Walking Disasters and Me-The Foliage Folly, The Meaning of a Dream – Ch 113
Before either of us know it, the sun begins its slow decline towards the horizon, its golden light shifting to amber and violet as it marches ever towards the other side of the disc. Still a
weird
concept in general for me, Mara being a flat world and all. Throughout the day, Gerra and I cuddled while she taught me to not only how to cook in general, but also how to best infuse Qi into things, and how to do so that would aid the cooking experience and time needed for certain dishes. The soup in particular, as apparently doing it the mortal way could take upwards of an entire day depending on what was added.
However, using Qi to speed up the thermal reactions of the water, bones, and meat
greatly
cuts down on time. So much so that at as we paused to look over to the setting sun, the pot of soup was finished, now being a more formal
[Dreroth]
stew with vegetables and chunked poultry meat further seasoned with herbs and spices from the pantry. We also ended up baking three of the said bird in the oven while Gerra supervised my attempts to sear and infuse a few slabs of
[Bisoonses]
to go along with everything else.
I also had a chance to show off some of my own recipes that I knew, namely the glorious invention of mashed potatoes~! She watched with interest as I deftly peeled and boiled a few Mara equivalents to the famed golden delight in another large pot before mashing them all together with some butter and comparable seasonings of garlic, parsley, and chives. After I taste tested it with a clean finger, a wave of nostalgia crashed into me that almost brought tears to my eyes despite my tastebuds dancing with glee.
Thankfully, the pang of homesickness retreats just as quickly as it appeared though, as Gerra does her own little sneaky taste and nearly melts onto the countertop. "
Heavens~!
That is a
wonderful
creation there little bird! I take it this is something from your old world?" She says out eagerly her tail tip and ears twitching in joy as the lingering taste of the white mass trickles in her system.
"Yep!" I say back with a small smile, "The tuber I used, the
[Arinalt]
, is close to what we called a potato back on Earth. Surprisingly same texture and taste too... Oh well, maybe just convergent evolution or something. Anywho! They've been popular for centuries when I was alive there, and while there are
quite
a few ways to cook and dress them up, the tried-and-true method before you is always a classic that nearly everyone enjoys~." I take another little taste, determined not to let the slightly despondent reaction be my last association with the wonderful dish until dinner, a pleased hum resonating from my core.
We made a fresh salad to go with everything, which actually turned out to be the hardest to infuse since there isn't
really
a cooking process involved in it. I tried a few times, but annoyingly I couldn't
quite
understand how to get the Qi to fuse into the essentially dead plant matter and fruits no matter how hard I focused or how many connections I tried to use. A frustrated huff escapes my lips as I back away from the large bowl of greens, reds, and purples from the various edible leaves and assorted toppings, Gerra's hand quick to slide up my back and rub it comfortingly.
"It's alright, little bird. You did so well today, better than
anyone
probably thought possible including myself! No shame in not being a perfect master on your first day, right?" She says soothingly, squeezing my shoulders from time to time as she walks me back from the little dark storm cloud that's formed above my head.
"I
guess
..." I pout out, still not happy to not succeed on the first try even if I know that's a bit... childish... "
*Sigh*
You're right." I finally turn back to her and say as I wrap her in a hug, "I guess I just got so used to always figuring stuff out after the first few attempts that its...
weird
to hit a roadblock all of the sudden. Especially over something that seems so easy! Stupid plants..." I huff out one last barb to the accursed foliage onto the warm and sweet-smelling skin of the cat woman, the fragrance almost reminding me of cinnamon rolls~.
Said feline just giggles, motherly patting my back as she says, "There
is
a trick to it, but if you haven't figured it out by the time it's Jun Li's turn to teach you then I'll give you a hint. I have no doubt that you'll find the answer on your own given how intuitive and smart you constantly are~. Let me wrap up the salad while you go throw the loaves we made earlier into the oven, it should be hot enough by now. Use the wooden board to move 'em in there after you cover it in flour so they don't stick. Also, make sure you snuff the fire before you close the door, we want them to be cooked by the coals, not the lick of the flame."
I give out a - mostly - playful defeated, "Okay..." to which she uses her tail to pat my rear with an audible but painless
*smack!*
as I walk away, making me jump a little in surprise and send a glare back to her. She flashes a coy and flirty wink before turning to the bane of my kitchen experience so far, leaving me to the task she laid out for me. After I had figured out the soup trick, she and I made three long, thick loaves of bread from a dough that she had prepped the day before, which she also used to explain the importance of keeping dough in rotation.
Since it takes a bit to rise and get to oven ready, you're usually not making and baking the same mixture that you prepared on the same day, but one that you did a day or so prior. I reach up to grab the large wooden spatula, covering the surface in flour as asked and carefully rolling all three onto it. I use Qi to help keep the goopy mess together and in shape as best I can, but I do have to do some patchwork here or there to get them back to how they looked beforehand.
I open the large metal door to the bottom of the oven before sliding the in the waiting bread to the semi-circular opening, again using Qi to help get them easily off the flat wooden tool. I ponder a bit about how to put out the fire like she said, I doubt she meant like... pouring water in there since that'd cause a whole heap of smoke and ash to fly up and stick to the dough. I hum a bit, my foot tapping along with my turning gears before I just shrug and focus my will on one of the bracelets.
In a flash, it forms into a small bead that has several enchantments strewn across it, namely a conditional clause that when activated should absorb all of the oxygen in a space just big enough for the fire pit. With a small flash of Qi sent to its timed Qi storage element, I toss the bead into the flames and watch in fascination as a brief
*whoomf!*
mutely thrums out, the flames and fire along with it.
Satisfied, a victorious smile flits to my face as I will the bead back to my hand, closing the door once more before skipping past a confused and disbelief-stricken Gerra as I poke my head outside and vent the stored energies from the bead back into the air of the courtyard. The silvery metal once more transforms into its benign wrist accessory as I happily walk back and twirl in front of the cat woman and give a little bow~.
"Ta-da!" I joke out with over enthused fanfare. Gerra shakes her head a couple of times while she laughs and sets the salad bowl aside, my own chuckles coming to join hers as the room begins to fill with the wonderous smell of baking bread~. She finally looks back up to me with a little tilt of her lips still on her face as she says, "While not what I
thought
you'd do, you certainly have a talent for figuring out solutions don't you little bird~. To think you'd use a treasure of that quality just to quell an oven! I'm not sure if the Madam would laugh or cry if she saw that, to say nothing of Sammy. She couldn't
stop
talking about how incredible it was to see you use it last night. Well, when she wasn't using her mouth for other things~."
She raises her eyebrows a couple times in a suggestive manner after the delightful mental image she blasts into my brain. I cough awkwardly a couple times, trying and failing to keep the rising claws of the no doubt painfully apparent blush from forming to which Gerra just giggles before motioning her head toward the barstool like chairs across the room. I nod, nearly succumbing to my curiosity to ask about what all they got up to last night. My new voyeur kink seems to be settling in for real, I guess. With an unneeded jump, I plop into one of the seats as Gerra joins me, two cups in her hands before she offers one to me.
I take it hesitantly; memories of the last time this mischievous woman tried to get me drunk flashing to mind. She catches the accusing stare and questioning eyebrows on my face as she gives a sheepish smile, scratching her cheek awkwardly before answering the unspoken question, "I guess I deserve that huh? I made sure yours is the tamer stuff this time hun, don't worry~. Just thought we could both use a little celebration drink for all the hard work we did, as well as your monumental advancements today~."
She raises up her cup halfway between us, giving me a kind look that I can't help but return as we clink the worked stone cups together, the knock of the colliding surfaces sounding out inside the kitchen. Her smile widens as she her eyes close in joy before she raises her cup and takes a couple swigs, her pink tail lazing behind her happily as I do the same to my own drink. We sit like that for a time, occasionally casting our gazes over to the oven to check the progress on the bread as the amber twilight in the courtyard begins to shift to muted blue.
The silence of action and speech makes an opening in my mind to think back to the dream with Sandy, mainly the odd place she wound up being in and how she interacted with it in general. She really was like some fairy tale princess, and while that is
cute
and
adorable
and kind of hot, it also raises more questions than I'm comfortable with. Why was she there? Who put her there? And what made that space?
The first question is easy to answer, but no less worrying as it depends on the answer of the last two to determine if that's a good thing or not. I stare down into the cup, the new face in the reflection having lost much of its newness by now, being replaced with comfortable familiarity instead of worry like when I first landed here. Those cerulean eyes peer back at me, the color diluted in the pink of the drink as my mind whirs and ponders.
It's been heavily hinted but not yet confirmed if Sandra is harboring a past self like I am with the Empress, but at this point... can I really deny it? The system titles that the Empress manipulates are nearly always related to a fated connection, and I doubt she meant for it
only
to include Sandra and myself in that calculus. And that vision the Empress showed me of her past when I grabbed the scythe for the first time... that radiant woman who came at the end and healed them just
has
to have been her soulmate. The instant pull and deep emotion that she had upon seeing her savior was nearly identical to how I feel with Sandra, and now to a lesser extent with Akiko.
Raphiel... I try to think of other explanations, different theories, but none of them make sense and I'm still too unfamiliar with how things work on Mara to even know if any of those alternate thoughts would even make sense in action.
No
, the easiest and surest explanation right now is that somehow Raphiel is awake and made that space for Sandra to recover in after she worked herself too hard.
A little flash of regret and anger flare up inside me, not directed in
any
way toward Sandra but just at the situation itself before I exhale a long breath and take another sip of the warm and sweet liquid, its buzzing numbness helping calm me down somewhat. I can't help but feel a little knot of worry web its way within me at the notion that such a powerful outside player is on the board now,
especially
when Sandra is still so weak. What if... what if Raphiel isn't on the same page as the Empress and tries to take over Sandra?
The cup in my hand nearly shatters, cracks forming along its exterior as my hand cinches down unbiddenly. It only avoids such a fate due to Gerra quickly snatching it out of my hands, looking over to me with concern before saying, "Damn, little bird. If you didn't like the drink, you could have just said so! No need to take it out on the dishware!" She tries to joke out, but the worry in her eyes outweighs any attempt at levity. Her soft and strong tail comes to gently wrap around my arm a few times in comfort, rubbing its velvety soft fur against my skin as she just looks at me for a few seconds, obviously waiting for me to explain myself.
I apologetically gaze over to her with a sad smile before giving her a reply, "Sorry... I just...
Ugh!"
I say as I ruffle my hair for a few moments, the tempestuous roiling emotions hard to bat away as a long sigh escapes my lips. After my riled-up core calms down some, I try again at an explanation, "I had a dream meet up with my sister again, after like a
week
of failing to do so. I woke up in the space back in our old family home on Earth, but when I went to her room it was like... some enchanted meadow with life and sun all around, everywhere you looked. I eventually found her, and she said she overworked herself a tad while trying to heal and woke up in that grove. But... the plant life all around her seemed to actively
react
to anything she did.
Like, just brushing her fingers across the grass caused flowers to bloom and grow. And while that is awesome, it's kind of unsettling too because she didn't have any memory of making such a space and neither of us have a memory of such a diverse forest clearing back on Earth. My mind started wandering, thinking about the how and why of that little issue when I realized..." I pause my rambling to take a breath, my heartbeat picking up a few notches as my own worry creases my brow.
"I realized that her soul patron or past life or whatever the Empress is to me must also be awake now, at least to some degree. I had a vision when I grabbed a scythe for the first time, and it was a memory of the Empress when she was mortal. There was a woman at the end of that that
had
to have been her soulmate just from the vibes she was feeling after she saw her up close, and her name was Raphiel. I think... Raphiel is awake and made that space while Sandra was recovering from her ambitious attempts at healing."
I finally come to my conclusion and lean back, throwing my head to the ceiling as I try to keep the anxious energy from coalescing any further. "I'm worried." I say out softly, the faintest pinpricks of heat dotting the corners of my eyes as I look up to the beautiful architecture of the estate, "I'm worried about such a powerful entity interacting with Sandra while she's still so incomplete. That she wouldn't be able to fight off the influence in any capacity while she's like that. What if I'm right, and this Raphiel person wants to do what I was worried about with the Empress and me? Subsume Sandy so that she can come back to life in her place? How would I even fight that or stop it..." I choke down a sob before harshly spitting out, "I
couldn't
. And I
hate
that. That I'm too weak and don't know enough about stuff like this yet to safely put it out of my mind, to let it gnaw at me and fill me with dread."
I feel the wetness trail down my cheeks as two clinks sound out in the room. Just as I close my eyes to shed more of the salty liquid, I feel myself get bodily picked up with ease as Gerra wraps me in a hug, taking both of us outside to the fresh mountain air as she sits on one of the table benches and rocks me in her arms. "Shh... It's alright, Amelia. I can only imagine how scary this must be for you. It's more than normal to be worried, to feel frightened by such a thought. Just let it out for now, I'm right here."
And so the last rays of sunshine fade, the coolness of the night air becoming tangled with my tearful sobs as I wrap my arms and legs around the muscular form of Gerra, the kind woman simply holding me tight in turn as she sways us back and forth. It's about this time that the door to the kitchen opens, because
of course
that is just my luck, and the other three members of our troupe rush in to create an impromptu comforting cuddle pile.
All of us are surrounded by tails of snow and night, the scent of citrus and smoke, earth and life, clean carpet, and sweet cinnamon. Hands and arms firmly faceted to our forms as they trek and rub, pat and squeeze in chaste comfort and love. No one speaks a word, and though a few more emotional sobs elicit out of me for a new reason now, mostly being overcome by the love and care instead of the doubt and worry like before, the silence of the night once more resumes its reign.
After a few moments of surety that the tidal wave of emotions has passed, Akiko and the others slowly disentangle themselves from the gordian knot of their own making. Several snow-white furred tails scoop me up and wrap around me, firmly depositing my rear into the lap of the worried Akiko, her motherly face looking down to me with concern as she cups my cheek with a chilly hand.
"My love, what is the matter? Hopefully Gerra's lessons were not
that
extreme." She says with a harsh flick of her eyes toward the poor cat woman who is wholly unprepared for the sudden accusation.
Gerra raises her hands defensively as she shakes her head, her words anxious as she responds, "N-No Madam! Amelia did a
fine
job today, and I can't wait to tell you all about her progress, but I didn't have anything to do with what you walked in on other than comforting her, I swear!"
Akiko studies her words and reactions for a few moments before I raise my hand to hers, her face instantly snapping back to me with that same loving concern before I sniffle out, "Don't be mean. Gerra was
wonderful
all day, this wasn't her fault."
A few of the free ice tipped tails flick back and forth a few times before Akiko lets out a heavy exhale of breath, her face softening as she turns back to Gerra and says out with apology, "I am sorry, my dear, for accusing you. I am...
struggling
with adjusting to the protective instincts regarding Amelia that I now possess, but I should not have levied doubt on you without hearing your side of the situation first. Forgive me?"
Gerra instantly jumps over to lay a big, long kiss on the lips of Akiko, both of them humming with delight at the accepted apology. However, it is a kind of...
odd
experience for me since I'm basically looking up at the two of them making out, my body still cocooned in the fluffy protection of Akiko's tails. The instant blazing heat on my face makes me turn away, or try to, but Akiko's hand keeps my head in place, the movement enough to make her break off the kiss as she rubs her nose with Gerra's a few times.
She looks down to me, a faint line of pink on her cheeks as she says, "Apologies, Amelia. Now then, would you like to share what has worried you so? I know our bond is nascent and forming, but even
I
felt that crash of despondence that no doubt erupted from within you. If you wish to relay it in private, that is fine as well, but we are all worried for you."
I sigh as she strokes my cheek with a thumb, deciding to just get it all out in the open now that the cat's out of the bag. Even if I wasn't even trying to hide it or anything, I just thought of it after all... As Gerra walks back to the kitchen to get dinner plated and set, the still concerned expressions of Jun Li, Samantha, and Akiko wash over me while Akiko sits me up and I begin to retell my woes and worries to the group.
By the end of the much less emotional recounting, each of them seems equally as thoughtful by the new information, For the first time since I've been here, dinner begins in muted reflection, the sound of two-pronged metal forks scraping against plates the only foreign note amongst the cricket call and flowing breeze.
.
!
The Foliage Folly, The Meaning of a Dream – Ch 113
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