Chapter 620: A Final Day of Peace and Happiness Begins
Once her coven had agreed to take up Ashlynn’s challenge, they wasted no ti in addressing the most imdiate concern for almost every mber of the coven. Sothing to eat! Of course, deciding to enter the festival in search of food was easy, but deciding what to eat was a different challenge altogether.
Ropes with colorful strears hanging from them sectioned off an area of the field between the inner and outer walls of the ancient fortress, clustering most of the people selling food into a single area where their cookfires could be more easily managed and any accidents could quickly be contained. On the grassy hillside beyond the ropes, people from all across the Vale and beyond sat on blankets or directly on the grass, sharing food they may have never eaten before and listening to music played by musicians with instrunts that were as varied as the food.
When Ashlynn and her companions finally arrived, an intoxicating dley of savory scents and sweet aromas washed over them even before they reached the first stall. Standing behind wooden tables that were sotis little more than slabs of lumber placed atop wooden crates, cooks from the Scaled Clan or the Glass Eyed Clan called out to passers by, offering samples of their spiced ats accompanied by a dizzying array of colorful sauces.
Elsewhere, a Golden Eyed hunter proudly proclaid that his roasted ats had all co from ga hunted within the past two days, promising a flavor still seeped in the thrill of the hunt. Across from him, a mber of the Ancient Clan wore a blanket over his heavy cloak, huddling close to his cook fire as he plucked delicate, puffy pastries out of a giant pot filled with boiling oil.
Evidently, the cool, wet climate of the Vale disagreed with the poor man so much that he had enlisted the aid of a pair of young won from the Horned Clan to drizzle honey over the finished confections before selling them to passersby. Clearly, whatever he had agreed to pay for their help was worth far less than the discomfort of leaving the warm area imdiately adjacent to his cook fire.
"So many choices, so many choices," Talauia said, fluttering up on her gossar wings to survey the row after row of stalls selling food from what felt like half the clans of the Eldritch nations, even though she knew it was far less than that. "Look, look, they’re making fish fritters, and, is that, is it, it is, it’s boar’s heart stew!" the Thistle Witch cried excitedly as she surveyed the offerings from across the mountains.
"Big Sister Heila," Virve said as she surveyed the offerings with her advantage of height. "You weren’t with us when we entered a nation ruled by the Dark Feathered Clan," she said, pointing at a stall with what looked like several sausages hanging in nets. "
They are masters of fernting at and preserving sausage until the fat is sweet, succulent, and infused with spices. If you slice it thinly, it all but lts on your tongue," she said, licking her lips in mory at the flavorful delights she’d sampled while Nyrielle led them from one Eldritch nation to the next in search of allies.
"Is that mold?" Heila asked, pointing to so of the sausages that were covered by a powdery white substance. "I heard rumors that the Dark Feathered Clan ate carrion and rotting things..."
"Fernted isn’t rotten," Virve insisted. "And you wash or cut away the mold before you eat the sausage. The moldy cheese is different, though," she added, pointing to wheels of blue-veined cheese that the shopkeeper was slicing into small wedges for his custors to go with the sausages. "That one, you eat the mold."
"Eat the mold?" Ollie said, blinking in surprise. "Don’t you get sick doing that? I tried saving a bit of cheese that was moldy once," he added with an expression that said the mory was anything but pleasant. "Even after I cut away all the moldy bits, I still had the, um.... I had problems," he said awkwardly, realizing that ntioning the nature of his problems around a group of won probably wasn’t polite, even if Ashlynn wanted him to treat them all like family. "For three days," he finished a bit laly. "I never want to feel that way again."
"One of the benefits of becoming a witch, Ollie," Ashlynn said with a warm smile. "Your constitution is much better than it once was. I expect my Cypress Witch has an unshakable stomach, just as he has an unshakeable heart," she teased gently. "And if you don’t, your big sister, Heila, will be more than happy to soothe what ails you."
"So, does that an we’re eating the moldy at?" Hauke asked, looking at the shop with a furrowed brow. Frost Walkers were no strangers to fernted food, but mold was incredibly rare in the ice caves where they stored their food. If it would help him to fit in with the other mbers of the coven, he was willing to do almost anything, but sohow, the idea of eating food that had been left to grow mold sounded as appealing to him as it seed to the young human.
"It ans that if Virve wants to choose so fernted sausages for us, she’s welco to," Ashlynn said with a wide smile. "Virve, one of these days, I’m going to find sothing you won’t eat, but I feel like that’s going to be a challenge. Everyone else," Ashlynn continued as she turned to the rest of the witches. "Spread out and find sothing that you like. Bring back enough portions to share among six... make that nine people," she said as she considered the appetites of her recently transford witches and the young Frost Walker Lord.
"I’ll find us a place to sit on the grass," she added as she looked around. "We can share everything and pick favorites. And Tala," Ashlynn said, calling out to the Thistle Witch who still hovered several feet above her head. "Where did you see soone selling fish fritters?"
Looking down from above, Talauia smiled brilliantly, flashing her wickedly pointed teeth before she descended to show Ashlynn the way. If Amahle could have been here now, watching Ashlynn step out like a true mother to her coven, effortlessly gathering people from different clans and backgrounds into a cozy family eager to share a al together, she was certain that the Mother of Thorns would be proud of how far Ashlynn had co.
The Thistle Witch knew that the days ahead would be hard, but as long as this was the path that Ashlynn wanted to follow for her coven, Talauia was willing to do whatever she needed in order to keep them all safe. She was certain that the day would co when many people needed to shelter beneath the boughs of the forest Ashlynn and her coven would plant, but for those trees to grow to maturity, they had to be guarded fiercely while they were saplings.
When she had been little more than a sapling, even her father, the powerful High Lord, hadn’t been able to protect her. Now that it was Talauia’s turn to protect soone else, however, she would stop at nothing to make sure their enemies never survived threatening them!
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