The Black & White Saga

Chapter 9 - A Pleasant Evening

“Mii miii mi,” said Gaia excitedly, as soon as she saw the table full of food, while she stood on Savana’s shoulders.  

“Miii,” Skye added excitedly as his mother sat down, holding him in her arms.  He looked around and twitched his nose as he took in the delightful scents of all the dishes in front of him.

Gaia sniffed the air with her dainty little nose, and jumped from Savana’s shoulder to the table, toward one of the big plates of chicken wings.  However, before she could land successfully, a pair of big black furry paws caught her.

“Woah, slow down little one!” Sam said as he patted his daughter’s back.  “You can’t even eat most of the things here yet.”

Everyone sitting around the table chucked in amusement at Gaia’s enthusiasm towards food.  The cubs were settled into their baby seats and given their bottles, as the adults enjoyed the dishes on the table.  The wood spirits drank their nectar, and ate bread with salad.  Most of the elves had a mainly vegetarian diet, but occasionally consumed meat.  Sommer was from a tribe of elves that did not limit meat from their diet, since they were located in the North where winter was the dominant season most of the year.  His diet was similar to that of humans, so he loved to eat whatever Lunette and Savana ate.  Sam and Nebula enjoyed everything on the table as well.  They also added the bamboo chunks they washed earlier to their meal, and drank bamboo sap.  Of course Trey would love anything that Lunette made.

“Your cooking is fantastic as always, Lunette!” complimented Trey with a smile, as he helped himself to soup and bread.  There was already a pile of clean bones on his plate from the wings.  “I’ve missed having these chicken wings.”

“Thanks,” Lunette replied, as she munched on salad with a healthy dose of Melinda’s secret salad dressing.  

“It’s sooooo good!  I don’t know how I would survive without you,” said Savana.  Everyone else on the table shuddered as they thought about the dark cuisine Savana created when she attempted to cook for the first time shortly after she joined the group.

Lunette glanced lightly in her direction, and proceeded to help herself to some wings.  “As long as she does not try to feed me what she calls her cooking,” she thought, remembering Savana’s mysterious black chunks of questionable ingredients.  Melinda and Freya added more food to Savana’s plate.

“Eat more,” Freya said as she patted Savana’s head.

“Yes, have some warm, delicious bread,” said Melinda kindly.  “Just don’t go into the kitchen again.”

“You guys!” Savana whined, while everyone burst out laughing.

Other than Trey, who was an unexpected guest, the elves, humans, and pandas around the table have lived with Lunette for at least 3 years.  When they first moved to Greene Village, Lunette and Nebula lived out of a pop-up house on the land they bought.  The pop-up house was the upgraded version of the tent for frequently traveling adventurers.  It was larger and sturdier than a tent, but could be compressed into a space button at a moment’s notice.  Adventures who were constantly on the road for long periods of time loved this home away from home during their missions.  

Lunette’s and Nebula’s first few attempts to reclaim the land they bought was not very successful.  Nothing was able to grow well around them.  Even if they used Lunette’s wood magic to supplement the plants, they would still start to wilt a few days after being planted in the ground.  As they experimented with the land filled with bloodlust and death, they found that darkness magic could suppress the bloodlust and the aura of death, while light magic could purify it.  It takes both to dissipate the negative remnants of the war from the land.  After the land was cleansed, they noticed the soil was extremely dry and lacking in nutrients.  This makes it tough for most plants to grow without lots of manual labor.  So Lunette decided to grow bamboo on a vast majority of the land she acquired, since she and Nebula could only do so much with just the two of them.  Bamboo was one of the most versatile and adaptable species in the realm of plants.  It could even be used as a great filter for water and soil.  With the help of Lunette’s wood magic, a large plot of land next to the stream was soon teeming with young bamboo plants.  Within a couple of months, the water in the branching stream from the Taiga River became clearer and clearer.  The land around the bamboo plants was also revitalized, making it easier for other plants to grow.

Melinda was the first to join them.  Her home was destroyed by the war.  The forest where her tribe of elves lived was burned to the ground.  Most of the elves in her tribe migrated to another forest near the center of the Elven continent with their chief.  Melinda saved the seeds and damaged plants that could be salvaged from her garden, and decided to travel around the world to see where she could obtain more varieties of plants.  She loved all plants, and was devastated when most of the plant species in her garden were wiped out by the fire.  She eventually became a wandering plant merchant, so she could accumulate a vast majority of plant species while she supported herself with her business.  Lunette and Nebula met Melinda, while she had her caravan set up in Double Towers City.  They were her frequent customers, and Melinda was touched by their genuine concern for plants and redeveloping land ravaged by war.  They soon became friends and often shared tips about raising plants.  Melinda had seen countless places devastated by war in her travels, and knew that it would take years before they could recover to its previous state.  Her heart hurt for all the plants and animals that were struggling to survive in these barren environments.  After another year of wandering around with her trade, Melinda decided to settle down with Nebula and Lunette.  She wanted to help them with their projects, and rebuild her vast garden once again.

Sam came soon after Melinda moved in.  He saw the thriving plots of bamboo that were growing on Lunette’s land while he was wandering.  He couldn’t deny his panda instincts and his love for bamboo.  It was tough for a panda to make a living, even if he was capable of using magic.  Trading his labor for bamboo, he stayed in Greene Village frequently between his missions from the Adventurer’s Guild.  He gradually became friends with the girls and joined their family after he successfully wooed Nebula.

Lunette and Nebula met Micah, Sommer, and Freya while doing missions for the Adventurer’s Guild.  They had to support themselves while they were building their home, so they took missions from the guild to earn money.  Most Arcadian towns and cities have a branch of the Adventurer’s Guild.  Adventurers could turn in their missions at any location.  A new mission however, could only be accepted in the branch of the guild that issued the mission.  

Lunette and Nebula met Micah while taking missions from the Adventurer’s Guild in Terra Town.  They both happened to sign up for a mission Melinda commissioned with the Adventurer’s Guild.  At the time Melinda needed a team to help her venture into the Oblivion Forest to collect rare species of flowers and trees thriving deep in the forest.  As its name indicates, Oblivion Forest was filled with danger.  Other than the usual perils found in a wild forest, there were also attacks from beasts with tainted magic to look out for.  Those infected with tainted magic would attack anything in sight once something catches their attention.  When they met up with Melinda at the edge of the forest, they realized that they all knew each other.  Micah came from the a neighboring elven tribe that lived in the same forest as Melinda’s tribe.  When the forest burned down, Micah lost his home and his family.  Their families were friends, and Melinda treated Micah as a younger brother.  After being introduce to Lunette and Nebula, Micah got along well with them, and became the little brother of the three ladies.  Though he himself would claim he was Lunette’s and Nebula’s big brother, since he was older than them.  He occasionally stayed at their house between taking missions from the Adventurer’s Guild, and officially moved in after Sam joined the family.  He would never admit it to them, but he was worried that his little sisters would be bullied by the big panda bear.  Lunette and Nebula on the other hand, would testify that they had to save Micah from Sam’s teasing more often than not.

Sommer and Freya were elves from different tribes outside of the elven continent.  Sommer’s family came from the north, while Freya’s family lived on an island off the western coast of Miloa.  They met while doing missions near Double Towers City, and decided to become a team together.  Lunette and Nebula frequently joined them on group missions from the Double Towers City Adventurer’s Guild.  After building rapport from working together on missions, they quickly became great friends.  They decided to settle down with Lunette’s group after they became engaged.  Both Freya and Sommer loved the environment Lunette’s adopted family fostered and wanted to be a part of it. 

The four wood spirits arrived one by one as the condition of Lunette’s land improved.  They were attracted by the plants that were thriving around Lunette’s home.  Other than Cierra who was able to maintain her composure and seek permission from the landlords before helping herself, the other three were all caught by Melinda while stealing fruit from their orchard.  Wood spirits were naturally attracted to healthy plants.  The thriving trees, plants, and bamboo around Lunette’s home stood out to them since the surrounding areas were still almost completely barren.  After regaining their senses from their excitement of not seeing healthy plants for so long, all of the wood spirits begged to join Lunette’s group.  They decided to let Sue, Delos, Lulu, and Cierra stay as it was easy to see if spirits had bad intentions.  Spirits in general were closely attuned to nature.  Their aura was affected by their emotions.  Any spirits with malicious intent would have a tainted aura that most magic users could sense immediately.  Since they meant no harm, and wood spirits were beneficial to all growing plants, Lunette and Melinda decided to let them stay.

Savana was wandering the continent of Miloa by herself, after she ran away from home.  She grew up with Lunette in the capital.  Savana’s family was part of a reputable healer’s clan in Miloa.  When she was younger, Savana refused to take lessons from the elders in her clan since she thought they were boring.  She would only attend if she had a companion to study with her.  She brought Lunette with her every time she had a lesson.  She even went as far as dragging Lunette out of her bed in her family home, to bring her over to her house for lessons.  Savana’s family did not mind, as Lunette was pretty talented in the field of medicine.  Savana’s grandmother, one of the best healers in Miloa, accepted Lunette as her disciple.  Savana was also talented in medicine, but she had no interest in healing.  Her favorite subject to study was poisons and chemical reactions.  Many elders in her clan were flabbergasted by this and frequently admonished her.  

By the time she was 18, Savana was sick of their condemnation and decided to run away from home to study fields that interested her.  She was enrolled at the same Academy as Lunette and Trey, so she applied for external studies, and left a note for her parents and teacher.  She told them not to look for her as she was going to study all the herbs from around the world.  She went to Terra Town to mooch off Lunette when she ran out of funds in the middle of her travels.  When she learned that Lunette moved to her own place outside of Greene Village, she invited herself in immediately.  Before anyone realized it, she had built her own lab in the house and became a part of their adopted family.