275: Celebration
Entering any major city now put me on edge, and the thought of this one was no different. Despite Liane and Luis saying I’d love it, it only took one troublemaker lord and any chance of getting cooking done was over.
Looking back to Luis, though I wanted to ask, “What happens in Elarith Vale? Are you leaving us there?”
He nodded, “Yeah, for a while. I’ll likely join you all when you head back to the capital eventually, but I need to visit the surrounding towns and do my checks. It’ll also take some time to really look at Elarith Vale.”
“So, this will be the last night we have everyone together?” I asked.
Luis laughed, “For now, yes. I don’t think we’ve worked out what will happen with Gilain yet. I’ll try to make him come with me, of course, though without the threat of Lily, I don’t know how successful that will be. Only my father could really match him.”
This was the first time Luis had mentioned Marcus since we set out on this journey. I knew that everyone in the family besides Amber were heading in different directions, though I really didn’t know where everyone was going. I assumed they were going to cover all the corners. This wasn’t the place to ask, however.
“I’ll have to make something nice for dinner then,” I murmured.
“Don’t trouble yourself, your meals have been more than fine!” Luis protested.
But I wasn’t really listening. This wasn’t an optional thing; I wanted to do this. I just didn’t know what to make. I would like to make Clacks a little meal as well, though most of what she has eaten so far has been raw or very lightly cooked. Could she even eat fully cooked fish?
Maybe I’d have a backup raw dish just in case.
“You ignored me just then, didn’t you?” Luis laughed.
“Oh, sorry, I was just thinking,” I said, again not really paying much attention.
Looking down, I noticed that Clacks was sitting on the edge of the nest, looking out towards the water’s edge.
“Be careful with this water, Clacks. It’s very deep and there are almost certainly predators in there,” I cautioned.
She let out a chirp as she looked at me. Then I noticed Crisplet also let off some sparks, making me feel like Crisplet had already warned her, though she still seemed to be fascinated by it.
I was starting to lean into the fact she could understand, so I would work under that assumption. “Hopefully, Clacks, we’ll find you a nice small stream you can practise your hunting in once we leave the city.”
Clacks let out a happy chirp and flapped her wings slightly.
Jen and Liane had taken a seat nearby during the conversation, with Liane joining in, “Be extra careful in every city; enemies often pretend to be your friend.”
The warning seemed out of place, but I saw Jen nodding, while Liane was looking down at Clacks.
Crisplet seemed to be listening because I saw a dark stream of black flame work through his body as the crowns started to form; he wasn’t doing it as a threat to anyone here, he was expressing safety and protection.
Clacks was looking between us all, and when I saw Crisplet I couldn’t help but smile.
“Crisplet is right, Clacks, if you’re ever in trouble just go to your brother Crisplet or big sister Lily,” I said.
I heard Jen let out a snort of laughter to my side.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing, Trev, sorry, it was just the thought of some foolish adventurer thinking he’s picking a fight with a baby bird only to come face to face with a furious Lily in protection mode; they’d pee themselves,” she said, again laughing.
“I still get chills thinking about the time she thought you were in danger; she made half of Grey Rock fall to the ground,” Liane added.
Clacks looked to be carefully listening to everything, moving her head to watch whoever was talking, then looking back at me.
“They are right, Lily is very powerful,” I smiled.
I noticed Clacks seemed to puff up again, as she let out a chirp.
Looking over I saw Milo was not far away, “Milo, tonight when we stop, could I please get a place to butcher the spikeback?”
“No problem at all,” Milo said, looking up from his book momentarily.
Once we made it back on the road, we really didn’t travel for much longer into the afternoon, before arriving at what I thought was an incomplete castle grounds. There was a giant stone wall surrounding a huge area that even had large metal gates, and a wall that actually had guards patrolling on it.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
We were quickly waved through, I noticed the whole area was open aside from a few groups with tents set up, from large ones that could fit a few people, to a couple of warriors looking like they just had a sheet hanging off the wall providing them minimal cover.
In fact, the only substantial structure here at all was a squared wooden building near the gate that had a training yard just outside the main door, so I had to assume it was the guard barracks.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“You can’t camp in someone’s field out here; you need to do it in designated locations, like this,” Jen gestured.
“And they don’t get upset when you set up a large building?” I asked looking around.
Jen shook her head, “Not at all, if anything you’ll have the people with bare bones shelters coming to Milo and asking if he can spare mana to make them a hut. Even when places like this are full, Milo’s built off the wall before, sitting above those below.”
I really wanted to see that, but it wasn’t going to be today as I saw Milo already near the back corner as stone started to come up from the ground.
He gathered a crowd of onlookers watching from a safe distance, and I noticed the few warriors I saw sleeping under a sheet had all made their way much closer.
The main building was in the middle with a central door, and I noticed that he had made stables for the horses on the left, while on the right must have been the room for the butchery. It was the same size as the stables, with no windows, no door to the outside, and I noticed small little drains forming at the base.
I didn’t waste any time. As soon as it was built, I went to the butchery room and pulled out the spikeback, which still managed to take up most of the room. Pulling out the knife, I made it much longer. I wasn’t going to complete everything today, but I would get what I need and remove the belly.
I started by removing the tail, as the ball on the end took up a quarter of the room on its own, and I didn’t plan on using it today, storing it away while not skinning it or removing any of the spikes.
Next, I started to remove the hind legs, again leaving them whole and removing the front arms. It was remarkable to see the front arms were incredibly bear-like, and the claws on them were the size of my forearm. I would need to remove them later; I’m sure they’d be valuable.
This left me with only the torso. It was only now that I noticed that Milo had created grooves in the floor that were funnelling off the blood.
“Lily, if you’re watching, could you help me turn this over?” I asked out loud.
She appeared almost instantly, and I heard Clacks to the side give a big chirp when she arrived.
It didn’t take her long before she flipped the carcass over so the belly was facing up. I wasn’t about to make the same mistake and be covered in organs.
Carefully, I removed the belly then started to remove the organs, separating them and storing them, until I got to the last few. I decided to use an ability I’d neglected forever, stock reduction, and when I removed the liver, I used the reduction turning it into a black spiked ball in my hand.
I repeated this for four more organs before I started to worry about the mana cost.
Once I had everything stored away, I was left with essentially the ribs, and the part I was after for this particular meal.
Carefully I removed the skin on this section of the body, along with the spikes along the back, storing it away for stocks later. Then I removed the tenderloin, which is what I would be using for dinner tonight.
The tenderloin was still rather large luckily, and would be perfect for what I had planned for dinner. Something I noticed while breaking the creature down was it seemed to be rather fatty like buvul, so it would likely make really good sausages, perhaps not great jerky though.
I was just about to enter the main house, collecting Clacks from the floor who gave me several happy chirps, and Crisplet who was following behind, having just finished burning the leftover blood and viscera off the floor.
When I ran into Milo, who had Jen right behind him,
“See! I told you he’d bring it straight into the house,” Jen said, confusing me.
Milo just let out a sigh, “Back in the room, Trev, I need to rinse you off or we’ll never hear the end of it!”
I couldn’t help but notice the grin on Milo’s face as he looked over his shoulder to make sure Jen heard it.
I didn’t mind, when even I could smell it, I knew it was bad. It seemed like every time I worked with large organs the smell was extra bad, so I placed Clacks back down on the floor and moved a few steps away, holding out my arms.
Milo quickly formed a large amount of water that crashed over me, then it was followed with a warm current of air that blew past me, drying me off rapidly. I noticed Crisplet was heating it too, giving the feeling of hot air that quickly dried me off entirely.
“Thanks!” I said happily again, picking up Clacks.
I only noticed for a split second the fist-size ball of water that had been forming inside Clacks’ nest, before it came rushing out and hitting me right in the face.
It didn’t hurt at all, it just caught me by surprise, but it seemed it caught everyone else by surprise as well because everyone just looked at me stunned, before eventually Milo burst into laughter.
“I had my doubts initially, but you know what, I like Clacks,” Milo said, turning back into the house.
I heard Clacks letting out chirps in the nest as she hopped around in circles, moving her wings, as Crisplet pushed across happiness and joy.
Making sure to bring the nest up close, “Thanks Clacks.”
I was just happy the water was warm.
My plan for dinner was simple. I was going to make baked tubers, using some of the cheese I purchased all the way back in the capital, along with some butter. Then I was going to cut the spikeback tenderloin into large steaks, wrapping them with Drakon or Titan Boar Bacon, before cooking them, adding on a garlic grass and butter sauce.
For dessert, I was going to make sticky rolls, which was a regular roll mixture with some added sugar. Then, when I went to bake it, I’d place the mixture in a tray and pour a caramel mixture of sugar and butter between the gaps.
And for Clacks, I was going to take several of those river fish that Lily had collected and quickly clean them before adding a seasoning with fire salt. I’d make a light creamy sauce. In the event she couldn’t eat them cooked or didn’t like it, however, I would do a river fish sashimi and make a salty sauce to go with it.
Either way, no one would miss out. This was a celebration dinner, after all, so it needed to be special!
Another much smaller ball of water hit my cheek as Clacks let out a couple of loud chirps and started hopping around the nest, clearly impressed with herself.
I couldn’t be mad at her; she was too cute.