Chapter 21 Preparing

It has been a while since Miya and the others left town. The only light sources are the lights in the vehicles. The atmosphere is still quite gloomy without anyone even making a noise.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, Chrys' truck, to be precise, is quite cheerful, mainly because of Loki. Apparently, Loki snuck into Chrys' truck without Hela's notice. Miya was pretty sure she heard Chrys talking to Loki, but she couldn't make it out due to the sound of the vehicle.

After a while, Chrys let Loki onto the back part of the truck. It then began gnawing at the meat in the back. Hela tried to hop onto the other truck while it was moving, but Chrys' vehicle accelerated, making a considerable distance between them.

Loki kept on eating, to Hela's displeasure. since she couldn't do anything right now. She just sat in the passenger seat quietly.

Slowly, Chrys' truck began slowing down. It then turned towards the side of the road while the others followed.

At first, Miya thought that there was something in front of them that they were avoiding, but suddenly Miya's stomach grumbled.

"Oh! I forgot that I haven't eaten since last evening. This is really bad for my body. " Miya said inwardly.

Chrys stopped his vehicle on the side of a big rock. V did the same, but on the other side, forming a sort of wall in the shape of a semi-circle. They all got off and began stretching their legs. Hela headed straight towards Chrys' vehicle, and tried to catch Loki, but to no avail.

"Why are we stopping? We could have just swapped drivers. Ah!I could drive. " Rose broke the silence with a question.

"No, unless you want to sleep in a moving vehicle with bumpy roads, be my guest." Chrys replied, as he yawned.

Rose's face then formed a pout due to the fact that her idea got shot down.

"Alright, let's start a fire so we can make dinner. I'm getting skinny over here. "

"Then get going on it. A fire isn't going to light itself. " "Crys said to her."

"Hmph! Come on, girls. There should be some spare wood in our truck; help me out here. " "Lilly she said as she displayed a great deal of anger in her eyes.

The girls followed her towards the back of the truck, and helped out with carrying the materials. Lilly then grabbed a small metal container from one of the bags in the truck and opened it.

The moment she opened it, a fire emerged from within it. Miya looked at it with shock, but the others didn't seem to be surprised.

"Why do you look so surprised, Miya?" Rose asked, who stood beside Miya?

"Huh? Oh, it's just that I saw that metal container make a fire. " Miya said.

"Umm, wait, you haven't seen a lighter before." Rose asked her.

"Lighter?" Miya answered with another question.

You really don't know, huh? You know what, come with me, Miya? " Rose said as she grabbed Miya's hand and led her towards Lilly, who was kneeling over a pile of wood.

"Wait, Lady Lilly!" Rose shouted, which forced Lilly to stop what she was doing.

"Lady... Lilly?" Lilly formed a shocked face while still holding the lighter in her hand.

"Lady Lilly, you see, Miya over here was born under a rock, and so she doesn't know what a lighter is." So I hoped that maybe we could teach her what it does. " Rose said in a very formal manner, It's almost creepy coming from her.

"Uh-huh?... Oh! Sorry! " Lilly said before clearing her throat.

"I shall entertain your request." Lilly said, in a very formal way.

"Why are you guys talking weirdly?" V suddenly interjected. He has a look of disgust on his face.

Lilly's face flushed a bright shade of red before grabbing a stick from the wood pile, which she then threw towards V.

"Hey!..." Oh, don't worry, it missed anyway. " V said as the stick flew right by him, laughing at Lilly mockingly.

"Grr!" Miss Lilly gnashed her teeth together while looking at V with the eyes of a beast.

"What's going on here?" Chrys emerged from the back of the other truck, the one he was driving. He has Loki and Hela on both of his separate hands.

Hela and Loki looked at each other like two beasts fighting over a prey, with only Chrys preventing them from reaching each other.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it." These two are already enough.

"Lilly, start the fire and cook for these two and... how long do you plan to look like that?"

"Huh? Oh!I forgot. " "Miss Lilly," she said as if realizing something.

"Ha!" V let out a laugh before walking away.

Lilly's black hair turned into a white paper-like material which then merged with her coat. Her hair was now a pure white color.

"Oh yeah, Her hair is normally white. I forgot. " Miya said to herself.

"Hurry..." Chrys said, while still keeping Hela and Loki away from each other.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Lilly replied before turning towards Rose and Miya.

"What are we talking about again, Rose? Oh, yeah. Miya, come over here! "

"Umm, yes, Miss Lilly!" Miya replied before running to Lilly's side.

"M-miss?" Lilly had a look of shock on her face. Lilly then shook her head before saying, "Okay, Miya." This is a lighter. "It makes fire by letting some flammable gas out and igniting it with a spark. Lilly then handed the lighter to Miya.

Okay, what you need to do is get it close to the tinder. You know what tinder is, right? "

"Umm, ye-yeah!" Miya answered. Miya slowly moved the lighter towards the tinder in the wood pile.

"Yes, very good. Now open it up. Just gently pull back the top. " Lilly said. Lilly made a gesture of her opening the lighter. Miya did the same and opened it.

Miya did as she said, and the moment she fully opened it, there was a spark. A few moments later, that spark became a fire. Miya almost lost hold of it due to the heat, but she kept herself from doing so.

"Good, now light up the tinder with it."

Miya gently guided the flame towards the tinder, covering it with her other hand to protect it from the wind. The moment the flame touched the tinder, the flame immediately jumped to it.

"I did it!" Miya said, under her breath.

"Yes, you did." Good job! " Miss Lilly praised Miya.

"Hehehe, that's right. Good job, Miya." Rose said from behind.

"Alright, now that's done with. We can get to cooking. " Lilly said, turning her attention towards the fire.

"Umm, I could help." Miya said.

"You sure? You didn't know what a lighter was just a second ago. Do you even know how to cook? " Lilly asked, looking very doubtful.

"Umm, yeah. I helped my mother prepare food quite often. Miya replied.

"Mmm, well. I see no harm in an extra pair of hands. " Lilly said to her.

"Oh! I could help too. I helped Amber make some food a while ago. Rose chimed in.

Speaking of which, hey, Amber! Do you want to help over here? " Rose shouted a moment later.

Amber, who was still inside the truck, turned to look at Rose with somewhat red eyes. "Huh, ma-maybe later, Rose." Amber replied, clearly looking down.

"Amber has been really down for quite a while now. I hope she gets better soon. "Maybe dinner will cheer her up a bit. Miya said to herself.

"Hey, Goldie!!" 'Lilly called out.

"What?" Chrys replied. He has been trying to separate Loki and Hela all this time.

"We don't have a pot."

"Can't you just roast meat over the fire?"

"We can't just keep on having roasted meat on a stick every time!"

Well, I don't think anyone here would react badly to a bit of roasted meat. Especially these two. " "Chrys he said as he shook both Loki and Hela.

"Loki... well, it's fine with anything, but Hela still needs more than just meat." Lilly argued.

"Fine, you have a point." "Chrys he said before turning his gaze towards Loki and Hela.

"Listen, if you don't stop hitting each other.I'll give both of your shares to... Chrys looked around for a moment before continuing. "Ammber."

He then let both of them go. Hela landed on all fours with Loki on her back. Both of them stared at Amber with wariness. Amber, who was still looking down, couldn't help but flinch at their combined gaze.

Chrys touched the ground, causing it to ripple. A few seconds later, water came up from the ground, making a puddle. The ground sank a bit, making a sort of basin for the water.

The mud that formed due to the water floated and turned into a big mud pot. It quickly hardened and dried. Chrys picked it up and handed it to Lilly.

"There, you happy?" Chrys asked.

"Hmph! Make me a bigger pot since it would take a long time to make enough to feed Loki and Hela. "

Chrys looked calm yet agitated, but he still did it anyway. He made a larger pot, like she said. Chrys also made a mud holder over the fire to hold the pot in place.

"Thank you!Miya, could you get some of those dried vegetables on the truck? I think I saw them in one of the boxes underneath the seats. "

"Uh, yep, I-I could do that." Miya responded by running towards one of the trucks.

"Thanks, "Rose, could you please fill this pot with water from over there?" Lilly then asked nicely.

"Sure thing, Madam!" Rose said as she threw a salute. She grabbed the pot and ran towards the puddle of clean water.

"Eh? Madam?"

Lilly shook her head before heading towards the other truck. When Miya got back from getting the dried vegetables, Lilly was already chopping up the meat with a knife.

"Umm, here's the vegetables." Miya said, offering Lilly the dried vegetables.

"Huh? Oh, those still need to be washed before getting cut. You could wash them over there. " Lilly said as she pointed towards the puddle Chrys had made.

Rose was already there, filling up the pot. Miya walked over to her.

"Umm, could I, umm..."

"Hmm? Oh, sorry. I'll move over a bit. "

"Ah, thanks." Miya thanked her before she knelt down and began washing the vegetables.

"So, how are you feeling?" Rose asked, starting up a conversation with Miya.

"Huh? Umm, I'm fine. "

"You don't look and seem fine."

"Huh? What do you mean? "

"Kidding!"

"But still, you were crying your heart out just a couple of hours ago." Rose said, with genuine concern on her face.

"Umm, well I… umm…"

"Oh! You don't have to answer that if you don't want to it's just that-" Rose said as she waved her hands in front of her.

"You see, Amber... She... she had it pretty rough back there" Rose added, looking very serious.

"She really loved her father, since he was the only parent she knew. Her mother was gone before she could make a memory about her."

"I just want to help her, since I know how hard it's to not have a parent to depend on. So maybe you know how to umm… you know cheer her up?"

"Umm, but you have been with her longer than I have. You should know how to cheer her up, right?"

"Well, I can cheer her up just fine in a normal situation. It's just that... this is different. She just learned that she potentially lost her father, the only parent she had growing up."

"I... you see... I don't have experience with dealing… with familial issues."

"I just don't want to make it worse, because of my unfamiliarity to the subject in hand. So, maybe you could help me like how I helped you earlier?" Rose asked, finally making it to her point.

"Uh, okay, but I don't think I-I could help that much." Miya replied.

"You don't have to worry, we only need to make Amber happy, okay?"

"Uh, yeah, no worries." Miya said to Rose, but it's seems more directed at herself.

"Okay, well, it looks like we're both done with our task. Let's head back." Rose said, picking up the pot full of water.

"Y-yeah…" And with that, Miya gathered the cleaned vegetables and headed back with Rose.