Chapter 166
After finishing up the short quiz of what they had gone over, Nat and Sophie were both put through a rigorous pattern of exercises all the way until dinner time. After all, neither of them did much other than walking for the day. In order to keep on the schedule of physical activity and growth, Shannon had them make up for what work they had missed while Nat was teaching. Especially given that tomorrow they were planning on delving into Edmonton's city center. They would not be able to exercise in peace for the next day or two, since they would have to be watching every corner as they moved through the city.
Once they had all gone through that, and had a set of stretching to limber up and relax from the exhaustive movements, did they move to other needs. Natalie went through and gave another brief check-up on the gorillas. When it was all said and done, most of the gorillas were cleared to be doing full workouts, as she gauged that they had recovered enough from their starvation state in the past twelve days to be fit for duty. Normally, the average time to recover from starvation was two months, so she was expecting at least another two days before they would be in that sort of shape. That was accounting for the accelerated healing that the Soulscape seemed to give to the bonded animals. There were only two that had not fully recovered yet, but they were not far behind the rest of them. The timing for this was fantastic, as that meant they had a higher amount of fighting strength for their trek inside the city.
Sophie on the other hand, went over to help Shannon with making dinner. Tonight, they were making a tomato soup to dunk the grilled cheese in. First thing they did was chop up a bunch of tomatoes and celery into as fine of a cut as they were able to. Though, since Sophie still was not that adept at using a knife in the kitchen, Shannon first cut them into larger sized strips, and then had Sophie carefully dice them. This way, she did not have to have her hand anywhere near the blade, reducing the risk of her cutting herself immensely. She just had one hand on the handle, with her other one on the top surface of the knife. Like this, she was able to learn how to dice things easily while keeping it steady. It took a bit of work before she got used to it, but once she did her confidence got a massive boost. Anyone who was watching would see that, as her hand was slowly going faster and faster. Shannon let it go on for a little while, before getting her to slow down. It was good to get in the practice, but it was far better for her to learn how to properly do it, instead of how she imagined was the right way to do it. Slowly, Shannon explained how it was better to be slower and methodical when cutting, to make sure that every time the knife descended was purposeful and effective. There was no need to go fast, and it would actually be worse in the end, as it may give her a need to repeat it more often to get the sizing of whatever she was cutting down to the size that was needed. The only other issue Sophie had the whole time was that this was the first time that she had cut celery. It being a vegetable with high levels of plant fibres in it made her first few cuts to be quite rough. Though with Shannon carefully guiding her, she became used to it quickly, and her cuts came out far cleaner.
That was all done while Shannon was getting the rest of the soup ready to go. First, she melted butter inside of the pot, making sure to keep the temperature from the fire lower than she usually did. This just meant it was keeping it further away from the actual fire than when she usually cooked food. Then, once the celery was finely minced, she had Sophie carefully deposit it into the pot. There, they were slowly sautéed for the next couple minutes to quickly brown. Once they reached a suitable point, flour was mixed in with them, coating the celery. Then they gradually added water and milk in equal parts, stirring it constantly to make sure it mixed properly. That continued until they felt it thicken a noticeable degree, marking the time to mix in the rest of the ingredients. With how big the pot they were working with was, due to the quantity they were making, it was quite a sight to behold. Sophie was being held up in the air by Shannon, looking like a witch stirring her cauldron.
It did not take much longer for them to finish the cooking of the soup. The only problem they encountered was that they did not have a blender available to cook with. Thus, the tomato soup was closer to a mushy stew, but it still looked and smelled delicious. Together with everyone, grilled cheese was brought out and they partook in the food. Even the gorillas joined in this time, enticed by the smell of the soup. All in all, it was quite well received by all. While that may have been due to none of the others knowing what tomato soup was supposed to look like, Natalie still found the creation delicious. Of course, Shannon told her apprentice nothing, and let the little witch enjoy the moment of successfully making a tasty soup.
After food was done and cleaned up, everyone felt ready to call it a night. Tomorrow was looking to be a long and dangerous day, so they wanted to take precautions where they could. Getting a long and restful sleep was the easiest choice to make, at least as one step of getting ready. As the coyotes came out for watch, everyone else settled down, and went immediately to sleep. And a certain munchkin passed off into the void of sleep, wishing with all her might to have another dream of owls.
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