Kristina removed the linen from the maid's basket and took out from it two bottles of honeydew wine, just one for each of them, and a large block of fresh white cheese wrapped in straw paper.
The delicious cheese and the sweet honeyed fruit dispelled Dill's earlier discomfort, and as the two little witches from a foreign land sat in the dusty, abandoned cellar, the atmosphere became more and more relaxed with the aroma of the fruit wine.
"You say you were kidnapped by Oya at the feast?" Kristina couldn't believe it.
"None of you noticed I was missing?" Dill was more than surprised by the other woman's reaction.
"No, Helena did ask me where you were going, and not long after the party was over, I heard Ms. Amber say that she had seen you off, and she said that you were afraid you'd cry like a pussycat when you said goodbye, so you went off on your own."
Amber .... Dill swallowed her mouthful of wine, the flavorful, warm liquid seeping into her heart, and despite her expectations, she felt a warmth from within.
Yeah, how could such an Amber put a curse on her or even wipe her memory?
Kristina asked curiously, "Why did Oya kidnap you?"
Dill downplayed the situation: "She wanted me to give up hunting and convert, I cursed her in the face and told her to get lost."
"You should have punched her." Kristina was a little saddened.
Dill silently fantasized about that scene, it would be more enjoyable than drying out a whole barrel of honey fruit wine.
The parrot snapped a few times and flew down, sliding through the air in a beautiful circle of colored feathers. She happened to rest on the large white goose, one colored and one white, a very amusing look.
"Tina, do you remember a time when I got into trouble for having a puppy named Cinnamon?"
Kristina frowned in thought, "Cinnamon? Oh, the dog that hasn't quit milking, and you went to the village house to steal the cow's milk, Becky and I saw it and secretly covered it for you."
"You remembered!" Dill breathed a sigh of relief for some reason. Even Kristina remembered, Yeah, ah, how could a puppy that still had to drink milk be a werewolf?
Kristina didn't notice her abnormality, and said to herself, "To be honest, I'd quite like to have a wolfhound from Cahowarson, this isn't outside of the valley, we're going to fight the wolves for our lives, and the old rules will only get us killed."
Dill's ears perked up. "You're here because of the werewolves?"
She was very depressed in her mind. Damn her luck; anywhere she went, she could step into a wolf's den.
Kristina didn't answer right away, she set the bottle down and took a breath before speaking, "It's actually something personal."
Dill couldn't make heads or tails of it before she heard her next sentence, "I'm trying to find my biological father."
Perhaps it was the effect of the alcohol, the girl was unapologetic, even unusually calm in her recounting, "The lady told me the location of that home, and when I arrived I realized that it had been burned to the ground fifteen years ago, and a poor widow had died."
Her tone was unusually firm, "When I find him, I'm going to curse him to death."
Dill sighed and put her arm around her shoulders, but thinking of Mrs. Lester, she couldn't help but ask, "Is it the Lester's?"
"I don't know, I'll just have to find it along the riverbank, Lester is the fifth and I don't remember much ... damn about that family! I only remember the color of that family crest, but there are hundreds of royal families and countless nobles in Junlihe, thousands of family crests, the same color and even drawings everywhere."
As she spoke, Kristina pulled out a crumpled roll of parchment from her bosom.
She laughed bitterly, "This is the guest list for tonight's banquet, now I have to swallow this knee-length piece of paper with families, medals, and even bastards in it, and I have to go and serve them all tea, and if I accidentally offend even one of these noble bastards, my little life will be in jeopardy."
Dill couldn't look at her, forcing a smile like that, so she suggested, "You can stay by my side, and I'll go talk to Mrs. Lester about how I need an assistant, and we can see which one is more suspicious from a high position."
Immediately, as if she had been pardoned, Kristina dropped the parchment and quickly burrowed into Dill's arms like a wounded animal trying to find comfort.
Dill secretly hid the piece of parchment, if it really contained Kristina's biological father, she was sure that the other woman would not hesitate to poison the wine glass, and what awaited the young girl after that would not be a glorious shrine to the Goddess, but only a gallows in full view of the public.
Dill unintentionally scanned the ink-stained paper, and her eyes suddenly froze in one spot as the vivid red ink stung her eyes.
It was a wolf's head pierced by a sword, and underneath was a gorgeous and loving script, "Holzog.".
The question was, which Holtzog?