Holiday Vibings
With special guest oc @radical124 's fire elemental, Salene!
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It was quiet in the witches home, with the snow gently falling outside. Inside there was a tree all set up, decorations placed everywhere inside the home. Lights were shining dimly inside shared home and at the moment Star was busy getting things ready in the kitchen, getting the food ready for when their guests would arrive along with Kepler, who is surprisingly helping out a lot this season.
"Kepler how are things going on your end?" Star asks her friend.
"Oh you know." She says with a smile, working on slicing the vegetables up and putting them into a steam pot, "Busy. Getting the veggies ready. How about you Star, I know you're finishing up the cake over there and other desserts."
"Just dandy I think." Star puts some candy cane bits onto a cake before topping it with whipped cream at the ends. It's a log cake and to her it's a pretty good cake at that. Butterscotch flour with cream cheese icing topped with some now placed candy cane bits. It should be a good enough dessert for Pepper.
"Did you hear anything from Salene yet?"
Kepler thinks it over before shaking her head. "Not yet. She told me she would be arriving but not exactly when." She looks outside the window, seeing night starting to fall. "I just hope Salene knows where the place is. That she doesn't get lost in the snow. I know she's an elemental and all but still."
Star laughs a little at this. It's not often that Kepler cares about someone on that level. Though she would be a hypocrite if she didn't feel the same way about the other guest coming over. That being the colossal sheep baker, Pepper. Her carriage will be an issue but the mushroom witch thinks she can make it. It's not snowing that bad after all.
"I'm sure she'll be fine."
There was a knock right as Star finishes that sentence, making the mushroom witch smile and gestures to the catgirl, "You answer the door, I can handle the rest of things here. It's just the veggies mainly. The meats in the oven and will take another half hour give or take."
"You sure?"
Star hums, allowing Kepler to leave the kitchen and towards the door. Heading towards the door Kepler opens it, showing Salene on the other side of it, her hair ablaze with a warm fire while also wearing some winter clothing. "Salene! Glad that you came!"
The fire elemental chuckles and walks into the house, "Well I didn't have much going on so I figured that I could come over for the holidays. Cold as hell out here though, even my internal fire couldn't keep up for long stretches of time."
Kepler shakes her head at this before letting her friend step inside and out of the cold. "Make yourself home then. Star says there'll be one more person showing up though that depends on the weather."
The elemental hums at this, "Yeah the snows really piling up. And unlike me I don't think they can melt the snow as easily. Still whoever this person is they do sound interesting. You said that they were a baker?"
Nodding at this Kepler leans against the wall as Salene takes off her layers, "Yeah she's a baker. Once that Star is familiar with. Blocked out house by accident one day and that's how we met. Star took the time to hang out with her more and low and behold Star invites her to our little holiday setting." The catgirl feels a smile for as she looks at her friend, "Thanks again for coming though, really."
Salene laughs and gives the catgirl a pat on the shoulder, "Come on Kep we're friends. 'Course I was going to show up, or at the very least make an attempt at it. Star in the kitchen I take it? Smells good in there."
"Yep she is. Just finishing everything up, decorating the cake. One of them at least."
"Oh nice." Salene says, walking towards the couch and takes a seat, "Well maybe this mysterious baker can come on over soon. What does Pepper look like anyway?"
"Oh she's a sheep for starters."
Kepler notices the grimance on the elementals' face. She knew the reason and does her best to reassure her friend, "Yeah the wool might be an issue. But you can control your fire right? And I am sure that Pepper has dealt with enough customers to know how to handle elementals. It'll be fine. Promise."
While Kepler can see that Salene still was unsure about the whole thing, she talked it over with Star before the elemental arrived. Pepper will be fine. Nonetheless Kepler sees that Salene does her best to relax given the circumstances and takes a seat beside her. "In any case sit back and enjoy. Been a long trip for you just getting here."
"Heh. You aren't wrong there. I may be a fire elemental but I can still feel the cold." Salene laughs as she says this. "Yeah I think I'm gonna like it here. Food is included as well?"
Kepler nods at the question, prompting a smile from the elemental, "Good. I'm starting to get hungry."
The catgirl was about to say something but then is interrupted by the mushroom witch in the kitchen, "Foods ready! Come and get it!"
"Speak of the devil." Salene chuckles at this and the two get off the couch, heading towards the kitchen to see all of the food set up for the three of them. The fire elemental raises a brow at this.
"Didn't you say that Pepper was coming?" She asked.
"Yeah she is." Star said, pouring herself a glass of milk, "She's just bringing up the desserts and such. Moon told me that the snow is delaying her more than she thought." Star gestures to the beetle, which is now covered in a little blanket. "So she said to eat without her and she should be here by the time we're done and then some."
While the elemental was still confused at this eventually Salene shrugs and takes a seat at the end of the table. Looking at what's there and the plate in front of her she gets started picking stuff for herself. Kepler chuckles at this before picking some things for herself. "Someone's hungry."
"Hey its cold out there and I need fuel to keep my fire going."
The catgirl waves it off, "Just thought it was funny that's all. No harm done." She glances over at the other witch, "So in a bit Pepper will be here you said?"
Star hums, already putting the fork with food in her mouth. Kepler on the other hand speaks even with the mashed potatoes in her mouth, "Yep. Word of advice, don't stare for too long when you meet her. You'll know why."
This only makes Kepler laugh once she sees that her explanation did nothing to actually explain anything. If Star wasn't going to mention anything about Pepper, then she has the right to be vague about it. Besides a part of her was curious what her friends' reaction would be to the sheep girl.
Nonetheless the three simply have a good time with their meals, making small talk about what each of them have been up to and for better or for worse, the catgirl making mention about Star's recent 'hip' escapade. After a swat from the short witch the meal if done, with plenty of leftovers to spare. With it all on the table still, Star was about to do more dishes when a loud knock was heard throughout the house.
"That must be her. Kepler, mind doing the dishes?" She asks as she hands the wash cloth over to the catgirl, "I need to see how Pepper's doing and if she needs help with anything."
Leaving the kitchen to Kepler Star walks over to the door, opening it up to see a crouching Pepper in front of the door. "Pepper! So good to see you! Your wool is looking really thick tonight I noticed."
The sheep laughs as she pokes the wool on her arms, "Yeah winter season is like that for me. Not nearly as bad as the Lincoln kind though. Theirs get really long while mine is just puffy." With a smile Pepper looks inside the house, letting out a gasp, "Oh it looks so wonderful inside! Really a shame though given what happened last time."
The witch laughs at this. Turns out trying to shove a 15'9 woman through a single door is not worth the trouble. "Yeah... We won't make the same mistake again. If your carriage just outside?"
"Yep!" Pepper stands up and moves over, showing her giant wooden home sitting outside, "And everything is inside as well. And you said Kepler's friend is here right? The elemental?"
Star nods, and she taps her hooves together, "Excellent! Well tell everyone that I'm here but we'll have to move over to my place ok?"
Before Star could respond Kepler speaks up, "We heard ya! Just need to do the dishes!"
Pepper smiles and bends down one final time to the doorway, "I'll see you in a moment then! Just need to finish something up in my home before you come in. It's just about ready so I hope everyone likes it!"
"Great!" Star exclaims, "We'll be there shortly."
Pepper nods and leans upwards before heading to her carriage. From there Star closes the door and heads towards the kitchen, where Kepler is about finished with the dishes with Salene drying them. the cat witch speaks first as Star walks in, "Yeah good thing you didn't try shoving her in again. That wasn't great. But I am curious what she brought over this time."
Salene is still confused however, tossing the drying towel onto the counter, "So what's the story with Pepper? Is there a reason that she can't come in? I would've helped if there was a lot to carry."
Kepler waves her off, "It's not that its more so how Pepper is like 15 feet tall and can't fit in anywhere."
Salene sputters, going wide-eyed at hearing this, "She's 15 feet tall?!"
"15 and 9 inches." Star corrects the elemental. "Yeah trying to get her inside wasn't fun, even when we eventually used ways to shrink her in. Due to her size for the most part it has a reduced effect on Pepper, meaning that she was back to her normal size in no time and had to crawl." She sees the gobsmacked expression still present on the elementals' face. "She's really nice once you get to know her."
"If you're sure..."
Kepler, now done with the dishes gets ready to dress a little bit warmer despite the short distance. "What is that Salene admitting defeat? Certainly didn't see you cowering away during Halloween and I was a 7 foot tall bat woman."
Reminder of that moment makes Salene snap out of it and chuckle, "Yeah that's true. Even if I did make up that bat friend it was still fun meeting you."
Kepler laughs at that moment long ago as she walks to the door. "Well in any case we might not be in there for too long. Just enough time to hangout with Pepper and then watch something together. Sound good to you?"
Salene nods, putting on her winter jacket on. Once it was on and the other witches were dressed up they open the door into the dark snowy front yard. With the gargantuan carriage sitting out front, they moved towards it and Star climbed up the steps to bang on the wooden door. After a moment Pepper opens it, looking down at the short people in front of her and allowing Salene to be wide-eyed at how tall this sheep woman actually is.
"Man you weren't kidding about her height..."
Pepper giggles at this and waves the three in, and Salene only became more baffled as she sees the inside of the carriage. For Kepler and Star they know that everything is sized to her. The elemental on the other hand is astonished that someone could even build something like this in the first place. She was so engrossed in the sight that she didn't even notice that she bumped into Pepper's thick wooly leg. "Omf. Sorry about that. Just- Not used to seeing a place like this, not often anyway."
The sheep doesn't mind however, even letting out a bit of laughter at the apology, "No worries. It happens all the time. And yeah more of my height is not a common sight so I don't blame you. In any case-" Clacking her hooved hands together Pepper heads towards the kitchen and pulls out some ice cream. "I got ice cream here if anyone wants it. Feel free to have whatever you three like!"
Gesturing to the large living room table Pepper places the ice cream on the counter and gets some bowls ready. Meanwhile Star and Kepler are mostly used to the oversized furniture and thus can climb onto the couch easily enough. Salene on the other hand needed a hand getting up onto the couch, which the two were more than willing to oblige by this as they helped lift the elemental onto the large couch before resting on the cushion.
"Yeah..." Kepler says, catching her breath, "Not the easiest thing to get up on, but the comfort is worth it once you get up here. Like a mini bed on its own."
Salene can only nod at this. She can kind of see what the catgirl means when she says that. Before she could comment on it Pepper is out in the living room in a surprising rush. In her hands was not bowls of ice cream but rather a pie looking thing about the size of a large hiking backpack. The stuff covering it looked goopy and not at all appetizing, like it was whipped almost with its consistency of marshmallows.
"Pepper what is this?" Star asks. "It's not like you to skip out on cooking something entirely."
The sheep girl places it on the coffee table and wipes off her brow, "You aren't wrong there Star. But I wanted to surprise you with something I heard about in one of the other regions. They call it an Omelet Surprise. It's supposedly really good but delicate to make. What that stuff on top is whipped egg whites with sugar in it and coated over ice cream and cake."
The two witches and elemental look amazed by such an idea. Star notes something however, looking up at Pepper, "But you needed to cook it right?"
The giant hums before letting out a weak chuckle, "I... May have forgotten that I had cookies already in the oven, so I can't toss it in. Not enough space. And in my rush I couldn't find anything that could help and-"
Pepper lets out a sigh, "Really wanted to show this off to you, especially since it seemed like a thing neither of you have ever seen before."
Star pats Pepper's hand to reassure her, "I'm sure we can do it next time. But maybe you can scrape the egg whites off and we can have the ice cream and cake underneath it?"
As Pepper slowly nods Salene looks at the cake like thing on the table. All it needs is to be cooked right? Standing up on the couch she hops onto the table where the cake thing is. "It just needs to be cooked right?"
"Um, specifically browned. Why do you ask?"
In response to this Salene's hair lights up into flames, and her hands become engulfed in fire. "Wanna give it a shot. It'll take a lot out of me so I need to concentrate."
After focusing the fire on her hands, she steps up towards the omelet, placing her engulfed hands close to the surface of the egg whites. Almost immediately it starts browning, making the fire elemental slowly move around the hiking bag sized dessert and watching it brown more as a result. Salene can feel herself tiring out but she thinks its about done, only needing to do the top part. When she gets assistance from Pepper by the way of lifting her up a tad, Salene finishes browning the cake and gets set down and lets out a few pants of exhaustion. "Heh... There you go Pepper... All done for you... Oy I need to lay down for a second-"
Salene collapses in Pepper's hands, who gently carries her to the couch and places her there. Looking at the dessert it looked all great with its browned covering. She smiles at this and heads over to the kitchen and comes back with some small (to her anyway) plates as well as a knife. "Well then. Thanks to your friend, the Omelet Surprise is ready to be served!"
Giving each of the three a plate Pepper cuts the dessert up, showing that despite the heat that Salene placed around it the ice cream inside was untouched. Kepler whistles at seeing this, "That's pretty cool I'll say that much. Here's to it tasting as good as it looks."
Picking up her spoon she takes the first bite of the dessert. Kepler lets out a happy hum as she finishes the bite. "Oh this was worth it. Congrats on making it Pepper. Oh and thank you Salene for browning it."
The elemental gives her a thumbs up before pushing herself up more against the couch. She takes her plate and she too takes a bite. "A bit cold for my liking but I do think it tastes great. What kind of ice cream is it?"
"Eggnog ice cream!"
Salene hums at this before taking another bite. Star soon gets into it as well, giving the giant sheep her own sounds of appreciation. Happy with that Pepper leaves for a brief moment before returning with some snowman shaped cookies, "The others are still in the oven but I got a few of these to go with that if you want."
"Oh sure thanks." Star takes a cookie and puts it on her plate and before long she remembers what she has in her home, "Oh yeah I made you a chocolate log if you want it. Figured I could give baking a shot."
"Oh how sweet of you to do that Star! I'll take it whenever you are able to!"
Star hums, eating another bite of her omelet. The others do the same, with Salene being slower than everyone else due to the amount of energy she used to brown the dessert. However despite that everyone is having a good time and enjoying the warm interior of the carriage with some ice cream, cake, and cookies. All while the snow gently falls outside.











