" Hey Kron, over here, you mind helping me with some work."
"No problem," Kron said in a humorous manner.
Kron is an orphan who was adopted by the old man a little ways out of the village.
Although the old man was thought to be weird by the village people the still loved Kron.
"What do you need."(Kron)
"Over here, help me with this box, I need to move it."
This was another day for Kron and he was helping the blacksmith Josh. Josh was retired from the imperial army with a hobby for blacksmithing. He was the only blacksmith in the village of Grimald. He thought of Kron like a helper but also as a second son.
"There you go boss, see you later!"
Kron dashed away through the dirt road causing a cloud of dust to form behind him, while waving then disappearing into the crowd of people.
'mmh, that was fun, now I have to go back to the old man, less he punish me for being late again.'
Cold sweat ran down Kron's back as he remembered how last time he was late and was made to do a wall-sit for what felt like foreever.
As Kron ran down the dusty road overgrown with greenery and the early fall sunset.
"I've been waiting for you, your almost 5 minutes late, what kept you."
"Nothing much sir, I was just helping out the blacksmith and almost forgot myself and the time," Kron gave an uneasy smile.
"Well start cooking this old man is getting hungrier by the second."
The old man accented on old man.
"You'll find the ingredients on the counter, I'm counting on your creativity for a good meal, you can also count it as your punishment."
'Another test, no worries, I have been going through these test my whole life,' Kron thought as he entered the kitchen.
"What the heck is this!" Kron shouted furiously upon seeing a HUGE slab of beef and a bowl full of mixed spices. The old man smiled as he heard Kron shouting in anger.
'Fine' Kron thought, 'if you want to play like that, just know you started it.'
Kron set off to work preparing the meat after bringing it outside. A moment later Kron went back into the kitchen and left the meat outside to get a knife.
Kron stood in front of the meat with a knife in his hand ready to prepare the meat, after suspending it to bleed the cow. A strait cut down the center with absolute precision that would brag of years of training, the fats were removed and fully prepared with the trash and scrap thrown away. Next another cut from the top to the.....
Around a half hour later the meat was prepared with all the meats organized and all the scraps put away.
Kron brang the sorted meat back into the house kitchen to cook and prepared a pot and set the fire. In Kron's mind he was ready to prepare a beef stew with spices as the main course and other meats as side dishes and appetizers.
Kron filled the pot with water and simmered some bones that were left out to extract the flavor and enhance the aroma of the beef.
When the bones were done Kron stood precariously close to the fire as he extracted the bones and cleaned the broth. Kron could feel as the toungs of flame leaped out and tried to grab him if he made any fatal mistakes.
Kron carefully balanced and moved slowly away from the fire as the received the meat from the countertop, the meat went in with a slight plop and started to cook in the heated broth.
Finally the last part of the stew was the spices. First the lemon grass went in, as Kron slipped it in, almost immediately the fragrance of the broth and the meat inside multiplied by two-fold and the meat looked ripe in the broth. Then a little bit if garlic which added a subtle undertone of flavor in the aroma and...
When the stew finished it was a fragrant artwork, a master peice, of meat and broth that had been prepared by master chef, Kron.
By the time all the dishes had been prepared the old man had already moved to the table with a hungry expression from smelling the broth, but he quickly hid it.' I obviously knew Kron was this capable and good at cooking,' He said in his head with a very affirmative nod.
Then in his head a figure of him licked at his lips with a l*stful expression for the food, of course his outward appearance was of a steeled man like one who had been through many battles.
As Kron brang out the food the old man took little bites here and there, just as a taste test, and watched as more food came out with his steeled expression.
Finally all of the food came out and after saying thanks they started to eat. Kron was polite and had a full plate but everything was proportioned and unlike that of the old mans. The old man had not noticed anything but the best cuts of meat, as he piled more and more meat on the plate, he even took some from Kron. When the old man was done he could barely see Kron over the mound of meat on his small plate, all the meat was precariously balanced upon one another and looked like it could fall at any moment.
They dug in, with the old man never leaving time between swallowing and taking the next bite of meat. Kron ate in a better fashion, politely sitting in his chair as he ate at his own pace. Finally the food finished so the old man settled in his chair as Kron got ready to sleep.
They slept in different rooms. When Kron finished getting ready he went to his bed and laid down as he pulled a pendant from a little crook in his bed that was hidden from the outside and hard to get to.
Kron found this crook when he was eating a snack and accidentally dropped one of his grapes down into the crack and tried to pick it up resulting in the discovery of the little crook.
The pendant was hidden in his basket when it was given to the old man and Kron found it hiding there when looking at the crib and accidentally knocked it out while sweeping the attic.
When Kron asked the old man about the pendant he learned that is was the one thing his true parents left him.
After fingering the pendant and looking at it like every other night to look for any other clue to his parents he went to sleep.