Elira

New Beginnings

Elira stirred the milk in the pan, mixing it with the sausage and adding spices to create the perfect gravy. He moved over to the pan with the eggs, moved them around, then placed them on a plate before adding more egg into the pan to scramble.

"What's all this?"

He turned around to see Atlas standing in the doorway, next to Astrophel.

"Ah, it's a sort of apology-thank you breakfast," Elira said sheepishly. "Because of yesterday. It's a thing I do sometimes, I thought it'd be- I thought it'd be cool."

"Oh. That's nice of you," Astrophel said, tasting the food. "This is really good! Huh. I'd say it rivals Ambers cooking, maybe even Atlas's."

"Thanks, but it's not that good. I'm not quite used to these, uh... what are they called? Ovens?" Atlas gave him a weird look. "Uh, I usually use a fire or one of my devices, I made one that summons flames from- huh. Well I actually don't know where but it's a little box that can fold in on itself. Both options make it easier when I'm moving from place to place, that's why I use them."

    "Oh, that's interesting," Astrophel said. It seemed she was trying to be polite, but Elira heard the hesitatance in her voice. "I never really thought about how that'd work, moving around so often? It's been awhile, I guess I grew accustomed to this."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Elira said, pulling cinnamon buns out of the oven and frosting them.

"What do you mean?"

"Growing accustomed to living a good life isn't a sin. It shows how far you've come, how much you've accomplished. It proves that you aren't bound to the fate others stapled on to you, that you've made your own decisions and put down the sword for a fight you were forced into and walked away, living life in a small homey village surrounded by flora and fauna so far away the screams of an irrelevant war can never each you." He set the cinnamon buns on a plate and returned to the pancakes and eggs. "I think it's a beautiful thing. Being able to define yourself, making your own choices. Defying your programming. Living." There was a pause where he started on another batch of pancakes. "Never ashamed for living. Your scars show your persistence, your bravery, why would you yearn to fight and die in the same war that you were born in, the same one that gave you those scars? Why not enjoy life as you have it?  Not many get that chance."

"So others have that chance. So they have the chance to live as I have without facing the same horrors," Astrophel answered. "Theoretically, of course. None of this is literal, there's not an actual war."

"Not yet there's not," Elira muttered under his breath. The others didn't seem to notice as they sat down and started their own conversations leaving Elira to his cooking. Castin came in, and so did Kyra a few minutes after him. They quickly joined the discusssion, something about pop tart flavours? Elira wasn't really sure so he just kept to himself while he finished the meal.

A/N: I really enjoyed writing this as a sort of First Draft for the actual story but god fucking damn there's a shit ton of filler and unnecessary content. Anyway, I'm reworking this so apologies but the new story will be up on my page eventually :)