Bread, Dogs and Soup

He can hear how his mother is telling him to wake up, so they can make bread.

Probably six-seven in the morning or not, it was early in the morning, there is no sun yet and it's always hard to get out of bed with Sasha and Laios blocking his ways, either because his bed is warm or they make it really hard to get out of bed.

It's still too cold.

And now he is awake, he needs to go to the bathroom.

The bathroom that's outside.

– Aaaaagh –

***

They were making bread, or well, started making the bread dough.

Mom is telling him what they need.

– We need flour, the water in the pot, salt, sugar and the jar on the left counter – Uriel was searching for the ingredients meanwhile Lily was taking two bowls and some utensils, one with the metal part in form of a square without the inside – In this jar there is yeast or well the replacement, sourdough. Thanks to Alex for teaching me this –

The bowls were bigger than his head, after all they were making three loaves, two for the week and one for the house of Uncle Nancy. Mom started straining the flour, she says it is to make it a lighter bread. With Luna waiting for something to fall.

– Now is time for the dough – taking the jar and spoon – The starter is the first thing we put in the bowl, just covering the bottom part and a little more –

Mom added the salt, on three hand measurements, or eye measurement. Telling me to come with the water at her side, pouring it and making the half of the bowl now full, she gives him the strange square thing.

– How is this called? –

Lily just stares at the square thing for a while.

– I… I don't know, it was a gift. I just know it works for making bread. – With a shrug, she started telling him how to mix it.

She told me to stop when the water was white and add the flour.

– Now we just mix, and mix – With the mass beginning to look more unified the more Uriel mix it – With that would be enough –

Covering the bowl with a wet towel, Mom told him that it needed to rest for almost two hours. For the moment they can eat breakfast, one that his dad made while they were mixing things, Küörchekh and the soup of last night.

They always eat at the table when everybody can, or at least together in a room.

He always thinks it is warm every time they eat like that. He likes that feeling.

Mom always takes a bit of something first and drinks her tea, and Dad always eats the parts with chilies of his soup before anything else.

He can't really tell if his dad likes them that much or is his least favorite thing.

Because dad is the same person that told him that you can't be a picky eater most of the time, sometimes you can't choose what exactly the thing you are going to eat is and neither dismiss the balance in food.

Yeah, father ended up eating the parts with the bell pepper, took one of the pancakes and ate it the fastest he could. He doesn't like chilies.

When they finished, dad went to look at the traps he placed for either animals or intruders with Sasha and Laios, as for us we were washing the plates.

At that moment he let the plates dry, and his mom went to look to the bowl with the bread dough, it was bigger now.

– You don't need to take the dough out of the bowl – folding from the outside to the inside, to taking a part from the middle and scoop it up to involve the rest of the thing – Just need a good technique of folding and that's it –

She just keeps folding, taking it out of the bowl and doing it in the air. It starts to look like the dough more with every fold.

– The next fold is your job. We leave it for another three hours – covering again with the wet towel – Go and do the bedrooms for the moment, I will do the rest –

And they went with it.

Open the bed and the window, they need to ventilate, dust the furniture and leave the clothes in the chair for later.

Get the broom and sweep away the dust and dirt, shake, fold and store clothes. Make the bed.

And repeat the cycle with my bed.

A coat caught his attention, the same one he wore the first time learning how to cut a tree.

For the next year it would fit correctly, hopefully. It's still a little too loose and in need of folding the sleeves every time he uses it.

He's been thinking about sewing it for the moment, now that he knows how to sew after three years now.

…

Oh.

He is thirteen now.

In a pair of months he would start to hunt.

Oh god.

– Okay, okay. Calm Uriel, calm yourself – sitting down in his bed, giggling at his own words. – Oh god. It just months away –

Now looking around his bedroom, to the clothes that are in his chair and the ones that fall from it, his unfinished bed and the corner with all the dust and dirt that he collected with the broom.

– Pfff. It would be better if I finished my bedroom first, wouldn't it? – He asked no one, acknowledging with little giggles that never came out of his room.

Just to Luna come to his room and jump to his bed, preparing to sleep again.

In his bed.

Halfway made.

***

The three hours passed and it was his turn to fold the dough, repeating the movements his mother did before.

From the outside to inside, and repeat.

After folding for a pair of minutes he was told to put the dough on the table, it's time to divide in three. Separate, shaping to build tension in the dough, stitching the ends for a neat loaf, coat with flour, into the banneton and stitching again.

– And the most important. Give the dough lots of little pats with flour –

For the moment they finished, they just let them close to the window for the rest of the day, high enough to avoid the dogs from eating it.

Now that he is free of leaving the bread for a good amount of hours, he can go and practice with the bow for a pair of hours. Taking advantage of the dogs feeding hour, he can safely shoot arrows while the dogs are eating.

With everything he would need for practicing on his backpack and letting the bow on the table in the entrance.

All that he wears for doing archery isn't the same as anything else he wears, he needs his arms to be able to move mostly free without being too light nor thin for the cold to pass through. Two layers of wool for the heat, the wadded pants, the boots because there is at least 20 centimeters of snow outside and the down jacket that is wide in his arms but closed in his wrist. His quiver on his side for faster use.

Letting the hat, the mittens that are with the finger parts removable and the scarf at the end.

– I will go to practice my bow, Mom! –

– Okay! Remember not to be outside for too long – hearing the steps of his mother coming closer – Come here I will help you with the clothes –

Helping him to put on the hat correctly and the scarf to cover most of my face, he can now go outside to practice.

To the cold of winter, going in a straight line to the place where he practices. Or well the place they made for practice because is close enough to the house for them to notice if something goes wrong.

At this point he's practicing the repetition more than anything. If you can make the same shot every time in a short time it's better than a spectacular shot that you cannot repeat in the matter of time your prey is fleeing.

That's literally seconds.

So he just aims and releases, trying to make the same shot in a short time, so that the reloading time doesn't take much.

But he can't stay outside for too long, the moment he feels the cold is starting to pass through his clothes is also his cue to get back.

When he comes back to home, he is already losing heat, probably staying outside for less than an hour practicing. Maybe when he is older, he would be able to stay outside longer.

For the moment he would hug his dogs warmly and try to not get fur in his mouth.

***

He committed an error.

Before, he went for a bit of wood outside, took some of the little pieces that they wouldn't use for fire, got his knife to carve something and sat on the sofa.

That was his mistake.

Seating on the sofa.

Now he has a giant dog believing they are little, on top of him. He is trapped and pretty sure his mother is containing their laughter in the other room.

– Kiki, my legs please –

– Hfff – And if that was a dramatic sigh, it was to expect that Kiki would play dead or that he would sleep. She would stiff and start whining or growl every time she is moved.

At least he wasn't the only one that would be trapped by the dogs, Mom usually was trapped by Laios and Luna, Dad by Sasha, Laios and Kiki. In his case, it's the dog that's close to him at the moment that he sits, after all they all grew with him.

Laios and Sasha appeared somewhere when he was around nine or ten, already one year old. With Luna and Kiki, their daughters, coming to they're life last year.

Mom always told him that the moment Laios and Sasha saw him, will always be reassurance for them, because they looked at him like he was a pup. And from the moment they knew where he was sleeping, that was also their bed, the reason they slept with him.

He would need to accept his destiny of staying with Kiki and give her the cuddles she wants.

Until she doesn't want more or his father arrives.

***

It was the smell of food that got Kiki out of him. And in her defense, the smell of fish only means good things to eat, even if the smell is from raw fish.

– What are we going to eat? –

– Soup. Now come help me gutting the fish –

Clean and gut the fish.

Separate out the head. Wash the vegetables.

Use the head to cook a broth, chop some potatoes and other vegetables, take aside the fish heads, and combine the broth with the rest of the fish and vegetables.

Then heat over a flame.

And now you use the waiting time to make the rest of the food.

***

When it is totally cooked, separate the fish from the soup, leave it on three dishes each one with a fish, mom is serving some of the soup on cups, meanwhile he is setting the table and his father is finishing to cut something in the entrance.

Probably preparing things when he goes to the market tomorrow.

So, when everything is in place he goes for his father.

He waits until he hears the fur and flesh reaping stop for a moment, then he opens the door.

– Dad, is time to eat – It's a matter of practicality to tell his father a little before so he can wash his hands and change his outer layer of clothes to eat.

And no one wants to clean blood from the floor. Takes too much time and things to clean it.

– I will be there in a moment, thanks Uriel –

It looks like a trap caught some rabbits and a fox, dad already skinned the rabbits and separated all the parts of it. Laios and Sasha are eating some meat and bones.

– Okay, we will wait for you – The entrance is always colder than the rest of the house.

Is his cue to close the door and go to the dinner table with his mother, he doesn't want the house losing more heat.

Mom was already seated at the table, mixing the cream well.

– Dad will be here in a moment – He sang with a smile, as it is almost impossible to not be happy when lunch is fish.

So when his dad finally sat down at the dinner table, they told him they're thanks to Unn and started to eat.

His favorite fish, it's tasty and delicious. But his favorite part is the fish roe eggs.

– Drink some soup too Uriel –

– Ah hot, it's too hot – And of course he burned his tongue.

– Eat it with bread – Mom was handing him a piece of bread.

He needs to remember to eat some part of the soup with bread or take some with a spoon, burned tongues aren't funny.