Helping Hands (Tesslin)

[Brynn Reade]

For once Brynn was glad to return into the thick walls of the castle at sunset, as she normally rather would have liked to spend all day and even the night outside, far away from enclosing walls. Her claustrophobia had not been getting worse lately, and there were times she didn’t even think about all those tons of stone above and around her – still, an open sky was always to be preferred. Not today though, and the answer was a simple one: Camelot had been graced with an unusually hot and humid day, where the air seemed to hover completely still, pressing down on everyone like a thick and heavy blanket and almost no breeze brought relief for those having to be outside. The majority of the day Brynn had spent under the old lime tree beside the makeshift goose stall on the meadows, trying not to move or if she had to as little as possible.
Every now and then her thoughts returned to her poor father, probably dying of desiccation or melting in his chainmail. Hopefully he was to be stand guard inside the castle or at least in some shady corner. She didn’t even dare to think about the poor souls manning the walls and the parapet… they probably fainted in masses!
Oh, and Alex father, the baker… being inside the bakehouse on a normal day was trying, but on a day such as this it must resemble the forecourt of hell! Even her geese seemed too tired and lazy to think up any mischief and for that Brynn had been more than grateful. It would have been too much to think up words to scold them, let alone get up to separate them.

But now she entered the kitchen which was, if humid from all the steam, still colder than the afternoon outside had been. Taking a deep breath, Brynn let her eyes wander over the many familiar faces, some greeting her with a smile, some waving. She sauntered over to her mother who was busy pealing and cutting carrots and aspirated a kiss on her temple, not wanting to disturb her.
”Is there anything I could do to help? I hardly moved the whole day from the heat.”
Meghan Reade cocked her head for a moment, then shrugged. “Not with me, Goosey, but maybe she could use some help?” the kitchen maid jerked her head at an unfamiliar figure, a quite pretty girl Brynn had never seen in the kitchen before. “She’s new and we’re all too busy to help her much. Maybe she’ll enjoy the company.”

Brynn nodded, and made her way over to the working girl, clearing her throat a little awkwardly. She was usually not one to start conversations, but she didn’t like feeling useless.
”Hey… I wonder if you need some help? I just got in from my day’s work and feel like using my hands for a little.”

[elyseosanne]

Not even working in the castle a week before a heat wave tore its way through Camelot. For once, it was cooler in the kitchens where the young girl sought refuge. The heat outside was a force to be reckoned with, and Tess wouldn't be surprised if people just stopped working because of the unusual temperature. Unfortunately, she couldn't have that luxury. But still, she worked in one of the cooler areas of the castle. The moist humidity of cooking food combatted the dry, dusty heat of the outside world and it gave the girl a comforting pat on the back. Just being in familiar, albiet uncomfortable, temperatures kept her at ease.

Tesslin was peeling and cutting potatoes- a full sack still lying at her feet. Her fingers worked quickly, steadily, but she was worn. She had been fretting over every little detail of her work all day. Everyone else in the kitchen was busy, and she was afraid of taking a wrong step, let alone messing up whatever job she was doing at the time. The heat made friendly people irritable, and irritable people unbearable, especially for a gentle soul like her.

A sharp exhale escaped her lips before she could stop it. The stress was tightening and un-tightening her stomach, and wearing her out more than the work was! She still couldn't make her way around the castle without any help, but she sure as the day is long wasn't going to ask anybody. Not today at the very least!

She almost slipped with the knife when a voice appeared over her shoulder, as if it jumped straight out of the air. She steadied herself, half turning to greet the voice. It belonged to a girl, her hair red, but not like blood; it was red like the sky after the sun sets but before the blue-black night has time to cover the city. Relief came with Brynn's words, sweeping her up almost like the heat sweeping up Camelot. "Oh, hello. I.. I think I can handle it. There are a few knives over there, I think, if you'd like to help. I'm still learning, so forgive me if you can't find them." She chewed on her bottom lip, ticking her head to the side lightly.

"My name is Tesslin."

[Brynn Reade]

Brynn realized she had startled the new girl, and she instantly felt bad. Goodness gracious, that could turn out dangerous with a knife in hand! She could have cut herself! But then, she was probably thinking again too much and in to horrible thoughts. Alex would call that her drama brain, always thinking too much into her own actions and what they could cause with others, especially harm. Brynn knew herself she needed to stop that, but she had been born a thinker, and she would probably die one. Sometimes overthinking things could help you preventing mistakes to be made, but sometimes it simply turned out to be annoying.
Wiping her brow she took a moment to examine what the new kitchen girl was actually working at. Potatoes. Oh dear, that was one of the things Brynn liked least in kitchen work. The paring often enough sticked to your fingers and because she was not doing this daily, Brynn still had to find the knack to make it easier for herself.

She nodded and smiled gently when the girl told her about the knives. The poor thing seemed quite nervous, no wonder if no one really found the time to introduce her to anything! That it would be her task, not even being a true kitchen maid herself, striked odd to Brynn, but she was not opposed to the idea. Maybe she should talk to Alex later, and she if he could take the girl a little under his wing – in total innocence of course! The last thing either Brynn or the girl needed was one of Alex’ flowery flirting attempts. But she doubted he would do that… she was already worrying too much again.
”I think I know where they are, no worries”, she assured her and went off to retrieve one of the knives usually used for peeling.

Then she returned to the sack of potatoes and the working girl again, bending down to take a few potatoes out for herself. Oh well, she would just do this. She had asked for it after all, litterally.
Tesslin… that was quite a pretty name this girl was sporting, Brynn liked it immediately. It was simple, yet a little playful.
”It’s nice to meet you, Tesslin”, she replied and inclined her head, taking up the first potato. “I am Brynn Reade, the goosemaiden. I usually don’t deal with vegetables often, so you must forgive me if I make a fool of myself.”
She took another look at the girl, wondering where she came from. Had she been in Camelot all her life? Something in her striked familiar, as if they both had passed each other by on random occasion, with nothing but fleeting glances. Oh well, time would tell, Tesslin surely wasn’t keen on being interrogated like that.

[elyseosanne]

A wide grin stretched over her face, and her cheeks flushed lightly. "I'm sorry. I'm not usually so clumsy." Tess rolled her eyes at herself. She should know better than to startle in the kitchen, especially with knives. She's done it plenty of times, but every time she has to remind herself that there is usually a helping hand at the other end, and not a violent one. Tess kept peeling, glancing over Brynn's head out the window. The sky looked just as it has been all day. Tess was just waiting for a change, and then maybe this infernal heat would let up. The clouds bunched together like sheep bunched together in a pen.

Tessa immediately felt silly, a blush coloring her cheeks. Stupid. Of course she would know where the knives were. It was she who didn't know where everything was yet. A pang of homesickness for her own, small kitchen hit her like a train for the eleventh time today. Anyone who worked here for more than a month would know where the knives were. Nerves were fluttering in her stomach, almost so hard that it was difficult to beat them down. Trying to tell herself to form some set of defense mechanism against her anxiety, Tesslin knew, deep down, that it was futile. Some people were worriers, and some people just weren't. Tess fell into the first category.

She focused on her potatoes, but looked over at her company from the corner of her eye. She looked lightly apprehensive. Tesslin furrowed her brow lightly, swiping the back of her wrist over her forehead to prevent the loose strands of her curly hair from falling in her face. "You don't have to help if you don't wish to. I can handle it by myself." She paused, picking up a few more potatoes and placing them on the table. "Though I am grateful. I've been so nervous all day I think my stomach is just going to eat itself."

"Brynn Reade," she repeated, committing the name and the face to memory. She couldn't remember how the name sounded familiar to her. Reade... she could have sworn that there was somebody else sharing that name. Maybe a sibling? She couldn't remember. The last few days have been a blur of faces, names, and chores. Tess smiled, shrugging her shoulders lightly, and brushing the potato peels into a large bowl once the table got a little crowded. She supposed they would go to the livestock; the busboy just took the bowl when it was full and gave her a new one. "At least the potatoes won't try to run away," she grinned lightly, teasing, but not too much. She didn't want to scare away her new friend when they had just started!

[Brynn Reade]

Tess called herself clumsy, but in fact, Brynn couldn’t find anything clumsy about the girl at all! She was maybe a little jumpy, but that was hardly her fault. Briefly Brynn wondered how it must feel like to start somewhere new, as she had been living in Camelot all her life. The servant’s children were gently led towards work, they had to do their share but it was never too much and there was always someone around who they could ask for help. It was almost like a little game, and when they grew older, they accepted more responsibility on their own, sometimes without even noticing their tasks had changed much, and then it felt like they had never done anything else. It came natural. The only thing Brynn could compare it with from experience was her first day s goosemaiden. She had thought she’d never get these flapping devils under control.
”I wouldn’t call that clumsy”, she simply stated, and then returned the grin. “Give me a few minutes with slippery potatoes and I’ll show you the real meaning of clumsy.”
Brynn really didn’t mind the work she was given here, she thought that a little more practice in kitchen tasks would only benefit her in the long run. One day, someone else would probably take over the geese, as she would have her own household to run and couldn’t spend all day out in the meadows. There was a reason those herding geese were called goose MAIDENS. Some day in the near future, she would cease to be an unmarried maiden, and then she would have to take up a different work. Who would follow in her footsteps? Probably her little sister Elinor, she already showed great interest.

Too late Brynn realized her thoughts had been wandering like they always did, she was just not used to too much conversation and she knew that was a dear flaw of hers, which she wished to remedy. She zoned in again right as Tesslin spoke about a nervous stomach, and Brynn’s facial expression changed into one of sympathy.
”Oh dear. I can’t even begin to think how that must feel like. I’ve grown up around these rooms. That woman over there”, she pointed at her working mother, “is Meghan, my mother, and my father’s one of the guards of Camelot. If you stumbled over two running redheads sometime earlier, then you also met my two little siblings, Gyrth and Elinor. Do you have siblings?” Brynn wasn’t really one for much talk, save when it came to topics that held a special place in her heart: her family and her work.

She couldn’t suppress a lighthearted chuckle at Tess’ remark and she grabbed another potatoe that already sported some scions.
”Not if you cut off their legs first!” she quipped and lopped the scions of the main body before starting to peel it. Really, if you looked at some of those scions closely, you could almost imagine those to be limbs. It reminded her of the time when she used to play games with ginger roots, as they often had the proportions of little brown men.

[elyseosanne]

She took a deep breath, her shoulders rising and falling sharply. Tesslin was a creature of habit, so it was challenging for her to be in new places surrounded by perfect strangers. Grinning softly, a flush tinted her cheeks. As a child, Tess was spoiled- within her families pay- up until around five. After that, she had to work, and work hard. Of course, there are only so many jobs that you can get a ten year old to do, but at the time Tesslin remembered feeling exhausted at the end of the day. If she did those jobs today, she'd probably finish in time for lunch.

What a luxury- finishing in time for lunch. Along with her hard working disposition, Tesslin always had the nasty habit of not being able to say no. It was a nice change to have someone help her instead. Even if they were bad with potatoes. (Although, Tesslin was still slightly confused on how anybody could be bad with potatoes.) She looked over at Brynn as she spoke, smiling lightly. "You can't be that clumsy," she replied, brushing stray curls from her shoulders. By the end of the day, Tesslin's bun was always loose, and a tangle of curls at the base of her neck. She could feel the sweat prickle against her spine.

"Well, Camelot certainly could have picked a better week for a heat wave. I'm already stressed enough without the sweating," she laughed, brushing the cut potatoes into a larget bowl, and scooping up another bunch from her feet. "Was it a little nicer outside? I hope you didn't get too hot from staying outside all day. Do you need water or anything?" she asked, concern sparking her questions.

Tesslin listened quiet to Brynn speak of her family. Two younger siblings! Could you even imagine? Tess found that she couldn't. "I don't have any siblings. It's the three of us: me and my parents. It must be so special to grow up in the castle!" Her eyes brightened with mirth. Even thinking about it was exciting. Tesslin hadn't had a cause to be excited about much for a long time, but this new friend gave her the perfect opportunity.

"I used to think that just being in the castle would make me feel like a princess!" She blushed, adding on, "I still do, kind of. There's just so much space here, I still can't believe it. I'm homesick for my family's bakery in the lower town, but I can't believe that I've manage to get a position here! Everything is larger than life, it's unbelievable. You must have so many stories from growing up here, and with two other siblings!" A smile spread across her cheeks, tinted pink with the heat and excitement.

An actual laugh cut through the humid air. She held up her own potato, the "legs" just barely long enough to be visible. "You won't get very far on these legs, I admit."