Armandeus gets an Apprentice

[Cocina]

And so it was that she got a pass to leave from the Orphanage to seek an apprenticeship! She was very excited about the opportunity and chance because it would give her a greater sense of. . . well, that she didn't exactly know yet. But a greater sense all the same! When un-adopted children at the Orphanage of St. Emiliani got to be 16 they either had to start training to be a Nun or Priest or become someone's Apprentice. Cocina had no want to be a Nun and besides, on the rare occasions she got out she caught a few glimpses of the Elven guy who worked at the Inn. Certainly he was older than she but that didn't matter. He was cute and she had a goal to work under him! So this day she left the Orphanage and dressed in her white and blue robes - same color as her hair, her long elven ears sticking out to the sides and made her way there. Into the Inn she looked around and went to the bar. "He-hello?"

"Hello?" The door between the bar and the kitchen had been propped open and along with the voice of it's creator the smell of freshly baked bread wafted through the opening. "Hello? Is someone there?" There was a pause and then suddenly Armandeus' head popped out around the corner, his giant chef's hat slipping down over his eyes as he looked at the girl. "Hello there. Can I help you with something?"

There he was, she was right! He was just as she remembered him and She was all grins and stepping forward with her hand raised in the air so he would know that she was here and it was her who spoke out. "Me. Me Hello. I am Cocina. From the... Orphanage?" Unsure if she should have said that or not. Maybe he would look down at her now or think she was a child. She was.. but not so much. she had living longer than the human children who were sixteen but she was that age equivalent in Elven years. Her porcelain colored skin was turning red at the cheeks and she turned her eyes down. "Armandeus? Right? you smell wonderful. It! It smells wonderful..."

Armandeus had never looked down on a child in all his life, especially one who really was not one at all. Elves matured faster than humans after all. "Ar's the name. Nice to meet you Cocina. Are you hungry?" If she looked up she would find him grinning at her as he pushed that hat back on his head.

She knew it. She knew that she had not said she was from the Orphanage, now he must think that she was hungry and starved. But she wouldn't frown. Instead she pushed back her hair and brushed down her robe. "Yes. Please. Thank you." She spoke softly and almost timid like. "I have come here to see you." She said, stepping closer to follow him if he was going in the kitchen.

She didn't know it. When he offered food it was because she had complimented it, not because she had said she was from the Orphanage. As it was Armandeus didn't know much about the place, aside from the few things Epiphany had told him. He had indeed turned back into the kitchen, heading towards the baker's rack where he'd just set a fresh loaf of bread. "You came here to see me?"

"Yes I wanted to ask if you were hiring?" uplift in her tone for the question and then she cleared her throat. Taking a look around the kitchen with rather wide eyes. She had been in the kitchen at the other place to do a few things but this was one where she was going to work at - hopefully - so she had better learn her way about it.

Hiring?" Armandeus wasn't too overly familiar with that word since the majority of the people working at the inn weren't hired, but rather working off their bills. The elf himself didn't even dabble with money or the like, having seen no need for it so for a moment there he had a confused face as he tried to figure out what she meant. "I am not sure?" He finally settled and went to get a knife to cut in the bread.

When he said that he didn't know if they were she got a wave of sudden panic as she thought that her chances with Armandeus... to be his apprentice that is, were at an end, so she spoke quickly. "I want to work for you!" that came out as a fast blurt at which she licked her lips and took a partial step back afterwards and watched him with the knife. "I'm .. I'm old enough now to leave the daily care of .. of the Orphanage and I want to try being a cook."

She wanted to work with him? Armandeus hadn't known what to expect, but still it hadn't been that. The hand that held the knife paused in mid-slice as he turned to look at her with a sudden surge of curiousity. "Have you ever cooked before?"

"Yes? No. Well.." She was twiddling her thumbs now and trying not to fidget. She was a timid one at times and she had thought that this would be easy. She went over it with the boys but they were different .. "I'm a quick learner Armandeus. Sir." adding on the sir in hope it would help her chances. "And i can cook a little. I an make the basics. I'm not all thumbs."

Armandeus couldn't help the grin that was rising as he watched her. In a way she reminded him of himself when he was younger - he had been a bit timid as well, and had thought things easy that were not. Like cooking. He had found out the hard way that cooking wasn't nearly as easy as it looked, especially when you had no clue what you were doing and had two hungry children to feed. "Hmm . ." He finally looked away, back down at his partially cut loaf of bread. "Well if it a cook you truly wish to be then I shall teach you." Glancing over his shoulder at her, he gave into his grin. "The first lesson is you don't have to call me 'sir'. I'm not that old!"

Stepping closer she was smiling big and broad because she fully believed that now she had the job. "Yes Sir. I mean Armandeus-sir." and she sighed with a slight lowering of her head. "My name is Cocina." She couldn't remember if she had said that before or not. "I'll work hard. What time do you start in the morning? Will I have to buy things in Market?" she didn't know what she would have to do.

He chuckled and shook his head. She defiantly seemed eager to learn and if that meant he ended up being called Armandeus-sir, well he could learn to live with that he supposed. "It is nice to meet you Cocina and I usually start preparing for breakfast at a quarter to five in the morning and try to have it fully delivered to the rooms by eight at the latest. After that there is the clean-up to be performed which afterwards you are free to do as you wish until it is time to prepare lunch. As for buying things in the market I do not buy anything. I have found you can effectively barter for anything you possibly could need, even if in exchange you offer the person a hot meal."

"I can deliver the food Armandeus-sir!" that seemed like a good idea to her. Cocina was nodding her head rapidly as if offering to be room service was a sure fire way to make sure she stayed. "No need for you to make the deliveries Armandeus-sir. I'm really quick and light on my feet." she was an elf and those things were natural. right? "Unless.. unless you already have someone that does that..."

It was a good idea to him too and earned her a beamed smile from him. "That would be wonderful! It would save from having to do the meals in parts." As it was, with only him to deliver them he had been making the meals for one hall at a time so everyone would have a chance to get their breakfast hot. "Tell me, have you ever baked bread before?"

She shook her head. "No.. I haven't but I've watched. I've watched a lot o baking." she paused as she was thinking over something. "I have made a cake. That's..sort of like bread." Wasn't it? She thought that it was about the same. "Though I have done so with supervision...

"You've made a cake before? Wonderful! It has been a while since I have made one but I rather enjoy the taste of cake. Have you tried it before?" He was rambling off, letting himself get carried away with the excitment of it. "Cake and bread are somrwhat similar but I feel bread os easier to make because it doesn most of the work for you. Here, try this." He had finished cutting the slice of bread and offered it to her.

And thus, Armandeus acquired an apprentice, and the Inn got someone to help out in the kitchen and work ‘room service’.