The Present is a Gift

Chapter 23: In Which Everything is Fine for Once

Twig woke up not to the local staravia performing their morning caroling, or to everyone else in the house snoring, but to the sounds of a meal being prepared. Disoriented, she tried to figure out how she'd slept only a few minutes and yet found herself feeling so groggy. It occurred to her that she slept through not only the night but also the following morning. That explained how out-of-sorts she felt.

Hobbling out of the guest room, she found Grovyle insisting on taking over cooking lunch from Celebi.

"It's simple math, dear— if you triple the temperature of the oven, the food within it will cook three times as fast!"

"I can't begin to tell you how wrong that is."

"Well, I can't begin to tell you how wrong you are, you silly thing— Oh! Twig, dear, good morning! Or afternoon, if we want to be more accurate. Ark is out to the market to pick up some ingredients we were needing. He said not to worry and that he would be swift about it."

"Thanks," Twig croaked, realizing how parched she felt in just that moment and poured herself a drink. Her throat was so dry it stung on the way down, and it tasted like liquid gold.

She spat it all out in horror, of course, when Dusknoir threw open the front door and bellowed, out of breath and panicked, "I came as soon as I found the note! Is Twig alright?! Do I need to find a healer? Where is she?!"

Twig awkwardly raised her hand in a wave where she sat at the table in the corner of the main room, leg in a splint and in no worrisome amount of pain at the present time. "'Sup."

Dusknoir's look of terror gave way to one of concern, then confusion, and finally settled on annoyance. He turned to Celebi, who had zipped into the room at the sound of his arrival. "I thought you said she was likely to lose a limb," he huffed.

"Ark was the one to make it sound that way, dear. I wasn't able to revise my note from several miles away once I learned otherwise without leaving Grovyle and Ark to eat each other alive. Honest mistake, no harm done!" She struck an endearing pose, clearly hoping to soften the blow of her forgetfulness.

Dusknoir was unfazed. "All those two do when in the same room is stand in uncomfortable silence. You could have easily traveled over to revise your mistake anyhow— the distance would have been simple to traverse with your having gone the same path so many times before."

"Aw, but Dusknoir, dearheart, you should have seen Ark when we arrived. He was in such a state I couldn't bear to leave him."

Twig squinted at her. "He was only in such a state because you were trying to add dirt to dinner."

Celebi's antennae twitched, and she sent her a stormy glare. "Aren't dignified mortal ladies supposed to stick together, Twig?"

"Good thing I'm not dignified." She got up from her seat and leaned against the wall to counterbalance against her bad leg. "Dusknoir, mind helping me over to the garden I've got in the back of the property? I need to check if any of the plants overwintered well enough or I'll need to start over once the weather warms up more."

Celebi sneered mischievously. "But Twig, you don't have a garden, do you? It's just a dreadful tangle of brambles back there!"

"I thought dignified mortal ladies were supposed to stick together," Twig bit out with a dirty look sent Celebi's way.

"Good thing I'm not mortal!"

Grovyle poked his head into the room. "I'm neither a lady nor dignified, but as a mortal I think it's my job to tell you two to stop fighting before Arceus smites us all for you two being so obnoxious to each other."