Wild Boar Stew

I bit my tongue and looked around the carriage. Despite all my injuries, I knew all I needed was one arm that was able to move, and two fingers able to curl, in order to shoot arrows. And I had far more than that.

“Of course!” Lotus offered.

“Well we’re certainly a little combative right now, aren’t we, Ray?” Caramine observed as she slithered into the wagon, blocking the whole entrance and anything resembling an escape path.

The rash on my face probably couldn’t mask my shock, but I decided to play dumb just in case. “What do you mean?”

Caramine smiled knowingly. “I am Caramine, although judging by your reaction you have already been briefed of the situation and my position by Lotus. I am here to explain your role in our venture for Ardesburg, and to clarify any misconceptions you may have about the deal and our band, Moonlight, as a whole.”

She glanced around the wagon, and I followed her gaze. There was nothing remotely resembling a bow. Either they hid it, or Lotus must’ve not been able to recover it from outside the cave. Either way, I was screwed if I needed to escape.

The typhin must’ve felt me give up, and she nodded. “We of Moonlight specialize in the metallurgical trade,” she said, “specifically of raw materials. Unrefined ore, excavated directly from our mines. There are nearly eighty of us traveling together, but hundreds more are working in our mines as we speak. Our trading partners are vampires and humans across the circumference of the great Aurum desert, mainly across the west, ranging from small independent merchants to the vampire city of Jaunpi to the south.

“Until recently, we have focused solely on this one horizontal, refining our trade, our tools for excavation and the science behind detecting arteries of gold and iron underground. We pay no heed to refineries and the trade of purified material. However, we are looking to change that. By establishing an alliance with Ardesburg, a human village far to the south, we are looking to expand vertically and to get a regular, reliable source of refined iron bars, and add that to our trade.

“Now, do you have any questions thus far? About Moonlight, or the business??”

“Do you do business with the six hunting villages in the Daemon lowlands?” I asked. Apple Valley was among those villages, but we sourced whatever refined iron and lead we needed from Mosston, where the blacksmith lived. A connection to Mosston would give me more confidence in this whole ordeal.

“Why yes we do, we conduct biannual trade with a couple of good folk in Mosston,” Caramine explained, as if reading my mind. “A curious bunch, they are. Always talking about tournaments, a bar fight the previous night, how many boars they slaughtered the past month.”

“Sounds like Mosston,” I said.

“Now that we have established the existence of at least one of our customers and therefore partial credibility, I’ll tell you about your role in our Ardesburg gambit,” Caramine continued. “There are several other villages near Ardesburg in a stretch of southern mountainous highland called the Caelus Mesa. Unfortunately, I have heard from the voice of the desert that some other typhin band has gone and nearly wiped out the population of wild guinea pigs and goats near at least one of those other villages, inducing a shortage of meat. Regardless of their motives, the humans of the Caelus Mesa now, understandably, view Typhins with great skepticism.

“Personally, I lead Moonlight such that we strive to be as transparent as possible, to ensure the longevity of our partnerships. I believe that dishonest mercantile relations will ultimately be discovered, resulting in downfall, no matter how clever the scheme. Our reputation alone has convinced Ardesburg to consider meeting us for the discussion of potential contracts, but we would need any help we could get to ensure that there are no misunderstandings and to bolster our trustworthiness.

“We are a few weeks out from the Caelus Mesa. During that time, I hope that we can demonstrate our legitimacy to you and Lotus, and have you vouch for our reliability when we reach the trading post. Does this sound clear?”

I nodded, acutely aware that although she appeared relaxed, Caramine’s slender body still completely blocked off the exit. She was no shorter than two meters long, imposing even among typhins.

“Good. Well then, I have prepared some rations for both of you. It is not much, but the desert is cruel, and we make the most of what we have. We are just a few days out from Outpost 66, where we shall replenish our supplies with non-perishable food, and water from our well. Then, it shall be about two weeks before we reach Ardesburg, assuming no setbacks along the way.”

Caramine slinked out of the carriage, her purple cloak rippling in the wind outdoors. In the distance, large rocks dotted the dunes. I wondered what they were. But soon, an exotic smell wafted towards the carriage. Pungent spices, and some game I couldn’t recognize.

“That smells delicious,” Lotus cried. Her lips glistened with anticipation. “I’ve been waiting for this for so long. Caramine said she’d prepare something special.”

“Oh?” I mumbled.

“I could run out and eat that right now,” Lotus continued. She poked her head outside the carriage. “Caramine! How long?”

“Another fifteen minutes. Patience, young one,” Caramine sung from somewhere to our left.

As promised, our meal was ready in fifteen minutes. Caramine brought in a lidded cauldron, holding it with a copious amount of beige fabric to protect her skin from the heat of the pot, then placed it on the floor of the carriage. She uncovered the pot, unveiling a thick and bright brown stew. I recognized the chunks of carrots and apple, but not the meat, thick chunks of which topped with milky caps of fat floated among the vegetables.

Lotus opened a few crates behind me, taking out two earthenware bowls and spoons. She’s clearly been doing this for a while. How long was I asleep?

“What is this?” she asked, salivating as she poured herself a heaping serving.

“Curry,” Caramine explained. “Made with a rich combination of over a dozen herbs and powders, made by people in lands beyond our own. They pack all of that alongside milk fat into these little cubes. Then, I simply throw a cube into soup. That creates the rich brown you see here. Hey, Lotus—Lotus, eat slower. You have sand in your bowl! Silly girl.”

Lotus spat out a mouthful of soup, before hastily mopping it up with her own tunic before a dumbfounded Caramine. “This is amazing,” she cried, before breaking into another fit of coughs. “Oh, I almost forgot to serve Ray. Here you go.”

She remembered to pour out the sand out of a second bowl before filling my portion, and put it next to where I laid, “Let me know if you need any help.”

I stared down into the soup. From the fibers on the meat, the animal must’ve been at least a meter long, and girthy at that. I wondered what it could possibly be as I propped myself up onto one of my elbows, then shimmied up painfully to a seated position. After catching my breath, I brought the bowl up to my mouth with my left hand and took a hearty drink.

I suddenly felt bad for grandma. By Accipitus, if I’m fortunate enough to return home one day and drink grandma’s vegetable stews, I’d just be thinking about “curry” instead.

“This is amazing,” I gasped. “What’s the meat?”

“Western hirsute boar,” Caramine explained.

The official name of monstrous pig. A creature known for goring unsuspecting villagers with meter-long ivory tusks. And for having poisonous meat.

Caramine broke out into a laugh as I stared into the stew, horrified.

“Ah, I probably should’ve explained,” she said. “The good folk of Mosston doubted me when I said it’s my favorite meat. I told them that they were simply processing it wrong. It turns out a majority of these beasts around your villages are infected with a tapeworm, which looks just like marbling. It’s the tapeworm that causes all the symptoms they complained about. As long as you are able to remove it and cook the meat thoroughly to remove any traces left over, there are no more issues. I have tried many creatures of this earth in my eighty-nine years, and there is nothing quite as good as a clean Western boar.”

I suddenly remembered that, about twelve years ago, Mosston came to the convention of villages and announced to everyone they wanted to specialize in and send their own hunters across the valley for boar hunting. The request was confusing, and there were a few concerns about safety from the villages farther from Mosston, but they eventually worked out some kind of deal. Because of that, there was now a nest of monstrous boars southwest of Mount Hyacinth, that Mosston had corralled together themselves. Now it made sense. I wondered if there were other monsters that tasted just as good, yet we were too stupid to eat them properly.

I tried bringing the bowl up to my face again, but was overcome with fits of pain. Lotus rushed over and caught my bowl before it could spill, and raised a spoon to my mouth. Once my breathing calmed down, she began feeding me.

So much for the best hunter in all of Apple Valley. Now I was a bedridden babe, kept alive by the grace of a waitress. Thank Accipitus that none of the villagers saw me.

We finished our lunch, and Caramine bade her farewells before slithering towards the rocks in the distance, rocks that I realized were actually the typhins, partially buried in the sand in order to sleep. She burrowed into the dunes as well, until all I could see from the carriage was a larger rock, next to so many other rocks. I was injured, lost, and still confused about how exactly I got here. But as far as I could tell, I was with a very welcoming host. Maybe this would all work out.