Actually taking off in the helicopter took longer than it should have. Mallea had tried to put in a child’s booster seat for Phon, but the baby outright threw a fit. That was until the seatbeat was basically choking Phon the entire time and she finally accepted the idea.
It wasn’t smooth flying from there either. “Why do you keep clenching your stomach like that?” Mallea glanced over at Phon again only a few minutes after taking off.
“I uhh… I’m so damn hungry,” Phon seemed embarrassed to admit. “I hadn’t eaten yet before the change and never got the chance after either. Seems my small stomach can’t make it to lunch. No. I can definitely make it. Ignore this.”
Mallea did as asked and kept flying for a few minutes, but the grumbling in the seat next to her kept growing in intensity. “It sure is a good thing that you didn’t want to stop,” Mallea started teasing her. “They don’t exactly make drive-thrus for helicopters after all.”
“Since we’re flying in a straight line, we’d have to wait until we stumbled across a town or go out of our way to find one. Then, we’d have to find a place to set the helicopter down without causing a fuss. THEN, since it wouldn’t be anywhere convenient, we’d have to walk all the way to a restaurant since you’re too weak to use your Curse. And when we got there, we’d surely get weird looks from a butler carrying a toddler around on her shoulder.”
“After that, we’d need to repeat the entire process but in reverse. That would put us very behind schedule. So, I think it’s fantastic that you’re being so resolved. Speaking of breakfast, though, let me tell you about what I had. I know you’re always wanting to improve your own cooking, so I’ll give a very detailed process for the recipe.”
“I think we should go ahead and stop!” Phon blurted out quickly after that. “We’ll uh, have to stop anyways eventually, so may as well get it over with while we’re still in a familiar area.”
“Uhuh…” Mallea hid her smirk. She knew Phon would never give in and let herself be viewed as inferior in Mallea’s eyes, and would rather suffer in silence—well not so silent this time. Some coercion would always be required to coax it out of her. That didn’t mean Mallea would let her off easily, though.
“Actually, I wasn’t planning to make any stops. I made sure the helicopter was fully fueled so we could get there without incident. Granted, I didn’t pack any food, but in such an unprecedented situation, it must have just slipped my mind. After all, who could possibly think about eating while Drim is in such distress?”
“Guh…” Phon accidentally let out another groan, pained in more ways than one.
“Making him wait for our return for even a moment more, oh I can’t stand it. Think of how afraid and confused he must be right now. You remember how he was as a child, of course. Such a timid and frail boy compared to how he is today. And we’re not there for him when he’s most vulnerable. Cosmos, it hurts my heart. But if you believe stopping is really necessary, then…” Mallea started altering their course.
“Really. It’s fine. I can manage. Keep going,” Phon sounded less and less convincing with each word.
“No no, I’ve already started the descent,” Mallea had her fun, so there was no point in continuing this verbal charade any longer. However, that didn’t stop the satisfaction Mallea felt when she stared Phon dead in the eyes as she ordered her a kid’s meal—the biggest zjik-eating grin on her face.
They ordered enough food for the day so more stops wouldn’t be necessary. Regardless of how much Mallea had just been trying to get a rise out of Phon, stopping anywhere actually was a huge pain that took a substantial amount of time. They certainly weren’t the healthiest meals, but Mallea didn’t really care. A truth that many often misconceived is that Mallea didn’t actually enjoy cooking.
Sure, she was good at it, one of the best in the world even, but the act of it was pretty monotonous and boring for her. The only part she enjoyed was seeing someone else enjoy the end result—specifically Drim. When it came to herself, she didn’t really care what she ate or how nutritional it was since she wasn’t an overly picky eater. Cooking just took too much time out of the day for her to do it for herself, so she’d rather eat premade almost every time, even if it was inferior.
She’d only kept up her skills over the years in the hopes of one day being reunited. More than anything else, she was thankful for that because of Phon’s own interest in cooking now. Cosmos knows she’d never live it down if Mallea ever produced an inferior dish compared to the girl.
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Mallea also didn’t even remotely care about Phon’s nutritional intake on this trip—whatever kept her sated, alive, and complaint free. If their condition didn’t improve soon, she’d have to take it into account, but didn’t want to worry about it for now. Hopefully, Phon being a child wouldn’t cause more incidents during the trip, but traveling with a toddler never goes quite as planned.
“Why are you squirming this time?” Mallea’s playful badgering was gone and replaced with genuine annoyance. They hadn’t even fully traversed the next country over before Phon was restless again.
“I… I have to pee.” Phon wasn’t beating around the bush this time.
“What? Why didn’t you pee when we stopped for food?!” Mallea was bewildered. Phon may be a child again, but she was mentally an adult. There was no excuse for such poor planning.
“I didn’t have to pee then, okay?! My bladder is too damn small. That drink must have done this.” Once her squeaking rant was done, Phon started violently rocking in the seat.
“Ugh, there’s nothing around here either. How much longer can you hold it?”
“Can’t.” Phon’s eyes started to water in agony.
“I swear! If you pee all over this helicopter, I’m abandoning you in the woods and finding this doctor on my own.” Mallea aimed the copter for the nearest clearing and almost crashed the damn thing, setting it down faster than it was built to handle. She still had to make the landing as smooth as possible. The machine could take a bit of a beating, but doubted that the baby's bladder could.
Phon did actually make it out of the helicopter at least, but she certainly didn’t make it to the next town. They still visited it afterwards. Mallea tried to buy a portable potty for Phon, which the toddler vehemently refused at first, but then reluctantly accepted when the other choice was diapers.
There were no further stops on the trip to Drome Coli. Phon did need to use the bathroom once more, but she was able to hide out in the back and use the portable potty. To help ease the justifiable embarrassment of the situation, she made Mallea wear one of the helicopter’s headsets for the duration.
Like a typical small child, Phon spent most of the journey sleeping in her seat. Otherwise, she did what all children do these days when they were bored and stared at her phone.
For the most part, Phon had grown out of her yo-yo obsession even if it was her current weapon of choice. Her adolescent state seemed to have rekindled her passion, however. She was now watching videos of all the new fancy models that had come out over the years.
When she was focused and excited like this, Mallea could almost think she was kind of cute. It was clear there was still a reserved adult hiding inside, since Phon’s eagerness kept being stunted in the heat of the moment. Mallea could see her eyes light up when she came across a yo-yo she really liked, and her childlike wonderment made her want to share it with anyone nearby. Phon had opened her mouth and leaned over to show the phone to Mallea a few times now, only to catch herself in the act and recoil.
It had been hard for Mallea to contain herself and not call Phon out on these moments. However, the poor girl had been through enough indignities for one day. Even Mallea couldn’t bring herself to push her further, but that didn’t mean she’d let her off the hook tomorrow.
By the time they got to Drome Coli, Phon was already passed out again, so that left the task of finding accommodations to Mallea. It was a surprisingly tedious task, something they probably should have worked on before departing or during the flight. Given the ridiculous circumstances and Phon’s degraded mental ability—whether she’d admit it or not—they could hopefully be excused for something so obvious slipping their minds.
Finding a hotel at the last minute was probably harder in Drome Coli than anywhere else in the world. There were only two reasons to visit the hub city, and both were usually planned well in advance. It wasn’t the kind of place that someone would just visit on a whim.
To that end, most hotels were booked year round, only having vacancies if an event was canceled or someone's plans fell through. Mallea was able to get one eventually, but they were still reluctant to give it to her. She may have needed to lean into the desperate caretaker act just a little bit to persuade them.
Even still, the accommodations, while not exactly bad, were on the lower end of the city’s standard. Drome Coli also wasn’t the most economically friendly place to visit regardless of the reason for the trip. But, it was good enough. The tired child certainly wasn’t going to complain at this point.
In the hotel room, Mallea started looking into the alleged miracle doctor but didn’t make much headway before Phon woke up again. She was now completely wide awake, having napped too much throughout the day. The two of them reached out to Deborah to check on things back at the compound, but mostly to pressure her into letting them see Drim in a video call. He was also still awake, but his attention span was too short to keep his focus for long.
They both dove into the deep recesses of the internet after that to see if they could find any information on the doctor. Someone so famous should be easy to find, right? Well, that had been the idea at least. Turns out, the alleged miracle doctor was more myth than man. It didn’t mean that they didn’t exist, but rather, every facility in the city had their own version of the myth and claimed that they worked there. If this person actually did exist, their fame was being exploited shamelessly.
They’d have to continue their investigation the next day, because even Mallea was nodding off now.