TO BAKE BREAD

[ydegirl 2357]

 

Spoiler

 

 

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Most days looked like this: Giulia tending the fields of Enswerp, not a whisper in the wind, Giulia pricking herself picking berries to sell in Whitespire, her shins stained with berry juice – or blood. Giulia liked the first option better.

 

Today, she was baking bread. Not to sell, to eat. It was one of Giulia’s favorite activities, there wasn’t that much time to bake bread anymore, however. Not with her service to the Confederation. Baking bread for Giulia was something holy, akin to going to church or meeting the Pontiff – a special occasion worthy of only the finest garments; her apron. A plain, unadorned piece of linen was her most prized possession. To her, it was like a King’s crown - or his scepter - or a Father’s scrolls.

 

The first step to baking bread was to prepare firewood. Giulia grabbed a silver ax with blunt edges, her next chore after baking was to sharpen the ax. She ambled out toward the forests, past the chapel, near the cliffs. The quietness of the river (which she had come to name Pious Paulina’s River) and the symphony of birds in the early morning made Giulia let her guard down – her eyebrows untensing, humming a hymn, offkey, to herself. Giulia only needed a few strips of wood, cut in half from a bigger wood strip. So, she set up her trusty stump, moss and mushrooms growing on it, and pile of cut and stripped wood, swinging her ax merrily into the strips until they were of an acceptable size.

 

After an hour or so of preparing the wood, she hauled as much as she could carry back to her home, her arms, feeble as ever, gave out two - or more - times. She groaned, twice - or more - when the firewood fell from her arms, scattering all over the dirt path. Eventually, she picked it up, hummed her hymn and counted the clouds in the skies – thirty, graceful and fluffy clouds that day  – and made it home. Hastily, she set the firewood down and inspected the oven, spreading a dubious mixture of clay, straw and sand over her dearest oven. When she deemed that to be done, she lit the firewood.

 

She then fetched a bowl and some jugs, dumping dough into one and water into the other. Giulia kneaded the dough with her hand, the mixture creeping its way into cracks and crevices she never knew she had. Perhaps that’s why Giulia liked baking, it taught you new things about your body, things you never knew before. When water needed to be added, she picked up the gray, clay jug and poured a tad bit of water into the dough mixture. After a few minutes of kneading the dough, Giulia scurried over to the clay oven, checking if the fire was set. She blew the straw and wood, a few sparks popping up. She blew the straw and wood again. And again. And once more until the fire excitedly popped up from the wood and straw.

 

She couldn’t put the bread in immediately, no, it would burn! And no one wants to eat charred bread. Giulia knew this process all too well; she let the fire sit for three hours, moving the wood around with a stick every so often. She let her thoughts wander for a while, observing the flames. 

 

Recently, she heard news of a baby being born in Enswerp. The baby, who was not Illatian (and thus not worth her time), was named Mary Owynina. Mary, from what Giulia heard, was a fat baby with rosy cheeks and fair skin with deer-brown eyes. She’d seen the mother, Caroline, in town some. If Mary looked anything like her mother, Giulia thought, she’d have an awful time wedding someone.

 

After about three hours and thirty minutes, Giulia put the fire out, swiftly cleaning the ashes out. With a peel, she shoved the dough into the oven. 

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[Ardory 2978]

Ak-Rullaz, the best golem chef in Aevos, approves of the baking of bread. He would advise adding sawdust and wood chunks next time!