Sword and Snow

While Emery, Avuri, and Vale were away visiting the Elders, Talya and Gray were left demonstrably in charge. They didn’t want to disrupt too much, though, so they mostly let the kids go about their business as usual.

This included the Maple family cleaning the barn, the Yews taking care of weeding the fields a bit, the Alders tending to the farm animals and chickens, and the Elm family was on food duty for the day.

After Shara had helped her siblings with the chickens, she had begged Kord to let her go cook with Ritz and her siblings, which Kord allowed. This left her running off to join Ritz and the others with their cooking for the day.

When she arrived at the kitchen, there was already mild chaos as everyone flew around the kitchen prepping for lunch. Enrik and Wrynn were handling a large batch of fried rice while Cruz was helping Ritz prepare various veggies for a simple soup.

“Hey guys, what can I do to help?” Shara asked as she moved inside and grabbed a clean apron from the pegs on the wall. “You’re getting me out of washing pigs, so feel free to put me to work!” She laughed cheerily as she waved at Ritz, her best friend.

Enrik waved her over to Ritz and Cruz. “Help them finish the soup. The rice is nearly done already, we just need to rotate batches through the wok for frying.”

“Gotcha.” She nodded, and settled in beside Ritz who bumped her while giggling. She grabbed a knife and began steadily working away at the large pile of vegetables. Slow but steady, like she was taught.

They were all pretty confident in their peeling skills. Emery had taught them well, and she had drilled all of them on knife and blade safety. At least the ones that she deemed old enough to handle sharp things.

“Thanks, Shara.” Cruz said with a grin. “I know you’re getting to skip out on chores you like even less, but we really could use the help.” He suddenly raised his voice, probably so his twin could hear. “Wrynn decided to sleep in today, and took too long in the bathroom. Made us start late today.”

Wrynn’s eyes darted to him briefly before moving back to the wok that she was working with. She tossed the food twice, nodded once, then set it down on the heat for a moment. She briskly walked over behind Cruz, gave him a swift kick in the ass, then moved back to her wok. Laughter erupted around the room.

“Jerk.” She said finally, once some of the laughter cooled. “My stomach hurt this morning. I’m sorry my pain was such an inconvenience to you.”

“I’m just teasing, Wrynn. I’m glad you’re feeling better, and I’m very glad that we get a little help to get us caught up!” Cruz said happily, then looked over to his twin sister more seriously. “You are feeling better, yeah?”

Wrynn just nodded as she focused on helping Enrik put the fried rice on a plate and move a new batch into the wok. “Yeah.”

After a bit of silence, Ritz suddenly asked, “What’s for dinner tonight?” Her hands continued to move, peeling, cutting, and dumping carrots into the soup base.

“I don’t think we've decided anything yet, have we?” Wrynn asked, turning a questioning look on Enrik.

“Not yet. If we’re having fried rice and soup for lunch, though, we should probably do something with a bit more protein for dinner.” He said, looking around at the possible ingredients.

“Can we make cake for dinner?” Ritz asked suddenly. “I want cake.” She reaffirmed after a few seconds.

No one spoke for a bit after that, the only sound being the cooking getting done and the sizzling of the rice in the wok.

“...Cake? Really?” Cruz asked, incredulously. “Mom and Momri would be pissed.”

“Language.” Enrik and Wrynn said in unison. Cruz shot them a look but said nothing.

“Would making cake for dinner work?” Shara wondered aloud. “I mean, it would almost definitely get us in trouble if we just made a big cake. Right?” She asked the room.

“Definitely.” Enrik nodded to himself.

“What about if we made a chicken cake?” Ritz asked, her head cutely tilted to one side as she thought about it. “You said we needed something with protein, right? That means meat, right? What if we made a chicken cake?” She asked again, getting herself excited.

“I don’t think we could make a chicken cake.” Wrynn said sadly. “I don’t know how we would even begin to get the chicken into the cake batter.”

“What about a chicken made of cake?” Cruz joked with a laugh.

But Ritz’s eyes went wide and she jumped up and down. “Let’s do that! It sounds like fun!”

Enrik helped Wrynn transfer the fried rice again, but his expression was clouded with thought. “I don’t think any of us are good enough to sculpt a cake like that.” He said absently. “We could maybe get Elise to help, she likes baking a lot and is really good at shaping cakes.”

“What if we made chicken stuffing out of cake? Cake and bread are pretty similar.” Cruz said tentatively.

“That’d taste gross.” Wrynn said, sticking her tongue out in disgust. “Cake baked inside a chicken with all the chicken juices? No thank you.”

“What else goes with chicken?”

“Potatoes?” Shara offered.

“I bet we could make a cake and cut it so that it looks like roasted potatoes.” Wrynn said.

The work in the room stopped briefly as everyone exchanged looks. Ritz was glowing with excitement as she looked around the room. “Can we do that?” She asked repeatedly.

“I think we can manage that.” Enrik said with a nod. “Let’s see how many people we can trick with them.” He grinned. “I bet Mom’ll flip out and Momri is gonna make fun of her for it if she doesn’t notice.”

Wrynn struggled to dump her batch of rice into a large serving bowl to start the next batch. “Well, she doesn’t like sweet things after all.” She said with a grunt. “If she bites into a cake expecting potatoes, her reaction would probably be the best one.”

Shara and Ritz giggled to one another as they continued on the vegetables. As Cruz grabbed another onion to cut up for the soup, he said, “Well, let’s hurry up and get lunch finished. We’ve clearly got our work cut out for us with dinner. And if we’re already going to pull a prank with the potatoes…I have something else I want to add.”

Wrynn glared back over her shoulders at him as she flipped the rice around in the wok. “You’re not going to make your random death dumplings, are you?”

“That’s the plan. Some simple steamed dumplings would be a great side dish I think, after our very vegetable heavy lunch. And if we’re already doing something silly, we may as well go all the way.”

“Fine, but we’re making the chickens perfectly normally.” Enrik said sternly. “Once someone accidentally picks your little pocket of pepper, no one is going to trust the dinner. We need to be able to say that the chickens are clear.”

A chorus of ‘Okay’s filled the room.

“Now, let’s serve this lunch and get to work on dinner.”

After Vale had landed their little party a short ways on the other side of the basin’s wall, Emery, Avuri, and him crossed into their little patch of heaven pretty close to dinner time. As they approached the center area of their compound, the smell of roasting chicken was pretty clear on the wind, alongside some other scents that were a little more difficult to pick out. It smelled a little sweet, though.

As they walked toward the house to change out of their more formal clothing before dinner, Avuri broke away to check in on dinner. After a brief exchange, she hustled back to fall into step with Emery again.

“They said it’s just about done.” Avuri hid a smile. “Shara skipped out on her husbandry duties again. She said she helped with the chickens then asked to go help cook.”

Emery sighed. “That girl. I swear, she just hates getting dirty. Every time the Alders are given animal duty, she runs away from helping with the regular barnyard animals and only wants anything to do with the chickens.”

“Which is hilarious to me, because it’s not like chickens are cleaner than the other animals. Maybe there’s less mud in the coop, but…”

“I think she just thinks the chickens are cute.” Emery said. “Then once that’s done she runs off to help with whatever Ritz is doing.”

Avuri shrugged. “At least she runs to help Ritz. The Elms are one of the smaller families, and the Alders are the biggest. It works out.”

“That’s true.” Emery said, as they stepped through the front door to their house. She turned to Vale. “See you in a bit for dinner?”

He nodded. “Yup. Just going to change, same as you two. I’ll see you out there.”

They went their separate ways for a few minutes. It didn’t take too long to strip out of the elaborate robes, despite them being difficult to put on. After a quick scrub down with soap and water to clean their hands, arms, and faces, they all reconvened and headed out to the dining pavilion.

The Elm family plus Shara was already placing their completed dinner on the tables, but hadn’t yet hit the sound Array that would call everyone to dinner. Emery poked it with a bit of Qi from across the room as they walked in, and a loud but pleasant chime reverberated through the basin.

“Looks like you all did good today.” Avuri said, as they chose a table to sit at for the night. “The chickens especially, look roasted to perfection.”

Wrynn stuck her chest out proudly. “I did what you showed me before, Momri. Put a bunch of butter under the skin and not as much seasonings on top. I think they all crisped up really nicely.”

Avuri patted the girl's head with a big smile. “They look wonderful.”

And then she and Emery both noticed the dumplings being placed on the table. They shot a wordless question at Wrynn, who caught their eyes and nodded gravely. “Be careful,” was all she said before walking away.

“Watch the dumplings, Vale.” Emery said. “Last time Cruz made them himself, he took a few and loaded them up with mustard seeds. It was brutal.”

Vale eyed the dumplings with a laugh. “I’m not worried about a pit of spicy, Merri. You should know me by now.”

“I know that.” She snapped back. “But I have no idea what he’d try next. For all I know he found himself a natural laxative to put in them.”

As the Elms finished bringing out the food and sitting down themselves, the other families filtered in. Surprising no one, the Alders all sat near to Shara and they fawned over their missing princess. She kept shying away from their poking and prodding and bumping her shoulder into Ritz who giggled cutely as she watched her friend get picked on by her older siblings.

As they all began to fill plates, Avuri caught Emery watching the pair suspiciously. She joined her, while spooning some of the roasted potatoes onto Emery’s plate. They felt a little strange texture wise as the spoon moved through the bowl. Too springy, perhaps?

“What’re you watching them like that for?” she asked.

Emery sighed, and moved some of her food around on her plate. “No real reason, I suppose. They just seem to have a vibe sometimes, you know?”

Avuri raised an eyebrow at her wife. “Merri, they’re not even ten years old.”

Emery raised her hands in surrender. “I know, I know. It just wouldn’t surprise me in a few years, you know?” She said as she speared a potato with her fork. As she raised it to her mouth, she saw Wrynn nudge Ritz with her elbow; and suddenly all of the Elm kids and Shara were watching her as she took her bite of potato.

Which she quickly realized was not, in fact, a potato at all. She narrowed her eyes at the Elm kids angrily, to see if they’d react at all. When they didn’t, she let out a big laugh instead. “You jerks!” She said loudly. “I love potatoes, and you swapped them with cake?”

It seemed as though no one else had tried them quite yet. There was a moment as most of the kids tried a bite, then there was a mad dash to get as much of the little bite-sized cakes on their plates as possible.

Then, amongst the laughter, there was a high pitched scream of anger mixed with pain. Everyone turned to Elise, who was holding a hand over her mouth, her eyes watering and her face rapidly turning a bright red. Her eyes were locked onto a single target.

“Cruz!” She bellowed. “You’re dead!”

The boy in question just smiled and took another bite of chicken. Avuri called over to him, “Cruz? What did you put in them this time?”

“Just some flower peppercorns. She’ll be more numb than in pain in a minute or two.”

Elise let out another annoyed scream as she plopped back into her seat.

“You’re dead meat, Cruz. Dead. Meat.” She grumbled.