Enoki had always heard how cold the desert could get at night. Despite the lifetime of warnings and reality tv shows, Enoki found hirself shivering. Ze willed the shirt to try and be thicker and warmer. Meanwhile, En’mat was starting to look like she was getting comfortable again. At least for a few moments. Daikon was simply going forward with a firm look on his face. He had stopped talking at least twenty minutes prior, and seemed to be focusing on moving forward and ignoring the cold.

They had gotten to the wind-worn rock. As Enoki walked into its evening shadow, the chill from the light breeze stopped. “Ok, so here? We’re all good with setting up here for now?”

Daikon nodded. “Get the tent out and set it up. I’ll take care of the fire.”

En’mat set the curtain up on the stone, looking ato Enoki and Daikon to make sure it wouldn’t be too high for them. Right now Enoki was just thankful ze wasn’t going to have to risk it on the sand. The idea of sand pouring into that room was a nightmare ze didn’t want to deal with. As that finished up, Daikon pulled out a small rock from his pouch. Enoki watched a moment before En’mat tapped hir shoulder. “I’ll get the tent. It’ll be useful for you to see how a fire rock can be used.”

“I mean, it’s charcoal right?” Enoki got closer to Daikon, looking at the rock. 

While it looked like charcoal at first glance, you could see red and orange cracks throughout the entire thing. It even looked like a firestorm was swirling inside of the stone.

Daikon shook his head as he threw it down as hard as he could. As soon as it touched the sand, the small rock exploded and a flame the size of Enoki sprung out. Stone fragments floated in the air around the flame. Small strings of white light formed between the shards, keeping the flame contained to its place and the stones lightly spinning around. The flame settled into its temporary home, Enoki’s growling stomach now had a more important question. 

“How do we cook on that?”

Daikon motioned for hir to come closer as he gently put a finger on a glowing thread of white light, causing it to bend slightly and move the stones. “This can either stay as it is for heat, or we can pull its strings to adjust for other needs. Like cooking. Lightly grab the thread and pull downwards like so. Start with the highest thread you can reach safely.”

Enoki did as ze was told, slightly worried the flame might burn hir gloves. Instead, the heat was there without any pain. As the two carefully pulled the stones and threads down, the flame moved with the magical net. As soon as they got the rest of it to the ground, the threads quickly pulled the stone together in a typical campfire. Enoki fell back onto hir butt as the flame tried to burn a piece of hir hair. 

Daikon laughed, and Enoki stuck out hir tongue. “You coulda warned me the safety feature would turn off.”

“I am sorry, I thought it was obvious that fire would be hot.” He gave the first smile he’d had in over an hour as he got up. “I suppose we should begin cooking something. Do we risk our water or simply roast what we can?”

En’mat groaned. “Soup is far better on trips like this. Less chances of burning. But we should conserve our water for now.”

Enoki looked back into the pantry, thinking for a moment. “I can make something that shouldn’t burn. How long will the fire last?”

“I have at least two nights on it. It can be resealed after use.” Daikon watched as Bob turned into a long flat sheet of foil. “I am curious what you will use that for.”

“I’m going to make campfire packets. I saw some meat and veg, just give me a few minutes.” Enoki quickly went inside, leaving En’mat to finish with the tent.

Ze knew that the meal would need to cook quickly so they could all rest. Maybe even wake up early enough to leave while it was still somewhat cool. With that in mind, ze looked to McStabby. “Time to shine. Let’s get to chopping.”

In a blink of an eye the silver disk shifted to a chef’s knife. Enoki quickly grabbed what looked like purple bell peppers and some orange onions and started chopping them up. Ze carefully set aside the scraps for Noodles later. The peppers were similar to bell peppers in shape, and thankfully in texture. Enoki took a small bite to check for flavor. These were sweet, with only the tiniest hint of heat to them. Similar to banana peppers if ze was being honest. Once those were cut up they went into three piles on the Bob foil. 

“Don’t fold up yet, give me a moment.” Enoki warned, just in time.

Next came the onions. While the first few layers were similar to an onion, the inner layers were more similar to a garlic bulb, if a soft periwinkle blue. Curious, Enoki took a small sliver of the bulb followed by the layers of juicy skin. The skin itself had the sharp and bitter flavor one would expect of a white onion. The bulbs tasted like a raw russet potato but with the texture of cold steak fat. A small rub with hir thumb indicated it might even half melt like fat as well. Knowing that, ze got a few small ones and carefully took off the peels to roughly chop them. From there, ze sliced the bulbs as thin as ze could manage without a mandolin. While the skins were spread out, the bulbs were carefully layered on top of the vegetables. Enoki was about to cut the probably midnight crow meat into chunks when ze paused, seeing the spicy bulbs from the night before. After a few moments of consideration, ze grabbed and sliced them into ¼ inch thick slices, starting from the top of the bulb and working hir way down. 

Enoki ignored the meat for a bit longer as ze quickly grabbed the seasonings that tasted the most like garlic, paprika, cumin, and turmeric. And some salt. Ze sprinkled some of each onto the vegetables, then set them aside to mix into the meat as well. It only took a few moments to cube the meat and put the seasonings on top. They were more sparse than Enoki cared for. Hir parents had taught the kids to season the food unless the main dish was the star. But, not knowing the flavors of everything very well yet, ze wasn’t sure that it would work well with much more. Or if these seasonings changed during the cooking process. 

The meat was carefully massaged with the mix of spices before being put into each pile. As if pulling from hir mind, Bob folded itself into three separate packets. Enoki quickly carried them out as McStabby returned to hir palm. 

“Well, that’s interesting.” Daikon was setting the packs into the tent, trying to make sure everything was safe as the packets were set by the fire. “I haven’t seen cooking like this.”

“Back home we can buy rolls of paper-thin metal. We use it to cook like this sometimes at campouts.”

En’mat leaned forward, her long black hair looking like it was swinging lightly in and out of the flame without any harm to it. “That is very interesting. I’d like to know how the sheets are made.”

“Ah, I don’t know. Ask me cooking questions. I can answer those a lot better. I just know the foil was on aisle 15, third shelf down. Unless you wanted the big rolls.” Enoki went into the closet to get the scraps, only to see Noodles already in there and shoving them into its mouth. 

En’mat walked over to Enoki. “Do you need help with cleaning up? A sanitation spell won’t cost much if it’s just your hands and tools.”

Enoki grinned and held them out. “Yes please. As a chef, I don’t wash the dishes.”

Daikon chuckled. “My Aunt would disagree with you there. She’d say you take part in all the jobs.”

“Well, I am a terrible cook unless it’s soup. So I am fine with this task.” A short and quick note started the cleaning process but stopped as soon as En’mat closed her mouth. En’mat looked at the hands for a moment before taking another breath and letting out a longer note. The tattoos on her shoulders started to shine though the robes, showing the soft grey they had become. 

Once it was done, En’mat looked tired. Her hair, more limp. Daikon got up without a word and headed into the pantry. “I’ll clean the other items. You watch the food, En’mat.”

“Of course.” 

With a crestfallen look, En’mat walked over to the fire and sat down. Enoki was torn on going to Daikon for more answers or staying with hir first friend. After debating for a few moments, Noodles helped to solve the dilemma. It ran out and curled up around the saddened elf, leaving Enoki free to get the answers ze needed without worrying about En’mat feeling too lonely.