Ep.33: Punishment, Part 2

Lukai plunges her hands into Stormguard and Warfist, donning them. “You dare try to escape the Red Wolf?!” Lukai leaps at me, preparing for an attack brandishing her signature weapons. Her fists close as the spiked gauntlets come careening towards me. “Take this!” Lukai’s strike breaks the table above me in half with a single blow, the two halves and the fist crashing to the floor in the space where my head just was. At which point, everyone else in the restaurant switches from freeze to flight, scrambling to escape the building. “Get back here, you little brat!” she commands as she grabs one of the half-tables and hurls it in my direction.

Instinctively, I catch my feet on a crack between the stones of the floor, let go of the plate and place my hands on the floor next to my feet and launch myself upwards, my arms and legs splayed out as table half flies under me. As my plate crashes into the door, I bemoan, “Aww, man!” The memorial to my dinner is short-lived though, obliterated by the flying furniture. That’s when I notice a dish lying on another table below me. “What is this wonderful scent I’m smelling?” It is a simple scent and yet, smells so delicious that it has my mouth watering with just a simple inhale. “Mmmm…!” I quickly tuck into a backflip and land on the table gently grabbing the plate.

“Don’t get cocky with me, boi!” Lukai shouts and lashes out, front-kicking the table out from under me.

The aroma welcomes me with open arms. “This must be what a mother’s love feels like!” I say, hugging the plate as I tumble through the air. The table smashes into the back doors, too wide to fit through, it effectively blocks the way. I land on my feet, cradling my new love protectively.

“A mother’s love, you say?” Lukai strikes the ground with her gauntlets, causing the earth beneath us to shake. “I’ll show you a mother’s love!”

I take my first bite, barely able to stay on my feet. “Wow! This overwhelming taste is so powerful that I almost lost my balance!” I say with joy in my voice.

“I see. You’re going to continue to ignore me!” Lukai leaps at me, completely enraged. “Fukai, you better hope I don’t catch you!”

I scurry away, my shoes slipping as they try desperately to grip enough to save both our lives. I begin to look for another means of escape. Figuring out my only option, I head for the kitchen as I take my second bite. “Mmmm…! What is this I’m feeling? Heaven, maybe?” As I quickly dash through the kitchen with my mother hot on my heels, I take my third bite. “Thank you… Oh, god! Can this be real?! So delicious!” I hurdle past the chef, noticing him shaking and growing paler by the second from the damage done to his restaurant, I acknowledge him with the utmost respect and bow. “Thank you for giving me the honor to grace my mouth with your wonderful food.”

“Oh! You show him respect?” Lukai shouts as she leaps into a flying kick.

I quickly jump straight up and land on my mother’s leg. “Huh?” I notice the exit in the back of the kitchen.

“I’ve got you now!” Lukai contorts herself to grab for my leg.

Avoiding her grasp, I leap away. “Alright!” I announce as I turn and kick the doors. Splintering them off their hinges, they crash onto the ground. I taste freedom as I take my fourth, glorious bite. “Free at last!” I land in a run and look down at my food, wiping a tear from my eye, “What do they call you…” I wipe a tear from the other eye that brims up from the overflowing well of joy deep inside my soul, “… you delicious meal?”

“It’s a PB&J.” The chef replies from a distance while huffing and puffing. “It’s a dish quite common in other kingdoms.” His voice fades to a whisper as he falls to the floor in a dead faint.

I look down at the half-eaten PB&J and smile. “Simply wonderful.”