The Most Noble of Quests
"I've nearly got it!" Nora strained through gritted teeth.
"Blue, are you sure about this?" Piper grimaced.
"It'll work!"
Piper was about to object further when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Pipes, she has to do this." Cait murmured, her expression serious.
Swallowing thickly, Piper put her hand over Cait's and nodded back. "Alright, I just … I just wish I knew why."
"So do I." Cait shook her head gravely.
"You'll both see soon enough!" Nora laughed giddily, the sound was most maniacal.
Piper sighed as she looked back to the blonde. She knew there was no point wasting anymore words now. The die was cast. The final card had been drawn and was just waiting to be played.
The sound of mechanical clanking filled the air around them as a great metal beast juddered to life. Piper and Cait almost took a step back as the great hunk growled and vibrated.
"Think you wanna take a step back." Cait warned the blonde with a grimace.
"No! It's not ready yet!" Nora snarled. "It's so close! I can feel it!"
The tremors coming from the machine jostled the tiles on the roof above. Ancient dust was shook from its resting place to drift down ominously.
"It's working!" Nora laughed once more. "It's working!"
Piper clung onto Cait as Cait clung onto her.
Then, the juddering suddenly stopped. The rafters stilled and the world hadn't ended.
"There, all done!" Nora spun back to her girlfriends with the sunniest of all smiles. She held a small bowl in her hands, one moderately filled with some strange white substance.
Piper and Cait blinked in unison.
"Is that … is that it?!" Cait demanded.
"Err, yeah." Nora glanced back at the now stilled ice cream machine behind her. "I know it's not all that much, but it's all I could get it to do without the proper parts. Ice cream makers don't exactly grow on trees you know."
"Fuck sake." Cait swore with a scowl. "You had us all worked up for that piddly little nothing?"
"Hey, you haven't even tasted it yet!" Nora scowled back. She pulled a spoon out of nowhere. "Here, at least give it a try."
Piper received a small shove forward from the redhead.
"You first, Pipes." Cait muttered.
"Wha- Why me?!" Piper spun a glare on the brawler.
"You- You're the investigative reporter, ain't ya?" Cait was clearly thinking quickly for an excuse. "So go on, investigate."
Piper scoffed and rolled her eyes, but duly stepped forward to accept the bowl that was offered.
"Go on, just try it!" Nora enthused. "I promise you'll love it!"
"Is there a trick to this, or …" Piper looked over the meagre offering a little dubiously. She recalled words being said about the brain freezing over or something.
"Just take a spoonful and try it!" Nora coaxed impatiently. "If you hang about too long it'll melt!"
"Alright, alright." Piper sighed.
Tentatively, she scooped the spoon into the ice cream, and was mildly surprised with how little resistance she met. With one last dubious look at Blue – which was met with enthusiastic nodding – Piper brought the spoon up to her lips.
"Oh!" Piper murmured.
"What is it?" Cait asked warily.
"It's good, right?" Nora smiled.
"Oh damn, that is good." Piper purred as the soft, creamy flavour rolled about her tongue.
"Ha, ha! See? I told you it'd be worth it!" Nora put hands to hips, unreasonably proud of herself.
"Mhmm …" Piper groaned blissfully as she went for the second spoonful.
"Hey! Come on, it's my turn next." Cait reached for the bowl and spoon.
Piper pulled them both away playfully. "Hey, hang on now. Thought you wanted me to investigate it first?"
"Yeah, and now you have, so let me have a try."
"Hmm, I dunno." Piper smirked, still keeping the ice cream out of the redhead's reach. "I think I need a bit more time to do a really thorough investigation."
"Pipes …" Cait pouted so adorably.
"Come on, Piper, look at those eyes." Nora chuckled, leaning in on Piper's shoulder to gaze at Cait lovingly. "How can you resist that puppy dog look?"
Piper pretended to consider for a moment or two, tapping the spoon against her lower lip. "Alright, then, if you both insist." She sighed as she surrendered the bowl and spoon over.
Now with the coveted bowl and spoon, Cait didn't seem sure she wanted to go the distance. She eyed the ice cream a little warily.
"And you're sure this is safe, right?" The redhead drawled.
"Just have a taste of it!" Nora chuckled.
"Ok, ok, just making sure." Cait sighed then without further ado took a big spoonful and plunged it into her mouth.
A long pause as Cait's jaw worked.
"Ok … Ok, yeah. Yeah, that is fucking good." Cait quickly went back for another bite.
"Hey! Don't eat it all! I haven't had any yet!" Nora objected.
For a moment, Piper was sure that Cait was going to raise the bowl above Nora's head and out of her reach, and was mildly disappointed that Cait was too slow to stop the blonde from swiping the bowl back.
"Think you could get it to make any more?" Piper asked as Nora moaned in delight at the ice cream's taste.
"Hmm, maybe?" Nora turned back to the machine. "Not sure how much left it's got in her without the right parts though, and then getting more ingredients is gonna be a pain. Most of the stuff here was basically dust. It's a miracle we managed to make this much at all."
"Well, I reckon I know what we're searching for next." Cait smirked.
Nora chuckled. "See? I knew you'd both love it. Now, that one was vanilla. I just need to figure out how to do chocolate and strawberry next. They're the best ones."
"I dunno, this vanilla's pretty damn tasty." Cait nodded appreciatively at the bowl.
"Yeah, I'd be pretty happy with some more of that." Piper agreed.
"Oh, just wait and see my dear ones." Nora grinned manically again. "Just wait and see."
They did eventually manage to scrounge enough materials together to get another couple of flavours to try. They found some chocolate that, while definitely quite dry and tough, was serviceable enough to use. They had to substitute tarberries in place of strawberries however, much to Nora's disappointment, but when she tried the finished product she declared that it wasn't a million miles away from being a strawberry and would do well enough.
Nora liked the chocolate and tarberry flavours best. Cait meanwhile preferred to have chocolate with vanilla, while Piper quite fancied the vanilla and tarberry instead.
Nora said nothing, but just smirked to herself as she watched the other two bicker over which was the best flavour combo. The blonde was quite happy mixing her two favourite flavours together, both in and out of the bowl.