A nice stew

" Wait what!? "

Ana yelled, looking at Ayami with her mouth wide open, as if the girl had just revealed the world's biggest secret

" I guess you confessed then? "

Elena said as Ayami simply blushed, placing her right hand above the back of her left, squeezing her knuckles tightly

" No. he did, and well— we "

Ayami stopped, covering her eyes as her face became completely red, embarrassed and not sure if she should tell the rest

" We kissed "

Shu said as he stood beside the girls eating on an apple with his left hand, whilst holding a sack made out of sanctuary energy with his right, which was packed with a boar and a lot of different spices

" You cant just say it like that! "

Ayami yelled covering the boy's lips with both her hands, pushing against his face with all the strength her now shaking body could muster

" But it's the truth "

Shu replied as he moved her hands away from his mouth, to then smile, pulling her arms, forcing her face to fall against his chest as he quickly planted a kiss on her forehead

" There, now everyone can see "

He added, smiling at her, as she simply looked up at him, proceeding to hug him tightly and hide her face against his chest

" Well—uh, anyway, let's eat, I'll cook "

The boy said as he held up the sack, causing everyone to raise their eyebrows in visible amazement, or rather, surprise at the fact that he was capable of cooking

" You can cook? "

Ana questioned to which the girls nodded, looking over at Shu who simply tilted his head, proceeding to smile as he moved Ayami to a side

" Yeah, grandpa taught me "

He replied, proceeding to grab the rock in which Ayami was sitting on proceeding to punch a hole in it, using his hands to spread the size of the whole, making a bowl out of the rock

" Here, hold this "

Shu said as he placed the rock on Yuyen's hands, proceeding to disappear in a blur of speed reappearing with a stack of wood on his hands and two other rocks.

He'd place the two rocks next to each other, throwing most of the wood in the middle seconds later

" Give me the bowl "

Shu ordered as Yuyen simply nodded, handing the rock over to him, which he then placed on top of the two other rocks he had placed on the ground

" Now to get some water! "

He yelled, running toward the nearest river, generating a bucket with his Sanctuary Energy, to later run back with it filled up with water

" Now all we have to do is put the water here.. "

He said as he filled the bowl with the water, not before cleaning it of course

" And to finish it up "

He said to himself whilst scraping two rocks together, causing sparks which he used to light up the wood underneath the bowl, in turn making the water boil

" Great! Now I can make the stew "

He added, smiling as he began to wait for the water to boil up a bit more

" Wait, you're going to make a stew? "

Elena questioned as she looked down at the boy who simply smiled whilst staring at the bowl

" Yes "

He replied, which confused Elena a bit, which caused her to question him further

" But, what about the vegetables, surely you won't just use meat "

Elena said to which the boy smiled, making her sigh, getting the answer she didn't want to get

" Anyway, while the water boils, we should take this time to prepare the ingredients. I'll chop up the boar, you girls turn these spices into powder "

The boy said as he pulled the boar out of the sack, proceeding to drop it on the ground, causing some spices to fall out

" See ya in a bit, I need to clean up the boar, and the river isn't very close, so, bye bye "

He said, disappearing in a blur of speed, leaving the girls and women alone

" Alright, let's divide the spices "

Ayami said as she pulled out the soon to be spices, which consisted of peppers, Onions, oregano and rosemary

" Where did he find all these? "

Yuyen questioned as Ayami simply sorted out the spices, giving the peppers to Elena, the onions to Ana, the oregano to Yuyen, whilst the rosemary, she kept to herself.

A few minutes went by and by then everyone was done with their tasks, which included Shu, who came back with bowl made out of Sanctuary Energy, and in side of it were the chopped up parts of the boar

" Everyone throw in the spices, I'll throw in the boar meet and these nice fish I found at the river "

The boy ordered as the girls simply nodded, throwing in the great amounts of spices inside of the bowl, causing it to change to brownish like color, to which Shu smiled and added in the meat

" Wow, it actually smells nice "

Ayami complimented, pulling in the aroma with her nose

" I haven't had any stew in a while, I'm looking forward to this one, even though it doesn't have all the ingredients "

Elena added, staring at the bowl which continues to boil up

" Well- to be fair, there are limited resources in this place, especially when it used to snow none stop, not much would grow, much worse in on of itself "

The boy replied, causing Elena to smile as she then petted the boy's head, messing up his already screwed up hair

" Well, while we wait, why don't we share some stories? "

Shu pointed it out, sharing his idea with now bored group, who with nothing else to do agreed to share a few stories.

Throughout the conversation, Shu and Ayami sat very close to each other, holding one another's hand whilst listening and sharing some stories, a few were made up, while the other few were simply stories that could make anyone chuckle.

After a while, the stew was complete, and Shu got up, forming smaller bowls with his sanctuary energy along with a ladle, which he used to serve everyone, including himself.