Hunter for Liberty

"The infamous Phantom Snatchers, whispered ghosts across the dominions — a band of rogues stealing from the corrupt. Elusive like ghost, always gone with the wind. They live by secrecy and hushed silence." Faith read the headlines on their town's public news page aloud as her older sister was setting up the table with 3 plates of French toasts drizzled with their very own home made plant-based honey from the beautiful dandelions she grows in her garden. They're morning delight as always, topped with fresh wild blueberries she harvested earlier after her religiously practiced early morning meditation. "Good lord, across dominions? They're HUGE deal apparently." Liberty commented in a soft sarcastic tone doing a sing-song delivery on the word apparently while shaking her head slightly. Faith laughed softly and stood up as her sister sat down and took a sip of the chamomile tea she have just finished preparing. She walked towards the cupboard to fetch 3 sets of fork and knives calling her cousin's name aloud announcing breakfast is served as she walks by their shared bedroom on her way back to the patio where they usually eat breakfast watching as the sun rises. "Here, do you think they'd ever catch these rogues hiding behind the Alias, Phantom Snatchers?" she asked as she handed her sister a set of fork and knife putting emphasis on the Phantom snatchers by adding air Quotes. "Good morning, most beautiful people this town has ever had." Chaste greeted as she sat down her chair. "Hmm... fancy as always" she remarked contented, savoring her own tea, all smile head shaking, face basking in the tendrils of sunbeams peeking through trees as Faith sat down thankful to see Chaste in such a state of blissful peace. "Yes. Fancy, like the Alias these mysterious rogues earned." Liberty remarked as she watches the silky smooth honey sliding down the side of her French toast, right where she drew her knife to get her first bite of sweetness for the day. Not that there will be lots more sweetness to expect since forever. "Oh yes, I heard. Phantom Snatchers was it?" Chaste clarified as she set her tea cup down to eat her own plate of toasts. "U-huh, and to answer your question Faith, I don't know really. Has anyone ever caught a ghost?" Liberty answered rhetorically glancing at Faith briefly. When she saw that her sister was busy cutting her own bite of toast she took a quick look at Chaste who was meeting her smug look briefly, knowingly. Then, they both proceeded to eating and pretending there were no looks exchanged between them lest, the oblivious Faith notices. "Well, I don't know either and honestly, I don't care that much. It's not like they'd be rummaging through our humble tree house for fortune." Faith answered back gesturing to their small but cozy home. "That, they'd never do. I am sure of it sweet Faith." Chaste remarked earning a light laugh from everyone. They finished breakfast and started on house chores so they can move on to preparing next week deliveries around town and in the city proper. They're little handmade small business has reach some sort of recognition last May when they organized floral arrangements and a dessert bar for a lovely couple's wedding who was a family to their first ever patron. Photos of the event were posted online and shared amongst the couple's family and visitors alike. Although they were happy about the positive remarks and appreciation to the services they offer, they never wanted to be famous. They only wanted to be able to live a normal, quiet and sustainable life so despite the high demands of acquaintances telling them to create an online store, they never did. Emails from close acquaintances should be enough. It's only the 5th of November. Sunday morning, one of the busiest of all days of the week. After breakfast, Chaste took the dirty dishes to the sink for Faith to wash. They always had routines, scheduled tasks that made life seem more organized than it ever was. While Faith washes the dirty dishes, Liberty browses emails to double check if they had the correct list of people with orders and that any last minute order would be included. Chaste does the same checking her personal messages to finalize the orders sent to her number and later print out receipts. By the time they were all done with their respective tasks, It was time to deliberate high priority orders and low priority orders based on location, purpose and availability of orders following Faith's early morning inventory run record. "I scouted lots of wild blueberries by the creek today. We can cover Ms. Lilibeth's 3 dozens blueberry muffins and 5 Blueberry cheesecakes tomorrow at 8am with a few extras to offer at the market." Faith declared putting Ms. Lilibeth's receipt under high priority order lane making it their first high priority order for Monday. Ms. Lilibeth was one of their patrons ever since Chaste brought her blueberry cheesecake at the town Christmas Party on their first year in town. The kind lady said if they could supply her cakes and pastries she wouldn't struggle selling them in her famous coffeeshop so they ended up being partners with her. One of the best accidents to ever happen to them considering there aren't many "good natured" accidents they had to deal with. "What about honey, lemons and jasmines? Sister Anna ringed me last night, said an important benefactor is coming to the orphanage this coming Wednesday." Chaste asked looking for Sister Anna's name on the receipts she had printed. "Yeah, Mr. Hobs put in an order for tomorrow, a basket of lemons too so I guess they'll all we can consider in terms of lemons for now." Liberty butted-in placing Mr. Hob's order under high priority orders for Monday. "Yeah, I think we could harvest at least 2 basketfuls of lemons tomorrow, the rest needs more time to be ready for harvest." Faith informed them. "Actually Sister Anna ordered just 2 boxes of lemon bars, 5 jars of honey and a hundred bags of Lemon-Jasmine tea." Chaste clarified, informing the two that there should be enough lemons for their own use until the next harvest. "Well that's a breather since we still have 3 boxes full of lemon-jasmine tea." Faith declared relieved that they have lots of lemon to dry in the next days to prepare more lemon-jasmine teas. Honestly they do offer other loose organic teas but lemon-jasmine has always been a crowd favorite. Anyway, a box has 10 packets of 100 pcs. teabags so yeah, no problem there. Faith placed Sister Anna's receipt under high priority orders for Wednesday. After deliberating baked goods and teas, it was time to deliberate on flowers and scented candles, these are also crowd favorites. They handpicks each flower orders and deliver them fresh to Ms. Florence's flower shop and a several more houses around town. By the time they finish it was nearly lunch so Chaste moved over to the kitchen to tend to their lunch meal while Liberty and Faith finalizes the order sorting and checking stock records for a list of the materials they have to pick-up from the market after making their deliveries. There isn't much stocks or materials they have to buy anyway. Usually, the materials they buy are for packaging, jars for honey, the glasses for scented candles and a few jewelry making materials for Liberty's online jewelry shop she plans on launching January next year. By the time every receipt was sorted, they decided to clean the receiving area which houses the second hand sofa they would use as table while they sat down the thick and soft handmade chunky crocheted carpet made by Faith and Chaste one boring day. Liberty picked up crumpled pieces of papers, gathered every record books and pens and piled them up on the center table. Faith took a pen and Chaste's recipe notebook to confirm the ingredients they had to harvest from the garden. "Smells good..." Faith trailed off savoring the smell of creamy pasta sauce and that earthy sautéed mushrooms Liberty picked up in the forest from her yesterday's run. "Could you pass me the rack of dried spices?" Chaste asked her and she obliged willingly, knowing her cousin has this strange relationship with herbs, spices and flavors that works magic on her palate each time her food touches her tongue. Ugh! She can't wait to taste that lunch! "I'm famished." She said gesturing to her stomach and it earned a light laugh from Chaste. "Almost done, just a few minutes and the pasta is ready." Chaste reassured her turning off the stove for the sauce. "Questions for me?" Chaste asked knowingly. "Yeah, so how much blueberry do we need for that muffin and cheesecake?" Faith asked ready with her notepad and pen. After their question-answer on ingredients the pasta was ready so they laid the table and ate a creamy and hearty meal. There was even buttery and garlicky bread on the side that made lunch so satisfying. "I'm so full!" Faith declared to which Liberty replied, "You're not the only one." and they all laughed at how Liberty is stroking her belly in rounds shaking her head, eyes closed and lips smiling satisfactorily. "Have to remain standing for my food to settle down." Liberty jokes and adds, "Dishes are mine, got to burn yummy calories." She declared standing up and starting to clean after her plate. "I don't know if you're thankful that I cook for you or you're forced to like the food I prepare just because I am your sweetest cousin." Chaste joked standing up too, helping Liberty clean up the table. "You're really not that sweet and you're literally the only cousin I have alright, but trust me, if it wasn't truthfully that good? I wouldn't mind skipping lunch." Liberty replied smirking. "Well, glad to know at least my cooking is sweet." Chaste remarked smirking back at Liberty. "And I, am going to prepare the baskets and tools for our harvest later after our well desrved noon time siesta." Faith announced moaning sleepily and skipping occasionally to the front door to head to the shed. "I'll help you in a bit." Chaste calls back transferring left over sauce and pasta to their respective containers. Faith looked back and replied "Ok" with a smile. Yes, Chaste doesn't mix pasta and sauce because they spoil easily when put in the fridge mixed and it's harder to heat up an already mixed pasta and sauce. She likes her carbonara or spaghetti saucy and not dry and she hates overcooked pasta. When they're stored separately she can just heat up the sauce, take the pasta out the fridge while waiting for the sauce to heat-up to warm it up without overcooking and pouring in the heated sauce so it's ready for consumption without overcooking or burning. "Ah... so SHE IS actually SWEET." Liberty playfully jabbed at Chaste which earned her playfully raised eyebrow in response. "Got to go, Faith awaits!" Chaste jokes mouthing "pun intended" which made them both laugh as she closes the door walking outside. Liberty's hearty laughter is echoing her happy smile as she walks over to the shed to help Faith with harvest preparations. "Glad you made it." Faith joked grinning and Chaste responded with a slow curtsy which looked even more silly as she's not even wearing a dress. They proceeded with the task at hand in harmony and soft conversation and Faith couldn't help but think, it was nice ending up in this small town, at the most isolated corner with the two remaining family she would ever have. And somehow that was enough, at least for now.