”’When it is safe,’ you say? While I find it highly doubtful that many things anywhere would be able to seriously threaten my personal safety, I suppose that Yukari is more vulnerable to danger even with all of the protective enchantments that I put on him. I wouldn’t be able to leave him at home for more than a day or two without him becoming extremely distraught, either, so perhaps it would be wise to postpone any potential visits for now.”
Provisions of safety advisories and mentions of palaces being reconstructed didn’t bode well for the stability of Riaaki’s Landing or Aur Spectra as a whole to Xana.
”I do, however, look forward to visiting Riaaki’s Landing and seeing these farmhouse. The ‘Sky-dogs’ aside, what sorts of produce do you have in your homeland? We have a disappointingly small variety of edible plants relative to the other lands that I have been fortunate enough to hear about; Belsegallian food is quite enjoyable regardless, and Yukari tries his best to make a variety of different meals, but almost everything substantial here is made with the same basic combination of starchy fruit, dairy products, and the occasional addition of pork or spider meat.”
“Well, my favorite thing is wool, sky-deer thigh, and frostberries. My mother made a sauce with the frostberries and lamb-ears that was so wonderful and tasty.” Fortuna paused to savor the treat as she remembered it, when the hunting groups came home with more deer and rabbit than they knew what to do with. Fresh-shorn sky-sheep wool would be soaked in non-freezing water, drained, then coated in the berries. Another group would coat the fresh meat in butter, lamb-ears, and dewey sun-spruce. This would all be served together with a small side of mint jelly, which was favored more by the older crowd than the young ones.
Though, celestial salmon in a dewberry glaze came at a close second. Sky-oat bread would be fresh-baked and coated in the delicately-sweet bread.
“All the foods are so sweet and savory, we are so lucky that the clouds contain all we really need for a massive feast.”
“If I may interrupt,” Kade lifted a paw in the air. His whiskers seemed to twitch a few times, seemingly unprovoked. “Even their most… ‘savory’ and ‘sweet’ foods feel like you’re eating pure air. They do not satisfy the bellies of anything non-riaaki. Nothing has any real taste to it. Please do be warned.”
“Nonsense. Our food is perfectly filling and tasty. Though it is a near-universal opinion that riaaki cuisine is thought of as bland. In reality, most non-riaaki food is inedible and far too heavy.”
”Wool, you say? How unusual; Belsedori can use magic to turn certain edible things like milk into cloth, but I have never encountered the use of cloth or fiber as a food item itself. The fibers themselves must be quite delicate for such a thing to be capable of being rendered edible at all, which may be why they feel like ‘eating pure air.’”
Xana stopped for a moment to eat another spoonful of tea-flavored ice cream before resuming the conversation.
”It is good that, as Hanako mentioned earlier, you can safely drink milk; otherwise, I would have had to warn you against eating any of the food that he and Yukari are making now. Most foreigners willing to drink the milk that we have here describe it as exceptionally heavy and sweet, and Yukari especially loves to add large amounts of it to everything that he prepares as a matter of pride.”
”As does Hanako. It’s common for dishes from Belsedori cuisine to be exceptionally high in dairy content, sometimes even when there seems to be little concrete reason for it; I suppose that’s what happens when you let boys handle everything related to cooking.”
Xana nodded her head,
”Of course. Consorts are lovely toys that are great for taking care of the house and watching your children while you’re working, but some of them can get more than a little carried away when they’re not being supervised.”