The Qiqirn Kitchen!

Once Upon a Time, Part 3 March 18, 2008

Back in Nashmau, the devastated Qiqirn were harassed by even their fellow villagers, who blamed the loss of a potential Qiqirn Karakul wool monopoly on the poor Wawaroon.

“Ooh, Urghoom is more like Urhgloom!”, she cried, retreating back into the family hut. It was not long before she drifted into a long, long sleep.

From then on, Wawaroon was haunted by nightmares of a scary woman with evil, red eyes, and she vowed never to cook professionally again. Instead, she busied herself with her children, to whom she taught the basic techniques of cooking, sniffing, and tasting…This was much to the delight of the local fast food restaurant, Tacotaru, whose franchises were fast taking over Vana’diel.

Not long after these nightmares began, there were reports of Lamiae gathering outside the outskirts of Nashmau, forcing the Qiqirn shepherds to stay indoors and freezing Nashmau’s entire economy. Looking from the top of the city walls, Wawaroon stared out into the sea of chimera before her.

The newly crowned Queen of the Chimera, Lady Medusa II, stared right back, shrieking with bloodlust.

“We smell the blood of our own upon your wretched paws! Sinner, you have desecrated the body of our sister, the great Medusa I! We demand compensation!”.

Suddenly it all made sense. The snake meat had not been snake at all! Rather, it had been the tail of a Lamia queen. Wawaroon could not forgive herself for her lapse of stupidity– only Qiqirn are left unharmed by their charms or their poisons, explaining why the Lamiae never bothered to attack Nashmau previously. A Medusa’s blood, however, was especially toxic— even after years of boiling, it would petrify any non-Qiqirn in a matter of seconds.

“We demand your firrrrst child as sacrifice, Qiqirn! Refuse, and we shall wipe you rodents from all of Urghum!”, hissed Medusa as she prepared her bow.

Wawaroon had no choice but to acquiesce. And so, Wawaroon’s first son, Kukuroon (named after her favorite cooking ingredient, the Kazham Kukuru Bean), was left to the mists of Arrapago and to the mercy of the Lamiae.