Paimon's woe

13. Paimon's training

Nighttime has come. Paimon were collecting some firewood for today's cooking. She saw Aether brought a generous amount of fowls and sweet flowers. Anyone could guess what are they preparing.

"Tonight's dish is sweet madame?"

"Yeah. As it turns out, some of our intensive training were maybe a bit too intense that some of our attacks hit some pigeons back there. I'll use these fowls since it's easy to get."

"Not to mention, this is Paimon's favourite!"

"Any food you eat is your favourite." he retorts.

"Be quiet. Hmph!" she pouts.

Keqing giggles at their little skit. Somehow, one way or another, they always managed to make her laugh with all of their jokes. It certainly would be fun if she joins them on their adventure, she thought.

He starts a fire using those firewoods. Then, he brought out a cooking pot that he carried from Liyue harbor and put it on the fire. For this dish, the fire is not that strong as to cook the meat evenly.

It seems as the pot is big enough to cook three of them, so he did exactly that. Six fowls that were seasoned evenly with salt and pepper, two for each serving, are placed in the cooking pot. He then placed a few sweet flowers, just to give it some extra sweetness to it as its flavour.

After a long while, he flips them upside down to cook it thoroughly. The light brown texture on the first side of the fowl is a sign that it's cooked beautifully.

"Wahh! Smells so good!"

"Paimon agrees!"

He let the fowls cook a bit longer. After a few more minutes, he brought out a container filled with honey. He put a spoonful of honey for each fowl and spread it evenly for the fowls to absorb the flavour.

When it looked like the other side has the same texture, he stops the fire. Three sweet madames were placed on the plates that he also brought.

"It's ready. Dig in!"

Keqing took her serving of sweet madame. She cut it with the given cutlery and proceeds to take the first bite. Paimon also did the same.

"It's-"

"So sweet and tender!" Keqing interupted. She was pleasantly surpised at how tasty it is. One would say that she isn't a picky eater, but if she has the choice to eat any food in a buffet, she wouldn't pass the chance to eat these again.

"A success once again." he said while picking up his plate and took a bite. Seems like he is savouring every bite that he takes. Can't blame him though since both of the girls, even the glutton Paimon, did the same.

"Do you guys eat these tasty food every time you're on the wilderness adventuring?"

"Most of the time. I do fail on making a new dish sometimes, but practicing every day makes it easier for me to maintain the quality."

"Agree! Paimon knows how hard cooking is. All of that cut-cut sprinkle-sprinkle is so confusing."

"No you don't since the only one who does the cooking is me." he retorts.

"Hey! At least Paimon brought the firewoods. If Paimon didn't, you wouldn't be able to cook in the first place!"

"Yeah, the easiest part available, that is." Keqing unexpectedly interrupted.

"Not you too!" Paimon stomps her feet in dissatisfaction that she's on his side.

She laughed, this time no restriction can be seen from her expression. Seeing this, he joins in as well.

They finished their dish like always. As promised, he would clean up everything and do all the chores today while she will rest inside the tent that the three of them shared. The plates and cutleries were washed at the nearby river. It really is convenient to camp near a clean water source.

"Gah, I'm tired." he said to himself. He started to yawn a bit more frequently, meaning that he is getting sleepy.

After all the dishes were cleaned, he proceeds to do his daily night stroll just to make sure no enemies were nearby. Tonight was as usual. A few hilichurls here and there that he easily took care of, but nothing poses a major threat to them.

He returned to his tent. When he went inside, he saw Keqing and Paimon sleeping peacefully. He put out his sleeping bag next to her.

"Goodnight Paimon, Keqing," were his last words before he snoozed off.

*

"Freeze"

Ice were forming on her feet. As she kept struggling to no avail, the ice kept getting bigger and bigger.

"N-no."

"Paimon!"

"Bebal.. Abalam..."

The twins were the last thing she saw as her vision engulfed in darkness.

The darkness that she despise.

As a sign of her inability to protect the ones she loved.

All she wanted to do was escape.

"Guh!"

Paimon was panting. Hard.

Her pillow seems like it was drenched from her sweat.

"A-another nightmare.." she said.

She scanned around the tent to see Aether and Keqing sleeping peacefully.

"L-lumine... s-stop.. zz... tickling... m.. zzz.."

Paimon heard his rather weird mumbling and stifled a laugh. Just what is he dreaming about anyway?

"Maybe his past memories with his sister? What did they even do?"

She let out a sigh.

"At least you're having a nice dream."

Keqing is sleeping quietly though. She leans to her right, head on her palms. She found this sight rather endearing.

"I'll take a stroll around." Paimon decided.

*

The night breeze were calming. It helps her take her mind off that dream she had back there.

No matter how much time had passed, she is still worried about her family. Her friends. She wasn't there when Tsaritsa took control of the island.

She wasn't there when Kimaris were struggling.

"No, no! I shouldn't think about this."

She shook her head, trying to shake off the thought.

She then flew over to the river to take a sip of water. She brings out her cup that she brought from the camp and used it to scoop up some water.

Sip, sip.

As she drinks, she looked towards the river. Her reflection.

How she loathe the fact how small she is.

She felt guilty involving Aether and Keqing with her dangerous quests, but her worry towards the ones she knew overwhelms her guilt. However, she knew that everything could go wrong if they made a single mistake, no matter how minor it may be. She knew that the livelihoods of the two companions are at stake.

Maybe it wasn't the right decision after all. Maybe she shouldn't have brought it up when Aether asked her. Perhaps it would've saved their lives.

"Paimon!"

She turned around to see a purple haired girl wearing her night gown.

"Keqing!"