Timestamp: 65th of Fall, 521 A.V.
Tazrae stretched as she wandered around her kitchen barefoot and in a long isuas nightshirt. She’d woken early and the rain that usually hit first thing had held off so far. That meant the jungle heated up quickly and with little to no breeze off the ocean, Tazrae was overly warm. She took a moment to try and comb out her curly hair, giving up on it after a chime or two resigned to the fact it was going to be a mess most of the day. Frizz took over when humidity moved in, and it was indeed untamable.
Taz set the kettle on to boil, then padded back over to the room she was currently calling her own and changed out of her sleep clothing to slide into a cream crochet bikini that did very little to hide her figure. She slipped on a gauzy linen shirt over the top and tied it at the waist, leaving it unbuttoned most of the way down. Women in Syka tended to trim off body hair, and Taz was no exception. It just worked better with the type of clothing they often wore that was more than revealing. She liked her skin smooth, soft, and left with nothing that would catch on crochet or knitted fabric.
“By the Gods, its hot…” She whispered, almost grouchy. She had to beat this funk, this darkened mood she’d awoken too. There was just two things that could do it for her so far… Taz had discovered. Baking, and of course, music. She opted to combine the two to lift her spirits.
Her dreams had been muddied, full of Florentin Arcadius’s actions and Alric’s worries. In the darkest parts of them, she’d switched out Alric’s mother for Alric himself being the one Florentin hurt. Such nightmares woke her from unsound sleep immediately, and quite a bit of them had been happening lately. She couldn’t help but feel like Alric and even herself were standing on a precipice, trying to decide to leap over, leap in, or run away.
Taz, being who she was, wanted to leap over. And she was trying to gather all the tools possible to do that. And with that in mind, she began to sing.
“Water and light
Leaves his eyes
History falling down
Hope rising up
We're the here and now
All that came before
Can I stay asleep?
We're not children anymore.”
So thus, dressed to get down and dirty in the heat of the kitchen, Taz once more walked into her kitchen and looked around. She needed a plan. Today she wanted to make a ton of snack foods that people could eat while they were off doing other things or take with them on excursions. Some of her guests had hikes and paddleboard trips planned with Randal or Uta… so she decided bagels and soft pretzels were the thing to do. They were quick and easy, fresh, and traveled well. Both things required a lean dough, and a bare minimum of ingredients. So Tazrae took the now-boiling water off the stove and poured herself a cup of tea, liberally sugared it, and then set a pot of water on the stove to start to boil for the proofing of the dough. The kettle water she set aside so she had warm water to get the yeast going. Then she got started on the dough.
She gathered all her ingredients, needing the warm water, yeast, bread flower, brown sugar, and salt. The dough was considered ‘lean’ because there was no fat or lard added to it. It was the same kind of dough she used for focaccia, pizza, and crusty hearty bread. She’d have to redouble her efforts and add fat if she was making thick dinner rolls, or breakfast foods like cinnamon rolls.
And as she gathered things and made her plans, Taz kept singing.
“We can fight the dark
This is who we are
There's a new light coming
Finally had enough
Finally waking up
To who we are becoming
Open your eyes!”
She didn’t know where she’d heard the song, but it was fitting…
Taz took a cup and a half of warm water, added a two and a three quarter teaspoon of yeast, and then let the yeast bloom in the warm water. The young Innkeeper then took four cups of bread flower and added a tablespoon of brown sugar to the bowl. She added two teaspoons of salt and worked the dough until all the ingredients were incorporated.
