Chapter Text
You follow behind Bonnie as they gather materials for cooking. “That one’s poisonous,” you clarify as you catch them looking at an odd-shaded mushroom.
They stiffen defensively. “I’m not going to use anything that I don’t know what is!! I was just curious.” They continue looking through plants and gathering edibles.
The party only agreed for them to wander out here with you around, and you’re taking your job seriously. You keep an eye out in all directions, which occasionally gets difficult with your low vantage point. Like right now. Luckily, you have a solution to that problem.
With a big jump, you hop up on top of their hat.
Suddenly their hand flies up and grabs you tight, which causes you to squeak a bit in surprise.
Immediately, they let go again. “CRAB, you gotta tell me if you’re gonna do that!! Thought a squirrel was trying to steal my food again…”
“Again???” you ask in bewilderment as you gather yourself. Their hat is a little squishy, it takes a moment for you to regain your balance.
“Yeah. Crabbing took my walnuts. Do you know how hard those are to get open?? I’m still crabbing mad.”
You nod, that’s fair. Walnuts really are a pain to get open. You carefully slide down to the front brim of their hat so that you can sit more comfortably. “That is nut a laughing matter.”
They stop in their tracks. “Bad.”
You lean your face down the brim so you’re looking them in the eyes. “Nut a fan of that one?”
Their face scrunches even further into a scowl. “BAD.”
You just smile.
With a forceful poke, they shove you back onto the brim of the hat where you can no longer make eye contact. Rude. (And hurt a little bit. You’ll live with a bruised nose. The pun was worth it.)
After roughly half an hour and many more puns (they threatened to chuck you into the woods at one point) the both of you make it back to camp a buttload of supplies richer. Bonnie is surprisingly efficient with resource gathering. (Don’t think about why. Don’t think about it.)
“Told you we woodn’t take long!”
Bonnie shakes you off their hat, which causes you to tumble with an undignified squawk.
“Boniface. Be gentle with them.” Odile scolds.
You’re getting real tired of them acting like you’re made of glass. “I’m fine, Odile. I can handle it. I am an adult too.”
She raises a brow. “A very small adult with delicate bones. Getting thrown around cannot be good for you.”
“How do you know how delicate my bones are? You haven’t broken them, I have. I know how strong my bones are,” you say, dusting yourself off.
Bonnie turns to you, looking a combination of guilty and grumpy. “I’m sorry I threw you. But no more crabbing puns!!” They point accusatorily.
“Or what?” you ask, smirk growing on your face.
They scowl once more. “You don’t wanna know.”
You raise your hands placatingly. “Alright, alright. I’ll try not to pun again. Even if they are… punderful.”
“… My revenge will be swift and absolupe.”
“Absolute, Boniface.”
“Absolute. Watch your back.” They point at you once more with a stink eye.
Your hands are still raised. You’re not sure how much they’re joking??? You are still trying to be silly. And your puns don’t hurt anything. You hope they aren’t genuinely mad at you.
Before long, dinner is being prepared. Sniffing the air, you try to guess what they’re making. Bonnie had insisted that they cook something for the group so that they could contribute. Everyone agreed, with the caveat that they be monitored as they cook. Wouldn’t want them to cut or burn themselves. So far, they seem to be shockingly good at it.
The notes you pick up on the air are a bit of mushroom, what you think is a cheesy smell, and something else. You’re not sure, a lot of these smells aren’t all that familiar.
“You had so much rice in here, this bag wasn’t even opened! Have you not been using it?” They say, stirring something in the pan.
Isa laughs awkwardly. “I, uh, kept burning it…”
Bonnie pours in some ingredients from another plate, smells like those were cooked already. Now the smells are all blending. Your mouth is watering.
They squint at him. “Were you putting in enough water?”
“… Maybe not?”
“Well that’s why, crabhead.”
Mirabelle gasps. “Bonnie! Language!!”
They shoot her an unimpressed look. “Nille says crab all the time. It’s not a big deal.”
“Nille?” Isa asks.
“My sister. She….” They stop stirring for a moment. “She got frozen. She told me to run.” Wiping their eyes with their arm, they get back to stirring with an intense scowl on their face. They hold the spatula just a little too tight and stir just a bit more aggressively.
There is a moment of silence amongst the group.
Once Bonnie sets the food to the side, done cooking, Mira steps up and holds one of their hands.
“We’re on this journey to defeat the King, Bonnie. Doing that will save your sister, and everyone else who’s frozen. I am going to do everything I can to get her and everyone else back, ok? I promise.”
Their face pinches a bit, and they tackle her in a hug. “You super promise?” Their voice is muffled against her dress.
Mira hugs back tight, her own expression a bit pinched. “I super promise. We’re going to work as hard as we can to get there.”
“Super duper promise?”
She huffs a little laugh. “I super duper promise.”
They nod into her dress, then shove her off and fold their arms like they weren’t just hugging her tight. “Are you all going to eat or crabbing what?”
Isa startles a bit, then gets up and serves himself a plate. You’re across camp a bit, but you stand on your tip toes (hard to do in your boots) to take a peek. Looks like some rice dish with mushrooms in it.
Bonnie sees you looking, then starts rifling through the bag contents. After a moment of seemingly fruitless effort, they stop and look to Isa.
“Where are Frin’s dishes?”
“Frin?” Mira tilts her head.
They point to you. “Frin.”
“Oh! Uhh…” Isa guiltily looks off to the side scratching the back of his neck.
“Are you telling me you didn’t get them any crabbing dishes?”
Odile clears her throat. “In our defense, I have not seen any around in his size, and I doubt they have either.”
Their brow scrunches in confusion. “You haven’t? They’re in the general store.”
Mira and Isa look to each other in confusion. Isa turns back to Bonnie. “I’ve never seen any? I mean, maybe I didn’t look hard enough, but I feel like I would have noticed that.”
“I concur. I have seen nothing of the sort in my time here.”
You should probably settle this. “It’s fine, just put it on a normal plate.”
Bonnie seems… dissatisfied with that.
They stand up, walk about two feet to the right, pluck an acorn off of a tree, and throw away the bottom bit. Which is a little wasteful, that’s good stuff. They pry off as much of the stem as they can, and then very carefully place the food within, getting one of the smaller pieces of mushroom to put on top.
They then hand you the acorn cap full of… food of some kind. It smells good!
You take a bite and… wow, Bonnie might be a way better cook than Isa or Mira. It’s got a bit of an earthy taste, as well as a tart cheesiness. It’s really, really good. You might need to sneak seconds.
“Wow!! That is really good Bonnie! How did you think to make mushroom risotto?” Ah, so that’s what it is.
They puff up proudly, then start explaining their thought process. “Well there was some parmesan in there, and a lot of rice that you weren’t using. Also me and Frin found good mushrooms in the woods!”
Mira stops mid bite and her eyes go wide. Oh, right. You were supposed to deliver that cheese to someone in the next town, weren’t you? Eh, well. You can always say you lost it along the way, or that it went bad.
Odile cuts Mira off before she can say anything. “Well, it’s delicious Boniface. You are quite talented.”
They swell even further. They put their hands on their hips. “Yeah!!! I am talented!!!” It isn’t long before they look to you and Mirabelle expectantly.
You have finished all of yours, but Mira hasn’t, so you try to buy her some time. “It’s good!”
They don’t seem the most satisfied with that answer? They nod, but they look at the ground a bit and tuck their hands behind their back.
Mira chews faster, holding up a finger to signal “I need a moment,” then swallows. “It’s very good Bonnie!! Some of the best I’ve ever had!”
Back to loud and proud. They punch the air “Yeah!!!” Then suddenly, they point at you. “You keep looking at it Frin. Do you want more?”
Your ears tuck, you’ve been put on the spot. Additionally, you thought you were more subtle than that. Your tail flicks a bit. You do want more. But is it impolite to say that? You’re not entirely confident. “Sure?”
They squint a bit at that, but take back the acorn cap to refill it. Giving you back the now full plate, they sit back and watch intently. You feel your ear flick against the inside of your hat. But, hunger wins over nervousness and you proceed to devour a second helping.
They seem pleased with that. They turn to Odile. “Dile, you need to get Frin some dishes and… upencils. Their hands are gross.”
Excuse you??? Your face heats up with embarrassment as you tuck your head down and brush your hands off on the tree stump beneath you. At least your hat shields you a bit from this ridicule.
Odile stifles a snort. “Utensils, Boniface. And yes, that probably would be best, the only issue is where we would find such small ones.”
“When we get to town again, I’m showing you where they are in the general store. They’re not that hard to find. I don’t know how you keep missing them.”
“So, Bonnie, you’ve seen fairies before?” Mirabelle pipes up.
“Fairies?” They look at her skeptically.
“You know! Like Siffrin!”
Once more, their face scrunches up. It’s as if they’re thinking really hard. “Uhm. Yeah?” They rub their head with a wince. “That’s not what they’re called though. I think it was wi… W…” Face pinched even further, they whisper out an “ow,” as they rub at their forehead. “Uh, but, yeah. They were around. I think. I feel like I’ve seen people like them before…?”
Isa raises his brows in surprise. “Really? I hadn’t seen any until Siffrin!”
“Yah. They had houses around Bambouche, and rooms in the hotels. The rooms were really small and had small furniture n stuff.”
Your own head hurts. But this is exciting news!! Now there’s two people who know what you are! And who have maybe seen other people like you??? Very exciting. Although. A part of you is scared to get your hopes up.
Probably best to stifle it a little bit. It’d be devastating to find out that’s wrong.
Your thoughts are interrupted when Bonnie suddenly shouts loudly, nearly causing you to fall off your stump in surprise. “OH!!!! THAT REMINDS ME!!!”
“Frin. I need to ask you a question. Nille told me it was a rude question but it’s really important.”
Uh???? “Uhm??? Sure???”
“Do you eat bugs.” They say this with intent seriousness, almost like a statement rather than a question.
“Uh, some of them?”
“And that’s not like. Gross?”
“No. I wouldn’t eat them if they were gross.”
They nod seriously. “Which bugs?”
You think for a moment. It’s kind of hard to gather all your thoughts when you’re put on the spot like this. “Well, crickets are good,” you see a hint of disgust cross their face before they deftly try to school it into neutrality, “and uh, ants?”
They nod, slowly and seriously. “… What do crickets taste like?”
You shrug. “Kinda nutty? They’re good.”
They nod again. “Hmm. I can work with that.”
“Please don’t,” Isa wheezes.
“I need to expand my palate!! I can’t be good at cooking if I don’t try new foods!!”
Mirabelle nods and stands up with determination. “It’s important to explore new things! I will try the cricket dish!!!”
Odile gives a skeptical look. “I would rather know the proper preparation methods before we jump into something like that. I don’t think any of us want to get a parasite.”
Isa shudders violently. “Uh. I’m gonna pass I think? No thanks.” He gives a weak smile
“One day. I will get you to eat a cricket.” They point at him.
“Please,” he wheezes, “have mercy!!”
“Hmm. Maybe. But only if you cook rice correctly next time.”
Isa chuckles, but it is a nervous thing. “I’ll try!!”