Chapter 8 Winter Fire Fare

Fina and Nina walked through the crowd with their father Lucas. He was somewhat slowed down by the amount of people at the fare. He was beginning to get into a little bit of withdrawals from not drinking. The fare this year was a lot more crowded than it was in previous years. Though the town was small enough, that even at it’s maximum capacity, it would not reach much more than about the size of a small modern school, give or take a frost bitten leg. Father was already at the brownie stand and they ran to catch up. He chatted with the man that looked, maybe about a year or so younger than him. The chef was warming the brownies in his oven, the smell of which whafted into Fina and Nina’s nose. Walking closer to their father, he greeted them with a wide open hug. “These are my darlings, say Hello Fina. Say hello Nina.” Lucas smiled big enough, which made him look somewhat like a cat.

“Hello Mr.” both Fina and Nina said at the same time. They were both eye-balling the brownies in the oven. His wife -- a woman that looked maybe around her mid twenties, was staring at them in a peculiarly starchy false friendliness. The kind of toothy grin one might hope one would grow out of after a polite farewell from a funeral. “Can we have some brownies?” Fina said. But was shush-ed by Nina. Fina felt like punching Nina in the face, but thought better of it. Because she did not want to make her father Lucas angry -- even though he never did react in quite the same way as their mother Bernina. Though he was quick to blame them, when she fussed at them with her beady eyes.

“Not until after the rituals my dear.” said the chef. Then he looked at the fire, “Which reminds me, I need to make sure that the brownies are not burnt. Would not want that to be by culinary introduction.” Then peered down, and looked at the glowing flame, that seemed to dance similarly to fireflies hearing the fathers voice speak. “Well girls, want to go with me to the other stand.” The chef flinched one of his eyes. Lucas tipped his glasses, his ear length black hair in a part, and blowed in the wind. “Or do you want to stay here? Your choice, I’m going to see the other chef then come back later.” That’s pretty much how it always was with him. Fina wondered how theei mother came to expect anything different out of Lucas.

“Can we stay here please?” Fina said. She played with her longish curly brown hair, something that her sister never seemed to do. “We wanted to keep the chef company, right Nina?” Fina was not sure whether Nina would go along with her game, but she felt like doing something. Lucas was reluctant to say yes, but then decided that girls were going to do, what girls were going to do.

“Sure, but try not to wander off, I’ll be watching.” Then he walked to the other stand.

Alright, nows our chance Fina thought. “Why did you have to ask him that?” Nina said. Then had her mouth covered discretely by Fina’s hand. “Shh, you don’t want him to hear us.” The chef overheard what he said, and was not sure what kind of father would simply just let his two kids stay behind. But he wanted to be a good chef, wanted to keep his business. So he simply decided to say nothing, hoped that -- maybe soon -- the father would come back. Plus he wanted the girls to leave his brownies alone. “So how are you enjoying the fare so far?” the chef said. Winked at his wife. “Hey Maria, you thinking what I’m thinking?” he said.

“But that was our breakfast!” she said. Then looked over at the two girls eyes, and she could not resist that certain blue green, that certain wide eyed stare. “Alright, but only a small piece. Remember that I have to eat as well.” The chef looked at his wife approvingly, and then broke off a small piece from the brownie. “Here you go girls, no buzz off for a sec. Gotta make sure the after-fare chocolates are not burnt.”

“Hey, can we talk afterward?” Maria said.

“Sure what do you need?”

“Afterword please.” But because he was to busy singing, Fina had her chance. They made sure to prance through the skeleton tomb.

She took the brownie, made her blitz. And then nearly made the chef, do the splits. They ran and ran into the tomb, and the chef chased after them. And then Fina ducked Nina’s head, and they walked into the tomb of the Winter Fire skeleton God. And then they found themselves in a dark hallway, lit only by the glow of the soft torchlight. They walked through the tunnel.

And then found themselves at a dead end. And then they heard of the voice of the Chef, calling for them through the dark.

“Fina, why do you have to take those brownies?” Nina said. Then spat in the dark of the tomb, then stomped on it. “Remember he said, it should be after the fare.” Then through the tomb, she heard the lowest possible growling from Fina.

“Shut up Fina, shut up now.” She placed her hand over Nina’s face to shut her up, and then they walked further into the tomb. Fina never had an adventure quite like this before. She always wondered what was inside the tomb.

What secrets lay within?

Lucas was at the Brownie table with the girls, and they wanted to remain at the table to admire the brownies. Even though they would not eat the brownies until after the rituals were over to celebrate the arrival of the death god of death and the harvest. “You two stay there, while I go look at the other table. And then go admire this fine fellow over here.”

He walked over the table, while the girls stayed behind. He got lost in the crowd, and had to quickly push beyond them in order to arrive at the other table. But once he arrived, he was able to see the new brownies for all there splendor. He was to disciplined to take a brownie already. Or at least he thought. Instead as he remained there, chef pleasantly greeted him. “So what can I do for you?” The demeanor of the chef was simply to much for ole Lucas to resist.

So Lucas said, “I’m just hanging out over here. Letting my girls over there enjoy the brownies over there.” But the girls over there were already running into walking into the temple to hide from the other chef that wanted to find the thieves that took his brownies. “Yea enjoying them they are my mate, they went on into the temple.” the chef said, wondering if the father believed him.

“Oh don’t be silly, my girls would never do such a thing.” But instead the girls were definitely doing such a thing right then. “Why my wife would cane them raw.” Of this the chef soon got a straight face, then quickly pretended like he didn’t hear what he heard. And they kept going ho ho ho. Needless to say the father did not see the girls leave into the temple of the death god. So it was the other chef all alone that would go and get the girls, in order to get his brownies back.

He then walked back to the table, and wondered where in the hell the girls were. Maybe the chef was right after all. He ran quickly through the crowd in order to alert Bernina to the current emergency. But it was simply to difficult to get throug the crowd, that was trying to get close to warm their hands by the fire. But eventually he was able to get into contact with Bernina.

“Where are the girls Lucas!” said Bernina, hitting him in the face with her hat repeatedly. “I thought I told you to watch the girls.” She then kept hitting in the face with her hate repeatedly. He eventually pushed the hat out of the way to keep his wife from bering horrendous to him. “We need to find out daughters.” But none of the crowd was alerted to their panicking, being to busy to warm their hands by the fire.

So they rushed to the temple doors. Where they encountered priests that wouldn’t let them inside. Lucas wondered, how in the world were the girls able to get inside of the temple? The guards quickly took Bernina and Lucas away, when became apparent that there would be no visit from the god of death and harvest of the crop.