The Wolves and the White Bird

07. The Cafeteria

Cora and Kimiko walked out of the medical office and back to the elevators. "I'll take you back to your room," said Kimiko, pressing the up button on the lift. "You're allowed to go pretty much anywhere in the building as long as you have an escort. The only exception is level 100."

"What's on level 100?" asked Cora.

"That's the Alpha's private quarters. It's off limits to almost everyone." Kimiko hit the button on the elevator again, several times in annoyance. "I swear for a building this advanced, why can't they make the lifts go any faster?"

Cora's stomach grumbled. Kimiko looked at her and raised an eyebrow before letting out a sigh, now pressing on the down button multiple times. "Down to the cafeteria it is."

Cafeteria? Cora thought as her stomach grumbled again, getting her hopes up. She hadn't eaten in a couple days, which would normally mean nothing to her, but any mention or thought of food always had her stomach grumbling away like crazy. Not that she had been to a cafeteria before, but she had read about them in an old book she had stowed away a couple of years back and from what she read, cafeterias meant food.

They got into the elevator, which took forever to arrive, and began their descent down to level 89. Once they hopped off, they came in contact with a small group of people exiting from another lift. She stared at the clock on the nearby wall, noting that it was 10pm.

"It's pretty late, but the cafeteria is open 24 hours. We work some odd hours around here, so it always seems to be busy no matter what time you end up here." Kimiko grabbed Cora's arm and dragged her through the groups of people into the neatly formed line.

Kimiko grabbed a tray from a nearby pile, shoving one at Cora, who grabbed it with curiosity and held it close as Kimiko grabbed another one for herself. They walked side by side, down the line of people and up to the food and surprisingly, no-one had their eye on her as she walked down the line. In crowds like this, people would usually stare and gawk at her, eager to get a look at the mysterious White Bird. But not this time. People seemed more interested in what they were putting in their stomach, which was fine by her.

When they reached the front of the line, Cora stared at the options before her. There were so many trays of food that she almost drooled on the spot. Never in her life had she seen so much food before. Not knowing what to do, she glanced at Kimiko, who was grabbing a bowl of soup that had been portioned into tiny bowls on the tray in front of them.

Cora moved on to the next tray, copying Kimiko and choosing almost the same items as her, apart from the bread. She was so sick of bread, having been almost a daily occurrence in the Darkmane pack, that she felt nauseous even looking at it.

She walked behind Kimiko, squeezing through the crowd as they came to a stop at a round table. There were two other people already sitting down and Kimiko sat down next to them, ushering Cora to do the same.

"Wow. You're the White Bird," said a young pale skinned man. He had expressive brown eyes, large ears, angular eyebrows and his fine grey hair was long but dyed a vibrant emerald green at the tips. He had a whimsical beauty about him.

The other man sitting next to him was taller, darker skinned and older, but not by much. His broad shoulders were covered in strange but beautiful tribal looking tattoos and she couldn't help but wonder why he was one of the very few in here that looked different from the others. That was before she noticed three furry orange tails draping over the side of the bench he was sitting on.

"Werefox," said the man in a deep, brooding voice, who noticed Cora gazing at her. His eyes glanced up at her, glowing a brilliant fiery orange.

"And I'm a Selkie," said the more energetic of the two. "Half human, half seal."