Arc 2 Part 4
Vil woke up in his bed. He did his morning routine and got dressed before heading downstairs. As he got to the stairs, he heard the sound of something being cooked on the frying pan.
When he entered the kitchen, he saw the kimono wearing vampire standing over the stove that had a pan and a boiling pot of water. The pan had slices of sausage patties being flipped by a spatula.
“Good morning.” He got her attention.
With the sausages flipped, the witch’s eyes met Vil’s. “Good morning. You’re just in time, breakfast is almost ready.”
Together the pair set the table before sitting down. Both plates had the same meal, two boiled eggs and two sausage patties. “It’s not much, but I hope you like it.” Pearluna watched Vil.
The blacksmith took a bite of the sausage patty and then salted one of his eggs before taking a bite. He then swallowed. “It’s good.”
The vampire let out a breath of air she did not realize she was holding. She smiled as she started to dig into her food. “Thank you. I was going to go into town to properly fill our pantry and cabinets.”
“You should drop by Aiya’s and see what kind of enchantments she wants.” Vil suggested. “All I’m doing today is working on some ideas for the forge while waiting for the Mining Guild to send some people. The contract said that they would send some people to test the smelter.”
“That’s a good idea.” Pearluna stood up and started making her way to the sink to clean up the dishes.
But right when she was about to turn on the sink, Vil gently placed a hand on her right shoulder. “I’ll take care of this.”
The witch leaned her head onto his hand and rubbed her cheek on it affectionately as thanks. When she stood up straight, Vil removed his hand and got to work on the dishes while she went upstairs to change.
It wasn’t long before the vampire was coming down the stairs in her witch attire to see Vil almost done cleaning the dishes. “I’ll be heading out now.” She called out as she got to the door.
“Have fun.” Vil called back before she closed the door.
<Scene Change>
As Pearluna made her way into town, she decided to go meet Aiya first. ‘Better to get the food later so that I’m not lugging it around all day.’ She thought to herself.
The town was active with many people moving around with somewhere to go. Pearluna asked around to know where the nine tailed kitsune’s store was. Eventually she found herself standing before a storefront with a sign that had the image of a nine tailed fox wearing a pink kimono.
The witch entered the store to see many kinds of kimonos setup. Some had brilliant colors and patterns, while others were a single color. Deeper in the store, Pearluna saw movement. Going deeper in, the vampire found the kitsune woman behind a counter.
Aiya was using one tail to dust the top. Once she saw someone in front of her counter, she raised her head. “Pearluna, it’s good to see you.” She smiled as she brought her dusting tail up and started using a hairbrush on it over a trashcan. “I was just tidying up a bit.”
“I wanted to discuss more about your idea for enchanting kimonos before I go shopping for food.” The witch responded. “I don’t exactly know what you have in mind.”
“I had what was hopefully a simple idea.” Aiya finished cleaning her tail. “You see with it being summer here, the heat can sometimes be difficult to work in. So we can try kimonos that emit a cooling aura.”
Pearluna understood the idea and nodded her head. “I understand, but how cold would be tolerable?”
Aiya moves to the back behind a door. “I’ll be right back.”
Moments later the seamstress comes out with a sky blue colored kimono. She places it on the desk for Pearluna to see. “We can use this to test how cold it should be. I’ll try it on after you enchant it.”
“Well here goes.” The witch raised both hands over the fabric. Some sigils appeared and both she and the kimono started to glow. Pearluna could see what she was altering on the kimono to make it emit a cooling aura. Once she was done the glowing and the sigils disappeared.
Aiya had her hand hover over the kimono. She could feel the cold air radiate from the fabric. It gave her some goosebumps. The kitsune’s tails wagged in excitement. “Oh, I can’t wait to try it on.” She picked up the blue kimono and started making her way to the changing rooms on the side of the store.
Pearluna followed and gave the seamstress privacy. Aiya emerged now in the sky blue kimono with a smile on her face. “It’s like I’m in Winter!” Her tails wrapped around herself. However, Pearluna was able to see that the kitsune wasn’t just wrapping herself to feel the fabric. Aiya was shivering.
“I think that I might have made it too cold.” The witch admitted while running a hand through her white hair, a little embarrassed. “Let’s take it off.”
Aiya agreed as her shivering increased, not even her fluffy foxtails could stave off the cold from the enchantment. She changed back into her normal pink kimono. The two ladies found themselves back at the desk looking over the now enchanted kimono.
“It’s a start.” Aiya said gently to the embarrassed witch. “I’ll put this somewhere for next time. You should go check out the market at the docks. You have to get food for yourself and that young man you’re staying with after all.”
“Oh, right I almost forgot. Thank you.” Pearluna politely bowed and then made her way out of Aiya’s shop.
The witch took the advice from Aiya and went to the docks to get food. There were many stalls alongside the docks’ main road. The variety was there and Pearluna knew what she was looking for.
The witch first prioritized getting fruits and vegetables and had them placed in one sack. Her second sack was filled with rice and grains like pasta. Finally came what She almost thought would be difficult to get, cold goods.
There were stalls that had ice cube filled containers with seafood on top along with other things that needed to be kept cool to stay fresh. But after her experience with Aiya, Pearluna enchanted her last sack to be cold as ice before making the purchases.
Making use of gravity magic to make her haul float behind her, Pearluna finally bought a dozen eggs before making her way back to her new home.
<Scene Change>
Vil found himself working on his drawing again ever since Pearluna went out. He got the base concept completed with where the mechanical parts should go. Next was getting the contraption’s parts to move.
“I could move the gears myself with my affin.” He said to himself. “I have distributed the weight of the hammer itself enough that I could even levitate an object while making the gears turn.”
As he was pondering, the front door opened. “I’m home.” Said a familiar voice.
Putting everything aside on the table in the living room, Vil got up to greet Pearluna. “Welcome home.” He then saw the sacks and small crate that the witch was carrying. “Let me help you with that.”
Vil immediately too the small crate of a dozen eggs from the witch as she started to take off her shoes. He went and placed the eggs in a cabinet before turning to see Pearluna place the three sacks on the table. He went to open one and reflexively pulled his hand back. The inside of one of the bags was very cold.
“Are you alright?” The witch approached him.
“No, just startled is all.” Vil opened the bag again. “Did you make this bag cold?”
“Yes, it is to keep the food in their fresh.” The vampire confirmed.
Vil had an idea. He went to one of the bigger cupboards and opened it. “How about making this entire cabinet ice cold for food that need it.” He suggested.
The witch put a fist in her palm. “Your right. That way we don’t have to rush and eat everything in one or two days.” Even at the Sorcerers Academy, the mages only periodically created ice in a room to keep things cold. It was so obvious now.
The witch immediately got to work on the cabinet while Vil unpacked things that did not need to be frozen. As he placed the rice into a cabinet he saw Pearluna start putting the seafood into the now enchanted cupboard.
Vil started moving the fruit, vegetables, and eggs into the cupboard while the vampire was moving some shrimp. Eventually the pairs’ efforts came to fruition as the bags were emptied and the kitchen was stocked.
Pearluna stretched her arms. “I’m going to shower before starting dinner.”
“I was thinking of the same thing.” Vil followed her upstairs.
The pair broke off to their own showers to take care of their afternoon necessities. When both finished Pearluna, back in her kimono, got to work on a piece of salmon that she bought. Vil helped her where he could but the vampire knew more about preparing the fish meat than he did.
The salmon was already descaled, but the skin was left on. Pearluna had seasoned the meat and was heating it to where the skin became crispy in the oven. The heat stones glowed the color of fire as the meat was cooked. The smell from the meat emitted in the kitchen.
Once it was finished, the witch got a knife and cut it in half evenly. The human and vampire setup the table with their halves of salmon and finally sat across from each other. Both took the first bit at the same time.
Vil never experienced cooked seafood before and he was amazed at the flavor and texture of the fish. Pearluna’s love of seafood definitely did not stop at eating it. Looking across the table he could see the witch smiling at him, happy that her cooking is appreciated.
“So how did your meeting with Aiya go?” He started the conversation.
“Well she wants to make kimonos that emit cooling auras for the summer heat.” Pearluna explained between bites. “Our first attempt ended with the aura being too cold.” She smiled embarrassingly.
Vil swallowed another bit of salmon. “Well at least you now know how far is too far. That’s a good thing.”
“I know, I just wish Aiya wasn’t the one to wear the enchanted kimono as a test.” Pearluna admitted.
The pair finished eating and cleaned up together. Eventually they found themselves on the couch again like the previous day. This time, however, Vil insisted that Pearluna lie on him.
So there they were, Pearluna reading her book while lying on Vil’s chest as he was using his telekinetic ability to continue work on his little project. Vil was still trying to figure out what to do about making the machine work.
As he was pondering, one of his hands started to gently rub the vampires stomach. Pearluna’s eyes widened at the start because there was no warning, but she then let herself sink into the human’s chest. The rhythmic movements felt good and relaxing.
Eventually, just like the previous day, the afternoon turned into night. When that happened the pair got up to head to bed. Once they were about to go into their rooms, Pearluna hugged Vil. “Thank you for the stomach massage.” She let go and the pair smiled at each other one last time before heading to bed.
