The cool wine breeze set a few stray hairs dancing around the periphery of Askatla’s vision as she gazed absently past her cousin at the pond separating the front manor and its hillside vineyards from the rear orchards. A pair of mules laden with hundred kilo baskets of apples and pears picked their way along the packed dirt path, their solar panels glinting as they left the shade of the wood and passed oaken barrels of Pinot Noir and Gamay waiting to be carted to the presses. The flexing of their sky coloured skin bulged rhythmically as pressurised fluid pumped between fibrous tubules in an approximation of muscular contraction, providing a smoother and quieter gait than wheels or the hydraulic piston legs found on industrial machines. At a fork in the path, they turned away from the raised cedar gazebo where the two women sat lunching and clopped down the path eastward toward the distillery barn.

“Lưu Ly-ちゃん、これ試してみて！”1 Her cousin’s inviting voice brought her attention back to the table spread with boxes lacquered in black and gold outlined crimson beneath which pooled furoshiki Yūzen dyed with momiji, hanasusuki, and golden ginkgo. Serviettes embroidered with similar notes rounded out the set…