Hot Enough To… a story of Reiassan for my Summer Giraffe Call

Written to [personal profile] itsamellama‘s prompt here to my Summer Giraffe Call.

Set in the same world as Edally Academy but centuries earlier. The Bitrani live far in the south; the Calenyena live in the North.

“Rietanneh, it’s not really that hot down here. It’s really not.”

Lukia hurried after her friend. She hadn’t been sure about inviting Rietanneh home for the holiday with her. After all, there was more than mountains between Lannamer and Tugia, as the saying went. The Calenyena were heathens, often barbaric, wild and unmannered, and the Bitrani, Lukia’s people, hadn’t really forgiven them for the way the war had been won, all those centuries ago. But the Lannamer girl didn’t really have family, not that would come get her, at least, and after all, the Three said “call those kin who would be to you as an extension of yourself.”

Her blood-kin had been uncertain, but they had given in when Lukia had quoted to them from the books of the Three Gods. Now… Now Lukia watched her friend nervously. She was wearing Bitrani national clothes as if she had been born in them, far more comfortably than Lukia had adjusted to Calenyen clothing, but she was climbing up onto a rock outcropping with the tray of cookies they’d been working on, a wild grin on her face.

“It’s hotter than that, Lukia. It’s hotter than the inside of a fireplace here. And right here.” She sat down on a wide black rock, then stood up quickly. “Right here it’s even hotter than that.” Rietanneh set the sheet of cookies down on the rock. “I’d say maybe fifteen minutes, and we’ll have sweets.”

“But there’s the stove…”

“It says in the book of Tienebrah that the gift of fire was not to be taken lightly, no? Here is Tienebrah’s light.” Rietanneh grinned widely at Lukia’s expression. “I read the Books when I knew I was going to have a Bitrani roommate. And I’ve always wondered how hot it really got down here…”

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0 thoughts on “Hot Enough To… a story of Reiassan for my Summer Giraffe Call

    • “Do you remember that time the Calleni came to visit and she /baked cookies on the rocks?/” “Do you remember the time the Calleni /quoted the Books of the Three/ to back up cooking on rocks?”

  1. <giggles> Rietanneh might be trouble … Is this early enough that people still use sira (just a touch to cheat on the baking, and that’s probably heretical), or is this into the aether period? Nit, second paragraph: “the Three sid”: sid should be said.

  2. A flat black rock under blazing summer sun? That may well get hot enough to cook on. The cookies should bake though they might come out a little weird. (I’ve seen video of actually cooking an egg on a car’s hood, and I’ve used solar ovens, though that’s a different principle.) But I love that she’s quoting the holy book of *their* religion to justify actually doing it.

    • Considering how hot asphalt can get in summer, even in the north… Yeah, I bet she can do it. They’ll be like panfried cookies, probably.

    • Especially in a world where the Bitrani are the second-class citizens, yeah. She’s trying to fit into their world 😀

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