The famed red-tailed goose eggs

Hugo walked into the dining room. The rest of the occupants of the house and the single guest had already taken their places at the square dinning-table.

Miss Fox, Aladdin, and Ali-Baba who had all been mysteriously absent from the house the previous day were present too. They silently feasted on a dish of red-tailed goose eggs piled into small hills on the plates before them. Hugo had always been dumbfounded by the sheer amount of food the three consumed.

"So, you're finally up, sleazy sleepyhead? Thought you had died mysteriously in your sleep." The Matriarch intoned before Hugo could greet the rest. Her tone was as sarcastic as ever.

Hugo's mouth twitched noticeably.

"Grandma Bianca! Please don't start with Hugo again? I already explained to you why he wasn't up yet." Tracy pleaded before he could begin defending himself.

"So, tell me, young man. Is what your aunt said correct? Did you sleep late due to over-excitement? Because you were so excited about your apprenticeship with our blacksmith here?" The Matriarch ignored Tracy and went on questioning Hugo.

Tracy creased her brows, the three gluttons continued feasting on their porridge and goose eggs indifferently; while Constantine, the Blacksmith, went on stroking his silver-white beard silently, watching Hugo with a smile.

"Good morning to you too Grandma Bianca. Good morning to you the 'three musketeers of Giza'." Hugo chose to ignore the Matriarch's questions but instead busied himself with greeting the rest.

[Nothing good ever comes from arguing with the Matriarch. I'd better test the waters first…] He thought.

Grandma Bianca creased her brows, while the gluttons just silently nodded their heads in acknowledgment before returning to their feast.

[What's so special about those eggs? The level of attention paid to them is remarkable even by the murky standards those three gluttons.] Hugo wondered.

He had never been allowed a taste of the red-tailed goose eggs. The excuse given was that the goose eggs were too potent for his young body to handle. Hugo sighed as he turned his sight towards the old man. Constantine still wore his crown of silver-white hair in his signature-style of tying it neatly into a ponytail behind his head.

"And Teacher Constantine, How are you today?" Hugo chose to further ignore the Matriarch whose brows were so creased that they looked to be on the brink of merging.

"I'm good. I slept well on account of the soothing pattering rhythm of the rain last night." Constantine replied, his tone mellow as ever.

"Teacher Constantine! It's only the second time we've met, but I already feel like I've been your apprentice for years."

"Oh!" Constantine looked amused and waited for Hugo to go on with his blabbering.

"Is my mind playing some tricks on me? …Or are you such a good blacksmith that your aura can enlighten an apprentice in the divine ways of smithing in only two meetings?" Hugo shamelessly flattered the old man. He was already late, so he needed to make up for this with eloquence.

"Hahaha…" Constantine roared with laughter, an action that pushed the Matriarch's creased eyebrows further on their journey to combining into one.

"Young man. I'm beginning to like you." Constantine responded to Hugo's flattery after recovering from his fits of laughter.

[That went better than expected.] Hugo mused as he observed the results of his sycophancy.

"I am sorry that I'm late today. Because I was so excited about becoming your apprentice yesterday, I didn't manage to get even a wink of sleep until the wee hours of the night." Hugo added, his tone humble and repentant.

"No… No… Don't worry young man! It's good to get enough sleep now. You will need all that sleep in reverse when we start on your training." Constantine seemed to not care about Hugo's lateness.

Hugo breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought that the old blacksmith had come to pick him up or worse; cancel his apprenticeship. However, the signs showed that this was not the case.

"Young man! Now that you've greeted everyone, can you tell me why you locked yourself in your room all morning? We've already returned from the morning service for Erebus' sake!" The Matriarch exclaimed. She eyed Hugo like a cat readying to pounce on a mouse.

[Why is she so stuck on this?] Hugo wondered.

"I just overslept," Hugo answered curtly as he took up his seat beside Tracy on the six-seater dining table.

"Overslept you say!" The Matriarch responded, giving Hugo a cagy smile.

[Could the Matriarch have found out something, or is she just fishing?] Hugo didn't think so. So he clamped down on the slight bit of panic that was trying to take root in him.

"Bianca! Let's leave young Hugo alone. Everything's resolved now. We can begin his training right away." Constantine interjected saving Hugo from the Matriarch's ire.

[Training right now! How do we achieve that now?] Hugo looked up at Constantine whose face was still plastered with a mellow smile. The Blacksmith looked no different from a contented grandpa enjoying his retirement on a farm.

"Oh!" The Matriarch replied with a single word as she considered Constantine's proposition.

"Young man, I've heard from your Grandma that you've been itching to get a taste of red-tailed goose eggs," Constantine questioned choosing to ignore the Matriarch who was still frowning.

Hugo looked up confused.

[How are red-tailed goose eggs connected to my apprenticeship?] Hugo was filled with doubt.

"Do you still want a taste?" Constantine added, still gazing curiously at Hugo.

"Yes," Hugo answered honestly.

The faces of Tracy and the Matriarch started to look cramped from efforts to stifle their laughter. The gluttons just glanced briefly at Hugo and gently shook their heads in unison before going back to their feast.

[Why all the melodrama?] Hugo was confused.

"You should know that I am one of the best chefs in Giza. You can ask your Grandma. She will tell you how famed my cooking is across Gaia."

"Aren't you a blacksmith?" Hugo inquired.

"I am also a mystic." Constantine countered.

"Is every mystic a good chef?"

"No," Constantine replied while taking out a metal bowl with a transparent lid from his extra-dimensional-bracelet.

Hugo was not surprised by the mysterious conjuration of the bowl by the blacksmith. He had already seen other extra-dimensional-artifacts in Gaia. Tracy, Miss Fox, the Matriarch, and Ali-Baba each had one.

"But every group of mystics needs a good chef," Constantine added while pushing the dish across the table.

"Eehh!"

Hugo was surprised by the contents of the metal bowl before him.

Through the transparent lid, he could see half a dozen boiled goose eggs arranged neatly in some type of creamy soup. The soup was speckled exquisitely with a selection of Giza wild-mushrooms, fresh crimson berries, and a few leafy vegetables. The food looked like a piece of art from a master artist.

Hugo felt his mouth watering at the sight of the delicately arranged delicacies.

But he curbed his growing appetite and looked at the Blacksmith in confusion. He couldn't make heads or tails of how this delicious food before him was connected to his training in smithing.

"Every Blacksmith needs to be a mystic. This is common knowledge." Constantine continued while smiling at Hugo who was stealing glances at the bowl before him.

Hugo nodded in agreement. Although he hadn't been particularly interested in blacksmithing before yesterday, he had often heard stories from 'the three musketeers of Giza' about the craft. Only mystics could forge mystic-artifacts. This was an iron-rule that had never been broken in the history of Gaia.

Hugo was beginning to suspect that there was a connection between his blacksmith training and the food before him.

"Does eating the red-tailed goose eggs have a benefit of strengthening one's mana or mystical powers?" Hugo asked while looking expectantly at the blacksmith.

"Constantine! This is not a classroom. Stop boring us with your discussions and get to the point. Hugo! Can you just eat the damn eggs? They will help you become a mystic." The Matriarch sounded impatient as she rudely interrupted Constantine's lecture.

Constantine just smiled and nodded once at the expectant Hugo. Hugo gently rubbed his palms together before lifting the glass lid of the bowl before him.

"Oh my God!" Hugo was mesmerized. The scent and aroma of the dish were heavenly. The three gluttons had already begun casting covetous glances at the mouth-watering delicacies before Hugo.

Hugo didn't want to risk 'jeopardizing his path to mysticism'. So he pulled the dish closer to himself, to insure against the musketeers, before taking a single bite of the yummy goose eggs.

The taste was simply divine. Hugo felt tears form at the corners of his eyes. He quickly picked up a tablespoon and tasted the creamy soup lining the berries.

[How can food taste so divine? Is this what mystics are capable of?] Hugo mused as he geared up his eating pace. In a matter of minutes, he had emptied the bowl.

He burped in satisfaction and looked up to find all the other diners staring at him with contradictory expressions. The Matriarch was smiling unusually, Tracy seemed a little worried, while the gluttons looked at Hugo with their mouths agape.

"Is he really going to be alright?" Hugo heard his aunt inquire, her voice tinged with concern.

"Don't worry! This is a necessary first lesson for every mystic who wants to learn about smithing." Elder Constantine replied calmly, his tone soothing.

[What situation is this? All this farce about some delicious eggs! Do the eggs actually have a side effect? No! …]

Before Hugo could ponder the current situation more deeply, he felt a wave of energy explode out of his stomach and wash over his body.

Hugo's suppressed a cry as he felt his body twitch as he fell into the waiting arms of his aunt.

[Such simple-looking eggs can have such potent energy!] Hugo was perplexed.

"Welcome to the path of mysticism." He heard elder Constantine's voice through his ears which were buzzing with noise. Hugo was sure he would have passed out if his soul had not advanced.

[What kind of marijuana has been fed to me?] Hugo wondered…