Re-write of Motherhen's prompt: "During the story, a character gets sick. In the story, there's a bowl of soup." for WAR-Operative. Takes place between chapters 18 and 19 of Fall Of The Empire/Rise Out Of the Ashes, in place of episode 18, Survival of the Fittest, in which Echo is sick. I'm playing with a new character (insert long author ramble, lol), so hopefully this goes well.
Most days, the Thundertank seemed spacious and generally of a cool temperature, not quite cold. There was enough room for the group to stretch their legs on their journeys, without having to pull over and work out cramps, as was the case with its predecessor.
One would have thought, with Lion-O and Tygra away, it would have seemed even bigger.
But instead, it seemed smaller, more cramped, and swung from insufferably hot to frigid cold, and no amount of throwing off and pulling on her blanket seemed to help, and neither did any combination of limbs sticking out from the eskew covers. The only thing that seemed to help so far was the fact that Shera had kicked WilyKit and WilyKat out of the bunk room for jumping on all of the beds, it seemed, and being so noisy. It had taken a few groans and a mumbled "go away" for it to happen (summon Shera to chase them off, that was), but her temples weren't sharply pounding nearly as much anymore; a small victory.
Echo let out another groan with a grimace that quickly melted into an upset pout despite herself.
Almost immediately, she could make out the sound of Shera closing her book and making her way into the room, having been lounging out in the main area since Panthro and Cheetara had taken the twins out for a hunting competition, or something like that, and she didn't want to disturb Echo.
Echo tried to give her a relieved smile as she entered. The tigress arched a fine black brow at her, holding a canteen in her off-hand - and because Shera was weird, that was her right paw.
Her tired and feverish mind was getting off track.
"You should drink some water. With how much you're sweating, you're going to become dehydrated." Survivalist. Echo thought to herself.
"Aw, you sound worried." Echo tried to tease, before rubbing her sore, dry throat. Shera's brow arched higher. "...okay." she conceded, sitting up not without some effort and disgruntled noises. She extended her hand out for the canteen, and was pleasantly surprised to find it was chilly.
Shera wasn't the type to wear her emotions on her sleeve, ever the cool and collected one of the group - if, perhaps less patient but more stoic than Cheetara, and a less wise and worldly attitude and more of a well, survivalist's, crafty and clever. However, there was a strong suspicion among them that she cared a lot more about them than she was naturally inclined to share. Maybe something like a big sister with half a dozen young and reckless siblings.
Bringing chilled water to the sickie who might as well have been sweating buckets, for example. And generally just babysitting the sick human, too, when no one else particularly wanted to.
Echo slowly took a sip from the canteen, worried she wouldn't be able to keep the water down of she drank too much too fast. The coldness of it felt like bliss, so, after closing its cap, she lifted it to her forehead and sighed in relief.
"I'll be back," Shera said, slipping out of the room before Echo could register what she said.
She shrugged after a moment, and let her eyes close to better appreciate the cool canteen.
After a few minutes, or maybe longer, the door opened again and Shera stepped in, a bowl in one paw and a rag wrapped around a strip of cloth in the other. "Here," she said, setting the bowl down beside Echo's bed, on one of the trays that could fold out from the bed frame. Or, at least that's what Echo thought it was. It could've been floating magically. "I did some herb gathering while you were napping, to make you soup." Echo furrowed her brows a bit.
"I thought we didn't have any food..."
It wasn't until after she said something that her brain caught up to the fact that WilyKit and WilyKat wouldn't touch vegetables - fruits, yes, vegetables...no - unless their very lives depended on it, and not until after they had complained about it. Shera answered anyway, indifferent to the embarrassment that made Echo's face turn even redder, if that were somehow a possibility.
"Not really. Just vegetables and spices, and water. But that's more than enough if you know how to use them. And here, this is a wet rag. You can just tie it around your head like a headband instead of holding your arm up like that." As if to show her point, she lifted it up by either end of the cloth it was wrapped around, heterochromatic green eyes meeting Echo's own blues.
Echo sighed in relief, letting her arm drop and Shera tie it on. To her delight, it was similarly cold. Was Shera keeping this stuff in the freezer compartment for her convenience...?
Shera snorted in what sounded like amusement. "My magic is for more than fighting; chilling things, for example." Echo blinked at her, then flushed in embarrassment as realization dawned. She must have spoken aloud. "The soup is still warm, if you want to try eating some."
Echo turned her gaze to the soup. It had a russet brownish broth, and she could distinctly see carrots, potatoes, corn, and celery in it, among others. There wasn't any meat in it, sadly.
WilyKit and Kat were ravenous and most of the time, seemed like they'd eat anything. But they were still twelve year olds, which was sometimes easy to forget either because they were being more mature or less- and apparently most cats didn't like, nor need, vegetables until they were closer to adulthood; the twins were no exception. So, of course, that meant Shera kept her own handy stock of vegetables with the help of either her or Cheetara's magic to preserve them for longer, which the two never gobbled up. Worst case scenario was that the gluttonous duo ate all the rest of their food and the rest of the group was left with Shera's soups to sustain them until they could go hunting or to a market again. Sometimes they had bread to go with them, that was always a treat.
None of the others knew her recipes or how she utilized her ingredients so well, and they didn't quite taste like other Thundarian soups. It was weird. They were good, but it was weird.
Echo was normally among the most appreciative of the soups, but right now, her stomach was anything but happy at the sight. She couldn't even smell well enough to try and convince it otherwise. Her stare turned dubious.
"Thanks..." she said anyway, making a show of taking a small bite and drinking some of the broth.
"Hn." Shera left Echo to suffer in peace once more, solid black mane swishing behind her as she went. Echo knew she'd be keeping an ear out for her summoning groan.
..and then all ruckus and chaos broke out in the main foyer - could it be called a foyer, she wondered - as Cheetara and Panthro returned, and Echo smiled smally to herself and sipped at more of her broth as Shera exclaimed something or another about an awful smell and "you will absolutely take a bath or sleep outside, even Echo would be able to smell your stench!" followed by a quieter, but firm, "And you as well, Panthro. Your bath is long overdue."
Echo snickered softly, though it hurt her throat somewhat, and took another sip of the broth. She felt rather pleased, in spite of being sick - a big sister figure Shera was indeed.