Chapter 40: The Outcasts (2)
Unlike her worries, the wanderers were easy to get along with. Despite Lester's grumpy face, he was still obedient and did as he was asked. But when she watched him kill the fish and simply put it in the stick, she couldn't help but scream out the stop that blasphemy.
"What are you doing?!" The girl yelled.
Lester was puzzled again. What does she want now?
What is her problem?
"You have to gut the fish first… Don't just put them on a stick like this," she complained. He didn't even care to remove the scales, as Lester thought they could just simply remove the outer layer after grilling. But the crispy skin was the best thing that she could enjoy!
What she witnessed was one of the biggest crimes you can commit to food, right next to boiling bread in plain water.
"Why bother? You will just eat the flesh anyway…" Lester retorted. He wanted to eat fish, but this girl whining was so fierce, he almost dropped the fish to the ground.
"Just listen to me, uncle! Don't waste the precious food like this!"
Arianell signed deeply.
She just prevented a disaster. The perches were hard to catch, she couldn't let them cook it in some horrendous way. If she looked away for a bit longer, the disaster could befall them. She went back to the river and found some mint and watercress growing around.
"What are you doing?!" Now it was Lester's turn to yell at her as she was reaching for the arrowhead. "That plant is poisonous, don't you know that?!"
"Only its sap is toxic, what I want is tubers under."
"You… you want to feed us roots?!"
"What now?! Don't tell me you are a prejudiced person. You run around killing magical beast, but is afraid to eat things from underground?"
Lester closed his mouth. What she said was true. He shrugged his shoulder and just let her be. He felt too old to argue with a little girl and his brother was surprisingly quiet all this time. He wondered what Jace could be thinking, but eventually gave up and went to sit next fire.
Everyone said that Lester's head was too small to be able of some proper thinking, and now he felt like they were always right. Due to his greediness, they were kicked out of the city, with nowhere to go but to wander in the wilderness.
Arianell dug out the tubers and cleaned them properly. She then peels and soaks them into the water to remove a harsh taste. She borrowed a pot from Jace and put some chopped fish and arrowhead inside, adding some water to cook a simple stew.
It was a crude way of preparing, but people always enjoyed the simple nature taste when camping out. She was sure that food would turn out to be delicious thanks to her secret ingredients – a seasoning made from salt and herbs.
"Who are you? Why would you bring a packet of seasoning with you?"
"To eat my snacks, of course. Uncle, you have a problem with it?" She loved to eat sour, unripe fruit, so the seasoned salt was a must-have item in her bag.
Lester and Arianell were bickering through the whole cooking time, while Jace just sat there silently attending to the fish. When the perch was grilled, Arianell sprinkled some seasonings over them and handed the stick to Lester.
Lester was hungry so he couldn't wait for it to cool down and bite into the flesh right away. He was speechless. The flavour of fire could be tasted from charred skin, but the flesh was juicy, and the mint stuffed into its belly made the meal light and fresh. It was the best fish he had ever eaten.
"Wow… This is so delicious! I doubt even king ate a better fish!"
Arianell was satisfied with their reaction.
Of course… Food needs to be tasty, otherwise, why should we eat it?
She served herself a bowl of fish stew and carefully sipped the broth. It was light, a little bit salty with a hint of bitterness. The properly cooked arrowheads, also called duck potato, taste like lily bulbs, their texture enjoyable and not soggy at all.
"This… What kind of magic is that?! It tastes so good!" Lester was amazed by tubers, completely forgetting about where they came from.
From their reaction, she could tell that the only reason why Westernians have a poor diet is because of their prejudice over land. Because she had read the book before, Arianell knows that the Goddess' curse doesn't exist. The dry land was the result of humans' activity and rooting out all the olea trees before.
"By the way… what is this place? Why are there so many holes?" Lester started to look around after the meal.
"Ah… I dig them, I'm planting oleas here, you see…"
Lester was baffled again. She cooked them a good meal, but she was indeed strange.
"Why would you do something so pointless?"
"Pointless? Don't you see my trees are growing well? By the time I'm at your age, the trees will be big. I will sell the wood and become rich."
Of course, she wasn't planning on selling anything. Her goal was to make an orchard, and then harvest the olive to produce oil.
"Yeah, sure… How you waste your time is not my business…" Lester waved his hand not caring anymore.
"Mister, why don't you get rich with me? Just stay here and plant the trees for me!"
"Why would I? I can't be idle like you, I'm a busy person!"
"Oh, so you know where would you go after this? If you have no destination in mind, why not stay here? There is a clean river with a lot of fish, you don't have to care about drinking water or food. Just camp it out until the summer ends… and in the meantime, plant some trees for me, I will pay you."
"You… will pay?"
"Well… I don't have money. But I can give you more food, you don't want to eat fish only for several months, do you?"
"It's not so easy, is it? You sound ridiculous!"
"What exactly is your problem again, uncle?"
Lester wanted to retort again, but Jace interrupted him. It was the first time he had spoken out since they met.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone