Dinner Date with the Priestess

Alara got dressed into her own clothes. She had a similar shirt to Thalia's but hers stopped at the elbows and the priestess's sleeves went all the way down to her wrists. Alara's pants were made of soft black leather, but when she pulled them up, she quickly realized, “These don't fit.”

Thalia laughed  at the sight of Alara. The pants only came down to her knees. They were full length pants. 

Alara turned red, “What are you laughing at?”

Thalia sat down, put her hands in her chin and looked up at Alara. “You look ridiculous. You are obviously way too tall for those pants. Too bad, those are the longest ones I could find. People in the past didn't used to get so tall.”

Alara looked dejected, “I guess it's back into my riding pants then.”

“What's wrong? Why the long face of your royalness?” 

“I just wanted you to think I looked cute, but you laughed at me…”

“Oh, I laughed BECAUSE I think you're cute.”

Spirit renewed, Alara put her riding pants back on. She grabbed Thalia's hand and practically dragged her outside. Once they got outside, Alara stood there like a deer in the headlights.

“You have no idea what we are going to do, do you princess?”

She scratched her blonde hair, “No, I hadn't thought that far ahead. I didn't think I would win or that you would actually go along with this.”

Just then Alara's stomach let out a loud growl.

“You feeling a little peckish there your highness?”

“I could eat.”

“Your stomach tells me you are more than just a little hungry. Trying to be coy?” Thalia’s face inched closer to Alara’s with each word before she abruptly turned around. 

“Was she flirting with me?” Alara thought to herself.

“Here’s an idea. Why don’t we make a date of cooking ourselves some food? I’ll teach you how to hunt in the dungeon. After all, I’m sure that a spoiled princess like you probably hasn’t ever had to prepare your own meals right?” Thalia had a sarcastic smirk on her face. 

Alara just turned red again which seemed to be her favorite color nowadays. Thalia wasn’t wrong, she was a bit pampered as a child, and didn’t have to worry about things as an adult, but she spent more of her nights in bar fights and drinking booze than she did at the palace lately.  If she could deal with tough situations while totally trashed, she was sure that sober, she would be able to learn how to do something simple like cook. 

“I’ll take your silence as confirmation then Miss Alara. Well, here in the dungeon, you are no princess and I am no priestess. We either survive or, in your case, die. Ready to try out some cooking?”

Alara smiled, she should have been insulted, but she could tell that Thalia was trying to play with her so she was excited instead. Maybe she had taken their conversation seriously. They did share a kiss after all.  Cooking for a date was actually a pretty cool idea too. Things were actually going well. 

“Yes, I’m all yours. Teach me what to do.”

Thalia smiled. “Okay let’s start gathering what we need then. Yotaro!”

Yotaro came scampering down from the tree with the initials carved in it. 

“Go and fetch me some salt from the dungeon. We are going to cook a real meal tonight.”

Yotaro jumped into the air with excitement and turned into a falcon before taking off past the village. 

“The rest will be for us to take care of Alara. We need five more ingredients: wild mushrooms, green onions, potatoes, lilly root, and fresh fish.”

“That’s it? Doesn’t seem too bad. Not that I have any idea how to get most of that stuff, but I have you to guide me right?”

Thalia shook her head. “Follow me.”

Thalia led her to a shaded area past the cluster of trees. There was a fallen tree just past the bunch. Thalia lifted up the bark revealing several different kinds of mushrooms. 

“See, this is where mushrooms grow. But you must be very careful to pick the right kind. The wrong ones can kill a person.”

“How did you figure out which ones were safe to eat.”

Thalia gave a creepy smile, “I taste tested them of course. If they made me vomit blood then they weren’t safe for anyone to eat.”

Alara smiled, “I guess that’s one way to use your immortality to benefit others. So, which ones are good to eat? I see at least four different kinds here.”

“Here’s a little rhyme that I taught the children about gathering mushrooms. White and red and then you’re dead, but red and white you avoid the blight. If flat and brown food sure is found, but all white and you are in for a fright.” 

“Ah so we can’t eat the white ones with little red spots, but the red ones with white spots are ok. The brown flat ones are fine but not those white ones?”

“Exactly, if you aren’t sure just avoid it.”

Alara looked at Thalia waiting for her to start picking the mushrooms. 

“What are you waiting for, princess? Get to picking before we die of starvation.” 

Alara carefully picked out mushrooms and showed them to Thalia to check. She looked them over then gave her a hug. “You did a good job for your first time Alara.”

Alara was briming with happiness. She was rarely praised for things that were not related to magic. 

“Ok, next on the list. Green onions. Lucky for us, they used to grow these here. I bet they grow wild now. Follow me to the field where we landed when we first arrived.” 

In a child-like fashion, Thalia skipped along the dirt path and straight into the meadow. Once the pair was inside, Thalia got down on her hands and knees and started looking intently at some plants growing underneath the tall flowers. Suddenly she pointed at one.

“Alara look at this. Find 6 more of these and dig them out at the root.”

Alara complied quickly gathering up the vegetables. Meanwhile,Thalia gathered up some potatoes.

She stood up and brushed off her trousers. “The rest of the stuff we can find in the lake. Come on.”

At this point Alara and Thalia's hands were full of ingredients. The pair set them by the tree.

“Ok, last are lilly roots and fish. The lily roots you just need to pull up one of the pads.”

Alara started rolling up her trousers, but Thalia scoffed. “Use your magic you big dummy.”

Alara hung her head and laughed. She so wasn't used to this. Her eyes began to glow blue, and she moved her hands in a circle then a globe of water with a lilly plant in the middle floated out of the lake and to the shore before settling at Thalia's feet.

“Perfect job! Now do the same with the fish. We need 6.”

Thalia leaned against the name tree and folded her arms. “This should be entertaining to watch,” Thalia thought to herself. Alara wasn't aware of this, but there was a special way to catch living things with water magic. Creatures in the orb of water could move freely, which meant they could move out of the orbs too. There were a couple ways to prevent this. Freeze the outer layer of the water orb, or simply remove all water from the source and gather the critters left on the dry ground. 

Alara caught the first fish and started to move it towards the shore before pop. It broke the orb and flopped back into the lake. She repeated this about 3 more times before she started to get frustrated. All the while, Thalia held in her laughter. On the last attempt, Alara scowled Back at Thalia who thought, “Man she's even cute when she's angry.”

Thalia stood up and walked over to Alara. With her hands folded behind her back Thalia rocked on and off her heels. “Need a hand?”

Alara gave her a goofy smile as a reply. 

“I'll take that as a yes. Ok, be ready to run in and grab them.” Thalia positioned herself in a front lunge and strained a bit before all of the water in the lake lifted about 7 ft into the air leaving dozens of flopping fishes and crabs on the ground. 

Alara ran up and grabbed the fish they needed 1 at a time. Being slapped by slippery tails and fins. When she was done Thalia slowly lowered the water back into the lake. 

“Wasn't that fun? Gathering all your own things for cooking?”

“It was definitely different. Thanks for teaching me Thalia!”

“Now we start cooking. Yotaro will be back shortly with the salt. Help me carry this to one of the houses. There are stoves in there.”

The two arrived at the first house. There was a small wood burning stove near the fireplace. Alara gave some wood to Thalia from the neatly stacked pile near the entrance. At the snap of her fingers, the logs caught fire. 

“While we wait for the stove to heat up we have to wash veggies first; use your water magic to do that. Then we have to slice everything. While you do that, I will clean the fish. Sounds like you can manage that?”

“Yes chef!” Alara shouted before starting to clean the vegetables. The two stood side by side working on their respective tasks, and Thalia suddenly got Dejavu. This was almost the exact position they were in her vision. It was actually a lot of fun watching Alara struggle and also a lot of fun to teach her how to survive. 

Within a few minutes they had prepped dinner, Yotaro delivered a clear rock to Thalia which left Alara puzzled. “I thought we were waiting on salt? Why did they bring you a rock?”

Thalia smiled and her eyes glowed orange as she turned the rock into the familiar powder form of table salt. “See, salt comes from rocks like that. Let's put  the food on the stove and sprinkle some salt.”

In no time the delicious smell of grilled food filled the house. The three sat and enjoyed the smell. Alara decided that she would take this as her chance to try and flirt with Thalia. It was supposed to be a date after all. 

“So priestess, what do you really think of me?”

Thalia was caught off guard by the question and wore an expression of utter shock. Her face started to turn red the longer the silence continued. 

“Sorry, I asked…” Alara looked sad and utterly defeated.

“Don't be sorry, I just have a hard time with words sometimes. I mean the only conversations I've had recently have been with Yotaro and they aren't much of a conversationalist most of the time.” Yotaro shot Thalia a nasty glance.

“Sorry buddy. Anyways, what do I think of you? Well, I really think you are cute. When I see you struggle it just makes me laugh so hard because it's adorable. Being around you is usually fun, and when you even just touch my hand I instantly feel relieved. Honestly, I think it's too late for me to go back. After what you said, and our last kiss, I want to give us a real try. I'm so tired of being alone. Would you consider giving me a chance to earn your favor, Alara?” Thalia rested her forehead on the princess's shoulder. She felt super embarrassed at her sudden request to become lovers. But if not now she would have given into her feelings in the next few minutes anyways.

Alara turned to Thalia and awkwardly blurted out, “I was serious. I like everything about you. I wanna try to be with you seriously. If there is a chance that we can love each other we should do it. Your teasing drives me wild and when I touch you I feel at peace. I accept your feelings!” Alara closed her eyes and leaned down, Thalia rose to meet her this time, planting a hard kiss on her lips. The two looked into each other's eyes before turning away from one another, red faced and embarrassed. 

They began their meal in silence, hands linked, facing away from each other.