Post by Tekel Brighteyes on Mar 20, 2007 17:41:42 GMT -5
Magical Kiffles
“I bet you didn’t know that kiffles are magical.” Tekel Brighteyes was saying as he prepaired to pass the bag of kiffles to the kids sitting in front of him. He had been relaxing on the hill playing his flute when they came.
They loved spending time with the funny little man with the deep red pants and shirt and blue coat. They thought his pointed ears and almond shaped green eyes and his long brown topknot were cute. But mostly, they loved that he didn’t treat them like kids. He treated them like… well like people.
And Tekel didn’t mind the interruption. He loved it when they came for a visit. He loved entertaining the small humans as much as the large ones. Every time he went to down he would attract a big crowd of people. They would listen to him sing, play, or tell stories.
And the kids were always amazed at how many items magically disappeared from their parents and appeared in Tekel’s pouches. They even laughed when Tekel looked as surprised as they were. But in the town the kids were never allowed to get too close though. Tekel knew the parents were worried about their children interrupting him. But when they came to visit on the hill things were different. He was able to greet everyone and shake their hands the way friends are supposed to do.
Already he had sang them songs and played tunes on his flute for the little ones. But when his stomach told him it was lunch time he sat down and pulled out his food. The kids sat in front of him forming a semi-circle. Several had been here before so they knew to bring food. But of them had never been to the hill to see Tekel perform. They didn’t know it would take this long. Not that they minded. To be honest they had forgotten all about food or even being hungry until they saw the other kids bringing out their lunches. Tekel was pleased to see how quickly the other kids offered to share their food with them.
“Such a wonderful sight to see,” Tekel said. This world is full of so much bitterness that it makes me feel all warm inside to see you young people willing to share with others that some of you have never seen before. I think this calls for a special treat.” He opened his backpack which was sitting on the ground and pulled out a small sack.
“What is it?” one of the kids asked.
“It’s a kender specialty called kiffles.”
Several of the kids inched closer to see. Tekel had spoken of kiffles before, but this was the first time any of them had seen any. And since he said he was going to share, they were eager to not only see them, but to taste them as well.
He purposely waved his hands around, the bag right in front of their faces, as if he had forgotten the bag as there as he said, “I made many different kinds. I had hoped to share them with my friends today and I feel so special to have so many friends here.”
He was enjoying the eager looks on their young faces as he continued, drawing his speech out. “But since we are about to share our good food, good company and good kiffles there is something we need.”
“What’s that?” a young girl asked tearing her eyes away from his sack of kiffles. This was her second time being here and even more than the food, she wanted to see what the funny man needed. He did all he could to entertain her the last time she had seen him that she wanted to help him any way she could.
“What we need,” he said giving her a wink, “is a story.”
Everyone cheered as he passed the bag to the girl who had offered to help. He motioned her to take 3 and pass the bag along. But they didn’t cheer because the kiffles were being passed around. The cheered because Tekel had started his story.
* * *
That's right, kiffles are magical. It’s true. We kender found that out many many years ago in Kendermore. You see, it was still the early days of Kendermore. And sadly there was trouble among many of the families. I know, you’re as shocked as I am that kender would be fighting. But it’s true. Sometimes we kender find it hard to get along with one another. Just like any other race does.
But that’s not the worst thing. You see, at first only two of the families were fighting. But then friends from family A started arguing with friends of family B and so forth and so on. It got to the point where no one even knew what the fight was about.
But that didn’t stop the fighting. In fact, one day Amari Riddler had just started cooking when Arlie Nimblefingers came bursting in. Theirs was the two main families who were fighting.
“I don’t know what you thing you’re up to sending your boy into my shop but I won’t have none of it you dung eating fly!” he screamed at her.
Now I hate saying things like that in front of you kids but you are old enough to understand that when you get a kender mad, he, or she will taunt you. Kender are masters at cursing. Sometimes we do it because it’s fun, sometimes we do it because we are good at it and want to show off, but sometimes we do it when we’re mad. That’s when we get at our worst.
And what Arlie said to Amari was so mean and hateful that she would have cried. At least she would have if she wasn’t mad.
“I don’t know who you think you are you wart on an ogre’s back side!” she yelled back. “But you are not going to come into my home and talk to me like that.”
Back and forth they went. The taunts getting worse and worse. But to be honest they had forgotten the fight and was starting to have fun just taunting each other. Like I said, sometimes we do it just to show off our skills.
But then Amari went too far. She said in a cold voice, “Why don’t’ you just go kill yourself you…” I just can’t finish it. She called him a word too horrible to say to you young ones. But it started with a cut and ended with a purse.
Well… Arlie was furious. He stormed out. He didn’t know where he was going. But he knew he needed to go somewhere. Maybe talking to some of his friends would help.
But it wasn’t until Amari calmed down a good ten minutes later that she noticed her cream cheese was missing. In a way it was good because she could tell all of her friends how her cream cheese magically disappeared. But it was also sad. She had enough to make two batches of kiffles.
“Where did all of this cream cheese come from?” Arlie asked himself looking into his pouches. It had appeared there as if by magic. “Wow, I can make a lot of kiffles with all of this. I’ll just pick up some flour on my way to Jackin’s house.”
Jackin was shocked to hear everything that Amari said to Arlie. Such things were unheard of. For one kender to call another the C word. How dare she. But he was also happy to hear how the cream cheese had magically appeared in Arlie’s pouches. How wonderful it must be to have something so magical happen.
Not long after Arlie left when he and Jacking finished talking that Jacking was delighted to see flour had appeared in his kitchen. Not only that, but cream cheese as well. What a truly wonderful day this was becoming.
Arlie was equally amazed walking down the street. All the batter ingredients he had so far had disappeared. It was sad, but on the bright side, he could now tell everyone he had been magicked twice.
Between his newly appeared items and the butter he had, Jackin had enough stuff to make a good two batches of kiffles. And that’s just what he did. He mixed everything together and set it all aside because it has to set for at least 2 hours before it can be made into kiffles.
Kender hate to wait. But Jackin had plenty to do. In fact, he had forgotten all about it when Mela showed up. Jackin had a huge crush on her.
“Welcome to my home pretty lady,” he said to her as she came in. But Mela was in no mood to be flattered. She went into the kitchen, got some water, and plopped down on the couch with a sour look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. Did you hear that Arlie and Amari got into a huge fight?”
“Yes. I heard. It’s so sad when kender fights kender. I just can’t believe those two are acting that way.”
“Exactly. And what he said to Amari was inexcusable.”
“I know. And how about… Wait a second. Did you say what Arlie said to Amari was inexcusable?” Jackin asked stunned.
“Of course.” she replied. “What did you think I was talking about?”
“How about what Amari said to him? Did you know she called him the C word?”
“Well, actually no.” she said stunned. “But that still doesn’t excuse what Arlie said.”
And you can guess what happened from here. Jackin and Mela got into a huge fight. The taunts were flying everywhere. It finally ended when Mela threw the rest of her water in Jackin’s face and stormed out of the house. Jackin was furious at first. But then he went into the kitchen and saw the kiffles batter had disappeared. At least he was lucky enough to be able to tell his friends he had been magicked twice.
Moments later Mela was stunned to find that her pouches were heaver than just a moment before. Checking she found she had more than enough batter for two batches of kiffles. And to make things better, it was already mixed and set. All that needed to be done now was mix it. But she had other ideas as well.
She stopped at a store, picked up a few items, and went home. Once there she cut the dough in half and seasoned half of it with cinnamon. Then she took some raspberry, strawberry, and blue berry jam she hand just gotten and mixed it with a little cornstarch. The she set about to make many different kiffles. Some had cinnamon some had none. Some had either raspberry, strawberry, or blueberry filling and some had combinations.
Once the filling was in the small pastries all that had to be done was to cook them. She was just about to put them in the oven when Teeli showed up. Teeli heard about the fight between Mela and Jackin. And how it all happened because of that stupid Arlie. She was so sad, so upset, so eager to find out if she could date Jackin now.
But Mela saw through Teeli. And she told Teeli she wanted to show her something. So Mela went into her bedroom and came back a few minutes later. She held up a shinny piece of amber on a string.
“Jackin gave me this about a month ago. He told me the only thing prettier than it were my eyes.” Mela laughed before continuing. “Yes, I know it’s a little corny. But still, he meant it. I’m not even mad at him anymore. I had the most wonderful experience today.”
She told Teeli all about the kiffles mix that had magically appeared in her pouches. She didn’t know how anyone could stay mad with so much magic goings on in their lives. Teeli agreed and was even sorry for thinking about asking Jackin out. They hugged one another and Teeli left.
Mela smiled when she went into the kitchen and held the amber up to her heart. Magic had happened again. The kiffles had vanished.
Teeli was shocked when she got home, went into her kitchen, and found two whole big batches of kiffles. All that had to be done now was to cook them. And that’s what she did. Soon the smell of all the different kinds of kiffles drifted from her house and all around. Many… many people came to see what the smell was.
Teeli explained how the kiffles just magically appeared in her kitchen. This brought up stories from other people who had different ingredients either magically appear, or disappear from the, which led to the making of all the different kiffles. So she decided to share them with everyone. Soon everyone was enjoying the kiffles. All anger forgotten.
When Amari and Arlie both found out they had been part of the magic, they decided they just couldn’t stay mad at each other any more. In fact, Amari who had a blueberry kiffle gave it to Arlie. Blueberry was her favorite and she wanted to share it with him. Arlie in turn gave her his raspberry one which was his favorite.
Teeli came up to Arlie and said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” he asked.
“Well, you weren’t there, but earlier today I called you stupid because of what you said to Amari. I didn’t know the whole story and you weren’t there to defend yourself so I shouldn’t have said it.”
He hugged her tight and said, “It’s ok. Sometimes we all say things we don’t mean.”
“Oh, I meant it. But it still wasn’t right.”
Arlie let out a great laugh. “Still I forgive you.”
Soon they were both laughing. They came to be great friends. One day even to be married.
“That is the story of the magical kiffles.” Tekel said looking out at the children who were staring wide eyed at him.
“Now,” he continued, “I know like many non-kender races you humans don’t see much about the magic in the kiffles. After all, wizards seem to do this all the time. Making things appear or vanish. And if that is was what the story was about, you would be correct. But the magic in the story wasn’t about moving kiffles. It was about how they got where they needed to be, when they needed to be there.”
* * *
The hour had grown late. It was noon when the story had started and now it was after. Late after. Approaching evening even. Time for the wee ones to be going back home. And they all left with a smile on their faces. Not only had Tekel provided them with a great story, but they had learned how to make, Magical Kiffles.
That story was so sweet I think it gave me a toothache. Heh...I've still never had kiffles before. I'll have to try them out some day. ^_^