Bebe Populous left the Sunset Valley book shop slightly shaking.  She had just spent her life savings on a rare book and was both excited and terrified.  She had either made the best purchase she had ever made or wasted money she could have spent on building an extension to her home on a vanity project, a frivolity.

Bebe rushed straight to the library to read her purchase.  When she’d discovered there was a copy of the rare book in the book shop’s cellar, she simply had to get her hands on it.  She had learned a lot about the customs, folklore and nature of the region – and the unusual things you could find were her reasons for moving here.  So far, with the life fruit, flame fruit and robot fish the Valley was proving to be just as wonderful as she’d hoped.

Annalise and Cameron had given their mother the fish they didn’t want to keep in their perfect aquarium for her to use to sell, cook, experiment on or fertlilise the garden with.  However, she was thrilled to find in their haul a couple of huge black fish – which she believed to be the rare Deathfish she’d heard about.  They were said to be the kiss of death for plant life but they had other uses that Bebe really needed.  She sent Brad out immediately to plant them in the omni plant so that she could have a steady supply.

With the Deathfish ready, she went back to her book, to the rare recipe book that had cost her so much.  She was trembling.  What if it was just folklore?  What really were the chances of this recipe doing what the legends said?  She could only hope, only try, but she felt a little sick.  The moment was here, the moment that could change her life or crush her dreams.  She followed the recipe very carefully, chopping the Deathfish and life fruit in exactly the right quantities, mixing them to just the right consistency, monitoring the oven carefully.  She was so anxious to get it exactly right.

At last she held it in the palm of her hand, the fabled Ambrosia.  It gave off glowing vapours of steam and smelt like nothing she’d ever experienced, a perfume of sea and sun and sweetness.

She began to eat.  The sensation was incredible: sweet, sour, salt, bitter, umami, all at once. Her tastebuds tingled with the honey sweetened sourness, the salty, meaty juciness.  It was a taste she couldn’t describe adequately, as if every flavour in the world had combined in perfect harmony to provide the most amazing meal it was possible to ever taste.

As she stood, her body was enveloped in a mist of perfumed, coloured vapours, like those the food gave off.  She felt renewed, younger, energised, as if every cell in her body was regenerating – and if the rumours about the properties of this dish were true, then this was exactly what was happening to her.  She wondered whether she’d be able to share her discoveries at work.  This could change the whole world – but she also knew that the ethics of sharing her discovery could be dangerous – she’d been eating fished deemed poisonous, obtaining books that were out of print for a reason.  Would the Valley scientists, the world’s scientists, really accept or support the idea that people could live for ever?

For now, Bebe Populous would keep this discovery to herself, but one thing was for sure – her plans had suddenly become a whole lot more ambitious…

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