Here is the first special chapter out of two, please enjoy!
Wishes, Dreams, and Memories
Chapter 38 – Oddest Cravings
Seeing the two pairs of surprised eyes looking at her, Dolce let out an irritated sigh, "Do I need to repeat myself? I said I want to eat fried veggies, turnip heaven, and vegetable juice tonight."
The other two blinked a few times before looking at each other and back at the Guardian, still looking surprised, "Are you sure about what you're asking for dinner, Dolly?"
"I-It's not that I don't want to do it or anything… nor does it cause trouble…" Lest explained nervously, "It's just that you've been asking for nothing but dishes containing mostly vegetables…"
"I only feel like having those now," Dolce replied sternly, "Is that a problem?"
"Not at all!" Lest replied quickly, "I'll get the ingredients ready for tonight!"
"Good," Dolce walked past him in satisfaction before she suddenly stopped and turned to him, "Oh, one more thing. If possible, I want tonight's rice to be chilled first."
As if her previous unusual requests weren't enough, the chilled rice for dinner was added to the pile of her odd requests. Lest and Pico watched speechlessly as Dolce went out for a walk while it was still sunny outside. Even after Jones and Nancy mentioned about how pregnant woman could crave for something, they never expected her cravings to be her most hated dishes.
With his stiff steps, Lest slowly made his way to the kitchen with Pico shortly following behind him. His fridge was filled with various vegetables due to Dolce's craving for them, but none of them were the ingredients Lest needed for cooking. He closed the fridge as both of them sigh, knowing that they had to find several kinds of vegetables before night time.
"So we have absolutely nothing we can use for the ingredients…" Lest started, getting a nod from Pico.
"If we're lucky, Blossom might have some vegetables in stock… now, what do we need again?" Pico asked.
"We need three different kinds of turnips, a pumpkin, a carrot, some spinach, a cabbage…" Lest rubbed the back of his head nervously, "And we're out of rice too, sadly."
Pico let out a sigh, "That's a lot of stuff we need… do you have any planted somewhere?"
"Now that you mentioned it…" Lest tapped his chin as he was thinking, "I think I've planted a few golden turnips out of town, but I don't know if they're ripe yet. The other two turnips should be ripe today, so I can go and pick them. Cabbages are out of the question, I planted them just yesterday."
"I can go and ask Blossom to spare a few others, so you can go out of town and pick the rest of the vegetables," Pico suggested, "While Dolly is in town, I can't go anywhere beyond that gate."
"Okay," Lest nodded in agreement, "Sounds like a good plan."
Lest sheathed his dual blades as he walked into the field area where the crops were, harvesting the already ripe ones. The cabbage he planted yesterday had just sprouted while most of the turnips were ripe and had been harvested, leaving only the glowing golden crop he needed still not ready for a harvest.
"Oh, come on!" Lest let out a complaint before sitting down in front of the growing crop, "It's supposed to be ripe today…" Lest let out a sigh before he pushed himself back to his feet, "No, there should be another way to get one today…"
The Earthmate put his hands on the blades' hilts as he ran out of the field and called for the airship to pick him up. He remembered beating a certain type of monster which might drop him this rare and hard-to-grow vegetable.
Pico hovered into general store, but only saw the red-haired dwarf moving some boxes around the store, "Oh, uh… You're alone?"
"Yeah, and I'm just asking for some stuff in stock," Pico hovered over the counter as Doug put the box down beside him, "Do you have any pumpkins, carrots, spinach, cabbages, and some rice in stock? And a few golden turnips too, just in case."
"Yeah, maybe I have some in stock today," Doug flashed a smile, "Wait here, I'll check the shelves."
"Oh, while you're at it, can you go and deliver it to the castle?" Pico asked as she watched the dwarf looking around the shelves, "You can ask for the payment to Lest later."
"Sorry, can't do today," Doug replied as he stacked some boxes together, "Granny's out today so I can't leave the shop," Doug put a wrapped bowl of rice on the counter along with a few other vegetables, "Here's all we have today. Carrots are sold out for now, not sure if the supplier is gonna come today. Same with that golden turnip."
"What?!" Pico exclaimed in surprise, "How can you be sold out at a time like this?! You must have some left somewhere around the store!"
"Hey! What do you expect me to do when they're out of stock?!" Doug responded with an annoyed tone, "Now are you buying or not?"
"What is this all about?" the ghost and the dwarf were surprised by the sudden calling coming from the dragon knight at the door, "Blossom won't be too happy to hear that you are being rude to the customers."
"W-Well, Pico insisted that I missed the stuff she wanted in the store, but I surely didn't!" Doug let out his protest, "I checked everything and I don't have what I say I don't have!"
"Um…" Forte looked at Pico nervously, but not because of the anger on the ghost's eye, "D-Doug, are you sure you have checked everything?"
"What?! Are you siding with her now?" Doug asked in surprise before he angrily pushed the empty boxes for the two to see, "These are the boxes where we keep the carrots and golden turnips. See? They're empty!"
"Okay, I can see that you aren't lying," Forte stole a nervous glance at Pico before turning back to Doug, "If this is all she is buying, I can pay for them."
"Wow, really?" Pico's face brightened up before she threw herself towards Forte, "Thank you so much-yikes!"
Pico stopped midway as Forte drew her sword, but held it with shaking hands, "M-My apologies, but could you please keep your distance from me?" Pico dropped herself lower from the shock as Forte paid for the items, "And if I'm not mistaken, I heard that there was a landslide around the path where your supplier usually goes through, so he might arrive here the day after tomorrow the earliest."
"Shoot, just when the stock is running out too," Doug let out a sigh, "Well, thanks for letting me know anyway…"
"No, that wasn't my initial intention of coming here," Forte held her sword as she smiled at him confidently, "I will lend a helping hand to that supplier, as an apology for the false accusation earlier."
"It's not that big deal, but thanks!" Doug gave her a thumb up before the two girls left the store.
"Hah!" Lest single-handedly swung his dual blades around, knocking out the monsters surrounding him.
Unlike various kinds of monsters he and Frey had to face when they first came there, he was only dealing with one kind of monster instead. They had the heads shaped like turnips and were flying around Lest, who managed to send them back to the forest with a single hit. Unfortunately for Lest, none of the turnip ghosts left anything when they were sent back.
Lest used his blades as support as he fell to one knee, panting heavily. He couldn't remember how long he had been hunting for the turnip ghosts or how many of them he taken down. The only things he could think of were the fact that he was tired and he was fighting in the sea of regular turnips.
Lest paused for a moment as he noticed how the place had become completely silent compared to when the place was crawling with the ghost monsters. He looked up and around, which was completely devoid of monsters. As he was about to sheathe his blades and think of a good excuse for missing a single dish, a loud roar was heard from behind his back.
A dark shadow fell over him as Lest turned around, "What the…"
A much bigger version of the turnip ghosts he had been fighting all this time came from behind him with eyes thirsty for revenge. Even with his tired body, Lest had no other choice but to defeat the monster. After all, the monster was blocking his only way out of the area.
Lest raised some rock spikes from under the monster in order to immobilize it long enough for him to get closer. He slashed the monster a few times before jumping back and avoiding the water laser sent towards him. When the laser couldn't hit him, a barrage of fireballs managed to knock him a bit before he countered with another slash.
While he was still close to the monster, he sheathed his blades and continued the fight with his bare hands. After all the training he had done, his punches were enough to knock it off towards a nearby tree. Lest took the chance as it was still down and delivered the final blow, breaking the tree and sent the monster flying before it was sent back to the forest.
Lest was even more tired as he panted heavily, but was still conscious enough to notice the sound of a falling object nearby. He turned to look at the object, assuming it for another regular turnip, only to see the glowing golden color of the object, "That… that's…!" Lest hurriedly ran over to the golden object, which was bigger than he expected it to be, "I got a golden tyrant turnip!"
It was getting darker in Selphia and the ghost-Earthmate duo had managed to gather the ingredients to make the three requested dishes. Pico, who had had a long day with Forte to help the crops supplier, had collapsed in the bedroom while Lest was nodding off as he was cooking the last and the hardest dish.
"Done!" Lest raised his fist to cheer, before they were dropped to his sides as he let out a tired sigh, "Now… to put this… with the others…" Lest carefully put the finished dish along with the other one he had made before he collapsed on the table from exhaustion.
It was only a few minutes later that the female Guardian came home to find cooked dishes and the chilled rice set on the table along with her collapsed husband. Not wanting to wake him up, Dolce quietly sat by the table and looked at the dishes in awe. She knew that Lest would listen to her selfish request, but she never expected her recent request would actually involve even Forte.
Dolce took a spoonful of rice and turnip slices for a taste before letting out a smile, "It's… delicious…"
A bit note before anyone comments: the turnip ghosts never drop any golden turnips and especially not the golden tyrant ones. They only drop the seeds for the golden one, not the golden crop itself.
The next chapter will also be an extra before the final one, so see ya later! Merry Christmas!