Extra Story: Lady Ellelaura and Zelef Stop By Part Three

Extra Story:
Lady Ellelaura and Zelef Stop By Part Three

 

WE’D TAKEN LADY ELLELAURA and Uncle Zelef to the Bear’s Lounge when they came to Crimonia. They walked around in the shop and caused a lot of trouble. My mom didn’t know what to do about Lady Ellelaura, especially since she was a noble.

“Thank you, Fina. You’re such a lifesaver,” said Mom as she made dinner. I was kind of happy I could help my mom! “Although I was rather frightened when I saw you speaking to Lady Ellelaura and Mr. Zelef as though they were normal people.”

“That’s because I’ve talked to them lots.” I’d talked to Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef at the castle before and at Lady Misa’s party too. I’d even lived with Lady Ellelaura for a few days. She’d made me try on a whole bunch of clothes, though, nonstop. I shivered.

Shuri pouted a little while she helped with dinner. “I wanna see them too!” Since we’d left Shuri behind at the orphanage, she didn’t get to see Lady Ellelaura or Uncle Zelef.

“They’re coming to the orphanage tomorrow, so you’ll see them then.”

“Shuri, they’re very important people. Don’t do anything…unfitting.”

“I wooon’t!”

Shuri had realized that it was Lady Ellelaura right away. I’d told her about Lady Ellelaura, so I guess she remembered.

“And you can’t tell others that she’s Lady Noa’s mother, all right?”

If anyone found out who Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef were, terrible things could happen.

 

The next day, Mom and Shuri and I waited for Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef on the path to the orphanage. We were going to meet them at Lady Noa’s house, but then they told us no. Finally, we saw them walking over.

“I’m so sorry we’re late,” said Lady Ellelaura.

“I’m terribly slow at walking,” added Uncle Zelef.

“It’s quite all right, ma’am,” my mom said, but she was nervous.

“Tiermina,” said Lady Ellelaura, “no need to be so formal.”

“Oh yes...i-it’s fine,” my mom rephrased herself, looking really un-fine.

Lady Ellelaura watched my mom and smiled. “And who is this little one?” She looked at Shuri, who was standing behind me, grabbing my clothes to hide.

“This is my little sister, Shuri.”

“Yeah. I’m…Shuri...” she said in a little voice.

“Hee hee! What a cute girl, just like Fina. I’m Ellelaura. Um...I’m Yuna and Fina’s friend.”

“I know. You’re Noa’s mommy!”

Lady Ellelaura looked so surprised at that.

I guess I had to explain. “Um, I’ve talked about you at home before, Lady Ellelaura.”

“I see. I wonder how you might have described me?” Lady Ellelaura smiled at me.

Ahh, I didn’t think I said anything strange? “I said you’re a very kind person.”

“Did you really? Why, that makes me so happy.”

I said that before so my mom wouldn’t be worried before. I was glad Shuri didn’t say anything strange.

“She said you took her to the castle,” said Shuri. “I wanna go to the castle!”

“Ha ha! Well then, next time you come to the capital, I’ll show you around.”

“Really?!”

She was just saying that to be nice. Lady Ellelaura didn’t really think Shuri would ever go to the capital. Still, Shuri thought Lady Ellelaura was serious.

“Yes,” said Lady Ellelaura, “it’s a promise.”

“Indeed, Master Shuri! And when you do, I will treat you to a feast.” Now Uncle Zelef was getting into it.

My mom looked a little worried.

“Shuri,” I said warningly, “you can’t demand things from other people, okay?”

Shuri pouted and nodded reluctantly. She probably thought it was unfair that I got to go. I did want to bring her to the capital, but I couldn’t just let somebody else know about Yuna’s travel door.

 

We started walking toward the orphanage. Shuri and Lady Ellelaura were talking, so I decided to talk to Uncle Zelef. Mom seemed really nervous while she listened to us. I needed to work really hard to help my mom.

As we went along, we spotted a walled-off area.

“That’s where you take care of the birds then?” asked Lady Ellelaura. “There’s a building to the side. Is that the orphanage?”

Yuna had remade the orphanage, so it was a very nice building.

We took Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef to the inside of the walled-in area, where we kept the Kokekko. There was a shed inside for the Kokekko and another one where my mom worked.

“This is where you take care of the Kokekko and collect their eggs, correct?”

“There are quite a lot of them.”

Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef looked around. The Kokekko waddled out of the shed, clucking and bustling energetically. Since Kokekko can’t fly very high, they couldn’t get over the wall Yuna had made. They were docile too, so they wouldn’t fly from the coop. But when we tried to put them into the shed, a few of them always tried to run away—it would be such a disaster. Now it’s easier to close in on them and catch them so we can bring them back.

Some kids were going into and out of the Kokekko pen.

“What are they doing?”

“They’re cleaning the pen and taking the eggs they’ve collected next door to the shed,” Mom explained.

The kids were going around working their butts off.

“All of these children, smiling like this because of Yuna…Cliff is full of disappointments. I suppose, though, that I must also carry some blame for not noticing how dire things had become,” Lady Ellelaura said quietly.

Before Yuna came, the orphanage was a disaster. I remembered what it was like back then too. The building used to be old, they didn’t have money, and they didn’t have enough to eat.

One of Lord Cliff’s people had stolen the orphanage’s money. Lord Cliff was so sorry that he decided to rebuild the orphanage. Yuna actually made the building, but I heard the beds, the drawers, and everything else they needed came from Lord Cliff’s money.

Lady Ellelaura didn’t say anything else about it. Instead, she talked to Mom.

“Would you be kind enough to give me a tour of the shed?”

After we finished watching the kids clean and collect eggs, we went to the shed where the eggs were being managed.

Liz was working in Mom’s place.

Liz was the person who took care of the kids—she was like everyone’s big sister. She was so good at taking care of everyone, and so nice! She could be really scary when she was angry, though, so the kids tried their best not to get in trouble with her.

“I’m sorry for leaving everything up to you, Liz…”

Whenever Mom had something to do, Liz did Mom’s work for her. “It’s all right. You have guests, after all. And I can assume these are the guests in question?” Liz looked at Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef.

“The two of them are my acquaintances, and Yuna’s as well.”

“I am Ellelaura.”

“I am Zelef.”

“My name is Liz. I’m so sorry for how messy it is in here.”

“We will assuredly not get in your way, so would you kindly allow us to observe for a bit? I came here today to see the birds and the eggs, you see,” said Uncle Zelef politely.

“If you’re friends of Tiermina and Yuna, by all means, welcome.” Liz glanced over to Mom like she was looking for a little more information.

“I really wish Yuna was here,” said Mom. She looked troubled.

“She’s gone out somewhere, right?” asked Liz.

Whenever Yuna went really far away, she only mentioned it briefly to me or my mom.

“If we have your permission, Tiermina, it’s fine by me.”

“Thank you.”

The two of them took another look around the shed where my mom worked. There was a table to work at and a water trough. The boxes holding the eggs were at the far end by the wall.

“Is there a reason why those eggs are separated?” Lady Ellelaura asked.

They were in three different boxes.

“Those are for the Merchant Guild,” said Mom, “and these we take to the shops. And the cracked eggs are ones we eat.”

There was a basket near Liz of eggs the kids had brought in. She checked each one and gave the best eggs to the Merchant Guild. The rest would go to the shops—the eggs could be used at the shop as long as they weren’t spoiled. The slightly cracked ones were used for the orphanage’s meals.

“Master Tiermina, may I have some eggs? I will pay for them, of course.”

“You don’t have to pay for them. Please, take some.” Mom didn’t seem sure how to react. Uncle Zelef had asked so suddenly.

“I cannot do that. The children toiled away, taking care of the birds to have them lay these eggs. I cannot just take these.”

Lady Ellelaura nodded. “Ah, yes…Perhaps I’ll purchase some as well.”

Mom looked really worried when Lady Ellelaura said that…but then her eyes lit up like she had an idea. “You’re my friend, aren’t you? In that case, I’ll gift them to you.”

Uncle Zelef and Lady Ellelaura looked surprised by that. Then they both started laughing.

“Yes, that’s right. But it’s important for us to pay because we are friends. Since we’ve known each other since childhood, of course.”

And now, Mom was back to looking troubled.

 

In the end, Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef bought the eggs for the same amount the Merchant Guild would buy them.

“Are they really so inexpensive?” Uncle Zelef was very surprised by the price.

“Yuna doesn’t have profit in mind,” Mom said. “She’s set the price of the eggs so low, they’re almost free. She wants them to be enjoyed as widely as possible.”

“That seems very much like Master Yuna. Her heart is so big!”

“But not her stature!” Lady Ellelaura said, and everyone laughed.

If Yuna were here, she would have been mad. I could never tell Yuna about this…

 

After we left the henhouse, we went to the Bear Dining Room—Anz’s restaurant.

“Looks like we’ve got a bear here too,” Lady Ellelaura said.

“And it’s even holding a fish!”

“Well, this place does serve seafood,” said Mom.

The restaurant was very close to the Bear’s Lounge. Since we left after eating at the Bear’s Lounge yesterday, we hadn’t led them here. We went inside.

“Welcome! Well, now, if it isn’t Tiermina, Fina, and Shuri! What brings you here today?”

It was Seno. She worked at the Bear Dining Room. Seno was from Mileela, the same place as Anz. She was always energetic and bright. Forne, who also was from Mileela, came by too.

“I’ve brought some friends today,” said Mom, “so I was thinking of having a meal here,” Mom said. Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef bobbed their heads.

“In that case, please have a seat. What would you like to order?”

“Ah…whatever you would recommend.”

“I would like something I can’t eat in any other town.”

“I’d like the three-color rice ball set and grilled fish,” Mom said.

“Me too!” Shuri wanted to order like Mom, but Mom just decided to share her order instead.

“I would like bamboo shoot rice and fish tempura,” I said.

“Coming right up. Anz, one three-color rice ball set and one bamboo shoot and fish tempura set. And two chef’s choice sets.”

“Seno, we don’t have a chef’s choice set!” Anz called in from the back as Seno left. “If you’re going to take someone’s order, make sure it’s on the menu.” Anz walked in from the kitchen.

“I’m sorry,” said Lady Ellelaura. “I’m not sure what would be good, so I wanted to leave it up to you.”

“Oh, uh….no problem,” said Anz. She didn’t seem to know how to reply to Lady Ellelaura’s apology.

“This is Lady...I mean, this lady is Ellelaura and this is Zelef. They’re my friends and they wanted to eat something they can only get at this restaurant. Would that be all right with you?”

Mom…did you almost call her Lady Ellelaura? That was close!

“In that case, I will happily whip something up.” Anz went back to the kitchen.

 

After a while, the food was ready and lined up on the table. There were all kinds of rice balls in a row. Normally, there’d only be three rice balls, but there were fifteen for all five of us.

“Looks like rice,” Uncle Zelef said.

“Yes. There are fillings inside of them, so you can enjoy all kinds of favors.”

The three-color rice ball flavors changed every day. Sometimes there would be little marinated fish bits in them or seaweed from the ocean, or really sour red things called umeboshi. Sometimes they put chicken and pork in them too. There was also something called a grilled rice ball; those were really good, so I liked them.

There was also seafood and things like squid and octopus on the table. Some of the food had shellfish in it too.

“We also have meat-based dishes. But since you requested unusual foods, I cooked things with seafood from Mileela.”

“They all look very good,” said Lady Ellelaura.

“Yes, indeed.”

“But let’s see how it tastes.”

We all started to eat together.

“I’ve had seafood at other places before, but this restaurant’s dishes all seem delicious,” said Lady Ellelaura.

Uncle Zelef. “They are. The chef was the woman from earlier then?”

“She’s a chef who Yuna discovered in Mileela,” Mom told them.

“That woman who was baking the bread—I recall that she was brought here from the capital too, correct?” asked Ellelaura. “By Yuna?”

She meant Morin. I remembered how delicious Morin’s bread was when we ate it at the capital. Her bread was still delicious, even now.

“Master Yuna is very good at sizing people up.”

“Although the capital lost a fine baker that day,” said Lady Ellelaura.

“I almost want to take the two of them back with us,” Uncle Zelef said.

“You can’t!!!” I shouted.

Lady Ellelaura blinked. “Fina, dear?”

“We need both of them at the shops. If you take them, none of us will know what to do!”

And neither would Yuna…

“I’m very sorry, Master Fina. I really do wish I could take them, but I never would actually do that! If I did…well, I’d say Master Yuna would surely begin to greatly dislike me quite a bit!!!”

Lady Ellelaura nodded. “If I got on Yuna’s bad side, even Noa and Shia would turn against me.”

“And if Master Yuna stops coming to the castle, His Majesty and Lady Flora would resent me!” Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef broke into laughter then, but Mom and I didn’t. They mentioned His Majesty and the princess, which made everything such a big deal.

After that, we ate the roasted fish and the stir-fried squid and octopus. There were all kinds of other things to eat too, but I really liked the taste of the tempura. They were good with a little salt or even some soy sauce.

Morin’s bread from yesterday was good, and so was Anz’s food.

 

We left the Bear Dining Room behind.

“Thank you so much for today.” Lady Ellelaura was going to spend time with Lady Noa after this, because they were leaving tomorrow.

As for Uncle Zelef, he was going to go eat at another restaurant. I could barely believe he could eat more, but…looking at his belly, I guess I could see it!

 

The next day, at the Bear’s Lounge, Lady Ellelaura and Uncle Zelef were buying a lot of bread.