Book 3: Chapter 106 (2/2)

Mary turned her head. The creature was bubbling like boiling water, losing its form. It turned into a large droplet of jellylike substance before collapsing in on its own weight, bloody liquid seeping into the earth. Mary pouted, and her stomach growled. “Why is it so hard to find food?”

“I actually have food,” Tafel said. “Why don’t we stop here and I’ll cook you some?”

Mary’s eyes widened. “We’ve been hunting for nearly an hour. Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

Tafel raised an eyebrow. “I thought you wanted to catch and cook something by yourself,” she said and reached into a portal, taking out a lump of ice. Inside, there was a frozen cut of meat. “Isn’t that what you said?”

“I just want to eat!” Mary cut down a dead tree and turned it into two makeshift benches. She gathered the branches and tossed them into a neat pile for Tafel to use as firewood. Her brow furrowed. “I just want to eat a properly cooked meal. Properly. Cooked. You can cook, right?”

“You know, once you eat enough of it, you get a little used to raw meat,” Tafel said while melting the chunk of ice in her hands. “Alice’s cooking is terrible, I’ll admit. And it took me an extremely long time to get used to it, but at least, she … tries?” Tafel sighed. “Yeah. There’s no redeeming her cooking.” She turned to the empress and handed her the cut of meat. “Can you cook?”

Mary shook her head. “There are always people around to feed me. And when there aren’t, I walk until I find nice-smelling food.”

“Are you a dog?” Tafel took the cut of meat back and adding a block of wood onto the pile of branches before setting it on fire. She took out a pot from a portal and placed it on top of the fire before adding water. A generous fistful of salt was dumped into the water.

“Wait.” Mary pointed at the pot. “Is that … mithril?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” Tafel nodded and added the meat.

Mary’s eyes widened. “Why…, no, how? Wait. The fire. Mithril should stop heat. Will it cook?”

“They’re phoenix flames, so yeah,” Tafel said and nodded.

“Won’t the branches turn to ash really fast?” Mary asked.

“I added some firewood,” Tafel said with a grimace. “Don’t worry.”

“What kind of wood can—”

Tafel sighed. “Don’t ask. It hurts me to think about it too.” She shook her head. “All of this stuff comes from Vur’s grandmother’s kitchen. Well, not the meat. I’m afraid of what she’ll have stored away. I don’t want to eat something, think it’s delicious, and find out it came from an extinct creature when I want some more.”

“Baaa.”

Mary grabbed Chi’Rururp and thrusted it behind herself without looking. The bleating stopped, and something toppled over. Mary put Chi’Rururp down, her gaze firmly locked onto the mithril pot of water that was starting to boil. Tafel stared at the dissolving sheep creature behind Mary. Then she shrugged and resumed cooking, adding some vegetables to the pot.