Wild Gourmet: Chapter 13

The cart was on the edge of falling apart by the time they got to the gate, but it made it. Brand marveled as Shemi moved to intercept Neil, who made a beeline for them from just inside the gates as soon as he heard the rickety sounds of the cart approaching.

“Shemi! Darvon was freaking out. You need to find him and tell him you are safe first thing.”

“I will. Say sorry to anyone else who was worried for me. I got a little caught up.”

“In what?”

“Being chased by a giant bear.” Shemi angled her head back toward the cart. “That one. Brand killed it, somehow.”

Neil’s eyes went wide as he realized the huge piece of cargo in the cart was a once-living thing. He ran over and lifted one of the giant paws, let it drop, and gaped at Brand.

“How?”

“I got lucky.” Brand said. “Really lucky. Now help me lift this thing. I’m going to cook it.”

“All of it?”

“Only if the best case doesn’t happen. Let’s go.”

The animal wasn’t easy to carry, but having two people on the job sped up the process considerably. Shou saw them on the way back and trotted up, shaking his head.

“Huge. What in the world are you even going to do with that?”

“Skin it, if I can. Butcher it, grill some, and smoke the rest. Although I don’t know if I can actually pull that off.”

“Sure you can.” Shemi said. “I’ll be back with Darvon in a few. He can build simple things really, really fast.”

“And I’ll be back with something to help with the skinning.” Shou said. “I’ll meet you at your place.”

Carrying a bear being what it was, everyone had arrived by the time Brand and Neil made it to the grill. That really meant everyone. Word got around fast that something interesting was happening, and the entire crew was there immediately, plus one person Brand didn’t know but who apparently had already heard all about him.

“Brand.”

The woman talking to him was, in a lot of ways, the most average-looking person he had ever seen. Or she would have been, in a picture. Her hair and eyes were brown, she was of average height, and her clothes were so standard to what he knew of the kingdom’s standard he would have hardly noticed them if he wasn’t noticing all of her at once in this way.

It was only the glint in her eyes that made her exceptional, but that was more than enough. She looked at the bear’s hide with something approaching the only pure greed Brand had ever seen, immediately laying her hand on the monster and pinching here and there as if testing for thickness.

“You have to let me have this hide.” The woman said. “I’m just getting started and I’ve barely even been able to sew together enough squirrel hides to make a shirt, so far. I can make… oh, so many things with a hide this big. I’ll make whatever you want. Just…”

“Calm down.” Brand stuck out his hand. “Of course you can have it. I’m Brand.”

“I’m Luisa.” She shook his hand back. “Thank you so much. Let’s talk about what you want.”

“Not yet.” Brand said. “There’s only so much time before sundown and we are going to need all of it.”

When Shou managed to get a word in edgewise, it turned out his surprise for helping Brand with the skinning was his own knife, plus a handful of rougher cutting instruments it looked like he had made from plain iron.

“I couldn’t make this normal knife anything like what I had made you, but it was good enough steel that I didn’t want it to go to waste. I spent all morning sharpening it. Feel, but be careful.”

Brand ran his finger lightly over the edge and gasped when the knife cut him immediately. Whatever Shou had done to it, he had managed to change the whole profile of the blade just enough to get it to ridiculous levels of sharpness. It was the kind of edge that wouldn’t last, but it was enough to get through one large job, if he was careful.

The whole town pitched in, much to Brand’s delight. What should have been hours of skinning and butchering was done in about forty-five minutes.