(Flashback) Lets Bake a Cake

[Blythe]

34 Fall, 505 AV

Mist had started a fire just outside the front of her house. All of Lynn's children were standing outside, all around it, in the morning light. The morning dew clinging to their shoes, and any dresses long enough to cling to the bottom of the grass.

The girls were all whispering hurriedly as their grandmother, mother, and children all slept soundly inside. "Well what do you think we should do?" May whispered, always trying to take the lead, which sometimes irritated all of the sisters.

"Well it is mom's birthday," Briar whispered back. "We should do something nice."

"No kidding," May shot back.

"I think she means, what specifically, we should do," Blythe shot in, earning herself angry glares from all of her older siblings. "Sorry," she muttered as she glanced down, as her cheeks grew to be a rosy red, and she ran her right foot back and forth over the grass, back and forth, bending a lot of their stems, so they appeared to bow to her.

"Anyway," Briar cut in, glancing sideways at Blythe, "I know mom really likes flowers, and will probably want a cake, of course, Blythe is the only one who knows anything about cooking..."

Briar shot another glance in Blythe's direction, feeling her sister's eyes boring into her skin, Blythe looked up. "Me?" she asked, her sisters nodded. "But I've never made a cake before, or anything like that."

Mist turned to her younger sister, "yeah, but you're the only one who has made anything before, and I'm sure grandma has some sort of recipe lying around somewhere in the house."

Blythe sighed, it was true, none of her sisters ever cooked. They were too busy with their work- pottery, or taking care of their children. Blythe nodded solemnly, hoping she didn't screw this up. "Alright, I'll make the cake, just help me get some things out of the house and to the fire, ok? Just so I don't have to make a million trips."

"Fine," all of her sisters said in unison. Blythe nodded, and crossed her arms over her chest, "and while I'm doing that, what are the rest of you going to be doing?" Blythe asking, hoping her sisters didn't expect her to do everything for their dearest mother.

All of her sisters looked back and forth among one another, "um..." Briar said as she shifted her weight from her right foot to her left, and scratched her head, not bothering to remove the blonde hair that splayed in front of her face. "Well, mom said something about wanting some shells... you know... for fortune telling... maybe I'll go down to the beach and get those." Blythe nodded, of course she gets an easy job, she thought to herself.

"I'll go with her, and um... catch a fish or something for dinner," Mist piped in.

"We're going to need more than one fish," Briar said, as she rolled her eyes at her sister. "And you've never scaled a fish before, or caught much of anything," Briar chuckled, all the sisters knowing that it wasn't just fish that Briar was talking about. Mist turned bright red, her hands turning into tiny fists, but she held her tongue.

The girls started to walk inside to help Blythe get all the supplies they needed. They made sure to tiptoe, whisper, and generally keep their voices down, and make as little noise as possible.

"I'll get mom a nice bouquet of flowers," May whispered just in front of the door. The others nodded, knowing instinctually what Blythe may need- a few wooden spoons, two large mixing bowls, finely crafted out of a deep red wood, a single fork, a large pot to cook everything in, a plate to put the cake on when it was finished, two 2x3 towels. They gathered all of these things, and handed them to May and Mist who brought them back out to the fire.

While the other two were away, Blythe and Briar gathered the ingredients for the recipe- fresh water, cocoa powder, (chocolate being a rare delicacy it seemed, and their mother's favorite), flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, butter, vanilla extract, sugar, eggs. By the time they had pulled everything out of the cupboards, the other two had come back, and they all started lugging everything back to the fire.

Blythe was elected to carry the sack of flour, which wasn't securely fastened shut, and at times, would spill out of the side, or puff out of the sack with each step, hitting Blythe in the face with a powdery white mist, that would make her scrunch up her eyes, and sometimes sneeze, (but always over her right shoulder).

When they had all reached the fire, everyone put their supplies down. The things that Mist and May had brought out while Blythe and Briar had been fetching ingredients were laying flat and ready for use on one of the two towels, the other one was lying on the top. Blythe assumed one of her sisters had brought it so that when she tried to get the pot off the hot fire, she wouldn't burn herself. There was already a bucket of water beside the fire so that she could put it out when she was finished.

"Thanks," Blythe said to her sisters, who nodded in response, as she looked down at her supplies and the task ahead of her.

Blythe clasped her hands together, time to get to work, she thought, as her sisters all started to disappear, heading off together to go carry out their own tasks.

Blythe kneeled, ok what first? she thought to herself, wondering how one should go about making a cake. She grabbed one of the mixing bowls, and held it in her hands, for a moment before setting it down on the ground in front of her. She shut her eyes. "Avalis, please guide me," she whispered into the wind, which faintly carried the scent of a seer's lily.

Blythe reached for the first few items, which were resting innocently on the towel a foot or so away from where she was kneeling. Grabbing a small portion of butter, she held it out towards the fire, having it rest in both of her palms, with the bowl underneath her hands. Gradually, the butter began to melt because of the heat of the flame. It felt warm, and oily, almost slimy, as it trickled through the cracks in-between her fingers, and into the bowl beneath her. Some of the butter, however, she just couldn't get rid of, it clung to her skin, and the area beneath her fingernails. The whole process took a few minutes, and when it was done, she rubbed her hands, and poured some sugar into the mixture. She wasn't sure how much exactly, she just hoped it was enough.

Blythe hated not knowing what she was doing, as she grabbed a wooden spoon and started to mix the sugar and the butter together. Some of the oily buttery mess from her hands clinging to the wooden frame as she held the spoon in her right hand, the bowl in her left, and mixed it furiously, until it appeared light and fluffy.

Blythe reached for the eggs, they only had three left, so that would have to do. Blythe cracked them all, thankfully not getting any shell in the mixture, because that would be a nuisance to fish out. They floated on the top of the mixture, three giant, yellow, pupil-less eyes, staring up at her. Blythe scrunched up her face, and started to use the fork to mix them into the sugar and butter, when they had been integrated ok, she put the fork aside, and returned to using the wooden spoon.

At this point, Blythe's brow was sweating from working so hard and being so close to the fire. She wiped her brow with the back of her hand, and took a deep breath, as she felt her face grow hot and red like the flame. "This is hard work," she whispered into the air, grabbing the second mixing bowl.

In this bowl she put some fresh water, maybe 2 cups, and 1/2 cup of cocoa powder. She started to mix then together, having moved the wooden spoon out of the other bowl, and into the one she was now using. The other mixture was lying next to her supplies, a goopy mess that seemed to demonstrate just how little Blythe understood about cooking.

Trying to ignore that, Blythe added a pinch of baking powder, a few drops of baking soda, a pinch of salt, and 2 cups of flour to the mixture. She mixed them together furiously with the spoon, good enough she thought, as the mixture grew loose and lightly brown, presumably from the cocoa.

[Blythe]

Blythe then dumped the first mixture into the second one, scraping off the excess with the wooden spoon, and smacking it against the bowl containing the second mixture, before putting the first bowl back down, and mixing the now-combined mixtures together with the spoon.

The mixture grew thick and very dark brown after a few moments. Blythe smiled, thinking the cake batter looked ok enough. But how does it taste? she wondered, as she dipped her right ring finger into the batter, and scooped up a small portion, bringing the dripping mess to her mouth, and licking it off.

Hm... she thought, tastes like flour, lots and lots of flour... she thought, as she coughed, the food having gone down the wrong pipe.

Blythe poured a little more cocoa in the cake batter, and began to mix it some more. She tasted the mixture again, it wasn't much better, if any better, but she didn't know how to fix it, or much more time to cook, so she shrugged, and hoped that the fire would bring out the taste of the cocoa.

Blythe poured the cake batter into the pot, scooping out the batter and pouring it into the thing with her wooden spoon. When that was done, she put the mixing bowl down, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around the pot's handles, before placing it over the fire. Now, all I have to do is wait for it too cook, Blythe thought to herself, wiping her sweaty brow off with the back of her hand. Just hope I don't burn it she thought to herself, as she watched the cake batter bubble within the pot. Must be the heat, Blythe though, as she went inside to grab her journal, so she'd have something to do to pass the time.

[Blythe]

Blythe sifted through all of her belongings, tearing through drawers. Now where on earth did it go? she wondered, as she threw various garments over her shoulder in pursuit of her rather elusive journal. But no matter how hard she looked, and no matter how many times she checked her work, she couldn't find it.

"Where is it?" she whispered into the air, through gritted teeth, as she sat on her knees, sifting through a pile of papers and leather-bound books her mother had collected throughout her many years in Mura. But it wasn't there. Blythe was stumped, she could have sworn she left it in there.

The air started to smell faintly of vanilla, and a little candle lit up above Blythe's head, she had forgotten to add the vanilla extract! Blythe sprang to her feet, and ran back out to the cake and her fire.

Smoke from the fire was spiraling into the air, making a giant black cloud in the sky. Blythe coughed, and covered her mouth with her elbow as she looked over at her cake batter, the top of it was bubbling, and starting to harden, guess I'm not adding the missing ingredient, she thought to herself, as she coughed some more and turned away from the fire to shield her senses from it as much as she possibly could.

[Blythe]

Blythe wondered if she had accidently burned her mother's birthday cake, and began to wave some of the smoke away from her face as she continued to cough.

The smoke lessened, as the wind blew and carried it in the opposite direction. When Blythe had finally stopped coughing, she turned to face the fire, watching it dance and crackle with an intense heat. The flame was a deep orangey-red color, and if she wasn't careful, Blythe was sure that it would simply jump up and lick her lips.

Carefully, Blythe leaned her face a little closer to the fire, so that she could get a better look at her cake, it was still bubbling, so Blythe assumed that it wasn't yet finished. She stepped back, and sat in the grass by the fire, staring into the flame, watching it spark, the little balls of fire swirling about in the air.

Bored, and hoping that it would pass the time while she waited, Blythe began to sing a simple tune, no more than two notes, into the wind, which she was sure, managed to drown out the sound of her voice. It went like this:

Inside my skin, beneath my very flesh,
all my life, all my life,
it twists and turns,
my heart beats with yours,
it does,
but then it beats faster, and faster,
and it just won't stop,
because I don't want just anyone to hold,
I want you, only you,
and no other soul,
I want your beautiful soul,
in my arms,
your lips, your love,
because you're the only thing on my mind,
you're all that I can think about,
all I can think about...

When that was finished, Blythe got up, and peered over the fire again at her cake. A thin line of smoke was trailing out of it. Blythe flailed her arms about like a crazy person, "no! Don't you burn on me!" she shouted as she grabbed a towel and lifted the pot with the burning cake away from the fire, blowing on it profusely, as though that would save it, before plopping it on the ground.

Great, she thought, as she quickly turned, grabbing the bucket of water by the fire, and tossing it on the flame, extinguishing it after an audible swishing and sizzling sound had been made. The whole thing started to smoke, and it all swirled around her, Blythe began coughing again, and shut her eyes as tightly as she could.

After a few minutes, the wind blew all the smoke away, and Blythe was able to look down at her now burnt cake, clearly. It looked like a lumpy piece of charcoal, probably inedible. Great, now what? Blythe thought, as she looked down at the mess she had made, her sisters would be so angry with her, she thought; and her mother sad that she didn't have a cake.

Blythe sighed, maybe I can get something from the sisters at the inn? she thought as she scooped the burnt cake out of the pot with a spoon, sprinkling the dirt with a dark, chocolate and burnt-smelling mysterious object.

When she had finished, she got up and went on her way, silently praying to Avalis that she find what she was looking for.

OOCSorry for the horrible made-up song lyrics, and the not too exciting nature of this post!

[Yggdrasil]

Blythe Experience: 4 points cooking, 1 points singing Lores:Directionless Baking, Burning the Birthday Cake Comments Great thread! I did find it a little confusing from time to time when Blythe was thinking as there were no punctual ques. I enjoyed how you played this out and I hope Blythe found a cake for her mother. If you have any questions or comments, just let me know!