Leaf Balls

"That should be all I think you need to know. But if you have any questions feel free to ask either me, Josh or Samuel. Also, I recommend you order your alternative personal terminal soon. It takes a couple of days for it to be shipped."

Typing goodbye to each other, I closed the message window and focused my attention on the windows showing the alternative personal terminals.

"Tim told me to buy the alternative personal terminals soon, since they take a few days to ship. Have you finished researching?"

Asking Sazzy that, I canceled out two of the windows that I already decided I didn't want to buy.

[Yeah. I'm finished with a rough search of all the companies. And honestly, based on all that, the company Patricia recommended seems to have the highest rating reviews.]

We lined up our windows next to each other and discussed the pros and cons of all of them.

"If we go for the recommended company, we can most probably video and voice call Tim, Josh and Samuel. Since the three of them use this brand. What's more we have a lot of people to help us out when we encounter technical difficulties."

Looking between all the windows, Sazzy gave a small hum before she threw her hands up.

[It seems like buying from the recommended company is the best option. Since we have decided, we should buy it as soon as possible. The AT center can hold onto it for us if we take too long in Fluvius.]

I placed two versions of the personal terminal into the cart and immediately bought it. Then, closing all the unneeded windows, I pulled up the window of the security plan again.

"If we are choosing this brand, do you think it'll be better to buy their security plan as well? Since there may be a way to sync these together."

[For that, we can decide later. Just because the company has the best of one type of product doesn't mean you should get all their products. We should wait until we can get back to the house before we decide.]

Nodding my head as Sazzy warned me, I closed my personal terminal. I then crawled from where I was sitting over to the stove.

Talking and deciding which personal terminal to buy with Sazzy had taken longer than I had expected, and breakfast was long overdue.

"Sister, what are you cooking today? Also, is there anything I can do?"

Crawling beside me, Oliver spoke out in a very excited voice. And beneath that voice I think I could hear his stomach grumble.

"Today I was thinking of making some leaf balls. It's similar to the stuffed mushrooms we have before."

I took several berries and mushrooms. Then, chopping everything into little cubes, I asked Oliver to help me take out some of the leaves from a bag.

"First we chop everything up, then we soak the leaves in cold water."

While he was taking the leaves, I took a pot and filled it with water. Oliver then dumped the leaves into the pot. Then I took out a portable cover that was a part of the stove, covered the pot and pressed the cooling button.

"While waiting for the water and leaves to cool, we can make the filling of our leaf balls."

I pulled out my personal terminal and switched to the WonderFood blog.

"To make the filling, we mix the berries and the mushrooms together. Then, we take the red nuts we have and crush them into very small pieces. From these small pieces, we can grind them to extract all their nut juice which we can knead together with the rest of the ingredients. After we do all this, we can take out the cold leaves, roll the mixture into a ball and wrap it in the leaves. Then using a piece of rope or string to tie it together we boil the whole thing for half and hour."

After reading out the instructions, I grinded down the red nuts as Oliver used all his strength to mix the berries and mushrooms together.

Looking at him trying his best, I couldn't help feeling a little touched that he would come and join me in cooking.

Once we finished our parts, I lightly kneaded the ground nuts into the mixture before we took a palm full of it and proceeded to more thoroughly knead them. When we were finished kneading, we placed the balls on a plate nearby.

[The food looks delicious! I can't wait to eat it!]

Impatient, Sazzy approached us and helped us boil the water that we would need later. And when I turned my head to thank her, I could see the line of drool starting to leak out of her mouth.

[By the way, Ava might be gone for a couple of days. Something came up that she needs to attend to.]

Placing another ball onto the plate, I saw Sazzy reach out her hand to the mixture and join in the ball forming process.

[I've never had the chance to cook in the kitchen before, so this is such an interesting experience. And Oliver, I would like to apologize for the words I said when we first met.]

At the last sentence, I pretended I was deaf. Since this was probably a problem between the two of them.

A little awkward, Oliver nodded and accepted Sazzy's apology as the three of us finished kneading all the mixture. Then, after washing our hands, I turned off the cooling function of the stove and put the cover back into the stove body. Finally, I fished out the cold leaves and we wrapped our balls inside the leaves.

[Give me a second I'll go find the string!]

Leaving us two siblings, Sazzy ran to the front of the car and searched around for the strings that she had packed.

"So what do you think of Sazzy now?"

Watching her figure frantically search through the luggage in hunger, I smiled and saw Oliver have a slightly softer look towards Sazzy.

"She's a little dumb, but I think she's ok now."

I chuckled and the two of us smiled as Sazzy ran back towards us with the string. Tying the leaves tightly around the balls, we then dumped them into the boiling water and put on the lid.

"Now we wait for 30 minutes."

As I pulled up my personal terminal to look at the time, Sazzy reached over to press a couple of buttons and a timer appeared.

Seeing that, I closed my personal terminal.

"That's convenient!"

The three of us then sat on the seat backs and talked to each other as we waited for the food to cook.

"After we go to Fluvius, we will head towards the AT center. There, we need to collect our new alternate personal terminals. We will still keep these ones, but we can use the alternate ones for more confidential conversations. We can also call using them."

Briefly explaining about the alternative personal terminals, Oliver nodded his head as he heard about their benefits.

[If there is one disadvantage for alternative terminals, it is that they are not 'official' yet so they cannot be used for personal identification or to store UC.]

Sazzy explained as she pulled out the window of the alternative terminal.

Sending the link to Oliver's terminal, she then properly went through everything again for Oliver to understand.

"Then what about the security plan Ms Patricia suggested?"

When Sazzy reached the bottom of that page, Oliver naturally asked about the main reason we were searching for more secure options in the first place.

[That we will decide later. Since it's better to be able to go back to the house first before we decide.]

Reiterating that reason, Oliver gave a slight hum as he nodded his head.

Then, as if he was suddenly reminded of something, he pulled up his personal terminal.

"Kayla told me several details she overheard Ms Helen and Ms Patricia say about their security room, and I think they also use alternative personal terminals. She told me that once when she was younger she remembered they had given her a new personal terminal. She also saw her mother connecting that new personal terminal to the monitors in the security room."

Oliver showed his screen which was on chick asking about whether people connected their alternate personal terminals to their security systems. There was even a question answering this from the FAQ page of the company Patricia had recommended.

"This will probably be another reason why we might buy that security plan."

Sazzy pulled out her note page and noted another point in the advantages of buying Patricia's recommended security plan.

Seeing her detailed notes, Oliver craned his neck to get a closer look.

Seeing this, I gave a small chuckle before carrying him and sitting him on my lap. Sazzy also angled her screen for him to see the words clearer.

Face turning slightly red, he still focused his eyes on the notes and scanned over them. Then, towards several points, he asked Sazzy to clarify them and added his own opinions as well.

Ding!

Suddenly, I heard the timer go off and stood up. Setting Oliver down on my seat I walked over to the pot and scooped out the leaf balls.

While doing so, I felt slightly moved. Oliver was at an age where he was thinking and arguing for himself. Sure, with all the behind the scenes work that Ava and Oliver were doing, I knew he had already grown up. But seeing him take the initiative to involve himself in decisions surrounding our safety and home, it felt like only yesterday when I could see pure thoughtlessness in his eyes as our female legal guardian had dumped him into my arms.

Oh how fast he has grown.

Giving a small self-deprecating sigh as I felt time slipping through my fingers, I turned off the stove and brought the leaf balls over to the two of them.