Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Do You Have The Paperwork For That?

Nom started to tell the story but Nay cut him off. “Yeah, it was one of those situations where it was beneficial for two species that you would normally think to be enemies to team up instead. And we’ve been best buds ever since.”

The tentacle gave her an annoyed look and she gave him a look back. She wasn’t sure how to convey that they shouldn’t just tell people they’re from other worlds, especially to people they just met, so she had interrupted him.

“Did you say ‘interdimensional’?” Alric asked.

Nom was still looking at Nay, trying to read her. He rephrased his original statement. “Oh, did I?” he said. “Well, I just assumed, I’d never seen anything like the riftw -- the weird…spider. You know how sometimes when you see something so weird part of you thinks, wow, that thing looks it came from another dimension.”

Alric frowned and shook his head. He had relit his pipe and was puffing away thoughtfully. “I’m used to seeing the strange and unusual, especially here in Stitchdale, so close to The Scar. The monsters found here tend to be more out of the ordinary.”

“There’s such a thing as ordinary monsters?” Nay asked.

“Down in the Peninsula, there are more common creatures.”

He was talking about monsters like someone back in her world would talk about wildlife or nature. Were monsters just part of life here? She was getting a sense that life was more dangerous here. They had only been here a few days and had been fighting for their lives ever since. To make it worse, she for sure didn’t have the skills to survive on her own. She was going to have to learn how to survive in this world, which not only meant she would have to learn how to defend herself, how to fight, but she had to get knowledge of this world here, the people, the skills to survive in the wilderness even.

She was hit with a wave of overwhelming thoughts.

Los Angeles could be a dangerous place, it was a city after all. But she never really had to worry about this stuff before. She carried her taser and bear mace on her, and there other people and police and a whole system to govern people from being completely lawless. Sure, sometimes these things compounded the problem, but there was a structure where a person didn’t have to worry about their life every day.

And there sure as hell weren’t any monsters. The only monsters from her world were human. But here? Monsters weren’t just humans. They were real. As real as cats and dogs.

“I’m hungry,” Nom said. “Nothing awakens an appetite like being frozen.”

“I have bread and cheese,” Alric said. “I could also make us a vegetable stew.”

Karka perked up at the talk of food. He didn’t seem to be like Nom. Nay didn’t think he could speak, and if he did, he hadn’t revealed it yet. But she had the feeling he didn’t. But he seemed to understand their words when the subject changed to food.

Nay perked up. “I can cook for us. If you’re kind enough to lend me your ingredients.”

Alric reached over and started pulling items out of his pack. A sack of vegetables, some bread and cheese. Little pouches of salt and spices. He laid them out for Nay. “All yours. I’ll get you some water.”

He took his own pot and started packing it with fresh snow, being careful to pick any leaves or twigs out of it. He set it by the fire to melt.

Nay examined the sack of vegetables. There were some potatoes and carrots. There was a yellow-white root vegetable that reminded her of pearl onions, but weren’t quite pearl onions. She tasted the spices by dabbing her finger into each pouch and licking her finger. Her sense of taste was still messed up. Perhaps it only revived when she was eating a Delicacy.

“Nom, come here and taste these,” she said. She dipped her finger in each pouch again and held it out for Nom to taste.

He tasted a yellow powder. “It’s savory and sweet. I think there’s clove in it.”

That was probably a ginger curry powder of sorts, Nay thought. Next was the spice that looked like crushed red pepper.

“Wow, that’s spicy. This brings the heat!” Nom said.

So that one was probably some kind of chili pepper. She was kind of impressed Alric was carrying around these spices. Salt sure. But to carry around some variety? Either he was a man of taste, or spices were a thing here.

“Why did you have him taste those?” Alric asked. “You don’t trust your own sense of taste?”

“My taste buds are shot.”

“What?”

“They’re gone. Where I come from, there was a disease that went through the population. It killed a lot of people. With others it just left them with weird side effects. It took my taste buds away.”

“A cook with no taste buds,” Alric mused, puffing more smoke. “Now that’s something I’ve never heard of. There’s a sense of twisted poetry to that.”

She took out her dagger and started preparing potatoes. She peeled some, setting the peeled potatoes to one side. Some others she just gave a rough chop and set to the other side. She threw both of the differently prepared potatoes into the pot of water melted from the snow. Then she added a generous amount of salt.

Next she chopped the carrots and peeled off the outer layer from the vegetables that resembled pearl onions. The stems of the roots were still attached and she made sure to slice those off.

As she prepared the vegetables, the wind whistled around them, but the snowfall had stopped.

It was still technically night for the stars were visible in the dark sky. Alric puffed on his pipe, Karka laid in front of the fire with eyes closed and Nom swayed in front of the warmth. Nay had never really been camping before but she imagined this is what winter camping must be like. Despite almost freezing to death, she was enjoying this moment, especially now that there was another human here.

“What does your church believe in? Do you worship a god or something?” Nay asked, while she fished out some of the peeled, boiled potatoes with a spoon.

Alric was pulled out of whatever thoughts he was focused on. He was more than happy to talk about this subject by how he livened up. “The Veritax believes in the All-Seeing Truth, Verity.”

“Is Verity a man or a woman?”

“The truth can appear as man or woman, person or beast. It chooses whichever manifestation it requires to communicate.”

“And what is the truth?”

“The opposite of lies.”

Nay looked up at him, smirking. “Well, no shit.” She used the hilt of the dagger to mash the potatoes. She took the mash and started to form them into patties.” Where I come from, people have different ideas about the truth. One man’s truth is another man’s lies.”

“That’s why the world needs Verity. To truly decipher one from the other.”

Nay drizzled some of the leftover olive oil into her own pot and set it on the fire. She regarded Alric with a skeptical look. “Churches telling people what to believe caused a lot of violence where I lived.”

“Violence is necessary when dealing with those who have no conscience.” Alric exhaled, forming the smoke into rings. “But I’m not man of violence. I mostly just keep the peace and help those who come to Verity for guidance. Monks of Veritax primarily just watch.”

“Watch what?” Nay asked. As the pot heated she set the mashed potato patties inside. There was a sizzle as they began to fry in the oil. Their little camp filled with the aroma of vegetable stew and frying potatoes.

“Veritax’s interests,” he said. “Which is mostly giving people access to the truth wherever they may be. That smells delicious, what is that?”

Nay looked down at the potatoes. “Oh, these are like some hashbrown things I’ve whipped up. I figured we’d want something crunchy with the stew. Shame there’s no meat. I’d be able to make a filling stock, then.”

“What about the Marrow?” Nom asked. “Some mushroom could go well with your soup.”

Alric’s head turned sharply towards Nom. He took the pipe out of his mouth. “Did you say Marrow?”

“What of it?” Nom said.

Nay studied Alric. Was this some type of taboo topic?

He looked between them both. ‘You are Marrow Eaters?”

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“I mean, bone marrow is pretty tasty if prepared correctly,” Nay said. “It’s like butter.”

Alric addressed Nom. “Is that what you meant? Bone marrow?”

Before Nay could try and give an answer, Nom said, “No. The Marrow the Steksis gave to us. I have a feeling it will be delicious. Go on, Nay, show him.”

So, it appeared there would be no hiding or skirting over this topic.

She sighed. She took the cloth out of her kit and unfolded it. A green glow radiated from the bio-mushroom in her hands. It had a truffle-like texture and scent.

The Truffle Marrow of The Steksis.

Alric stared at it in both fear and wonder. Even Karka opened his eyes and perked his head up to see.

“That is a Marrow!” Alric exclaimed. “Do you have the paperwork for that?”

“Paperwork?” Nay said.

“It’s illegal to possess and handle Marrows unless you have a permit.”

“Says who?”

“The DMA. The Delicatessa Marrow Authority. They control the acquiring, handling and distribution of Marrow and they are very strict.”

“How strict?”

“They will execute any unauthorized or illegal Marrow Eaters. Are you registered with the DMA?”

Nay and Nom looked at each other. “Do we have to answer that?”

Alric stood up at that. “By the nether hells.” He looked around, suddenly concerned if someone might be watching them. “Put that thing away before you get us all killed!”

“I seriously doubt anyone else is out here,” Nay said. “Look at where we’re at. We’re in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the winter holocaust.”

“We’ll put it away,” Nom said. “Put it away in our bellies.”

Alric spun towards Nom. He stood there, mouth open, in shock. Finally he shook his head and sat back down.

“If these things were so illegal to have, and someone was around to enforce it, I’m sure we would have already been slain,” Nom said. He turned to Nay. “So what do you think the best way to prepare this is? Something tells me if you fry it in some of that oil, sprinkled with some salt, it’ll be delish.”

Alric cursed and relit his pipe. He was muttering, “You are not privy to this, you are not privy to this.”

“That’s what I was thinking, too,” Nay said. “Although I wish we had some butter instead of oil, but we gotta work with what we have.”

She took the fried potato patties out of the pot and set them aside to cool. Then she rinsed the neon green mushroom with water from one of the skins and patted it dry. She gently set it in the oil that had some crispy fried potato bits floating in the puddles. She sprinkled it with salt.

“It already looks tasty,” Nom said. He swayed in front of the pot, wiggling his long tummy.

Green smoky light shined out of the pot, illuminating Nay and Nom’s faces.

A rich smell wafted out with it, smelling of the earth. Nom was salivating a little. She could already imagine the slippery but tangible texture in her mouth, and if she still had the use of her taste buds she’s sure there would be that wonderful umami flavor. She thought she would do anything to have working taste buds again. She turned the mushroom with a spoon to make sure all sides were getting evenly cooked.

Alric said something about the nether hells again and then pulled what looked like a bottle of spirits out of his pack.

“Have you been holding out on us, monk man?” Nay teased. “Is that alcohol?”

“Frostbite Ale,” he said. “Brewed by yours truly.”

“You brew your own beer?”

“Many abbeys have their own distilleries. It’s one of my jobs. How do you think Veritax raises funds? It’s been a profitable venture for centuries.”

“I guess monks do brew their own alcohol back where I’m from too.”

He popped the cap and took a swig.

“I want to try that,” Nay said.

“Me too,” said Nom. “But first, the Marrow. I want to see if it changes me like the Delicacy did.”

Alric touched his talisman and took a big swig of Frostbite Ale.

Nay removed the mushroom from the pot to let it cool. She checked the vegetable stew. It was done. She ladled servings for the three of them, each with a side of fried hashbrown patties. She gave Alric his food. He took a bite of the patty and his face was overtaken with joy. “By Verity’s sword! That is delicious! It’s so crunchy and satisfying.” He took another bite, amazed.

Nay took her dagger and carefully sliced the Truffle Marrow in half, releasing bright green juices that gleamed like a glow in the dark jello. She put Nom’s half on top of his hashbrown patty.

She plopped her half in her mouth.

Her taste buds rejuvenated for the moment, almost knocking her over with the intensity of the flavor. It filled her sinuses and nostrils much like the effect of a fragrant and strong horse radish. It burned but in a good way. It was like dousing umami and wine together and then setting it on fire.

Her vision spun and she fell to a knee.

Alric looked up, alarmed. “Are you okay?”

Lights exploded across her vision and the magical text appeared.

---

[Marrow Consumed!]

[Truffle Marrow of the Steksis Consumed!]

[Would you like to unlock Marrow Ability for Tongue of the Hierophant Y/N?]

[Delicacy: Tongue of the Hierophant]

[Opening Delicacy Tree]

[Marrow Abilities 0/12]

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