Kitchen Nightmares
As the sun begins to set, you finally made up your mind to tell Vvulf about your cooking. While he may see it as "unworthy", you find that a proper meal is more than worth it. You wander over to his tent, where you find him sleeping on the same chair you last saw him. Walking right up to him, you decide to get a good look at the man now that he isn't in motion. He has a massive physique, the arm not covered by the wolf pelt is more than twice your arms. And it's not like you've got noodle arms, you got some muscle going on from your years of training! He may work with bombs, but you've got no doubt that he could crush an ogre's skull just with one hand. It's scary, but something about that power excites you. Still, there's two things about old warriors.One, they're more dangerous than anybody else, because they survived. Two, they are very light sleepers...
You notice a glint in his only half-closed eye, and realize that he's been looking at you intensely for a couple seconds now. You jump back in surprise, after which he opens his eyes completely. A hint of a smile is on his face, and he speaks:
What were you planning, girl? Trying to find some old wound? The gap in a dragon's scales? Better than you have tried.He rises up to his full height, his hands balled into fists. you try to remain calm in the face of this awakening storm
I was hoping to tell you something.He cocks his head to the side. He stops his walk towards you as you explain further.
I... am a cook. A very good cook, in fact. You wanted better food? Well, I can help you. I can cook everything from A to Z, even monsters!His demeanor quickly slackens. He smiles, and sits own again. The chair creaks under his weight, but holds. He takes a deep, seemingly satisfied, breath before saying:
The kitchens are slightly to the east of my bonfire. You get some proper meals in my boys and me, and then we'll talk again.I... don't want the camp to know me as just some cooking girl.Hardly my problem. Climb one of the poles and do your business there, if you need to. Trust me, people don't care that someone cooks, if anything, they like them all the more for it. At the end of the day, food counts for far more than how you swing a sharp stick. Now get out of here... I must to speak to the shaman.He retreats back inside his tent. You manage to catch a glimpse of this shaman, a man dressed in all white... stuff. You didn't get more than a flash, but you'll discover more later. Right now, you're just happy you get to cook again! No matter how much you liked the idea of a badass warrior, cooking remains one of your absolute favorite things to do, especially with dangerous beasts. The day somebody solved the giant spider cave problem for your village was amazing! That was the day everybody learned the healing, succulent wonders of bug-in-the-shell (or arachnid, in this case). You had to cut it up to avoid making it look like a boiled spider, but people were actually coming over from the city to taste that bit of cooking! That was one of the proudest days of your whole life.
You're pretty passionate about cooking, in short.
The sun is just about gone when you return to your tent. Karliah is already asleep when you enter. She looks a lot more peaceful like this. You follow her example, and climb in your new hammock. You undress yourself, and steal one of the furs that Karliah sleeps upon to cover yourself up. She doesn't wake up, and you can go to sleep. It doesn't come too easy, but eventually, you manage.
You awake earlier than most, and quickly get to work putting on your leather "armor". The harness at least makes you look like a warrior instead of a novelty prostitute. Wandering outside, you see most of the camp still waking up. You are about to begin the search for the fun guy from yesterday, but you notice him walking nearby with a spring in his step, whistling a tune, and carrying a hefty bag of gold. You skitter closer to him and tap him on the shoulder. He doesn't even flinch and turns around, looking quite smug.
Oh hey, what's up, Sid?Sid?Your name's Sydney, right? I figure Sid isn't that far off....Right. Ok, how do you feel about cooking?The people that do it around here should get shanked, but on the act itself i'm kinda neutral.You're gonna learn today. And you can't tell anybody about these lessons or I'll kill you.Kinda par for the course, I'm in.It's a little strange that he just keeps on smiling, looking a little lazy and smug. You get the idea that there's more to him than meets the eye. You then notice some blood on the bag of money he has.
I suppose silence speaks more than words.
You wait around for a while, but the guy you asked for never seemed to show up. You look around for a while, but as it turns out, he got killed shortly after you knocked him unconscious. Some sort of grudge after he beat up some other folks. You'll have to find another man to gather up some retards. Still, you prepare for later training by making some bolas. You briefly entertain the idea of a net, but it would take a very long time to make. A hammock was a couple hours of work, a weighted net will take far more. You don't have any enchanting skill to apply, so it won't automatically close like your father's old net. Some bolas are easy enough, but you've got too much on your plate (pun intended) to waste hours of time for one shoddy net.
The cooking lessons themselves are... private enough. Most of them seem to be utter idiots too small to convince someone else to do it for them. It takes quite some doing to teach them how to properly boil a potato, though they seem to have the peeling down pat. The guy you brought along, however, is a very fast learner. He seems to enjoy making the meal, as well, and you quickly put him in charge of the complete idiots as you teach the ones that show improvement the importance of spices and how everything with meat is probably edible. Apparently, they could have been catching fish from a nearby lakes for a while now, but didn't out of fear of it being poisonous. As there is almost no poisonous lake fish in this part of the country, this is infuriating to you. You tell the more useless ones to go catch some fish before the meal, while adding a flowery way of telling them that you'll use THEM as meat if they don't hurry.
With the raided vegetables and fruit, you figure you can make a fish soup. A thick type, with big chunks. That'll serve as a fine meal. There are far too many people in this camp for you to cook for, but you can cook for Vvulf and the lieutenants. Also the ones that get to the pot before it's empty, after that. You won't be serving, however. After about two hours, the idiots you sent to fish return, quite a few of them soaking wet, but they have fish. Salmon, in large amounts. It's perfect.
You show them how to make a proper soup, and finish up a large pot soon enough. It smells heavenly.
As the smells finally seem decent in the kitchen, luring all kinds of attention that isn't usually there, you skulk away. The clever guy can finish up on the cooking lesson. He seems more than happy to do so, keeping his eternal smug face. You move over to the massive fire in front of Vvulf's tent. You are starting to wonder how he keeps such a steady supply of wood, but you don't care that much. You notice that there is no free spot of chairs this time, meaning you need to make room for yourself. You eventually manage to wrestle up a spot next to one of the twins. The female one.
She does her best not to look at your spider body, and just focuses on the cooking pot brought before everyone. Bowls are filled, and the lieutenants are served. There are a total of 9, you included. Everyone has different markings, and oftentimes different colours. The soup is a resounding succes, and for what might be the first time, people actually got seconds. Even Vvulf seemed pleased, showing a smile in your direction. It's still kind of scary when he does it. Still, food proves to be an excellent motivator, and the hustle and bustle of the camp seems more lively than ever.
You have the rest of the day to keep yourself busy now, you probably need to find another schmuck to gather up a party of bandits. You've got the bolas ready to go back at your tent, however.
Level: 3
HP: 18/20
Mana: 10/10
Equipment:
Sharp studded leather armor
Leather harness
Steel sword
Wooden shield(Well-made)
Skills:
Poison Stinger (Potentially lethal)
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: excellent
Author
Topic: Web of Life: A Drider's Adventure (Ended) (Read 184962 times)