Pride and delight war in the little maiden, unsure whether to puff her breast or duck her head away, but the thrum of excitement and the thrill of competition keeps her from any disappointment at the brevity of the entree round. Instead, her mind is in a whir, already debating her next move. She is nothing if not a master when it came to strategy, and as much as she adored her herdmates (oh the irony that they all hailed from the snowy northern reaches!) she would not let them triumph without giving them all her might.

And then they have their next task: the animal kingdom. Hotaru sets to work quickly, not to be bested by her kin. A little water with the rice and it is delightfully sticky and malleable. Molding it to her satisfaction, she lets it be to set and rushes back for the flimsy asparagus, throwing it onto the coals she'd harvested for her salmon in the previous round. Sprinkling brown sugar sparsely over the green stalks, she turns them on occasion with the point of her horn, until they are beautifully grilled and ready for the next step. Chasing down a rabbit in the middle of frostfall is the harder part, but her horn and hooves are a devastating combo, and her herbivore status gives her an advantage over the unsuspecting prey. The meat gets thrown onto the coals as well after she awkwardly skins it, and she is again rushing to find her next ingredient: pumpkins.

Cutting open the top of the pumpkin with her horn (who knew it was so versatile? Not she) she removes it by the stem and plops that, too, on the coals. Sprinkles in some more brown sugar and a few basil leaves before leaving it to stew and turn into the soup she desired. Molding the rice around the prepared meat, she shapes it into a playful little bunny (oh how sick! She loved it) and begins to layer the 'grass' asparagus against it. Breaking a new pumpkin with her hoof, she makes a little stream for the soup, the sides of the pumpkin cradling it. Dropping in pistachios to give the soup a nutty taste and to serve as freshwater mussels, she nudges two black bean eyes into the rice-rabbit-meat-flask-surprise. Turning the slab of rock towards the hen, she sits back and begins to explain her own masterpiece.

"I find the most abundant of the animal kingdom to be the streams and grasslands. I have here a rice rabbit with real rabbit meat encased inside, sitting in a grassy area of asparagus that is sweetened with brown sugar and looking down on a basil and brown sugar spiced pumpkin soup river with black bean eyes. Inside the pumpkin soup stream, there are freshwater mussels made of pistachios. The rivers and grassy banks are teeming with life, from water to mud to grass and above. It is also what I have the most experience with." Sitting back proudly she awaits her judgement once more.

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Brought in: pistachios, pumpkins

Made: rabbit-meat-encased rice rabbit with black bean eyes in a field of brown sugar asparagus grass. A basil and brown sugar pumpkin soup in pumpkin shells a little river for the bunbun to look down on, and pistachios to nutty-up the pumpkin soup and represent the half-open freshwater mussels of sea and river life.

Also I was going to make peanut fish just for giggles but decided not to. Hehe.

Items: cherries, brown sugar, salmon, basil, lemons, black beans, red bell peppers

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:: [Companion: Common/Royal Hellhound | Acid]

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