Book One – Chapter 19

Now, to fill it.

On the counter between the hearth and the surgery door lay … a ladle.

Of course it did.

Yu tried to think this through. He could wedge the handle between his wings and probably get it into the pot all right, yes — but once it was full … no way. A brimming ladle was impossible to angle without spilling half of it, if not dropping the whole thing outright. He had already fucked up with the one in the bathroom. Cold soap water was one thing. Boiling stew, another. Looking down at his bandaged wing, Yu needed no lecture on that.

So he went for a different approach. He fetched another stool, climbed onto it, and then – looking straight down into the massive pot, with the fire glaring up at him from below, and the hot damp air curling into his feathers and stinging his eyes – regretted his decision immediately.

After an appropriate amount of staring and regretting, he reached out with his right talon, clamped the ladle, and forced himself through. It took three half-scoops; each one a trembling rush. With every measure of stew came an overflowing scoop of panic. Every back and forth demanded that he bent his left leg low so his right could reach. Every shift was a stagger of balance, with his talon clenching on the stool and his whole weight straining not to pitch headlong into the pot.

But the stew made it into the bowl.

And Yu made it down.

Though, by then, he was sweating so profusely he could have filled the empty pot again with just the runoff. He needed a moment to do some rush-over preening. The filled bowl stood waiting. Yu left it there, on the first stool turned table, and eventually nudged the second suicidal stunting stool around it. He kept close to the first, though as far away from the fireplace as possible. And then he sat in the leftover warmth. It rolled from the hearth and the pot like breath.

He could eat now.

Right there.

One bowl of wapa stew.

Redily served.

Enjoy your meal, and all that.

Yu stared at it. Then at the door to the surgery. Then at the one to the common room, and lastly, back at the pot and the metal rack that glimmered faintly beneath it.