The heavenly scents only get stronger as I trudge us through the doors, the pink haired cat woman having her back to us while she hums out a tune and mixes a large pot on the stove. I give the drone a little lift, prompting Ios to take to the skies and free up my hands so that I can tie my hair back. One hair-tie makes a low ponytail, and another comes about halfway down my long red hair to keep it more together. I get done fiddling with the still slightly damp strands just as Gerra turns to give a smiling greeting, her long pink tail happily waving behind her, “Good mornin’ little bird, spirit Ios~. I got a bit of a head start goin, but there’s some fruit, meat, and a couple rolls round the corner if you’re hungry. Make yourself a plate and dig in, and then we can get to cookin~!”
Not one to pass up her delicious food when offered, I give her a quick, “Okay~!” and scoot over to where she pointed out. Next to the brick oven there is a plate with what seems like bacon, or at least some similar thickly sliced meat, along with a few hand sized rolls. Next to the grouping is a basket with various colored fruits all jumbled together with a stack of clean plates off to the side. I take what I assume is an apple, using [Inspect] to verify my claims, before grabbing a couple slices of pseudo-bacon and a roll, piling all three onto a plate.
I shuffle back toward the grill area that Gerra is still moving around in, deciding to hold on to the plate and hop in the chair that I sat in when we met up last time. I eat rather leisurely, at least compared to my usual pace, as I watch the excitable cat kin dance around the kitchen like a ballerina. Every step and motion practiced and perfected to not waste any time or energy as she flits this way and that. It’s honestly kind of intimidating, I hope she doesn’t expect me to be on that level off the bat. I mean, I learn quick but not that quick!
The food is delightful as always, the semi-apple having a sweet, crisp taste with a crunchy skin, the slabbed meat salty and savory, and the bread airy to perfection~. Another home run for Gerra~! Hehe~! I kick my feet idly as I eat, the high barstool style chair raising me up in the air while I munch, eyes closing in bliss periodically as I relish in the homey flavors of a great breakfast while warm and fuzzy feelings from Ios’ previous ministrations still pluck their way through my core.
All too soon the plate lies empty however, and I give a muted hum of disappointment before hopping down and depositing it in the wash basin. Gerra catches my attention as she says with an amused but kind tone, “You know you could have gotten more, Amelia. Whatever’s left of the meat and bread are going to go to the local farms for composting and such once the Qi filters out of it, and we all know how much of an eater you are~. We got all day to spend together and learn, ain’t no sense worrying about waiting another five minutes for you to get your fill.”
“Nah,” I reply back before walking over to her, her smile still soft below her pink hued eyes, “Akiko was right the other day, I wasn’t even really that hungry. I just wanted to try whatever you made since it’s always so delicious~! Thank you though, if I do end up getting a bit snacky I’ll swing ’round the corner and grab another bite.” Damn, my southern is coming through! I’m usually pretty good about talking plain unless I’m drunk or around other people from the south, but I guess Gerra’s accent definitely counts!
“Well alright then~.” The cute cat says back, her tail coming up to tickle my face a couple times before she uses it to point over toward an apron hanging off a hook on the wall. I get the hint and skip over, putting it on before standing by her side once more.
“So what’s on the agenda for today? Do you meal prep anything or just make all the meals as needed?” I ask out as I wash my hands. Probably unneeded but good habits are worth keeping, especially when handling food! Gerra answers back with a hum before saying, “Well, I suppose that depends on what I want to make, or what the girls and the Madam want to have. If it’s just up to me, I’ll keep it pretty simple. Just making whatever strikes my fancy in portions large enough for the four – now five – of us. Although I do tend to always keep the soup pot boilin’ since it can pair with basically any noon time meal or for dinner.”
“Makes sense.” I say as I look over to her for direction. She chuckles as her tail comes to wrap around my waist, little pink sparks skating across my skin from the fuzzy embrace that make my cheeks light up before she says, “How about you just keep watching for now, try and keep track of how I move and use Qi to infuse the food while it cooks. When you’ve got that down you can try your hand at getting the soup ready since that’ll probably be the easiest, being a loose liquid and all.”
I cough away the rosy embers, glad that Ios squeezed so much angst out of me earlier now, as I nod and focus on what she’s doing. Gerra gives another easy smile before turning back to making some dough, the grainy flour mixing in with a splash of water here and there before it’s all a mostly congealed, goopy, and sticky mess. Throughout the whole process, I can catch faint trails of Qi gathering around her and the dough, almost shadowing her hand movements as the energy seeps into the mixture.
I study it as long as I can before something occurs to me and ask out curiously from the side, “What do you do for yeast or like… whatever makes bread rise? Baking was never quite my thing so I’m not really familiar with it.”
“Typically I use whatever foam has risen to the top from the small brewery down the hall where the estate used to make and distribute out special ales. That was a Tyler thing though, so nowadays I mainly just use it to make some fairly weak alcohol that I can use for cooking, including the byproduct like I mentioned. If I’m not using that, then I always make sure to keep some small leftover dough that I’d mix into the flour or simply use my Qi to pull in yeast from the air. Though that way takes the longest, especially high up here in the mountains since the farmlands are down at the valley floor. Not a whole bunch of the little mix floating all the way to our doorstep~.” Gerra explains casually, not once stopping her massaging of the dough or inflow of Qi.
“Huh, neat!” I answer back, keeping my mental gaze locked onto the process as in depth as I can. A few minutes pass until the cherry blossom furred cat woman seems satisfied, grabbing a towel to throw over the top of the bowl that holds her work and securing it in place with a twine string that she cuts off from a spindle on the wall. She ties the ends together securely before walking both of us over, since her tail is still playfully wiggling around my waist, and puts it in a cooler section of the pantry to rise. Presumably. Again, not very versed in the varying ventures of bread making. Now that’s a tongue twister, hehe~.
I shake off my momentary silliness as she guides us back over toward the pot of liquid that’s begun to boil now, raising the stone lid off the large cauldron that rests over a grated fire before she nods and turns back to me. “Looks like the water’s ready~. Let’s start simple and just make a broth that has your Qi infused in it. We can add other ingredients later once you get that part down. Sound good little bird?”
I go to nod before I realize something pretty important to this whole process. “Uh… how do we do that? Make broth, I mean. On Earth it was just sold as a product that was already made that you could grab from a store.” I ask shyly, feeling the flare of embarrassment crisscross up my neck and to my cheeks.
Gerra blinks to me a couple times before shaking her head trying to hold back a laugh, “Heavens, we’re gonna have to start at the very beginning huh?” I pout and cross my arms at her poking fun of me, it’s not my fault I never learned how to do everything from scratch! “Alright, easy there.” Gerra coos as she pats my head a few times, “I wasn’t making light of your experience hun, and I’m sure you know plenty about cooking in general. It just didn’t occur to me that your old world would be so advanced that people could rely on skipping the basics so flippantly.”
She finally coaxes me back to neutral, sending a little smirk my way before she continues on, “Typically to make broth you let the bones and scrap meats of animals boil together with the water until its all dissolved and unified. Could also throw some hardier stuff like tubers in too, but for now let’s just focus on the first method. Here,” She says as she holds out her hand with a little storage ring on it, plopping out a wicker basket of small white bones devoid of any lingering scraps of flesh. “I dressed out a good number of [Dreroth] the other day, so we have more than enough to get started. I don’t like to keep the bones in with the fresh food of the pantry, so I just store them in my ring until I need them.”
Gerra talks me through the initial steps, how many bones to add while she browns a few good-sized pieces of Dreroth meat behind me. I focus on my surroundings, trying to figure out how to move Qi without absorbing it into myself. It’s… difficult. I essentially have to use my combined channeling technique but force the Qi to stay out of the flow model as a first step, and the eager energy seems pretty keen on trying to thwart my efforts. It moves like gaseous water, always trying to poke and prod its way past my focus to be gobbled up by the flow model within, but eventually I figure out a trick. I let some of the annoying at the moment particles in, convert them to soul Qi, and then use that to coat a miniscule barrier around both my physical body and my flow model, just thick enough to passively stop the rambunctious Qi from pissing me off any further.
A feeling of smug satisfaction washes over me as I test a few more repetitions of gathering up Qi, each attempt a success that only widens my smile~. I then try to impose my will on the outside Qi, trying to manipulate it into the pot and bones that are giving off a foamy surface on the water now. Again, this proves challenging as hell, but when Gerra turns around to say something she gets a hitch in her breath, “Oh, right. Little bird, if you see bubbly or foamy liquid on the surface, be sure to use that ladle over there a ways to scoop it out, we don’t want the scum… to…”
I wipe a few beads of sweat from my brow with the hem of my sleeve, reaching over to grab the ladle like she pointed out before turning back to her with a confused tilt of my head, her cherry pink eyes wide as she regards me. “What’s up? Do I have something on my face?” I ask out, once more dabbing the sleeve in random places on my cheeks before turning back to her again.
“Amelia, you’re just supposed to funnel Qi from inside yourself into the food. At least, as a beginner that’s what you’re meant to do. I know I said to study how I was workin’, but I didn’t think you’d nearly replicate what I was doin’ on your first try~!” She crosses over to give me a hug, her tail coming up to coil around my arm and pat against my face a few times in excitement, a giggle escaping me as I return the gesture.
“Well, that makes more sense, I guess! It was honestly kind of hard to figure out in the first place, but using Qi that’s already inside you would for sure be easier. I think. What’s the difference in the methods?” I ask out between praised head pats and tail tickles that make my heart all warm and happy~. Gerra backs up a few paces, her tail still wrapped around me but giving me access to the pot so that I can scoop out the murkier bits of water into the wash basin while she explains.
“Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, Sammy did warn me just how exceptional you were after all~. The difference in using ambient, neutral Qi and Qi that has been filtered through yourself is a matter of purity. Until a cultivator can reach Immortality, our bodies will have impurities that build up over time and can ‘taint’ the Qi to a degree. The higher up the chain you are, the less and less that bleed over becomes, but it will always be present. But using ambient Qi? That’s cleaner than anything, and every profession eventually develops methods to gather, imbue, and store pure Qi for their crafts to reach the highest echelons possible. What you just did all on your lonesome is something that took me decades to master under a teacher~!”
I quickly look over to see if there’s any sign of jealousy or anger at me apparently skipping over so much work she had to do, but to my relief she is just staring at me like I’m the first sunrise she’s ever seen~. I sigh out mentally, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that she wouldn’t be like that, all the girls here are amazing. I really need to stop comparing situations and emotional cues from my Earth days to these girls… I shake out the momentary funk before giving Gerra a big smile. “Damn! I didn’t know all that, it just kind of… clicked for me after trying to wrangle the floaty energy for a bit! I am still struggling about how to move it once I’ve sealed myself off from it though.”
Gerra nods her head excitedly, her eyes still sparkling as she clasps her hands together in front of her, “Mhm! That’ll be the hardest part to learn~. I don’t want to interrupt your journey, but I will offer that the less you think of it like an inanimate force and the more you consider it with its own will, the easier time you’ll have~. Now then! I got these chunks of meat browned up, so I’ll add them to the pot here. You just keep scooping out the scum or the taste of the broth will be tainted and quite unappealing. Keep trying to move Qi into it too, of course~. I’ll stand back and watch for now, just holler over your shoulder if you need somethin’.”
I take her words to heart as I give her a one-armed hug which she returns, turning my attention back to the pot. The process eventually becomes almost robotic, intently studying the patterns and movement of the Qi in the air as I shield myself, occasionally dipping the ladle into the liquid to get rid of any scum. After the first few bones have begun to soften, something again clicks into place for me, coupled with Gerra’s words. Qi isn’t just some ethereal energy, it really does have a will of its own! That’s why powerful artefacts can gain sentience, why beasts can evolve and do the same, and why people can use techniques and stuff in the first place!! It has a will, and that will is to be used!
I stop trying to force the Qi into the pot, the bones, or the meat, and instead I manipulate my soul energy to stretch out from my fingertips, creating small channels in space to the spots I want the particles to go. Like a busted dam holding back mountains of water, Qi floods into the predetermined spots, the intensity of the deluge nearly shocking me out of my concentration but I hold firm. At least, until I hear quick and eager clapping from behind me coupled with a system prompt:
[Quest Completed! Become an Apprentice Level Spiritual Cook!
Gain enough knowledge to be considered an apprentice level spiritual cook on Mara.
Reward: 100 Ability Points, 500 Shop Points, 30 Skill Points, 25 points into all stats except Charisma and Luck.
Rewards will increase as your crafting rank increases.
Progress: 100%]
Strength is now 17,800!
Dexterity is now 26,046!
Constitution is now 17,891!
Intelligence is now 18,723!
Wisdom is now 33,015!
Available Ability Points: 5,612
Available Shop Points: 41,550
Available Skill Points: 2,266
[Quest Started: Become a Journeyman Level Spiritual Cook!
Gain enough knowledge to be considered a journeyman level spiritual cook on Mara.
Reward: 500 Ability Points, 1500 Shop Points, 75 Skill Points, 125 points into all stats except Charisma and Luck.
Rewards will increase as your crafting rank increases.
Progress: 19%]
“Oh, little bird~! You’re a bonafide genius!! Even without that little system of yours!” Gerra nearly shouts as she pulls me against her, her body almost vibrating from the sheer joy she’s emitting. I nuzzle into her hug, really enjoying the pampering energy she’s putting out right now~. Getting praised is always so nice~! I giggle and lean up to kiss her cheek, both of us standing still for a moment to look into one another’s eyes, faint lines of blush crossing across both of our faces before we dive lip first into each other.
Strong, muscular yet still delightfully feminine arms wrap me further into a passionate hug, one of her hands coming to weave through my tied hair, nails poking out just enough to blissfully scratch at my scalp. Her equally powerful tail tightens taut around my core, further sending pleasurable waves and sparks of pink through my being as I moan into the kiss. She takes the opportunity to slide her tongue into my mouth, its search hungry and wanting before it finds mine and we begin to wrestle in the wet and needy battleground.
With heavy breaths, both of us pause and rest our foreheads against each other, quickly devolving into a giggling fit as we sway in our joined embrace, warm and comforting feelings weighing on the space like a fuzzy blanket in the wintertime. “Well~!” I say out cheekily after a peck to the top of her head, “I like the way you show your praise~! I’ll have to keep finding ways to blow your mind if this is the reward, hehe~.” Gerra purrs and rubs her face against mine a couple times, sometimes squeaking out a small laugh or chuckle before she pulls back and stares to me lovingly.
“Looks like you will, little bird~. I can still hardly believe you mastered that already, and I was right here watchin’! On your first day, your first time really trying anything remotely related to spiritual cooking!! You’re simply incredible, Amelia~.” She flirtily says back, her eyes alight with awe and genuine admiration. I find that I’m having an easier time accepting the compliment, maybe because I’m still wrapped up in the bounding happiness that Gerra was putting out. Either way, its… nice to just trust and believe someone when they tell you that you’re special~.
“Thanks~.” I clip out between the rising heat, my body still reacting and wanting to cuddle up with this adorable cat woman the more she keeps praising me~. A small pop of a bubble bursting catches both of our attentions, and I turn back to the pot to scoop out some more tainted liquid, an annoyed growl rippling across my lips at the interruption before I just sigh it away. “Well, probably for the best,” I joke back toward Gerra who looks equally unamused at the betrayal of the pot, “Jun Li would get pretty upset if she found out we were canoodling while you were supposed to be teaching me~.”
My eyes suddenly go wide as I remembered something I forgot to tell Jun Li, Gerra giving me a curious look before I shamefully say out, “Shit. I forgot to ask Jun Li to go easy on Sam for doing exactly that the other day… Well, maybe I can catch her before she enacts her vengeance on the poor woman…” The feline human barks out a small laugh before shrugging her shoulders, coming to stand beside me as she continues the lesson, her tail never leaving contact with my skin for the rest of the day~.
