Away to Realania (ONC 2023)

Chapter 5: Birthdays Aren't Complete Without a Gift

Once, they made it back to the castle on the lone island floating off the coast, Roende returned the bracelet to his amigo and went straight to the expansive kitchen. The maralujo put logs into a stone oven protruding from the wall before directing Angélio to a circular table with spiral-carved legs.

After taking the lids off a few glowing clay pots, Roende said, "Here's a snack," and set down a plate with sliced avocados, refried beans, a steaming flour tortilla, and a piece of cotija cheese plus an ice-cold glass of horchata in front of Angélio.

"¡Gracias!" Angélio blurted out. His rumbling stomach was exceedingly grateful.

"De nada (you're welcome)," the Roende said and continued with his baking.

After much mixing, stirring, scraping of delicious-smelling vanilla beans, and picking fresh fresas (strawberries) from one of the gardens, the cake went into the hot oven. Sometime later, the whole kitchen was filled with the mouthwatering smell of a baking cake.

Roende brought in six ears of scrumptious yellow corn, which he loaded onto a large wooden tray with whipped butter, fresh cilantro, and some seasonings in a bowl. Then, the maralujo whistled, which sounded like the lovely song of the clarín jilguero (brown-backed solitaire) bird.

Footsteps approached from the corridor to Angélio's right. He slid to the edge of his stool, straining to see who or what was coming from toward the kitchen.

A striking statue of a teenage maralujo walked in. It was made of beautiful dark brown wood with black streaks. No rough spots were anywhere on the glassy, varnished surface. The figure looked like a real maralujo, wings and all, with wooden skin.

The statue nodded at Angélio, who managed a slow nod in return. In slack-jawed silence, Angélio watched as it gave a slight bow to Roende, picked up the wooden tray, and left.

"Take this to the beach, Rojol," Roende said.

Rojol nodded and did as he was told.

"Can he talk?" the question dribbled out of Angélio's mouth.

"When he chooses to," Roende said, checking the device on his wrist that appeared with a tap once again. "Your cake is ready for the final touches now," he added before taking the confection out of the oven.

That has to be a watch, Angélio thought. He checked his own watch to see how much time had passed and frowned but the lousy thing had stopped working. Again. He sighed. Papi just got the battery changed like two days ago.

The frosted, misting jar Roende took out of the cupboard distracted Angélio from his busted watch. The maralujo opened the lid and poured a foggy, blue drop onto the cake.

"That should cool it down," the maralujo said.

Roende poked holes into the cake with a wooden skewer and poured the milk mixture over it. Next, he frosted it with the meringue he'd made, and sprinkled some cinnamon on top before garnishing the cake with sliced strawberries. Lastly, he tapped out two more foggy blue drops from the frosted jar over the delicious-looking dessert.

"Listo (ready)," Roende flashed a satisfied smile. "Now all we need is a piñata."

"Where will you get one from?" Angélio asked, assuming a castle didn't just have such objects growing on trees. Or did it? He wondered.

"Follow me," Roende said.

Maybe it does have a piñata tree, he thought, following after his host.

They walked down one of the column-lined, archway corridors until they came to a large circular room. The ceiling was much like the kaleidoscope one he'd seen earlier, however, it featured an eigh-pointed star pattern.