64 Day 1 Completed.
The gang looked at the meat in the dish, it was small and golden brown in color. It wasn't completely flat but curved up a bit and it had an aroma like no other from the meat they had just eaten from Edith and Vito.
"And what is this?" Edith asked first as she went past Cyrus and Dawn to look at Boone's food.
"It is steak!" Boone declared.
"It's curved and not flat and it looks a little golden instead of dark brown. Are you telling me that you barbequed this and it came out looking like THIS?" Edith raised her brow as she asked this.
"I did what I do best, you see I tend to do the cooking around here and so I just put in the same effort that I do for my family for y'all since y'all are helping us to get through this situation and all," Boone answered as he offered her a piece.
Edith looked hesitantly at the food, it looked better than hers despite being curved but she was still reluctant that these people who seemed to her no talent would be capable of making food better than hers.
She continued staring at the food as she hummed to herself lowly, thinking about whether to taste it or not. It wasn't until a hand tried to reach out from beside her that she smacked it away and got out of her trance. The hand belonged to Terra.
"Fine, I'll try the 'Steak' that you've made," she said.
She took a bite of the meat and after chewing it once, she walked away from the group and went into the words as quickly as she could.
"What was that about?" Terra asked.
Vito shrugged and went to try the food, two bites in, and his eyes were gleaming with satisfaction. "Guys you have to try this stuff now!" he said.
All the boys went in to take a piece of meat and they were all left impressed at the delivery of flavor that this barbeque had provided for them.
"How did you do it?" Vito asked.
"Heh, by my boots, wouldn't you like to know?" Boone smiled.
Hearing the word boots Vito frowned and said, "No not anymore."
"Oh come on, it's just how I express myself don't walk away," Boone said as he stopped Vito from leaving. "You see the secret to this formula is-"
"Lemons," Cyrus answered. "You put in a lot of lemons, I can taste it quite well."
Boone felt bad and a tad annoyed that he was so rudely interrupted but he got over it quickly as he said, "It's not just the lemons, but how I use it."
"You see before I left to go change my clothes, me and family cut up some lemons and marinated the steak in it. We then left to go dress ourselves," he said as his family members posed behind him feeling fabulous from their new clothes. It was the first time for them to dress so nicely.
"Coming back to the scene, we cut up the steak to make it smaller and easier to roast, this is also what fancy restaurants do to make you order more pizza, they make their dough extra thin," he whispered that last part.
"Making it smaller also allowed me to catch up with Edith and Vito who had a head start," he proudly announced with a smile. "And now for the important part, once I let the lemon sink in, it was easier to add the spices now because they wouldn't just stay on top, but go to the very center of the now soft and deluxe meat."
"Two bites is all it takes for all that flavor and juice to fill your mouth, and this could only be done thanks to that fine lady over there who provided all these ingredients," Boone finished as he gave gratitude to Minty for allowing him to work his magic.
The boys were left impressed, Boone truly had a skill for this type of thing and could even have the talent to become a good cook in the future.
"Heh, and you say you have no talent," Cyrus chuckled with a piece of meat in his mouth, "This seems like talent to me."
Boone smiled in this regard as his two family members came to hype him up, "That's our Boone! The best cook in all of Aussie! Ain't no one better than him here!" The girl said. "Yep this is my cousin who I'd even call my brother, I reckon that he's the best of the best!" Beau said.
"Aww shucks, thank y'all, but y'all know the problem with this here cooking industry. There's too many people out there trying to make money off of this, it'd be impossible to compete with those that have real experience," Boone said.
The gang saw that they were subconsciously reverting back to their gibberish impression of a southern accent and so they nodded among themselves that one of them should speak up before they continue with it again.
"Why don't you try putting this out on the street for starters?" Terra asked holding a piece of steak on a stick like a kebab.
"You mean like one of those street food vendors?" Boone asked, "I'm telling you, the competition is too fierce even for that."
"Well, the competition is too fierce because nobody knows you right? There are a lot of people who start but don't put in enough effort to advance to the next step but are still well-to-do in business. Right?" Terra asked.
"Then just do what they do but with more effort, get known well enough that you advance to the next step. Free samples for example, like the ones you made for us. If you do that for long enough, people are bound to find out how good you are at cooking and begin flocking to your restaurant like birds."
Boone was appalled, he had never even considered the idea of actually trying to succeed at what he was good at. If he just started and perhaps drawn up some ideas, then maybe they wouldn't have had to be doing odd jobs in the first place.
"Thank you! Thank you!" he said as he got on his knees pulling and tagging on Terra's trousers.
"Woah," Terra yelled as he was pushed back a bit and was trying to peel the man off of him without having to drop his steak.
Vito laughed seeing this.
"I just voiced my opinion," Terra said. "You don't have to cry about it."
As they were making a scene, Edith walked back into the area and went past everyone else as quickly as she could without being noticed. Only Cyrus saw what she was up to, but he didn't bother stopping her.
The next thing the people knew, they heard the sound of a plate dropping, and when they looked to see who it was, they saw Edith munching on the remaining samples.
"Nooo!" Dawn yelled so passionately that even Cyrus was left stunned.
"Boone, I admit... Your cooking is better than mine. Please teach me his sorcery of yours," she asked humbly.
Boone was surprised to hear this but smiled and said, "I accept."
"Yay!" Cyrus replied sarcastically, "Edith you finished our food. What now?"
"Oh don't blame me, you know these were just samples. Boone, you are the main chef now, can we get started on making the main dish together now? Please?" Edith asked as she was eager to learn.
"Of course," Boone answered enthusiastically. "And would anybody else like to learn?" he asked as he looked around. Slowly but surely, everyone was making their way to him to see how he did it. It was an experience that they wanted to have.
"Great! Wonderful!" Boone said that he was extremely happy to be appreciated for his skill, "Luckily we have more than steak, we have eggs, bacon, and apple juice! Let's turn this into a full-course meal!" he announced as they all began cooking.
Minty watched from the side as she smiled and saw how happy they were right now. Her smile would flicker and become a frown every time she looked at Terra but she would always try to keep it up again.
"For his sake, I hope he won't change who he is once he leaves," she whispered near a tree as the wind blew in her ear.
"And I hope he won't lose his smile."
3 hours later after everyone was well rested from having breakfast and eating well, Minty came to announce to them all, "Everyone up, it is time to start planting trees again," she said.
There were some groans from the gang but no complaints. They all stood up except for the culprits who burnt down the forest.
"You as well," she said to them, "Burning this part of the forest was your doing and hence fixing it should be your responsibility, we are just here to help. Now grab a shovel," she said.
Hearing this Vito turned around, "Shovel? I hear?"
"Yes. For them. You five continue to use your hands," Minty replied.
Disappointed and making a face of a grunt, Vito kept going where he was going.
Everyone went to work, planting trees, left and right, cutting down dead trees and pulling out the stumps, as well as placing ash where they were as they transplanted the new seedlings there.
They spent a good 5 hours working together and putting in as much effort as possible in the hopes that the new trees would one day grow to be as great as the trees which came before them if not greater.
When Minty saw that the sun was hanging lowly she called everyone together and told them to stop saying that they had done enough for a day's worth of work.
Cyrus raised his brow and questioned why they were stopping now instead of working until the evening like they had done the last time and she dismissed this saying that after leaving them to sleep outside last night, she wanted them to be able to sleep in comfortable beds tonight to make up for it.
Edith was relieved to hear this as she would need to go check in with her father again just so he knows that she is alive.
When in reality the real reason that Minty had made them stop working early was because the paperwork and the delegation of the task to get the trio out of Australia had been given to her instead of another servant by Alex.
He told her that since she met with them first and that it was a request from none other than Terra himself, his successor, then there was no better person for the job. Sasha was there and she giggled from a corner as she watched her sister be given more work to do. Minty scowled at her but did nothing more and now here she was almost regretting her decisions thus far.
Though seeing how happy Terra was, she felt it was worth it in a way. This wasn't how she pictured it but they had finally ended their first day on a mission with her, she didn't count the other day because they were backtracked by a lot.
Since nothing out of the ordinary happened today, to her this was now officially the first day completed.
"Time to go home," she said as she pulled out a key and brought it near a tree.
The only girl in the group had her eye perked up as she wondered, 'Why bring a key to a forest? And why place it by a tree? Is she crazy?'
Then Minty stopped as she remembered that her guests were unaware of her unique transportation services. "Cyrus, Vito, Edith. If you don't mind," Minty asked without turning around.
No more words were needed for the three of them to know what to do, after all, you can't be a witness to something that you weren't conscious of experiencing.
