Bal woke up with his hands grasping around bigger, callused hands, hands capable of creating the most beautiful of the weapons in hours, and cooking the best stew he had eaten in weeks. Bal smiled, the old man talked a lot, sometimes to him, other times he talked to other things. He had heard the old man talk to the knives he was making before noticing him staring, Gerd was a strange man. But he was kind.
Bal stood on the wooden floor and walked around the sleeping Gerd before walking towards the fire pit, he was a bit hungry and he wanted to eat something, but if he did then maybe Gerd would get angry, and he didn't want to get the old blacksmith angry, he wanted to help the old blacksmith to the extent of his capabilities. After all, he was taking care of him, returning the favor was something He would be proud of
The child started shaking the old man's shoulders at first it was lightly, but when the blacksmith didn't open his eyes after a few minutes Bal started shaking more and more until the old man fell, eyes wide open. Before he touched the ground he had already regained balance and almost punched the kid, luckily he was able to stop himself before launching his fist forward
"God damn it kid, I thought I was being attacked" he said, letting out a sigh "what are you doing up so early?" Bal shrugged and Gerd stood up "Okay, then I guess you want some breakfast" Bal nodded and the old man walked towards the fire pit, the embers of the fire long gone, only a few of them shining under the ashes of the previous's day fire wood. The old man grabbed more fire wood from the storage and put it on the fire along with a dry cloth, it took him only a few seconds to ignite the cloth using flint and steel, the new flame grasping the fire quickly. The man then went towards the shelves and took two jars, one with flour and other filled with oil, after that, he grabbed a pan and a metal contraption, it had four long legs that joined over a grid of welded steel threads. The man poured some oil on the round pan and left it on the fire to heat up
"This is a food people take on the south when there has been a good harvest that year but not much more" He explained, taking a metallic kitchen pallete and taking the pan from the fire, pouring flour from the jar into the hot oil, smoke flying towards the roof of the cabin, the man started removing the two ingredients "Many people call it poor people's meal" He started shaping the mess into flour and oil balls, but added more flour by sprinkling it around, still mixing it with the pallete "But to be honest, it is quick to make, if you mean almost fifteen minutes as quick, and very good for stomachs that haven't had food for a bit, also, there are those who add some meat to the mix in later stages of the dish, anyway, can you bring me some water?" He asked, pointing at the farthest part of the shelves from him "All of those are filled with water, the well freezes up during winter and i like to have water just in case"
Bal nodded and walked over to the many buckets and jars filled with water the man was talking about, he shot him a look, he was still mixing hot oil and flour, the white powder had become yellow to that point and was now a collection of those strange balls. The child grabbed one of the buckets and careful of not spilling it on the wooden floor, he brought it back to the man, he smiled and put the pan back on the fire
"It needs to be hot before we pour the water" Explained the man "But for now, let's think about what we are going to do today, yesterday I finished the butchering knives commission for Klaud, the butcher of Bearrock, the village nearest to here, so i should start doing the rest of them, but we also need to eat" The blacksmith left the pallete over the stones of the fire pit, Bal couldn't reach with his little stature "After I'm done with breakfast I am going to go check up on the traps, maybe we can still salvage something from them that has not been eaten by the creatures of the forest"
Gerd grabbed the bucket Bal had been holding on to and poured it slowly on the pan until the yellow flour balls were covered with it, steam raising hot and fast to the sky from the chimney. Then he started mixing again using the palette, he was not doing it fast, but slowly and surely, dissolving the flour and oil balls into a paste that started absorbing water as he did. The yellow started becoming grayer with every second that passed, the water both being absorbed by the flour and becoming steam due to the heat of the fire under the pan, in his forehead, Gerd felt a drop of sweat drip down and fall to the fire, the circular motion tiring, at least it was a small pan, no bigger than three of his palms in diameter, had it been a bigger one and he'd already be sweating bullets. And he was a very experienced blacksmith who had spent most of his life near to the fire.
The man retreated, leaving the palette once again over the stone of the fire pit and regulated his breathing as he grabbed the pan, its content now not a paste, but some kind of dough gray in color and sticky to the touch, the heat of the pan had made the downside of the dough brown and the opposite of the top side, which was what he was looking for. With that, the man took a hold of the pan's handle with both hands and balanced it out of the fire, he looked at the child near him and smiled "You better make some space, this could end on the floor or on you and we don't want either" He said
Then he raised the pan fast, and stopped just as fast, the dough was launched up half a metre from the pan that had propelled it and the dough spun on the air, the blacksmith catching it skillfully with a smile, no dough making it to the ground or to the kid that had stepped back. After the show of skill, the old man put the pan back on the fire and left it there as he looked for some of the unleavened bread he had made that week, it should still be good to eat and he had to make quick work of it before it went bad.
Gerd grabbed the handle again and took the pan to the wooden table, then sat on the stool and pointed to the other stool to the other side of the table, Bal walked over and sat down
"Look, this is eaten like this" He said, grabbing one of the loafs of the flat bread and taking a chunk as long and wide as his fingers were "You take some bread and then use it to scoop some of the dough, It might not look like it, but it is fully cooked and very, very hot on the inside" The blacksmith explained as he broke the surface of the gray dough with his bread, steam fleeing from its inside "You should blow it before putting it on your mouth or you will need to rush to the water bucket" Said the man, biting down on the bread and dough mix, it was, indeed hot. A few tears formed on his eyes as he ate, the dough burning his palate. The man looked at the bucket near the fire pit with longing. His pride told him not to go
Bal followed the advice that the old blacksmith gave him, taking a piece of bread and scooping down the dough, he ate it slowly after blowing it, it was very good, as much as it was hot at least, and it was very filling, his eyes lit up as he ate along the old man, sharing the pan until half of it had practically evaporated, the old man let out a hot sigh, the cold air filling his mouth with a relieving feeling and put his hand before the kid, who had finished the bread "Let's leave the breakfast here, take the rest for lunch" He said
"I am going to check on the traps, so remember, keep the door closed and don't enter the workshop, there are many things that could hurt you if you don't know what to do with them, there's a latrine outside, so if you need to go to the bathroom just remember to put on your coat and boots, close the door and rush there, there's no way you get lost in a ten meter walk, understand?" The blacksmith stood up from his stool, Bal nodded eagerly and watched as the man retrieved his thick coat from the workshop and changed his boots from the heavy work ones he had been wearing since he had arrived to the place the previous day to the ones he had used during the snow storm. Gerd approached the door and looked back at the kid, who was standing there, in the middle of the room. The old man sighed, he couldn't just leave him bored out of his mind for the half a day it would take him to return from his route
The old man went back to the shelves, his figure followed by the gaze of Bal, the child did not speak as the blacksmith took the board from the shelves along with the box of pieces, the game of storm they had been playing the previous night
"Think about strategies" He said "We'll try them out once i come back okay?" Bal nodded and Gerd left the cabin, a gust of wind saluting him as he closed the door behind him and grabbed onto the sledge he had left untied in front of the cabin, lucky it hadn't been blown away, just covered in snow. He'd have to clean it a bit before being able to leave