“Momo!” Claire barked, standing up.  

“Ma’am!” Momo replied, also standing up. She thought about saluting but didn’t.  

“It’s time to begin. Are you ready?” 

“I am!” Momo was all tensed up, but she relaxed and sat down. Claire followed suit. “Please teach me well!” 

“I will. Now,” Claire said, moving the bowl of tomato paste away. She grabbed an onion, a cutting board, and a knife and got to work. “I’m going to show you the right way to cut, and I’m going to let you try.” 

And with that, the cooking session got underway. The first step was to dice a few of the onions they bought. About half would go into the tomato sauce. Momo asked if they had bought too many, but Claire shook her head. “I thought we could do veggies on the side as well. About half  goes into the sauce, and the other half will be a snack. It’ll take a good while for the sauce to get cooked. Okay, now you do what I did and dice this onion.” 

Claire scraped the onion she had diced into a mixing bowl and handed the cutting board, knife, and a second onion to Momo. She grabbed the blade wrongly, and Claire had to step in and correct her. Momo thanked her Elven teacher and started over. This time, she did it, for the most part, at least, but some of her cuts weren’t straight. She was left with chunks bigger than the rest, but Claire said it’ll all cook the same as long none are too big.  

What followed was a pleasant late afternoon that turned into an enjoyable evening. Momo learned much more from Claire about cooking than she did from her grandfather, but that wasn’t his fault. Momo went through her various spells of just being a teenager, but she did try once or twice to make him dinner. The adorable, love-stricken Singi wasn’t totally new to the world of culinary arts, but she was as close as someone could be.  

When it came to the meat, Momo paid close attention. That included knowing when it was done and how to drain grease and safely store it. The catgirl enjoyed adding the tomato sauce and mixing it all up. As she did that, she carefully added a curated section of spices and salt while her mouth watered in anticipation. Claire stood off to the side, nodding and giving Momo hints on what to add next and how much of it.

“Now, we’re going to start adding the veggies. We’ve already added our garlic and salt and everything else to it. Remember?” Claire asked. She was pouring oil into a second frying pan while preparing for the appetizer: sautéed vegetables. It might have been overkill because there was already an insane  amount of veggies, and Claire had something to say on that. She mentioned that since Momo said Servy enjoyed vegetables, it would be okay to overindulge in them. 

“Do I just pour it all in?” Momo asked. She turned to Claire with an odd look in her eye, but the Elf nodded.  

“Yep! Once you do that, be sure to mix it all up for about six or seven minutes.” 

Momo gazed upon the frying pan full of beefy meat and tomato paste. Even with just those two ingredients and various spices alone, an irresistible smell was born. It was meaty and fierce, but it had just enough garlic and salt to offset the viciousness. She used her wooden cooking utensils to make some room in the middle of the pan, but Claire said that wasn’t necessary. The Elf had taken the second bowl of vegetables and poured them into her pan. A mighty sizzle of epic proportions roared alive and quickly died down.  

Momo thanked Claire for that advice and just dumped the contents of the bowl on top of a mountain of red and brown. She rotated her wooden mixing tool and made sure everything was evenly distributed. Momo kept going for a good six minutes, but her arm was beginning to tire out. Claire looked over and saw her pupil struggling to stir. 

“Momo, take a deep breath. What do you smell?” 

“I smell meat… And mushrooms… And bell peppers… And onions… And garlic… And all the other things we bought. And from the other pan, I smell the carrots and broccoli and other things…” 

“How does it make you feel? And looked back at Servi,” Claire said.  

“I’m kinda tired, but it does feel good to make something so delicious. Even if we do have to wait a while before we can eat… And Servy?” Momo turned around and saw her best friend was sitting there with a small smile. That didn’t make sense because her happy time ended a while ago. Momo made that worry known to Claire, and she squashed it.  

“Momo, that’s your food that’s making her do that. Your cooking is bringing out her hidden emotions. My grandmother once said this: when you find someone you want to cook for, that is when you truly understand the worth of delicious food. If you don’t get it, it means that you can be the best cook out there, but if the one you cherish doesn’t eat it, then it’s all for naught. Obviously, it isn’t that true because if we go to a restaurant, the chef isn’t cooking our food for the love he has for us. It’s because we’re going to pay him.  

“But you don’t have to worry about that. My grandmother said she searched for hundreds of years to find that perfect someone. She even thought the food she cooked was more suited to feeding livestock than a person, but that all changed when she met her husband—my grandfather. Momo, that pain in your arm is proof you’re trying so hard to make this meal one to remember. And Servi’s smile means she is fighting hard to come back to you.  

“How cool is that? It’s your food and love that’s causing her to want to return back to us as soon as she can.” 

“Then… Then it means I can’t just stop, can I? If she’s working so hard to come back, then I have to work just as hard?” Momo looked up at her Elven friend with tears in her eyes.  

“That’s right. Keep stirring until it’s all evenly distributed. From what I can see, you’re almost there. Go! Go! Momo!!!” Claire cheered. Momo’s adorable face nearly turned the same color as a tomato, but stupid embarrassment wouldn’t stop her love! She stirred and stirred until Claire gave her final approval. By that time, the appetizer was almost done, but it had a bit left to go. The broccoli was a bit too hard, and the carrots weren’t soft enough.  

“Go on and take a break,” Claire said. She found a lid and placed it on the pan with the pasta sauce. Then she messed with the knobs at the back, lowering the Fire Wall’s temperature. “The hard work is done, and now we wait for it to simmer together. The noodles and the bread are the last things we cook because the former takes fifteen minutes. But the bread is precooked, so we don’t really have to do anything with that except slap on some butter and garlic. Anyway, we can snack on that and the veggies I’ve got cooking in that pan. And those are almost done.” 

Momo stumbled over to the chair beside Servi and slumped down. Beads of sweat traveled down her face. “I… I didn’t expect to be this tired… It feels like I just ran a race.” 

“I thought the same when I first started. I mean, you’re just standing over a pot or pan and stirring things around, so how hard could it be? Well, it’s pretty hard. And the heat is unbearable because you’re standing right above a Fire Wall. If you’re using the skill normally, you could alter it so that its heat doesn’t affect the user. You can’t do that with a stove. Oh, you can open some windows if you like.” 

“Okay. Come on, Servy, let’s raise these bad boys up and get some air circulating!” Momo grabbed Servi’s hand after she dried her hands off on a clean rag, then they walked around the house’s bottom floor. It felt weird maneuvering around something so open and spacious, but the support beams were placed in spots that wouldn’t cause a congestion. It might’ve been her feline instincts, but Momo wanted to swing from pole to pole. If they were as sturdy as they looked and couldn’t support her weight, it might’ve made for some excellent training to strengthen her core.

Hand in hand, the pair of hopeful lovers went to the windows in what would be the living room and raised them. A fresh summer breeze blew by to say hello, sending Momo’s hair into a tumble. Servi’s hair caught the same gust, and pink and black locks played together for the short time the wind lasted. “Servy, I do love you,” Momo whispered. She said it so low that even Claire didn’t hear it. 

The would-be couple gazed out of the window, staring at the people passing by. The sky would soon turn a beautiful black, but even it didn’t compare to Servi’s abyss-colored hair. 

A few moments later, Servi and Momo sat at the kitchen table. The apple juice Claire had brought out all but vanished. “I got a few jugs of water in the fridge if you want to grab that,” Claire said. She was dancing on her tippy toes and humming to herself. Momo walked away and came back with more refreshments. She refilled all three glasses and carried one to Claire, who thanked her star pupil. Momo waited for Claire to drink it and took it back. Instead of returning to Servi, she stayed and watched, using her eyes to visually learn as much as possible.   

The Elf had sweat tracing the outline of her face, dripping down past her chin and onto her cleavage. Claire was slender like other Elves, and her chest matched that. She was bustier than Momo, but it wasn’t by a lot. Her neatly manicured hands worked the pan’s handle and wooden spatula to turn over the veggies. Minutes before, she had added a type of sauce to bring out the vegetables’ hidden richness.  

Momo’s nose sniffed into action, and she started to drool a little bit. “Alright, my star student, it’s time to have a snack. Can you grab three plates for me? They’re in that cabinet next to the refrigerator.” 

“Yep! Give me one second.” Momo hopped back to the table and sat down Claire’s empty glass. She walked to the cabinet her culinary mentor specified and grabbed three plates. They were wooden, but they also felt like ceramic. Was it a mix between them? The plates weren’t just a single color, considering one half was light red and the other a glistening purple. They weren’t brown like wood.  

“Claire, what kind of plates are these?” Momo asked. She dropped off two at the kitchen table and brought one to the cook.  

“Those are what my grandfather made for my grandmother on their 275th anniversary. It’s created from a type of wood called brittle hollow. And if you want to know its properties, then it’s in the name. It grows with nothing inside, and it's so brittle it can’t even support a caterpillar.” Claire took the plate from Momo and started to fill it up. Its appearance had something to be desired, but its smell was on a whole different level. The scent of the different vegetables was all there, but nothing was overpowering the other ingredients. It was like a carefully designed arrangement of flowers but with food. “He had made extras, so he gave them to his grandchildren.” 

“Oh… It looks and smells so good!!! But wait, if the wood is so weak, how did your grandpa make it into a plate?” Momo asked. She had great difficulty adverting her eyes from the food.  

“That I do not know. My grandad’s a stubborn old thing and refuses to tell anyone.” 

“But aren’t you curious?” Momo took one filled plate to the table and returned with an empty one.  

“I am, but I think it’s romantic. Like, granddad probably went through a lot to make a one-of-a-kind item to give to the woman he wanted to spend his life with. The secret probably has something to do with the colors because brittle hollow wood isn’t red or purple. It’s brown like almost every other type of lumber. So really, the vibrant colors only add to the mystery.” Claire finished plating up the food and asked Momo to fetch the third one, and the Singi did just that.  

Claire had distributed the pan’s contents into three even portions, which were a bit too much. “I guess we did go a bit overboard, but that’s fine! It’ll take about an hour for the sauce to get just right.” The Elf went to a drawer and retrieved three forks, then she went to take her place at the head of the table. Momo was to her right, and Servi was nestled beside the Singi.  

After handing out the utensils, it was finally time to dig in. The air went silently and deadly, the atmosphere seemed to not exist anymore, and the only sounds were wood scraping against plates. Momo twirled the collection of cooked vegetables around her fork and brought it closer to her nose. She smelled that sauce Claire used, but she couldn’t place a name on it. Cautiously, she stuck her tongue out and judged the taste. Claire was watching, and she almost lost herself to laughter when Momo jabbed a fork full of food in her mouth.  

“Servy! You gotta try this! Come on!” Momo hastily said. She turned her head so fast her hair whipped around. A frantic tail made itself known by wagging out of control. Servi still had a slight smile on her face, and she did as her guardian Singi asked. “It’s good, right? No, it’s even better than good! I don’t want to say it, but grampy couldn’t compare with this!”  

“Good…? Be…tter… Better?” Servi whispered. She closed her eyes as if she was in pain, but her arm forged ahead with the veggies. Whatever discomfort she seemed to have vanished when the flavor assaulted her tongue. Her red eyes lit up like the sun, but Servi wasn’t back in her happy state.  

“I’m glad you two like it,” Claire said, smiling. She figured she had waited long enough, so she, too, started to shovel food in her mouth. The onions were just right with the perfect amount of backbone, and the broccoli wasn’t mushy at all. The bell peppers and mushrooms filled her mouth with flavor, and to top it all off, the garlic supported the taste rather than overpower it. Claire used garlic salt and powder, the latter being something she rarely ever used, but she was pleased to find she added just the right amount of each. Even better, the pepper Claire sprinkled on top didn’t corrupt the dish with spiciness, so even a Singi like Momo could wolf it down. However, she wanted to get a second opinion. 

“Can you taste the corn and peas? What about the carrots?” 

Momo looked with a mouth stuffed with food. She was pigging out like that was her last ever meal. After swallowing, she praised the food so much Claire's cheeks were as red as her hair.  

“Claire, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything better, and we haven’t even gotten to the pasta. Like... The corn and peas don’t just taste like regular corn and peas. There’s a richer, hidden flavor to it, and I don’t know what it is. When I bite into it, flavor just pours out on my tongue. And I love carrots. I ate them all the time as a kitten. But when I bit into this…” Momo stabbed something orange on her plate with a fork. “It doesn’t taste like anything I’ve ever had before. And I was a bit afraid when you added the pepper in, but it’s not even a little bit spicy. The mushrooms are just out of this world! And it’s the same thing with the onions, bell peppers, and everything else. Claire, I’m gonna work really hard! If I can cook like this for Servy, I’ll be happy.” Even while talking, Momo scrapped her fork over the plate and continued to chow down. 

“Well, since I’m your culinary instructor now, I’ll teach you all I know. But I do have over 50 years of experience. You can’t condense that down to a week or two.” 

Momo ate another forkful of veggies and followed that with a sip of water. “I know. It’s gonna take decades to get where you are now. But I’m only 18. And Servy’s only two years older than me, I think. So we have a lot of time ahead of us.” 

Claire took the conversation in a different direction. "I wished I had something sweet for dessert, but I don’t have any chocolate. And I can’t make any. And I don’t have the stuff to bake a cake, either.” 

“That would be nice, but I don’t think I’ll have any room left when the main dish is done.” Momo took another big forkful of her delicious veggies.  

And with that, time continued on. The pleasant appetizer was enjoyed by the three girls. Before starting the noodles, all of the set-aside veggies were devoured. Out of them, Servi never slowed down once she started, moving the fork to her mouth as if she was a robot doing what she was programmed to do. The smile never did leave her face for a single second. Claire was mightily impressed by Servi’s appetite, and she wondered if she was eating enough food when she wasn’t around. Momo assured the worried Elf that Servi ate plenty, citing the big steak they had eaten together two weeks ago.

Claire had a spiel about steak she wanted to talk to Momo about, but that could wait. The Elf walked up to the saucepan and asked for volunteers.  

Momo and Servi walked over and tried a bit of the pasta sauce, with the former almost fainting from how tasty it was. Momo remarked that she didn’t know crushed tomatoes could add such a difference. Claire said that the meat infused the sauce. That rubbed off on the veggies they sprinkled in. She said it did need just a pinch of pepper, so Claire went ahead and did that. She then manipulated the stove’s knobs and started to boil the water that had been waiting for over an hour.

Claire didn’t want to leave water sitting out for so long, but that was the price to pay when it came to Drip Stones. She needed to save as many uses as possible. It wasn’t like the flavor would be tainted in any way, but it was just one of her pet peeves. After that, she only had to wait, so Claire walked back to the table with Servi and Momo and chatted about steak.  

“Steak is a type of food that’s hard to get perfect. It doesn’t seem so, but there’s a lot of different cuts of meat. You have your t-bone steak, the porterhouse, the ribeye, the tomahawk. Then there’s the flank steak and skirt steak. The filet mignon is the juiciest one of all, in my opinion, but it comes with an impressive price tag. Then you have the different temperatures. Some like to eat their steak when it’s still red, and others enjoy a nice brown, almost overcooked steak. Some people like to coat theirs with onions and peppers, and I’ve even seen a Kobold place six chicken wings on his raw steak.”  

“What?! I remember grampy telling me that was something you shouldn’t do.” 

“Your grandfather is correct. Some people are more sensitive to chicken. Other people feel queasy when they eat steak. A proper restaurant that’s worth their reputation would never cross-contaminate their meat. But in that restaurant’s defense, that Kobold brought those chicken legs with him and asked for them to be placed on top.

“Did… Did the restaurant do it?” Momo asked.  

“The waiter said no, so the Kobold asked for the manager. He also said no, so they wanted to ask the chef, who shook his head. Finally, the Kobold wanted to ask the owner. By that point, the guards had come and kicked him out. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying chicken and steak as long as it is prepared and cooked separately. For example, one of my favorite meals consists of just chicken, steak, and rice mixed together.” 

“So what? You cook the meat by themselves and add it to the rice?” Momo tilted her head. She loved all three of those things, but she never tried them together.  

“Yeah. That’s it. You usually add some spices and seasonings, but it’s easy and simple to prepare. And since we live in Canary, those ingredients are cheap and plentiful.” 

Momo turned to Servi and playfully tapped her fingers on her palm. “I wonder if Servy would like that.” 

Claire’s sensitive ears picked up the sound of boiling water. “I bet she would. Now, grab those bundles of noodles and come with me to the stove.” 

“Yes, ma’am!” 

Momo skirted away from Servi, but not before lovingly patting her head. She walked to Claire, who was pouring some salt and a bit of garlic in the water, which roared alive. She then stirred it using something called a pasta server. It looked like a ladle with teeth. Ferocious bubbles clashed in the pot, vying for a chance for freedom that would never come. “Salt after it’s boiled, then season it a little bit. Then take something and swirl the water around. You want to make sure whatever you add is evenly distributed. And now, you can drop the noodles inside the pot.” 

Momo nodded, then ferried yellow noodles from her hand to the pot. She looked at Claire one last time. “I just drop it? That’s it?” 

“Yep!” 

“Okay. Here we go!” 

Nothing of note happened even though Momo was waiting for something exciting to happen. Her pretty pink ears folded down and wiggled a bit in anticipation.  

“When you’re cooking noodles, there is a small instant in which they are absolutely perfect. Some people prefer their noodles to be a little bit undercooked by a few seconds. If you wait too long, they’re going to be all soggy. That’s not to say it isn’t edible—because it is—it just won’t taste as good. And while we’re waiting for that special moment, we need something called a strainer.” Claire skipped over to yet another cabinet and retrieved the titular object.  

“Okay, so what’s that for? Do we just dunk the noodles in there?” Momo asked.  

“That’s right. When they’re ready, we hook this over the sink. That’s why it has these extendable thingies,” Claire said. She walked over to the sink and extended a wooden slider built into the colander. “With these, it doesn’t touch the sink and soil the noodles. Ah, can’t forget about the butter.”