Time flew by as they talked about the world after the disappearance of Emperor Cassius. And soon dusk came and Lydia received his permission to break their discussion so she could prepare a meal for herself for the night.
For long minutes, she wondered if she was to prepare a meal for the beast too. But could a beast eat normal human food? She thought to ask him about it but changed her mind. He looked like a wolf and even wolves could digest some human food.
So she settled in her heart to add his portion and if he ended up not wanting it, she could eat that the next morning. It wasn't a waste.
She took some time to think of what to make and decided on bean soup as it was the only thing she had all ingredients for and she was certain she was very good at making. She didn't want her kind gesture to end up becoming the reason her life would be taken by serving something horrible to the beast.
After setting the table for two, she stepped out of the cottage again. He was no longer seated upon the log.
She walked towards the back of the house; he wasn't by the lake either. She walked back to the front and called out for him, "Sire," She didn't get a response.
She turned towards the back of the house again to check once more, "Sire?" She called out but when she got no response again she wondered, "Has he gone hunting again?"
She held her bottom lip between her teeth and shrugged. "More food for me then."
With those words, she walked back towards the front of the house and "HUH!" She gasped and flinched as she turned a corner and there he was, seated on the log outside the cottage, blending with the darkness.
She wondered when he got there, "Were thou searching for me?" He asks.
"A-Aye." She clears her throat to push back the stutter, "The food is ready." She says and silently and plainly he stared at her and she could tell he was wondering why she had to give out that information. "C-Come in and eat."
For a second in the darkness of the night, she saw that golden eye of his widen and glow. It was pure surprise, she could tell.
"Thou prepareth a table for me too?" He asks and she nods.
"Why?" He asks. "Why would thou prepare a table for a beast?" He inquires further.
Lydia bit her bottom lip and stared blankly at the ground beneath her feet for some seconds, wondering how she was supposed to answer that question.
"I—" She paused, then she lifted her head and her gaze fell upon his own once again, "I cannot prepare a meal for myself alone when I have a guest." She explains. "E—even though my guest is a beast. Even beasts deserve a hot meal." Her mother always told her that it was pure evil to deprive a person of a hot meal. She was only doing as her mother had taught her.
Silence flowed back and forth between the two and when she could no longer hold his gaze she turned her head towards the cottage and said, "Let's go in, lest the food turns cold." And she ran in and sat herself in front of the table she'd set.
For some reasons, her heart was racing. She was just offering a meal to a guest. What was so special about it?
Maybe it was his reaction. Maybe it was the way he seemed flustered and touched about her kind gesture, but her heart raced with pride and her pale cheeks flushed brightly.
Following her entry into the house, he walked in and saw that she had single-handedly moved the bed from its former position to the space near the table.
Seeing that he was staring at the bed she says, "You know, since the chairs are too small I thought—"
"Pfft." Lydia paused and her eyes widened as she could swear she heard him laugh. Maybe it was just her imagination.
He moved closer and sat on the bed across from her.
She cleared her throat, picked up the loaf of dry bread at the center of the table and broke it in two. She handed the portion that was slightly bigger to him and kept the other for herself.
The beast accepted the bread, broke a smaller portion and dipped it into the bean soup like she was doing.
And when he put the bread soaked in bean soup in his mouth he paused and his eyes closed and Lydia too paused for she feared for her life.
She feared that he did not find the food pleasant.
"I—Is something wrong?" She dared to ask.
His heavy sigh made Lydia wish the ground would open up and swallow her before he moved to devour her.
"S-Sire?"
"Tis been so long." He opened his eyes and they gazed at her in the most gentle manner she had seen him gaze at anything since the first time she opened her door and found him standing outside her cottage.
"Tis been so long since I had a hot meal."
And this time Lydia was certain… The beast is smiling.