Chapter 96 - Ninety Five - Lacking condiments and spice (1/2)
The remaining six family members were allowed to settle in the second property with the soldiers, who's temporary stay was coming to a close anyway. With them, they only brought the clothes upon their backs. However, Patrick and Cole did bring back a few tins of pineapple and peaches, a packet of rice and a box of teabags from their scavenging as well as some balls of wool that the former wanted to practice his 'skills' with. The rest had been claimed by the base. Dexter and the others had nothing to say about that considering the base also took on many more mouths to feed in addition.
When Autumn came to see how 'skinny' the children were, she ushered them all into the kitchen and proceeded to scramble eggs for the little ones as well as dish up bowls of braised pork soup that had been intended for everyone's dinner anyway. They'd all have to have a mouthful or two less this evening was all. To have meat and eggs after so long, the a.d.u.l.ts eyes filmed with water and they watched contentedly as the children wolfed down their eggs, quickly as if worried they would disappear. They were not so keen on the sheep's milk, but were eventually encouraged to drink it.
Lucy clung to Autumn as the woman served the food, so she worriedly asked the child what was wrong. Dexter explained with a calm he did not feel, grasping his lover's shoulder as he notice her tremble with anger. ”It's okay now,” he reassured her. ”Lucy's our daughter and she always will be, just as we discussed. She's not going anywhere with anyone else.”
The woman bit her lip, noticing the concerned, nervous looks from the people very loosely related to the child who'd stolen her heart and simply made sure to dish up eggs for the little girl, before making her sit at the table. She then scooped out a bowl of soup for Dexter and herself, not settling until the bowls were emptied. She then scooped Lucy to her generous chest, before leaving the kitchen with the child; someone else could serve the meal and clean up tonight!
As they'd already mentioned and as Ren Zexian confirmed, the nephew, Kairo, who was a teenaged boy a couple of years younger than Nan Li Liang, could produce water. His root was a lone one and though he could not produce the quantities of water that Tyler nor Nathan could, it really wasn't bad. He was also of a good age to cultivate, so it likely would not take long for him to catch up. Rohan, the brother of the dragon and phoenix twins, had dual roots; lightning and fire. Combined, they were powerful and not weaker than Dexter prior to him breaking through to Secondary stage. As it happened, his daughter, Sienna, had latent roots, but there was still time for them to awaken; she was only seven years of age now. The toddler, Jaiden and the uncle, Logan did not have any roots and would not be able to cultivate in the future. Phoebe, the sister-twin, was a unique case.
The scholar within Ren Zexian was naturally excited and intrigued by the revelation. Although mutated roots had not been common, they were not unknown, but even in all of his 100 centuries of life, he had never discovered nor heard of a mutated Thunder root.
An ordinary thunder root was not much. It was a body root and as with other tertiary/body roots it gave some specific enhancements to the owner's body. Just as Luke's feather root enhanced his speed of movement, the thunder root enhanced the owner's hearing and audio perception. This meant that they could not only hear sounds from a great distance, but they could receive a greater range of sounds that the human body could not normally perceive. Phoebe's root had mutated, in a beneficial direction.
Not all mutations were great, but fortunately, the majority were. And in the woman's case, it increased her sensitivity to distinguish better between the sounds that others with the same root or had completed the Body Tempering, could hear. Also...
The sacrificed glass bottle smashed into fragments before the eyes of many witnesses. Phoebe stepped back and glanced back at the crowd that were her new neighbours. It was probably not surprising that Jimmy broke the awed silence first. ”Impressive... I'd heard that opera singers could shatter glass with their voices, but I'd never actually seen it. This... was much cooler!”
The woman's cheeks flushed red slightly, not sure how to take his response. The oriental man who had questioned her intensely about her abilities nodded with soothing black eyes and said; ”It's been hard on you.” Her chest tightened and eyes stung with a fresh assault of tears as she nodded in agreement. It had been hard. Her extraordinary auditory functions were powerful and an ordinary person having suddenly been exposed to a new world of sound would naturally suffer side effects. The migraines that tore apart her brain from time to time when little or no medication was available, they were torture. Thankfully, Logan, her boyfriend was always there for her during the episodes. Even now, he reached for her hands.
It was decided that the twins, Rohan and Phoebe, could take a daylight shift on the wall and skip taking the night shifts in order to care more for the small children with them. Kairo would help with their family water and a certain amount of small fruit plants and fresh lettuces were sent over to them to nurture and help provide extra sustenance. Logan had been a teacher of primary school children before the end, so once a day, he would teach the two little girls to read and write and other things, but he would also help with the farming. He also offered to cook.
”I'm not a Michelin star chef, but I used to cook for my family as my parents worked long hours,” he said, sheepishly. ”I know enough to be able to follow recipes at least.”