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Harmonious Survival
When Mia and Keithwood got back to the beach with their haul of leaves and fruit, the food was already being cooked. A makeshift kitchen had been set up, with a wooden stand set up over a fire and a nice metal pot sitting on top. Inside, thick slices of fish, shellfish, and seaweed were cooked together to make a stew that was very rich in seafood.
“My! Stew!”
Mia gasped with joy at what she saw. She had given up on that dream because she thought that even if they caught a rabbit, they wouldn’t have a pot to cook it in.
Now, the door to some delicious rabbit stew was once again open. Again, the rabbits on the island were in danger of ending up in her stomach.
“Nice.” Keithwood was impressed and asked, “How did you find a pot?”
Nina answered in her usual calm and emotionless way.
“When it comes to food, our main goal is to make sure it is safe to eat. So, most things are fine as long as you heat them all the way through. Stewing or pan-broiling is the easiest way to cook, so I thought having a pot around would be helpful. Then I remembered that we had brought one with us and thought that a big pot that could serve a lot of people might not be so easily blown away. After a bit of searching, I was able to find it on a nearby branch.”
As she talked, Keithwood’s eyes got farther away from her.
“Yes… Priorities… Of course. What you say makes a lot of sense. It’s nice to know that our meals are being made by an experienced, smart cook like you,” he said with the relief of a lost soul who had found a fellow countryman in a foreign land.
Mia gave him a puzzled look, but the topic didn’t hold her attention for long, so she gave a “eh, whatever” shrug.
“Whatever the case, this is great news.
We can stew rabbit now that we have a pot, and we can even add mushrooms…”
Keithwood’s eyes got less happy, though, when Mia started naming all the tasty things she wanted to try. Even though the pot was big, her goals were even bigger.
“But I have to say, seaweed is one thing, but how did you catch all of these fish? I don’t think we brought any fishing rods.”
“We found some sticks in the woods,” said Abel.
“About the string, I’m sorry to say that your attendant had to give up something important to us.”
“Huh? Wait, Anne?”
Mia looked at Anne and wondered what he meant by that.
She looked her maid over from head to toe, and then noticed that the back of her long, red hair was showing.
“No… You don’t mean…”
“Yeah… After all, it is said that a woman’s hair is her crowning glory. I know how important it is, but…”
He bit his lip, which made Anne laugh.
“Oh, come on. Hair grows back, and I don’t have to do anything to make it happen. I was going to have to cut it anyway, so I might as well use it! Also, if my hair helped milady have a nice, filling meal of fish, that makes me happier than my hair ever has.”
“Anne…”
Mia’s lips moved slightly when she saw such a sincere show of love. She looked at the things she had found on her trip to try to calm down.
She set out some wild plants and fruits and said, “If we’re having seafood stew, I’m afraid the things we brought back won’t go very well with it.”
“Whoa. It is a lot. You picked all of that?”
Abel’s eyes went wide. Both Sion and Nina were shocked.
“It’s not a big deal. I’m sure that any of you could have done it.”
Her humble answer would have been humble if she hadn’t said it with the silliest grin on her face.
“And Keithwood helped.”
“No, Princess Mia, it was all you. I have to say that your vast knowledge has really impressed me,” he said with a deep bow, before turning back to look at the far horizon and murmuring, “I only wish you could have…held back a little on your interest in mushrooms.”
“That’s it.”
Mia didn’t hear him, so she only frowned at him before her eyes went to other things that looked more tasty. She didn’t worry about small things because she had a big heart, as big as the pot of stew she was making at the moment.
“Oh, and by the way, we also found fullmoon palm fruit. Its juice is very sweet, and we might be able to use the hard shell to hold something,” she said.
Keithwood added, “We only picked one. We’ll go back and get more if we can open it and find that it’s useful.”
Nina gave a firm nod when the idea was made.
“Thank you again. I was just thinking that we’ll need some bowls for the stew.”
She looked over the things Mia brought back with her lips together.
“I’ll pick these plants clean and put them in the stew. I think I can use the palm fruit juice as a seasoning. It might give it a little more flavour,” she said in a straightforward way.
Mia had heard that sound before. It was the tone of a woman who was accomplished and knew what she was doing.
She thought of herself as a pretty accomplished woman, so when she heard what it meant, her eyes grew wide.
“Wow, Nina, are you really saying that you can cook well under these conditions? I thought Esmeralda was just being herself.”
“I don’t think my simple skills can meet the high standards of royalty like you. I will try as hard as I can, but I’m sorry in advance if I’m not good enough.”
Nina bowed her head in shame, but Mia ignored her and turned her attention to the pot of stew.
“You’re not being fair to yourself. Really, you’ve done more than enough, especially considering what’s going on. Check out this stew. It smells great.”
“It sure does,” said Keithwood, who had missed the first part of getting ready and was watching with interest.
“What did you put on it to flavour it? Just salt?”
Nina gave a nod.
“I’ve made it a habit to carry magic powder with me so that milady Esmeralda can always have delicious meals.”
“M-Magic powder?” asked Mia, who didn’t understand.
Nina held up a bottle that was hanging around her neck.
“This bottle of spices comes from another country. One shake of this is enough to make almost any dish taste much better.”
“My! Are you serious! This?!”
Mia looked at the bottle, interested in what was inside.
Everyone in the group was in a good mood, and everyone shared in the laughter. Everyone except for a sad Esmeralda, who showed she was good at making her cheeks look like chipmunks.
There’s no need to point out how much she looks like Mia.