Chapter 1655: Underground Bath
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Aquarina yawned as she walked out of the bathroom after changing clothes and feeling more refreshed. She had indeed had a terrible dream, but after reconnecting with reality and the love of her parents, she felt a bit better, although rather sleepy, as she realized she ended up waking up earlier than usual at 9 AM, instead of the usual 1 PM.
However, perhaps what she needed more to kickstart the day was food, she walked out all hungry, meeting her friends along the way. Agua and Silvia had already woken up after the smell of something sweet being baked in the kitchen, greeting Aquarina as both were going to take a bath as well.
"Aquarina! You woke up earlier too?!" Silvia wondered. "What's that sweet smell?"
"Mom and dad are making cream puffs…" Aquarina said. "I guess you've never tasted them, huh?"
"What are they like?" Agua wondered.
"They're small, sweet doughs with cream inside," Aquarina explained. "There are various methods to make them, some are fried and others baked. Dad's doing both I think."
"Ohh, dough, huh?" Agua wondered. "Like the bread that they sometimes bring here? How do they even make that?"
"It's made using wheat, usually," Aquarina explained. "It's mostly a preferred food for humans and dwarves I think? And I kind of like it too."
"Is it? But it's so hard…" Agua said.
"Hard? I guess you've only eaten the ones that had traveled through days of desert…" Aquarina giggled. "Nah, bread is soft, warm, and yummy! It can make all the sandwiches you want!"
"Oooh!" Agua was surprised.
"We sometimes have bread back home but yeah it's not the softest," Silvia said. "We can't grow wheat in the desert, and not even magic can help grow that here, so we usually eat it rarely… Let alone their sweet varieties!"
"Interesting, I want cream puffs now…" Agua was rather excited.
"You'll get some!" I giggled. "I'll go tell dad to make more, just go take a bath."
"Alright then, let's go Agua!" Silvia grabbed Agua's hand.
"A-Aah! Wait Silvia don't drag me…!" Agua cried.
As they walked downstairs, Aquarina quickly remembered something, walkng back to the girls.
"Ah right! Don't forget that today we're going to evolve your two Physiques, girls! So get ready for that at least! Okay?" She asked.
"S-Sure!" Agua said.
"Okaaay!" Silvia was happy.
After that, Aquarina walked back to the big kitchen, where she found her parents cooking. It seemed they were making a lot of fish, Aquarina's favorite seafood. Indeed, although she enjoyed lobsters, crabs, clams, and other little critters, the one she loved the most was always fish!
The reason was quite simple, as a girl born in the Amazonian Jungles where her tribe thrived for centuries, she grew up eating the delicious fishes from the jungle's rivers and lakes, which were an important part of the whole tribe's diet.
Not every day could they hunt giant game, so fishing was also a rather common practice, and children who weren't good at hunting yet would be taught first how to fish and cook their own caught fish.
By just smelling grilled fish, Aquarina could remember her times as an infant, when she, Sylphy, and Zack fished in the nearby river and sometimes caught a horned hare for lunch and dinner.
Sylphy ended learning to fish much better than her friends though Aquarina was always amazed by how quickly she learned everything, while it took her a while to learn herself, and often times she got bored and would jump on the river and catch fish with her mouth.
"Smells good! You're making a lot of fish I haven't seen before!" She said with sparkling blue eyes.
"Yep, we know that's your favorite meal," said her mother. "We got some fish saved inside of Shade's shadows from the rivers and lakes of Agartha, but the chief also gave us some of the saltwater lake fish."
"Yes, our fish is also our favorite meal," nodded the chief. "Ah right, you don't need to call me chief, my name is actually Aguarapida! Oh right, and my daughter, well, we all call her Agua, but her full name is Agualinda. It means beautiful water."
"S-So both you and your daughter are Agua?" Aquarian wondered. "Well, damn, alright. Agualinda sounds really cute though! I'll call her like that from now on, hehe."
"And you can call me just auntie if you prefer," Chief Aguarapida said. "My name means Fast Waters, while my daughter means Pretty Water. Isn't it nice? I picked her name myself."
"It is nice yeah," Aquarina nodded. "Ah right, mom, dad, can you make more cream puffs for my friends too?"
"Of course, we're already making like twenty, should be enough I believe," said Shade.
"Yeah, you should eat more fish than these cream puff anyway, as they might be delicious and all, but have little nutritional value," her mother said. "I know you will never get fat based on how you much you exercise every day but yeah, don't eat too many pastries. Meat, veggies, and fruits should always be the priority, alright?"
"O-okay…" Aquarina groaned, wishing Sylphy and her parents were around. They always had massive feasts with all the junk food she wanted. They were the complete opposite than her family, who always prioritized food with high nutritional value.
"Ugh, smells nice…"
As Aquarina talked with the chief and her parents and inspected the food being cooked and helped a bit on her own, she heard a voice.
"Oh? Justicio! Good morning."
"Mornin'… I'm starving."
The young man yawned while looking all exhausted, looking around the grilled fish, and almost drooling.
"Go take a bath first," Aquarina said. "By then the food should be ready!"
"A-Ah… fine…" He yawned again. "I'll go, I'll go…"
As he walked downstairs and Aquarina resumed her fruit salad preparation, she quickly remembered the girls were still bathing.
"Wait, then-"
"KYAAAA!"
The scream of Silvia and Agua combined echoed through the whole house, the chief looked into the distance scared.
"W-What? What happened?!"
She was busy preparing all the fish, so she was startled to almost death!
"S-Sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't know there was someone down there!"
Justicio ran away from the underground hot spring butt naked, covering his crotch with his clothes while Silvia threw rocks at him and Agua water bubbles with their magic…
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