"A lot can be really...complicated." Ted sighed as he leaned back against the tree trunk.

"Ssssoooo ttthhheeeyyyy'rrreee hhhaaarrrdddeeeerrrr tttooooooo rrreeeemmmmeeeemmmbbbeeerrr?" Bakade commented as she hugged her legs against her body.

Ted scratched his nose. "Yep. It boils down to water, sugar, and yeast, but specific things get pretty complicated."

"Wwwwhhhaaattt'sss aaaannnn eeexxxaaammmpplllleeee?" She asked as the lightning cracked silently above them.

"One time I wanted to make absinthe." Ted admitted.

"Wwwwhhhaaattt'sss ttthhaaattt?" Bakade asked as she tilted her head.

"In simplest terms, it's basically a kind of minty black licorice flavored alcohol, but it's so much more than that." Ted said as he stretched his arms back behind his back. "La fée verte, the green fairy. There was always this crazy mystery around it. Like it was some mystical drink that could unlock untold creativity with just a sip."

Ted paused a moment and closed his eyes. He smiled to himself. As if a drink could magically cure all of his problems and take him to some heightened level of consciousness. But, it was still nice to dream.

"It couldn't, of course, but I decided to try anyway." He kept his eyes shut as he spoke.

"Sssooo yyyooouuu mmmaaadddeee iiittt iiinnnssstteeeaaadd ooofff bbbuuuyyyyiiinnnggg ssssoooommmeee?" Bakade asked.

"It's a strange thing." He continued. "Absinthe has a lot of rituals surrounding it that involve patience and waiting. Like how you traditionally serve it is about an ounce of pure absinthe, then you put a sugar cube onto a fork or special absinthe spoon filled with holes. Carefully you take water and pour it over the sugar cube until it's soaked. Then you stop. You let it slowly drip, until it loses its moisture, and then add more water to the sugar cube. It can be slow, and supposedly helps the absinthe flavors. But in the end, with one or two ounces of water, the sugar cube should be dissolved. Then you have your drink."

"Wwwhhhyyy aalll ttthhaaattt iiinnnssstteeeaaadd ooofff aaaa sssiiimmmpplllleee sssyyyrrruuuppp? Dddiiiddd iiittt rrrreeeaallllyyy mmmaaakkkeee aaaa dddiiiffffeeerrreeennnccceee?" She asked while she scratched her antler.

"Probably not. It's just the idea that makes it different, you know?" Ted said with a smile. "Sort of like how my uncle needed to distill outside in the woods. Doing it inside probably wouldn't have made it any better or worse. It was just part of his ritual."

Ted took in a deep breath and shook his head. "But, the waiting is kind of why I wanted to make my own absinthe. The slow patient approach, but I couldn't tell you everything it needed. There were a lot of ingredients that needed to be added at different times and in slightly different ways."

"Tttooooooo ccccooommmpppllliiicccaaattteeeddd ttttooo mmmaaaakkkeee hhhheeerrreee?" She asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, not to mention needing a lot of niche ingredients." He swayed his head back and forth as he wrestled with his thoughts on the drink's complicated nature. "Grand wormwood, star anise, and fennel. That's the core of absinthe. But it can be really finicky. It's easy to make it too strong, or too weak. But it isn't that hard to make really."

Ted seemed to be thinking more as he pushed off of the tree trunk and lied out on the dirt ground. It wasn't that bad to experiment now and then, was it? Maybe he could...

"But it had some legal issues, more than other drinks. It's known for being a hallucinogen, thanks to the wormwood in it. It was made illegal just about everywhere a hundred years before I was born." Ted thought about the foil smelling, bitter brown liquid and smiled. "It was to the point that the original recipes for it were all lost. So, it was just reproductions and imitations really, thought some old ones apparently used snails so maybe not a huge loss."

Bakade looked over at Ted as she fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. "Sssnnnaaaiiilllsss? Iiissss ttthhaaattt rrreeaalllyy sssooo wwweeeiiirrddd?"

Ted raised his eyebrows as he thought about it. "I suppose not. Just feels wrong to mix in absinthe for some reason. Maybe I just don't see snails and a dainty green fairy mixing. Even though the drink is anything but dainty. Especially if you take it without the sugar and ice water."

"Ttthhaaattt sssstttrrrooonnnggg?"

"It's one of the stronger ones, and has no real sweetness on its own. Just a vibrant green color. But it was strange. There was some thu...something that gave it the hallucinogenic stuff in wormwood, but that's only in grand wormwood. There's other kinds without it."

"Aaannnddd yyyooouuu nnnneeeeddddeeddd ttthhheee gggrrraaannnddd kkkiiinnnddd, rrriiiggghhhttt?"

Ted smirked. "Of course! It was also surprisingly not illegal or really regulated at all. You supposedly couldn't get any with that in a bar, but liquor stores could sell absinthe with that, and you could buy it on your own no problem. So, I searched and found a recipe that seemed go. It had a mix of spices to go with it, and I used moonshine, and mixed the herb mix with some of that. I aged it, and then strained the spices out, and distilled that. Then I mixed the grand wormwood with more moonshine, and combined that with the other distilled stuff. Maybe some water to dilute it, but that's it. They all sat with the stuff to age, but it varied."

"Hhhooowww wwwaasss iiittt?"

Ted let out a laugh. "Absolutely awful! So bitter and foul it made my stomach lurch the moment it touched my tongue. It took me a full year of experimenting to actually get something I liked."

"Ssssoooo wwwhhhyyy cccaaannn'ttt yyyooouuu dddoo ttthhaaattt hhheeerrree? Iiisss iiittt jjjuuusssttt ttthhheee iiiinnnggggrrreeedddiiieeeennntttsss?"

Ted sighed. "Honestly? Without some sort of guide directing me, I don't feel confident enough to take a crack at something so potentially volatile. Even if I had the ingredients, I don't think I'd try it again. With a solid guide it was still a year of supplies and work to get something decent. Without that...well, who knows. Maybe it'd take me twenty years to get a good recipe for it."

"Ssssoooo? Wwwhhhyyy nnnoottt tttrrryyy aaannnyyywwwaaayyy?"

Ted sat up and looked over at Bakade. He was trying to think of a way to work his thoughts right, but even he wasn't really sure what they were. "I don't... it's not...without..." Finally he let out a frustrated sigh and plopped back down onto his back. "It's not that easy."

"Wwwhhhyyy nnnoottt?"

Ted sighed again as he realized she was going to keep bugging him until he could figure out a better way to explain it all to her.