Diligence Prompt part 6

Rubi was deep in thought as he took the hot air balloon up towards the Heavenly Embassy. Months ago he’d never think he’d show up to this place, but now he’s come to feel close to it. His eyes have finally adjusted to the bright lights of the gilded streets, and the butterflies landing on his tail no longer spook him. Not to mention the friends he’s met along the way. Visiting Dove and Jackal’s house for tea has become a regular occurance, and Beanny’s cafe has been his favorite place to order a glass of water and then loiter about until being forced to order a pastry or be thrown out. Good times for everyone in Rubicon’s opinion.

This may be the last task he’s needed for as once the ambrosia is brewed his promise to Primrose, and thus his whole reason to be here, will be concluded. Rubi began to worry if he’d still have a place in the embassy when he’s no longer needed. His flames don’t match the brilliant lights of this place, nor does his inner hellion.

He was shaken off of his worries as the balloon docked and let him off. Rubi had no more time to dawdle as he wanted to get there early for the brewing, but not as early as the harvest. He passed by the gardens and dashed to the brewing lab at the back of the greenhouse as fast as his little legs could carry him.

He made sure to knock before entering and could hear the sounds of bubbling liquids in alembics and vials. This looked more like alchemy than science, but either way this is where the magic happens. He took a look around on his way to the back. This was much like Beanny’s back room but a lot more neatly sorted. The cause of this was sitting at the back tables polishing his instruments.

“Ah, right on schedule. You’ve become quite reliable, Rubicon.” Primrose said matter of factly even as it was high praise coming from him.

Rubi hopped on over to look at the ingredients up on the table. The spiky seed heads were set to the side for later replanting while the rest of the plant was in the middle of being sorted by part. Primrose passed a pile to Rubi and let him begin. Rubi started by plucking the petals off one by one.

“He likes me, he likes me not, he likes me…” He thought in his head with each passing petal.

Rubi always found it quicker to do each instance of a task before switching over to the next type of task. He’d wait until the end of writing a letter before going back to cross his ‘i’s and dot his ‘t’s. His handwriting was nigh illegible and smelt of smoke as a result. The same principle applied as he went back to the plucked stems and then went to take off the leaves.

“Wouldn’t it have been simpler to have just picked everything off at once?” Primrose asked.

“Nah, because now I’ve got it down to a system.”

Sure enough the leaves were flying off the stems until they began to smoke, and not just from the hellfire coming from his hooves. Before Primrose could tell him to slow down, Rubi was already finished and blowing out the stems like birthday candles.

This left an unfortunate amount of waiting for Rubi as Primrose still had half of his pile left to go and wasn’t willing to risk any more incidental flames from damaging the integrity of the flowers. He kicked his little hooves off the side of the table as time went on.

“You think I could sneak a sample of the ambrosia once we’re done?” Rubi wondered aloud.

“Perhaps, but they still haven’t let the last succubun who tried out of the hospital.” Primrose said flatly.

Rubi nearly fell off the table in shock! Was this ambrosia secretly some kind of heavenly poison? Could his sinful body not handle such a divine concoction? He wondered this and more in awe and fear until he heard a little noise. It was something he hadn’t seen before and didn’t expect to. Primrose was stifling a laugh!

“I jest. Nothing bad would come of it, but for succubuns who have tried it they’ve very rarely been impressed. It’s not as strong as alcohol… or Beanny’s brews.”

Rubi was ticked off for having fallen for the jape but couldn't say it wasn’t funny. His annoyance wore off in time for him to move on to the next step of the ambrosia making process anyways.

“I will leave you to mash the petals as I work on extracting the nectar. Make sure to stir the stems boiling on the pot every five minutes.” Primrose instructs and leaves an egg timer actually shaped like an egg on the counter.

With a salute from Rubi the cherubun went to the back room to conduct his secret art for making the transformative ambrosia. Rubi tried listening up against the door with his big ears but only heard a loud banging and got scared.

Returning to his station was fine by him. He enjoyed making a mash out of the petals. It felt like good training for the mochi he’s wanted to try making. Mmmmm mochi. Rubi’s train of thought began to drift until the sudden ringing of the timer went off and shocked him. Rubi raced over to the pot and stirred the stems. It smelled earthy and a little yucky, but the consistency was like over cooked spaghetti noodles. Mmmmmm spaghetti. This time the smell kept him from getting too hungry.

About a half hour of going back and forth between pounding the petals and stirring the stems went by before Primrose returned with a bottle of nectar and a crick in his neck. He carefully inspected the work and deemed it satisfactory.

“Nice work. Now we can move on to the final steps.”

Primrose took the lead in brewing this test batch as Rubi gathered his ingredients for him. The heavenly hare rolled out a large golden cauldron with wing shaped handles and mixed everything together. He sang a little rhyming prayer as he stirred, and Rubi manned the bellows gleefully to keep the fires burning hot.

“Cauldron boil, pop and bubble. Let’s get this batch out on the double!” Rubi chanted.
 
Eventually the Ambrosia was ready for the taste test. Primrose blew on a small spoonful of it before taking a sip and looked quite pleased. He then lowered the spoon down towards Rubi. This was it. The fruits of all his past labors coming towards him like an airplane or perhaps a train depending on the noises one made while bringing the spoon closer. He stood on his hoof tips and took the long awaited sip.

“... are you okay?” Primrose’s voice came to Rubi’s ears as he regained consciousness.

“Am I in heaven?” He asked, seeing the haloed figure above him.

“Relative to the rest of your life, yes I suppose this is heaven.”

“Good.” Rubi said and began to reclose his eyes until Primrose shook him to lucidity.

Rubi finally remembered the drink being very okay, sweet and creamy but not very bold, but the intensity of the moment had his brimstone heart burning into overdrive. It was all worth the effort, the pain, the humiliation, and the walking. The two of them spent the rest of the day making more batches of ambrosia for the cherubuns to enjoy for quite some time. After he had cooled down and sat down on the balloon heading back to his burrow he felt deeply satisfied after all his time spent there and sleepy. So sleepy in fact that he didn’t notice the little virtue that had followed him and tagged along, appreciating all of his hard work.