I think there’s a new life form evolving in my fridge.

Timeline/World: Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Tebryn Abaeir
Race: Drow
Age: 67, physically about 25
Final Word Count: 546 words

---

I’m not sure how we missed it. It’s not like we keep a lot of extra stuff in there unless we’ve just recently grocery shopped.

So these two containers at the far back, sitting innocently behind everything else, I really don’t know how long they’ve been in there and I’m not about to wake Maro to ask him about them. I don’t normally get up in the middle of the night for snacks but this night was just one of those things and I needed something to nibble on. These containers though, I can tell there’s something off about them. I can’t even remember where they came from because we don’t have anything like that in our cupboards.

Do I pull them out and throw them out, sit them on the counter and wait until this likely life form tells me to put it back in the fridge where it’s cool? I might just pull them out and bag them so we can try to figure out just what they were, if the containers are salvageable and if we can try to recall who might have left us these very containers because I’m going to feel sort of bad for having missed out on potential food left by one of the few friends we have.

I’m not very picky when it comes to food, that comes from having had to eat what I could after I was kicked out of the house and it wasn’t always pleasant and tasty food, furthest from. I could even say it was actually quite the opposite. Most of the time, the stuff I could find or afford was like trying to chug back a gallon of milk that is well over its due date. It never sat very well, it took some time to be digested but it did tide me over until hunger would make itself known again later on but that is a life of the past and I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

This potential life form growing at the back of the fridge though, I’m really going to have to figure it out because I’m just not sure as to how it happened. If it evolves to the point of having a mind of its own, I’m not sure I’ll be able to throw it out; I’d feel terrible, wasting perfectly good sentient gross-food like that. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s gonna go in the trash one way or another in the morning and I’ll feel no remorse. I’m pretty sure it’ll help that sorta weird smell that’s been sitting in the fridge for a while. I’m glad I found it now and not just later.

For now, I guess these containers are just going to go into this bag, which I’m trying absolutely shut and they can sit at the forefront of the fridge until morning. When the light is there and we can try to figure these things out easier, we will, for now, what appetite I had is gone so I guess I’m just going to take a glass of water and wander on back to bed to settle back into the warm spot I’ve left behind, not sure it’ll be warm still but that’s just something else to fuss about.

We can’t eat all of them.

Timeline/World: Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Ren Akiyama
Race: Human
Age: 33, physically about 27
Final Word Count: 528 words

---

I don’t like waste. In the general sense that I don’t like wasting things, wasting food by throwing uneaten stuff away, throwing out a still perfectly good shirt that could have been turned into a rag, these sorts of things. I imagine I’m not the only one like that and that’s fine, we were all raised to a life where there’s no trash and only recycling.

I might be a bit obsessive about it, not in a push-push-push way but in a way that I’ll make sure to measure everything just perfectly so that there is either only enough for two healthy portions or enough to double the recipe so there’s enough left over to share. The idea of there just being enough for a bite or two extra left behind in the bowl after the plates have been served just sits wrong with me. I admit it hasn’t happened in a really long time though. So I have nothing to complain about and no reason to really fuss.

The only exceptions I’m willing to make to this particular mindset are cookies, bars or anything else that can easily be sat in a jar and eaten later. When we bake cookies, they’re usually baked by the dozens and we share some because there’s just too many to store and eat later, we don’t have the room.

This exception also happens to be a thing when the apples start to fall out of the trees out back. While I love gathering a lot to give to the horses, most of them end up being cut to pieces and turned into dessert. Pies, butters, sauce, you name it, we’ve made most everything we could think of as far as apples are concerned and I’m not as picky about quantities, then. It’s easy to share these simple delights with those who want them and it’s warming to see the smile on their faces when it’s that time of the year.

I guess I could be that way with most any dessert made with any fruit we have on hand but we have apple trees all over the yard. I can’t even honestly recall why, I think the yard already had one or two when we settled in, we just planted more and now, well now we have more apples than we actually know what to do with so I can’t really complain about how the idea worked out in a general way. I love apples, I just know I can’t eat them all and sharing is a good way to make sure that not a single one of them goes to waste.

The horses also love all the extra apples we pack up for them, they work wonderfully well as treats though several tend to slobber like there’s a tap left open somewhere when given an apple and I’ve had to make note of which horse to give what to and which not to give what to. That took some time and patience but it’s been worth it for the flick of those ears when they hear me come up to them with the bag of treats, it’s just really great.