It didn’t take long to get everything set up. Backpack was on Enoki’s back. The real basket was being used to properly hold the dry fruits. The honey was now on a shelf waiting to be turned into the melomel. The various wax pieces were carefully sorted onto the shelves, with the one still holding some honey inside of it off on another shelf. Who knew if that honey would be needed later after all. The bedroll was out and now Enoki was eating a bit of food still left over in the time stop storage.

Ze had to make the choice of moving forward or staying put. Both had their risks. There was no telling how long before the elves found hir. But going to the woods where the trees might be? That was an entirely different problem. Ze had no idea what Bound Sinner Wood looked like. Technically there’d be about a month to sort that if ze started the melomel anyway. But who knew how long it would take to get. 

While ze was lost in thought, the patter of soft, quick footsteps came in, with some slight squeaking. Enoki looked up to see a giant ferret. Ze was honestly surprised. Aside from being 5 times the normal size, it looked like a normal ferret. Small pink nose. Little black eyes. Long brown stripes on white fur. Honestly it looked positively adorable. 

“Awww how cute. Come here lil baby.” Enoki held out one of the hard rolls to it. It carefully sniffed and scurried forward, sniffing at it. 

The giant ferret stood up, taking the roll and revealing it had more feet. Enoki took a moment and counted. It had 10 little legs ze could see. “Ok. Looking a lil less normal. But still cute. I’m gonna call you. . .  Noodles.”

Noodles seemed to accept this as it ate the roll, carefully nibbling away. It was positively adorable. As soon as it was done it got closer, sniffing and then nuzzling hir face. Ze laughed and started to pet and scratch Noodles behind the ear.  “Aww, friendly one aren’t ya?”

As if to respond, it let out a small squeak and wrapped itself around Enoki. Ze looked through the open door. It was no longer raining, but it was almost night time. 

“Yeah, I think it’s nap time too. Maybe I’ll be lucky and someone will give me a hint on where to go.” 

Enoki stretched a bit and laid down, closing hir eyes. Noodles sorted itself around hir again, trying to figure out how they would cuddle before settling to be held like a body pillow. It was like it knew how sad Enoki was right now, and how lonely. Noodles was not going to stand for that and was just ready to be as cute and happy as possible.

It was a nice way to drift off to sleep.

Sadly waking up wasn’t as pleasant. 

“I know you are in here! Come out and fight!” came the bellow from the other side of the building. 

Enoki sat up straight, hir heart pounding. Ze’d been having a very pleasant dream about having a cheese tasting with friends. They had walked into the restaurant’s cooler for some of the soft cheeses kept in storage when whoever it was started yelling. Surely it wasn’t the guards? The locals didn’t seem to talk like that. Ze was ready to just silently grab hir things and go when ze noticed someone very important was missing. And many little footsteps were heard on the other side of the storage.

Something snapped inside of Enoki. Nope. This was too many lost loved ones now. Too many in danger. Hir family was gone. Hir friends. Hir reasonably good size for a starting out vlogger audience was missing. En’mat was maybe straight up dead. Ze had died a few days ago.

Nope.

Noodles was the last straw.

Acting crazy worked last time ze was in trouble. Time to see if it’d work again. Enoki got a club and shield to appear in hir hand and suddenly ran out the door screaming. Ze swung hir club as hard as ze could sideways into the tall and broad figure in the shadows. One with glowing red runes on their arms. He let out a grunt and stumbled to the side where he must have set a small lantern down. As he looked up, he gave a big grin. He got up and seemed to will the runes away.

“OH! The flirty fighter! I didn’t realize you had tracked me down.” It was the orc from before, sporting a slightly swollen eye from the fall off his steed. “If I had known you were looking for me, I would have gotten my better weapons.”

“I— what did you do with Noodles?!”

“I didn’t take your food. What are you talking about?” He stretched the back of his head, causing a few red braids to swing back and forth. “Wait, were you expecting dinner before a fight? Humans do think about food quite a bit.”

“Noodles isn’t food, it’s my friend! Where is it?” Ze took a step forward holding the club up like a baseball bat. 

Noodles quickly came out and stood in between the two of them, looking at the orc. Standing to it’s full height it was almost as tall as Enoki. Before ze could do anything for hir friend, Noodles opened it’s mouth. As the mouth opened, it’s body split into two, revealing a large mouth with three rows of teeth and a tongue as long as it’s body. A low growl came from it.

“Oh! A fairnot. That’s what you were worried about. Ha! I should have known you could handle such a beast.” Calmly he walked over and scratched it behind the ear. 

In Noodles' defense, it tried to resist the scratches. Growling and snapping at him. But they were very nice. Suddenly the fairnot was on its back and wiggling around. Enoki slowly knelt down next to Noodles and pulled it back, hugging it closely. 

“What do you want?”

The orc shrugged a bit, still trying to scritch Noodles.

“I was using this as a planning area. The rest of us were to meet up but it seems you and the elves did a good job rounding us up.” He leaned forward, his white tusks almost sparkling in the lantern light as he grinned. “If you came for me, I must insist on a less romantic fight however. Otherwise I’ll be too distracted.”

Enoki’s mind short circuited. “I— you were flirting with me!”

“I was. But you did first.”

“I did not!”

“You did.” He stood back up, counting the ways on his scared fingers. “You noticed how strong and healthy I was, and how my mother raised me well. And even told me you hadn’t had dinner with me yet. It was quite romantic.”

“I was quipping. I was not flirting.” As ze continued to argue, Noodles proceeded to wrap itself around Enoki’s feet, starting to lick hir legs.

“Ohhh. I see how it is.” He chuckled. “You are one of those humans.”

“One of those?” Hir lips turned into a scowl. “What do you mean by one of those?”

“The kind that flirt and then go ‘but I don’t like you stupid’. To see if we’re serious.” He stroked his chin a bit. “I don’t know if I would want to court someone like that but for you, I’d be willing to try.”

“You—you think I am tsun. . . ” Enoki pinched the bridge of hir nose, only for Noodles to give a little lick on hir cheek. “I am not tsundere. I don’t have time for romance at all!”

The orc looked a bit disappointed. “That is a crime. Someone as fiery as you. What could be taking up all of your time?”

“I have to save the world in one year or everyone could die.” Ze tried to pick Noodles back up, only to be met with a giant mouth and it started to play—bite hir arm. “It’s kinda stressful and a bad time to date.”

The grin came back up again. “So what you are saying is after the world is saved, you would be open to dating?”

“I dunno. Maybe. I’m picky.” It wasn’t a lie. Enoki often struggled with people who felt a Non binary person owed the world androgyny. Which was difficult since beta blockers weren’t given as a teen and surgery was expensive.

“As one should be.” He grinned. “So what do you have to do to save the world? Kill a dragon? Kill a god? Take down a corrupt government?” His eyes almost sparkled in the low light at the last one.

Enoki was about to say and stopped. Saying too much already caused so many problems. And this was someone who worked for money. There was no telling what he would do with the information. 

“I don’t want to say.”

“Fair. What about the elf you were fighting with?” He sat back down. “I’m sure they can help if you trust them more.”

“I.. she did help. She teleported me away from trouble at the temple and now. . .  she’s back there. I don’t know what to do.” Enoki flopped down. “She might even be dead. Trying to save me!”

“Ah, possible fallen comrade. I can understand that. How long have you two been friends? You must have been close.”

“Erm. . .  two days.” Enoki gave a nervous smile.

He blinked and laughed long and hard, his blue face started turning a bit red as he did so. “Thunder above and below! What a bundle of chaos and caring you must be.” 

“I’m not that chaotic. I’m kind of a boring person.” Ze paused, correcting hirself. “Or I was till a few days ago.”

“What happened?”

“I died.”

He smiled warmly and offered his hand. “Death becomes you then my radiant herb. For that, I shall give you my proper name. I am Daikon. And if I cannot become your lover at this time, I wish to be your ally.”

***

*Recipe time!!* Daikon and Enoki Soup

In honor of these two meeting, let us bring them together… in a soup!

You will need:

1 Daikon 

A handful or two of Enoki 

About 1 quarter of a Napa Cabbage

4 cups chicken stock

Sesame oil

½ a large yellow onion

About 1 lb of boneless chicken (I like the thigh meat)

3 TB minced garlic

1 TB ginger puree

2 carrots

2 TB of Miso

2 TB soy sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

To start, please make sure all your veggies are washed in cold water. The Cabbage you may wash after it’s chopped.

To prevent cross contamination issues, you will work with your vegetables. Cut the daikon into quarters lengthwise and then cut into thin slices. Cut the carrots to about the same size. Set these aside in a bowl together.

Next, chop the cabbage into bite-sized pieces. Set aside separately from the root veg.

Roughly chop your onion.

Last but not least, cut the chicken meat into bite sized pieces. 

With everything prepared, go and warm up a pot on medium-high heat with some sesame oil in the bottom. You shouldn’t need more than a tablespoon or two. 

Once it is hot, add in the onion. Gently stir it every so often until it begins to become translucent. 

Next add in the garlic. Heat until it’s fragrant, then add in the chicken. 

You’ll cook this until the chicken is browned a little. You then add in the broth and stir to get any of the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. 

You will now add everything else EXCEPT the napa and enoki. 

Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer for about 30 minutes or until the carrots and daikon are soft.

Lastly, add in the enoki and napa. Also taste to see if you need salt, pepper, or more of any other seasoning to bring it to your liking. Cook for 10 more minutes and it should be ready.

*Please note: with cooking you can experiment with your seasonings. I prefer a mild soup, but if you want your daikon and enoki to be spicier then add in your favorite chili paste or chili oil!
Same with your ships ^_-