Post by brian333 on Jun 5, 2009 21:08:12 GMT -5
Hugdush borrowed a cauldron from Sam and went out to the village square where he met a couple of people as he set it up. He got the fire burning and the water boiling, and the rice steaming, and the fillets of twelve green trout, spiced, went into the steam as well. He then decided he wanted some onions to add to his dinner. He knew where they grew along the muddy banks of the River Tun, small, wild onions growing in patches of damp earth.
A curious adventurer asked about the fish, and Hugdush happily showed him to a nearby fishing spot as he gathered his onions. "I'll cook the fish if you want," he offered the adventurer as he returned to Isinhold.
Humming merrily he diced the onions then opened his cauldron.
It had been many years, and many years of training, since he had last grown angry. As a child he often raged, but the Brothers guided him in calming exercises and meditative practices, and he learned to discipline himself, to allow the anger to wash through him and leave him in control of himself: but this!
His head thumped, his jaw clenched, and his vision grew red and narrowly focused. It took a supreme effort to stop at kicking the cauldron over, and the contents spilled over the ground, including a half-dozen hacked off goblin ears.
He looked up at the two people who had stood watching him prepare the food, and asked, "Who put ears in my food?"
They looked at him and any trace of amusement vanished as they saw his bloodshot eyes, clenched jaw, and gnarled brow. "WHO PUT EARS IN MY FOOD!?" he shouted at them.
The woman quickly said, "Somebody came by and did it then left."
He stood a minute, his exercises playing through his mind, "Anger clouds the mind, anger blurs focus, anger causes mistakes. Anger can destroy the angry person. But Anger can be a fire to forge a new, sharper weapon. Use anger, do not allow yourself to be used by it."
Again, he was in control of himself. People had always thought him stupid. He wasn't. These two stood by as food was ruined, or they did it. Either way, they could go hungry: their food now floated away downstream on the Tun, along with the goblin ears.
He cleaned the pot, still burning with anger. He had intended the extra fish for the healer's hall; now the fish were ruined and all he had left was rice.
By the time he was ready to set the pot up again and cook new food the adventurer returned with a pair of fish. He thanked him and cleaned and filleted the fish, and again set his steamer in the cauldron with the fish.
He served some to the adventurer, some to Waric and Frubo, some to the folks who stood around the village, and finally, the smallest portion of fish with a heaping mound of rice for himself, but the two who had allowed or caused his first meal to be ruined got nothing.
It was an unworthy thought, but he hoped they would soon be hungry with nothing to eat nearby. Then, ashamed of his thought, he amended it to, "Hungry for a little while, so they would learn the price of wasted food."
When he had finished eating and washing the plates he returned to Sam's kitchen to once again wash dishes for stale bread and farmer's cheese which he intended to toast and bring to the healer's halls. The ill and the lame grew hungry too, but they couldn't fish for themselves.
He brooded as he did Sam's chores. In a world with so many who go to sleep each night without enough to eat it should be a crime to waste food.
A curious adventurer asked about the fish, and Hugdush happily showed him to a nearby fishing spot as he gathered his onions. "I'll cook the fish if you want," he offered the adventurer as he returned to Isinhold.
Humming merrily he diced the onions then opened his cauldron.
It had been many years, and many years of training, since he had last grown angry. As a child he often raged, but the Brothers guided him in calming exercises and meditative practices, and he learned to discipline himself, to allow the anger to wash through him and leave him in control of himself: but this!
His head thumped, his jaw clenched, and his vision grew red and narrowly focused. It took a supreme effort to stop at kicking the cauldron over, and the contents spilled over the ground, including a half-dozen hacked off goblin ears.
He looked up at the two people who had stood watching him prepare the food, and asked, "Who put ears in my food?"
They looked at him and any trace of amusement vanished as they saw his bloodshot eyes, clenched jaw, and gnarled brow. "WHO PUT EARS IN MY FOOD!?" he shouted at them.
The woman quickly said, "Somebody came by and did it then left."
He stood a minute, his exercises playing through his mind, "Anger clouds the mind, anger blurs focus, anger causes mistakes. Anger can destroy the angry person. But Anger can be a fire to forge a new, sharper weapon. Use anger, do not allow yourself to be used by it."
Again, he was in control of himself. People had always thought him stupid. He wasn't. These two stood by as food was ruined, or they did it. Either way, they could go hungry: their food now floated away downstream on the Tun, along with the goblin ears.
He cleaned the pot, still burning with anger. He had intended the extra fish for the healer's hall; now the fish were ruined and all he had left was rice.
By the time he was ready to set the pot up again and cook new food the adventurer returned with a pair of fish. He thanked him and cleaned and filleted the fish, and again set his steamer in the cauldron with the fish.
He served some to the adventurer, some to Waric and Frubo, some to the folks who stood around the village, and finally, the smallest portion of fish with a heaping mound of rice for himself, but the two who had allowed or caused his first meal to be ruined got nothing.
It was an unworthy thought, but he hoped they would soon be hungry with nothing to eat nearby. Then, ashamed of his thought, he amended it to, "Hungry for a little while, so they would learn the price of wasted food."
When he had finished eating and washing the plates he returned to Sam's kitchen to once again wash dishes for stale bread and farmer's cheese which he intended to toast and bring to the healer's halls. The ill and the lame grew hungry too, but they couldn't fish for themselves.
He brooded as he did Sam's chores. In a world with so many who go to sleep each night without enough to eat it should be a crime to waste food.