Solo [Valkalah Library] The Bad Habit

[Naali]

22nd Summer 518

One of the things about Kelvics are that they are not completely human and not completely animal. They are both-and as well as neither. Naali has some of the characteristics of her fox nature in her human form. He hair changes color and texture as the seasons change, she has sharp pointed teeth, she has the musk smell of a fox and is color blind. She has a natural curiosity about things and it can get her in trouble. Like most Kelvics she has been genetically altered to be helpful to people, to long for a bondmate and human interaction.

Naali’s bad habit is that she likes people and their food. She also likes to eat things that civilized people would not. Mice, rats – if she can get a jump on them, squirrels, chipmunks and snakes are all wonderful meals if you are hungry enough. This can get you in trouble.

Chapter 1: Making lunch

One of the things that happen at Nai’s boarding house is that the guest take turns in cooking and doing chores around the house. Nai is a good cook and has a tendency to be very maternal and protective of the women that stay there. Naali really like Nai and would do almost anything that Nai asked her to do. She wears those god awful undergarments because Nai told her it would draw less attention to her. So she does it most of the time.

It was a couple days before it was Naali’s turn to cook, so she decided to start getting food to feed the people staying at the house. Naali had started to really like Riverfall because there are a lot of people living there, plus restaurants and shops. This meant that there was always garbage pile, garbage heaps, and composting piles and that meant one of Naali’s favorite snacks, mice. Naali had learned a thing or two about feeding oneself growing up in the grass lands. So foraging was and is an important skill for Naali. So that is what she started to do. She would travel the town checking out what people had thrown out. Scraps of meet that still smelled good from the butcher shop, produce that was being disposed of from the market, mice that had gotten into compost boxes and couldn’t get out. She would place all of the things that she found in a bag and then brought it back to the house to prepare and preserve for making stew. She took a pot of water and started to cut up vegetables throwing out the spoiled parts, potatoes, corn, carrots, garlic, and onions. Next the chunks of meet, and the odds and end spices that she thought smelled and tasted good as she was out collecting things. She kept it covered on the stove and added things as she found them and added water. As Naali was able to figure things, what ever she was making needed to smell good. So she let her nose tell her what to add. She skimmed the fat from the top and disposed of that.

When it came to feed people she proudly dished the stew into bowls for people. For a first attempt at cooking, she thought it was good. The trouble started when people started to ask what was in it and where did she get it. The butcher, the market, this restaurant and that one, and she named off a couple gardens. Things were fine till she mentioned the big rat from the compost heap that she found down near the docks. That’s when the silverware hit the bowls and people started to run outside. They hadn’t let her tell that the rat led her to a wonderful garden with fresh garlic and carrots.

She sat there eating thinking to herself; they don’t know what it means to be really poor and really hungry.

Chapter 2: The date

One of the things about being a Kelvic is that people find you sexually attractive. As a woman in a male dominated area, dates come fairly easy.

It was a nice summer’s day. There was a breeze blowing in from the water through the front doors of the library. So was the smell of a street vendor’s wares, fried meat on a stick. This made Naali’s mouth water and stomach growl. Loud enough that a patron at the library sitting at a table head and picked his head up. From what Naali had learned about Akalak men, they were always trying to find a mate to bare children with. This made being a woman, even a Kelvic with a woman, both a blessing and a curse.

Vekar Zhiwaz, a young man around the age of 20, came up and asked if Naali would like to go get a bite to eat from the cart. Her stomach growled again. Vekar was a nice looking man, he was well built, had strong arms and legs. He had a couple wounds across his chest from injuries in battle. Her boss heard her stomach growling and gave her a nod to go.

Vekar walked her out the front door to that cart. The sun was shining brightly in the afternoon sky. The food cart was a little farther away than what she expected. But the smell was heavenly. Pork and Chicken deep fried in boiling grease. The smell of wood smoke, grease, and frying meat was like heaven to Naali.

Vekar tells her, “Order what she would like.” Pulling out some coins to pay for the food they would eat.
Being a small woman and being towards the end of the day, the vender adds, “All you can eat.”
A wild smile comes across Naali’s face as she says, “Both please!”

Vekar tries to get information from her, she gives out her name, that she is new to town and redirects it back to him to talk about himself, his wounds, and about how wonderful of a man he is. She did this so she could keep eating. She ate a pound-and-a-half of the fried meats before she was done.

She walked back to the library with Vekar and thanked him for the food.

Word count: 1037
Ledger: