Sweet and Sticky... Syrups, Of Course! [Lykos]

[Hilana Chenzira]

66 Glade, Year 123

[Closed - Lykos]

After their long run last night, and armed with three large sacks full of prickly pears, Hilana led Lia and Lykos down to the kitchen. She had the morning off, and as such, she wanted to show Lykos a treat. Lia was just content to spend time with her sister and their Rathari, because when Hilana went to work late before lunchtime, she and Lykos could have lessons on the language, culture, and Scrivening. It was important to the sisters that Lykos learn about where they are and more about the land and customs, if only so that he could maybe, just maybe, visit the Umbrium when he was escorted by Sentinels. This was his home for the foreseeable future, and Hilana didn’t want him to feel like he was being locked up in perpetuity with no chance of ever leaving the Citadel. No, this way if he showed that he was learning, a field trip wouldn’t be entirely out of the question.

“So what we’re going to make today is prickly pear syrup,” Hilana told their peregrine guest with a beaming smile. “They’re really sweet, and once you know how to handle the seeds and spikes, it’s not an issue. But the benefit of making the fruit into syrup is that it will last longer and you can just use it rather than constantly preparing it. A little more time consuming now to enjoy it much longer, right?”

“You can eat them fresh as well,” Lia added. “They have a lot of seeds in them, but they’re edible and they won’t bother you. They were a wonderful treat when I was a child and we traveled,” the sisters shared a smile. Lia may have settled in Tertium when she was seven and adapted well, but shared joys of the much more wild lifestyle that Hilana had grown up with were not a common admission. Not right then. But both sisters had reached an understanding that neither was a bad way; it was what had suited each of them. Lia was just happy that they’d come to that peaceful accord between them. There was no need for arguments and stress; old problems were to be forgotten. Or, at least, left in the past. Promises had been made, and Hilana intended to keep them.

“They really are,” her sister agreed. Lia made herself comfortable at the table, while indicating Lykos take a seat between the two Vastian women. A new lesson was about to begin, and while Lia was perfectly content to sit back and supervise, Hilana would take the time to teach as she got a number of bowls, sharp knives, and cutting boards. There was even a large mesh strainer. She had already cut the spines and hairs off of the thick-skinned red fruits when she had been collecting them, except for a few so that she could show Lykos how to do that in the event he was ever in the position he needed to. Unlikely, in the sands, but it was a valuable skill nonetheless. One never knew when something like this could become necessary.

[Rickter]

Sweet and Sticky... Syrups, Of Course!
Glade 66th, 123rd Year, A.o.S.

Having spent a late night on a run across the sands, the wolf hadn't anticipated the soreness that might accompany his muscles the next day. His back not so much but that only remained a fact from Hilana being a lightweight for him to carry, but his arms and legs were definitely stiff from running across the desert at such a rapid pace. The trip had allowed him to release a lot of the pent-up emotions felt inside his heart, and even if the leaden weight still clung to it, the wolf could at least appreciate the breakfast to come once everyone had arisen.

He was admittedly curious as to what the agenda was for the day, as Lykos understood he would be spending more time with Athalia during lunchtime. There were lessons to be had on Solunarium and more about the culture that accompanied it, but the wolf was sure that the older sibling would find ways of incorporating magic into the mix as well. He was gradually learning a steady blend of things day by day, which made it seem like a lot to retain, when in reality there was simply so much ground for him to cover. "Syrup huh?" He mused as the trio walked into the kitchen, his eyes on the prickly pears that the younger sister carried.

Lana always had such a curious if not inventive way of approaching food, but the wolf would've never imagined eating cactus before. He honestly had never even seen cacti until he'd arrived at the citadel, but of course, seeing how prickly the stuff had been he was keen to avoid it at all costs. He didn't wanna stick his nose too close to one, even in Zoan form, at the expense of getting pricked in the process of it. So from the sound of it, she plans on making some kind of extract from it. He reasoned with himself before Lia weighed in on the observation, admittedly a bit astonished to learn one could eat the prickly fruits as they were.

"Wouldn't the needles poke into your mouth though? I think that'd hurt my cheeks or tongue if I did that." He slightly mused as he pulled a wooden chair close to the counter, resting his left arm on the surface when he took a seat on the furniture. While the kitchen wasn't entirely the same layout as their manor in Tertium, the wolf had grown slightly accompanied to it over the past several days. That was all thanks to Lana of course, though. As he grew comfortable within his chair though he gave Lia a soft smile first, before paying Lana with undivided attention once more after she gathered her utensils.

Needless to say, he was rather interested in this whole concept of syrup.

[Hilana Chenzira]

“You’re absolutely correct in that the spines on the outside of the prickly pear can hurt, which is why we’re going to skin them first,” Hilana was cheerful. “The camels like them as they are, and that’s why we’re saving the skins for them, they get a treat. You see, the lips of camels are quite rubbery and thick, and they can eat the spines without any problems. We can also use those skins to make a safe and edible dye if we want to change the colours of cloth or food. But while these spines look like they’re what you need to look out for,” she brought the bowl of the still-spiny pears over to her and lifted one deftly between her fingers, “it’s the little hairs on them that are much harder to see that will irritate you like sand in your boots... so that’s why we have the gloves,” she offered him a pair of well-worn, large leather gloves. “I just use one when I’m getting started so that I can hold the pear with that hand, and use my other hand free with the knife.”

While she had a number that had already been de-spined, she wanted him to see how this was started so that if, Founders forbid, he ever found himself in a situation where he was desperate for sustenance in the Expanse, he could at least know how to eat these without hurting himself. “So what you’re going to do is hold it in your hand, and take the paring knife,” she had a couple of them out for them, and she took one. “You’ll want to hold your pear over different bowls, because it’s going to shed a lot of juice,” she added. “But before we get to that stage, we need to shave off the spines in order to make it easier to hold.” She walked him through the process of peeling the prickly pear. First came the spines, which went into one bowl, and then they moved the pears over a second bowl while they made a slit in the skin from top to bottom, and took the flat part of the knife to steadily peel the skin from the flesh of the fruit, revealing the juicy, sweet fruit. Those smells by themselves were likely familiar to Lykos; she had made some sort of pastry and a drink with it before, and that could help link the scent to the taste.

“So, as you can see,” Hilana reached and showed Lykos the rounded, dark seeds that studded the flesh of the prickly pear, “these are the seeds. Some like them, some don’t, but for what we’re doing, we don’t want seeds. They won’t go well in the syrup, will they? So what we’re going to do is cut them smaller and put them over a strainer so that we can push them through and remove the seeds. Easy enough, right?” Lia had little desire to do this the hard way, and with a casual movement of her finger, she summoned Fire in order to start burning off the horrible little hairs off of the remaining prickly pears just to make them easier to handle. “And that’s another way to do it,” Hilana admitted.

With the fruit being cut, she would at least take over the primary cleanup of the prickly pears that had been gathered. Hilana’s speed at this, when she wasn’t demonstrating her technique, was quick, and that allowed Lia and Lykos to proceed with cutting the fruit into pieces in another bowl. “The smaller the better, because we’re going to have to put them through a sieve in order to make the syrup. We don’t want the seeds in that, but we’re going to keep the seeds so that I can spread them the next time I go out into the sands. This type of cactus grows quite quickly, and it’s entirely edible, from the cactus paddles, you’ve seen those the other day when I made them into a salad and a stew,” she smiled at the demigod. “So that helps travelers and wildlife alike. That’s how they grow, really. Animals eat the fruit and seeds, and then spread them.”

"Waste not, want not," Lia remarked with a bit of a teasing smile.

"Precisely," her little sister agreed cheerfully. "Wouldn't be the first time people have to learn that lesson the hard way, but that's what being in some place like this and roaming the sands teaches you... resourcefulness. A lot of things can be used in many different ways, you just have to be creative about it."

[Rickter]

Lykos could only smile at the confirmation he had from observations, even if it seemed rather obvious that licking a cactus would only inflict pain upon his tongue. If anything it was her cheerful charm that humored him, and led him to watch with interest while she elaborated on camels being able to eat the skins. The wolf couldn't imagine how they had the capacity to do so, and he certainly didn't want to try that on himself, but given the insight Hilana had on cactus in general he learned considerably.

"You don't say." He remarked when the bowl was brought over for him to inspect, and the offer of gloves brought a wider grin out of him. Apparently, he was getting hands-on with this lesson today, not that he minded, as Lykos knew he could potentially use this information if he were ever out on his own in the desert. "It's remarkable really, never would've imagined I'd be skinning cactus." He started to wonder if he could, effectively, apply the practice with a bit of magic once he learned the concept.

It wasn't out of the realm of possibility, though, there was just something appealing to the good old-fashioned way of using tools for the job. Therefore, he took the glove and slipped it over his left hand, while observing Hilana's instruction with the procedure of skinning the fruit. The procedures involved were a bit more systematic than he originally imagined, if only because of the multiple applications the fruit seemed to possess. While she carried on with the lesson, Lykos did his best to try and mimic the steps she instructed him with.

"Huh," the lupine demigod muttered with a look of familiarity, "I think I know that scent." He remarked with a subtle grin to the younger Vastiana, remembering the scent from a few of the deserts and beverages she'd whipped up for him before. What remained stranger to him though was how practiced he felt with the blade, not because of the fact he was technically using it for cooking methods, but because of how familiar it felt when he held it firmly with each stroke. Knives didn't seem to be something he favored as a weapon, but doubtless, Lykos knew the grip he had on the handle was strong and seasoned.

The only obvious thing about his technique was the relativity of his precision, having never skinned a prickly pear in his life, he felt it wasn't as easy as Hilana presented when he tried to reenact a step. Admittedly when she presented the seeds he eyed them, curiously, before he heeded her advice and noticed Lia's approach to handling the pear. The wolf innately chuckled before he rested his knife down, giving into the temptation to finally use a bit of magic to encourage the process. Where he had hardly shaved off the spines with the knife before, the tool had been set aside whilst his gaze focused on the pear. With a bit of concentration, the cactus fruit floated out of his glove, with a slow twist where it levitated in the air.

"I may not be well practiced at cutting fruit, but if Lia can use magic then I don't see why I can't." He mused with an outward flex of his fingers, causing a ripple of aether to pulse across the surface of the fruit. The spines of the pear went hovering off the skin as he then dangled the fruit telekinetically over the first bowl, a quick cut soon born across the bottom of the fruit as the syrup soon bled out of it. "I don't doubt the tact of a tool when it comes in handy, but for whatever reason, magic makes it easier to manage with fewer risks." He mused in regards to the spines that slowly drooped onto the table.

"Mind you I don't intend to rely on magic for everything." He bargained with a humored grin before he looked back to the floating pear, a subtle shift in his brow flexing another bit of Kinetics with the fruit. Sure enough, he carried on with the next step, peeling the skin off the fruit with his mind as the flesh and seeds were left to rest on the strainer. "But it's certainly too much fun not to give it a try."

[Hilana Chenzira]

"One never knows what is to come. I imagine you never thought you'd be sitting at a table in a desert fortress at the far end of the world from your homeland with a pair of pretty girls, either, but here we are," the girl was cheerful. "It's important to know what you can and cannot eat, no matter where you go, and if you can eat it, how to prepare it. Do you know how many peregrini I've treated for cactus spines and the hairs in their hands and mouths? Or people that try to eat something that's poisonous, and pay the cost for it? Too many." She continued to strip off the hairs and pass more fruit over to them to continue the next steps.

"Cheater," Hilana sighed at Lia when her sister was all too quick to use magic to cleanse the prickly pears and smooth out the process that the younger Vastiana was doing by hand. It was incredibly easy for her as a Master Elementalist, to hold the fruit, delicately section off the spines and skin and hair with a blade of air, and direct the falling juices into one bowl and set the fruit down in the other one. While the other two elected to smooth the process with their Crafts, Hilana picked up the pace with her knife and skills that had been trained over many, many years of mundane practice.

"Do not let her convince you otherwise, this is utterly acceptable here," Lia added to Lykos' lesson. "Magic is an integral part of Solunarian culture. It is one of the major tenets of Varvaerynism. It is a divine gift, and we should be using it. Hilana only just got her first rune a few seasons ago, so unlike you and I, she is still working to build up her aetheric capabilities, which means she should be doing something like this with Elementalism in order to continue to fine-tune and enhance her control and skills." She added, a bit pointedly, as she looked across the table at Hilana.

"And you do know this scent," Hilana chose to ignore Lia's sage advice in favour of her knife, deftly shaving and skinning the ruby-red morsels. "We've had it in drinks, tea, and in some of the salads and sauces I've made. It does grow up quite quickly, which means it's a fairly sustainable source of nutrition for the nomads, and even for people who are settled. While there are many that might see it as peasant fare... I mean... cactus paddles and fruit... it's what you do with it that counts. There is an art in simplicity and food prepared well. There is a saying amongst many merchants, 'If you can't dazzle someone with brilliance, baffle them with camelshit'... cooking is the same. Yes, some of the most elaborate meals can be incredible, but sometimes I think that has more to do with ignoring the basic principles and overdoing it to assault the senses rather than let whomever is eating actually enjoy the food for what it is."

Lia was about to interject when Hilana mercifully didn't continue on that point: both of them knew when the colourful Vastiana with the long skirts got onto a topic she liked, getting her to shut up and get to the point could be markedly difficult. But the bowl with the pieces was getting fuller with the combined efforts of the three, so it was time to move onto the next step of the production. Lia was content to continue to slice and peel and cut, and now the younger sister and Lykos could start mushing and sieving the fruit through the strainer to catch the seeds. "Our next step, more magic for you if you'd like," she grinned up at the demigod, "is to mush the fruit enough and put it through the sieve. That way we get the seeds out," she held up the large, metal mesh strainer. "However, we don't want to crush the seeds," she picked one out of the piece of fruit so that Lykos could see it. "All the seeds have to stay in the strainer, and the fruit and pulp can go to the bowl below. How would you do it?" She would let him decide. There were multiple methods, after all, and it was little games and problem-solving like this that could help link arcanic processes in his head in a safe environment that would allow for using it when he needed it later.

[Rickter]

Admittedly the lupine demigod could only chuckle to himself when Hilana humored him. He had indeed never thought or believed to be where he was now, although, it wasn't as bad as he originally feared it to be when he'd met them either. The lovely pair of women here had done nothing but made his transition here easier to handle, and of course, his insatiable diet had been regulated after the fact of his arrival in turn. Never before did Lykos imagine himself ever eating so much, but thankfully, Hilana and the servii at the citadel hardly slowed down when it came to his apparent needs.

"Too many, huh?" He gently reiterated as he contemplated just how severe the pain would feel, if not the discomfort that would be born from the splinters themselves. He certainly wouldn't want to induce such torture upon himself, let alone anyone else, and if cactus fruit was so plentiful as she said... then the wolf had a means of surviving even the wastes of the desert if he needed to. It amused him though to see Athalia's application of magic eliciting such a reaction from Hilana, the practicality of both tools and aether was not lost on him in the slightest. It paid well to bear in mind the practice of the former to be sure, but the latter was something he also needed to flex when possible.

Recovery was best met with practice when muscles, be they physical or magical, were exercised in light of the process in turn. "I can understand why." He reminisced with Lia regarding the application of their arcane talents. "The uses it provides range from simple to effective, depending on the manner you exploit it. I have to say, though, Varvaerynism does pose an interesting theory." Had magic been a gift from the Divines? He could not tell. He only knew that his Runes had very different natures in how they worked, but the only similarity between them was the one constant that remained between them all. Aether.

Perhaps they were a gift from the Divines after all, or, perhaps they were created by others to imitate them. Either way, Lykos' nose led to a different train of thought, once Lana revealed the several palettes the fruit had been sourced within. "Well I won't deny that, there seems an abundance of these cacti out in the desert wastes." He mused with a light grin while he continued to watch Hilana work, impressed by her strokes with the knife as the practice looked easy to her.

It came to their next step, however, which now included separate of the seeds from the fruit's flesh. Upon the inquiry at how he would do it, given that magic would be involved, Lykos had to stop and ponder as the juicy orb of fruit hovered before him. A part of him, maybe even just a piece, felt like he could easily pull out the seeds with a flux of aether. Or perhaps even a tug of spacial magic. Such an application was beyond him though as he bore no Rune of Traversion, even if the concept lingered on the edges of familiarity with him. Simply put; the fruit and pulp were to be strained through the metal mesh into the container below, while the seeds were left intact and uncrushed as a result.

Therefore it was still a joint combination between his two magics, insofar being the useful pair to coincide on this little experiment of his. "One would think I'd need to instill a ward on the fruit but truthfully..." His sticky fingers curled beneath the fuzz of his chin in thought, before he eyed the mesh considerably with a bit of thought. "There' are a few ways of going about doing this. The surest to guarantee the seeds though, that would involve a bit of preparation before the straining process." And to identify the seeds and their consistency, Lykos needed to know just what he was working with exactly. It was plain to see that what he beheld was the flesh of a prickly pear, but just understanding that it was a cactus fruit wouldn't prove enough to accomplish the task efficiently.

Therefore as he brought his hands down toward the rims of the metal mesh, aether flourished into his eyes as their soft blue hues glimmered to a vibrant silver. Allowing the colors of the world to dance before him momentarily, the hues of the auras surrounding him waned to outlines across surfaces shortly after. The enhancement of smells was easily distinguished but the wolf overlooked that, for what he needed was a count of the seeds that rested within the pulp of the fruit. His eyebrows rose at how many outlines he found dancing beneath the fruit's surface, almost stumped by the amount of consistency that would've been lost if he'd applied elementalism, or just brute force with a simple flex of kinetics.

Meanwhile, his hands glistened from the center of their palms, as miniature rays danced outward to lace themselves among the contours of the mesh. Aether coated and layered over the mesh harmoniously with the glimmer of his signature radiance. The ward he instilled on the strainer remained simple since he only needed one thing to pass through, and therefore, tasked to prevent the signature source he'd focused on from grinding through the mesh itself. With the dimming of the lights to pass so too did the silvery gaze of his vision, before the wolf's gaze lingered on the fruit itself with a firm but brief nod. A final fluctuation of aether to enforce the Flux, sending the fruit from a hover downward into the strainer where the flesh and pulp would press into the mesh.

In one motion did the fruit and pulp come out smooth as silk, while the wards gently flared to keep the seeds within from pressing through. In a rather neat pile, the little black seeds remained centered on the mesh, what little bits of pulp remained slowly dripping through as he lowered his hands back onto the surface of the table. "Took a moment, but I analyzed the seeds. I counted somewhere between forty to sixty of them, upon observation, so it felt easiest to filter them from the pulp as much as possible." He elaborated with a bit of an accomplished smirk, glancing to each one of the sisters before he watched the one giving the instruction. "How'd I do?"

In inquiring, he was curious to see what came next with the ingredients.

[Hilana Chenzira]

"Oh, Founders, don't call Atraxia 'wastes'... you're going to get her started on how it's really not," Athalia was quick to interject just as Hilana opened her mouth to talk. Using the air, Lia stuck a piece of cut-up prickly pear in her sister's mouth to cut her off and while the girl made a sound, she did eat the chunk of pear, grumbling, but it did the job. Hilana was quiet, and allowed Lykos to keep going. But for someone who may have innately been used to anything else in the world... the endless seas of sands were likely wastelands. It was a matter of figuring out how to survive and thrive in it, and to see the resources where one could.

As he put together his Crafts to understand the fruit, and to prepare to sieve and strain it, the sisters watched with rapt attention. Hilana focused her Semblance on the Negation being done in front of her, trying to glean the understanding of the work that he was putting forward. She had steadily refused Negation from her father, though it was perhaps cutting off her nose to spite her face, as she was understanding now... but she could learn from Lykos as much as he was learning from them. Lia understood far more, from her education and listening to their father and eldest sister discuss it. But Hilana was able to read books, and she was paying attention to the discussions on the subject between Lykos and Lia when she was there, and she scrutinized the ward. Her eyes were no longer brown, but an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colours that represented the elements that she was so close to.

As she watched the fruit and seeds separate, she could see the aura of the seeds that clearly identified themselves as seeds to her enhanced senses, even if she hadn't known what they were on sight. The seeds were unable to get through the magical mesh, and that allowed the Rathari demigod to accomplish what she had asked of him. He was right on the money there, as she turned her attention to the bowl, peering through the brightly-coloured pear that told her how fresh it was, where it came from, and how long ago it had been picked. Who had touched it, peeled it, and now, how it had ended up how it had been. That took her quite a bit to sort through and understand, and Lia had a small smile as Hilana took a few minutes to reply. Well, she had to learn, and practice made perfect. "That did it, yes," Hilana agreed. "So let's keep doing that. That way, we can process the most fruit in the least amount of time, I think. We can put all the seeds in here. Then I'll take them back out into the sands and spread them so that others can enjoy them later on."

With Lia getting rid of the spines, Hilana peeling and quartering the fruit, and Lykos to pulverize it through the strainer and set the seeds aside, they made good time. The big bowls of magenta pulp were filling up, and now they could proceed to the next step. "So what we do now is strain it through a cloth," she explained. "We can strain it before, or strain it after, but I find the best clarity comes from straining first. That way we have a more exacting amount that we can expect, and we don't need to waste sugar and lemon juice on pulp that we're just going to set aside later, right?" She smiled up at him. He likely knew by now that Hilana's attitude was very much waste not, want not, and she doubtless had plans for all of the extra pulp that came from the fruit. "Some people will strain it a few more times than that, especially if they're going to make something particularly fancy with it... some of the fancy folk like it to be extremely clear and mix it with alcohol to make cocktails, which is really very nice, too, it has a lovely flavour and it helps with some of the more fiery spirits. Not everyone likes the burning sensation of straight liquor, after all, and they like something more refined. For me, I usually strain twice unless I need to do it again, or if it's really cloudy."

"Burning is subjective," Lia remarked with a smile. "So what is our next step, soror? With the cheesecloth?" she prompted her.

"With the cheesecloth," Hilana confirmed. "And this time, we can use Elementalism to help pressure it... without splitting the fabric, so that's going to be tight. But here, we have our cheesecloth bags that Lia was so kind to make for us," she picked one up, opening it. It looked a bit like a pillowcase, though it was smaller. "Let's get this about half full and see where that gets us, and we'll start wringing the juice out." All help was welcome, by either Elementalism, Kinetics, or manually, so they could strain the desired juices from the fruity flesh and get through the next step. A lot of work went into making something seemingly simple, and Lia had to admit it lended towards a greater appreciation for such treats and the labour that went into them.

[Talisman]

Review

Name: Lykos

XP: 10 Points, no magic
Injuries/Ailments: None
Loot: Cactus Pear Syrup

Name: Hilana

XP: 10 Points, no magic
Injuries/Ailments: None
Loot: Cactus Pear Syrup

Notes: Hilana really can get stuck on the technical details when it comes to cooking and desert flora, can't she?