The Morning After

Mary woke up. A woolen sleeping bag clung to her bare skin. The morning chill was contrasted by the warmth of a bedroll and the even greater warmth of the undressed body next to hers. She looked around. Light frost covered the ground. Dew formed on leaves. Many of the black spots which coated the forest as early as last night had already disappeared.

On the other side of Vivian lay one of her Beretta 92s, which she promptly picked up. No magazine was present inside and the safety was on.

That was not the best idea but at least I was safe about it.

She reached over to grab the magazine from her pile of clothes and returned it to her gun with a click.

Vivian shifted about as her breathing became more conscious.

Of course she woke up.

Vivan’s clothes were covered in dirt and scattered about the area around their bedroll. Her wand peaked out from beneath an undershirt which had somehow managed to find its way near their campfire.

Mary slid her underwear on before reaching backward and grabbing hold of Vivian’s staff. She pushed down then vaulted to her feet, removing Vivan’s staff from the ground in the process.

“Hey, get back in here. Pleeease.” Vivian whined as she latched on to Mary’s leg.

Her hands were soft and it was easy to see her complete lack of any muscle definition. If Mary wanted to, she could easily drag her relatively small body around with a single leg — and she did, at least until Vivian realized what was happening and let go.

Mary tossed Vivian’s staff next to her wand. “I do not have time to keep laying there. There are too many things to do.”

“But it’s so cold without you.” Vivan looked at Mary with doe eyes. “Why not get back in here and warm me up a bit first.”

“No. If you really wanted to warm up, you would put some clothes on.” Mary looked towards the sky, then at Fiivon and Cassius who were still asleep in their bedrolls. “Which you might want to do before they get up. You only have twenty minutes before their spell ends.”

Vivian stared as Mary’s clothing covered her surprisingly large muscles one layer at a time until they were completely obscured.

“Don’t you ever get too hot wearing that much?” She looked at Mary seductively. “Maybe you could take them off again. I don’t care if they see our love.”

Mary walked over to a bush with large leaves near Vivian’s sweatpants and threw them at her.

“Okay. Fine. I’ll get ready.” Vivan’s voice was muffled by the sweatpants still on her face. “Just five more minutes maybe.” She laid back down without removing the sweatpants.

Mary sighed, then studied the leaf. It was one of many valley-like leaves attached to a large, bulbous, beat colored growth peaking out of the dirt. The black specks covered about half of the leaf’s surface, which was a large improvement compared to the three-quarters they covered the previous night.

That seems fast. She tested the specks using her device. Same reading as that grime in that chimney, though there are higher amounts of nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen in it this time. She then clipped off a small piece of the leaf without any specks and tested it as well. More unknown elements, but these ones are different from the Borclay and the antimagic crystals. I wonder…

Light began to filter through the trees overhead. Some of the specks coalesced into a single mass as they formed a tiny drop of liquid.

Mary tested the liquid with her device. No trace of the unknown substance could be detected, in its place was nitrogen-rich water with trace amounts of yet another unknown element. She continued watching the leaf to see if something similar happened again.

Behind her, Vivian grumbled as she rushed to collect her clothing before the others woke up. Once all of her clothing was on and her staff in hand, a pink light enveloped her, removing all traces of dirt. “You didn’t need to throw my staff all the way over here you know?”

“You would have used it to stop me from leaving the bed otherwise.” Mary said as she jotted her new findings and hypothesis regarding the anti-magic crystals down in her notebook. IF I am right, this changes everything.

Vivian froze for a moment before looking away. “Sh-shut up, you don’t know that.”

Mary stared. I do know that, even better now. You are more transparent than Lena was. “I am going to cook breakfast.” She walked over to Fiivon’s pack to retrieve their pilfered cooking utensils and food. “You can help if you want.”

“Do I look like a chef!?”

“Cooking is a useful skill for everyone. You do not need to help.” Mary removed a magic, portable cooling device along with a pan, a spatula, some plates, a couple cooking knives, a sack of potatoes, some ‘krydderpeppers’, onions, and forks.

Fiivon shot up and reached for his wand.“Oh..." He rubbed his eyes and relaxed. "...you’re just cooking. I can help Miss Mary.”

———————————————————————————————————————

Lena lo omed over the potato Mary held. “Why do people cut out the eyes?”

“The eyes of a potato are actually sprouts or buds that are high in a poison called Solanine.” Mary tossed the removed eyes into a small hole she dug when they set up camp. “Will you get another potato ready for me?”

“Yes mam.” Lena saluted while doing her best to feign an intense seriousness.

She weighed two of the largest potatoes in her hands while looking them over. One was green and growing sprouts while the other was firm with a dirty, brown color. They were roughly the same size, if you ignored the sprouts. She shrugged then pitched the brown one at Mary, who caught it without looking away from the potato she was cutting.

“Great job Lena.” Mary finished cutting the potato. The pan continued to sizzle as Mary shook and flipped its contents before cutting up the final potato.

Lena sniffed the air so she could fully absorb the aroma of freshly cooked onions, peppers, and salted bird. “It smells amazing. You’re the best cook ever Mary.”

Mary rubbed Lena’s head. “You are a great cook as well Lena. You might even be able to cook better than I can one day.”

“When I grow up, we should have a contest to see which of us is the better cook.”

Mary smiled. “Would that be before the fencing competition and after the race, or maybe it would be before the bake off but after the fishing contest.”

Lean smiled even wider. “Oh Mary, poor Mary.” She wagged her finger. “We are going to do all of them at once in one great big everything competition.” She flung her arms back in an arcing motion.

“I have a pretty big head start so you will have a lot of work ahead of you. You know I will not let you win.” Mary set the pan onto a rock near some fallen logs.

“I’ll work extra hard and become the best ever at everything, just you watch.” Lena put her hands on her hips while holding her head high.

“I am sure you will.” Mary patted Lena’s head, causing her to smile even more.

———————————————————————————————————————

“Mary… Miss Mary.” Fiivon waved his hands in front of Mary. “I thought I was going to help.”

“Right, sorry.” Mary refocused.

Vivian stared at Mary with her head resting on one of her hands. “You sure spaced out there. It was kinda cute in a weird way, but I like that sort of thing.”

Mary ignored her. The food was already done, but it would only be enough for two people and she had yet to add the dehydrated ‘Zhuguai.’ Judging from Fiivon’s description, they resembled boars, but were much larger with triceratops horns and puma-like claws.

Mary split the pan’s contents between two plates and crushed the pork-jerky-esque meat over the mix of potatoes and vegetables. “This will only be enough for two of us, if you want to, you can cook the rest and I will guide you through the steps.”

Fiivon smiled. “Thank you miss.”

“You’re seriously going to let him cook.” Vivian eyed Mary, and the food suspiciously.

“It’s okay miss, I cooked all the time while traveling with Galorex. I thought the food tasted okay, but he always told me it was bad or ‘sub par,’ whatever that means. He never did help me fix it either.”

A scoop of the steaming, fragrant meal made its way onto Vivian’s fork. “Whatever I can’t imagine it being worse than something made by someone who was clearly paying no attention to anything, let alone someone who would trust a child to cook for someone other than themselves.” 

“You would be surprised at how good some children can be at cooking with a little help.” Mary walked back over to the campfire with Fiivon and helped him out while he cooked.

Cassius grabbed the other plate and took a bite. “This wonderful dish tastes phenomenal, significantly better than anything you or I had in our journey traversing the wilderness, don't you agree Vivian.”

Vivian side eyed him then took one bite, then another, and another until her plate was gone. “Yeah I guess so.” She watched Mary guide Fiivon through the cooking process. “What do you suppose a ‘ranger from the Earth city of Reythe’ even does anyway?”

“I would assume she performs similar tasks as the rangers of old from our world, perhaps you’ve managed to meet one at some point in your extended elven life.”

Vivian sighed. “I’m not even sure the druids know what they did, and all of them have either disappeared or gone into hiding. even Birch." She looked off into the woods. "She’s also from Earth, a ‘ranger’ to her might mean assassin or something judging from her actions.”

“Well there’s no point in fussing about it. She’s on our side and that’s what matters.”