Elsa's tongue was out of her mouth, trying to find its way to the icing on a piece of cake that was served.
GRRUUU!
Her stomach violently protested and this time, the sound was becoming louder, conspicuous and embarrassing for her.
"Come on, Elsa... just one bite wouldn't hurt," she tried to convince herself while looking at all the food on the table. "They won't even notice this little piece of cake is gone."
Elsa let out a frustrated exhale. She was slowly giving in to her hunger and neither the chieftain nor her master was anywhere to be found.
She had kept herself from thinking about the food by observing the entire room. She had gone to every corner of the large dining room and now, the beauty of the room didn't interest her anymore.
She was hungry and she wanted to eat.
GRRUUU!
Her tummy growled again and this time she flung courtesy out of the window and inched closer to the piece of cake.
Elsa's eyes darted around like a child scanning his surroundings to steal meat off the pot, and when she didn't see, hear or notice any presence, she crept closer again.
She was now less than a hand length away from this piece of dark brown cake, glazed with white, swirled, fluffy icing with a cherry top garnish. Nothing was stopping her now, not even her manners... at least not with the way her stomach was grumbling.
Elsa put up a creepy, ghost face and childish behaviour as she approached the piece of cake with saliva almost drooling from her mouth.
"Now, you're mine," she declared, basking in her victory.
Without reaching for a knife or a fork, Elsa picked the cake with her hand and stuffed it into her mouth, biting off a third of it in one go. As she chewed, she stuffed the remaining piece into her mouth, enlarging her cheeks.
"Damn, it's... so... good!"
"Must be nice, huh?" another voice replied to her.
Elsa covered her mouth and turned immediately to see who had spoken.
"Ma-Master!" she exclaimed, almost spewing the cake and falling off her chair.
Aaron had just come into the room and was watching her as she proceeded to gnaw at the cake aggressively.
As she dropped to the floor, Aaron burst out that laughing, not to spite her but a natural response to something he found funny.
Elsa remained on the floor, unable to get up as the weight of shame kept her down. She looked like a child who had been caught stealing and didn't know what to do.
Aaron continued to laugh as he walked to take a seat. "Get up, Elsa," he said to her, taking away her shame with a single statement.
Elsa hesitated but eventually rose from the floor when she realised that Aaron didn't judge her actions.
"I won't be the one to tell you not to eat," he said as he sank his fork into a juicy portion of the meat in front of him, dripping oil from it.
"I think your stomach grumbling is even more embarrassing. Don't sweat it."
Aaron put the chunk of meat into his mouth and bent forward to whisper to Elsa.
"Moreover, I don't care anyway. So I'll keep my mouth shut, okay?"
Elsa smiled and nodded.
Aaron glanced down at her plate which was smeared with a little cream from the icing and a few crumbs of the cake. "You should cover your plate with some food though. You know, just saying."
The redhead perked up. "You're right, master!"
She put two servings of the meal onto her plate and at that moment, their host made her entrance.
"I see that my guests are already helping themselves out," she said, turning to Rhis and Blue Hair who had escorted her to the dining.
Elsa froze out of fear. "S-sorry. We are so—"
Aaron put out his arm and stopped her from speaking any further. Another word was a sign of weakness.
His apprentice was about to give an impression of subservience and Aaron wasn't going to have it even if he was this woman's guest.
"Well, bluehead over there," he said with a chuckle, pointing his fork at Blue Hair, "she did say we should make ourselves at home, or am I wrong?"
The chieftain chuckled and tilted her head in Blue Hair's direction. "Is that right, Yana?"
Yana did not say a single word. Her silence was enough to answer for the chieftain, who had turned and faced her guests once more.
"That doesn't matter anyways," she said, walking towards the both of them.
She raised their heads slightly by their chins and peered into Aaron's eyes, almost looking into his soul. Aaron returned the gaze and they stared at each other for a while.
Her eyes were bright and Aaron could see it, and while Rhis feared for what the chieftain's reasons for this welcoming persona of hers was, Yana was left in the dark.
Yana had yet to hear the story of how Aaron had overwhelmed the chieftain along with her escort, Rhis.
She led the way with Rhis and Yana right behind her. "Let's eat," she said, eyes fixed on Aaron while she lusciously wet her lips with her tongue and bit on them softly as well.
They all sat and ate with more minutes of silence than there were talks. Aaron's back was probably aching from carrying all the conversations they had, at least for the sake of his apprentice since he didn't care what the women now thought of him.
Of these three women, one was a fanatic for the chieftain. One had attacked him with the intention of killing him, and the supposed chieftain had tried to enthrall him with her powers.
From time to time, he caught the chieftain staring at him and also smiling a few times but Aaron always turned away after keeping eye contact for some seconds.
She wasn't a problem he needed to brood on for now.
Whenever he looked at these ladies, his goal of coming to the palace raced back into his mind. Aaron wanted to learn as much as he could about the chieftain and her circle. Those were the most crucial steps that would determine how the rest of his goals would be.
If he could win her over, the others were as good as sorted.
They soon finished their dinner and everyone went to bed... all, except Aaron, Elsa and the chieftain.
****
For some reason, Elsa couldn't sleep.
For Aaron, he was thinking about his aim for coming here and how he could win the chieftain over seeing how they already started off on the wrong foot.
Aaron sighed and turned to another side of his bed.
KNOCK, KNOCK!
Two low-sounding knocks came on the door of Aaron's chamber and he went to open it.
"Hello," the person greeted.
Aaron was a bit surprised to have this person in front of his door after all that happened just a few hours ago.
"What are you doing here, my lady?" Aaron asked respectfully.
"I have come to see you, Aaron Winters," the chieftain answered, the strap of her nightwear lightly sliding off her right shoulder.