美雪 × Beautiful Snow

[五]

Cooking.
I had never been a fan of this particular work, but due to my mother's illness I and Xi decided to learn to cook a few meals.

...
It was never my intention to cook for a slavedriving witch though.

The kitchen was small and hardly used, Xuemei never cared for proper meals untill she found out I could cook, that was yesterday. Today she immediatly threw me out of my bed with the command to cook, and I had to obey.

So here I was, throwing herbs into the rabbit stew I was cooking for Xuemei, who would most likely not even share this meal with me.
I didn't have to hunt for any of the meat, nor scout the mountains for any of the herbs. I merely had to state what I wanted to a book next to me, and the book forfilled that desire.
Like that everything in this small kitchen was somehow adorned with magic.

The fire was blue and while it was hot (yet cold upon touch), it didn't spread to the wooden floor beside it.

The pot in which I cooked the stew hovered above the fire, nothing was supporting it's weight, just a faint blue glow that radiated from the sides of the pot.

Although, the most magical thing in this kitchen was the conjurer itself, the witch Xuemei. She stood behind me, staring at what I was cooking, while holding a lovely and perfectly ripe - and out of season - peach in her right hand.

I had to admit, all this magic did freak me out at times. Of course none of this was natural and while I had acted like I didn't care, the lenghts to which her magic goes did frighten me.

I decided to start up a conversation, I had to get some kind of friendship going if I wanted to get out of here.

"Sooo, you never cooked?"

"No."

Great, short replies, perfect to get a conversation going.
I stopped stirring the stew for a few seconds, thinking about what I could say.

"Eh.. So what do you eat normally?"
I asked while I began stirring again.

"Fruits."

"What is your favorite fruit!" I asked, flashing her a small smile.

"Why do you care." She replied coldly.
Xuemei pushed herself off the wall she had been leaning against and turned the peach she had been eating to dust.
She walked over to the pot, standing opposite of me, she bend slightly forward and took in the - if I may say so myself - delicious smell of the stew.

"Who taught you how to cook?", she asked without looking over to me.

"My mother, she is sick so me and my sister decided to learn how to cook."
I responded, hoping to get her to feel pity.

But the contrary was the case, she nodded only.

"Eh.. Did your mother not teach you how to cook?"
Probably a stupid question on my part, because whenever I was talking about my family hate seemed to drip off her words.

"Do not speak of her, ever."

This time I was the one to nod, but curiousity grew within me and eventually got the better of me.

"Soo.. Not on good terms with your mothe-"
"SHUT IT." She yelled as she slammed her right hand on the searing hot pot, a bit of the stew spilled over the edges which froze immediatly due to a burst of her magic, and fell down the ground as little crystals. Furthermore, a red line formed over the white skin of Xuemei's hand.

She hissed and pulled her hand back, she wrapped a bit of cloth of her hanfu around the hand and stormed away. I stared after her worriedly.

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