Carmen Dei

The Chef And The Wind

ever since the chef from liyue harbour had arrived in the land of the wind, she had been hunting down and collecting ingredients for recipes both new and old. while her pursuit for unique ingredients was all good and well- her efforts having somewhat aided the knights in keeping the area safe and secure from monster attacks. it was starting to affect the natural ecosystem and slowly the chef was starting to get a stronger carving for dragon meat.

whenever xiangling would be close to encountering dvalin, a gust of wind would lead her elsewhere. turn her around the other way and give her something else to focus her attention on. it was almost akin to watching over a toddler and keeping them from getting into trouble. the anemo archon would find himself exhausted whenever she decided to come visit- having to keep track of her whilst also keeping up with the many prayers on the wind, carrying his children's messages along the breeze as well as providing some small vague yet helpful guidance when needed. he didn't want to hurt the chef. he could tell she had no ill intentions. only the desire to cook good food. she wasn't beyond reason either and was willing to correct herself, such in the case of the boars in springvale.

therefore eventually barbatos decided to send a certain deaconess her way.

barbara was out on a stroll and - like any citizen of monstadt - was willing to let the wind guide her. having a lot of dedication and faith for her god and she would soon have a lot of frustration upon coming across xiangling. the two were hitting it off at first as they talked about jueyun chilli peppers and where best to harvest them but the conversation would eventually turn for the worst when it moved to the topic of a certain dragon.

" what?! you- you wish to eat dvalin?" exclaimed barbara in disbelief.
" dragon meat sounds like it would be so delicious~" drooled xiangling at the very thought, " though I haven't seen any at all."
" and no wonder! lord barbatos would never allow such harm to come to one of the four winds."
" huh? four winds..?"
" the wolf of the north, the lion of the south, the dragon of the east and the falcon of the west. they are the four entities entrusted by lord barbatos to protect and keep us safe."
" wait but didn't the dragon recently attack monstadt?"
" I.. that is not the point! dvalin is still one of the four winds."
" really? because to me, it doesn't sound he's doing much protecting."
" why you-!"

barbara normally was a healer but right now she was willing to fight xiangling. nobody was allowed to show such disrespect towards one of the four winds let alone even suggest the idea of cooking and eating one. she was so filled with rage and frustration. she knew exactly why lord barbatos had brought her out here- to show this pyro allogene the error of her ways. the two would then argue back and forth. the deaconess trying her best to explain to xiangling that dvalin was not food and the chef not understanding what the big deal was.

anytime xiangling would try and walk away from the discussion, barbara would follow in toe to keep an eye on her.

xiangling had her eyes set on acquiring dragon meat and she wasn't planning on letting anything or anyone get in her way of that.

" huh?! I think I heard something." the chef quickly looked around as she stopped on the road between windrise and springvale. a bard could be seen sitting underneath a large oak tree in the distance. " that way!! that way!!" she pointed in a direction and soon started to run off.

" hold up- wait-" barbara reached out a hand to tell the younger girl to slow down but the chef was already running. the deaconess let out a sigh before running after xiangling.

xiangling's eyes would lit up upon seeing a group of anemo slimes near the lake that ran along behind the oak tree. her polearm appearing in hand as she soon fought the slimes, defeated them and collected what they dropped. barbara catching up just as the polearm vanished into blue light.

" that was easy!" the pyro allogene proclaimed with hands on hips and looking rather proud of herself while barbara checked to make sure xiangling hadn't gotten hurt along the way before the younger of the two would go running off again, looking around the large oak tree for any kind of ingredient she could potentially use in one of her dishes until.. her eyes laid upon a bard casually sitting beneath the oak tree as if not having a single care in the world.

breathing in and out though his nose, venti took this time to relax and rewind. the smell of fresh grass. the sound of birds, squirrels and foxes. the sounds of nature itself coming together to form a harmony- music that belonged to the nation of freedom only for it be interrupted by the sound of liyue music as he could sense pryo energy nearby. venti waited until the young girl stepped out into the opening and his eyes opened up to see her staring at him with what looked like curiosity. " greetings, chef xiangling." he started with a smile as the gust of a gentle breeze surrounded venti causing xiangling to take notice of the anemo vision that hung from the bard's hip, " what brings you here to monstadt?"

" fresh ingredients of course!" came the fourteen year old girl's response, " there are lots of nice and juicy meat here! not to forget about the slime and carrots! though I have been having a little bit of trouble.. finding the dragon."

" and for good reason! venti, please.." the older of the two girls looked to venti as if he were her only hope as she placed a hand to her chest, " you know how important dvalin is to barbatos."

" of course I do." venti remarked in reply to barbara as he looked between her and xiangling, " dvalin is a dear friend of barbatos. I believe the dragon, stormterror, is long gone by now."

" ohh! right!" came xiangling's sudden realization as she turned to look back over to barbara, " stormterror attacked monstadt! that's the dragon I was looking for." this caused a lot of relief in barabra who hadn't been entirely sure how to explain the stormterror and dvalin situation to an outsider yet somehow just saying the name stormterror had cleared everything up for xiangling.

" do you.. two need to be escorted back home? I have free time!" venti offered up to the two girls as he was the adult in this situation despite looking to be close to barbara's age. the two girls looked to each other before looking back to venti. " I trust you, venti." stated barbara.

xiangling seemed to have started to trust in barbara's judgement. either that or xiangling figured that venti wasn't much of a threat if only in the sense that venti won't suddenly attack either of them along the way.

venti therefore got up and stretched out before heading off towards the road where he waited for the two girls to catch up. the mere presence of the anemo archon himself allowed for a much safer walk from windrise to the city of monstadt. venti crossed over the bridge to the main gate of the city with barbara before allowing the knights to escort the deaconess from there before walking back over the bridge with xiangling after she said her goodbye to barbara. now they would start heading towards dawn winery as that was the direction towards liyue harbour.

it wouldn't be long before the sun would start to set as the two reached the beachy path between two cliffs that would lead into stone gate. venti didn't typically walk this much.. he would normally just teleport or glide. " see anywhere to rest for a bit?" venti asked to break the silence as well as give xiangling something to do. the girl would look around as they crossed a wooden bridge until locating a good spot in the grassy area between wuwang hill and stone gate to stop for a few seconds- " there! right there!" xiangling pointed out and not before long venti plumped himself down in the grass and laid there.

he would see a very familiar bird fly over head. you could even call the bird illuminating yet venti felt so tired that he didn't even care if any of the adepti didn't want him in liyue. venti needed to make sure this kid got home safely. breathing in and out but the wind in liyue wasn't quite the same as it was in monstadt. much too warm but stripping in front of a young audience wasn't exactly the greatest idea therefore venti would have to put up with the heat as he did his best to create some wind to cool himself down.

all the swirls could catch was pyro.. which just made things worse. his eyes beginning to flatter and then close as he could barely hear the sounds of a concerned chef - " mr venti? mr venti?! wake up, mr venti!!"