Seeing Shiro happily lapping on the "pulled" milk tea or Teh Tarik, Hana went over to organize her stuff. When she saw Kuro trying to move towards Shiro, she pulled it back towards her.
"Enough Kuro. It's Shiro's share. Let it drink in peace okay sweetie." Kuro acquiesced while hissing happily from his mommy's attention. [Who cares about the stupid fox when mommy loves me so much.]
Looking at both Kuro and Shiro, Hana already know what she should make next. They needed their own personal bowl! Maybe if she reduced the size of the claypot, she could make additional bowls for them?
After pondering for a while, she rejected the notion. Right now, clay was precious commodity. If she ran out of clay from the nearby stream, she will need to travel further down the stream. What if she encountered any large ferocious creature then, can she even run? Merely the thought of it already scared her as she shivered meekly.
At this point, this wimpy aunty had forgotten the prowess of her absolutely loyal snake pet. We couldn't blame her, as the little intelligent guy only knew how to act cute in front of her.
I know! I'll make them some bamboo bowls! We got plenty of them by the stream.
She quickly moved out with Kuro after rubbing Shiro's fluffy white head.
This time, the proud fox willingly let her touch its head, even nuzzling back a little while savoring the touch. Hana was greatly surprised.
[Is this the power of teh tarik?]
She made a mental note to share the popular beverage to both of her pets when she drinks some later in the future.
[Shiro is such a tsundere(1).]
Hana smiled amusingly. She knew she shouldn't push it. If she took the thigh when it just offered its shin (2), the delicate balance could be broken and returned back to square one (3).
Both of them, a smelly aunty and a small black snake, moved in tandem towards the stream with a light gait. Every step of the way had a bouncy feel to it as the positive aunty was in an extra good mood. All the traces of sadness from yesterday were effectively wiped away.
Another reason was the presence of her snake pet. Hana didn't realize she had totally relied on Kuro for safety. She felt totally safe with the little lovable snake by her side. All the caution ingrained into her by Arash's incessant naggings had gone down into the drain.
Along the way, she even found a lush turmeric herb cluster! How lucky she could be! (Author Note: Little that she knows that the heaven had a way to reward her when she was wrongly accused in the storm at home 😊). She harvested some turmeric tubers by digging into the base of the herb plant. If she caught some fish, making a turmeric paste with salt would've made the fish to be extra delicious.
She also took some of the light green bunny ear shaped leaves. At home, one leaf equaled to RM1.00(4). The price will really inflate especially during Raya season. It was an important cosmetic ingredient for cooking rendang (5). Rendang without a sheet of thinly sliced turmeric leaf lost a lot of its characteristic smell and taste. She could see a few hundred ringgit of turmeric leaves over here, bordering on a thousand ringgit.
And how do you think Hana could've identify so many random trees, dear readers?
Well, the trees were commonly used by most housewives in Malaysia. So, everyone had the habit of planting the herb trees in pots just outside their own houses as long as they have a little space.
General herb trees such as the lemongrass, keffir lime, key lime, calamansi lime, pandanus, turmeric, ginger and Vietnamese mint usually graced the houses of the older generation who cooks regularly. Even if one didn't have the plants at home, one still need to purchase the fresh herb-based ingredients from the market before cooking.
Thinking about her own potted herb plants, she felt a little worried. She hoped Arash didn't forget to water them. Each one was precious to her as they directly came from her mom's own backyard garden. Ma'am Shaza would regularly gave a spot-check to see the health of her daughter's herb trees when she came over.
Last time they went for a short vacation and forget to prepare a self-watering bag, her precious Selom herb plant (6) wilted after the water dried. It broke her heart at that moment, while filling it with regret from her carelessness.
Well, like what was written in most webnovels, there's no medicine for regret, only the intestine's color will change to green (6). They had haphazardly bought some Selom from the market and recultivated them for a few days before replanting in the same pot just before her mother came.
Whew! Talk about sixth sense! The ad-hoc visit cum spot-check nearly put them in a bind!
Hana continued her stroll towards the Crystal-veined Stream. As of now, she still didn't know the name of the stream yet. Only the original inhabitants knew about it.
Once she was beside the shallow stream, she walked towards the fish trap she made. It took her another ten minutes or so.
As she opened the camouflaged tree branches with lush leaves covering the simple earthen trap, she was so shocked!
Inside the circular-shaped hole, she could see blackish gray colored fishes filling it up to three quarter full! It was so crowded until it gave Hana the impression that she was watching irregular sized soy-sauce fried noodles jiggling automatically.
Hana sweated. [Are the fishes in this area idiots? How come so many were trapped here in the short span of one day?]
Hana could see some humongous catfishes which was as large as her shin with about three foot in length! The hole wasn't that big, and quite shallow, only about three feet in diameter, and three feet deep. So, the large fishes couldn't even maneuver inside. The smaller ones were about the size of her own slender arm, which were quite normal looking.
Nonetheless, to Hana, that was even considered big. She was used to the one foot length four finger thick catfishes which were the mainstream back home.
[How am I going to get them?] She had seen the seller at the market nonchalantly grabbed the fishes with his hand, so Hana ignorantly tried by aiming for the smallest one.
"Ouch!!! Waaaaa!" Hana clutched her bleeding right palm up while blood continued to trickle down. The sprightly catfish had finned her palm deep, while injecting it with venom.
"Wuwuwuwu.." She cried on the spot because the pain was so intense while flailing her hands in panic. One of the pectoral fin's stinger had lodged itself in her palm as the alarmed fish squirmed for release. The blood flow increased, and her palm started to swell. Hana was frightened out of her wits; she fell on the forest floor beside the earthen trap when her world suddenly moved in an erratic manner.
[Am I an idiot who's going to die here from a fish?] Hana was very unresigned with her poor fate as her sight began to black out.
...
Author's note:
(1) tsundere = a cold and aloof person who is actually warm on the inside. It's a standard internet slang originated from Japanese anime/manga
(2) she took the thigh when it just offered its shin = a translated Malaysian proverb which means asking for more from what is given to you. Thigh is bigger than shin right? (laugh) In Malay: "Dah bagi betis, nak peha"
(3) returned back to square one = a standard proverb which means progress made was canceled out and have to start from beginning
(4) RM1.00 = a standard (and correct) way to write Malaysian currency, Ringgit Malaysia. It represented the same unit meaning as 100 yen, or 1 dollar. With RM1 right now, we can buy a standard pack of basic nasi lemak or mee goreng from the street food stalls
(5) cosmetic ingredient for rendang making = it means, the ingredient was used to beautify the outwards appearance of the cooking, like a garnish. However, turmeric leaves did have the function of increasing the 'smell' of the rendang.