As Enoki grabbed the tiny hand, a feeling of electricity went through hir body. The smoke around hir became thick and sticky, a sour smell entering hir nose and filling hir lungs. For a moment the world was spinning and twisting around the two. Mother Hen was visible as two beings holding Enoki’s gloved hand. The two were smirking at first, with Mother’s milky white eyes locked with Enoki’s ruby eyes. It was Hen that seemed to panic first, sweat forming on her brow.

“What- what did we make an agreement with?” the tinny voice croaked through the still swirling mist. 

Fighting the urge to cough, the words came out thick and slow like molasses. “Just me. Enoki.”

“You try to trick us?!” Mother shrieked, noticing whatever it was behind Enoki. 

Ze didn’t want to look hirself. It would either be a cosmic horror or the Phoenix standing behind hir, looking like a disappointed parent. Or both.

“No. You guys are getting paid well. I am not going to cheat you out of anything.” Ze gave a firm and hard shake, blue and orange sparks coming off hir hands. 

“It is too late to change the deal now.” The two started to merge together, speaking in unison. “We accept. May the spores forgive us, we accept.”

Their hands finally separated. Enoki let out the breath ze’d been partly holding around the smoke. Daikon carefully walked over, looking at the two of them. “I should have known you’d have no problem making a God’s Oath for this.”

Hen muttered under her breath. “Maybe I shouldn’t have this time.” Looking around she spoke up. “Right, we need to break into their magic tree orchard and their prison. What wood do you need?”

“Sinner Bound.”

The milky white eyes returned. “You did trick us!”

“You never asked! And I’m paying you in holy beeswax and some magic honey.”

As Mother stomped her feet in a fit, Fi’la sighed and walked over, giving Mother a bowl of the soup. “You go and sort out your feelings about this. I know the woods ze wants. We will have a plan by morning.” He glanced at Enoki. “Do you need rest or food?”

“Both? But feed your people first. You weren’t expecting an extra mouth.” To be honest, ze was feeling very drained now. All ze wanted to do was sleep. Not that hir stomach agreed and was loudly protesting the idea.

Within moments ze had a bowl in hir hands. “Eat this. It’s a simple forest stew, but it is filled with everything someone who used magic needs.”

“I—” Ze hesitated accepting it right now. This wasn’t like the other times where people had the money and supplies to throw around. But all the hesitation did was make him shove the bowl further into hir hands. “Thanks.” 

As ze took a bite of the soup, it felt like breathing in forest air. The mushrooms in it were tender and gently broke apart in hir mouth, releasing a nutty and earthy flavor. Another bite revealed a slight give of some sort of over cooked nut. Only slightly harder than a properly cooked black eyed pea, the flavor was a gentle sweetness that played with the saltiness of the broth. Sadly the root vegetables had been overcooked. Given the slight tanginess and heat of them, Enoki wondered if this was effectively an eternal stew. Something that stayed over a fire and people just threw more water and ingredients in as needed. Most likely by the morning the vegetables would have dissolved away, leaving just their flavor and nutrients in the stock. 

Even with the slightly off mix of flavors and textures, it still reminded Enoki of home. Specifically hir father’s cooking. He had tried to learn to cook to save hir mother the trouble. He’d also taken the hard approach that all the children needed to learn the supposed gender specific chores. Claiming they didn’t need to end up half helpless like he was when it came to housework. The food wasn’t always good, with parts over or undercooked. But no one ever got sick. Hir mother always appreciated it t.

By the time ze finished hir soup, slurping up the last of the stock, Daikon was sitting next to hir with his own bowl. 

“Are you alright, my sweet and spicy wonder?” He was looking at hir face carefully, a slight frown on his own. 

“It’s a nice soup. My Dad woulda made something like this.” Ze gave the biggest smile ze could muster, stretching hir face a bit in the process. “Don’t worry, I’m good.”

“Then my dear. If you are done we can retire to my area— OW” His braids swung back and forth, the few green clay beads in them clacking together as Fi’la walked by and hit him with the back of a wooden spoon.

“Down boy. The not human needs rest. Not to lose the ability to walk.”

“I am more gentle than that, thank you.” He cleared his throat. “But very well, where would you like to sleep?”

“Just a corner somewhere is fine. I’ll get myself sorted.” Hopping to hir feet, ze decided to not worry about the comments for now. Daikon was keeping his hands to himself, even if everyone else thought he wasn’t. 

Ze still turned the idea and offers over in hir mind as ze started to get ready for bed. It wasn’t like Enoki was against romance or a love life. This was just a terrible time for it. Between the world possibly ending and the fact cultural misunderstandings were going to happen as it was, it was best to avoid all of that.

Plus it would be super awkward if ze failed to represent hir significant others race and they died out. Bit of a mood killer.

**

In the morning, Enoki woke up to the smell of eggs and something a bit like corn fritters. Ze barely sat up before food was shoved into hir hands by Fi’la. Hir current clothing looked like pajamas again, delicate layers of blues and golds covering anything that could even give a hint of a gender or lack thereof. 

Not that Enoki got to see any of the confused looks of the humans ze expected. It looked like only Daikon, Noodles, and Fi’la were currently present. Carefully eating the food, ze looked around the now mostly empty space. “So. . .  coffee?”

“I don’t know what that is but eat up. I have sent two of our teams to get my old brewing equipment and barrel making tools from home. Mother banned me from returning but I am allowed to send for my things.” Fi’la was quickly wrapping up the extra food. “I hope you have an ax and can wield it yourself.”

“Yeah, but why?”

“Because,” Daikon swallowed his food hard, hitting his chest. Enoki had noticed the orc’s was black instead of the crispy orange brown top ze got. It was probably too dry. “Neither of us are going to touch that wood if we can help it. You obviously have magical garments to help with what you need to do. So we are going to help distract while you get the wood.”

“So distract the tree or…?” Enoki looked between the two, getting blank stares. “What? I don’t know what I’m getting exactly. Just that I have to. It’s a whole thing.”

“If it wasn’t for my cousin… ” Fi’la muttered under his breath before speaking up again. “My people sealed a great number of the old and new evils. You will be venturing into the woods where those live. Given you need two barrels at most, you shouldn’t need an entire tree. But those spirits will do what they can to get the entire tree cut.”

“And if I do cut the whole thing down?”

“They’ll be released. And depending on the exact tree you choose, it could be very bad.” He sighed. “I wish I knew why you needed something so dangerous. Any melomel you create will surely be almost poison to anyone who drinks it.”

“I mean, it’s an offering for gods. So maybe they just like it spicy.” Ze said offhandedly as ze took a few quick bites of the slightly runny pink eggs. The yokes were mixing perfectly with the crispy and still steamy not corn fritter things and what ze assumed were the soft, juicy, grains inside. 

“No one eats poison on purpose.”

“I mean, there’s lots of stuff plants make to be poison that folks eat anyway.” The rest of the orange corn fritter—like bread and the egg were quickly devoured. Honestly it was making hir wish there was more. “Not to mention some medicines are poisons just, you know, in carefully administered amounts.”

Daikon gave a soft sigh. “Great Reflections knows there are things I eat that you would half die from, Fi’la. For now we should focus on the plan since it will only be the 3 of us.”

Noodles stopped eating the leftover eggshells and whimpered, running back over and licking Daikon’s face sadly. 

“Aww, don’t worry Noodles. You can come.” Enoki scratched its butt, watching the tail wiggle back and forth. “We won’t leave you behind.”

“Great. Do you have a map?” Fi’la cleared his throat. “We couldn’t find one in your bag.”

Enoki frowned a bit. “Rude. What if I had personal things in there?” Ze reached in and carefully pulled out the magic map ze’d been given. “Got this. So where are we going for this tree? The Spooky Forest? Death Valley? We Don’t Want You Here town?”

“The Sunrise Woods.” Fi’la zoomed in on a section just north of the city. “Up here. It’s near the Second Chance Temple.”

“That sounds way too sweet to be a home for evil things.” Ze looked between them. “So, what’s the plan?”

Daikon had pulled out a dagger and was carefully checking its edge. “First, we need to get past the Midnight Order and their Spider Riders.”

Ah. There were the evil sounding names.