After leaving yesterday with a rather bad feedback which Cadie shrugged off after tasting herself and admitting it wasn't
that good probably, and Alma having a friendly chatter with the judge –
Clumsy as hell, but makes new friends well, ha, I told you I would make it rhyme, Elliot! – the Wildclaw returns today again. Of course, no Coatl is by her side, but an Imperial dragon. Because also yesterday, Marcie promised to help, and she tends to hold promises. Which is why a near-twenty-meter-long Imp has to fit into the tent, somehow. She finally manages it with her wings tucked in tightly and half of her tail still on the outside, which isn't exactly what she defines as comfy, but she's excited nevertheless.
"Oooh, not bad!", Marcie grins. "Yup, those are fine ingredients, indeed. Just… what are we doing with bees, nymphs and honey…?"
"
Eww." Cadie grits her teeth. "Insects. Is this
ever going to be tasty again?"
"Thought you'd like them", the Imp notes, popping a Nymph into her mouth. "Oh, yummy! Reminds me of hazelnuts. Oh, I can see it now! I know what we'll do!" She grins down at the Wildclaw who isn‘t even half her size. "You want to know it?"
Said Wildclaw glares up at her. "
I'm the one who decides which food we make, Marcie. But you can make a suggestion if you wish."
Marcie laughs. "You know, if I was you, I wouldn't argue that much. I’m a quarter Emperor, after all!"
"Did you
really just say that?!", Cadie hisses. "That's not something to
joke about! You of all dragons should know that!"
"Well, whatever." The blue dragon shrugs. "But I think I've made myself pretty clear. I'm chief today. And we're making honey pasta with nymphs and caramelized honeybees-" She starts laughing again.
Cadie frowns. This isn't how she's imagined that.
Marcie stops laughing just as sudden as she started and points at the workbench. "Do you want to make the honey sauce or the pasta?"
"Pasta!", the Wildclaw promptly answers. It took her
ages to get the honey off of herself yesterday.
"You know how to make them, then?" The Imperial smiles, grabbing the Honeycomb Fragment and the Nymphs and turning towards the stove. But she doesn’t use them right away. First, she grabs a claw full of raisins and soaks them with rum. Then, she squeezes the juice out of a citron and starts cutting of thin slices of its peel with her claws. She also sets a pot with water on the stove in preparation for the noodles.
In the meantime, Cadie takes out some flour, some eggs, olive oil and –
"No salt!", Marcie calls over.
"
No salt", the Wildclaw echoes, rolling her eyes. She mixes the remaining ingredients together.
The Imperial peeks impatiently over the tinier dragon's shoulder. "Come on!", she urges. "They still have to boil!"
"Okay", Cadie snaps, crossing her arms. "Then try to be faster than me. There you go."
Marcie frowns. This isn't what she imagined, either. Why the hell is that Wildclaw so
stubborn?!
"Fine", she gives in. "You start with the caramel, then? Roast the bees first, please."
Cadie reluctantly takes some
Honeybees and roasts them before taking them out of the pan. The sugar goes into that. While she waits for it to melt, Marcie's finished with her quite nice looking noodles which she puts into the pot with boiling water. It's getting a little crowded at the stove now. Maybe, Cadie thinks, it would be nice to be a Fae dragon right now. At least a Fae wouldn't get in Marcie's way and the smell of that bees wouldn't be that
horrible to one.
Marcie takes out a tray and sets it onto the workbench. "There you go – the bees can cool here after you caramelized them."
"On it", the Wildclaw mumbles, dumping the bees into the just-molten sugar and immediately taking it off the stove. She then walks over to the tray and picks the bees out with a fork.
Marcie switches back to the stove and starts roasting the
Nymphs. In another pot, she melts butter, then adds the raisins and the citron juice as well as the peels. At last, she takes the
Honeycomb Fragment in her claws and just compresses it, making the honey drip into the pot as well.
"Fine", she sighs, "Just fine." Or maybe not
that fine, she adds silently as she glances over to the brooding Wildclaw. Quickly, she snatches a bee from the tray. Ouch, hot! …but tasty. The caramel isn't bitter. She sighs in relief.
"You done with nibbling?", Cadie calls up to the Imp.
"Oh, uh…!" She's noticed that?, Marcie wonders. "Yes. Of course. You, uh, did well."
"I know." Cadie sighs. "Fine, come on, let’s finish that. I’ll drain the pasta." It doesn’t take her long, about a minute maybe.
Marcie finishes her honey sauce, but leaves it to the other dragon to mix it with the roasted Nymphs and the pasta. Instead, she grabs a plate and three bees, which she both offers to Cadie.
The Wildclaw grimaces, but puts a healthy portion of noodles onto the plate and tosses the bees onto it. Well, there've been prettier entries, but she thinks she's overheard someone saying on day one that there's not exactly a
bonus for presentation.
"Well then", she breaks the silence. "Guess we have to wait for the judge. You're rather immobile in here, and I don't want to stumble over your leg or something. Had enough of that yesterday."
"'Kay." Marcie just shrugs.
…
"Do you have an assistant for tomorrow already?"
"…"
"Because if you don't, I could come again for sure. We did good today, didn't we?"
"Well, we'll see."
(And sorry again for every mistake. Also, I think this is getting way more personal for Cadie than I actually wanted. But then again, why not. (shrugs))
(Oh, no, we don't want that, right? Though it would be kind of fun, but no. Alma stays at home. Licorice's got an eye on her; I don't think she'll be leaving the lair for the rest of the week at least.)