Bonk On The Head

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

"I'm sure." Aela said with half a smug smile.

Nerf Steak was great, but it also had quite a bit of fat and grease attached to it, that fat and grease...well Maleah would come to regret that when the two of them were jumping up and around the trees in the jungle. Which of course, they would be doing because Aela would be the one leading the sparring.

Revenge for childhood teasing.

A bit petty, maybe, but it would be funny for at least a few minutes, plus it would help her acclimate to fighting when she didn't feel well. That was another important matter, especially for Maleah. She wasn't always going to feel the best when someone attacked her. She traveled to different worlds, fought different people, ate different foods. There was no way that Maleah would always be at one hundred percent, Aela knew that. So if she learned to fight while feeling a bit...sluggish, then it would be better.

At least that was her theory.

Aela patted Toofless on the head and walked towards the cabinet to retrieve a large box of cereal. "Do you know if we have milk?"

Milk was rather important to the whole cereal process, and without it Aela's plans would be rather ruined.

 

[Louise]

“That's fine,” she beamed, before baring her fangs slightly in a carnivorous manner, “more for me!”

Placing the platter down onto the counter top, a stern sideways glance was given to Toofless, who had, after getting a small amount of attention from Aela turned his attention to the food on the go. Even now, he would still attempt the begging game and while Maleah lacked the inner-disciplinarian that would quash such behaviour she much preferred teasing him with the promise of food.

“You're not getting any, bub,” Maleah informed her furry companion but of course, she had said that immediately as Aela asked about milk which caused the young woman to backtrack and swivel on her foot to return to the fridge, “I mean Toofless, Aels, not you, you can have all the milk you want….we got blue milk aaaaaand….”

Maleah blinked, several times.

“….wampa milk apparently?”

Inwardly the girl winced, as the thought of trying to milk a wampa brought mildly violent and bloody images to her mind. It would be a brave and foolish being that would dare to milk a wampa. Were they even mammals? Could they even be milked?

Orange eyes peaked out from behind the fridge door, a playful gleam showing without shame as she looked to her older sister.

“I dare you...no, double dare you to try the wampa milk.”

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Wampa milk?

Was that even a thing?

Did Wampa's produce milk? More important who was foolish enough to try and milk them?

Immediately Aela couldn't help but be suspicious. Wampa Milk didn't sound like an actual thing, it couldn't be an actual thing. That would be like saying Oma had Drexl Milk laying around the fridge. Slowly she shook her head in disbelief, not necessarily denying Maleah's dare, but instead not believing that it was a legitimate thing. She was almost entirely confident that her sister was making it up to make fun of her, or maybe making it up just to tease Toofless.

Aela shared a look with the nexu.

"That can't be a thing." The nexu nodded with her. "Seriously, what else do we have?"

Her orange eyes narrowed at her sister.

 

[Louise]

“Don't look at me like that, guys! I'm telling the truth!”

Unless mother and father dearest had manufactured a carton, in the hopes that their children would come home and find it, simply to be perplexed as an elaborate prank with little pay-off then she couldn't have imagined it being anything other than the genuine artefact.

She would have to show them.

Pulling the carton from out of the door, Maleah inspected it one more time, just to make sure that she wasn't having a vivid hallucination, but there it was, printed in plain old Galactic Basic: Wampa Milk. Locally Sourced From Hoth. Best Served Ice Cold. However, even if she told them that, they still wouldn't believe her, pair of skeptics.

“See for yourselves! Catch!”

Carefully, she tossed the unopened carton towards her older sister, hoping that her Jedi training would aid her in not dropping it.

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

She caught the jug, though she didn't quite believe it even after she read the label. "No way."

Her hood shook in disbelief, and then she showed the jug to Toofless.

That was rather in vain, given that the Nexu couldn't read. She frowned for a moment, then shook her head as if realizing what she had done was incredibly silly. Her lips thinned as she began to read the information on the back of the box. It was strange, but it seemed to be genuine Wampa Milk. Her face became an odd sort of perplexed expression, her eyes rereading the packaging information over and over again as if she were trying to detect some sort of mystery or lie that could be contained on there.

Frowning, she opened the carton and gave it a whiff.

"Ugh." She said as she smelled the thing. "It smells like rotted cheese."

 

[Louise]

Maleah couldn't help but grin as the most serious Talith sibling showed the carton of wampa milk to Toofless, who yes, couldn't actually read. Although, the nexu did regard the container with a very wary expression, as if he had found a frog in the wild that held far too many colours to be safe to eat.

Why was this even in the family fridge? Who did it belong to? Definitely questions to be aimed at the parents at a later date.

She didn't even have to hear Aela describe the milk to her, the attuned nose of Toofless gave that much away as the previously cautious nexu actively backed away from the cartoon of mysterious wampa milk. Evidently the smell gave the large feline some cause for concern, although, and she had checked, the dairy product was in-date and had not actually expired.

Perhaps just an acquired taste? Something artisan and avant-garde? Maybe it was one of those cases where it smelled bad but actually tasted good.

“A double dare is a binding contract, Aels," Maleah stated with a stiff nod, slowly closing the fridge door and staring at her sister with a mirthfully challenging look.

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

She frowned at her sister.

No.

This didn't seem like a safe idea.

Slowly Aela raised up the carton above her head, looking at the bottom of it very closely. She found that the expiration date actually stated it had another week and a half before it went bad, which in truth really only made her more suspicious about the whole thing. Why was this here? What purpose did it serve? Did her mother drink it for health reasons? Did her father have it as a joke? Who would go out and buy Wampa milk? Where did one actually buy Wampa Milk in the first place.

She'd never seen it at the store.

"I'll do it if you do it." Aela said quite simply, lowering the carton back down to eye level and studying the label quite wearily. This seemed like one of those bad ideas that would lead to both of them being sick and unable to actually fulfill their stated goal of training. She couldn't imagine that Wampa Milk was actually supposed to be something that one drank, surely it had to be an ingredient in cooking or baking. Yes, that had ot be it.

 

[Louise]

In all honesty, Maleah had fully expected her sister to back out completely, deeming the task to be all-in-all completely unsafe. Although, there was no real reason to be worried, it was in-date, it had only just been opened and well, it was in the family fridge. It wasn't as if mom and dad were keeping strains of the Gulag Plague in there, was it?

However, instead of backing out, her older sister decidedly upped the stakes. Or….in reality, would rather that the both of them were incapacitated in the bathroom later were that eventuality to happen.

She smirked. A challenge? As if she was worried, she was a sworn member of the Cookie Jar Thieves, a part of Troublemakers LLC and one half of the daring monkey twins! Wampa milk wouldn't worry her, no matter what kind of cheese it smelt like. Maleah had no worries of the after effects, living on Onderon with their Oma had trained her for this situation. It'd be like that time she ate those strange berries, and ended up on the toilet for what felt like an eternity, garnering exactly zero sympathy from Quietus.

“Deal,” the twin crowed loudly, striding to the cabinet and retrieving two glasses for them to drink out of (drinking straight from the carton was for savages and boys). She almost slammed the cups down upon the table, as if they were smugglers about to drink neat whisky like in the old holofilms.

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Aela frowned.

There wasn't a lot of Wampa milk left in the carton, which troubled her even more than the fact that Wampa Milk existed in the first place. Someone in the house was drinking this, or eating it, whatever one did with Wampa Milk. She looked at the carton, then to the glasses, then slowly wandered over to them. Toofless seemed to draw away, clearly afraid that he was going to be made to drink this horrid product. Aela watched the Nexu go, and felt a longing for the ability to do as such.

She slowly began to pour the liquid into the cups.

Surprisingly, the milk was not at all curdled or thick, in fact it's consistency was much like that of water. The color of it was rather strange though, having an odd pink tint to it. The smell erupted form the cups almost immediately, causing Aela to crinkle her nose in slight amounts of disgust. "This is wrong."

She commented as both of the glass were filled half way.

Drinking more than that was likely to kill them, and Aela wasn't willing to chance it.

 

[Louise]

Even she had to admit the smell was pretty rancid.

Toofless had pretty much outright bolted, the strong old predator that he was. As if she'd ever think about feeding him a peculiar dairy product ever again. The smells that came from his bottom after she had given him a single cube of cave-aged nerf cheddar had been absolutely horrendous, it could have been bottled and sold as a deadly toxin.

Despite all of her bravado, as the pink tinged liquid as poured into the glasses even Maleah had twinges of mild regret. How do you even milk a wampa? People probably lost limbs in this endeavour! Surely all that risk had to make it really good, right?

Then again, how many so-called delicacies out there in the galaxy were actually disgusting but simply consumed because of their rarity and difficulty to farm?

“It totally is,” she nodded, slowly reaching out to grab her own glass of potential doom. She couldn't chicken out now, even if she wanted to. Aela might have told Micah and he would have never let her live such cowardice down.

A moment of hesitation. A deep breath as the smell grew ever more potent the closer it got to her mouth. A nervous chuckle left her lips as her own orange gaze looked to meet that of her older sister's.

“...bottoms up...”

The glass touched her lips as Maleah tilted the container upwards.

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Aela made a face, watching her sister for a moment before finally she picked up her own glass. There was apprehension in the way she held the thing. The pink milk really was disturbing, even though there were different colors of milk in the galaxy pink just seemed so...off.

They were definitely gonna ask mom and dad what this was for.

Finally she took a deep breath, looking down at the milk, then she let the glass go to her lips.

Aela didn't hesitate. Years of training, dozens of hours a week in sparring matches, weeks worth of meditation, she was ready for something like this. There was no pausing, no great wait, she knew that with something like this you just had to dive right in, so that's what she did. Her lips parted, and she decided to chug the Wampa milk in one go. As soon as it touched her tongue she was wracked with absolute and utter surprise.

There was no bitterness, no rancid taste, no disgusting overwhelming flavor, instead it tasted sweet, almost...like candy.

 

[Louise]

Neither of the women held their noses as they downed the mysterious pink milk, a brave decision, but one that ultimately paid off.

Maleah herself had been expecting mouldy cheese juice, somewhat akin to blue milk that had been left out in the sun for a week. That had been the expectation, nothing better than that but possibly worse. All the build up, the bracing of tongues and taste buds and well, as it had turned out...

...Wampa milk was in fact very pleasant, well worth the lost limbs and horrific scars of the men and women who had chosen to milk such beasts.

She looked to her sister, the expression of pleasant surprised washing over her features from the total apprehension that had only sat there moments prior. Sometimes double dares truly paid off, well, most of the time they ended up with a child of Soliael and Kira Talith falling out of progressively taller trees but this time it had definitely paid off.

“...it's...it's so sweet! It's like a milkshake!”

A quizzical expression dawned upon her face, before she turned to her sister, placing the glass back down onto the counter top.

“I can't believe that mum and dad have been hiding this from us,” Maleah noted, as her hand snaked out to the carton, quite possibly to pour herself a little bit more.

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

She nodded towards her sister, snatching the carton away from her sister before she could pick it up. "But why does it smell so bad?"

Aela inspected the carton in and out, looking at it before slowly sliding it back towards Maleah. There really was an overwhelming sweetness to the Milk, but the box said that there were no additives or anything of the sort. She pondered for a moment, thinking about it. Hoth was an ice world, exceptionally cold and incredibly inhospitable. Nothing lived there that couldn't survive through the worst of the worst, and Wampa's certainly qualified in that category.

Maybe it was high in sugar.

It would make sense that the milk had a lot of sugar in it in order to prepare the young wampas for the cold, to give them lots of energy to produce more heat. A slow nod came from her, as though she were accepting the theory for fact. Aela didn't really have any other answer. "It must be expensive."

Considering where it came from.

"I bet they only started buying it recently." She wasn't defending them, but it would make sense. "Maybe mom picked it up on her last trip to the Academy."

 

[Louise]

As Aela grabbed the carton before she could, Maleah deliberately stuck her lower lip out, letting it tremble slightly as if she were a sad puppy that was denied treats.

“Well,” she said slowly as the container of milk was back in her grasp, “I dunno,” grabbing her cup she poured herself some more, deciding that it was actually very tasty and that if it all somehow got drank, then she would totally replace it, “wampas smell pretty bad.”

Hardly a sound theory.

Half-way through taking a sip of her refreshed glass, Aela commented that it must have been expensive, leaving the twin to pause, glass still at her mouth and waggle her eyebrows at her much wiser sibling.

“Don't worry, I'll get some more,” she assured, placing the glass back down, “I wanna go to Hoth now just to meet the people that were crazy enough to own and milk wampas, maybe even give it a go myself.”

And hopefully come home with all limbs in tact.

“Are you gonna eat your ceral with it though?”

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Aela shrugged. "No, I don't think so."

She liked the milk, but the cereal already made the milk sweet, she couldn't handle all that sugar.

Aela liked sugar, everyone did, but at a certain point it just became too much. Her head shook slightly and she walked passed her sister. She pulled the blue milk from the fridge and wandered back towards where she had put her bowl. Toofless had once again made his appearance, looking up at Aela and Maleah as though they would offer him some sort of treat. Aela simply shook her head, clearly denying the Nexu any sort of treat or food. Toofless frowned, or as much as a Nexu could, then wandered over towards Maleah.

"Don't give him any." Aela told her sister. "Otherwise he'll laze around the house again."

No one wanted that, a lazy Nexu was not a good lazy.

 

[Louise]

Now that the adventure in wampa milk was actively over, the pair of Talith's could actually do what they came into the kitchen to do. Have some dinner...even though it felt horribly wrong to call cereal dinner.

Without further ado, the young woman began pulling apart the nerf with her fingers (a mannerism that came with living a more wild variety of life). It had been smoked to perfection, with little effort being needed to just pick apart the meat, it practically fell to pieces. Beautiful. Of course, in the annuls of history, it wasn't likely that her father would be remembered at how great he was at barbecues.

“Oh, he won't getting anything,” Maleah replied, shooting a knowing look to Toofless that meant, 'you're out of luck, pal', before moving her focus back to her sister, “he gets super gassy when he eats things he isn't supposed to. They're like, the worst farts ever. Kaili's really lucky that she's got droids. They don't toot.”

There was a moment of vicarious munching, where the twin alternated between drinking the pink milk and devouring shreds of smoked and juicy nerf meat. It wasn't terribly pretty, she would have likely had to have etiquette lessons before going on a date but the only worry here was Aela's judgement, which she had grown immune to anyway.

“...'sides, I don't know who's doing it….but either mum or dad have been spoiling him.”

Toofless tilted his head, feigning innocence. At times it was almost as if the Nexu could understand them.

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Aela put the first spoon of cereal into her mouth, observing Toofless as she did so.

The Nexu had clearly been just a tad spoiled, having lived with mother and father for the last few months now. He looked as though he had gained some weight since she'd last seen him, the small bit of chub in his cheeks showing quite prominently as his teeth barred in an attempt of a begging smile. Aela looked down at him, slowly shaking her head as she began to chew her food and eventually swallow it. The Nexu let out a loud high pitched whine.

"I think mom." Aela said definitively. "I doubt dad feeds him."

That was the more likely suspect. "I think dad is more likely to have him chase birds off the island."

At that comment Toofless seemed to perk up, as if the thought of chasing birds was a pleasing one. Once again Aela found her suspicions confirmed, and slowly she looked at Maleah as if it were up to her to control Toofless. They both technically could, though Maleah was far more the natural talent in doing so. That was the power that her sister had inherited from their Grandmother. The control of animals rang strongly through Maleah, stronger than it did through Aela.

 

[Louise]

She nodded, agreeing with her sister's assessment, “I think you're right,” the young woman said, wondering if their mother had then had to deal with the consequential cat farts, perhaps somehow she thought they were coming out of dad. Maleah would have been impressed if the nexu was crafty enough to mask his farts and blame somebody else for them.

“Bet you've been getting up on the furniture too, huh!?”

In that moment the twin stared her companion down, giving him a quite familiar accusatory look that he knew well. Chasing birds, eating junk, shedding on the furniture. He had always been a cheeky creature, but at least he had been mildly well-trained. She supposed it was her fault for leaving him here in the first place, it was just the price to pay.

With another chunk of smoked nerf in her left hand, Maleah pointed to out of the kitchen and continued to stare at Toofless, who got the message pretty quickly and padded out of the room in a sulk, giving out an audible huff as he did so.

“At least he can still obey,” she said before stuffing the held meat into her mouth, “I...kinda...feel...bad...for leaving him….here....though,” the twin continued, talking with her mouth full.

Who was the real animal there?

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Aela walked over to her sister, finishing her cereal and placing the bowl on the table. She patted her sister on the shoulder, still towering over her.

Of the four Talith Children Aela was still one of the tallest. Micah had grown a bit taller than her, but she towered over Maleah and Kaili. She had inherited her fathers height, though her mothers rather slender frame and form. It wasn't a bad hand, really, most would call her naturally beautiful. She had never really much cared, though her height did give her certain advantages when it came to dealing with things, especially her siblings. She smiled down at Toofless, watching the Nexu go.

"I think he's just fine." The truth was in how the Nexu acted.

He was still happy here, more than glad to hop around and spend time with their parents.

"He probably misses you, but you come home often enough that it's an adventure when you do." It wasn't like he was sentient, and the time likely passed quick enough for him. "Plus, with all that spoiling mom does he has a great life."

That was certainly true, the Nexu was more than a little plump, and as her sister suspected he probably spent quite a bit of time on the furniture.

 

[Louise]

Despite her serious exterior, Aela Talith truly had her moments.

Even if those moments were as small as a silly dare, or an empathetic pat on the shoulder.

A small smile dawned upon Maleah's features, even if it was tinged with a drop of guilt. He did seem happy here, and yes, there was no question that the nexu was enjoying the spoiling at the hands of their mother but...when she was a young girl, still only dreaming of adventures, her dreams always had Toofless by her side.

Dreams didn't always follow reality.

“I guess you're right, huh,” she said, looking to the doorway that her companion had just left through, before attempting to snap out of her minor sulk, “I better tell dad to get him chasing more birds from now on...”

Goodness knows he needed the exercise.

Moving to put the platter of meat back into the fridge (she wasn't going to eat an entire nerf brisket by herself) Maleah made sure to remember to pop the considerably lighter carton of wampa milk back into the side door.

“Uh, will you still be this nice to me when we're sparring?” Maleah asked, half-joking, half-concerned that she was going to be getting her booty kicked.

It wasn't as if Aela would want to get back at her for all of those pranks in the past…

...right?

---

[member="Aela Talith"]