Tired of bread and/or foraged food, Lee decided that today's breakfast will be pan mee, a.k.a. Hakka flat noodles.
Originally, only Lee and Tabby would be cooking. However, Rosie and Sparky ended up getting involved when they entered the kitchen and started insisting to help.
As a result, Tabby was in charge of preparing the soup. First, he brought the water to a boiling point and put in two cups of dried anchovies, pork bones, and white scallions. He then turned the heat down to a medium low to slowly boil the soup.
Once he was done with the soup, Tabby turned his attention to the toppings for the noodles. After heating up some oil in a wok, he stir fried some garlic until they were aromatic followed by some ground pork and chopped mushrooms. He added some seasonings and condiments before turning the heat low and letting it braise for a few minutes. Finally, he added a cornstarch water mixture to thicken up the sauce.
After pouring the pork and mushroom sauce in a bowl, Tabby rinsed the wok and heated it up again. Once the wok was dry, Tabby added some oil followed by some sliced shallots a short while later. Once the shallots were golden brown, he transferred both the oil and fried shallots into another bowl. He then added some more oil to fry some dried anchovies until they were crispy and golden brown.
While Tabby was busy boiling and frying, Lee, Rosie and Sparky were preparing the noodles. Lee had already prepared a dough mixture an hour earlier. After dividing the dough into a few portions, he tasked Rosie and Sparky to help flatten the dough pieces with rolling pins. The two of them started competing at who can roll the fastest, causing flour to be strewn all over the kitchen.
Despite Tabby grumbling about the flour, Lee sensed that Tabby was enjoying the smiles and giggles from both Rosie and Sparky. Lee divided the rolled dough into two portions. Lee cut one portion into thick strands of noodles. For the second portion, he demonstrated to both Rosie and Sparky how to tear the dough into pieces and let them handled the rest. Once the two of them had finish tearing the dough, Lee told the two of them to wash up and play elsewhere.
* * *
Shiloth entered the kitchen shortly after Rosie and Sparky left. Despite looking slightly pale, she seemed much more energetic when compared to her bedridden self yesterday.
"Good morning."
"Morning Shiloth. Coffee?" Lee asked.
"Yes please." Shiloth walked forward to help, but she quickly sat down after a firm stare from Lee. As Tabby continued stirring the broth, Lee retrieved some teacups, saucers, tea spoons and ground coffee from a nearby cupboard.
Lee made three cups of coffee. Despite elves being famous for their sweet palettes, Shiloth opted to have her coffee black just like Lee and Tabby.
The three of them sipped their drinks in silence, listening to the sounds of the simmering soup and Rosie running around the living room.
"Thank you for the healing, master," Shiloth said and raised her right hand. "It seems your medicine helped."
"No worries. I'm glad it worked." Lee gave a knowing glance at Tabby to hide Rosie's involvement.
"While I am grateful for your help, may I ask why you are going to Drumagah?" Shiloth asked. "It has been a long time since you came. Now doesn't seem to be a good time to come either." Lee did not reply immediately as he sipped his coffee.
"I need the Golden Sap." Shiloth's expression turned frosty at Lee's answer.
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"If it was some other time, I might be willing to help. Unfortunately, I need the Golden Sap to solve the corruption inside the Mother Tree." Shiloth tersely replied.
"Don't worry, I'm not asking for the whole thing." Lee raised his hands to placate Shiloth. "I just need a some of it for its energy."
Shiloth frowned and stared at her cup.
"I don't think you will tell me why, will you?"
Lee shook his head. Shiloth sighed.
"If, if you can help remove the Mother Tree's corruption and cure the elves' sanity, you can borrow a portion of the Golden Sap. However," Shiloth paused, "You can only have whatever's left. There's nothing I can do if the Golden Sap is fully used up."
"Alright, fair." Lee nodded.
"That said, can you at least tell me what will happen if you can't get the Golden Sap?"
"Well, let's just say some angry gods will smash down and above and end the world?"
Shiloth rolled her eyes.
"That's nearly the same excuse you used when you borrowed the Evergreen Wreath last time. You did something again, didn't you?"
Shiloth pinched her brows at Tabby's wry grin.
* * *
After finishing their coffee, Tabby heated up oil in a wok and fried some dried shrimps, dried chilies, finely chopped shallots and garlic as well as some other condiments. A tantalisingly spicy and fragrant aroma permeated throughout the whole kitchen. Tabby continued sautéing the chilli mix until it turned dark.
Meanwhile, Lee boiled a pot of hot water and started cooking the doughy noodles. This time, he allowed Shiloth to help set the table.
"Tabby and I realised something when we were analysing your right arm. If the corruption could spread so rapidly to the Mother Tree and all the elves, the cause might not be completely external."
Shiloth shuddered.
"Do you mean one of the accomplices might be an elf?"
"Not necessarily." Lee cooked the noodles until they were al-dente. "There's other fae that can strongly influence the Mother Tree asides from the elves. In addition, there's also other nature beings like Father Oak and Brother Coconut."
"I thought Father Oak was just a rumour?" Shiloth asked in surprise.
"Nah, he exists. It's just that he generally stays away from other races. Even I've only seen him twice." Lee remarked.
"The point is," Lee paused briefly as transferred the cooked noodles into the bowls followed by the soup and some blanched vegetables. "The point is, whatever is causing this corruption is very likely to be one of the fae, or a nature being on a similar level to the Mother Tree."
The three of them pondered silently as they put the cooked meat and chilli sauce on the table.
"Let's discuss this later. Breakfast!" Tabby yelled.
* * *
The withered oak tree stood silently surrounded by several saplings. A silver axe sneakily approached a swaying sapling, but it was quickly knocked away by one of the oak tree's branches.
Silence returned to the tree's corner.
The oak tree slowly stretched one of its roots into a tub. Despite being usually expressionless, his leaves seemed to shiver slightly in satisfaction as it slowly drank the sparkling liquid from the tub. As it drank the liquid, some of its withered leaves started to gradually regain its greenery.
Several minutes later, a silver-haired bartender brushed past the saplings and came to refill the liquid in the tub.
"Is there any progress," she asked.
"Yes," an deep and unpleasant voiced boomed in response. "Chaos has taken root within the elves and the Mother Tree."
"That's good. See, being a prisoner here isn't so bad. You get to regain your youth, I get to accomplish some goals. It's a win-win!" The Lady said and winked.
After she finished refilling the tub, the Lady patted Father Oak's trunk. While her action seemed casual, she had seared a black handprint on his bark. The handprint's ominous aura caused the nearby saplings to droop.
Father Oak trembled in pain and he quickly expelled the chaos mana from the handprint out of his body. Mana in the form of glowing light motes intermingled with dark spots exited his boughs, drifting through the ceiling and across the In-Between. He stopped releasing his mana once the pain subsided.
The brief emotions of guilt and fear on his gaunt face gave way to ecstasy. Father Oak dipped his root into the tub and he continued to stand guard over the still saplings.
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Author's Notes
Pan Mee (pán-mī) or banmian (板面; 板麵; bǎnmiàn) or is a popular Chinese Hakka noodle dish, consisting of handmade noodles served in soup or dried in a dark sauce. It has different names in other Chinese dialects, such as being known in Hakka as mian-foon-char-guo (麵粉茶粿) or dao-ma-chet (刀嬤切), as well as mee-hoon-kueh (麵粉粿) in Hokkien.
Fae is a European term used to describe natural mythical creatures includes elves, gnomes, nymphs, satyrs, etc.