5 Dysgeusia

The sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly. As the ray of light passed through the white curtain, it landed on the closed eyelids of a girl with long jet black hair making the girl wake up.

She felt hot and itchy enough to move to the other side of her bed, away from the sunlight. Her long eyelashes moved along as she took a breath and opened her eyes.

'That's why I still think that black curtains are better.' the girl grumbled in her mind and sat up in her bed. Lazily, she grabbed the blanket which was covering her legs and started to fold it while sitting on the bed.

After her blanket was done, she rearranged the pillows that were definitely not in the position as the last time she saw them before she went to sleep.

After she got out of her bed, the first thing she saw was her cute white fluffy slippers with bunny ears on the floor beside her bed. It was one of the stuff that Anna bought for her online. Ella wore them and walked her way out of her bedroom.

As she closed her door, she turned her head to face the staircases. It was the thing she hated the most in her whole house. It was a beautiful stair made of glasses that were said to be able to withstand more than some weight which she didn't understand.

She didn't hate it because of the design, it just felt scary to walk on it and she had to use it every day to get to the kitchen. No matter how the architecture put words to guarantee the durability it, wasn't it made of glass? And glasses can break!

She walked through the glass staircases quickly like she did every day and arrived at the entrance of the kitchen. She could see Anna preparing breakfast by herself.

Ella stood at the entrance quietly to watch her mother since she looks so pretty even though she was only wearing casual clothes. But her red hair tied in a messy bun finished her look perfectly.

Anna's crimson red eyes were gazing at the fish which she's slicing, it made its way to the place her daughter was within a few seconds.

The saying 'You can't hide from wind elementalists' must be true.

She noticed Ella's presence.

"Isn't it still early? Why didn't you sleep a little longer Luna darling?" Anna asked her daughter while putting away the knife in her hand.

"Morning mum," Ella greeted her with a smile and continued to answer her question with a giggle, "the sun's asking me to wake up, if mum wants your darling to sleep longer, mum should first change the curtains to black sunblock ones."

She told her mother knowing full well that she will be replied back with a slight scolding.

"No! Black is not perfect for you, darling in my eyes, for a baby's room like yours, and you should get more Vitamin D because your skin is as pale as a sick person's skin Luna" Anna frowned saying it.

She hit the mark though.

"Yes, yes, your wish is my command, mum"

They both laughed at their little exchange.

"Here's your favorite sashimi, the fish was caught only yesterday, incredibly fresh!" Anna commented proudly about the fish.

She put the plate that contains the sashimi in front of Ella along with the chopsticks.

Ella tried her best to hold a chopstick, but her little hands are still not very good at it.

She tasted a piece of sushi from the platter. It was chewed without a sound and swallowed.

"So...how's it?" Anna questioned her daughter with a concerned expression on her face.

Not wanting to let her down, Ella responded with a white lie "It's tasty."

However, it was caught immediately right after she told her.

"Are you sure?"

Anna inquired, looking at Ella with a doubtful expression on her face.

Ella tried to soothe her by saying, "It's the best among the sashimi I have ever eaten!"

"Thank Goodness, Luna!" As Anna heard her daughter's words, she felt relieved.

Anna has seen her daughter's lack of expression towards food since she was able to speak, except for sashimi.

The day Ella told her mother that all the food prepared by her tastes the same to her shocked the mother quite hard.

The only food she could taste a little differently being sashimi, Anna arranged a medical examination to find out what was wrong with her daughter.

After countless examinations, they found out that she had been suffering a symptom called dysgeusia, which was explained by the doctor as a partial loss of taste.

Even the water elementalists from the hospital couldn't cure her.

Starting from that day, Ella was confirmed to be able to only taste uncooked foods.

Even though she was allowed to eat raw food, Anna only allowed her to eat it just sometimes because raw foods contained tiny bacteria which won't die without the process of cooking.

As time passed, she became accustomed to the dull flavor of regular prepared foods as well.