Growing Heart

Ch 13 - An Unexpected Disruption

"Oh...so you like cake, eh?"

Sid stopped mid-bite and looked over the mound of food she held by the fistful towards the old diver with the chestnut shaped hat. She blinked and took a more careful look at what she was stuffing her face with.

"Cake? This is called cake?"

Montblanc Cricket chuckled and pointed down at the bowl her sky sheep was drinking out of. "And that is called milk."

"Boo?" the sky sheep asked, dripping milk down the front of his face.

"Well, we know what milk is," Sid laughed, "We have sky cows, after all."

"Is that so?" Cricket asked while he drank a cup of tea.

It had been four days now since this winged woman showed up on his turf, handing him gold and talking about islands in the sky and some sort of ancestral duty. To be honest, he still wasn't quite clear about all the details, no matter how many times she tried to explain, but whatever this bell had done, it clearly brought him some sort of good luck. After all, two interesting visitors within the two weeks? He wasn't going to thumb his nose at the importance of this bell or at her story. They were tied together in a way. That part was made very clear to him.

Sid wiped the crumbs and icing off her mouth with the back of her hand and she set her chunk of cake down on the tree stump, missing the plate completely. They were enjoying the morning outside of Cricket's house, where the sun had just lifted off of the vast blue sea. The Shandian had spent many hours just looking, touching, and swimming in the waters and she doubted she'd ever get enough of it. It was just so...so different. So new.

And the forest right by old man Cricket's house? Sid could just run and climb through it for hours and hours...and she had with great pleasure.

"We don't have anything like this in Shandia," Sid said and jabbed a finger into the moist cake, "Did you grow this?"

It was questions like that which really amused Cricket. Ever since she got here, she would ask question after question about the simplest things that the old man never really took the time to think about until she brought it up. Maybe after going into the sea and being underwater for so long, it was a breath of fresh air to just stay grounded and take in his surroundings.

"No," Cricket said as he lit a cigarette, "This is something that you need to make. It doesn't happen naturally. I got this from the bakery in town. I'm not much of a baker but I know it's mostly made of flour, egg, butter, and sugar."

"Flour? Sugar? Butter? Baking? What's baking?" Sid asked.

Cricket frowned as he tried to find the right words. "It's a form of cooking. Is there no baking up in Sky Island? What do you eat up there?"

Sid shrugged. "Grilled fish, seaweed, and whatever vegetables and meat we take from Blue Sea ships."

"Ah. Right. You can't grow anything on Island Clouds," Cricket said, "And you said dirt was limited up there so you must not have any crops of wheat or rice, huh? That might be why you're not familiar with cake or bread."

"Yes, dirt," Sid repeated and then scooped up some right next to her feet and felt it drain out between her fingers along with a clump of grass, "I still can't believe you have so much of it."

"Too much of it," Cricket laughed. He looked over at the two large scavenging ships docked in front of his house and he raised an eyebrow, "Those two sure are sleeping in late today. Did they forget they're supposed to take you into town today?"

"Why don't you want to go?" Sid asked.

Cricket puffed on his cigarette. "I'll only cause a commotion. People have a tendency to get riled up when they're around me."