Chapter 19

  Cookie

  "So can I go see the core now?"

  My pestering doesn't seem to quite sway the Captain. "I don't know, little Hero. You're still technically an intruder ..."

  The crowd's dispersed back to their duties now that the fight is over, but we're back on the lower deck. Mostly because Ayre's two former guards are still adamant about finding the right outfit for him. The secret's out about him being a guy, too, but they just got more excited about the project when they learned that.

  I still have a feeling that would have been very different if they'd learned it while we were still enemies. Unfortunately, Ayre still can't understand their pirate gibberish, so the three of them are relegated to hand signs for communication.

  I'm off to the side with the Captain, persistent in my pleas. "Come on, I've shown I can beat you!"

  "Yes, but you didn't," she points out.

  I drop my head in thought and my gaze falls on my outfit. "Hey, I'm still dressed like a swabbie! You could pretend you're actually convinced I'm one of the crew and let me through!"

  That gets the woman's attention and she turns back to face me. "Yes, about that ... Where did you get it, anyway?"

  I reflexively swallow as I recall for myself, then nervously rub at the back of my head. "Ah, haha, funny story ... See, I lured a swabbie over with some loot and, um, kinda ... tied her up and took her stuff ... I'm sure she's still okay, dungeon monsters don't hurt other dungeon monsters, right?"

  At that, the Captain throws her head back and gives a long, hard laugh. "You stole from a pirate! And you claim you aren't fit for one, yourself!"

  I frown at the accusation. "It was part of a multi-step plan to rescue my friend. I wasn't stealing for personal gain!"

  "Aye, the 'noble pirate' excuse! Used it, myself, a few times!" She laughs some more.

  I'm worried my frown might be progressing into a pout, which will surely make her laugh all the harder, but she motions to one of the girls with Ayre. "Hey, Swabbie! Go get a couple others together and get that gullible fool back!"

  The girl jumps up and snaps a sharp salute with an, "Aye aye, Cap'n," and darts up the stairs.

  "And bring 'er some clothes!" the captain shouts after the swabbie, then turns back to us. "But really, what to do about you two ...?"

  Right at that time, my stomach decides to growl, drawing the attention of the other three people in the room.

  I can't do much but rub the back of my head in embarrassment again. "Sorry about that, been a while since we last ate ..."

  Guessing at what I was saying in Pirate, Ayre immediately speaks up. "It's been three hours!"

  "Oh, come on," I answer back normally, "those were kebabs on the way in! Those didn't count as anything but a snack!

  The captain has half a grin cracked. "Hungry, are ya? Well, we've got food. The core keeps us stocked up. Not much variety, though. To be honest, most of us give up on eating after a couple years of duty. Just kind of loses all taste after the hundredth time or so. Afraid I even dissolved Cookie's position. Frankly, she's better with a sword than she ever was with a knife, anyway."

  At the idea of a whole stock of ingredients, my focus snaps back to the captain. "Oh, I can cook! I've got the skill and everything! And I have a whole bunch of ingredients of my own none of you have ever tasted!"

  There's a light in the captain's eyes, but she doesn't yield to it yet. "I've traveled the whole sea border of the empire, little Hero. Ingredients I've never tasted is a big claim."

  "They're from my homeland," I insist. "Nobody in the empire but those I've shared them with have ever tried them. I've yet to encounter anyone who's even heard of them."

  She considers some more, but finally nods. "I suppose there's nothing to lose from letting you at the kitchen, but you'll have to cook for the whole crew. I'm not leaving any of my girls out if you're actually able to deliver."

  "Fair's fair," I agree. "Just show me to the galley! And let me take Ayre with me, I may need a second pair of hands if I'm cooking for everyone."

  *  *  *

  The galley is going to be like cooking in an RV. As big as the ship is, the stove is a two-burner affair and all of the pots and pans are crude, cheap or both. I frown and chew my lip as I try to figure out what I can even do with such limited space. I can only do a couple dishes at a time, three if I use the oven.

  A stew would be the easiest to do for so many people, but that feels like chickening out. I can only imagine that the large prep area is intended to be used to prepare an ongoing line of food to be cooked, and there's no intention of serving the entire crew at once. That would certainly broaden my options.

  On the upside, the captain wasn't kidding about them being fully stocked. There's a whole pantry of hard-crusted bread, barrels of small oranges I suspect are mandarins, dried, salted and canned fish of unfathomable varieties - no doubt all saltwater fish - and a mind-warping quantity of dry vegetables, nearly any kind that grows in the empire and can keep for long durations. Enough rice to feed an army is stockpiled in burlap sacks, as well.

  And, of course, lots and lots of alcohol, the only thing that shows any sign of recent use.

  ... Unfortunately, I can see immediately how quickly that must have led to most meals being fish and potatoes with onion and rice. If I had to eat that for a hundred years, I'd give up eating, too. Even if I had to do it, which I suspect the pirates don't.

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  Fortunately, I have some secret weapons of my own. It's mostly a question of what to do. I want to eat, too, so I don't want to spend all afternoon cooking.

  An easy choice is lemons. Somehow, the Empire doesn't have them. The closest they have is an import of citrons from the South, which tells me the hybridization process to reach lemons never happened here. Their tangy zest and distinct juice will be sure to create something that sticks out.

  I have a stock of rabbit meat, but I don't really want to spend the entirety of it, and would much rather use the fish. The thought of a casserole comes to mind, which would allow me to use an array of Essence vegetables, but I can't help but imagine that the pirates are well and truly sick of the chicken of the sea.

  I've pretty much settled on the dessert already. Bread pudding with lemon sauce will be easy to do en masse with all of this bread, and will use plenty of Essence ingredients for that extra kick. My milk and eggs are still fresh thanks to my storage space, too. They aren't Essence ingredients yet, but I made sure to build up a huge stockpile for our travels. I can spare to spend them here, even if it means paying out of pocket to restock them later.

  Unfortunately, that also cuts into another easy idea for the meal, itself. If I'm using so much bread as the dessert, then using more bread for a bunch of sub sandwiches would just be too much.

  I turn my mind back to the stew. Maybe it really would be a good idea. I have plenty of meat stock stored, too, so that would cut out the largest time sink. I would still have to use rabbit meat if I wanted it to have any meat in it at all, but I don't imagine the pirates would mind me replacing the spent meat with some of their fish stockpiles. Hopefully, it doesn't just vanish when I leave, but, again, meat is something I can replace.

  I find the biggest pot in the kitchen and fill it halfway with water, then get the heat going under it. Fortunately for the largely wooden ship, it uses fire stones to generate it, rather than a log fire.

  With that going, I begin setting out my ingredients. Essence peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, peas and corn quickly fill the prep bowls I've laid out. Then I start carrying in loaves of bread by the armful until I have a decent stack built up.

  I take one look at Ayre staring at all of the food with the knife I handed him held limply in his grip, and immediately flag down a couple more Swabbies to enlist for help. Soon, the galley is filled with the sounds of chopping vegetables, peeling spuds and breaking bread. The last involves breaking the crusty bread into small chunks that the Swabbie in charge then drops into a basket for me to use later.

  It's a couple hours of boiling down stock and simmering vegetables, of thickening sauces and making sure bread doesn't go to mush, before the food starts going out. Either the aroma drew them in or the Captain gave an all-hands order, because there's a line of pirates that look very hungry for dungeon monsters that don't have to eat.

  With the presence of Essence ingredients, I'm betting on the aroma. And a bit for my pride, too.

  The pot isn't nearly big enough to serve everyone, so every time a load of stew finishes, we move it to a big cauldron with a low heat applied to it for serving. We have to get a couple loads in to give us a head start, but by that time, we've got everything down to a well-oiled machine.

  I know we've got a success when one of the Swabbies asks me what to do about crewmen wanting seconds. Fortunately, we have enough to keep cooking, so I tell her to relay seconds only, and only after everyone else has had firsts, with a warning to keep space for dessert.

  With the word out that there's a dessert to follow, and the tangy-sweet aroma of the lemon sauce already mingling with the stew, the extra demand slackens quickly. There's still a fair few who come through for seconds, but it's not long before I can release the Swabbies to go eat, as well. Ayre and I grab a quick bowl, too, and then jump back to the final touches of the bread pudding.

  Once the Swabbies come back and I have a reliable head count, we start dipping out the bread pudding onto plates, ladling the lemon sauce over the top. I toss an Identify at it just to make sure it meets my expectation.

  Essence Bread Pudding

  with Lemon Sauce

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Bread pudding under a lemon

  sauce made by a Hero using

  the highest quality Essence

  ingredients available. The

  zesty sauce pairs well with

  the thick, sweet pudding.

  Consuming a full serving

  grants a 25% increase to all

  physical statistics and an

  increase to stamina recovery.

  We start up one last line, with everyone coming up and grabbing a plate as we hand them off. By the time the last pirate has their dessert, we're filing out with our own. The Captain, herself, reserves us a place at her table.

  There are apparently orders for everyone to leave their pudding untouched, as everyone is sitting with their plates and watching Ayre and I move to the table. The Captain just watches the whole procession with a crooked grin.

  We hardly sit down, finding mugs of a citrusy, rice-based wine like a hard orangeade waiting for us, before the Captain jumps up from her seat with her own mug in hand. She raises it high above her head before belting out loud enough for the whole room to hear.

  "Let all who sail under these flags hear the words of their captain and obey!"

  Cheers go up from the crew at that in recognition, and she motions with her mug toward them all, swinging it around the room.

  "Our cursed lips haven't had such a meal as this in a dozen dozen lifetimes! We owe our gratitude for this repast to Hero Remmi Lee and her compatriot, Ayre! In honor of this food and their showing of goodwill, I, the Captain of this vessel and her crew, do declare them honorary mates! Raise a toast to the newest members of your crew! Their time with us may be short, but we'll be their allies wherever the seas may take them!"

  The roar that fills the hall is more deafening to my ears than my own gunfire.

  When it finally settles down, and the Captain, herself, has taken a long pull from her mug, she raises it again. "Now, eat up, my lovelies, and enjoy this aromatic capstone of the evening!"

  The room settles down into a dull roar of conversation and clattering cutlery, and Ayre and I trade gratitude and pleasantries with the Captain once I translate her speech for the elf.

  "With that," the Captain informs us with a proud grin on her face, "I'll be able to allow you access to the dungeon core! As soon as you're done eating, you can get on with the purifying. I look forward to seeing it."

  But then the door to the mess deck is thrown open, and in storms a familiar blonde Swabbie, clad in a female sailor uniform reminiscent, incidentally, I'm sure, of a school uniform. I recognize it as one of the outfits they'd been trying to get onto Ayre.

  She throws her gaze around the room in a fervent haste before she spots and locks eyes with me.

  "YOU!"

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