Diligent & Dutiful Care
She took pity on the unattended clutch and vowed to rear them as her own, whatever should hatch from their peculiar forms. She sat upon the eggs for many a night, putting her own adventures on pause, so driven she was to crack this mystery. She fought off many would-be assailants, egg-hungry beasts, and other encounters, keeping her adopted clutch safe from harm. The days passed, and little progress seemed visible, and rations were growing slim.
Just when she thought to give up, she heard it: A tap. Then a crack. Then a "peep!"
Hatchling Race
One by one, the mysterious eggs began to hatch, and out stumbled the most delightfully odd creatures: They looked enough like ducklings to play the part, but they were just so... orange! The young anseni had no time at all to wonder about these odd ducklings, as the moment they ambled out of their shells, they clumsily took off running!
Instead of scattering, however, they all made a direct course in one loose cluster of tiny slapping ducky feets, towards the old barn not far from where the nest was set. The young anseni lamented the possibility of the ducklings finding themselves in danger in a dilapidated barn, as she'd grown quite fond of the small creatures in the brief moment she had seen them, so she proceeded to give chase!
Catching them was out of the question, the slippery little things. How did they have such good coordination, not even a minute out of the egg? They did seem a bit larger than the typical duckling... as if the strange color wasn't enough of a sign that there was more to these creatures than met the eye.
Barnyard Escape
They each scrambled into the barn, through cracks in the walls and outer framework, leaving the anseni to find her own way inside. It took some effort, some searching and strength, but she was able to pry open a loosely-barred window and climb inside. It was dusty, almost chokingly so, likely kicked up by the energetic ducklings in their mad dash... but, a mad dash for what, exactly?
She looked in every nook and cranny for the little ones, hearing neither a scuttle nor a peep from any direction, though she did find something that caught her eye. A trapdoor sat open, bright as if the dust had been cleared right off.
A Delicious Dungeon
Against her better judgement, she climbed right down to the chamber below and saw them — though, they weren't ducklings anymore! The chamber, which appeared to be a classic-style kitchen of the old days, was in pristine condition, as though it was in full use just that afternoon. A large butcher-block table sat in the middle of the kitchen and, on its tabletop sat a familiar clutch of grooved orange eggs, but with a book at the center of their cluster.
With curiosity, she approached the table, prying the book open, finding it could only land on one spread. Suddenly, warmth filled the room, and the tickle of joy pulled at the corners of the anseni's beak. Sweet scent filled the air of the kitchen, of delightful baked goods and... pumpkin! On the page she could see strange letters and runes reforming before her eyes, arranging themselves into a familiar pattern. It was a recipe, for pumpkin pie!
She read it over and over, until it was committed to memory, and the soft glow of the pages dissipated, and she noticed that the clutch of eggs disappeared in her focused reading. What odd creatures she had found!
Sweetly Secured Legacy
Armed with her newfound knowledge, the anseni returned to her home and whipped up the finest pumpkin pie the anseni had ever seen or tasted before, and she shared it with her entire community. When asked about her new recipe, she tried to show the others where she'd found it, but the trapdoor she'd found was no more — gone without a trace of any kind!
There was no explaining it in a way that made sense to anyone else, so she held her story close for years and years. No one could get the facts straight about it, not even the adventurer, so it all boiled down to one simple fact, in the end:
No one makes a better pumpkin pie than Miss Liliwen.
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