Chapter 7: Food Quest
Luz and co were in the pits. Literally.
The armpit of the Titan was a muggy, swampy area full of dangerous creatures. It was here that they sought out the next target for their food quest.
The apex predator of the swamp, the Malboro.
Malboro's were massive plant creatures. A green mass of tentacles and eyestalks with a huge gaping mouth in the center full of rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Luz and her party peeked out from some trees to get a good look at their quarry.
"Uh Abuela, is this necessary? I mean thanks to the boar you killed we should have more than enough food?"
King stares at her dryly "Really you couldn't ask that on the way over?"
Gwen clicks her tongue "Honestly what is my daughter teaching you?"
They all move out of the malboro's hearing range so they could talk in relative safety "The traditional Food Quest is a full course meal. It consists of an appetizer, soup, fish dish, meat dish, main course, salad, and dessert. With the Erymanthian boar, we have our meat dish, also I plan on using it to make seven sin stew, so we got the soup covered as well. The malboro plant can be used to make a delicious salad…"
Gwen stopped explaining when she felt a presence behind her. Despite not having foreseeable ears the Malboro heard them and followed the sound of Gwen's voice to the intruders.
The crew stared at its many blinking eyes in fear. Gwen laughed sheepishly.
The malboro made a loud and hungry roar and lunged at its new prey.
"The hunter has become the hunted!" King shouted while dodging its attacks. The crew quickly found themselves overwhelmed, the malboro's slimly body was surprisingly fast, and its gaping maw made close-range attacks difficult. Plus, it could shoot spurts of corrosive acid from its eyestalks with great accuracy.
Gwen summoned her beast arm to try and punch it, but the malboro caught the fist with its jaw and with a great mighty crunch broke its wrist. Having a symbiotic relationship with her magical construct, Gwen hissed in pain and was forced to deactivate the spell.
"Grandma!" King yelled as he rushed to her "Do you need me to avenge your death."
"No, no sweetie it is nothing a health potion can't cure," Gwen said grinning through the pain.
Luz tried to use a glyph, but it was shot out of her hand, the acid ate away at it before it hit the ground "I'm not going to lie to you guys. This burro is tough, but I think he has thrown everything he's got at us."
The malboro stopped moving and closed its mouth. A loud gurgling sound emanated from its "stomach", and its cheeks expanded.
"Everyone around me now!" Amity ordered, after they quickly huddled together, Amity summoned some abomination flesh to form a dome. She cast the spell in the nick of time as the malboro expelled a compressed stream of murky green gas directly at them.
The abomination dome protected them.
They waited in the dark cramped space of the dome as a pungent stench assailed them "Querida, what was that?" Luz asked.
"The malboro's deadliest attack "bad breath" its blasts out super toxic gas that is lethal to inhale." As Amity explained a slight sizzling sound was heard and small holes appeared in the dome "Not to mention extremely acidic." Knowing she had to act fast Amity summoned some pieces of abomination flesh and wrapped them around their faces to act as masks. The goop was thick enough to block out the deadly fumes but thin enough to allow them to breathe.
After gesturing for them to stay in the dome, Amity pulled her staff out of Gwen's bag. She used her magic to make a brief hole to fly out of. Once she knew her friends were safe in the dome, she drew spell circles and recalled a lesson she got from Lilith…
"(Remember Amity, plant creatures are uniquely susceptible to fire magic. Keep that in mind if you ever face one.)"
Amity flew her staff above the toxic fumes and shot the malboro with small fireballs. The fireballs hurt but only managed to cause superficial damage. The malboro tried to shoot Amity with spurts of acid which Amity managed to avoid by staying out of its range.
Frustrated with the barrage of fire and the ineffectiveness of its attacks it prepared for another burst of bad breath.
"(There is a secret to defeating a malboro, the gas from its bad breath is not only poisonous but combustible as well.)"
Amity drew a larger and more powerful spell circle as the malboro aimed its attack directly at her.
"(If a witch times it just right…)"
Amity launched the fireball.
"(She can beat it in one shot!)"
Thanks to Amity's timing the fireball landed in its mouth right as it opened it to attack. The malboro closed its mouth instinctively before its many eyes dilated in terror. The fire spell caused the flammable gas to ignite making a huge explosion, Amity was far enough away from the blast so it would not damage her. Thanks to Amity channelling her magic into the dome her friends remained unscathed by the blast.
There was now a smoking crater where the malboro once stood and burnt pieces of said malboro were littered all over the place.
With the battle over, Amity deactivated the dome and they rushed forward to congratulate her. Luz let out a stream of muffled praises over what an awesome girlfriend Amity was. Once the fumes had dissipated Amity deactivated the abomination goop sending it back into the ether.
Gwen started to sift through the Malboro flesh to see what was edible.
"Sorry if I ruined the mission." Amity said sheepishly.
Gwen waved her hand dismissively "Don't worry about it, it was him or you. We can always think of something else." She picks up a burnt piece of Malboro and takes a bite "You know it's actually pretty good cooked."
Gwen drank a health potion in order to heal her damaged wrist "You girls, OK? I understand explosions can damage your innards?"
"I think we are OK abuela." Luz kisses Amity on the cheek "Thanks to my super awesome girlfriend."
Amity blushes and smiles.
King help Gwen fill her adventurers pack with malboro pieces "Hey Amity how did you know that would work?"
Amity rubbed the back of her head "Well I learned how to beat it from Lilith."
"Really?" King asked "That is oddly specific. I mean malboro's live far from civilization, most witches would never see a malboro much less fight one. Why exactly would she teach you that?"
Amity straightened her back, raised a finger and put on the most pretentious voice she could muster "A member of the Emperor's coven is duty-bound to protect the citizens of the Boiling Isles from any threat. Facing dangerous creatures is part of the job."
They all chuckle at Amity's impression of Lilith, even Gwen offered a slight snicker.
"Alright, I got all the pieces let's head to our next destination." Gwen activated her staff and flew off with King while Luz rode with Amity.
"Hey Amity, what did Lilith teach you? I mean I know Lilith was your teacher but what did she actually TEACH you?"
Not wanting to overwhelm anyone with too much information, Amity thought about how to explain it simply "She taught me Emperor Coven… stuff. Tactics, history, spells, procedures, moon-time…"
"Moon-time? Oh, right that is the Boiling Isles version of a period." Luz blushes realizing she inadvertently brought up a sensitive subject "So I don't see how "that" is relevant for the Emperor's Coven?"
"It's not, I had an "incident" that I would rather not get into details about." Realizing all eyes were on her Amity felt she had to continue through the awkwardness "I had "oopsie" and Lilith found out. I thought she would get mad and scold me, but she didn't instead she helped me. She helped me clean up the mess then explained everything I needed to know about my "special time". All to prevent more "oopsies" in the future. She didn't have to, and I could tell she certainly didn't want to, but she did, and I thought maybe you know."
"(Maybe she really did love me.)" Although the thought remained in her head, part of her felt they somehow heard it.
"Why didn't you ask your mom or Emira about your "special time" Luz asked.
Amity sighed "I was afraid Emira would tease me, and mom is a hard woman to approach at the best of times. So, I figured I would read a few books and work it out for myself."
Gwen flew her staff very close to the two so she could ask better "What kind of teacher was my sweet flea?"
Amity did not know how to answer, she did not want to lie to these people, but she didn't want to speak ill of Lilith either considering all Lilith had done for her recently "Well nine out ten times our interactions were uhmmm… transactional. She would show up once a week to teach me and then leave. A lot of times she wouldn't show up at all due to the Emperor Coven's duties. She made very sure to point out how valuable her time was."
"And the one out of ten times?" Luz asked.
"Once in a red moon, she would do something nice for me. It was never anything big, she certainly would not have fought the Empire to save me the way Eda saved Luz." Amity put on a nostalgic smile "She would stroke my knuckles if I was upset, she would sometimes have tea with me, she even took me out once when my mother… punished me. We even did our nails together once."
Amity held up her hand to stare at her nails, Luz also took a peek. For the first time, Luz noticed they were the same shade of black as Lilith's. Luz had always just assumed it was just similar taste in fashion and nothing more.
King raised an eyebrow "Amity I am getting a lot of mixed signals from this?"
Amity snickers "Dealing with Lilith is nothing BUT mixed signals." In all the time she had known Lilith, Lilith would seemingly only treat Amity as another student, but there were times when she seemed to actually care about Amity. But these moments would almost always happen behind closed doors.
Almost as if she were ashamed to be seen being kind to her.
Was being nice to Amity something to be ashamed of?
Gwen puts on a serious face "Amity, sweety. I want you to be honest with me. Did Lilith ever mistreat you in any way?"
Amity's shoulders scrunched up "Define "mistreat"?"
Gwen glared.
Amity sighs "OK she wasn't always nice to me, in fact, most of the time she wasn't. But she was certainly never cruel to me. She asked a lot but never anything I couldn't handle (unlike with my mom). And if nothing else she was at least straight with me. And I really needed that in my life."
"What do you mean?" Luz asked.
"My mom is as two-faced as they come, I never know what my dad is thinking, and my siblings bully me while smiling and saying they are just having fun. For better or worse I always knew where I stood with Lilith and that gave me a weird sense of security."
At least that is how she thought it was. Amity may not have loved Lilith the way that Luz loved Eda, but she always respected her and trusted her to do right by her. That is why what she did at the convention hurt so much. One of the few people she thought would never betray her did and in the most humiliating way imaginable.
Sensing Amity's depression they decided to drop the issue and move on.
A while later they were at a cliff near the sea. Poking out of the Boiling sea was a dorsal fin belonging to a massive black fish with a wide oval mouth and huge bulging eyes.
"Wait I know this creature." Amity explained, "It is a terrible dogfish it lives out in the deep parts of the boiling sea and only comes to shore to lay eggs and die."
"Wow, your so smart hermosa, so abuela I don't suppose we are just going to wait for it to pass away on its own?"
Gwen shook her head "That would affect the flavour."
Luz sighs "Of course so how are we going to do this…"
Before Luz could answer King yanked a machete from Gwen's bag and jumped towards the giant fish screaming bloody murder. His attack was short-lived as the fish jumped out of the water and swallowed him whole.
The three remaining witches stared in terror as they processed what just happened.
"So…" Amity asked, "Who is going to tell Eda about this?"
Suddenly the terrible dogfish started to swell and expand. And then it popped. The sound of King's mighty screaming attack shook the air and rung in their ears.
"Wow, he is really improving!" Luz complemented.
"What?" Amity asked.
"I said he is really improving!"
"What?"
"Never mind."
Once King was done, he sat floating on some floating remains of the terrible dogfish "Did you see me, Grandma, did you see! I smote my enemy!"
Gwen flew down so she could pick up her furry little grandson "Yes you did sweetie, you smote him good." Gwen started to pepper him with kisses, proud of his victory and relieved that he was unharmed and OK with kissing him while covered in fish guts.
Luz used her plant glyph to make a huge arm out of vines to pick up the terrible dogfish pieces, Amity did the same with abomination flesh and Gwen with her beast arm. The three of them placed the fish's meat into Gwen's adventurer's pack.
"Hey Abuela, we don't have to worry about the meat going bad, do we?"
"Oh no my dear, the magic will preserve it." Gwen answered.
After they were done, they all headed to their next destination.
"Umm Abuela before we left on this food quest you sent Eda and Lilith somewhere."
"Oh, I sent to pick up the rest of the food." Gwen answered.
"Wow, I wonder what great ordeal they are going through right now?" Luz asked. Imagine the two powerful women on an epic mission.
Elsewhere Eda screamed in agony "This is absolute torture."
Eda was banging her head on the wall as she awaited her turn at the bakery. Lilith on the other hand was patiently reading a book.
"Uh, this is taking forever!" Eda complained while staring at her number.
"Come now Eda, we will get our denerious dream cake soon enough." Lilith said while calmly turning the page "I am surprised mother asked us to get it for her. The whole point of food quests is that you're supposed to gather all the ingredients yourself?"
"That would take days and mom wants that dinner tonight." Eda explained "If I recall our food quest took at least three days. Remember the dessert, hades pomegranates?"
"Yes, we failed to acquire it and mom had to buy ice cream instead." Lilith said with a chuckle.
Eda scowled "A sea monster ate our ice cream." Eda was still sour about that debacle.
Lilith sighs "Do you know what is weird…"
"Your love of deadwardian balusters?" Eda remarked.
Undeterred by her jab Lilith continued "During that whole ordeal, I hated every moment of it. I was counting the seconds till it was over. But now years later I remember the whole thing fondly. Why do you think that is?"
Eda shrugged her shoulders "Maybe it is because we accomplished something. Luz and her friends are the same always speaking of whatever crazy near-death experience they survived with pride. And only minimal amounts of trauma."
"Number thirty-six please." Said the baker.
They picked up the denerious dream cake and left.
"Hey Lily, did you see that baker?" Eda asked.
"Yes, it was the same woman that ran this store when we were kids." Lilith stated gleefully.
Eda guffawed "Yeah it is nice to know that despite Belos's best efforts some things on the isles will never change." Lilith and Eda were in an old street not too far from their house. This street was full of big and fancy old shops. Several of these buildings were as old as the deadwardian era. Despite Belos's attempts to modernize the Boiling Isles this part of the isles managed to defy him.
As they walked through the streets, pleasant memories assailed them. Memories of walking to these shops to do errands with their parents or going to the cake shop for a treat. Or Eda causing some sort of mischief which Lilith would often end up paying for.
It was ironic that memories that at the time of their conception seemed mediocre and irrelevant, or in Eda's case frustrating now made Lilith feel warm and cuddly on the inside.
"(Maybe things really can go back to how they were.)" Lilith thought almost quixotically
They came to their stop "Sakaguchi Butcher shop".
"Best place in the Boiling Isles to get roasted newt." Eda said. They went into the shop, the butcher, Pug, was a short green reptilian biped, with stubby legs, beady yellow eyes and fins on his tail suggesting an aquatic ancestry. He was busy cutting a large slab of meat with his cleaver.
"Hey Pug, long time no see." Eda said casually.
Pug did not answer and focused on his work.
"So, I would like a large batch of newts, you know the kind we like. Hey Lily, should we buy them roasted or should we roast them ourselves? I mean we are going to have a lot to cook so having them already roasted might be more convenient, but then it would not be as tasty as when freshly cook…"
Eda realized she was the only one talking right now. She noticed that Lilith and Pug were now glaring at each other. Pug pointed his blood-stained cleaver at her and in a surprising baritone stated clearly "She is not welcome here!"