Family Life

Chapter 3: Curry

Chapter 3: Curry

Azura and Lillie could not understand why their parents love spicy food.

They were too hot, red like fire, and mostly hot for the tongue. The older hybrid had tried curry with a spoon and she almost drained the entire water tap. Lillie on the other hand, spat it out into the garden soil.

Clearly, spiciness was not for them!

"How are you still alive?" Azura asked her mother, who was eating her vegetable curry with some dhal. Mizuchi leaned down to wipe the mess from her daughter's face. "Because I love spicy food, darling. Since I was small, I always want to try new things. After all, spice is the variety of life."

Blinking with confusion, Mizuchi stroke Azura's ears, causing her to wiggle her nose. "When you are older, your taste buds might change. Maybe one day you might like it or you still love sweets."

Azura's ears perked up at the word 'sweets'. She and Lillie would be on their best behaviour if it meant having something sweet like a fruit salad or ice cream. But tonight for dinner, the family had ordered take out from Marabar House, a restaurant famous for curry.

While their parents had something spicy, both of the girls had butter naan with some cucumber raita yogurt.

"Why is it called curry?" asked, Lillie, tearing another piece of naan to be dipped in the raita. This made their mother have a puzzle expression, since she herself doesn't know that. Arthur's ears twitched.

"Curry is a type of sauce you put on rice or can dip in bread," their father explained. "I know this because Uncle Sameer does the best whenever we visit him."

Azura's eyes sparkled. She loved Uncle Sameer, the Egyptian cobra because he loves to tell them interesting stories about old pyramids that had buried treasure. Lillie was more interested in what kinds of sweets do animals eat back then.

"Can we visit Uncle Sameer and Uncle Pina?" asked Lillie, whose face was messy with the raita and butter. Mizuchi helped her wipe her face with a napkin. Both of their parents exchanged glances.

"Of course! We could ask if they would like to come over," said Mizuchi. "I was hoping to ask him something anyways..."

What she meant by that was how Sameer gave her some inspiration for snake customers since not many shops around where they lived had proper clothing for snakes, let alone fashionable ones.

"Great! I will just have to contact him and hopefully he would be free this weekend."

...

Sameer and Pina were partners for life. It was an odd pair of a Dall sheep and a venomous Egyptian cobra. Since their society had rules about interspecies marriage with venomous animals, Sameer knew what he had to do:

Every month, he will milk his venom and sold them to a private hospital, which will turn into anti-venom. It earned him a lot of money aside from his job as a historian if he was going to support both him and Pina.

Pina on the other hand, was what one might mistook him for an idol or celebrity. He was working as soothe sheep, where his species worked in with animals that have special needs or trauma. All he had to do was talk to them, comfort them from their troubles and even put on a show since his high school drama club days.

"It's been a while since we last saw them," Sameer hissed as he slithered besides his partner. Pina giggled, patting him on the head. "Well, our jobs have been keeping us busy, darling~"

Sameer returned a smirk. "Well, at least we could spend our time with Arthur and his family. Who knows, maybe we could get some ideas for the future?"

Pina mirrored a smirk and booped him on the snout. This made the Egyptian cobra flicker his tongue out. "We might, Sameer. Besides, we are their favourite uncles."

The pair arrived at Arthur's home. Just before Pina could ring the doorbell, their housemaid Ira had opened the door, allowing them in. "Welcome, Mister Pina and Sameer. We just-"

Soon, Sameer was immediately tackled by a pair of fluff balls. "Uncle Sameer! Uncle Sameer!"

Both their parents watch with amusement as their daughters were happy to see their favourite uncles. "Hey! What about me?" Pina asked, kneeling down to where the girls were pinning down the cobra. Both of them immediately got off Sameer and began to hug the Dall sheep.

He had the fluffiest wool that could bring any sweaters to shame.

Both of them greeted Arthur and Mizuchi with hugs. Arthur and Sameer had been friends since childhood when he was a Gryphon Cross student in his old town called Camdon. How he had met Pina was through Cherryton's international swimming competition, where the swimming teams from different schools came to compete.

Never would they thought that it would lead to where they were.

"I heard you need some advice on curry?" Sameer inquired, giving his blind friend a smile. "I'd be happy to help if..."

Mizuchi's ears drooped as a response. "If?"

"If you allow us to give you some ideas for your work, Mizuchi," Pina finished the sentence. Of course, nothing could stray away from the harlequin rabbit when opportunity was in front of her. Arthur beamed at his wife's enthusiasm. "I'll prepare tea for everyone."

With that, the two girls were learning how to make chickpea curry with some roti as part of their learning experience. Azura prefers to listen to Sameer's story and cleaning up while Lillie was the one who was deep into cooking.

It was too soon to decide whether or not the tortoiseshell hybrid was going to go to culinary school.

"It smells yummy!" Azura squeaked, inhaling the aroma from where she was hanging. Lillie was concentrating on kneading the dough for the roti. Sameer stretched his upper body and offered a spoon with a bit of the curry to her lips.

When Azura took a sip, her eyes widened at how good it tasted. "It's delicious and a bit spicy, but delicious! How come?"

Sameer chuckled. "Food tastes better when you cook them with people you love. Now come, we should finish before I talk to your parents."

By the end of the evening, everyone was enjoying the home cooked curry with roti while Mizuchi had filled two folders with different sketches for her upcoming fashion show. What surprised the two hybrid children were how Pina and Sameer were eating without fork and spoon.

"Is that okay, mommy?" Azura looked to her mother, who nodded. "Not everyone around the world eats with cutleries. For curry with rice or roti, most would eat with their hands."

That was enough to convince both of the girls to abandoned their cutleries in favour of eating with their hands. All four of the adults watched with amusement as the night was filled with chatters and laughter.