Lana checked the time. It wasn't lunch time yet.
"Paul has asked me to come to his room. Want to come with me?"
Kyle chuckled, "are you tired of us yet?"
She laughed, "nope!"
He nodded with a huge smile. "I'll switch back and let Blaine go with you. I'm not ready for others to know about me yet."
Her expression turned serious, "you lost close friends, didn't you?"
He nodded and was gone, replaced by Blaine. "Off to see Paul?"
She smiled and nodded.
[On my way.]
In Paul's room she saw a metallic kitchen that was L-shaped. It even had a sink and cabinets to store plates and cookware.
"This is beautiful! You made a kitchen?"
Paul nodded, "it's portable. You can take it with you in this bag."
He hit a button on the side of an upper cabinet and the whole thing folded up into a cube about 2 1/2 feet wide. She was shocked.
"Give this a try. You will need to add water to it but the beast crystal is already integrated so you can use the oven," Paul had a small smile on his face.
"You are brilliant!" Lana exclaimed. She gave him a quick hug.
"Please save the praise until you have thoroughly tested the equipment. Including fast-packing and running with it. Here is the bag to carry it in."
Paul handed her a bag resembling a backpack but it was a metallic material. The straps looked comfortable. She put the kitchen in and placed it on her back after ensuring she understood how to use it.
"Thank you, Paul!"
[Quest update: Progress Toward Friendship: Lana Plantwell 80%]
Blaine's eye twitched. Lana smiled at him. "Let's take it back to my tree and cook lunch!
Paul gave her a quick look, "if there are any issues or changes you'd like, let me know and I'll see what I can do."
"Will do!" Lana and Blaine left the room to go try it out. She was very excited. He didn't share her enthusiasm.
At the tree, she set it on the ground. It wasn't quite level so she asked Blaine to fix it. He did so while grumbling.
Lana chuckled, "so you don't want me to cook for you on portal outings?"
"Wait, what?"
"That's what this enables. I can cook while we are out without having to pack cooking supplies, just this cube and maybe some seasonings that are not so easy like salt or saffron."
"Are you saying…" he face-palmed, "I'm an idiot."
Lana chuckled, "you said it, not me."
Just then, Paul got a system message.
[Quest Update: Progress toward friendship: Blaine Abel 60%]
Paul smiled.
Lana started growing food and Blaine watched a bit then helped harvest. He was slowly learning. Soon, Kattie and Almin showed up for lunch. Dobin and Alto needed it to be delivered so Kattie and Almin decided to carry it back for them.
Lana greeted her friends then turned to her new bag. In a way, she was the best person to test such a thing out. As much as technology hated her, if she could effectively use this, it could potentially make her life a lot easier in the long run.
First, she inspected the outside of the bag. There were 2 pockets on each side at the base of the bag which she designated to hold her four pots with dirt. On the back side were other pockets which she designated to bottles of water. Inside the secure top, which had finger-print access and held out any rain, there were pockets which held seasonings.
The instructions she was given by Paul were not to store anything inside the kitchen as it would not fold up. Only the parts he made would do so. Adding anything would prevent the folding process.
There was open space in the middle to store other things. Cold items were able to be stored in there as it also had insulation. If someone were planning on being gone for a day or two, meat could be placed in there and consumed within that time, longer if ice was included.
Next, she tried to take out the kitchen and noticed she would have to remove all the seasonings she had placed in the pockets. This was a negative in her book. She pulled out the kitchen. There was an arrow pointing up. She placed it on the ground in accordance with the arrow and pressed the button.
She watched as the kitchen built itself. She thought she could see little oomlauts moving around and forming different aspects of the kitchen. She even noticed the kitchen was self-leveling on the ground. She smiled at how cleanly and efficiently it built up. She decided to hit the button to see how long it would take to reform into a cube. She watched as the kitchen once again became oomlauts and formed into a solid cube.
She smiled widely. "Now to try it out," she said.
Kattie and Almin gawked, watching what she was doing. Soon there was a full kitchen in front of Lana. She grinned at everyone. "I've never cooked on anything so pristine before." She used water from the water bottles on her bag to fill the water tank so the sink would work.
"Where did you get this," Almin said in wonder.
"A classmate invented it and asked me to test out this prototype. So, let's test it out," she smiled.
She opened all the cabinets and drawers to see if she had everything she needed and where it was all stored. She assumed everything had to go back where she found it for the folding process to work. She would need to ask this question if she thought of it. Everything she had in her bag was incorporated in.
She turned the oven and stove on, first one then the other then both to see if they worked and if she could use them both at the same time. She turned on the cold water then the hot, and again, both together. All seemed to work properly. The real test was to actually use it.
The cutting board and knives were quite efficient. The stove heated evenly and cooked far quicker than she was used to. She wondered if this was a special kind of metal that conducted better? Was it the heating method?
She didn't know. What she did know was faster cooking was better, especially in a field-type situation. She made up a salad and soup and even used the oven to make a very hearty bread. She made extra bread as she had become accustomed to doing just in case. She also noticed a "clean" button" but she decided to wait on that because she wanted to try a few recipes.
At the 3-month mark, they were allowed to have a market stall on campus and she wanted to be the first to sign up amongst her fellow club-members. This meant not only fresh produce to her but she wanted to sell pies, jams, and tarts.
If this kitchen worked well enough, maybe she could expand to making them fresh right there in the stall. She needed to make the money to buy ability books for Alto and Almin. Maybe even have them help her so they would feel they earned them through their own work.
She decided to try that now. She made each person a blueberry pie and a strawberry tart, including Blaine. Once she was done cooking, she hit the "clean" button" and watched as little oomlauts formed arms that came down from the bottom of the upper cabinets and scrubbed down the surfaces using the water in the tank.
She then sat down with everyone and they enjoyed the dishes she made.
"The kitchen has a mini-fridge so we can bring meat out and store it for cooking later in the day."
"What do you guys think? Any feedback on it?" Lana asked.
"I love the fact it is an actual kitchen with all the appliances you need. Did you see that blender in the cabinet?" Kattie said.
Lana nodded with a smile. "He incorporated everything I had and the grain grinder he put in there is way better than that little thing I was using before. He also gave me a sauce maker for making jams and sauce."
By the end of lunch, she knew the bag needed some design changes but the kitchen itself seemed perfect. She sent a message to Paul letting him know and he asked her to bring it back as soon as she could. She wanted to set up her lab before going back to the dorms.
**********************************
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