Pruned Trees Re-Sprout!! ~ Ragazza Volpe Magica ~

After the celebration of the Seven Heroes came to a close, the sun rose on a new day. Or at least the sky box within Sarayul's humble mountain abode illuminated with daytime blues, signaling the start of the ninth of August.

"Breakfast…" Taika groaned as they shuffled along to the kitchen. It was nice she was getting to stretch her culinary skills again after learning the ropes from Priscilla.

But the lethargy that accompanied the constant drain on her rhythm sucked, in no uncertain terms.

Regardless, she was sharpening her kitchen-based talents by the day. This place truly was a boot camp, wasn't it?

Today's breakfast was one Taika found on her tuner last night. As expected, the appliance needed for this was readily available in the kitchen.

"What are we making today, Taika?" Pacifica inquired through a yawn.

"Lyangao Waffles," replied the chef.

The prospect of their impending breakfast perked the otter right up. "Oooh, those are really good! What do we need to do?" Pacifica's tail was already swishing excitedly.

Taika and Pacifica wandered around the kitchen, Taika barking orders to her ottery assistant. Shouri and Rebecca stayed out of the way, watching the production unfold.

In all, they had gathered flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon, eggs, vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla.

"Sho!" Taika called out.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"Can you cut up some fruit for me?"

"What kind?"

"Whatever you want!"

Well, that was certainly an order. He shuffled over to the fridge and began browsing the selections of fruit on offer.

Rebecca yawned loudly and continued to watch from a stool she had planted her rear on.

A mess was made, but all the ingredients came together to form some airy, delicious waffles… after a couple of tries.

Yes, waffle makers, as Taika learned weren't as easy to use as they initially appeared. It took her three failed attempts to get the amount of batter right and then another two in order to get her timing down on when they were done.

Once she had those trial runs down, she could easily produce many waffles of excellent quality.

Next was decoration! A waffle on its own was tasty, but as she learned on her birthday, pairing it with delicious fruit and syrup was a match made in heaven.

When it was all said and done, Rebecca was handed a plate with a large waffle topped with fresh-cut fruits, a perimeter of whipped cream, and a small cup of syrup for the consumer to pour over it if they wished.

"Take that to Sarayul please," Taika requested of her fellow fox.

"Sure," Rebecca said. She stopped short of the plates and failed to suppress a yawn of her own. After a couple of blinks, she got herself into gear and scooped up the plate meant for their host.

Excusing herself from the kitchen, Rebecca wandered down the hallways finally making her way into the main chamber to give the Ethereal his morning offering.

"Oh, Lyangao Waffles, I haven't had these in quite a long time." Sarayul cracked a smile.

Rebecca sat and watched the nine-tailed Ethereal study his meal. Without thinking, she spoke, "What's it like?"

"Hm?" Sarayul glanced up from his dish.

She hadn't realized she spoke her thoughts. "Uh, being an Ethereal I guess," Rebecca said. "You used to be just a normal guy, right?" she further questioned.

A thin smile rose on the immortal's lips. "The dead should not lead the living," he spoke. "Though we may still guide those who seek our wisdom."

Rebecca hummed in thought. It was a strange aspect of their world, now that she was face-to-face with an Ethereal. A person who should have died gets immortality just because of their impact on the world or history.

"But who decides that?" Once more, Rebecca's inner monologue slipped out.

"That…" Sarayul trailed off for a moment, considering his choice of words. "Is knowledge not meant for the living," were the words he decided on.

Shockingly, Rebecca felt satisfied with that answer. "Yeah, that tracks." She smirked. "Would be pretty boring if everyone knew the cheat code to immortality," said the Renard with a shrug.

"Indeed it would, though it doesn't stop those desperate enough to try."

Taika returned to the training room she had been assigned to and found not only had the target been replaced in her absence, but the bead that had been stolen from her was waiting for her in the center of the room.

"Back to work I suppose," she said. She bent down to pick up the bead, but a thought occurred to her as her hand hovered over the obsidian pearl.

"Let's start there," she muttered to herself.

And so her training resumed once again. She focused on her rhythm, trying to push it out towards the bead. Rather than hopping up to her hand, all she managed to do was shoot little marble to the other side of the room.

Instead of frustration at yet another failure, the fox sighed, slumping to the ground. "What am I doing wrong?" she asked, resting her head in her hand.

No one answered her question though. Sarayul provided the training environment, but he was not holding her hand – she had to figure this out all on her own.

Her base instinct told her to brute force it. Keep trying until she found a way to make it work.

Somehow that felt wrong to her. Taika couldn't be sure, but there was a small voice in the very back of her mind that said this was not a power that could simply be forced to work. It required something. What that something was… well that was the root of the problem.

Then a spark of inspiration hit her: they literally had a book on lunar Resonators! She smacked herself on the forehead. It was so obvious, why didn't she think of it sooner?!

She rushed from the training room back to the bedroom. Thankfully everyone else was out training, so she could slip in without having to explain herself. She found their main clothes bag and tore it open, retrieving Chandra Nikini's Lunar Resonator Field Guide that they had purchased in Naiza.

Taika sat on the corner of the couch, flipping through the mass of information stored within the sacred texts. Finally, she found it: