Chapter 25: *"...something big..."*
Yukino and Ares played till they were tired and trekked back to the Moonstar Mansion. Once there they shifted back, and Matt and Lauren put on their clothes before walking into the Mansion.
“I’m starving after all that exercise, want to join me in the kitchen?” Matt asked.
“As I am also starving, that is not an invitation I would willingly turn down.” Lauren replied, giving Matt a half smile.
They headed into the kitchen, passing a centuries old grandfather clock just as it gonged, signaling the arrival of a new hour. The time on the clock surprised Matt, he had not realized he had been out till four in the morning. This meant he had been up for nearly twenty four hours.
Luckily for Lauren, who had also been up for the same amount of time, she had an apartment of her own in the Moonstar Mansion. There were perks to being the Gamma of the next Moonstar Clan Alpha. Like not having to make the long drive to her parent’s home.
When they entered the Kitchen, there were already staff workers there, doing the morning food preparations for breakfast. One of the workers, Didi Eachann, a rare horse shifter, lifted her head and caught sight of them and smiled widely.
Didi had one of those warm matronly personalities and was always willing to give you something utterly delicious to fill your belly. Didi was tall, seven foot seven, with a long neck. Didi had a lot of curves in her hind area and her bust. Her waist was not tiny, but her belly was flat, and it tucked in enough to give her an hourglass figure.
Didi’s thighs and upper arms were thick with shapely muscle, the muscles on her calves and forearms were less thick but also shapely. Her dark chocolate hip length hair was thick and curly, with the occasional thick strand of white blond and dark gold highlights. Didi kept it pulled back in a long French braid when she was working in the kitchen.
Didi’s face was long with strong cheekbones and jawline, her large round orb like eyes, had an inner ring of warm chocolate brown and an outer ring of dark amber. A long nose was over a wide mouth with full dusky rose colored lips. Her skin complexion was a light mocha color.
Now you would think Didi, being what most would consider a prey animal shifter, would have a problem living and working with a bunch of carnivorous shifters. However, the very last mistake anyone could make was to assume Didi was prey, just because she shifted into a horse.
hen Didi shifted, it was into a large and muscular mare that was bigger than a shifted wolf. Didi could also use fire and earth magic even in that form. It made for a very scary encounter for the being on the receiving end of Didi’s wrath.
“Judging from the look of you two, you must be starving.” Didi said in a middle northwestern drawl.
Didi came from an area called Absaroka Beartooth in the Apsaáalooke territory. The Apsaáalooke territory was home to mainly bird and horse shifters. Those shifters rarely left their territories as they were few. That was because most prey natured beings preferred to avoid predatory natured supernatural beings.
Although horse shifters seem to be in a class of their own. They were not predatory in nature, but they were not helpless prey either. Even in the wild, wolves, and other carnivorous animals such as lions, respected a well-placed hoof meant to cause optimum damage.
Didi, when shifted, looked like a cross between a Mustang and a Shire horse. Only she was bigger than both, by more than ‘several hands’ as Didi puts it. Hands used to be the only way to measure a horse. The method is no longer used now that there were more accurate ways to measure a horse, but horse folk, shifter, and non-shifter, still used the terminology.
“We have come to beg the Goddess of food for a belly filling treat.” Matt said in a flourish, walking behind the counter to give Didi a big hug.
Matt loved to hug Didi, she was soft and warm, like his mom, grandma, and aunt. Didi always smelled like fresh bread and sugar, and seemed permanently dressed in short sleeved t-shirts, jeans, cowgirl boots and aprons. The only thing that changed was the color and style of those items.
Didi let out a laugh that was half giggling, and lightly smacked Matt in the shoulder. “Okay, enough softening me up, you two pups go use the washroom real quick then come sit down. I’ll have something whipped up in a trice.”
Didi had the radio on, and was listening to an old song, The End of the World by Skeeter Davis. Didi liked to listen to artists like her, along with Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Lesley Gore, Nancy Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Patsy Cline, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, and Nina Simone.
A lot of Matt’s love for old vinyl music was because of Didi’s influence. Lauren and Matt left the kitchen and went to the washrooms near the kitchen. They were a smaller version of the bath and shower rooms in the Heartsong Mansion’s Training grounds facility.
When they got back Didi had loaded the buffet table with large platters of eggs, sausage, bacon, and biscuits on the table, with a large bowl of oatmeal, setting sugar, cinnamon, fruit, and nut fixings near it. There was also a bowl of plain vanilla yogurt with several types of cut fruit and several types of berries near the yogurt.
To drink, Didi set out large pitchers of sweet tea and orange juice, and water. There were smaller pitchers of apple and two kinds of grape juice. For milk, she had a pitcher of cow's milk in a bowl of ice to keep it cold, with pitchers of soy, oat, and almond milk to the side.
Matt also noticed the platter of substitutes for those who did not like to eat a lot of actual meat but liked the meat-like products and imitation eggs. Although there were a lot of carnivorous shifters, those shifters did not like to eat a straight diet of meat.
Even out in the wild, carnivores supplemented their diet with other things. Another song was on the radio now, this one was, I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. Didi was bopping around in the kitchen while kneading the dough of some bread type item she was making. Matt was hoping Didi was making her apple and cherry turnovers.
A bit of movement out of the corner of his eyes had Matt looking down at Lauren. Matt’s eyes widened as he watched Lauren, who was filling up her food tray, bop around as she sang under her breath to the song as it played. Lauren was no less immune to the catchy tune of the music than Didi was.
Of course, it was made worse when Aretha Franklin’s song Respect came on right after. Didi was obviously in the mood for her more upbeat vinyl music. Matt decided to leave it alone, and keep his mouth shut. Lauren was enjoying herself, he was not going to ruin that by drawing attention to it.
Although Matt did decide to store this memory away for later use. This would be a delightful story he would get to tell whoever Lauren’s future mate was. Matt and Lauren did not talk much while they chowed down. By the time they finished eating, and others of the Moonstar Mansion began to filter in for breakfast, the tail end of Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin finished playing.
Matt and Lauren dropped their trays and cups into the wash bin set on a trolley cart placed near the doorway leading to the main hall of the Mansion. Then they headed up the stairs to Matt’s suite. Once there, they flopped down into the chairs closest to the door once they were in the sitting area of Matt’s suite.
“I think I’ll be able to finally get a few hours of sleep now.” Lauren said with a satisfied smile, rubbing her tummy.
“I think I can too now.” Matt said.
After lazing for a moment, Lauren sat up straight and focused her attention on Matt. “I knew something had to be eating at you, what is it?”
Matt let out a sigh, he was glad Lauren was here questioning him. Otherwise, he would be processing this on his own again. “Since I woke about this time yesterday morning, I’ve been feeling like something big was about to happen or was happening.”
Lauren narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “To Rain, yeah?”
Matt leaned forward, with his elbows braced on his knees and clasped his hands together. Looking down at them Matt answered Lauren in a solemn tone. “To Rain, yes.”
Tilting her head to the side, Lauren studied Matt’s lowered head, feeling both concerned and curious. “What do you think it is?”
Matt shook his head, before raising it to look at Lauren, shrugging his shoulders he said, “I don’t know, but whatever it is, it's big.”
Lauren's expression became worried. “Big? How big?”
Matt stood up abruptly, ran a hand through his hair and started to pace around. The calm and relaxed feeling he had earlier was now gone. Running another hand through his hair Matt turned back to face Lauren, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I’m not sure, but it feels like a life changing event, big. Whether that’s a good life changing event or not….” Matt shook his head, looking off to the side, his expression a combination of grim and frustrated. “I can’t tell.”