She Is Not a Witch

Tisilan Mountain Range at night, Rabbit-Eared School.

Bright candlelight shone through the classroom windows, with shadows moving inside. The flickering light in the night mountain range looked like twinkling stars.

The students, who should have gone home after school, had stayed today. After informing their families, they remained at school to participate in evening activities.

Several 12-13 year old children were kneading fist-sized dough on the table. Mira and Elia occasionally passed by, telling them how to knead the dough.

Actually, they had just learned this themselves, taught by Loranhil. The silver-haired girl had tied up her hair and rolled up her sleeves. Her fair wrists pressed on the round dough, occasionally sprinkling some flour on the table to prevent sticking.

Today, Loranhil was teaching these rabbits how to make dumplings. The first step, of course, was kneading the dough.

First, they cleaned the tables and prepared tools like bowls. Then they poured flour into clean bowls, added an appropriate amount of salt, and prepared cold water. They slowly added water while stirring the flour by hand, ensuring even distribution. (Cold water makes the dumpling skin less likely to break)

When most of the flour had turned into small flakes, they stopped adding water. They pressed these snow-like flour flakes by hand to roughly form a ball, then picked up the ball and continued kneading it on the table. If the dough was too soft, they kept sprinkling flour on the table and mixing it in. When the hardness felt about right, they stopped adding flour.

They continued kneading until there was no raw flour left in the dough (i.e., powdery, not fully incorporated), and the texture was soft and uniform. Then they shaped the dough into a ring and continuously rolled it into a long strip.

After rolling it into a white strip, Loranhil stood at the table with a group of children watching around her. She smiled and took out a small knife.

She used the knife to cut the white flour strip into small cylindrical pieces, each about the same length and width, looking like little cubes from afar.

“Then turn each small piece over, yes, like this, into a thick round cake, and then use a thick wooden stick to roll it flat.”

As Loranhil spoke, she used a small rolling pin to roll a small piece of dough into a round dumpling skin, then held up the finished round skin for everyone to see.

“How amazing~”

“Your Highness is so skilled~”

“I want to try too.”

A group of children widened their eyes, looking at the round dough skin in her hand.

Like humans, the rabbit-eared tribe mostly used flour simply baked into bread in the past. They rarely made various shapes like the silver-haired girl was demonstrating, so many children wanted to try it themselves.

“Everyone can try it themselves,” Loranhil encouraged, and then a group of children surrounded Mira and Elia, asking for rolling pins.

But no one had thought of this beforehand, and the two rabbit-eared girls didn’t know what to do. Seeing this, Loranhil simply took out her ‘witch’s staff’—the wooden stick she had picked up that morning.

With a few flashes of red light, the slender wooden staff was cut into several pieces, enough for a few students to share one, finally solving the problem.

The rabbits present imitated her, some kneading dough, some rolling strips, some cutting pieces, some rolling out skins. They divided the tasks, and when some got bored, they switched jobs with others to experience different steps.

Although the little rabbits rolled out skins of various sizes, they were generally usable. Even oddly shaped ones were fine; they could be kneaded back together and reworked.

While this group of children was excitedly trying, Loranhil also instructed Mira and Elia to prepare the dumpling filling. She then moved back and forth between several tables, checking the progress of each group. If any little rabbit didn’t know how to do something, she would teach them hands-on.

By the time the students present had mostly finished rolling out the skins, the two rabbit-eared girls also brought the prepared dumpling fillings. One bowl contained corn and radish filling, another mushroom and meat filling, and of course, the infamous chive and egg filling.

At this point, the children gathered around Loranhil again to watch how she operated.

“First, lay the skin on your palm, then use a spoon to scoop out some filling and place it in the center of the skin. Don’t be greedy and put too much filling, or it will burst.”

Loranhil demonstrated, placing a spoonful of corn and radish pieces inside. Then she dipped her fingertip in a nearby bowl of water, moistened half the edge of the dumpling skin, folded it over into a half-moon shape, and placed it on the table.

“This is the simplest way to wrap~” Loranhil said happily. She had started learning this way too.

“But I hope you won’t be constrained by tradition. Actually, as long as you wrap the filling with the skin, it’s fine.”

After saying this, Loranhil quickly began wrapping dumplings. Soon, 7-8 different shapes of dumplings appeared on the table.

Some were triangular, some square with a cross-shaped seal in the middle, some looked like starfish with five sides and edges, some like buns with a ring-shaped seal in the middle, some like ingots folded over with the two corners pinched together, and some had layered seals like willow leaves, very cute.

Every time Loranhil created a new shape, the children would cheer, then watch her eagerly, hoping to see new forms.

“Alright, alright, don’t look at me anymore. I only know these. Now you can try yourselves.”

After making about twenty different shapes, looking at the various interesting and cute dumplings, Loranhil felt her inspiration running dry. She could only smile helplessly and let the children try on their own.

The children present cheered and began to experiment themselves, each with wild imaginations. Some even felt one skin wasn’t enough and used two together. Some creations could hardly be called dumplings; ‘pastry’ might be more appropriate.

But the silver-haired girl didn’t stop them. As long as it was edible, why constrain everyone’s ideas?

Finally, they brought a large pot, added clear water, and slowly started cooking, batch by batch.

While waiting, to pass the time, Loranhil sat with these children and began telling fairy tales.

“…And so, the ice fairy princess named Snow White fled the crystal castle and met seven beast-folk.”

“Were there any rabbit-eared people?” one child asked with interest.

“Yes, yes, one of them was from the rabbit-eared tribe. There were also fox-eared, ram-horned, leopard-headed… and bull-headed tribes,” Loranhil gestured.

“…Although the beast-folk saved Snow White princess again and again, in the end, Snow White princess ate the poisoned apple and had to be placed in a crystal coffin.”

“…Just then, a human prince came by. His kiss awakened the princess, and then they married.”

“…The angry queen came to attend the wedding but was punished by the prince, forced to wear red-hot iron shoes and dance until she died.”

“Finally, the prince and princess married. The prince became king, and the princess became the new queen. They established a country where humans and elves lived together.”

“Alright, that’s the end of the story. Does anyone have anything to say?” Loranhil asked.

“I want a magic mirror. When I can’t do my homework, I can ask it,” said a studious rabbit.

“I want that crystal coffin. No matter how badly I’m hurt, I can lie in it and wait for someone to rescue me.”

“I want those dance shoes. If I don’t like someone, I can make them dance to death~” a little rabbit said mischievously.

“What an amazing story~”

“It seems like I’ve heard a similar legend somewhere.”

“No need to think about it, this is just a witch’s story, right?” a knowledgeable little rabbit announced proudly.

“Alright, next I’ll tell another story. It’s the story of the little match girl,” Loranhil announced, clapping her hands.

“Yay~” the children cheered in unison.