Lutz crashed through the bedroom door.
"Gunther, sir! Gunther!"
Myne's family all jerked awake. "Lutz?" she murmured blearily, but his attention was focused solely on her father.
"Gunther, sir! You have to get up! The honeybugs are here!"
It was as if he'd yelled "FIRE!"
Her father instantly bolted from the bed, tugging a shirt over his head. He reached up to a shelf she hadn't seen anyone use before, and pulled down some thick fabric. Myne realized it was a mask that covered all but his eyes when he put it on. Soon he was dressed in this and a thick, long-sleeved shirt. He hurriedly smacked a kiss on his wife and his girls' foreheads before taking off with Lutz with barely a backwards glance.
Myne blinked. "What just happened?"
"Honeybugs!" Tuuli repeated. She was grinning, but her face broke into a yawn as she explained. "They're this bug that eats flowers and has to move around a lot. If you catch one, you can take their sacks of honey."
Myne perked up. The image popped into her head of a cartoon bee with a sack of honey thrown over its shoulder. "How come I didn't know about this sooner?! If there's honey around, then shouldn't we have more sweets?"
"They're pretty rare," Tuuli explained, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Dad says they sleep during the winter, and they come around here only every few years in late spring. I've only seen them twice before."
"But...we always see bees in the forest…"
"Bees are different," Mom said, sounding impatient as she hurriedly got dressed. She rushed out of the kitchen. The girls, still in their nightdresses, followed her out to find her pulling out the last jar of fruit preserves they'd made in winter.
"Just enough," Mom decided, before turning to look at her girls. "Tuuli, go to Lutz's mother and ask for three eggs. We'll give her some food in exchange. Myne, stay here and start the fire. Keep it hot—"
"But I can—"
"No." Her mom tied a scarf around her neck before grabbing a basket. "You were sick, remember? Stay inside. I have to go shopping."
She blew out of the house like a heroine about to undertake a grand journey, with Tuuli following on her heels, a trusty sidekick.
...While Myne was stuck at home like an outdated princess…
She sulked by the fire, poking at it with a stick more than strictly necessary. As she "worked"—heavy air quotations—Myne mulled over what was bothering her about the honeybugs. Something wasn't right when she heard it…
OH!
She understood the term without a translation!
When she first came here it took a bit to figure out how she understood Ehrenfest's language. As far as she knew, she must've acquired the original Myne's language when she went into her body. Whatever words Myne knew, she knew as well. It was like she was a fluent bilinguist. The translation in her mind from Ehrenfest to Japanese took an instant: a bed was a bed, a chair was a chair. No extra thought required.
But those were the words that overlapped in both languages. If she spoke something in Japanese, like she had when she'd first asked her family for a book, no one here understood it. And if she heard something that was only in Ehrenfest's language, she had no pre-existing context for it besides what Myne knew, and would only hear the Ehrenfest's word. That was the case for many foods here. For instance, "pome," looked like a bellpepper yet tasted like a tomato, but because it was its own distinct fruit, neither of the Japanese words popped into her head when she heard it.
Well, that was Myne's theory, at least. She still didn't know why the word "potato" didn't register in her head when it had the same look and taste as a "kafka."
Either way, she was surprised that "honeybugs" translated into her mind as just that: a conjunction for the words "honey" and "bugs." Not a unique name like "pome." Maybe the foodie who created this world couldn't think of a unique name for honeybugs. Honestly, if she were creating a language, she'd make it more consistent like Tolkien's Elvish...
After poking the fire for a bit, she switched to some accounting work. She finished only a page when Tuuli came back, holding the eggs close to her chest. Her cheeks were red from the brisk morning air.
"Welcome back!" Myne said.
" Hiii ," Tuuli puffed, slightly out of breath. "The town's so crowded. Everyone's getting ready for the bugs."
Myne tapped the slate against her chin. "Tuuli, how does someone catch honeybugs?"
Her sister narrowed her eyes as she sunk into the adjacent chair. "Don't try."
"Wha—? But I wasn't—"
"Don't. They have stingers."
"But—"
"No."
Myne puffed out her cheeks, slinking further down into her chair. After another two pages, Mom came back with a bottle of milk and a basket of groceries in hand. "I managed to find some butter," she said, sounding proud. "It was a bit expensive, but we've been saving up." She ruffled Myne's hair appreciatively, then set the girls to work. Tuuli was in charge of grating apfelsige peel while Myne crumbled stale bread.
The third bell had rung by the time Dad came back home, carrying a dripping-wet sack over his shoulder. He slumped into the nearest chair with a groan, setting the sack on the table before taking off his mask. Hard red bumps swelled up both his cheeks and chin. Bee stings. And large ones, too; each one was nearly the size of a golf ball!
"What the heck happened?!" shrieked Myne.
"MYNE!" everyone in the house thundered, glaring at her.
She clapped her hands over her mouth. Whoops… She'd never sworn before… ...Although… did "heck" count as a swear?
"Honestly, Myne, language ," her mom scolded, tutting as she helped Dad peel off his long-sleeved shirt to reveal more welts on his arm and abdomen. "Tuuli, bring me a knife," she demanded.
Her sister nodded, and hurriedly brought out the thin knife that their mom used for peeling vegetables. Instead of cutting bandages like Myne had expected, her mom opened the soaking sack and grabbed out—a gigantic bug . Like a cross between a bee and a fly, it had a bulbous abdomen the color of rich honey. Myne cringed. And here she thought only the plants were weird in this world.
A large stinger protruded from the rear of the bug. Grabbing it by its base, Mom pulled it straight out, then disposed of it in a bucket. "Mom, what about Dad…?" Myne asked uneasily, hovering beside her.
"Don't worry, this will help him," she murmured, making a slice down its abdomen with a surgeon's precision. Without flinching, she put her hand in the guts, then pulled out a gelatinous golden sac. "Bowl." Tuuli hurried to bring it to her. Mom dropped the sac into it, and punctured its membrane so the liquid spilled out like a broken yoke. She quickly grabbed another small bowl and filled it with water. Dipping two fingers into the water and then into the sac, she spread the honey onto her husband's swollen skin.
"Don't stand until the swelling goes down," she ordered. "I don't need honey all over my house."
"Yes, ma'am," Dad sighed, wincing as he leaned his elbows on the table, careful not to brush anything. Myne frantically scanned his neck and chest, but his breathing was smooth. Unrestricted. Not allergic, then.
Her heartbeat calmed, and she and Tuuli helped dab the liquid onto his skin while their mom bandaged the honeyed welts. "How'd you hunt them?" she asked.
He gave her a wary look.
"I'm not going to do it!"
"She already asked me, but I didn't know," muttered Tuuli.
He sighed. "We bring nets. Catchers trap them. Others stand by the river to drown them."
Myne winced. "Is Lutz okay?"
"Fine. He didn't even go. Only the men are allowed to hunt honeybugs."
"Myne, don't bother your father," her mother chided. "Come here."
She and Tuuli gathered on either side of their mother by the table. Mom repeated the dissection again, showing them how to cut the bugs so they could pull out the golden treasure from within without stinging themselves or rupturing the venom sac. Tuuli nodded, her expression serious, but Myne couldn't keep the revulsion from her face. So, Tuuli was disgusted by rising yeast, but was absolutely fine sticking her hand in a bug the size of a baby?
Figures.
She gave an inward sigh. Do it for the honey, Myne.
By, dezdance
The three of them worked together preparing the bugs. They set the discarded bodies off to the side, poured the honey into a clay pot, and tossed the stingers into the bucket. Once the bugs were prepared, Mom looked satisfied. She set a large pan on the stovetop and poured in the milk and apfelsige zest.
"Watch carefully, girls," their father called from the table, a smile in his voice. "Your mother's going to show you how to make the best desserts in the world. It'll make up for my stolen honey liquor..."
Mom chuckled, and Myne looked up at her in an entirely new light. "You know how to make desserts?" she asked. Why hadn't she heard of this before?! She could've been eating cakes this whole time!
"One or two," she replied. "My mom taught me a few recipes using honey. No one has sugar, you see." The milk started to boil. She mixed in several spoonfuls of honey, butter, and breadcrumbs. Myne didn't recognize this recipe, but she knew a lot of old-fashioned desserts used to be made of breadcrumbs and milk. "Most families only use the honey to roll fruits and nuts in, but my mom showed me how to make this pudding."
"Your mom taught you how to cook?" Myne asked.
"Mmhmm." She stirred gently until everything was incorporated. Her gaze had softened, and a light smile played on her lips. She was no longer just the busy housewife, but a mother telling her daughters stories to send them to sleep. "She taught me how to make mostly soups and meats, but the women in our family are known for our pudding. We're going to get quite a few neighbors on our door before the day's through." She winked at the girls. "It's how I won over your father."
Tuuli giggled. "I'll learn how to make it, too! We have enough honey, right?"
"Mmhmm."
As Myne watched her mom work, she wondered if this was how recipes were passed down. Not through any formal means, but daughters simply watching their mothers cook. Her old mom didn't have any secret family recipes to hand down; she simply taught Urano what she'd learned herself.
Mom set the hot pan aside to cool naturally. Then, she broke one whole egg and two yolks, mixing them in, before boiling a pot of water and letting the pan sit inside it with a lid. Tuuli had been observing every step. "Why do you do that?" she asked.
"So it cooks slowly without boiling," Myne answered.
Mom raised an eyebrow at her, but nodded. "Yes, that's right. Now come here. We have to cook the main course."
"Oooh, are we having stew with it?" Myne asked, excited. She'd grown to love her mother's stew.
"No," she chuckled. She strode over to the table still littered with bugs. Myne got a sickening feeling in her stomach. No…
It can't be…
It was .
"We're eating them?!"
Mom shot her an irritated look. "Don't be so picky, Myne. They're full of meat."
Myne tried not to vomit.
She hadn't thought much about the bugs, nor had she wanted to, figuring they'd just be thrown away. But Mom proved her wrong when she grabbed another pot, filled it with oil, and set it to boil. With a handful of flour, she dusted the bugs until they were evenly coated, then threw them into the pot.
Only minutes later, the family sat down for a meal of deep fried honeybugs. Emphasis on the word bugs. The batter may have disguised the worst of their bodies, but their protruding, bulbous eyes were still black as night.
They stared at her.
Accusingly. Her skin crawled.
The rest of her family plucked them up and ate them without hesitation, even humming as they cracked on the crispy skin.
"Aren't you hungry, Myne?" Tuuli asked, the corner of her lip curling up. "We didn't even have breakfast."
"I'm fine…" she murmured. "Just not...hungry."
"Do you want dessert?" her mother asked.
Myne perked up. "Yes!"
"Then you're hungry."
Dad snorted, and pushed her plate of honeybugs closer to her.
Myne wilted.
"If I can make a bread starter, you can eat a honeybug," said Tuuli in a sing-songy voice, then snapped off the head of a bug.
Myne glared at her, and then glared at the bugs. She picked one up with her fingertips like it was a dead...well, bug ... and stared at it for a second. It wasn't… so bad. Bugs did have a lot of protein, and she was a growing girl, after all. Maybe if she pretended it was tempura...
She brought it slowly to her mouth, gingerly nibbling the end that didn't have eyes.
Crunchy. And...strangely sweet.
It...wasn't actually that bad.
...If she didn't think too long about it.
She managed to get down about half of her plate, before giving the rest to her father, who ate them as if with a vengeance for all the stings he'd suffered.
At least the pudding was far easier to swallow. When it was taken out, the air filled with the fragrant scent of citrus. Apparently the scent wafted everywhere else, too. Mom had barely spread on the fruit preserves when someone knocked on the door.
Lutz's mom stood outside, with her four boys all peeking their heads in, trying to push in first without incurring the wrath of their mother. "I smelt the apfelsige," she said in an excited rush. Then winked. "I kept the rest of our neighbors off your tail."
Mom laughed. "We're much appreciative. Come in, come in."
The family poured in like a flood. Lutz sat down besides Myne. Ralph, noticeably, also found a spot next to Tuuli.
"Thanks for letting us know about the honeybugs," Myne said to Lutz. Despite being with his family, he was still dressed in his store uniform, fresh from work. That was a first. "Did your family cook anything special?"
Lutz shook his head. "Just nuts with honey. Doesn't beat this," he said in a voice too low for his mom to hear.
Once Myne took a bite of her mother's pudding, a burst of airy sweetness in her mouth, she had to agree.
Nothing beat this.
Myne's Current Account:
6 small copper coins for 3 pages of accounting
(S) Copper Coin: 31
(M) Copper Coin: 6
(L) Copper Coin: 0
(S) Silver Coin: 4
(L) Silver Coin: 8
(S) Gold Coin: 20
(L) Gold Coin: 4
Total: 60,210,910 Lyons