Egg planet
Claire was shaken out of her reverie by Zayne.
" Claire ! Claire ! " he called her as he shook her.
" I am up ! I am up ! " she spoke just as his hands were picking up heat.
The place where he held her blistered immediately.
" I .. I .. " Zayne's emotions went out of control, along with it, fire started dancing everywhere.
" Zayne ! Look ! I am fine. I am fine. " She called out frantically, as she doused fires everywhere with waterballs.
They can't attract attention to themselves.
Even so, one of the fireballs half burned the load bearing pillar.
' Damn ' she thought as she heard the roof rumble precariously.
" It's alright. It's alright. See.. it's still standing. " Claire said, looking at the place where the roof collapsed a little.
The shifting of the pillar revealed a small opening in the wall.
She reached in, gently eased out the plastic cover put under the pillar. She cut away the plastic, retrieving the documents inside.
They are a series of maps, and blueprints of a lot of buildings. The maps are numbered, and the blueprints are also numbered.
The last page was a handwritten address of an orphanage, and adoption documents for a little girl. Claire's vision blurred as soon as she saw the little girl.
She saw it… the girl was in an underground cave … there was a giant lion, just about to enter the cave.
She could not tell where it was.
' Hide ' she screamed inside her head and the child's body moved involuntarily.
The child rushed to the boulder on the side, hiding behind a nook in the crevice. The lion could not insert its nose in, much less its paw.
' Stay safe. ' she prayed, as that is all she could do for the child.
She did not know the effect she had on the child at this moment.
' Mother ?! ' the child called into the darkness. However, the connection between both of them is already severed.
Claire opened her eyes from the vision to a worried looking Zayne.
" Let's leave first. We need to check up on the children. " She said, feeling uneasy.
This place, this country …This very location .. It has a strange impact on her.
It is said that earth has power spots where either dark energy or light energy gathers around. She felt this must be one of those powerspots with dark energy.
They packed all the important identity documents and cash, then walked out of the house. Claire activated Mirror eyes as soon as she walked out of the house.
The mana concentration in the air is high, only, it is all ice mana. It brought back all her bad memories with the cold. Claire forced down the feeling of melancholy creeping up on her, walked forward resolutely.
Soon, they reached the village dungeon.
It houses a long horned beetle. It spawned and reset daily. Claire and Zayne walked in. Just their luck, as soon as they walked in, the insects started pouring out of the wooden log in the center.
She floated up immediately, and Zayne, who had a bad day thus far, burned the entire dungeon down including the log.
The series of lights all flew to Claire. The log dropped a wooden ring, with a longhorn beetle's emblem on it.
She nabbed the ring in one swoop, with the other she held Zayne's hand, and teleported into the slime dungeon.
It's only then that she felt at ease.
" Here. Take it. " She offered the ring to Zayne.
Zayne shook his head.
" You keep it. " he told her.
She shook her head.
" Dungeon rings are honors, Zayne. If the person who gets the dungeon must wear them for the best effect. " she convinced him.
Zayne shook his head.
" You keep it. " Zayne repeated.
Sometimes, she wondered if he was three !
Claire opened her mouth to refute him. Zayne intercepted her.
" Yours ! " his voice brooked no disagreement.
She did not particularly like it. Never mind. Since he is that adamant about it, she will just give it to Brea.
The children woke up long ago, and were roaming around the house.
" Well done, Brea. Settle down. We are making pancakes today. " She announced.
" Pan cakes, Pan cakes ! " the children started chanting.
What she decided to do was a special pancake, called emperor's mess or kaiserschmarrn. It's really a mess, If one were to do it without superpowers. First she has to make meringue, then she has to fold the cake base mixture into this meringue without losing the air. If she mixes too fast, the pancakes deflate, if she mixes too slow, the eggs solidify… it's finicky in many ways.
On top of this, if you flip with too much force, the pancake splatters . If you flip with too little force, its weight won't lift up, and it will break up, because the crispy layer on bottom will be too thin. People eat it anyhow, but today, after the excitement day of yesterday, she needs an uplifting and luxurious breakfast.
However, she focused her all on making the pancakes.
Zayne freshened up and joined them, watching this magic show of making a pancake. The pancake was gently lifted in the air, flipped with perfect precision, and then landed in the pan at a perfect location.
Once it's done, the pancake lifted off the pan, splitting by itself into little triangles, which all turned this side and that, so the powdered sugar could get on them.
It divided itself into five plates, and all five plates flew to the table at the same time.
Zayne was still watching in rapture, while the children jumped off and occupied the places in front of the plates faster than Usain bolt.
He was still looking at the pancakes in awe, while the children all finished their part of the pancakes in rapture.
" Sister, can we have more ? " They asked pitifully, but she shook her head.
While the pancake itself is healthy, the amount of sugar they eat it with is not. So, the next part of the breakfast, that is if they are still hungry, will only ever be savory.
" It's egg and toast if you are still hungry. You can also have fish, veggies or soup. " she added.
The children wilted, their little faces looking like the most wronged souls in the universe.
The sight only made her more happy.
She only ever read about children preferring desserts over other food in the books. That children in their home argue for desserts should mean she is raising the children with the same standard as a pre-apocalyptic home, correct ? … doesn't this mean they are living as luxuriously as the rich in the base ?
" So, seconds ? " She asked happily.
All of them raised their hands. She made sourdough bread last night. Since they are okay with toast, she will make egg sandwiches.
At that moment, the bread rose into the air. It split into perfect slices in the air, without a single breadcrumb falling from them. They were sliced using a space blade, the size of a ruler.
On the other side, the practice bronze pellets she made for Robin flew up , cracking the eggs. The liquid swirled in the air, as salt, chives and other things got added to it in the air.
A small circle of fire swirled around the eggy planet, while on the other side, butter flew up, dabbing itself on the toast like makeup foundation. The eggs automatically broke into pieces, but none fell to the ground. The buttered toasts then lined up on the outside of the ring of fire circling the egg planet, toasting themselves nicely.
Another ring of fire appeared on the outside of bread slices, toasting them on both sides.
The children's eyes were as big as saucers, even Zayne watched with concentration. It is the first time in his life he is seeing someone who uses their supernatural abilities this way.
Now that all of them have supernatural powers, despite not saying it, they know exactly how hard this operation is.
Just as the right time, the rings of fire vanished, the scrambled eggs divided into six portions, nicely sandwiched between two slices, and settled on the plates of the children.
Brea looked determinedly at the sandwich on her plate.
" I have decided what I want to do in the future. " She said.
The entire table looked at her.
" What ? " Claire asked curiously.
She had never had a plan for her future, in the past life or now. She just wants to live on going with the flow.
" I am going to become my sister. " Brea said with utter total conviction in her voice.
Claire's elbow slipped on the table ! Just what sort of expression is this ? Moreover, the show she puts on looks grand, but she is powerless if a disaster involves more than one person.
She was frightened to her core when Zayne went out of control with fire. She put it down with water, but barely. One more fire, the house in 89 would have burned to ashes.