Sword and Snow

Elise sat in the Maple family’s house plotting her revenge. She rested her chin in her hand with her elbow propped up on their table while watching Evin and Flyn draw. Well, they were both six, so it was more like scribbles. But they were happy enough to just play around while she was off in her head, plotting.

This was the third time that she was unlucky enough to be the one to bite into one of Cruz’s war crimes. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think he was targeting her for some reason; but they sat and served the tables in the dining pavilion randomly every night so that seemed like a stretch, even to her.

Still though, he wasn’t going to get away without retribution this time. Elise had been quiet and knuckled under the first two times. Not anymore. This time she’d have revenge.

The issue was what she could do, though. Cruz was strong against spicy foods, and didn’t have any food that bothered him much. In fact, he regularly made gross concoctions just to experiment with flavors, so food wasn’t going to do it.

She did consider just literally beating the crap out of him. It would be a fair practice match, of course. She’d just not hold back and completely wipe the floor with him. It would be immensely satisfying, probably, but wouldn’t really constitute a good revenge. Plus, she could basically spar with him whenever she wanted.

This had to be something a bit more special.

She wished that talking to Wrynn had been more fruitful. Cruz’s twin had been more than happy to assist Elise in getting her revenge, and even offered her help with whatever she needed. But she didn’t have any concrete ideas that sounded impactful enough.

She did mention that Cruz had a small crush on a girl in Flowing Dragon City that he’d seen a few times and spoke to all of twice. There may be something useful there at some point, but that would require a lot of extra work. Not to mention, it wasn’t like she could just invite the girl back here or something. And that’d be assuming she even knew who Cruz was.

Elise let out a sigh and sat back in her chair, throwing her head back over the lip of the seat’s back. Her long hair got caught behind her back and was pulled as she leaned back. The pain was minor, but she almost let a curse slip on reflex in her frustration. Instead, she just grumbled incoherently to herself to avoid saying things she shouldn’t near her two youngest brothers.

As Elise continued to grumble and resituate her hair, Elena walked through their front door. She had to kick the door open because her hands were taken up with bags of toiletries and other daily necessities.

“Thanks for getting the door, sis.” She said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. When Elise scrambled to get up to help, Elena just continued, “No, no, I got it,” and she kicked the door closed behind her.

“Did you even knock?” Elise asked, confused.

“No, I just sat at the door with my hands full for two minutes for my health.”

“When did you get so snarky, Elena?” Elise asked, moving forward to help with the bags.

The younger girl laughed. “I heard Momri say it to Mom once, when she didn’t help her with the door and groceries.”

“Well, now I’m definitely glad I held my tongue before, if you kids pick up stuff that easily.” Eilse mumbled to herself. “So, what’s all in here? I know we were running a little low on soap and shampoo, but you’ve got way more than that.”

“I also grabbed some breakfast foods, since we were running low. I know we don’t eat breakfast here often, but it still seemed worth it to have on hand.” She said, as they walked together toward their kitchen.

The smaller single family homes may pale in comparison to the main house, but they were still well made and plenty big. Their kitchen was large enough that the two of them could comfortably move around and put things away.

As Elise made it to her second bag, she found a bunch of bathroom stuff and went to put those away. Once she put some of the soaps and things in their places, she found some simple medicines for headaches and the like, which was nothing new to have on hand. But there was also a pouch of something else that she didn’t recognize.

“Hey Elena, you know what this is?” Elise asked, poking her head out of the bathroom.

“What?” Elena leaned back to see what her sister was holding up. “Oh - that’s for Kaili. Momri said she asked for it.”

“Ho-kay.” Elise said, then called down the hallway toward Kaili’s room. “Kaili? Momri sent over whatever it was you asked for.”

There was the sound of shuffling, and then Kaili popped out of her room and speed walked down the hallway.

“Thank you.” She said, a light pink blush spreading over her face. She turned to go, but Elise grabbed her arm.

“Are you alright? What is that?”

Kaili’s blush spread a bit further as she pulled out of Elise’s grasp. “I’m fine. I’ve just…been having trouble with my stomach recently. I think there’s something going around, because Wrynn mentioned a stomach ache recently, too.”

Elise considered for a moment then asked, “You’re sure it’s not - “

“No.” Kaili said quickly, shaking her head. “It’s not that. Momri gave me some of this the other day and it helped with uh…going. You know.”

“Ah. A laxative.” Elise said quietly. “A laxative?” She suddenly had an interesting idea. She clapped Kaili on the shoulder and smiled. “And it works well?”

Confused and still bright red, Kaili looked down and nodded. “It does.”

“Would you mind if I took some, Kaili?” Elise asked, her smile slowly growing. “I don’t think he’d ever expect anyone to strike through food.”

“I…what?” Kaili said, looking back up, confused. “I don’t mind you taking some if you need it, Elise. Momri said to take about a teaspoon of the powder when I need it.”

Elise nodded. “Got it.” She ruffled the younger girl’s hair. “Thanks, Kaili.”

“Mhm.” She said, then looked at the pouch in her hand then back to Elise, then handed it over. “I guess since you know what it is now, you may as well put it in the bathroom…”

“Okay.” Elise answered, and took the pouch. “Just so you know, Kaili. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Everyone has issues with their stomach sometimes. It’s rather annoying, really.”

Kaili nodded. “Yeah, it is. Anyway, I’ll be in my room if you need me. I want to finish my book.”

“Okay. Call if you need me, too.” Elise said, then let the girl run off.

After a moment, Elena peeked around the corner. “That was painful, sis.”

“Shush, you.” She said, looking down at the laxative. “When is our next turn to do the cooking?”

“Not for a while, I think.” Elena said. “I think Mom is moving some of the chore calendars around because she doesn’t want anyone who’s been even a little sick handling the food. And since Kaili wasn’t doing so well the day before yesterday, we’ve been swapped out.” She paused for a moment to go back to her work. “And before you ask, the Elms have been swapped out too, because Wrynn wasn’t feeling well.”

Elise sighed. “Right then. I guess I’ll see who’s on duty then.”

She took a small dose of the laxative in a different little pouch with her as she moved to leave. “Elena, can you keep an eye on Evin and Flyn for a bit? I don’t think I’ll be long.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She said, waving her sister off. “Just go do your thing. I was planning to just get some homework done anyway.”

“Math?”

“Math.”

“I’ll help you get it done when I get back.” Elise said with a small smile.

“Ugh. Fine.” Elena said sourly. “I hate this geometry nonsense.”

Elise laughed. “Depending on what kind of techniques you develop down the line, geometry can be very important. I’ll make sure you have it done and help you with what’s left when I get back.”

“Okay…” Elena sighed. “Go do your thing.”

By the time that Elise had returned and helped Elena with her math work, it was just about dinner time. Kaili had emerged from her room to join Elena for help with her own math work. They were at about the same level, and Elise was more than capable of helping them both out.

Together, all three of them kept an eye on their younger brothers who had decided they’d spent enough time on their art projects and moved on to building things with a combination of wooden blocks and logs that Emery had made for them. Such little sets of building things were very popular among the youngest kids, and they often competed to build the tallest towers or biggest houses.

More than once Elise had to break up a small fight over such things. In today’s case, Flyn got mad at Evin for accidentally knocking a block into a corner of his building, which dislodged a cornerstone and the whole thing fell. She deftly talked the two of them into working together to rebuild Flyn’s fort and make it even better. She even helped too, calling out directions and assistance to her sisters as they continued their math homework.

When dinner did finally roll around, their whole five member troupe got together and walked over to the dining pavilion. Elise had to put in effort to act normally, but her eyes kept wandering over to Cruz, excited for the moment of retribution.

The Willows had been responsible for cooking that day. And Fia and Lia were more than happy to help with Elise’s revenge plan; she wasn’t the only one that had been on the receiving end of Cruz’s awful concoctions after all. Everyone had gotten a taste of something at one point or another. Even Mom and Momri.

The worst part was that when Cruz actually just followed conventional knowledge when he cooked he was probably one of the best cooks they had at home. She would begrudgingly admit that some of his test recipes had also been rather delicious. But they were too far and few between!

In any case, the Willows were late setting out everything on the tables. They had rung the dinner chime earlier to get everyone to show up, but were still running behind. Exactly as planned.

Elise watched as they all scrambled around the tables setting out plates. They had made a beef stew with vegetables for dinner, which would no doubt have a good strong flavor. More than strong enough to completely overshadow the dose of laxative that would be going into Cruz’s bowl. And with the Willows running a bit behind, they were dishing out each person’s bowl and handing them out to each family member. They’d be able to get the dosed bowl in front of Cruz easily.

Throughout the meal, Elise struggled not to watch Cruz as he eagerly devoured his bowl of stew, and then a second one. She even suspected that Fia may have put a second dose in the second bowl to help even out the extra food he’d be taking in.

Dinners with their family was often a slow, enjoyable affair. Most of the family had been relaxing and slowly munching on their food for over an hour when Elise finally noticed Cruz starting to sweat.

He started to look a bit fidgety and maybe a little overheated, but nothing that was too obvious. But he declined from there quickly. He kept shifting in his seat and started to actually look a little sick. Eventually, he suddenly stood and his chair clattered to the ground. Most of the chatter in the room stopped as eyes turned toward him. He was really not looking well.

His face shot up and his eyes met with Elise’s with zero hesitation. He looked pained, and maybe a little angry, but she also thought she saw a begrudging respect there. “You got me, jerk.” He said, his voice shaky, then he ran out of the pavilion with his proverbial tail between his legs.

When Fia and Lia both met Elise’s gaze with an impish grin, Emery and Avuri noticed. After a quick swapped glance between them, Avuri sighed.

“What’d you do…?” She said, exasperated.