Morning Soup

It wasn't long for the children to fall asleep. Warmth, safety, food, and shelter was the best thing for the children. Epione stared at the cute faces of the children, "Children are indeed adorable." A smile slowly ingrained itself onto her normally neutral face before she began to head out to the garden herself. She cast an illuminating spell which lit up a few steps in front of her before she began to look at the vegetables in the garden. It mostly springs seasonal vegetables that could be harvested or the occasional late winter seasonal vegetables. But, the children were coming out of a period of malnutrition so only light meals could be consumed for now. Epione began to pull the humongous leek out of the ground before moving on to the potatoes which were much easier and some cauliflower which had matured much earlier than expected.

As Epione was taking harvesting the vegetables to prep for the children's breakfast in the morning. This bountiful harvest could make a simple but delicious soup that was also nutritious without having the children's bodies readjust to normal food too fast. She went to a nearby stream where she cleaned the vegetables of any dirt or bugs that were on the vegetables so that the nearby marine life could eat them. It was a surprise to see other fairies or pixies surrounding her, especially at this time of day. Atomy or atomies are the smaller versions of fairies that had translucent bodies made of mana which meant that the magic environment in the forest was coming back to a stable level. After washing the vegetables, Epione went to prep the vegetables in the kitchen where she was trying to quietly prep the vegetables.

She began to prep by using the vegetable scraps that she had accumulated throughout the week to make some vegetable stock. Whilst that was simmering over the cooking pot, the vegetables for the soup also needed to be cut into smaller pieces so that the children could eat the vegetable easily. The children were soundly sleeping in the living room next to the fire unaffected by the noise that Epione was making from prepping for breakfast. It wasn't long for Epione to finish prepping everything before she was simmering the vegetables in the soup. However, there was some rustling at the cot in the living room where the baby was being to whine so Epione quickly when to check on the baby. But, it soon began to whine a bit louder which then caused Epione to lift the baby from the cot and carry it close to her body.

The baby soon began to settle down as it snuggled its head against her shoulder before sleeping so Epione took a large cloth to secure the child to her body whilst she cooked. But, all she need was to wait for the vegetable to soften down before storing it for the next day. The baby was settled down on her body so Epione took a seat on the couch so that she could sleep with the baby on her chest.

Morning soon came with the children waking up to watch the sleeping fairy holding the baby against her body, "Don't wake her up!" The eldest pulled the twins back as they were going to ask for food, "We can't be bothering her too much!" He went to the kitchen where there was a pot of leek soup which was cold now and was probably made for them to eat for breakfast. He went to find the bowls in the kitchen as quietly as possible with the help of the other older children who tried to balance him on his back. However, as soon as the door of the cupboard revealed cups they sighed in disappointment and quickly went to shift their position to the next cupboard over. That would surely cause the eldest boy to wobble and they all tumbled to the ground.

The baby on Epione soon began to cry out of hunger which woke up Epione who went to rock the child as she saw the scene of the children piled on top of each other with the cupboards in the kitchen all opened, "You should have woken me up if you're hungry." Epione when over to help the boys up before taking out 8 wooden bowls and handing them to the eldest children to set up on the table while she grabbed the spoons out of the drawer to hand to the two youngest children who when to placed the spoon next to each bowl. Epione when to carry the heavy pot of soup over to the cooking pot to reheat so that they could eat, "Go feed and milk the goat using some of the hay that the dryads made." She made the eldest boys milk and feed the goat outside whilst she went to prepare another pan so that she could cook some bread to dip into the soup and quickly fill them up.

She cooked a slice of bread and broke it into four-piece so that the youngest children could have something to eat whilst waiting for the soup to heat up. The boys quickly came back in with a bucket of milk which Epione when to heat up on another cooking pot where she began heating up the milk as well as straining it so that there was no goat hair being drunk by the children. She took some of the goat milk and poured it into the soup to make it more creamy. The rest was for the baby who was hungry for milk to which the eldest boy when to feed. The smell of the soup wafted in the air and Epione carried the pot to the table and the other older boy placed a cloth onto the table so that it wouldn't burn the table.

Epione spooned out a generous helping into the bowls of the children before handing each other a single piece of bread and placing an entire plate of bread next to the pot of soup in case anyone wanted more. The children were happily eating the food, however, the eldest boy was still feeding the baby so Epione began to spoon a mouthful of soup for the boy to eat while he was feeding the baby, "I can eat later after the baby is finished eating!" The boy shyly turned his head away which caused the rest of the children to giggle at the blushing boy whose ears were visibly getting redder by the second.

Epione held the spoon to the boy, "The soup will become cold." The boy eventually relented as he ate from the spoon that Epione was holding which continued until the baby was finished eating so the boy took over eating by himself Epione then gave the children another extra slice of bread. The children had a very full belly from the soup. Epione was happy to see that the eldest children were cleaning up the bowls so she went to the garden to see what they could eat for lunch and the other children followed suit. There were many vegetables in the garden that would be delicious to make into lunch but children needed a lot of nutrition to bring their weight back up to a healthy range. Epione knew that she had a stream nearby that could possibly have fish which was an easy source of food.

She went to make a makeshift fish rod before digging the ground for some worms for the bait. AS Epione went to find herself a comfortable spot on a rock that had some moss ground to cushion the rough surface. So she began to wrap the bait using some thread made from an Arachne spider which had incredibly strong magical threads. The children who followed Epione like baby ducklings patiently waited next to Epione watching her fish. It wasn't long till a fish was caught. The children cheered a the fish that was caught was a big and fat one. The dryad had commented that the fish that was caught was known for being easily digestible fish which was rich in protein and unsaturated fatty acids. Perfect for fattening up the children. It wasn't long till Epione when into the garden carrying the few fish that she did catch on her line ready to gut the fish.

But, again Epione was inexperienced on have to gut fish. She never had gutted a fish before. Today was the first time she ever fished so she was extremely lucky to be able to catch anything, "I can gut the fish for you." The other older child took a blade and grabbed the fish from her hands so that he could gut the fish. Epione watched the boy began to process of gutting the fish which was both fascinating and nauseating to Epione. After it was finished the boy put the fish into a bowl of water to cleaning out all the blood and keep it fresh until it was ready to be cooked.

Epione went to the garden and began picking at the lemons and made the younger children pick at the asparagus for lunch. Soon, everything was prepping and Epione began to slice the lemons, "Now that I think about it," Epione stopped in her tacks as she received the basket full of asparagus, "I don't know what your names are." She was also given a cast iron pan and a wooden lid by a nymph while requesting a similar parchment paper to use for cooking the fish on. She began to chuck everything into the pan to cook. For now, all they can do was wait until it finished cooking.

The eldest stood up carrying the baby in his arms, "I'm Wilhelm! This baby is my little sister and her name is Eloise!" He began making introductions for himself and he waited for the others to introduce themselves.

The second oldest who stood up, "I'm Vito while the twins are Aimee and Teo." He stared at the other two youngest who were fidgeting with their fingers, "The two younger ones are Imre and Jules." He introduced the other two who nodded as they answered to their names. That was the end of introduction for the children.

Epione stood up and dusted off her skirt, "I'm Epione." Thus this was the start of a small family in the Forest of Illusion who was unaware of the people trying to break through the protective forces of the High Fairy. Many people want to take the treasure of the now abundant forest of its resources however with the abundant resources meant that the protectors would become more stronger and harder to defeat to enter the forest. Even some familiar faces want to reunite with the unaware High Fairy.

A dryad sprouted from the ground while a nymph materialised itself before kneeling towards the High Fairy, "My Lady, the leyline is starting to weaken." They both were the ones that were monitoring the leylines around the clock so that if anything were to happen they would be able to notify Epione of any changes.

So, Epione went to fix the leylines which were still in major disrepair from the disappearance of High Fairies since the Magic War. Epione could only do some maintenance to aid the leyline to fix itself since leyline maintenance was one of the highest duty that is bestowed on High Fairies. This type of duty was an assigned through a mentor appointing a student to learn the arts. She never really learnt how to do leyline maintence magic but she was able to learn the basics by watching the leader when her mother tried to introduce her to the High Fairy society. However, it was evident that many members of the High Fairy society were wary so Epione who didn't seem to want to mingle with the rest of High Fairy Society. On the other hand, her mother's family decided to welcome her with open arms happy to bring the new girl to the family.

They were known to be quite intelligence among their peers being scholars or the library keepers but they were also eccentric for their thirst for knowledge outside of the magical realm. They hovered over Epione who was half human and half high fairy and examine everything about Epione's body. The shorter ear with was closer in shape to a humans compared to their elongated ears that somewhat drooped due to their length. Her wings were much thinner in terms of width compared to a normal High Fairy and were akin to dragonfly wings whereas a normal High Fairy was more in the shape of butterfly wings. The matriarch of the family, Epione's great grandmother, was the one who taught Epione the basics of leyline magic along with various other knowledge of other magical creatures and races.

The matriarch of the family was especially fond of Epione who was very much a sweet child who was very respectfully to those who were accepting of her. To other she was unfeeling and cold to those who weren't exactly friendly in terms of interacting with her. She had gifted Epione with a bunch of clothing for all the seasons which were all made of a beautiful textiles that were mainly used for ceremonial rituals. However, this family have had a long history so they had accumulated a mountain of beautiful ceremonial clothing that would be collecting dust from having no use. Lots of beautiful dresses and scarves that were appropriate for every day wear and more formal wear.

However, Epione did not have any occasion to wear the more sophisticated dresses since she had only arrived recently so there were no celebrations yet. But, there would soon be a time when the spring solstice where all magic folk would would welcome and bring forth the warmth of spring into the world.