She Becomes The Hero In Another World 79 She Is Showered With Gifts

"We heard that you liked to eat flowers, so we picked a whole bunch for you!" Beth beamed a smile. All the children watched Robin, interested in seeing such a sight.

"Eat flowers?" Robin asked, looking at the bouquet. Poisonous....poisonous...bitter...inedible. This beautiful bouquet of flowers...If she actually ate it, she would probably be due for another three day sleep.

She turned back to the children. "Did you try eating these?" She asked.

"No!" They enthusiastically said.

"While they are all perfectly beautiful..." Robin separated four kinds out of the bouquet of flowers: a handful of white violets, a handful of clover blossoms, a handful of goldenrod, and a handful of sheep sorrel blossoms.

"Look, these are the only flowers here that are safe to eat." Robin pointed out, honestly. The little children's faces fell. They had given Robin poisonous flowers!

"But, these other flowers smell so wonderful, and look so colorful, that I just can't bear to throw them away! Here."

Robin took out a porcelain vase, and placed the remaining flowers in with some water.

"They'll do nicely making me happy with their wonderful smell, and pretty colors." She said cheerfully, trying to brighten up the now gloomy atmosphere. But, the children still seemed somewhat down.

"I'll tell you what." Robin said with a smile. "My favorite flowers to eat are dandelions! could you go pick me a bright yellow bouquet to snack on later?"

"What?" Gertie asked.

"You mean it?" One of the other children asked.

"Ah, but I don't like ones with a red dot in the center. You should stay away from those, okay? Not only do they taste bad, they will hurt your hands." Robin warned, then winked at them. "I always keep my word. I flew you home, didn't I?"

"Hurray! Let's go, let's go!" The children eagerly headed out of the room to pick the yellow blooms found almost everywhere. Robin stared at the four strangled handfuls of edible flowers on the covers. Then she looked up at Ponzu.

"Can you use these to make something?" She asked.

Ponzu, sensing a new recipe, whipped out his notebook, and wrote down her instructions.

"Boil the flowers in four cups of water, add two cups of sugar, and one cup of gelatin. Then simmer, stirring until the sugar and gelatin dissolve into the liquid. Add it to four cups of cold water in a bowl, while it is still hot. After that, place it in a cold room, and wait four to eight hours for it to firm up. It should make a lovely treat that is light and easy even for me to eat. you can even pour it into multiple small molds and give it out as gifts"

"Ho? Isn't this just an adjusted version of jelly?" Ponzu asked.

"Jelly is sticky, and falls apart easily. Jello can not only hold a shape, but also has a peculiar trait." Robin smiled.

"What is that?" Christian asked.

"It likes to dance on the spoon." Robin said.

"What?" Ponzu gasped, surprised.

"You heard me. If you want to see it for yourself, go make it." Robin sn.i.g.g.e.red. "I have some sleep to catch up on."

As she lay bach down, and closed her eyes, she instantly fell asleep again. She was so deep asleep that she didn't even hear when the others left the room.

------

Robin awoke that evening to something tickling her nose. She sniffed, and rubbed the spot that itched. Then she heard giggles and the sound of little feet running out of the room.

'Huh?' Robin wondered what that was about. She s.h.i.+fted in bed and something cool rolled down the blanket, and tickled her neck.Robin sat up, wondering what on earth it was, when she blinked. The whole bed top was completely covered with dandelion blossoms.

Jasmine walked in upon Robin's dumbfound-ed expression and laughed merrily.

"The children were so over-zealous, they picked every last dandelion flower in the town." She explained. "They even made you a n edible flower crown."

"A crown?" Robin put her hand up to her head. A wreath of dandelions sat atop her head, tipped at an angle. Robin took it off to see. Woven into the dandelion crown were clover, sheep sorrel, goldenrod, and violets.

"How pretty!" Robin reached into her magic bag, and retrieved her camera. To be honest, she had completely forgotten about it until she had the itch to take a picture of this.

'I wonder if this is how Mom felt when she kept taking pictures of us, back then?' Robin wondered in pa.s.sing.

"What is that?" Jasmine asked.

"A digital camera?" Robin replied. "It's like my world's version of a magic eye, except without the magic part. I wanna take a picture of this. These flowers may be eaten or wilt with time, but a photo doesn't change." She snapped pics of the crown and the flowers.

"I don't use it too often because it needs batteries-er... a power source. So I only take pictures of things I want to treasure in the future. Here, have a look!"

Robin showed Jasmine the images she took.

"And this is made in a world that does not have magic?" Jasmine asked.

"Well, I actually have no idea whether it has magic or not." Robin sighed. "You said that a person needed to connect to their mana source, right? Well, since no one connected to their mana source in my world, no one is able to sense mana. But, the sky is still blue, and the gra.s.s grows, all the same. It could very well be that my home world is filled with mana, and I was merely ignorant of its existence. What we actually lack are magicians."

Jasmine looked at Robin's camera for a few moments, then said. "I believe that there is mana in your world." She said at last.

"What makes you think that?" Robin asked.

"Disregarding the fact that all living things have mana, how else would you be able to arrive here? If it was a summons, you need mana to construct the summoning circle on your end. If it was a rare, natural connecting portal between our worlds, then even more so, there would need to be mana." Jasmine reasoned it out.

"Then, why don't we have things like dragons and wyverns and stuff like that?" Robin asked.

"Just because they're magical, doesn't mean they're invincible." Jasmine shook her head.

"While it would take enough firepower to wipe out our current civilization, it is still possible to kill them. But, unless it is on the scale of a natural disaster, you usually can't generate enough force."

Robin thought of something..."Perhaps something like a large meteor?" She asked.

"You mean the starfall rocks?...Yes, if it was a direct hit, it would probably kill them." Jasmine admitted.

"Well, now we know where the dragons disappeared to..." Robin sighed. "And the remaining magic animals were probably decimated in the ice age."

"Ice age?" Jasmine asked.

"A prehistoric time, where ice covered the lands, and mankind had to survive by living in caves underground." Robin replied. Suffice to say, it was over 2,000 years ago at least."

Robin sighed, and was about to stuff her camera back into her magic bag, when Jasmine stopped her.

"Can it capture images of people?" She asked.

"Yup. It can even record videos. Why?" Robin asked.

"Take a picture of me!" Jasmine said.

"Sure, but why?" Robin asked.

"You're planning on heading back to your home world after this, right?" Jasmine asked. "I want you to take something you can remember me with. We're cousins now, right?"

Robin looked surprised.

"What? You don't consider us to be cousins?" Jasmine asked.

Robin looked away, awkwardly. "Er, no...It's just...I have not had anyone I could call 'Cousin' for a long time. I'm glad that it is you."

"Then, as your precious only cousin, you should take a picture of me home with you,don't you think?" Jasmine smiled warmly.

Robin smiled beautifully. "I should! Okay then. Form a 'v' with your fingers, smile, and say 'cheese!'"

Jasmine did so, but wasn't ready for the flash.

"What was that incantation for? Was it necessary to use the camera?" Jasmine asked.

Robin smiled. "No. It's more of a family tradition."