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I loved this so much! You write these two so well!
Spice
Day 8 of @bittykimmy13 prompt list, featuring @dreamerart7 ocs
Clack…
Clack…
“Damn it.” Gero’s voice reverberated through the cave, not that he noticed given his scale compared to the world. His humble abode surprisingly resembled that of a human cabin, if the walls were curved and made completely out of stone. Dotted around the place were a few pieces of essential furniture, a couple of chairs, a bed, and shelves for storage.
The darkness occasionally gave way to a flickering spark.
Clack.
Clack.
“C’mon!” He struck the stones harder this time, generating a violent enough spark to light the crushed timber inside the fireplace. A small flame had gathered in the middle, and Gero quickly crouched down to gently blow it. It soon caught on to the other sources of fuel and before long, the giant achieved a fire big enough to not only warm his home, but cook the pot of chicken he had next to him.
Gero would’ve started, had it not been for the abrupt rumbles above that shook his home slightly. It drew a raised brow from him and he quickly got up, walking over to the door to investigate. Though, it really wasn’t a door, more so a large but thin slab of stone blocking the entrance. For him, it weighed about as much as a bundle of potatoes, but would be near impossible for any human to get through.
Sliding it open, the giant was greeted with a mound of snow about six feet in front of him. The entrance to his home was carved into the slope of a steep mountain, so it didn’t directly block the door. It was still an annoyance however, as it reached up to his waist.
While looking at the pile with a confused look, he felt a small pinprick on his thumb. With a quiet hiss of annoyance Gero drew his hand back and up out of reflex. The annoyance grew as he realized what had pierced his finger. A tiny arrow. And there was only one human in existence with the gall to blatantly fire an arrow at a giant whilst within grabbing range. He looked down, eyes narrowed at the hooded figure on the ground atop a black horse dotted with gray spots.
“You need to stop doing that.” Ever since he brought the human back with him to his home to nurse a cold, Gero could now expect Dia to randomly show up and cause an avalanche to get his attention. How someone so small could even have that much of an effect on the landscape still bothered him.
Dia looked over at the stone door with a deadpan look. It was big enough to be used as a castle’s wall. “You want me to knock?”
She had a fair point but he would never dare tell her that. He’d never hear the end of it. Instead, the giant simply stepped to the side to let her in. Of course Gero could simply just pick both of them up and walk them inside, but that would result in a knife being driven up his nail, and he wasn’t in the particular mood to deal with such an injury.
The horse trotted in as if it were its own stable, and he gave a raised brow before closing the door. “What brings you here?” He asked, carefully moving around them and making his way to the campfire to start cooking.
“I don’t have anything to do. Nothing set off the traps and the last group of hunters brought in a lot of game.” Dia responded, curiously directing her horse towards him. “What are you cooking?”
“Chicken soup.” Gero said as he lifted the pot up and placed it directly onto the fire. He grabbed a crude wooden spatula and stirred the concoction slightly. Satisfied, he stepped back and sat down on the couch with a tired sigh.
The air stilled as silence took over, but it wasn’t the stifling kind. Neither of the two were the social type, but were familiar enough to simply enjoy each other’s presence without expressing it in words. However a confused expression began to take over Dia’s face as something felt wrong. She sniffed the air, and smelled… Nothing.
He was making soup, and having been countless times to the village’s inns and keeps, a strong aroma usually preceded the making of food. Yet, she couldn’t smell such enticing scents. “Are you waiting for it to warm up?” She asked, nodding to the pot.
“No, it should already be boiling.” Gero replied, with Dia furrowing her brow.
“May I see what you’re cooking?” She asked, with the giant looking down at her for a second before nodding.
He got off the couch and knelt down, offering his hand. Dia hopped off and clambered upon it as if it were a drawn carriage, though the two at this point had gotten used to such interactions. She grasped his thumb with her hand as she was lifted up to his chest. Steps dozens of feet below reverberated through the fleshy platform, stopping once they were in front of the pot.
The human then looked down, staring at the mixture with a blank look. “...Is that just chicken in hot water?”
“Yes… Is that not what chicken soup is?” He asked with a tilted head, drawing an almost offended look from the human.
“No!” She balked. “Chicken soup has more than just water- wait don’t tell me you eat stuff like this on a daily basis.”
“What is wrong with it?” Gero asked in a genuinely confused tone. “It’s meat, it's tender because of the water, and the water is chicken flavored.” The more he spoke, the more offended Dia looked and he stopped himself short of her stabbing his hand out of frustration.
“You and I are taking a day trip.” Dia said as a command, to which Gero grumbled. He didn’t have a good enough excuse to get out of it, and getting rid of this particular human was more trouble than it was worth.
A brief exhale of wind rushed past her hair. “Fine.”
Gero had been hoping for a quiet day to relax. No hunting, no driving any giants or humans out of his territory, just him and the comforts of his home. That reality was challenged with Dia’s arrival but there wasn’t a reason he couldn’t share that kind of day with her. But after her observance of his apparent cooking atrocities, he’d been dragged all over the mountainous region and even to some of the lower parts. What this had to do with cooking he had no idea.
The first destination was a human mine of sorts, which luckily was empty given the cold harsh weather. He’d been instructed to claw out some deposits of white rocks, which the giant did with the ease of peeling bark from a dying tree. Gero’s face twisted in disgust as the human took a pinch of the dusty material and licked it, giving a satisfied nod.
“Humans eat rocks?” He asked, drawing a rare but faint amused smile from her.
“Taste it.” She said casually, with him narrowing his eyes. Dia hadn’t fallen to the ground with foam protruding from her mouth so he assumed it was safe.
Rubbing the pieces of stone into dust and licking his finger. He stared blankly down, trying to discern the sharp foreign flavor. It was a strange mixture of sour and abrasive bitterness. “What is this?”
“It’s salt.” She said as if it were obvious.
“So is this all I need?” He asked while placing several of the white rocks into the pouch attached to his hip.
A quiet snort left Dia. “Not even close.” She said, mounting her horse. “We’re going to need more to save that abomination you call soup.” Lightly tapping the horses side, the two rode into a gallop out of the mine, with a very disgruntled Gero following.
They made several more stops, collecting a number of herbs and what Dia called ‘spices’, whatever those were. It was nearly nightfall by the time the two got back to his house and with specific instructions, grinded and added the gathered ingredients to the soup. After warming up the soup again, Gero dipped a spoon into the pot and took a sip.
“So…” She asked, having not detected a single emotion in Gero’s face after he’d tried it. “Is it good?”
The giant dipped the spoon again, taking another sip. “It’s alright.” He said passively, with Dia narrowing her eyes while pulling out a dagger holstered on her hip.
“It needs more salt though.” With that, she removed her hand from the blade.
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