Chapter Text
The key to eternal life is not something I'll ever understand.
It's all so blank. Is it not?
If you truly think of it, as a rising God? There's no end. no matter how much you squirm, struggle, fight or flight, there's nothing that can be done.
Sure.. you can take down and become more powerful, but what truly does happen when you've gone as far high as you can?
Lamb was pulled out of their thoughts to the sound of flock members arguing, and the smell of burning food. Shit. Did they seriously just zone out in the middle of cooking? They moved their hoofed hand quickly towards the stove burner and pulled the pan away, making sure that the damage wasn't too bad. Thankfully, the food was still salvageable, although looking a bit crisp. They fanned the slight smoke away, and checked the stove and cleared it off to make sure they didn't burn any more.
"Finally back to consciousness?" Narinder, the tall black cat spoke up, a teasing tone. "I thought you'd never return to the land amongst living." He laughed dryly, eyeing the food as Lambert put the stove back on after clearing it of any hazards.
"Narinder, I'm not in the mood for your teasing." The Lamb replied dryly, flipping the meat on the skillet. It was a huge pan with a lot of different seasonings in it; pepper, bit of cinnamon, chili powder, salt.
There was also some vegetables from Anura. Just typical dinner, it was usually a 'followers cook for themself in a group' situation. Sadly, the last time someone else cooked there was a fire in the Kitchen.
Lamb did not wish to deal with that again, it was a pain to put out. On top of that, poor Ratau got a burn on the hand from trying to get it put out! Last thing they wanted was more injuries towards others.
The cat snorted, "Are you still salty that Baal and Aym messed up the kitchen?"
Narinder knew too well how to get under their skin.
"No, I fear I just actually prefer food edible." They commented, flipping a bit of the meat to make sure it wasn't too raw. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to continue cooking without a specific cat pestering me . I mean ..unless if you're wanting to help me cook for the whole flock." Lambert took a knife, poking it into a cut up potato, tasting it to check if it was cooked. Then ultimately deciding that the rest should cook for another minute or so.
"I doubt your cooking is as good as you claim." Narinder spoke, looking down.
"Go harass someone else for food."
"Well you're the one cooking."
Lambert sighed in defeat, using the knife to cut off a piece. "It's not fully cooked, if you complain you're going to take over dinner duty for the flock." They stated. "You wouldn't." Narinder stated, picking the piece and putting it into his mouth.
"...The food is adequate, I guess. It needs more seasoning." Narinder licked his lips. Lambert looked down at the seasonings on the skillet. "Which one's would you say I should add more of?" They inquired, looking down at the skillet. Narinder grabbed one of the packets of seasoning, deciding to eyeball it and add some more salt.
"First off, you are absolutely neglecting the salt. Second, why do you have ...cinnamon in the seasonings for this.? And how muchof it did you add?" He had more-so a judging tone towards it, but yet again. He hadn't exactly had the best food over the years that he had spent within purgatory. Let alone, cooked on his own without Baal or Aym over his shoulder watching.
"I added about, half a teaspoon of cinnamon. Usually once i add the other seasonings fully, it isn't as noticeable." Lambert replied, watching the black cat's movements. Narinder added a bit more of the Chile powder to the meat, and some other forms of seasoning with practiced ease.
"First off, if you're going to add seasoning to meat, you wait until the other seasoning is added first." He stated, finishing up with his altercations to it.
Lamb nodded, watching the Black cat back away from the stove. "Well, thank you Narinder, but, why are you helping me?"
"If you fuck up the food, then everyone suffers. That includes me too, you do realize." Narinder had a matter of fact tone, as Lambert took back over the stove.
"I suppose." They replied, tapping their fingers on the counter as they working on the meat.
"It's just funny to see you care so much over a bit of seasoning, I'd never expect you to be so keen on cooking." The Lamb giggled, watching the meat sizzle inside of the skillet. "So, how are you adjusting to no longer being in purgatory?" They asked, part of them trying to make small talk , the other half out of genuine curiosity.
"...fine." Narinder replied, just a one word response.
"Just 'fine'? Have you not made any friends yet, or interacted with your siblings? I'm quite sure they missed you." Lambert flipped a few veggies, trying to maintain eye contact while conversing with him.
"I rather not interact with others below me, or the buffoons who called themselves my siblings." he replied, his demeanor shifting to a bit softer one.
"And why is that?" Lambert inquired, watching Narinder suddenly look very interested in his feet.
Narinder took a moment, then sighing. "Heket is a pure glutton whose humor is awful, Leshy's a pain in the ass who enjoys getting high off of the mushrooms from Anura with Sozo in his free time. Shamura's brain is scrambled for the most part, and struggles to form sentences at times, and Kallamar? He's a coward. Cant even stand his ground, yet claims about half of the flock as a 'partner.' "
"I don't understand how you enjoy any of their presences.
Lambert paused their movements on the stove, turning down the heat for a moment and moving it to a non-heated burner. "Well, not to undermine any experiences you have. I'm sure since you're related to them all, you know way more than i could ever know. But from my experience- All of them, except Heket, have been pretty kind towards me. Honestly, is odd considering I killed them and they're back now ..but, still."
Narinder stiffened for a moment, are they serious?
"If you'd ever like to tell me about you and your siblings, I wouldn't mind. It'd be nice to get to know you better, than from our experiences before, well ..now." They offered, slightly hopeful but not expecting type of tone.
"..I'd rather not share anything with you at all. I don't enjoy seeing your face more than I already have to." He stated bluntly, looking down at the skillet. "You know what happens when you assume. It makes an ass out of you and uhh.." he paused. "Ming." he gestured to one of the younger kids in the nursery, that The Goat was on duty to tend to who was conveniently named that.
Lambert nodded, understanding fully why he wouldn't want to share such details with them. "I understand, Narinder."
Narinder flicked his eyes to the side, trying to see if there was anything to do other than watch the sheep finish up cooking. There was always the drink house, open. But, sadly, Leshy is usually the one making drinks. The last thing he honestly wanted was to talk to his siblings, even if there was no issues he could cause at the moment.
An awkward silence fell between the two. What else was there to even talk about? How Lambert was his most trusted disciple? How they overthrew him right whenever he nearly had the thing he had wanted for so, so long?
How looking at them made him want to strangle them? It was pathetic, looking at them, with their big dark eyes and small dainty body with all of that wool.
Their demeanor had always confused him. Too soft for his liking, even before they overthrew him. Absolutely refused sacrifice unless it was a spy, or requested by follower for their own way to end. It was odd how they drew the line at some things, but helped followers sacrifice themselves. Last time he checked, assisted suicide is bad, is it not? He wasn't one to care or judge though.
After a moment, Lamb's hand came into his vision.
"Narinder?? Earth to Narinder?"
Narinder snapped out of it.
"What?" His ears flopped like an angry kitten's, his tone carrying a slight bit of an annoyance, but no real anger.
"Do you want to go ahead and get your plate before I call everyone else, Or would you rather wait?" They asked, holding a plate towards him that he could put food onto.
Narinder stared at Lambert for a moment, then reluctantly taking the plate from them. "I suppose I could take..some."
He picked up the utensil used by everyone to put food on the plate, doing just that. It was nothing fancy, some form of meat spiced how one would do to empandas, veggies, and bread.
"...thank you, i guess." He looked down, picking at the food with his own fork.
Lambert nods. "Thank you for actually helping with seasoning."
Narinder didn't bother responding, and just walked over to a quiet area to go eat. Lambert didn't particularly care Narinder didn't end the conversation properly, knowing that Narinder had a very low social battery. Any form of conversation was generally annoying to Narinder. It was either a waste of time, or boring. Majority of the time it was both.
Lambert rung the bell to signal to the cult that dinner was ready, Majority of the followers rushing over. Some deciding to wait a bit before eating. Lambert wasn't exactly hungry, so they decided to head towards Nursery to check on The Goat. Goat was just watching the children sleep, while sitting nearby. They were zoned out, likely thinking about something random like Shamura, or the classic 'I love my partner' bullshit they never shut up about.
Goat had never liked being near kids, but they sucked at cooking. So, they did not have much choice other than to watch them while Lambert cooked.
"Goat?" Lamb called out, approaching. The bell on their fleece jingling as they approached. Goat immediately perked up. "eh? What's going on Lamb? Did the cat do something stupid again?" Goat gestured towards Narinder's general direction.
"No, no, not that. I finished cooking dinner, do you want to go eat and I watch the young ones for a while?" they offered.
"Count me in, What type of food?" Goat stood up, straightening out their gray fur.
"I cooked some meat with veggies, and bread. The meat was kind of like that empanada filling we made that one time. I found the stuff in Anura, and Darkwood. So I figured I might as well use the resources for some decent food." Lambert replied, smiling as they clasped their hands together.
"Sounds good, I'm going to go do that then. Have fun with the little shits." Goat gestured to the children, sleeping. "See you lambchops." They walked towards the kitchen area.
Lambert sighed, pinching the bridge of their nose, calling out; "...Please...don't call the children little shits, please."
They exhaled, almost exasperated. " One day one of the parents will hear you, and it will not look good if the co-leader is calling the children such things." They added, giving up when Goat didn't reply. They sat down in the nursery, keeping watch of the kids as other followers continued on about their days, eating, talking- worshipping. The majority of them talking about Narinder's presence, some finding him attractive, some finding him creepy. Most landed on creepy, other than a few of them who were a bit odd. It wasn't anything that they weren't used to, lots of the cult liked debating. Especially about other members, and who would be good for new offspring. I mean, the mating tent was there for a reason. Even if it was a bit unethical.
Who cares though? Everyone loved lambert, even if they didn't, hey could just manipulate the situation to their liking. Lambert continued to wander, eventually deciding to lay down for a while. It had been a long time since they had properly rested, so maybe if they took a moment for themself they could feel better.
The sheep climbed into their makeshift bed, removing things such as the Red Crown and their bell, to get comfortable, shuffling under the covers.
After a minute or so of trying, they drifted to sleep.