บท 23: A Deserving Reward

Hana filled the rest of the water into the filter. Originally, each filter can support 1 liter of water each time totaling up to 2 liters per run. It will be good enough for daily consumption. Just barely.

However, due to her actions on cleansing the filter particle several times, she only had about one liter at hand. Even if her other filter was set, no water can be poured in unless she went out to fetch some from the stream. No way she's doing that in the middle of the night! She was dreaming that in the future if she can stock up a lot of water in the cave, she can even take a luxurious bath at the cave anytime instead, not just for drinking!!

She shrugged as reality hits. "Better than nothing right, Kuro."

Kuro peeked at Hana blankly, not understanding what it was about. Hana didn't explain and just smile while rubbing her pet's ruby.

Recently she has developed a habit of rubbing the little pet's head. She can't help it, the little one really knows to care for its elder's wellbeing and feelings.

Hana felt that she had made the best choice ever for adopting the little reptile.

She took note the time it took for the water to finish flowing through the filter; to know the time beforehand, she could calculate for the flow rate and can plan up a lot of things first without wasting time. When she knew the filtration rate slowed down significantly, she would know that she needed to replace her filter then. One just needed to calculate by dividing the amount of water poured in with the time used to know the amount of water dispensed per second as a basis (1).

Hana went over to observe her burning pannikin. The last step was to let it cool down gradually. After that, it needed to be immersed inside water overnight to prevent it from cracking easily when using on an open fire.

Hana got the tips from a claypot seller. Since then, no stone bowl or claypots she had broken from overheating or from large temperature difference. Well, some did break from being kicked by her cats. They even broke her precious Vision's glass cookware (2); the set gifted to her by her coursemates. She loved those so much for their sentimental values and still bore a grudge on her cats for that. On certain things, this aunty can be very petty!

Hana was feeling happy right now although she was tired. She planned to retire early today after fulfilling her promise to Kuro by making a nice dinner. Although the pots were not done yet, she still had the closed bamboo canister. It's the last one though.

Hana used the chisel and cut the closed bamboo opened into two symmetrical pieces. She planned to make some egg drop soup again on the side with a dish of scrambled eggs as thanks to the hardworking little snake.

She fetched the plastic bag containing the filtered clean water and poured into both opened half cylindrical 'bowl'. The bamboo bowls were already placed on top of two leveled rocks on the side. Fire was gently brewing at the bottom; Hana treated the unused bamboo strips from before like chopsticks and picked up some burning charcoal from the still-burning fire for the pots to make an instant smaller fireplace.

Using a discount card as a kitchen knife, she julienned the leftover garlic leaves and two sausages thinly. When the water in the bamboo bowls started to bubble, she placed in half of the ingredients in each bowl and a pinch of chicken stock cube and salt. This time, she opened a pack of instant noodle and break it in half. Half each. For the little ones' bowl, Hana broke the noodle into quarters so that it won't be too long before placing it in. She kept the seasoning and plastic aside.

While both bowl simmered slowly, Hana prepared the fire for her second dish. She collected some more still-burning charcoal and firewood and placed them at the side where she propped up the flower-shaped flat stone she used as a potter's wheel before horizontally.

Yep, it's not broken dear readers.

The stone had a slightly reddish sheen and the surface was actually glossy with thin brownish lines decorating the surfaces in the shapes of rugged waves. The edges even had a slightly translucent effect. It was quite peculiar. It reminded Hana of expensive premium ceramic wares.

Only someone like Hana won't notice the peculiarities. How can one "coincidentally" fetched premium ceramics from inside a river in the middle of the forest?

The first time she saw it, she knew she wanted it to be used as a tava, something like a circular flat hotplate. Being a potter's wheel was just treating it as a multi-purpose object. It even was slightly curved in. Hence, when the curved side faced up, anything cooked on top won't easily side off.

Hana lavishly broke four eggs into the instant noodle plastic wrapper. She then pumped in some milk and mix them well carefully. When she felt that the 'hotplate' was hot enough, she poured in the milk and egg mixture on to the pan-like hotplate, leaving a quarter of it for the egg drop soup. After that, Hana quickly julienned another piece of sausage and threw it into the puffing egg mixture.

Hana took a new set of bamboo strip and vigorously scrambled the puffing egg mixture until it was nearly done at the bottom but was still jiggly at the top. She lightly sprinkled a bit of salt on top and carried the whole hotplate down on to another set of stones she prepared earlier like a table. They were about one foot high.

The stone 'table' was comprised of several stones arranged closely together to support the flower-shaped flat hotplate and two bamboo cylindrical bowls.

When the food was done, Hana called Kuro and Shiro to join her.

Kuro leapt to the air and landed on her lap while Shiro ignored her. However, from its gaze, Hana knew it did wanted to eat.

"Be good and come over. If not, I will give all of it to Kuro if you're not hungry." Hana went over and tried to rub Shiro's head, but the fox evaded her touch.

Seeing Hana's sad expression, Kuro slithered to Shiro and dragged the poor fellow by its paw. The one that was not broken of course. Hana blanked out for a while and sweated.

[Erm..this little one is a bit extreme.]

Shiro reluctantly joined them after being forced by Kuro to that extent. It limped itself forward on its own to save the last bit of dignity it had and sat beside Hana, surprisingly. Hana was happy everyone in the family joined in.

As usual she told both of them to share the soup. They fought for it as Hana take her own sweet time drinking the warming soup.

[Ahhhh...good food defines good life...]

She started scooping the scrambled eggs studded with sausage pieces into her mouth.

[Mmmm...so soft and yummy...]

[Yet again, why do I feel that I've become a cannibalistic Holstein milking cow???(3)] Hana lamented. Just a day or so ago she vowed not to drink her own milk because she felt yucky drinking her own body fluid. Then again, not having access to dairy products really made her felt unwell; scramble eggs without milk really won't do. Why not just close one of her eyes (3) and pretended it came from a cow name 'Hana'.

When both Kuro and Shiro finished the soup with noodles, they eyed Hana scooping the scrambled eggs longingly.

Hana laughed. "I'm just waiting for you guys to finish up. I need the bowl back." She scooped a quarter of the eggs and placed it back.

"Eat up."

As Kuro wanted to jump in to join the eating frenzy, Hana stopped him and called him to her lap.

"Mommy's already full. Eat here. All of this is your reward." She rubbed his head and let him eat directly from the flower-shaped hotplate which has cooled down considerably.

Kuro looked at the yellow jiggly goo studded with sausage; Hana only touched a little bit. He was delighted and grateful.

It was so worth it.

Hana smiled and continued eating her unfinished noodle egg drop soup. She explained to Shiro why she rewarded Kuro to prevent it from having unpleasant feelings.

Kuro did good in increasing the household resources, thus he was rewarded. However, not doing anything doesn't mean she won't feed them. It will only lack incentives.

Without meritocracy and healthy competition, one cannot move forward in life. Such was Hana's ideal, which was handed down from her parents.

Hana wondered whether the fluffy white fox understood what she said. She knew it was still hurt so it can't go out. But it was unfair if she didn't reward the little snake for his hard work. She hoped that this will spur the cute fox into a healthy 'sibling rivalry' with the sweet little snake. She needed all the help that she could get.

Like that, the three unlikely family members finished up their dinner in a somewhat merry feeling.

Once Hana finished her dinner, she took some pictures and several amusing wefies for records. She giggled while browsing her smartphone's gallery. The normal family pictures had turned interesting since she came to this side of the world.

After Hana took a swig of plain water from her water bottle, she bid them good night and started to lie down and rest.

Kuro came in and snuggled at her bosom while Shiro returned to the opening of the cave, napping near it while guarding it at the same time.

She gently hummed a goodnight nursery rhymes she always sang to her baby as she drifted to sleep.

[Hmm..It seems like I've forgotten something. Whatever. I'll think about it tomorrow.]

Author's note:

(1) amount of water dispensed per second as a basis = this is a formula for flow rate. Volume (in liter) over time (in second). It's a legit formulae Mrs Mooncat always use during her uni years.

(2) Vision's glass cookware = An above average glass cookware brand, very sturdy, rarely breaks from heat. But if you throw it down of course it will shatter (laugh).

(3) close one of her eyes = (lit. translation: pejam sebelah mata) a Malaysian proverb which means, be flexible.

(4) Holstein milking cow = it's the cute Dalmatian black and white pattern dairy cow from the Dutch provinces that usually graces our milk carton box.