Mei Ling stretched her stiff arms as she finished the last mapping on her idea. She completely remapped the whole house. Every room was nicely planned and as she finally opened the option to start countdown started.
She stared st familiar numbers, familiar countdown and even clocks are familiar. But how do they have that? She just shook her head. Now is not time to think about it.
She rushed down to the living room and found everyone at the table chatting. Including the old man.
''Godfather! Did you have any rest?'' She looked at him in worry.
His usual nature was about to come out but seeing her sincere eyes he just gave up. ''I just sat outside and enjoyed looking at these three rascals playing in the sand. Almost made me go and join in.''
Na'an chuckled. ''But grandfather, you did join us.''
A cough escaped his throat. ''This child. I just help you. I didn't play.''
''Granpa...'' Kiu turned her head towards him and all-important rose her finger in the air. ''Mother and sister say lying is bad and who lies will get punished for it. You enjoyed it even more than we did. Please, you even wanted to have a war between us and you.'' She rolled her eyes and continued to eat while everyone heartily started laughing at her expressions.
What could he say about that? Kiu was just too cute even if she was being to smart for her age. He looked deeply in her and scrunched his eyebrows. He turned his head towards Nalan and sighed. ''You really have people hating you this much?''
Nalan Ko realized what he was talking about and nodded. ''Elder, I tried to help girls for years. No matter how much I searched I couldn't find the Drop of Crystal's heart. Way too rare. But even a tiny piece of it could heal both of them.''
Mei Ling looked at Na'an and he became sad. ''We didn't tell you about their condition. My sisters were born like the mother, with strong light energy. But suddenly thy lost it, completely. Actually, someone poisoned them and now to gain their powers back they need that thing. Mother actually saved every crystal to buy it. But as days, weeks, moths passed we couldn't find even smallest crumble of it.''
Mei Ling looked at Nalan Ko and shook her head. '' Mother, you should have told me.''
Looking at the woman stubbornly shaking her head she chuckled. ''I am sure we will now earn a bunch of money. Please doný worry. I will earn a bunch of money, mother as well and when we put it together I am sure we will be able to buy it no matter how expensive it is. Right?''
Suddenly two pairs of hands hung around her neck and two girls climbed her knees and hugged her tightly. ''Sister it is fine. We can just live a normal life. Like other people. Cultivation is maybe important, but there are so many people that are not cultivators living just fine. Not being a cultivator is not bad. Truly.''
''Kiu, Mae you two cuties.'' She hugged tightly the girls. ''Do you think sister can't handle it? While earning stones I can as well grow more my powers and we already have a house. Soon sister will plant many things in the garden and Noak promised us one Maki... By the way. What is maki?''
Everyone laughed. ''Its type of bird that lies quickly eggs. Most of those eggs have everything accept real chuck. Only one in a hundred eggs are the real one.''
Mei Ling was stunned. ''Why?''
Na'an explained. ''Maki is as it seems afraid that predators will eat her babies so they lay bunch eggs to make predators filled as the real egg with a baby is under everything. And she lays eggs only for five years.''
''Oh, the poor birdie dies?'' It is natural that he thinks that way. But everyone shook their heads.
''After that Maki turns into male Moki and can't lay eggs.'' Continued to explain Na'an.
She was of course curious. ''What happens then?''
"Then you have to let it go. After turning into Moki just send it to Maki island." Na'an shrugged.
"Do they have enough food there? What happens to them after?" She found it a bit cruel. To raise it and then just throw away.
"I can clearly see what you are thinking. Moki lives the happiest in groups. It becomes completely unhappy the moment it turns. After while it turns into Maki again. it has ten cycles. So Moki lives quite a long time." Na'an sighed.
"There is one more question. Is their meat uneatable?" She was truly now curious.
Na'an shook his head. "There is a rule. Never eat Moki. So no one would ever dare. That is the only creature except for humans that we wouldn't kill and eat. Not even poor ones would do it."
She nodded. "Are there any species that meat is inedible or dangerous and what about those that are edible or tasty?"
Nalan Ko answered this time. "All other animals are edible. There are three species I would like you to hunt for us. Pelicu, Coes and Aalo. Not rare and everything on them is usable. Bones and blood for healing potions. Meat and insides to eat and their fur is something that is used for special suits."
While they were commenting food suddenly a sound could be heard. "Ping!"
Everyone stopped and became silent. They were in the living room. One by one item started appearing. And it made Elder speechless.
He had similar things in his house but why is it somehow ... different. But words next to him make him realize the difference. "It is pretty."
She made a living room set for seating with a small table in the middle. The walls suddenly had warm colors with one wall having a print of flowers. The windows had curtains that fit with everything. Suddenly the table changed and became round and in the middle, it was one more table or what is that?
Mei Ling moved the middle plate. ''Its easier to get to the food you want to eat.." She started explaining while children carefully sat down.
Suddenly they started cheering. "Mother, sister this is so comfortable!"
Elder jumped from his seat and curiously touched the couch then he sat down and almost bounced up. He then sat down again and looking at children's actions bounced up and down.
Mei Lung chuckled. "I asked uncle Noak to make a spring. After making a few we included it into I've chair, covered it with bit soft foam, and cloth. This is a result. I hated to sleep on a hard bed so I made all the beds with these. You can change it anything if you dislike it."
She had a friend in the neighborhood that dreamt about grandmother's stone bed. After a while, that girl packed her bags and went to live with her grandmother.
But for centuries the people tried to make sleeping as comfortable as possible. So for her to sleep on a plank is out of the question. She was even thinking about sleeping again in her sleeping bag. So uncomfortable was the bed.
"Beds are like this? Wait, our rooms are done?" Na'an jumped up from the couch and all three children rushed to their rooms. Soon cheers could be heard.
Elder curiously looked up and then at her. Mei Ling took Nalan Ko's hand and slowly walked up. But she saw seen him still sighing in the living room as she called him. "Godfather, not coming?"
He jumped with a big smile and rushed behind them. "Coming, definitely coming!"