The bright sky loomed overhead as the sweet smell of flowers and dilburt trees gave the area a nice sweet and nutty scent. Rielle and Artorius were seated underneath the blistering heat. Resting on a pair of stools, they both were sweating profusely.  The table before them was even radiating heat of its own, and yet the two before them were equally fired up as if the heat wasn’t an issue. Erica and Maira come out from Rielle’s back porch, dressed in white chef attire, Maira wore a chef’s hat, while Erica had a white cloth tied to her arm.

“You seem confident,” Erica says.

“Seem? Heh. I’m practically oozing confidence.” Maira states.

“I’m pretty sure that's the sweat!” Artorius calls out.

They both arrive before Rielle and Artorius and then turn opposite of each other facing the makeshift cooking stations in the center of the yard. Erica sweeps back her bangs, before removing the long cloth from her forearm in one fluid motion, letting it catch in the breeze before taking the other end in her hand. She takes the cloth into her mouth, before gathering her hair into one mass, then ties it into a ponytail using the cloth.

“Alright, we’ll now begin the first-ever, cooking tournament, in my backyard,” Rielle states, while wiping the sweat off her face. “Contenders, at the ready… Begin!”

“You’re really getting into this aren’t you?” He mutters.

Like a pair of marathon runners, they both took off. Erica reaches into her cabinets and pulls out a small sauce pot. She grabs some onion, garlic, and boregano leaves and begins dicing everything up with finesse. Her knife strokes are so smooth and graceful that it's as if she were handling a sword. Next, she grabs a bottle of red wine and pours it into the pot. She throws in all the other ingredients before letting them cook on the burner.

“Contestant Erica is showing her skill with a blade firsthand!” Rielle exclaims.

Meanwhile, Maira pulls out a circular baking pan and begins mixing flour butter, sugar, and salt. She begins mixing the ingredients up, creating a firm dough. Maira’s hand morphs into a giant fist, as she flattens the dough and shakes the entire cooking station with a single heavy blow. Looking at the flatness of the dough Maira grins in satisfaction, unaware of the flattened baking pan.

“This is doomed,” Artorius mutters.

Maira finally looks down noticing the flattened pan and frantically looks around. An idea pops into her head as she smirks, and both her arms turn red with tremendous muscle. She takes the pan into her hands and smooths it back to normal—for the most part—using her fingers to smooth out the crushed parts of it. Then she takes out the raw chicken from the refrigerated cabinet and turns the nail on her index finger into a long sharp claw. She slices through the soft meat like butter, cutting it into small cubes.

“Contestant Maira has been skillfully using her shapeshifting abilities to creatively prepare the food!” Rielle says with a mic in her hand.

“Where did you get that from?” Artorius questions.

Erica pulls out a large wok and transfers the sauce over to it with all the minced vegetables. The sweet, yet dry scent of the wine paired well with the delicious aroma of the vegetables, combining with the savory scent and making Artorius and Rielle mouth’s water. But she didn’t stop there, Erica pulled out some hrussel sprouts and added them into the wok. Frying them up together, allowing the hrussels to soak up all the flavors from the minced vegetables and the wine. A tall flame erupts over the wok as the alcohol is burned off, and Erica smirks. While still shaking and mixing the wok, she reaches over pulling out a pan and placing it over the other burner. She sets it to high and lets the pan heat up.

She reaches down once more, pulling out a wrapped item from the refrigerated cabinet. It was neatly wrapped in white paper with tape holding it together.

“It’s looking like things are heating up!” Rielle exclaims into the mic.

While Maira and Erica worked away at their dishes, Rielle sat back down on her stool.

“They’re really going all out.” Artorius says.

“Yeah. Stuff like this is pretty fun every once in a while.” Rielle says.

Artorius smiles.

“You’re right.” He says. “Can I ask a favor?”

“Sure. You rarely, if ever ask for any.” She says.

“Would you like to come and meet my family? I know it’d be a bit premature, but back when I first met them again, I told them quite a bit about you, and now every time I see them…”  He explains.

Rielle remains speechless for a moment.

“It’s okay if you don’t.” He states.

“No, I’ll go. If anything, I get to hear all about embarrassing stories from your youth.” She states. “Usually you’re such a calm person, so it’ll be nice to see you get flustered for once.”

Artorius takes a good long look at the blades of grass swaying in the wind then turns back to Rielle with a frown.

“Is it too late to rescind my offer?” He asks.

“It is, I’m afraid. Sorry, in my line of work, we offer no returns.” Rielle states while pointing at the sky.

Artorius gently wraps his hand around her index finger and slicks his hair back.

“Sounds like a shady business practice to me. But I get it. Who’d wanna return someone as amazing as you.” He states.

The temperature begins to increase as does their frequency of sweating.

“Sheesh, it’s getting hotter all of a sudden,” Rielle says as she fans herself down.

“It’s like a sauna out here now,” Artoruis states.

They look back at Erica and Maira and see them standing there with covered silver dishes in their hands, both glaring daggers. Whether the increase in temperature was due to them or not, Rielle never found out.

“If you two are done flirting, we’ve finished our dishes,” Maira says with a pout.

“Sorry…” Rielle mutters, her voice trailing off.

Both place their dishes on the table and pull the lids off, revealing the food in a veil of shining light.

“What I’ve prepared for you is a chicken pot pie with a nice vinaigrette salad.” Maira explains.

The chicken pot pie had a golden brown crust with a slight crumble. The aroma wafting from the  pie was savory with just a hint of sweetness. Rielle and Artorius eye each other before leaning in to get a look at it. Rielle bravely grabbed a spoon first and poked into the soft crust that had a satisfying crunch as she poked through it. Beneath it, were the gooey innards of the pie that she scooped out with a bit of the crust. 

The spoon hovers over to her mouth, where she nearly drops the food, but she catches it with her tongue. A harmony of all the flavors combined leaves her in bliss, as her entire body feels as though angels are carrying it away. The angels were playing notes along each side of her with their trumpets and each note descended and landed on her tongue, then danced along her taste buds, overflowing them with flavor. 

“The intenseness of the flavor is like lightning, while the subtle sweetness is gentle and adds to the dish itself! It’s as if the flavor is caressing my entire body with feathers.” Rielle thinks.

Right as Rielle believes it to be over, she feels a sudden kick at the back of her throat, a hidden spice that envelops her senses. She becomes embroiled in a fight between the rich savoriness and hidden spiciness at the tail-end of the dish.

“This spiciness…! It’s like a fireball that explodes at the back of your throat!” Rielle thinks. 

Rielle snaps back to reality as she finds herself lying in the grass in sheer bliss. She sits up afterward and gives a thumbs-up to Maira while grinning.

Afterward, it was Erica’s turn. After cleansing their palates, they were ready to enjoy Erica’s dish. Erica unveiled her dish in a spectrum of light that escaped before revealing a pan-fried malmon, with a lemon garlic sauce while the side consisted of red wine braised hrussel sprouts with a mix of onions and peppers. Rielle reaches in with the fork present on the tray and breaks the meat apart, which makes a light crunch, splitting it apart. After piercing the chunk with the fork, Rielle dips the piece in the lemon sauce left on the plate before biting. 

Rielle’s eyes light up as she’s invited into another world. Standing at the top of a mountain, a giant malmon man pushes her off the cliff edge as lands in a wide river. The river races through the forest teeming with life, winding cliff after cliff and sending her through the entire environment in a flash.

The flavor’s taking me for a wild ride! The subtle crunch and the bitterness from the lemon really pair well! Rielle thinks.

With every twist and turn, Rielle is screaming in excitement as even she is unable to predict what comes next with each bite the ride grows longer and longer. But her face turns pale when the path before disappears.

“Try this next,” Erica mutters, pointing to the hrussel sprouts.

Rielle stabs one with her fork and chomps it in one bite. Suddenly the path before his revealed. Another river separated by a wide jump. Unsure of whether she’ll make it, she closes her eyes, but the flavor picks her right up as she lands on a path now paved by the wine. By the time the ride ends, Rielle realizes she’s finished the entire dish.

“I think we have our winner,” Artorius states. “It was so good, I didn’t get to try any…” 

Rielle rises from her seat and shakes Erica’s hand.

“Congratulations, Eri,” Rielle says.

Maira pulls her hat off and balls it in her fist in frustration. Artorius raises his hand to hers and shakes it.

“Even if you didn’t win. You gave it your all.” Artorius states.

 “He’s right. I’m very impressed with your progress. You’ve come a long way from burning boiling bread.”

Rielle puts her hand over hers and Artorius's.

“Erica… Despite being a knight has cooked for her king before.” Rielle states.

“Seriously…? Damn, I was way in over my head,” Maira says with a sigh.

Rielle takes her hand into her own and pulls her close.

“It’s not as if your dish was far off from her though. Good work.” Rielle whispers.

After pulling away, Maira stands there blushing, but also with a fire burning in her heart.

“Erica! You may have won this one, but next time I’ll be the winner.” Maira states.

Erica grins with her back turned to Maira, then turns with a smug expression.

“Nah, I’d win.” She states.

Rielle stands behind the table and places her hands on her hips.

“What do you want as a prize,” Rielle states.

“Oh, that’s easy,” Erica states.

Erica walks over to Rielle and wraps her arms around her waist. She stares into Rielle’s eyes as if signaling what she wants. 

“I know that look. She seriously wants to do that… Right here?” Rielle thinks. 

Rielle peers over to Artorius and Maira as Erica takes her lips. Embarrassment spreads across her face as Artorius and Maira look on in disbelief and surprise. Maira’s face grows redder and redder the longer they continue to make out. Erica passionately swapped saliva with Rielle as the sound of them kissing penetrated the ears of Maira and Artorius. Maira’s face was bright red the whole time. After about a full minute of kissing, Erica removed herself from Rielle and stretched her limbs upward.

“Ahhh! That was refreshing!” Erica states. “I’m gonna go change.”

Erica walks off leaving the three of them stunned. Rielle was still trying to catch her breath after all of that.

“I feel like I lost today too,” Artorius says with a distant stare.

“She's an animal… She was trying to mark her territory.” Maira says still processing what just happened.

“I’ll add on too… As soon as I’ve caught my breath….” Rielle gasps.

Erica stood inside the house at the backdoor, touching her lips.

“That was a bit much, even for me…” She mutters.