raw materials for cooking. Said kitchen was not too big but had enough space for a person to comfortably move around while being busy. Lower wooden cupboards lined the room with marble tabletops on them. A fridge stood at one end of the kitchen facing the back door of the house. Side by side the fridge was a white microwave, two paces after that presented the oven, four-stove cooker, a metre wide workspace, then blender. The upper parts of the room were lined with cupboards as well, with hooks for utensils on the walls. A waste bin fitted with black polythene cloth was next to the door. In the middle of the entire place was an island with six stools round it which homed the sink and some extra workspace. Above the island was a lone white, strangely bright light bulb.

"Dad's still asleep?"

Nikól paused washing her hands and thought, water still running. She then resumed scrubbing her fingers.

"Not sure but he's still in his room" she turned off the water, flinging her hands before rubbing them dry on the blue hand towel.

"I'll check"

She jogged out of the kitchen, heading upstairs. Some seconds after she got there, I heard his door open, a quick conversation later the door shut and she was back down.

"He wasn't, but is now".

We kept working on dinner - simple meatloaf. Nikól just put the batter into the oven when Dad's door opened then gently closed back. Thuds of his heavy footsteps led him down as he joined us. His former looks of tiredness were replaced with energy.