A Picnic in the Park

Posted on Tue 22nd Apr, 2025 @ 9:20am by Khellian s'Siedhri MD & Makila i'Hartelhai & Lieutenant Damion Ildaran

837 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble
Location: Tivoli Gardens River Walk
Timeline: MD 3, 1845

Previously ...

A teapot sat steaming in the center and, as soon as Damion and Elizabeth were within a pleasant speaking distance, Makila offered, "Tea, it's a herbal oolong blend?"

Accepting a cup carefully, Elizabeth let the aroma drift past her nose. "Oh, that's lovely!" she exclaimed.

"Try this, Damion," Elizabeth encouraged. "It might be better than my own blend, and you like that."

"It smells good," Damion agreed as he took a sniff. "Yes, I'd like some, please."

Makila blushed at the praise and flicked her eyes down towards the cup that she was pouring into.

"There are a lot of people in the park today," Elizabeth said, glancing around them, taking small sips of the Romulan tea blend. "Do you know if we have hit someone's national holiday? Or are we just lucky to all have the same idea on the same evening?"

"It was a craftsman's holiday on Romulus, corresponding to the end of the harvest and the beginning of the ease of winter. Not quite a solstice celebration, which is a high holiday. But definitely fun to celebrate if you're say a country doctor." Khellian was in a fine mood, and he smiled at the two who were taking tea with his daughter. He took the cup she offered him automatically and sipped it so that she might be able to enjoy hers as the official hostess. "This is a lovely blend," he commented after he turned it over in his mouth. There were notes of flowers that were present on the sniff in gentle sweet wisps of steam, but on the tongue it was first coolly herbal then sweetly floral tempered by the warmth of the oolong.

"It's delightful," Elizabeth agreed. "I'm glad to know about the holiday, and we're fortunate we decided to have a picnic of sorts today, as well. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves." She glanced around at blankets and small tables set up not far away. "I like that it's sort of low-key."

"It's kind of a soft holiday" Makila commented, grinning at the humans.

"How do you celebrate the solstice?" Damion asked as he settled himself down on the blanket.

"Which of us are you asking?" Makila asked in return "Myself or Papa?"

"Both of you. Either," Damion said. "I was born in an underground city, so for much of my life, seasons didn't really have any meaning. We grew crops year-round in our hydroponics lab. We had holidays that were holdovers from when we lived on the surface, but there wasn't deep meaning attached to them. That's why I'm curious about your solstice celebrations."

"I grew up in safehouses and starships" Makila chuckled softly. "I don't have as much attachment to the solstice, or its celebrations. It's different when you grow up in a tiny river village on Romulus, right papa?"

"Mmm." Khellian agreed absently, before turning to the group. "The solstices used to be considered high feast days. When I was a boy, my favorite solstice was that of Water, corresponding to Spring and change. That was when the feast day included the declarations of apprenticeships, marriages and promotions. It was a day of food and celebrations.

"So your people took the change aspect to heart," Damion said. He thought for a moment. "We pretty much did everything like marriages and apprenticeships all year 'round--except we'd give gifts to each other at Christmas and decorate everything in red and green--not sure why. And we would drink nog, but the only way you could get that was from a replicator, so it was special, and we had it only two days of the year."

"Papa. Wasn't there a significance to certain festival days?"

"Oh yes, solstices that corresponded with certain meterological events were considered especially special. Eclipses in any part for example, meteor showers, solar flares or what on Earth is called the Aurora Borealis. They were revered in a way that defies explanation. I still get a cold chill at the idea of meteorological phenomena, but I was a simple country doctor. " The tone of his voice changed somewhat as he smiled at Makila "I have few regrets, but the fact that you didn't grow up with your culture around you is one small one. I wish I could have taught you more of it. "

"I understand it Papa, I just don't cling to it in the same way. I think it's beautiful." Makila replied with a gentle intensity to her voice. "There are many facets of our culture that are worth saving."

"You are right daughter, and in this case I would praise the mixture of tea. A long-standing tradition of hospitality that has brought to us new friends ". He raised his cup to both Damion and Elizabeth before finishing the dregs of the liquid in it and beginning the third pour off the leaves in the pot.


Ruth: this wasn't truly finished, but I felt it a beautiful look into the lives of all. I shall post it in it's incompleteness.

 

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