The Black & White Saga

Chapter 6 - The g**g

Nebula and Sam were almost finished setting the bamboo to dry on the racks in the backyard.  By resting the bamboo at an angle, all the bamboo sap will flow out at the joint where it was cut.  The bamboo stalks they brought back had to be dried before they could be used, sold, or stored.  The bamboo sap they collected also had many uses.  Of course it was a delectable treat for pandas, but bamboo sap was also very good as components for medicine and beauty products.  

When they reached the bottom of the pile, there was only the stalk of red bamboo left on the patio.   Nebula and Sam looked at the red bamboo stalk that Gaia snuck a taste of in the bamboo forest.  They glanced at each other and shared a smile.

“Your daughter is just as gluttonous as you are,” laughed Nebula.

“Me?  No, she takes after you more,” chuckled Sam.

“Who was the one who ate that entire two layer fruit cake that Lunette brought back from Double Towers City last month, all by himself, in one sitting?” teased Nebula.

“Oh, I recall my missus taking many bites of that same cake while she was sitting next to me that day,” said Sam in a deep voice while narrowing his eyes.

“That was your babies eating,” Nebula said innocently, looking at Sam with big guileless eyes.  “Your babies are gluttons like you, even when they were still in my stomach.”

Sam enveloped Nebula in his arms and touched his forehead to hers, while looking into her eyes. “Is that so, hmmm?” he said softly.  “Does that mean no one is going to fight with me if I eat this single stalk of red bamboo all by myself?”

“You dare?!” Nebula exclaimed, staring angrily at Sam, while taking a couple of steps back.  “How could you even think about eating delicious treats without sharing with your wife?!”

“Hahahaha,” Sam laughed heartily.  “Who’s a glutton now?”

Nebula’s eyes widened in shock as she realized Sam was playing a trick on her.  “Hmph,” she pouted as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, and turned her back to him.  Suddenly, a large black furry paw reached out in front of her, holding a segment of red bamboo with its bark already peeled back.  Nebula looked in the direction of the black furry paw, and saw that Sam had already cut the red bamboo stalk into pieces, and sent her the first piece he peeled.  She looked at his face, and saw his big warm smile and his eyes full of love for her and their family.

“Oh my, oh my!  How romantic,” a bell like voice squealed behind them.  

“I know!  They are so in love,” a mellow voice chimed back.

“Hehehe,” giggled a tinkling voice.

Nebula and Sam turned around and saw a few pairs of translucent wings fluttering behind the rose bushes a short distance away from the patio.

“Shhhh!  They will hear you,” a low feminine voice said softly.  

The panda couple looked at each other speechlessly.  “We already know you are hiding behind the rose bushes,” Nebula sighed.  

Four wood spirits in charming tunics floated out from behind the rose bushes with jars in their arms, and landed in front of Sam and Nebula.

“It was’t our fault,” Lulu said in her bell like voice and smiled.

“Yeah.  We just happen to be passing by,” Delos added in his mellow voice with a grin.

“We were collecting nectar for dinner!” Sue declared in her tinkling voice with a laugh.

“Um, guys I think this is the part where we are supposed to apologize,” Cierra suggested in her low feminine voice, but she also had a small smile on her face.  The four of them looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“Ugh… you wood spirits,” sighed Sam mirthfully with a roll of his eyes.  “Shoo, shoo.  Go collect your nectar.  Don’t you know that those who interrupt loving couples will have bad luck?”

The four wood spirits burst out laughing again, this time with Nebula joining them.  

“Ladies, how are the flowers today?” kindly asked Nebula.

“Ahem!” Delos cleared his throat.

“I mean ladies and Delos,” Nebula corrected with a giggle.  Delos shifted his wings, puffed out his chest, and put his arms on his hips to exaggerate his sense of presence.

The other three wood spirits rolled their eyes, and thought, “is there really a difference?”

“The snowdrops and star magnolias are blooming beautifully,” Lulu said.  “The magnolias smell so wonderful!”

“The aconites are so pretty!” Sue shouted.

“Don’t forget the gorgeous crocus and bluebells.  They are all thriving,” Delos added.

“The witch hazel is doing well, and smells delightful,” Cierra chimed in.  “We have go finish collecting nectar now, or we won’t have dinner.”

“Tell Lunette that Micah will be bringing the tomatoes and cucumbers,” said Sue, as the four wood spirits picked up their jars and flitted back into the flower garden again.

“They have so much energy,” sighed Nebula, as they watch the four little figures disappear into the garden.  Sam just shook his head and turned his attention back to the red bamboo.

“There’s only one stalk of red bamboo.  We must have cut it accidentally when we went to get the green bamboo in the forest.  Since we can’t mix it with the green bamboo we harvested today, we might as well enjoy it,” said Sam with a shrug, and offered the peeled bamboo to his wife again.  Nebula took the bamboo Sam presented, and bit into it with a big grin.  The two of them enjoyed the rest of the red bamboo stalk together, before moving on to take care of the green bamboo segments they cut off earlier.

Unlike Lunette, Sam and Nebula only had minor affinities with the wind and water elements, so the closer they were to the source of the element, the easier it was for them to use magic from those elements.  Sam had a minor affinity with the wind element, and Nebula had a minor affinity with the water and earth elements.  They moved the baskets of bamboo chunks closer to the well to make it easier to clean them.  The bamboo segments they cut off from the bottom of the bamboo stalks were close to the roots, so many of them contained dirt and dust.  After spending so many years with Lunette and the elves, the two pandas picked up their hygienic habits.  They started washing their food before consuming them.  Nebula moved the water from the well with her spirt power to wash the bamboo segments.  Then Sam called the wind with his spirit power to dry them off quickly.  When they were finished, they placed the baskets of bamboo chunks on a shelf in the dinning room.

The two pandas walked into the living room, where a daytime crib was set up for their twin panda cubs.  As they got closer to the crib they saw two fuzzy pink balls huddling together in a silly manner.  Not far from the crib, Lunette was curled up in one of the window seats with a pillow and a book.  She looked up from the page she was reading when the panda parents came into the room.

After Lunette finished making dinner, she went to the living room to check on Skye and Gaia.  She found that the two baby pandas had kicked off their blanket and cuddled together.  This was very adorable, but she was also trying too hard not to laugh out loud.  Gaia had her foot in Skye’s face, while her head was resting on Skye’s leg.  She also had one of her paws in her mouth, and occasionally drooled.  Skye had one arm draped over Gaia’s belly, while the other arm was wrapped around the leg that Gaia pushed toward his head.  Lunette smiled and gently separated them, before covering them again with the thin light blue blanket.  She went to the study to grab a book.  When she returned to the living room, the cubs had kicked away their blanket once again.  This time they were poised in another funny position.  Skye pushed one of his little arms against Gaia’s chin, and rested his head on her belly.  Gaia held on to his extended arm with one tiny paw, and grabbed one of his ears with her other paw.  Lunette gently separated them again, and headed toward the window seat with her book.  As soon as she sat down, the cubs kicked away the blanket again, and shifted into another position.  If she didn’t know they were truly asleep, she would have thought the twins were messing with her.  She gave up at this point, and left the cubs alone in their crib.  She lit the fire place to keep the room warm and cozy instead.

“I tried,” she shrugged to the two panda parents. “They kept kicking the blanket away and continued to a***e each other like that, no matter how many times I separated them.”

Nebula and Sam looked at each other helplessly in amusement.  Then Sam turned to Lunette with a mischievous spark in his eyes.  Lunette gave him a puzzled look when he extended his paw towards her.  Sam used his paws to make a notion of a rectangle around his eyes towards Lunette.  She grinned back mischievously, and handed the snapshot box from her space bracelet to Sam.  This magical device was an image capturing tool that used light magic to record a scene or an image, and preserved it for future viewing.  This tool was very popular across all of Arcadia.

Nebula shook her head at their quiet merry making.  “Oh, what the heck,” she thought.  Then she jumped in, and photobombed papa panda bear’s image capturing, while Lunette brought out props and decorations for the photoshoot.