To Be Chosen By A God

Chapter 4

                A few hours later, she woke to find that Micah was carrying her up the stairs.  She was startled so clutched at him.  “It’s ok.  It’s just time for bed and you fell asleep.  I couldn’t just leave you sleeping in the chair.  Did you want to walk the rest of the way?”  He knew she might not be comfortable yet with being in such close contact yet, so offered to put her down, though he loved holding her which was why he had chosen to walk to their bedroom instead of just appearing there.

                “Yes, please.”  He lowered her feet to the floor and waited for her to be sure of her footing before following her to the bedroom.  Once inside, she grabbed her nightgown and headed to the bathing chamber to change her clothing.  While she dressed, she realized that the bottle of lavender scented bath oil was back in its alcove with the rest of the bath oils.  When did he do that?  When she was finished, she gathered up her clothing from the earlier bath and the new clothing and came out to the bedroom to see Micah, naked on the edge of the bed.  She mentally chuckled and averted her eyes as she set the used clothing on the backless bench next to his used clothing.

                “It’s good to hear your humor at the situation rather than your fear.”  He reached down to the drawer and pulled out a pair of sleeping pants.  He drew them up as he stood up, not turning around until he was decent.  She was in the bed facing way from him, but was no longer balancing herself on the edge of the bed to be as far from him as possible.  It proved to him how needed their conversations had been today and regretted messing up so badly from day one with her.  She didn’t need to be put under such stress and fear, but he wondered if things would have gone so well if he hadn’t done what he had done.  Being a god didn’t make him perfect and he made mistakes just like anyone else.  He simply had a long time to learn from his mistakes and to generally make fewer of them over time.

                After he settled in to bed and extinguished the oil lamps and candles in the house, she said, “Good night, Micah.”

                He wanted to hold her close to himself as they both fell asleep and kiss her temple, but simply replied, “Good night, Chelsea.  I hope your dreams are more pleasant now.”  She was soon asleep and he followed soon after.

                The next morning when Micah woke up and didn’t say anything before heading to the shower like normal, Chelsea understood why.  She contemplated adding her own prayer of keeping her family safe, but decided that he didn’t need the extra voice in his head.  She quickly got dressed, ran a brush through her hair and hurried down to the kitchen where Margaret was waiting for her.

                “Good morning, Chelsea.  You look much better today; well rested and like your mind is at ease.”

                “I’m feeling much better.  So, you mentioned pancakes?  I’ve never heard of them.”  Margaret grinned and explained how to make the batter and how she had made the syrup from the maple sap.  She explained how to cook them and how to know when to flip them.  When she was sure Chelsea had the hang of it, she told her she would see her later and left.  When Chelsea turned around with the stack of pancakes in hand, he was standing at the table.  His sudden appearance made her jump.  “You scared me!”

                “I’m sorry.  It wasn’t my intention.  Are those pancakes?”  He smiled as he sniffed the air.

                “That’s what Margaret tells me.”

                “You’ve never had them before?”  She shook her head.  “Then we need to do this right.  Here, set everything down.”  He gestured to the table.  She set the syrup and the stack of pancakes down at the table.  He waved his hand over the items and created a stasis bubble over them.  “Ever have orange juice?” 

                She shook her head.  “Oranges weren’t grown around the village and those that did make it to the market were an expense only the wealthy could afford.”

                He smiled and rummaged in the cupboards for a juicer and a container to hold the juice.  He then went over to a bin and pulled out several of the brightly colored fruits.  “Ok, so, in order to get the most out of them, you have to roll them a bit on the counter, like this.”  He rolled the fruit on the counter, adding a small amount of pressure.  “Then when you cut it open, it’s easier to get the juices out.”  He quickly sliced open the orange and squished the orange onto the raised part of the juicer and pushed and twisted the orange against it until there was hardly anything left of the inside of the orange.  He dumped out the pulp into the compost bucket and then did the same with the next half while Chelsea rolled the next orange and sliced it in half when Micah was ready for it.  When the carafe was full, he brought it over to the table with a pair of glasses.

                “There’s nothing quite like orange juice with pancakes.  The citrus cuts through the sweetness of the syrup and enhances both.  I think you’ll like it.  A mixed berry juice is nice too, but it takes a lot of berries to do it and I’d hate to deny everyone else berries just because I want berry juice.”  He smiled as they sat down at the table and he released the stasis spell.  “You can pour the syrup over the pancakes and then cut them up to eat them, or you can cut up the pancakes and make a pool of the syrup to dunk the pancakes in.  Both ways are equally delicious.”  She watched him cut his up and make a pool of the syrup so copied what he did.

                The sweet was satisfyingly over powering as it coated the inside of her mouth.  “Try the orange juice.”  She took a sip and it cut through the sweet with an explosion of flavor across her tongue.  Her eyes widened in wonder.  He smiled, enjoying the experience through her mind.  When they finished, he rubbed her hand.  “Thank you.  It was very enjoyable.  Don’t forget, no laundry for a while.”

                She blushed.  “I remember.”

                “You’re not allowed to feel embarrassed about this.  That’s an order from your god.”  He tried to keep his face straight, but when she looked up at him, he couldn’t help but to let out the laughter he had been holding in.  His laughter was infectious and soon she was chuckling along with him.  He quickly kissed the back of her hand and got up.  “I’ll see you at lunch.”  She smiled and nodded before he turned away and headed to the attic.

                The orange juice was gone.  He had encouraged her to drink more and enjoy the experience.  She had certainly eaten more this morning than she typically did.  She suspected that Margaret had known that she would enjoy the treat as much as Micah.  She gathered up the plates and cups and set them in the wash basin.  After that, she collected several buckets of water and set some of the water in a pot to boil.  While it heated, she took the other buckets of water up to the bathing chamber and filled the basin.  When she came back down, the water was steaming so she filled the wash basin and began scrubbing the dishes and pots and pans and cups that had been used that day and the day previous.

                After setting everything on the drying rack, she turned her mind towards lunch and dinner.  There was a good sized ham in the cooler so she prepared it and set it in the oven to cook.  As she had been preparing the ham, Margaret had come into the kitchen and waited for her to finish.

                There was a small table in the kitchen and Margaret was there with pens, ink, paper, and a few books.  She motioned over to Chelsea to sit with her.  While the ham cooked, they spent the next few hours going over letters and sounds.  Chelsea, while uneducated, was intelligent and so by the end of the lesson was reading simple words and simple sentences and was able to make the symbols for each of the letters.

                It was time to take out the ham so she pulled it from the oven and cut slices from it for a ham sandwich.  She created a quick sauce that would pair well with the ham.  She also added some fruits and vegetables to the plate.  On the tray she added a pitcher full of ice water, a frosted mug, and a bottle of the beer he enjoyed.  She took them all up to his attic work space and again had to call out to him to open the door for her.

                This was only her third time in this room, but she felt much more comfortable entering this time than she did last time.  She looked around as she set down the tray on the side table and noticed the light crystals floating in the air.  The light was steady instead of the flickering she was used to with candle and lamp flames.

                “Do you like them?”  Micah asked, breaking through her thoughts.

                “What are they?”

                “Light crystals.  Each of the crystals here in Haven are something I created.  They have to be perfect crystals, without any kind of flaws and I pour my energy into them with purpose.  Some of them can be handled like these light crystals or the one that puts stasis fields around items.  The other crystals you’ve encountered need containment and can be controlled to some extent.  They don’t last forever, though.  Every couple hundred years I have to re-energize them.”

                “Why are they only up here?”

                “They don’t bother you or make you nervous?”  She shook her head.  “Most mortals are uncomfortable when I exert abilities that prove that I am different from you.”

                She shrugged.  “You’re a god.  I expect you to do things I would never be able to do or think of doing.”

                He smiled.  “That’s not usually a stance many take.  Of course, you may change your mind when you see it in action.”  He turned towards the tray.  “This looks delicious.  I’ll see you in an hour or so.”  She smiled, nodded and left the room. 

                Downstairs she began baking as the bread had become low again, as had the dinner rolls and the honey cakes.  She decided to make a pea soup with the ham.  She used the stock created by the baking of the ham along with the ham bone to create the broth.  She cut some of the ham into small cubes and added them to the pot. Later she would add a little bit of potato and the peas.  She worked on the baked goods next and then decided to make a jam for the next morning.  While there wasn’t enough berries to make juice, there were enough to cook down.  There was about a handful each of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and a double handful of strawberries.  She prepared the berries and added sugar as needed.  It took several hours, but it was eventually liquefied and ready to be poured into a vessel for storage.  She did make a quick stop to the attic to collect the tray and Micah thanked her for the meal.

                While everything cooked, she quickly went around the house and replaced candles and replenished oil in the lamps.  When the baking was done, she added the potato and peas to the pot and calculated that she had just enough time to grab some water from the well and take a quick shower, so that is what she did.

                When she came back downstairs with the buckets, she checked on the two pots.  The jam was ready, so she poured the liquefied jam into a container and set it in the cooler to set.  By the time she had the table set and the food on the table, Micah suddenly appeared at the table.  He was not there one moment and there the next.  Chelsea jumped at his sudden appearance but soon calmed.

                “So that’s how you always appear without making a sound.”

                He smiled and nodded.  “You seemed so at ease in the attic so I thought I’d show you something new.”  He checked her for reaction, but she just seemed more curious than anything else.

                They sat down and dug in, dipping the dinner rolls into the soup.  “I have to say, you are an incredible cook.  I have had my fair share of raw and burnt meals, but you seem to look at a thing and know what you’re going to make with it for multiple meals.”

                “My mother taught me how to make the most out of a meat.  For a while it was six of us and we didn’t have a good way of storing things for the next day.  We would buy enough meat only for the day, but would cook most of it by lunch so we could use the meat for lunch and dinner.  I always enjoyed changing a thing from one thing to another; like ingredients to a meal or wool into clothing.”  She glanced up at him, gave a small smile and went back to her meal.

                The rest of the evening went smoothly with him reading and her spinning.  Tomorrow she would be able to spin most of the day and looked forward to when she would be able to thread the loom and start making cloth.  She still needed to steam the yarn from the other spindles she had already spun, but figured she could do that tomorrow when she had more free time. 

                The next two weeks were fairly uneventful.  She had finally spun enough yarn to make cloth with and she found that she only needed to bake every third day.  During that time, Margaret had shown Chelsea how to use the meat grinder to make ground beef and also how to take cocoa beans and make chocolate as well as how to use chocolate in food items.  Chelsea still had problems with longer words, but was progressing quickly.  She was starting to be able to read the cook books and was making recipes from them as well.

                Towards the end of that two weeks, while they were relaxing in the sitting room, Chelsea pulled out a measuring tape and a piece of paper, pot of ink and a pen.  “Would you mind if I measured you?”  She asked timidly.

                “Of course I wouldn’t mind.”  He stood up and moved to the center of the room so that she wouldn’t have to move around furniture.  He held the tape in place for her at times and loved the way she blushed when she needed to measure his inseam.  He held the tape at his crotch before she even asked.  He was surprised with how thorough she was as it usually took a person a few times before they realized all the measurements they needed, but she had mentioned before that making clothing was something she enjoyed doing.  When she was done, she thanked him and they went back to reading and spinning.

                It was morning at the start of the third week she had been in Micah’s Haven.  Micah had woken up and headed to his morning shower.  When Chelsea pulled back the covers, she found that the minor back pain she had been feeling the day before, meant that the blood of her cycle had come.  Her nightgown was stained, as were the sheets.  She quickly stripped the bed, changed and put a blood cloth in place beneath her clothing and headed downstairs to start breakfast.  She had been preparing for when this happened, so had a bladder set aside that she would be able to put warm water into and curl up with when the cramps hit.  She knew it wouldn’t be long before it happened and her cramps usually left her incapacitated for several hours.  She set the plates on the table and sat down just as Micah appeared. 

                “Good morning.”  He smiled.

                “Good morning, Micah.  How were the prayers this morning?”

                He chuckled.  “About the same.  I do have one less now that you’re here.”  The look on her face told him that she didn’t expect him to remember or to have pulled her prayers from all the rest.  “I have always done my best to keep your family safe and will continue to do so.”  He rubbed her left hand with his right.  She had noticed that he was left handed and liked for her to sit on his right so he could do just this. 

                She smiled.  “Thank you.”  Her smile quickly became a grimace as the cramping began.  She pulled the warm bladder onto her lap and held it in place with her left hand.

                “What’s wrong, Chelsea?”  He asked, gesturing to the bladder.

                “It’s normal.  I’ll just have to take it easy today.”  She blushed.

                “That’s why you took the sheets?  I was wondering why you would think of doing laundry when you are still taking lessons from Margaret.  I was going to be very angry with you.”  He stood up and knelt next to Chelsea.  He took the bladder from her and placed his hand there instead as well as his other hand on the small of her back.  She felt her cramping easing and then disappearing as well as feeling the stop of the flow of blood.  “There.  What I’ve done is sped you through that part of the cycle and removed the unwanted portions of it.  It won’t interrupt your cycle, it’s just a free week for you now.  You will, however, still want to take it easy today.  You may find you need to take a nap.”  He waved his hand in a negligent gesture.  “And now the items you were going to clean in secret are already clean, including that one.”  He gestured to her crotch and she blushed with embarrassment.  “This is not something to be embarrassed about.  It’s a beautiful thing and a part of being a woman.  You don’t need to go through the pain of it each month and I am more than happy to help you like this each month.  You just need to let me know it’s time.  Alright?”  She nodded, still blushing.  “Why don’t you go up and take a long soak.”  He made another gesture.  “The bath will be ready for you when you go up.”

                He sat back down and continued eating while holding her left hand and rubbing it occasionally.  She was shocked at what he had just done, but wasn’t afraid of it.  “Thank you.  I wasn’t expecting to get much of anything done today.” 

                He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it lightly.  “There is no reason for you to be uncomfortable or in pain when I’m here.”  He smiled.  “So, now that you are able to do things today, what were you planning on doing?”

                “Probably more weaving.   I may talk to Margaret too.  I found that some of the other rooms all have different kind of fibers in them, but I’ve only ever spun wool.  It might be interesting to learn a different one.”

                “Yes, there are rooms filled with all different kinds of fibers used in clothing.  The cashmere, alpaca, and rabbit fibers should all work the same for you as the wool, but there is also silk cocoons, linen, hemp, cotton, and even bamboo.  The plant fibers will require a different method of spinning if you only spin them together, but I hear you can also make blends of the different fibers to create some different textures.  Margaret knows them all, so I’m sure you’ll have a lot to talk about with her.”  When they finished the meal, he took all of the plates and took them to the wash basin.  “Go on and take a long soak.  The water should be at a good temperature by now.

                She smiled and nodded and went up the stairs to their bedroom.  There were no clothes waiting for her this time, and she didn’t mind.  That he was so understanding and even alleviated her pain without a single word or gesture or facial feature of disgust made her feel like it wasn’t something she needed to hide from him like she did back home.  Her father and brother were good people, but the thought that their women went through this made them always uncomfortable around the girls whenever they discovered that it was that time for them.

                She had suspected that Micah was the one taking care of laundry while she was taking reading lessons.  Whenever she came up to take her shower in the afternoon, the clothing they left on the backless bench was always freshly laundered and put away and the bed was always fresh and made up.  This was the earliest she had come up since then and found the clothing all put away and the bed all made up again and she knew that no one had been up here or could have cleaned the laundry so quickly.  For a while she had thought that someone was using a different entrance into the mansion and was just taking care of the laundry where she couldn’t see.  Now she understood what was really going on.

                She bathed, enjoying the luxury of it.  Back home there were a couple bath houses because tubs were rare and expensive.  Here, there was a large stone and tile bath tub and a stone shower stall.  The bathing chamber was very large; nearly half the size of the bedroom.  When she got out and toweled off, she decided that it was time to trim her hair.  Usually her mom did it for her, but she had cut her sisters’ hair on occasion, so knew how it was done.  She pulled her hair forward and used the mirror to help her keep it even.  To get rid of split ends and even out her hair, she ended up cutting off about two inches.  Her hair still fell to the bottom of her shoulder blades.  She twisted it up and used an old hair comb to hold it in place so that she wouldn’t drip on her clothes.

                She headed downstairs to clean the dishes and start preparing the meat for lunch by marinating it.  When she was finished with that, Margaret was ready for her for the reading lesson for the day.  When the lesson was over, she asked her about spinning silk and how to remove the silk from the cocoons.  The chicken she was going to cook wouldn’t take long to cook, so they had time.  Margaret showed her how to remove the silk, dye it and spin it.  Chelsea wanted to use this to do any embroidery because the silk created such a fine thread that was also very strong.  She dyed the silk a dark blue to contrast well with the sky blue of the fabric she was weaving.  Over the last few weeks, she had spun the crate of the blue wool, knowing she could always use the cloth made.  Because she had the time, she decided to dye a crate of wool white and another black.

                She quickly cooked the chicken and added some vegetables and a couple of chocolate cookies she had made the previous day she knew he had been looking at after dinner.  He wasn’t joking about that sweet tooth!  She was going to make a cake for dessert tonight as a thank you for taking away her cramping and not being weirded out by it.  She found he also loved chocolate so was thinking of making it a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  She would start that after she took lunch up to Micah.

                After taking up his lunch, she came back, had a little lunch herself and started the cake.  There would be a lot of prep work, but felt it was worth it to see his surprise.  She paced it with the sweets with him making them only once or twice a week so it was special and when she made pies or cakes, they usually lasted a few days.  She went up and weaved for a few hours and then came back downstairs to make the cake and to season and cook a pair of steaks.  She had never had a steak before and saw the cut in the cooler the day before.  She asked Margaret how to cook it and was shown a book that explained everything she would need to know about steaks, including how Micah liked his done.

                She was very careful with the steaks, worried that she would over-cook them, but they turned out fine.  She also made the sauce suggested in the book, and she made garlic mashed potatoes and green beans for the sides.  She had never put garlic in potatoes before coming here, but found she enjoyed the flavor they gave.  She set everything on the table, including the cake and when she turned her head, Micah was there, staring at the cake with wide eyes.  She chuckled, knowing that he would be excited for the cake.

                “You spoil me. I may even get fat because of you.” He said with a twinkle in his eyes.

                “Can gods get fat?”

                “Sure.  We use energy the same as you.  I have energy as a god, but food can also give me energy.  If I don’t use the energy given to me through eating, I could become fat.”  He sat down at his place at the table.  “Mmmm, steak!  And it looks like you’ve cooked it just how I like it.  How did you know?”

                “I saw the recipe in one of the cook books and there was a note in there about how you like yours cooked.”  She blushed that she was revealing that she was able to do this because he had made her learn to read.

                “Can I see the book?”  Confused as to why he would ask for it, she got up from the table and retrieved the cook book and opened to the recipe.  He chuckled.  “That’s Margaret’s mother’s handwriting.”  He set the book on the table and they continued eating.  After dinner, while they sat together in the sitting room, Chelsea spun the silk to make embroidery thread.  She found that it caught on her fingers a lot due to the roughness of her hands and the smoothness of the silk.  Margaret had warned her of it so she wasn’t surprised.  She would need much less of the silk thread so was able to spin it all that evening.

                It was a few days later when Chelsea woke up with a start, tears already falling down her cheeks.

                “What’s wrong Chelsea?”  Micah asked as he sat up.  This was the first time she had woken up before him.

                “Just a nightmare.  It’s nothing.”  She wiped at her tears but they continued to fall.

                “It doesn’t look like it was nothing.  It…. It wasn’t about me again, was it?”  She shook her head.  “Maybe I can help.”

                “I don’t see how.”  She wiped at her tears again and moved to get up to start the day.

                He stopped her movement.  “Try me.”  He smiled and then his eyes took on a faraway look for a few moments.  He focused back on her.  “The morning prayers have started, but I want to help you.  I want you to take your own shower this morning and then come back here when you’re done and wait for me.”  He waited for her to nod her agreement before getting up and heading to the shower.  He had made a gesture towards the other bathing chamber so she knew he had filled the basin with water for her.  She grabbed her clothing and headed to the chamber still distraught over the nightmare she had.