Chapter 320: Steamed Fish Diplomacy
Ren stood paralyzed at the bottom of the winding stone staircase, her breath catching painfully in her throat.
A sudden, horrifying wave of recognition washed over her. She knew exactly where they were. She had snuck down here before. And for her escape, she had unleashed a massive fire, injuring and killing countless of these snakes in the process.
Deep, nauseating guilt gnawed at Ren’s chest. She stared at the shifting mass of scales, wondering just how many of the survivors from that blazing fire were currently in this very bunch, silently plotting their revenge. She honestly wouldn’t even blame them for holding a grudge, but getting slowly devoured by a vengeful mob of reptiles was not how she wanted to die.
Syris stopped walking, noticing that she stopped. He looked at her pale face. "Do not fear them," Syris reassured her smoothly, his amethyst eyes calm. "They will not hurt you."
Ren swallowed a massive lump in her throat, refusing to take another step. "Did they tell you that?" she squeaked. "What if they secretly want revenge?"
Syris furrowed his brow, having no idea what she was talking about. Then, a spark of realization flashed across his handsome features. Many of these snakes had indeed burned to death or suffered terrible injuries because of her flames.
"Ah," Syris noted, his tone entirely too casual for the situation. "If you apologize wholeheartedly, they will forgive you."
Ren’s stomach dropped. ’Ah, so they might secretly want revenge then?’ She genuinely wanted to cry.
She took a cautious, trembling step backward. The instant her foot touched against the stone, a unified, deafening swell of loud hissing echoed through the icy cavern.
Ren gulped loudly, her heart hammering a frantic rhythm against her ribs. How in the world was she supposed to apologize to a bunch of scary-looking reptiles who can’t even talk?
"Syris," Ren pleaded, looking up at him with wide, desperate green eyes. "Can’t you just tell them for me?"
Syris shook his head, crossing his arms. "It is best if the apology comes directly from you."
Ren bit her bottom lip hard, her mind racing. Would they even understand human speech? Did she need to speak their specific language? Would she need to speak in... Parseltongue?
’I really should’ve watched more Harry Potter,’ Ren thought miserably to herself.
She took another step back, retreating up the first stone stair. "You know what, Syris, you go on ahead. I will wait for you right here. Take your time in the vault."
Syris sighed. He walked over, grabbed her arm with a gentle but inescapable grip, and pulled her forward to the edge of the writhing sea.
A shiver ran straight up Ren’s spine at the sheer proximity of the snakes. The sound of thousands of dry scales sliding over each other made her skin crawl with a million invisible bugs. Despite the freezing air causing her breath to mist in thick white clouds before her face, a nervous sweat broke out across her forehead. Her legs trembled.
"I might actually faint," Ren muttered, her vision swimming slightly.
She reluctantly tore her gaze away from the hypnotic, terrifying mass of reptiles to look up at Syris. "Will they even understand me?" she asked, her voice cracking.
Syris nodded confidently.
Ren gulped again. She looked at the snakes, then back at Syris, and then back at the snakes. She cleared her throat, her hands wringing nervously together in front of her dress. Her mind was far too scrambled with fear to conjure a poetic or sensible speech.
"Um... hi," Ren fumbled, her voice echoing awkwardly over the ice. "Listen, I am so, so incredibly sorry for catching you guys on fire the last time. I was just really scared, and I panicked, and I didn’t mean to kill or injure so many of your friends and family in the flames. I deeply regret my actions. I hope you can find it in your cold, scaly hearts to forgive me."
She stood there, holding her breath, waiting for a reaction.
The snakes just continued to coil and slither over each other, their forked tongues flicking the cold air. The ambient hissing didn’t change pitch or tone. Ren couldn’t tell if they had actually heard her, or if they were processing her words through their tiny reptile brains.
Ren looked over at Syris, desperate for translation. "Well? Did they accept my apology?"
Syris shrugged his broad shoulders. "Why do you think I can understand them?"
Ren stared at him, completely stunned. Her jaw dropped open. "Um... because you’re the Snake King?!"
How could he possibly be the King of the Snakes, ruling over all serpents, and not understand basic snake?!
Syris looked at her as if her logic was entirely flawed. "I am the King of snake beastmen in this territory," he explained patiently. "These are regular snakes. They chose to follow me here. They are beasts of instinct. I cannot understand their hisses any more than you can understand a frog."
Ren groaned, dragging both hands down her flushed face. This situation was really, really bad now. She had just confessed to mass arson to a silent mob of venomous creatures, and she had no idea if she was about to be forgiven or eaten alive!
Then, it occurred to Ren that the quickest, most foolproof way to gain genuine forgiveness from anyone, possibly even a sea of reptiles, was through their stomachs.
"Syris," Ren asked, her voice gaining a sudden edge of determination. "Do you have any fish? Like, lots and lots of fish?"
"Yes," Syris replied, confused by the sudden subject change. "Why?"
Ren took a deep breath, her green eyes locking determinedly onto the hissing horde. "Because I am going to apologize the only way I know best."
At Syris’s command, two guards stationed near the top of the stairs hurried away. They returned shortly, hauling two massive woven baskets filled to the brim with fresh, silvery fish from the swamp.
Ren peered into the baskets, doing quick math. She looked back at the sprawling sea of thousands of snakes.
"I’m going to need more," Ren stated flatly.
The guards scurried off again, returning moments later with two more overflowing baskets of fish.
"Are you planning on feeding them the fish?" Syris asked, arching an eyebrow.
To demonstrate, the King reached into the basket, pulled out a large, slick silver fish by the tail, and casually tossed it directly into the center of the horde. Instantly, an olive-green python shot out from the mass, unhinged its jaw and swallowed the fish whole in one gulp.
"You see," Syris noted smoothly. "They like fish."
Ren slapped his hand hard when he reached for a second one.
"Stop that!" Ren scolded, her pride flaring up to replace her fear. "I will not be feeding them raw, unseasoned food! That is downright savage! I am going to introduce them to the true beauty and tastiness of cooking!"
Syris rubbed his hand, looking at her as if she had lost her mind. "They are snakes, Ren."
"And they are my guests today!" Ren shot back. She pointed at the guards. "You two! Go fetch me as much dry firewood as you can carry!"
While the guards scrambled to obey, Ren quickly opened her System interface. She didn’t have many survival points left after her recent purchases, but she had just enough to buy a dozen large cartons of rich, premium coconut milk from the System Shop.
Ren pulled one of her biggest iron stockpots from her inventory.
The snake guards rushed back, dumping a massive pile of dry swamp-wood nearby. Using her trusty cast-iron skillet and a flint rock, Ren sparked a roaring fire beneath the giant pot. The heat of the flames hissed against the black ice, creating a thick blanket of steam around her ankles.
Fortunately, she had pillaged the foraging baskets earlier, so she had all the necessary aromatics already stored in her inventory.
"Alright, everyone, pay attention!" Ren announced to the cavern, her fear replaced by culinary focus. "Today, we are making Steamed Fish in a rich Coconut Milk broth!"
She got her knife and went to work on the first basket of fish. "I am scaling the fish so the flavors can properly penetrate the skin," Ren narrated loudly, tossing the cleaned fish into a wooden prep bowl. "However, since our scaly friends here swallow their prey whole, I am deliberately leaving the guts intact for optimal, natural nutritional value!"
Once a mountain of fish was scaled, she tossed a generous chunk of rendered animal fat into the hot stockpot. It sizzled beautifully.
"Now, we build the flavor base!" Ren declared. She tossed in large handfuls of minced garlic-root, crushed ginger-equivalents, and fragrant stalks of wild swamp-lemongrass. The intense, mouth-watering aroma of roasting garlic and spices instantly exploded into the freezing cavern, carrying on the mist.
The glorious, savory smell worked like magic. The sea of hissing snakes almost immediately quieted down. Thousands of little reptilian heads popped up from the coils, their forked tongues flicking the air in a frenzy as they tasted the incredible spices.
Ren poured the skins of premium coconut milk directly into the pot. The thick, creamy white liquid bubbled and simmered, turning a beautiful pale gold as it mixed with the roasted aromatics.
"The secret to a perfect steamed fish for reptiles," Ren explained, stirring the massive vat with a long wooden paddle, "is maintaining the structural integrity. We want maximum flavor absorption without turning the meat into mush."
She carefully lowered dozens of the scaled fish into the gently simmering coconut broth. She watched them closely, letting the rich, creamy liquid poach the fish just until the flesh turned opaque.
When she finally reached into the pot with a pair of wooden tongs and pulled the first fish out, she smiled in triumph. The fish held its shape perfectly without crumbling or squashing, yet the skin was glistening with the fragrant, spicy coconut glaze.
It was perfection.
Syris, completely hypnotized by the incredible smell, absentmindedly reached his hand out toward the steaming fish she held in the tongs.
Smack!
Ren slapped his hand away for the second time. "No! This is not for you!"
She turned away from her pouting husband and faced the sea of snakes. Even though their numbers were still very terrifying, they were completely calm now, their eyes locked onto her tongs.
Ren smiled warmly at the horde. "This is for my friends, to whom I am really, really sorry."
With a flick of her wrist, Ren tossed the steaming, perfectly coconut-glazed fish directly toward the waiting horde.