Unforeseen

Kitchen Catastrophe

"Shoot!" I hissed, reaching into the brick oven for the flaming bread pan with the hot pad-like cloths that I had managed to find in a set of drawers in the palace's kitchen. My sweet bread that I'd been trying to bake was looking more like a proper Baked Alaska, or maybe like a beacon calling for war! Why was it on fire? I'd never had bread catch actual fire before! I grit my teeth at the radiating heat rolling off of the pan, but I managed to grab it anyways, pulling it out of the oven and swinging it around hurriedly before dropping it directly into the nearest sink, "Dang it, dang it, dang it!"

Whipping around, I spotted a pitcher of water on a countertop and immediately dumped half of its contents on the flaming pan, quenching the flames. I sighed heavily in relief as I slumped over the edge of the sink. Good. No more fire. My nose then scrunched up as I caught the distinct smell of something that's been burnt. I grimaced down at my failed attempt to bake bread using the brick oven. The top of the loaf looked more like a giant blackened charcoal than a sweet treat.

"Well, that was a waste of dough..." I bemoaned under my breath as I poked through the burnt top layer of the bread with a kitchen knife. Under a centimeter-thick burnt crust, the rest of the bread in the center still looked goopy as ever. None of this was anywhere near edible was it?

The potato fries had worked so well! It hadn't mattered what temperature the stone oven had been heated to and everything had been thrown together in a matter of minutes as I'd listened to throwback songs like 'So Close' by Jon McLaughlin, 'Nicotine' by Panic!AtTheDisco, and 'Neon Lights' by Demi Lovato. While the fries were baking, I'd even had time to start narrowing my options for the song I would perform for the theater's grand opening!

Once I'd satiated my desire for my salty snack, I had thought I'd try to make something sweet... and that's when things had started to go wrong. How could I have botched the bread so badly? I've baked bread dozens of times, but I guess trying to work this kind of oven where I couldn't really control the temperature very well was a bit over my head.

Shrugging off my disappointment with my failed cinnamon sugar bread, I turned to where my phone was sitting on a countertop behind me. Somehow I didn't feel like Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five's rendition of "I Want You Back" fit the atmosphere in here. Huffing a sarcastic laugh under my breath, I figured that maybe a song like 'Pyromania' performed by Cascada would fit the situation better.

As I reached for my phone, though, out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of shifting movement in the shadows outside of the open kitchen door. I yipped in surprise, my hand reflexively changing directions to grab for my silver device that was clipped to the loose sash hanging around my waist. My body tensed, readying for combat as my eyes focused on the movement. Though, as soon as I caught sight of a white apron and realized that the 'intruder' was actually just a kitchen maid, I immediately felt ridiculous. Goodness, my adrenaline was still pumping from the burning bread fiasco, I really must be wound tight if I flipped out over a maid coming to start her daily work... A nervous laugh burst from me as I put my hand over my heart, trying to cover up my momentary defensive stance in case my reaction had frightened the maid, "Oh my gosh, you scared the life right out of me!"

The kitchen maid, a petite young woman with ash blonde hair, was looking at me with wide eyes, noticing my startled reaction. Quickly she dropped into a curtsy, "I'm sorry, my lady!"

"Oh, no, don't be sorry!" I quickly waved her apology away as I pressed 'pause' on my phone, cutting off my music. She shouldn't be apologizing; I was the one who was in here burning bread and clattering about. "I was just off in my own world! I didn't even hear you come in! Here, let me just-" I started turning around to try to clean up my mess when another voice came from down the hallway leading to the kitchen.