“Forgive me. Old woman, easily thrown off track.“ She chuckled, and the sound made Jorgan want to laugh along with her. “I am Maenta, and I will be traveling to the Defender with you to be your teacher. Well, another teacher, for all the ship’s children. And while I am a Le’ankan master, you don’t have to call me that. Scholar Maenta is fine, until we get to know each other better and you are more comfortable with me.“
“What do we call you then?“ Shayn asked.
“You’ll know what to call me when we are friends.“ She winked again. “Tell
me, is there any more of the shrogo? That’s quite become my favorite.“ She gestured
at the bowl of dark green and brown chunks of vegetables and grains, in a sparkling,
yellow sauce, sitting on Jorgan’s tray.
“Four bowls left,“ Jorgan said.
“Would you mind if I joined you and your parents to eat? I’ve so looked
forward to catching up with Tila.“
“We’re going to the rec deck to eat. If that’s all right with you?“ Shayn
hurried to add.
“Perfect. I will meet you there, all right?“ Maenta turned to the rack
of trays.
Jorgan knew he should have offered to get a tray for her, or at least pull
out the utensils, but his hands were full with his loaded tray. He looked at all
the containers on his tray. The timer on three cooking boxes went off almost at
the same time. He flinched and fumbled his tray for a moment. Shayn did the same.
They looked at each other, then laughed.
“How are we going to eat off each other’s trays when we have company?“
Shayn muttered, once they had their heated food back on their trays.
“I don’t know. I really want some of that bread pudding, too.“
His brother rolled his eyes and grinned. Then he gestured with a tip of
his head and led the way to the other end of the mess hall, where their parents
were waiting.
“Did you get enough?“ Ben said with a chuckle, after glancing over the
boys’ trays.
“We planned on sharing so we could try more things,“ Jorgan offered.
“So did we,“ Tila said. “Come on.“
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