Page 50 of The Healing Dragon
Hours pass us as we go from task to task. I’m tempted to ask her if some background music is out of the question, butinterrupting this flow feels wrong. This is the first time being with my thoughts feels peaceful. The labor feels near therapeutic.
“We’re almost done for today,” Isabel says as we complete a row of plants. “I will be right back.” She gestures with her index finger to give her a minute.
Isabel returns and hands me a basket filled with bags. Each bag has a bundle of leaves we cut down earlier today. Isabel mixed and arranged them into small portions, sealing them in baggies.
“I need to tend to Brandon. Can you please deliver half of the bags to the kitchen and the other bags to the clinic?” She puts on a cardigan.
I look tired and dirty. Isabel, on the other hand, just puts on a cardigan and brushes out her straight hair and she is fresh as a daisy.
I clean my hands on my apron and grab the basket as I leave the nursery. The halls are much quieter in the middle of the day. Lunch was a couple of hours ago. I begin to regret not venturing out to the dining hall when my stomach growled. Luckily, I have to make a stop in the kitchen. I might as well take some food to go.
Although the kitchens are on the same floor as the food hall, I have to navigate through the outside corridors in order to reach the entrance.
I spot Matias outside in the gardens from a hallway window. He isn’t sitting alone, which catches my attention when I realize the girl next to him isn’t Bianca. I step up to the window to take a closer look. Alejandra sits on the same bench a few feet apart. They are both looking forward as if to appear like they aren’t together.
I see Matia's lips move and after a beat Alejandra’s do. I’m leaning against the wall trying not to be caught blatantlystaring at them. The conversation continues, but they never make eye contact. Their eyes remain forward the whole time.
“Nosy dragon,” an older lady says under her breath as she passes by.
I straighten at the jab. Alright, I think that’s enough curiosity.
I attempt to deliver the bags twice to different staff but each time I am redirected to a man named Pad. The name is said to me as if I should know exactly who they’re talking about. I make my way to the back of the building and find a set of doors that I have never seen before.
“There you are.” A big man with an apron approaches me and takes the basket from my hands. “I heard you were looking for me,” he says.
There’s something familiar about him.
“Is your name Pad?” I ask.
“The one and only.” He pauses his perusal of the basket to look at me. “You should use the back hall to get to this part of the kitchen. You will rarely find me at the front.”
“I will keep that in mind,” I say.
I take a turn about the room. The kitchen is bigger than I expected, but I guess it takes a lot of space to make enough food to feed the entire castle. The only two people in the kitchen are me and the man across the prep table, picking bags from the basket.
“Isabel is an angel.” He grins down at me. “She knows exactly what to send every time.”
“She is taken, I’m afraid,” I say.
His laughter rings in the empty room. I stop my observation of all the items on the tables before turning my attention back to the space.
“Are you looking for something?” He asks.
I’m about to tell him no when my stomach makes an angry noise.
“Hungry, huh?” he asks.
“I skipped lunch.”
“Why would you ever do that?” He looks appalled at my decision.
“It’s not that easy,” I say without thinking.
I regret the words as soon as they come out. I have no business telling this man my problems. But I don’t have to explain myself. A look of understanding passes through his face. He knows.
He moves to the side of the kitchen and pulls out a packet of bread. From under the table, he pulls a container of butter and jelly. As if materializing out of thin air, an apple and some water make it before me.
“I don’t have much more here other than ingredients and from the number of bags in that basket, I assume you have places to be.”
