After many weeks, word of Girry’s Blue Crab Stew reached the surrounding solar systems, and within a few weeks, he was swimming in guests. Well, one guest. She was from an ocean planet, and her species is a type of blob made almost entirely of water.

  Quenchila is her name, lovely lady—

  Due to Girry’s new-found success, many new eyes looked at Billy, which meant there were at least that many who wanted to know where he came from. Since he had no reason to hide it, he graciously told them about the planet.

  However, because of that small oversight, he no longer had a monopoly on crabs. He did have the only recipe that made him so popular… unfortunately, it didn’t take too long for food lovers to figure out his secret ingredient. It was the essence of exactly one and a bit of a roly-poly frog.

  A curious amphibian species that evolved with no limbs. It moves by rolling and uses a long sticky tongue to catch prey. How it moves through water is also rather interesting. It actually swallows enough stones to sink to the bottom, then just rolls around.

  They’re actually from the vulgar planet that Girry orbits. I haven’t actually spoken about it, have I?

  Well, while the planet is rather vulgar, its residents are friendly. Even the wildlife. So friendly, in fact, that predators apologized to their prey before eating them, whilst prey informed predators about any sickness they currently have and how long to wait.

  The rolly polly frog is no exception. Although, due to its ambush nature, most of its prey die from shock when it apologizes. This has actually been considered rather rude by the rest of the planet’s inhabitants. Multiple complaints have been made against the frogs, but luckily, a video was recorded showing them to be extremely apologetic. Even going so far as sending flowers to friends and family of the now recently digested.

  Girry, apparently, never apologized for hunting the roly-poly frogs. As such, he has multiple fines under his name for multiple infractions of “Non-apologetic wildlife hunting.”

  Luckily for Girry, law enforcement’s jurisdiction ends at the planet’s stratosphere.

  Anyway, with his secret recipe being exposed to the entire universe, he decided to pack a bag, Billy, his favorite underwear, and a few rolls of quadruple-ply toilet paper before going hunting for new ingredients.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Once the ship was packed and their bowels emptied, they took off into deep space.

  There are an uncountable number of different planets orbiting all kinds of stars, from blue dwarfs to red giants. You’ll find ocean planets, lava planets, forest planets, and even cave planets. Probably—

  Either way, Girry and Billy, after a month of travel, found themselves on a planet orbiting a red dwarf sun at the perfect distance for life to flourish. It did, however, have rather aggressive ocean tides. This was due to the thirty-plus moons in orbit.

  Flora on the planet was a lush blue and a dark red, while the oceans had a slight greenish hue and glowed during the evening. The flora, however, didn’t get the memo on nighttime bioluminescence.

  There was a unique smell in the dense forest they landed in. It was heavy with citrus, coffee, and chlorine. Apart from the smell, the air was rich in oxygen.

  The two enjoyed the smells as they cautiously explored the area near the ship. In the few hours they explored, they saw many different creatures of all shapes and sizes. One in particular caught Girry’s attention. A lizard-like creature with black feathers, six limbs, a very short tail, and a small head with hairs in place of teeth.

  As he watched it, he learned that it scrapes and eats algae from tree leaves and rocks by using the hairs in its mouth. Unfortunately, he couldn’t observe it for much longer since Billy ate it, did a backflip, and waddled back to the ship to sleep.

  Girry grinned. “Well, if it’s good enough fer Billy, it’s good enough fer selling,” he muttered.

  So, he gathered as much algae as he could, set a basic trap with a net, placed some algae, and went back to the ship to set up camp. He made a fire, gathered water, and then heated up some leftover blue crab stew in a big pot.

  As the scent of stew filled his lungs, he watched the sun set, leaned back, and relaxed while watching the flying creatures scream at each other. They fought, cursed, and stole eggs as ocean creatures sprayed them with water, shouting at them to keep quiet.

  It was so peaceful that he slipped into a deep sleep and dreamed of all the new ingredients he’d find and potential new meals he could make. Billy, on the other hand, rolled around restlessly due to the noise.