Sweet Meats

Inumaki followed a delicious scent. It was out on it’s daily solo patrols, something she enjoyed greatly. She liked having a place in the colony and the other cryos, but it still valued it’s solitude, something special and familiar to it. However, an interesting scent on the wind had caught her attention.

She didn’t know how to explain the smell in her head. It seemed like a mixture of things, something sweet, sour, tangy. Definitely something it wanted to investigate.Ahead of her in a clearing it saw a large feathered dinosaur. She was one of those with wickedly long claws, something dangerous. Dark feathers coated it’s body, and when she turned, Inumaki saw a fiery blaze of orange and white on her throat, a standout feature on her otherwise black body.

Hiding behind some foliage, it watched. The long-clawed dinosaur was busy smashing various berries on a flat rock, scraping the mush into another hollow stone. She plucked the leaves off a nearby bush with her beak and dropped them into the stone, mixing everything with her stained claws. Occasionally, she would take a used stone and clean it in the nearby running river.

Inumaki watched the strange actions of this dinosaur for a while, before deciding to reveal herself. “I was wondering when you’d come out of there.” The theriz speaking made Inumaki stop in it’s tracks for a moment. She already knew it was there? More observant than it thought. The stranger turned to the stunned cryo, no hint of malice in her expression. She seemed calm, friendly.

“I’m not aggressive,” she continued, “have I piqued your interest? Or perhaps, are you going to chase me out of your territory?” Inumaki shook it’s head, not really interested in chasing out a theriz on it’s own. She knew these dinosaurs were not to be trifled with, you should always have backup if you are going to mess with those claws. “Quiet one, aren’t you?” It took a few steps toward the theriz, interested in what she was doing.

The avian dinosaur beckoned her closer, seeming eager to share the secrets of her strange actions with the cryo. “My name is Flambé. Have you ever cooked before?” Inumaki tilted her head at the question. It wasn’t really sure what cooking was, it hadn’t ever heard of the word even. Flambé brought out a flat stone that was still glistening from being washed. “You can mix various food items to make something unique and delicious. Its something I enjoy doing! I can teach you some if you’d like.”

Inumaki nodded, very interested in learning more about this ‘cooking’. Maybe she could bring back a useful skill to the colony. “Alright! Lucky for you, I always keep different food items with me. I have some meats we can prepare.” Flambé turned, plucking some red slices from an old human bag, packed with leaves along the inside walls and bottom of the bag.

“Let’s make some sweet meats. Does that sound interesting?” Inumaki grinned and nodded, intrigued. Sweet meats sounded fun to try, something yummier than the occasional fruits her and her pack mates liked to enjoy as treats. The theriz laid the slices of meats on the flat stone, grabbing another stone and putting a few slices on it as well. “We’ll smash some berries and put it on both sides of the meat.” She passed the second stone to Inumaki before turning and plucking some colorful berries from another bag, and then passing the bag to the cryo for it to grab some. “You can pick out whatever berries you want.”

It carefully took out some berries with its claws, laying them next to the meat on the stone. Some rolled off, so it reached to put them back as Flambé continued explaining, “Here, smash these berries you have. We’ll make a smooth paste.” Inumaki watched as she pressed the berries with a smaller rock in her beak, smushing them. It glanced to it’s side and grabbed a small rock next to it, copying the theriz.

Smashing the berries alone was kind of fun. Simple, but fun. “The berries will be sticky, though they may still come off the meat. You could use honey to make the meat stickier and the berry mush would stay better,” she scrunched up her face, “I don’t have any honey on me right now, sadly.” Inumaki stored this information in her brain. Perhaps using honey alone would be just fine as well, but the berries could provide a nice texture, and different flavor. It was already thinking of different things it could do for food.

“Okay, this is smashed enough. Scrape it and press it on the meat, both sides.” Flambé demonstrated this to the cryo, who then copied her. It scraped some of the berry mixture with it’s claws, pressing it
against the meat slice. When she felt it was enough, she flipped the slice and did the same on the other side.

Flambé grinned, pleased with how quickly Inumaki was learning. “Perfect! This is a very simple recipe, its all done now. Give it a taste!” Plucking a slice off it’s stone slab, she dropped it into her mouth. It savored the flavor, it was interesting. The meat was sweeter, and the berries did provide a unique texture, though Inumaki had a hard time trying to think of the right word. Grainy? Jammy? Whatever, it was pretty good.
It gave Flambé a pleased nod, her tail swishing slightly in content. “I’m glad you like it! Here, take the rest of the meats. I obviously can’t eat it.” The theriz laid out some large leaves that she had laying against a big rock. She placed the meats in the leaves and wrapped them. “If you want to learn more things, I’ll be here for the next few days doing my thing. Come stop by!”

Inumaki would definitely come back. It nodded to her, taking the packed meats into it’s mouth to carry. She turned away to leave, tail waving slightly as if to say goodbye.