Chapter 173: A Place of Refuge
In the Vale of Mists, Ollie stood at the center of several cookfires that were only a short walk downhill from the ancient roadway and the outermost gate that it passed through.
Originally, when Ollie had volunteered to help receive the people fleeing from Owain’s assault on the Eldritch villages outside the Vale of Mists, he fully expected to fall under the command of a more senior and experienced soldier or member of the castle staff.
Things would have worked out that way if the cook’s assistants that Georg sent had any idea how to feed an incoming tide of refugees. With a capable and experienced chef, many things became very simple. Unfortunately, it had been well over a decade since the people of the Vale had been on any kind of war footing and even then, Bors Lothian had never directly assaulted the Vale of Mists in the last war, his focus had been on plundering the wealth of Airgead Mountain.
Ollie wasn’t used to fighting wars or feeding refugees either, but he was very accustomed to feeding a large number of servants as quickly and as cheaply as possible before they scattered to their duties in Lothian Manor or the Summer Villa.
Seeing the number of people arriving in ones and twos or small groups of five or six on a near-constant basis, Ollie started by making a few suggestions before the horned servant who was officially in charge turned to him and asked for help.
"Sir Ollie, I’m sorry I misunderstood," the gray-bearded man said. "Clearly Chef Georg was grateful for your help because you have skills better suited to this than we do. My brigade is at your command, give us orders and we will not argue."
For a moment, he wanted to protest. He was just a kitchen boy after all. He’d never been in charge of a kitchen. But before he could back down from the responsibility, he heard Ashlynn’s voice, reminding him that ’from now on, you’re not just a kitchen boy, you’re my friend.’
If he was going to be a real friend to her, he couldn’t shrink back behind the label of ’just a kitchen boy’ anymore. So, after taking several deep breaths, he began to give instructions to the other cooks.
"We don’t have time to make anything fancy," Ollie said. "Let’s start with a batch of All-Day-Soup. Fill two large pots a third of the way up with the roughest cuts of meat and plenty of bones - shoulders, shanks, anything that has to cook for a while, get that started now with enough water to cover the bones and meat. Once it’s boiled for a while, we can add more water, vegetables, and barley to the soup..."