Heirot

Vlad watched patiently until all the eggs were in the bowl. "Let's mix them together, and add some sugar. All cake needs sugar," he advised. Geri was already handing the girl a whisk.

Tenara held the whisk, swishing it around like a sword. She tipped the whisk into the bowl and clumsily began to stir it up. She giggled excitedly as all the contents began to mix together. Her eyes turned on her father happily, her face smeared with flower and sticky egg. "Cake!"

It's not cake yet, until we get it nice and hot." Vlad took a few minutes to demonstrate how to tell that the pan was the right temperature, and then guided her to pour in the eggs. "We'll wait until the edges start to bubble, then we'll need to fold it over with this," Vlad said, handing her a spatula.

Tenara took the spatula from him, eyeing it curiously. Then she hovered over the pan and watched the egg cook diligently. "Now?" she asked after a few minutes. There was one bubble. Did that mean it was okay?

"We need it to fizzle with bubbles. One isn't enough," Vlad said, waiting with her. A few moments later, the edges of the eggs were simmering. "There. See that? That means it's ready."

Gina had dragged several other chefs into the room to spectate, and she looked ready to die from amusement at how seriously the vampire was taking this lesson.

The vampire had never been one to mind attention, so he carried on. "You'll want to get the spatula under this part, and fold it in half onto the other side."

Tenara wiggled on her wobbly stool closer to the pan and did as her father instructed. Her face was stern with concentration, brow furrowed and eyes set. She managed to flip it over onto the other half, not quite neat, but effective enough. "I did it!" she exclaimed excitedly, nearly falling off her stool.

"It looks good," the vampire confirmed. "Doesn't need to be pretty. Just needs to taste good. If you were just eager for breakfast, you could eat it like it is now. Or...we could put some of Gina's sweet custard as an icing between the layers, like a real cake."

"Oooooo," Tenara gushed. "Cake." But her tummy growled loudly. "Custard?" Tenara looked to Gina.

Gina smiled and brought out a bowl of pudding-like yellow custard, and offered the girl a spoonful to taste.

Tenara tasted it. "Mmmmm!" Her eyes turned up to her father happily, nodding her head. "Please, please!"

* * *

Tenele woke with a long stretch and a heavy sigh to an empty bed. There was a pang of disappointment that she hadn't anyone to snuggle up to. Without the motivation to stay in bed she quickly dressed, pinned up her hair, and went to check on Tenara. There was a brief second of concern before she thought that Vlad or Atul might have taken her down for breakfast.

Vlad smiled and helped tenara get her semicircle of eggs out of the pan, cut it into several triangular slices, and stack them one over the other with custard in between. It did kind of look like a cake when she was done, although a slightly melty one. Gina and the others teased and praised the vampire's invention as they shooed him and his daughter out of the kitchen and brought the plate out to them. It looked quite a bit nicer on the plate when they brought it out than when they'd left it in the kitchen. Gina drizzled strawberry syrup over the top, making it look fancier than it was.

Tenara was so happy when she got her strawberry drizzled custard cake that she could barely contain herself. She began to eat quickly, maybe a little too quickly. "Its good!" she announced, wiggling in her seat. She began to hum her happy song, munching on her delicious breakfast.

Vlad sat back and watched her contentedly. He never could have imagined how immensely he would enjoy these simple moments raising her. Even just being by her while she slept made him feel complete.

Gina brought him coffee, which he played with for the heck of it while Tenara had her breakfast. The staff was all aware that he liked to make the pretense of eating with his family.

When the eggy creation was gone, Vlad grinned at her. "Do you want to make one for mommy?" he asked.

Tenara nodded. "Mommy would like this. Its good!" She hopped off her stool and ran back into the kitchen.

* * *

Tenele sat in the private dining room sometime later being entertained by the butler. She was only slightly confused as to why he seemed to be stalling, but she humored him nonetheless.

"Are you sure the kitchen isn't out of food. You can tell me, I don't mind. I can go to the public dining hall," she offered him with a pleasant smile.

Gina was greatly amused and Vlad proudly observant as Tenara took the making of a second egg cake very seriously. The vampire had noticed an egg shell make it into the concoction, but he believed Tenele would be forgiving. Other than that, the girl seemed to have caught on remarkably fast.

Gina took care of the plating and handed it back to Tenara. "I'll bet your mom will like it if you take this out to her yourself," she advised.