"Are you crazy?' her voice came out in a tiny squealing manner which surprised even her. She covered her mouth and cleared her throat. When she was comfortable, she pointed at Severus and warned him, "If you ever dare to lay your paws on any of my chicken and ducks I will prepare dog stew that day. Guess who the main ingredient will be in that meal?"
Severus looked at her with contempt in his eyes. He was clearly minimizing her because she was weaker than him.
She realized that she needed to cultivate harder so that she could level up and beat him to a pulp. For now, she was forced to give in to him.
She took a two minute shower, dissolved the soul crystals in five bottles of water and left the bathroom.
"Follow me and behave yourself." she warned him.
"I behave how I want." Severus responded and he infuriated her once again.
She went directly to the kitchen but as she walked, she could smell the sweet aroma of porridge cooking in the air.
"Something smells good." Severus commented.
Images of the dog jumping into a pot of porridge crossed her mind and she giggled. But another image of him rising from the boiling hot porridge unharmed and freaking everyone out woke her up.
She absolutely would not be letting anyone know that Severus was anything than a normal dog.
"It's not for you, I will prepare your food."
"But I am already hungry and that smells like food. Why can't you give me some of that?" he whined.
His whining sounded more like the growling of an angry beast. If he continued this way, he would soon be attracting attention from a lot of people.
"Why can't you be patient? Have you spent a century without eating any food at all? If you eat porridge I will not give you any meat." she threatened him.
All dogs loved meat after all. Given a choice between meat and porridge it was only logical that they choose meat.
Severus trailed behind her in silence after that. She was grateful for the silence which allowed her to think.
In the kitchen, she bumped into her mother who was already eating porridge from one of the bowls that was decorated with yellow ducks which she prepared for Justin.
"Good morning mother."
"Good morning Scarlet, how do you feel today? Has your sickness acted up again?"
"No," she responded.
"I rested, took some medicine which my teacher left me with and I feel like a brand new woman. Where has everyone gone?"
"To work." her mother blew on the spoon three times before bringing the spoon to Scarlet's mouth. "Taste this and tell me if you think it's fine."
Scarlet ate the porridge and slowly took in the taste.
"Too much sugar." she said.
"I will tell them to reduce it." her mother left the kitchen and returned to supervising the team of twenty women who were in charge of meals.
Of all her supplies, it was sugar that worried her most. The sugar in her storage would not last five months if she continued using it for all the citizens.
As she took frozen beef, soy sauce and other spices out of her storage, she wondered how she could remedy the situation as soon as possible. There was no guarantee that somewhere in the Blue forest were sugar canes or beets. Was it possible to find some bees and produce honey on a large scale?
She prepared an easy classic beef stir fry which required no complicated ingredients or long preparatory procedure.
Within forty minutes, Severus was head deep in a bowl of food.
"I am not yet satisfied." he complained when he was finished.
She had prepared five sets hoping that her family could have some but the way Severus was eyeing them gluttonously, she knew that no one else would taste them today.
"Must you eat it all? Do you have five stomachs?" she asked him with many unvoiced complaints in her eyes.
"A good hunting hound is a satisfied hound." Severus answered. "You were right when you said that I deserve to eat wonderful foods. We shall have this meat daily." He declared like a king to his serf.
She wanted to stab his mouth with the fork she was holding. Ever time he opened his mouth it was to say something infuriating. Where did he think she would get the meat from? She had not seen any cattle on this planet!!! Not even a boar or a rabbit.
If he ate up all the meat in her storage, what was she going to do?
She thought back on his words and they gave her an idea suddenly that she had not considered before. This whole time she had been complaining about his sudden infringement in her life without seeing one of the upsides. He was a hunting dog!!!! If he wanted meat, he could hunt and she could cook.
She took all the beef which was on a large tray and dangled it in front of Severus.
"Severus" she said.
"What?" he asked as his eyes followed the beef.
"You like eating meat, right?"
"Very much." he replied. "Now put it down before I eat you as well."
She pulled the tray up and said, "Let's not be too hasty, you see I don't mind cooking for you but you need to do what you do best, hunt. If you hunt for animals that I can raise, I will cook for you every type of meat that I know.
Do you know that there are more than one hundred ways to cook beef. And then there is pork, chicken, mutton. Mmm, mm, mm. So many tasty types of meat."
She could see Severus drooling and panting with excitement. He looked less like a hound and more like a real dog.
"Finish this meal and we can go hunting together for beasts, okay?"
Severus agreed and she smiled victoriously. Trading one platter of beef for the skills of a natural hunting hound which could not be harmed by the most fierce of mutated beasts on this planet was a bonus.
She went on to pet his head lovingly as he ate. "Severus, I think we are going to get along just fine."