The Variant [Part One] [Wanda Maximoff [FF] | Elizabeth Olsen

Chapter 6

Milla woke up from her sleep, it was a tough day of work yesterday. Though today would be no different since they are gonna replenish some taps with more ale.

"Miss Wanda, for a first-timer you did a pretty good job!" Milla said.

She heard no reply from the woman.

"Miss Wanda?" Milla called again.

No response. She looked behind her and gasped when she saw herself sleeping under the tree sedately with the red-haired woman. She looked at herself and realized in horror that her spirit had left her real body.

Milla looked back in front of her and saw monsters snarling and grinning at her.

They all appear black and emaciated like they've been dehydrated. Their eye sockets contain nothing but empty voids. Their mouths have rows of sharp teeth ready to tear her to pieces. Their hands and slender fingers are skinny and gnarly reaching out to her soul. There are so many of them surrounding her.

When Milla looks back at her and Wanda's sleeping form, she notices that they keep getting further & farther from her reach.

Milla ran as quickly as she could to get back to her body as the demons started crawling toward her soul.

When Milla was close to her body, one of the demons managed to cling to her feet and started grabbing her. Then another demon grabs her and then another and another; until she can not escape from their tight grasp.

Milla let out a blood-curdling scream as the infernal creatures dragged her out of her body's reach into a void that she could not escape.

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When Wanda opens her eyes and finds that the little girl has woken up and left early. The redhead looks around and notices the pot of Sokovian sand coffee still steaming near a stone-sand basin. She smiled at the sight. Wanda drank her coffee and washed the cup and basin afterwards in the river.

The redhead went to the brewery and saw the little girl outside waiting for her.

"Hey!" Wanda called out as she walked closer.

"Hey!" Milla said then yawned. The red-haired woman notices the dark shadowy circles under the girl's eyes.

Hasn't she slept well? - Wanda thought.

The little girl told her that they will be refilling the draughts by creating new batches of ales for the taps.

For centuries, the Abbey's ales had been made conservatively with just four ingredients but thanks to the artistry and resourcefulness of the next generation of brewer-sorceresses — The Abbey's brewskis have reached beyond the orthodox limits.

While craft ale-making is different from traditional ale-making since the brewer in charge has to vary the combinations of grains, hops, yeast, water, and extracts to create a multitude of different styles.

The core-speciality ales which will be the ones that will be made are always required to be fresh and available due to the demands from town folks' drinkers.

One of them is a light and refreshing wheat ale popular for its aromal character as a result of the brewers' use of citrus fruits.

Wanda & Milla puree the citrus fruits and then combine both the zest and the juice. According to Milla, the juice helps sanitize the zest and both lend flavour to the resulting ale. The citruses are added after the ale's fermentation has subsided, since it can be very acidic.

Wanda then suggested that she'll be the one to destemmed, rinse, and roughly chop the red peppers for the speciality-kind of farmhouse ale so that the little girl wouldn't have chilli burns. The peppers were then added in a mesh bag to the fermenting cauldron.