A Picnic of Sensations - Naleeah's lesson

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**A rewritten excerpt of a picnic between Naleeah, Celebrant of Sharess, and Erliza, a Lliiran**

Naleeah and Erliza had joined each other on the shore of a lake in Semberholme, and set out a picnic for one of their weekly outings together.

Naleeah reaches into her bag to pull out a few assorted finger foods, setting them out upon the blanket - cubes of bread, cheese, and cake, along with a jar of candied cherries, and lastly, a bottle of wine. She then brings out smaller jars of condiments, and jams, also laying them out. The collection of condiments to accompany the food bits is various, and leaves quite a bit to their concocting, "What we are going to do, is to feed each other, love."

"Okay," Erliza a little, nodding some as she watches the food get laid out, "That, that doesn't sound too complicated."

"We can take turns, in using the foods in combinations we think would please each other, like..." The Sharessan smiles, "This one is cheating, for it is an easy one." she says, dipping one of the candied cherries into a tiny pot of chocolate sauce, and then, with a smile, proffers it to Erliza's lips, "It can be sweet... it can be savory, or it can be both. It is your imagination to combine the flavors."

The rogue woman giggles a little, and leans forward to accept the chocolate cherry, wrapping her lips around it. Naleeah smiles, watching her lover enjoy the bite, nodding, "Now, your turn."

"I might be boring my first go and start off with something... something safe," Says Erliza, looking over the gathered ingredients before she picks out some of the cheese, and bread, before pausing and adding a small dollop of a cream to it, some dipping sauce in all likelihood, leaning forward to offer it to the woman looking a little embarrassed to have been so predictable.

Regardless, the Sharessan smiles at the woman, eyes twinkling in approval as she leans into the offered bite, closing her lips around it, drawing it out of her fingers to chew it. "Mmm... pleasant," she says, "Now... "

Naleeah picks up another cube of cheese and smears a little bit of red, spicy jelly, and she offers it to Erliza. "This time, we go for the savory. It is a pepper jelly, a bit spicy, yes? But it compliments the creaminess of the cheese nicely."

Erliza grins, leaning forward again, to take a bite, her face screwing a little at the spicy side of the jelly — not unhappily, though she does look to the wine a moment.

The Sharessan notes the woman's reaction to the heat of the jelly, and dips her finger into a jar of heavy condensed cream, proffering the finger, "It is not the wine, that will quench the heat, it is milk that will do it."

The rogue giggles a little, leaning forward to lick the cream off the finger before shaking her head a little and leaning in to steal a quick kiss, "I... I have to disagree... I'm feeling a lot... hotter now than before."

Naleeah titters at the flirt, replying, "The key to this picnic, and the lesson of it, is not fear to explore a new taste. New sensations can only be had, by being brave enough to sample the unfamiliar."

Erliza does not break the repeated pecks upon the Calishite's lips, even as her hands dig among the condiments for stuff, right now trusting to her thieving ways to find what she is looking for, "I... I see so hmm..." she takes the jelly just used on her, a stick of celery and the chocolate, covering one half of the stick in the jelly, and the other half she dips in the chocolate, offer it to her lover.

Pleased at the effort, the dusky woman leans in to take a single bite from each end, first the sweet, chewing for a few seconds, then the other, letting the lingering of the chocolate taint the flavor of the spicy. She then takes the hand holding the offering in hers, proffering the remaining two bites to Erliza, encouraging her to do the same.

She does, through starts with the spicy side, before taking a bite of the chocolate, grinning a little, "It's milky for the cooling down."

Naleeah nods, watching her lover savor the bite, as the Sharessan now reaches for a bread cube. "Now, close your eyes, lover."

The rogue does so, and take a deep breath before she closes her eyes, leaning against Naleeah now and waiting to see what happens, not entirely sure she believes that it will, in fact, be bread that is used now. The Sharessan gingerly lay the bread cube back down, and instead picks up a marinated olive from a jar, proffering this bite to the woman."

The rogue blinks at the taste, though not unpleasantly, and chews the offered morsel, lips drawing into a smirk.

"And sometimes," says the Sharessan, "If we approach an unknown experience with expectation, it can color the true sensation, perhaps even disappoint."

"Okay," the rogue mulls around the selections, "This time I have no idea what it will taste like." She giggles picks up a bread cube and two toppings at random of a very diverse texture and flavor.

Naleeah beams brightly at the adventurous spirit of the combinations now, leaning in, taking a bite out of the cube neatly with her teeth, and leaving the other half for Erliza. The rogue takes a bite with her eyes closed, not expecting much, and not being surprised as she makes a face at the taste. "So," the rogue continues the odd face as she finishes the bite, "Lets not try that one again."

"And if the experience, is not pleasing," The Sharessan teaches from this sampling, "then you are still richer for having chanced the sensation. And wiser, so as not to choose the same experience again," she adds with a grin.

They would continue to explore taste and texture in various combinations, til they'd had their fill.