Immaculate
Copyright© 2025 by Daelyx Len Auphydas
Chapter 14: Solstice
Antares is left to his own devices as Reia digs through storage to find food for dinner, and Alunya carries a set of dishes down to the river to clean them off.
Antares frowns, feeling a twinge of guilt; He should have been helping, right? It isn’t fair that he is the only one not doing anything. But if Vekt catches wind of him doing a woman’s chores again, he would never live it down, so instead he keeps his mouth shut and stays in front of the fireplace.
Alunya gets back at about the same time Reia emerges from the ‘pantry’-again, really more of just a pit in the ground where smoked or dry-freezed food was kept dry and cool-with that night’s food.
It might not have been the most traditional of winter meals, given that the family didn’t own any guanaco’s so meat was not on the table. But Reia had brought out the vegetables that kept well over the winter, pumpkin and zucchini, and through trade had acquired some milk.
“Alright, who wants to help me cook?” Reia asks. Before Antares even has time to reject her, Alunya is already up. “Me! Me!” Alunya shouts-again, a pinch too loud, causing both Reia and Antares to wince from his shrill voice.
Antares watches as Alunya scampers off, eager to help as always, and shakes his head. Maybe it was a good thing that the boy was rather uninterested in playing with the other village kids, Antares was sure he’d be bullied mercilessly. Antares on the other hand ... He slumps over, letting out a hefty sigh. Maybe now that Alunya is old enough to help with chores, he would get something of a break...?
“Come along now!” Reia motions for Alunya to follow, as she carries the families heavy copper cauldron- probably the most valuable possession they had, though Antares and Alunya had rarely ever seen it. Alunya scampers off after her, as she walks down to the river; thankfully, the riverside isn’t too far away. snow had started collecting on the banks, but the whole river is still flowing, so it hadn’t been able to freeze over entirely. Reia steps out onto the stones on the river banks, carefully watching her step but still almost slipping. Thankfully, she catches her balance, carefully going out to the water.
Dunking the cauldron down into the water, she lifts it back out with some effort, visibly straining under the weight. The cauldron was heavy enough empty, let alone half-filled with riverwater. Alunya runs up to help steady the cauldron from the other side, oblivious to the bumpy icy rocks under his feet. “What’s this for?” he asks, curiously.
“We’re making ... Stew!” Reia announces. “Help me carry this back so we can get it on the fire!”
Alunya takes the opposite side of the cauldron and lifts it up. Most boys his age probably wouldn’t have been much help, but, Alunya’s unusual stature age came in handy, and though it was somewhat difficult, the two of them manage to awkwardly carry the cauldron back as they walk around the terrace back to the paved road up to their hut, spilling splashes of water over the side of the cauldron as they walk.
As the two of them return home, Reia calls for Antares to open the door, then as soon as they are inside, sets down the cauldron with a hefty thud and grunt of effort, another splash of water spilling down onto the earthen floor. Reia collapses down into the chair next to the table, groaning. “Antares, help your brother put the cauldron up onto the fireplace.”
Antares hesitates, but nods and goes over to the other side. Alunya smiles at him. “Ready?” Antares nods, and the two young boys lift the cauldron, hauling it in place onto the small hooks on either side of the fireplace.
“Now what?” Alunya chirps, wheeling around to face Reia.
Reia laughs a little, leaning back. “Heavens, give me a moment to catch my breath!” She shakes her head. “I don’t know where you get all that energy from...”
Alunya ponders, but as he did, his stomach growls, and Antares snickers from over near the fireplace. “Well, I think I know why he’s so eager to help-” He teases, reaching over to poke Alunya in the belly, who giggles uncontrollably at the action.
“We need to wait for the water to boil. In the meantime, I guess we should cut up the vegetables.” Reia gets up from her chair and goes over to retrieve the cooking knife from its rack, where Alunya had just put it after cleaning.
The two of them set about preparing all the ingredients- at first, Reia just does the work while showing Alunya how to do it, but soon enough, Alunya takes over, and Reia retires to just telling him what to do while resting next to the table.
“Dinner’s ready!”
Reia’s voice immediately rouses her two boys from their stupor-even Alunya’s boundless energy had tapered off a bit when hungry and waiting for food. But as soon as Reia had tasted the food and announced it was ready, he was of course on his feet and over near the cauldron in a heartbeat.
The roughly carved stone bowls are soon enough all filled up, and the boys sit down at the table with their mother. Alunya stares down at the soup curiously; he doesn’t remember the last time he’d had something similar, though it seems to basically just have whatever Reia had on hand. Pumpkin, potato, corn, and onion had all found their way into the stew, with a broth steeped with guanaco bones.
“Can we eat yet?” Antares asks, wiggling from side to side antsily. Antsy ant~ Alunya thinks, giggling a little at his inward joke, prompting Antares to give him a confused look.
“Not yet, we have to wait until the sacrifice is done down in th-” Reia is interrupted by the sound of a bell clanging out, right on cue. Even if the winter solstice wasn’t celebrated in the village center, the sacrifice still was done right on schedule, and not a soul would eat first. The gods always get first supper. Alunya thinks, nodding sagely.
“Alright, dig in!” Reia announces, though she needn’t have bothered; her boys had started hungrily wolfing down the meal as soon as the bell had rung. Cold weather and lean winter meals built up quite the hungry appetite!
Alunya slurps up a mouthful of soup. It was quite a bit different from what he was used to even if the ingredients are mostly similar; There was a big difference between freeze-dried vegetables and food made mostly out of water. The broth was positively bursting with flavor, mostly the pumpkin which overwhelmed the other ingredients.
Antares stifles a laugh looking at Alunya’s face as Alunya puts the spoon down, and Alunya blinks at him curiously. “What is it, Ari?” Alunya cocks his head to the side questioningly.
Antares tries to suppress a giggle as he shakes his head. “No, nothing.” He snickers while Alunya blinks at him, confused.
“Alunya, here, you’ve got it on your lip-” Reia finally informs him. “Just wipe it off.”
“Aww, you ruined it. He had such a cute little mustache going there.” Antares ribs, elbowing Alunya lightly while he wipes his face off with his wrist, then licks it clean.
“So, how do you two like the soup?” Reia asks, lacing her fingers together and leaning forward. Alunya and Antares both nod enthusiastically before exclaiming “It’s really good!” In perfect sync. The two of them look at each other in surprise, then burst out laughing.
When the three of them finish eating, Reia stacks the dishes and stands up. After placing them on the counter-it’s too dark and cold out to go wash them right now- Reia presents a small handful of beans to Alunya. “Now, since we made a good harvest this year, I was able to barter for some cocoa and milk this winter.” Reia starts explaining. “Do you want to try to make hot cocoa? It’s traditional for this time of year. You know how, right?”
Alunya nods eagerly. He had seen other people making the beverage before; it wasn’t complicated. But he’d never gotten to try it himself. While he gets to work grinding up the beans, Antares runs off at the same time, announcing “I’ll go get our blankets!”.
Once he had thoroughly mixed the ground cocoa paste into the milk-which was quite warm, since it had been left by the fireplace-Alunya takes an experimental sip. “Blech!” He makes a worried face as he tastes the bitter beverage. “Mama?”
Reia comes to his side, looking at him questioningly and placing one hand on his shoulders reassuringly. “What is it, sweetie?”
“Why does it taste so bad?” Alunya asks. “Did I make it wrong?”
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