Ever since the Machina had saved her, Natalia had wanted to do something to thank them. She was decent at cooking, so she decided that was the answer. She would make the Machina a nice meal to sit down to... Something they could all do together.

First, she had to gather supplies for it, of course. The Fallen Arm, thankfully had more greenery than one would expect from an arm that came from a mechanical Titan. Likely overgrown in the years since its fall… She wondered if the Machina made food out of the items often.

Supplies were easy enough to gather, but cooking… It was going to be a lot. Maybe she could get a child to hold the items in their pod and follow after her, so she could grab as she needed? Menyx was a polite and quiet child, after all! They would probably help if asked.

So here she was, moving around her makeshift kitchen, Menyx following after her quietly. The meal was going along swimmingly. A feast for an entire village, oh she was so excited! She'd never cooked so much before.

"Miss Natalia…" Menyx finally spoke up as she threw more vegetables into a pot. "Why are you cooking so much? Do Homs eat a lot?"

"Wel, Karlos could eat enough for a village, but that's not why I'm cooking so much." Natalia shook her head, a smile on her face. "I'm cooking for all of you, as a thank you for saving me."

"Oh, uh…" Menyx's face fell at that. "I'm sorry, Machina don't eat."

She froze, blinking a few times. "You don't? Can you at least taste?" They could at least savor the flavor and then spit it out, right?

Menyx shook their head and she felt like she was going to pass out. Her plan to thank the Machina was falling through already. And she was cooking so much, what would she do with it all? Would the few Homs in the village be able to eat this all?

She supposed she would have to hope that worked out, but oh dear. She sighed, moving to pat Menyx's head and pull more of the ingredients from their pod. "Then I suppose I'll just find a way to preserve this food for a while. Us Homs can eat through it all, given enough time."

"I'm sorry." Menyx's voice was soft. "I didn't realize or I would have told you."

"Oh no, not your fault." She shook her head, running a hand through her hair. "I should have asked around about food and Machina before starting on this."

This is what she got for assuming they just ate where Natalia couldn't see it, she supposed. She would just have to think of another way to help out around the place to thank everyone. Surely there was more to do.

For now, though, she couldn't just leave the food like this. She needed to follow through with what she was doing. Couldn't let it go to waste, after all.

Even if it already felt like it was.