The sad part of this craving is that he hadn't had his favorite food for quite a while. Where he hailed from no longer carried his quick and easy way of making it and to make it from scratch took FOREVER! Which in a magical land can be quite a very long time indeed. Plus with the ever demanding need for Ambrosia, he was more often too busy making that - leaving no time for other delicious treats to devour. "Alas!" Allspice thought to himself. "I'll be on a good diet since I can't find the time to make my favorite treat." After a moment more of thought, he chuckled ruefully to himself. "I never did admit that they were healthy for my diet. But, oh, one bite of those tasty morsels is certainly good for the soul."
Allspice rushed into the store, bought the ingredients, and then faster than a Twitterbird can deliver a message, Allspice was back in his cave firing up the oven. Chopping up the apples with a knife inside the can, he then proceeded to place a very small amount in the center of each pastry square.
A couple scoops of the sugar with just a dab of the margarine, add a dash of vanilla extract, and stir," Allspice said the recipe over to himself. "I'll add a small splash of milk to thin this mixture into a glaze. Then dribble it over the golden pastries after they have cooled when I pull them out of the oven." After the pastries cooked in the oven (at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes), Allspice in his excitement almost dropped the pan when he removed them. But he quickly recovered himself, dribbled the glaze over the turnovers and then proceeded to sit down and eat his first bite. "Oh yes! Yummmm," Allspice thought to himself. Then he chuckled. "I can now have my treat in this new land! What a nice boon for moving, but I will certainly have to limit myself or I will be gaining way too much to my waistline. So just like the Dragons in trying to limit themselves on our Ambrosia, I now have my 'own' ambrosia."
0 Comments
He had been working on getting his kitchen setup so he could mix his first batch of ambrosia for the Dragons here in this new realm. "First batch indeed," he thought. "It will take many more batches just to feed all of them even once. It's a good thing that there are only a few Wish Dragons around otherwise I would need an army of SPICE bakers to get the mis-enchanted back." After finding his bellows and the other items needed, Al decided to get some fresh air before having to stand over the cooking pot. "It will do me some good to step outside for a bit," he decided as he realized that being bent over rummaging through storage boxes had created a kink in his back. Before stepping out of the cave, he took a quick look around to make sure that it was safe. He had almost stepped out once before in his travels with the Dragons and a giant bird had almost eaten him. Thinking about it made him shiver slightly and for a moment stopped whistling to mutter "Darn Rocs". Spying a giant frog and a Pyksee hopping around, Allspice decided it was still safe enough to step out of the cave for a little while. "But not too far from the entrance. Don't want the Dragons to see me. They will be nagging me soon enough to be brewing up more Ambrosia. After taking several deep breaths and a long stretch to straighten out the kinks in his back, Allspice turned around and went back into the cave. "I better get busy as I do have a lot of Ambrosia to still brew," he thought. Even though this part of the cave was still dark, he had walked in and out so many times bringing in his boxes of cooking supplies that he did not need to cast a light spell to see. Soon he was back to whistling and brewing. "That tune just won't go away. It's a good thing I like it," he smiled.
It was here that Meen (spying) realized that she needed to tell the Queen of the Shadows' what she had seen and heard, but another also was affected by what had just happened... Not too far away, a Dragon and a rat were discussing the finer parts of humor when the Dragon suddenly stopped talking and started turning his head this way and that! "Do you smell that?" Dree asked Drat. The rat stopped and sniffed the air. Being a rat he had a very sensitive nose but evidently it was nothing compared to the Dragon's. "I don't smell anything unusual other than your feet," he joked. Soon Dree figured out the direction of the smell and made the decision that he would check out what it was that somebody was cooking. But before he could act on that thought, Drat distracted him with a new joke. "Did you hear the one about the rock and the troll? Well this troll was lonely and one day while out walking he saw this big rock in the trail..."
"What is that whistling sound?" she heard from the cave. "That can't be singing? My froggie friend croaks better than that." Quietly Meen hopped up to some rocks just outside the caves to take a peek inside.
"Queen Ffion wouldn't be happy with me as her Top Minion if I don't take this chance to learn a little more," Meen confidently told herself as he hopped down from the rocks. Patting Froggie on the head and telling him to stay behind, Meen silently entered the cave after turning her head and winking at Froggie. Inch by slow inch Meen crept inside of the cave making sure that she was not seen by the stranger. "This is harder than I thought," she realized because Meen was the straight forward type of Pyksee who preferred just jumping into trouble. But he was a stranger in the Realm and one could never be too careful with strangers. Or at least that is what Queen Ffion would have told Meen if she was here. By now Meen had made her way past the entrance to the cave and could see a glowing light further in. Not being able to stay at the slow pace, she decided that it was dark enough still that the stranger would not see her, so she hopped until she was closer to the light but still outside of it's glow.
All the time he was doing this he was still making those silly whistling sounds. Then the creature started putting things into the pot that he had over the flames like Meen had watched the Goodie Sisters do many times. "Nothing new to that," Meen thought, "though he is talking or croaking in a language I haven't heard before."
"Wow! That is powerful magic indeed," thought Meen. "I better get back to the Queen and let her know what I have discovered. She will know what is 'Ambrosia' is and if it's dangerous?"
With his wings all a flutter, Allspice was thrilled he had located a set of caves close to the Dragons. Actually there seemed to be a lot of caves in the location the Dragons had landed. Which was a good thing since Allspice didn't want to be living right next door to them. Nothing was worse (well, almost nothing) than not being able to sleep because one had a Dragon next door that was snoring loud enough to even make the rock walls of a cave tremble.
He had just heard from a flutterby that a new cleaning operation was being opened by a Brownie named Granny Flare. He just might have to hire her. Al knew that when the other members of the team showed up, there would even be more to clean then.
"Finally!" Allspice muttered to himself. He had been moving boxes from one side of the cave to the other looking for it for the past couple of hours. Now that he found it, he was thrilled he could finally unpack this travel box.
Finally, a Wish Dragon overheard a wish being made. Deciding that maybe this was a way to make friends, the Dragon granted the wish... and that is when things started going wrong! By the time the Dragons came to the land where Allspice's (Al) kind lived, the Dragons started granting wishes willy-nilly. It was soon afterwards noticed that when a wish was not completely thought out - an innocence bystander or other citizens would disappear! First it was only a few and it never seemed to be the one making the wish. But after a time, it was discovered that anyone involved in a wish where things went wrong -- could maybe disappear. This is when the locals started resenting all Dragons! This made things a little sticky for the Dragons and they knew it was time to move on.
Maybe a few flames would escape and a slight scorching would occur, but with a Wish Dragon, something entirely different happened. When a Wish Dragon hiccupped, a By-Stander that had been caught up in a bad wish would re-appear! At first it was a cause for celebration. The missing Fae could be brought back just by having a Wish Dragon drink lots of Ambrosia! Though everyone was excited about their returns, it was quickly noticed that they were not the same. The By-Standers could come back looking green or be way smaller (or taller) than they had been before their disappearance - all from the residue of a wish gone wrong. But they were coming back and after a visit to a local witch doctor, most were able to have the remaining magical virus removed. This is when SPICE (Stewards Preventing Imperfectly Casted Enchantments) was created. This group was to regain and find those Fae that were affected by Wish Dragon wishes that had gone awry. Members of the organization soon were to be known as SPI's (pronounced spy). The SPI's realized that the best way to keep an eye on the Wish Dragons was to become the makers of the Ambrosia they would drink. They could give the Wish Dragons Ambrosia and then watch to see who would show up after a drinking session. The Dragons never realized that their bakers were actually their keepers and were completely unaware about what was happening when they hiccupped. They just enjoyed the Ambrosia! This is why Al and the other members of SPICE accompanied the Dragons to the Realm of Wymsy. They were determined to continue their work and return everyone who had disappeared.
Even for important events (such as the weekly meetings) individual Wsyps have been known to be late or even sometimes sleep through the meeting. Resulting in one of their favorite pranks which is leaving behind the sleeper who fell asleep during the important meeting. It usually requires everyone sneaking out quietly at the end of the meeting so the sleeper is not awakened - again why the Wysps enjoy doing it. As a matter of fact, this happened the night of the "strange occurrence" that made the Wsyps leave the cave and hold their meeting in a bush where Aralt stumbled in to them. Later, when the Wsyp (who had been left behind) found the others to complain about being left behind, he mentioned that when he woke up, his stomach was rumbling because of the cooking smells he thought he had dreamt. Ah, but was it a dream? Is there someone (or something) behind that portal that is blocking the rest of the cave? Allspice (or Al to his friends ) loves to cook. Little do others know about the magic he puts into his cooking which involves him getting up real close and personal with everything he bakes. One of Allspice's favorite things he loves to do is to bring out the music hidden in the cooking.
BUBBLE..BUBBLE...POP...gurgle...Bubble...BUBBLE...POP... When he felt the rhythm, he would begin to bang on the pot with his wooden stirring spoon. Slowly the drum-like noise, drifting up the chimney, would grow louder and louder. Then he would start to blow on a kitchen funnel hanging by the cooking pot, adding the music of a horn to the simmering beat. Gradually, as the melody of the brew continued, he would step on the bellows he had handy to keep the fire glowing to add a whish of steam to the sounds his cooking was creating.
Allspice knows what ingredients that one element of magic requires and how rare they were to find. But ohhhhh, the sweetness that one addition makes to anything he cooks always makes his meals be the best and hardest to resist in his kitchen.
With the new arrivals coming in, that means the creative juices have been flowing too. I have been experimenting with some new claying up techniques and also some body reforms. Don't I wish I could change the look of my own body so easily *lol*. Just a little taste of what is coming up in the near future. I mentioned in an earlier newsletter I was working on a new character series. Their theme is going to be Spices. Now don't tell me why this popped into my head, as I have no idea *lol*. Other than I was thinking the Spices are either to help the Goodie Sisters as assistants or maybe in competition with them. That will be revealed as the Spices begin to share more about their story with me as they develop. What tasty tidbits The Dragons have shared with me though so far is that they have become quite the gourmet eaters since leaving the Realms. That is why the Spices are needed to help develop new recipes of ambrosia to keep the Dragons happy and not tearing up the Realms looking for something sophisticated for their taste buds. The way to a Dragon's heart is definitely through their stomach (or stomachs maybe?).
|
GreetingsWelcome to my blog. This is where I will reveal the magic of my Fae and their stories and share with you some of the success and pitfalls through the journey of doll making, sculpting, and other crafts that all come back to my dolls in many ways. Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|