Reluctancy (Book #1 of the Ancient World series)

Ch.1

1600 BC, Heroic Age, Ithaca, Greece

It was a blisteringly hot day on Ithaca and Elaena was kneading dough for her mother's special elaiólado (olive bread). Elaena was watching the shop while her mother ran errands and her sisters were at home being looked after by their grandmother. The oldest,  Alecto was 7 and Cleo the youngest, just 2. Therefore too young to work in the bakery. The fournos (bakery) had been passed down from her grandmother who had learned the trade from her mother. Elaena stopped to wipe the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, looking out the bakery window she saw the street outside, bustling with people and in the distance the hill where she loved to go on picnics with her sisters. The sun's rays baked the earth which made Elaena glad to be in the shade of the shop. She had been helping in the family bakery for the past eight years and now at 17 years old she honestly felt this was the place she was most at home in.

She finished mixing chopped olives into the dough, then sectioned it out into eight chunks and shaped them into ovular loaves. Then she placed them onto two trays and into the stone oven to bake. After that she began the cleanup of the kitchen; sweeping floors, wiping down counters and storing away the ingredients. She finished her task within a few minutes and once she had she untied her apron and threw it onto a chair, than lifting her arms in a streach she walked down the hall to the storage room. But just as she was coming in the door a loud thump nearly scared her out of her wits. Looking up she saw a crouched figure covered in flour. The person turned around and she recognized the delivery boy Keandre. He brushed himself off, stood up and smiled at her sheepishly.

"I'm sorry, Elaena. As I was placing the sack of flour on the shelf I lost my grip and well..." he said shaking more flour out of his dark curls. "Ack Keandre, go do that outside!" she scolded but she couldn't hold back an amused smile. She waited a moment for him before stepping out the back door, which was ajar to let in a breeze. Keandre was standing on top of the delivery cart handing down more packages to another boy named Icarus. Icarus was a youth about 3 years younger than her with a thin frame and shorn mouse-brown hair. She wandered up to the cart and reached up to stroke the neck of the donkey pulling the cart, "Thanks again, Keandre. I really appreciate it". He passed down one last package to Icarus, who went back in the bakery with a pile up to his chin. Than jumped down to stand next to her, "It's no problem, it's what I'm payed to do after all" he jested, wiping his face and neck with a cloth. Elaena clucked in mock disapproving manor and hit him lightly in the shoulder. Keandre just laughed, his azure blue eyes crinkling up at the corners.

Keandre and Elaena had been good friends since childhood and they always loved to tease each other. The two of them had grown up just houses apart and Keandre often accompanied Elaena and her sisters on their picnics. He had just started working at a mylos (mill) 4 years ago, the owner was a man named, Theseus. He was especially strict and prone to bouts of rage where he shouted at his staff and threw things, breaking them more than not. He was also known to beat his workers during these rages. Luckily on this particular day she couldn't see any visible signs of a beating on either of the boys. "Well do you want to come inside for something to eat?" I just put some elaiolado in the oven a few minutes ago, so it should be ready in about 20 minutes", Elaena said gesturing to the doorway of the bakery. "Oh yes that sounds, marvelous! Frankly I'm starving!" Keandre said patting his stomach.

Elaena laughed and went back into the shop. Icarus was just finishing placing sacks of sugar on the shelves as they came in. "Icarus would you like to come in for some bread?" Elaena asked. "Yes thank you miss, I would like that very much" he said shyly, shifting from foot to foot. Elaena chuckled and walked back towards the kitchen, the two boys following behind. Once arriving in the kitchen Elaena led her guests to a small table in the corner with two stools, "Please have a seat and wait a few minutes for the bread to finish baking" she said gesturing to the table. Keandre and Icarus gratefully accepted, plopping down onto a stool. Elaena could tell they were both exhausted from a long hard day at work.