Warrior King New Worlds (Crystal Kingdom #6) - Milly Taiden Page 0,32
find out who the instigator was. That couldn’t happen. His father would not touch her.
His stomach growled. The early meal! With the women gone, no one was there to make their food. Oh, dragon balls, this was going to be very, very bad.
He rushed up the passage to the eating room to find the men milling about, confused about what was happening. “Where is our food?”
Ferrus’s brow raised. Lesson number one, the women fed them and took care of all the food.
“Warriors to me.” He went into the room with tables and chairs set up for them. Would the women demand to eat at the same time or afterward? When did they eat now? They had to eat sometime.
When the males had settled, he wasn’t sure how to approach this in a way they would understand. “Warriors,” he started, “the females have left to tend to female things.” He knew anything related personally to females scared the dragon shit out of the males.
“All of them? What about our food?” one of his men asked.
“Well,” he said, “guess we have to make it ourselves.”
The room became utterly silent, not one belch or fart from any of them. Glancing over the group, he realized his soldiers were stunned and maybe a bit afraid.
Ferrus sighed. “Soldiers, the females are not here to take care of us. They are only coming back if we agree to treat them fairly. For too long, we have taken advantage of their kindness. If you believe the females to be useless, I think you’re about to find out exactly how ‘useless’ they are. Everyone to the food prep cave.”
He heard grumbles, curse words, and even a “where is the food prep cave” comment. He led them down the hallway where the light brightened with each step.
One of his men asked, “Where is that light coming from? How did they get so much of it inside?”
Ferrus stepped into the food area to see the females had taken pity on them. The center section was filled with food but in its raw form. The men would have to cut and slice and figure out how to make this stuff edible. Oh Mother, they were going to starve to death.
“Hey, look at these knives. Ow, dragon piss, they’re sharp.” He heard a tapping sound. “And they are harder than a gunder tit in the snow. How did the females get these?”
“Where does this slope go? Kappy shit, I didn’t know we had a garden. How did the females get the crops so large?”
“Mother of the Mountain, they have a water pool to relax in. Damnation, it’s cold. How did the females get fresh water up here?”
“Why are there clothes over here? All of mine are dirty. How do the females know who these belong to?”
“I want to help prepare food from now on. It’s nice up here.”
“We can use giant reflectors to get light to the main cavern. How did the females know how to do this?”
It seemed he and his men could learn a few things from the females.
“Warriors, gather around.” When the group settled, he gave instructions. “Now that we know the females are smarter than we thought, we need to use all this until they return. There is food on the center table. Cut it up, wash it, do whatever is needed to make it edible. I need to speak with the king.”
Chapter Sixteen
Ferrus left the food prep area, hoping it would be intact when he returned. This thing, strike, was disturbing. The females had never done anything like this. What changed so much now, that the way they had been living for hundreds of peaks was so bad?
His father would not be pleased. He would be furious enough to send the army after them. If he knew where they were. Only Ferrus and the guard that had been locked in the cell were privy to their location.
He entered the throne room to see his father pulling the food cart into his private chambers. Thank the goddess, the women at least prepared his food, smart thinking on their part not to enrage the king with an empty stomach.
“Ferrus,” his father said, “why aren’t you with your men. Just because we are not going to war does not mean we get lazy.”
“Father,” he snarled, politely, “if I were lazy, I would still be in bed.” With his mate, preferably. “We have a situation.”
“You take care of it, Ferrus. I am sure you can manage an argument between two warriors.”