Leviathan

Silver over everything (1-6)

The four of them quickly got to work picking chestnuts. Before long, they'd managed to fill up all the baskets they'd brought with them.

"Our chestnut pile is pretty big now," Ace said. "Let's get them back to Trey!"

"Nyahaha!" Grim cheered. "These tarts are gonna be awesome!"

Rory rolled her eyes. "Just make sure to leave some for the rest of us, alright?"

With that, they headed back to the dorms.

00000

It didn't take long for them to arrive back at the ramshackle dorm. As they approached it, however, they could hear crashing sounds inside.

"What's going on in there?" Deuce questioned, backing away from the door a bit.

Ace gave Rory a flat look. "You forgot to tell Trey about the ghosts?"

"I forgot to tell Trey about the ghosts," Rory confirmed, sighing. "C'mon, Grim."

Grim groaned, but handed his basket of chestnuts to Ace. Rory did the same with Deuce, and the two of them approached the door, the boys following behind them.

Cautiously, Rory opened the doorway to the dorm and looked inside. The place was definitely less of a wreck than she'd expected it would be, but she didn't see anyone else.

"And stay out!"

Before she could react, Rack zipped by her, giggling maniacally. Running after him was a now-disheveled Trey, dual-wielding his wand and a cookbook.

He spotted Rory in the doorway. "Took care of your ghost problem," he told her breathlessly.

Grim just shook his head. "They'll come back eventually. Now come on, let's make some mont blanc!"

The others followed in, Rory taking the extra baskets of chestnuts away from Ace and Deuce.

"I see you picked quite a few chestnuts," Trey noted, looking over their harvest.

"Yeah!" Grim cheered. "With this, we can make a huge tart!"

"Peeling all of these is going to be a challenge, but...let's get to it."

The five of them headed to the kitchen, which was cleaned up and ready for use. Trey handed each of them a chestnut knife and got to work prepping the chestnuts for peeling.

"Look at all of these...there's no end in sight..." Deuce muttered.

"Making sweets is all about preparation," Trey told him.

"Yea, yeah, we get it!" Ace snapped. "I'm so ready to get this over with!"

With that, they got to peeling. Sure enough, even with four of them doing the peeling (five once Trey was done preparing the chestnuts), the process took close to an hour. Finally, they'd managed to peel all of the chestnuts required for the tart.

Ace groaned and collapsed in a chair. "Finally, it's done!"

"My arms hurt..." Deuce sighed.

"And I think these hand cramps are gonna last awhile," Rory muttered, flexing her fingers.

Trey just chuckled a little. "You did an excellent job. And don't worry; your hard work will just make it tastier."

"I'm full just from the smell," Grim grumbled.

Trey pulled out a mixing bowl and a few other ingredients. "Next, we mix the chestnuts, some butter, and some sugar into a paste. Then we add our secret ingredient: oyster sauce."