Delicacies

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

Timestamp: The 15th of Spring 512 Oyster Island, Suvan Sea OOC : This is meant to be a training thread, but anyone who happens to be on Oyster Island on this date is welcome to join Daske in his food adventures. Daske woke with a start. He had a bite! He pulled the fishing line in hand-over-hand. There was nothing on the hook. Another grub lost to a fish that had somehow gotten off with the bait while avoiding the hook. He had been fishing unsuccessfully all morning. Apparently the combination of the gentle rocking of the boat, the warm sun and boredom had conspired to put him to sleep. He looked in the cup resting on the cockpit floor. Only one of the grubs he had collected earlier was left. He took the grub out and speared it with the hook, which he then tossed overboard. Half a bell later he pulled the line in and found that the grub was gone. Either something had taken it so gently that he had not noticed, or it had simply fallen off. In either case, he was done fishing for the day and had nothing to show for it. He leaned over the side of the boat and looked into the water and was surprised to see the bottom. Then he realized that the tide had gone out. In fact, it was about the lowest tide he had ever seen. Most of the rocky cove lay exposed to the air. Kelp-covered rocks littered tide pools that were normally under water even at low tide. Piles of purple and orange sea stars were drying out in the sun. Crabs were scurrying around seeking shelter from the sea gulls who were out in force for the seafood feast. He was fortunate to have anchored as far out as he had or he would have found himself high and dry as well. Looking down again, he noticed several bright orange spots among the rocks beneath his boat. I wonder what those are? He asked himself. He stripped off his clothing and dove overboard. The depth here was about three meters and his dive took him straight to the bottom. Here he found dozens of bright orange cucumbers. At least that's what they looked like. They had the size and shape of cucumbers. But they were orange and covered with reddish bumps that looked like warts. He reached out to touch one and it immediately disappeared into a narrow space between to rocks. He could see it hiding in there. He let himself rise to the surface for a breath of air and dove back to the bottom. He tugged at one of the rocks until it dislodged. The sea cucumber was exposed now. He poked it with his finger and it scrunched up even more than before. He looked around at the other sea cucumbers, which were fully extended. He rose to the surface again and when he returned to the sea cucumber, a large spider-like crab had found it and was ripping off pieces of it and and eating them. He made several more dives and collected a half dozen of the strange creatures. At one point he came to a sandy bottom area that was littered with what looked like little round porcupines. Early afternoon found him on the beach with his collection of sea cucumbers and sea porcupines. Now he needed a fire. OOC : What Daske calls 'sea porcupines' are actually sea urchins.

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

Daske collected a supply of manageable pieces of driftwood for a fire. Using his hunting knife, he cut thin flakes off one of the pieces and soon had a pile of dry tinder. Next, he collected an armful of dead twigs from the trees near the beach. Then he broke some of the driftwood up into smaller pieces. In the end he had thin curleycues for tinder, dead twigs for kindling, and several sizes of dry driftwood to fuel the fire once he got it going. Next to a large boulder, Daske built a small fire circle with stones, which would serve both to contain the fire and to reduce the amount of heat that radiates away from the fire. Then he assembled the fire itself. First, he laid down a layer of tinder and then a small pile of tinder on top of that. Over this he carefully arranged the kindling in an upside down conical shape, being careful to ensure good air flow. Satisfied that he had made the proper preparations, he set about igniting his fire. Daske pushed the blade of his hunting knife part way into the sand in the middle of the tinder. He angled it so that he could strike it with his flint in a way that would tend to throw the sparks into the pile of tinder. Then he began striking. In theory, striking steel with flint produces sparks and enough sparks landing in a bed of tinder will produce a fire. In practice, this is hard to do. Daske spent the better part of a bell striking sparks into the tinder before one of them finally ignited a shaving. He gently waved his hand back and forth near the tiny flame and coaxed it along until several of the shavings were burning, after which an unexpected gust of wind blew it out. He started again. Another bell spent striking his knife with flint and his wrist was throbbing. He had managed to get three more almost-fires. But in the end, patience (or perhaps just plain stubbornness) paid off and he finally fanned a spark into a small flame that was greedily consuming the tinder. He got down close and blew gently on the tiny fire from the side. As more of the shavings caught fire, he used his knife to push other shavings in from the sides. Soon the first pieces of kindling ignited and soon after that he had a small fire going. He carefully fed more kindling into the fire, gradually increasing the size until the fire was self-sustaining. From there is was a simple matter to criss-cross larger pieces of wood over the flames until he had a blazing fire going. In the end he had a bed of hot coals that he could keep going indefinitely by adding judicious amounts of wood. OOC : Yes, starting a fire without matches and gasoline really is that hard. Try it sometime.

[Sari]

Sari watched from her hiding spot behind some rocks as the man-with-the-fish attempted to start a fire. Personally, she thought fires a waste of time. And dangerous. Not to mention raw tastes better. Fresher even. She shook her head as sparks danced along the wood. Fire hurt, she knew that much, so she didn't understand why it was such a valuable trait to be able to make one.

But as long as it kept the man-with-the-fish distracted, she would have an easy dinner. She bounded towards the fish, which smelled unlike fish, but still like fish at the same time.

Ooh! She thought. Sea urchin! She loved the taste of those, though they were hard to peel. She bounded foward more, close enough that if the man sneezed, she'd be cleaning it out of her pelt later. By the fish, she took a sea urchin gingerly, and took one of the fishy-smelling things too. She didn't think fish came in this color orange. But then again she hadn't seen all of the Sea. In fact, it was only her first time to this particular island. She'd sheltered here during the storm, when she'd lost her otter raft. With plenty if food, she'd found no reason to leave yet.

She bounded back to her hidey-hole. She set down the urchin, and investigated the bright orange thing, turning it right and left and upside down until she recognized it as a sea cucumber. She was still apprehensive about eating it, and started to peel the urchin. Several spines poked her fingers, and she cursed in her mind. But the meat inside was sweet and good. She smiled in delight. Then, hearing s noise, she looked up.

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

While he waited for the bed of coals to get established, he turned his attention to the sea cucumbers. He cut a slit along the length of one of the animals and pealed it open. The closest thing to meat looked to be five lateral muscles that he cut out to form strips. He repeated this with the rest of the sea cucumbers and soon had a pile of strips of what he hoped would turn out to be edible meat. The sea porcupines were more difficult. It wasn't at all clear how to get inside the spherical shells with their masses of sharp spines. He experimented with several methods and finally settled on simply smashing them with a rock. Inside he found small chunks of something that looked more or less like meat. Soon he had a pile of seafood. Or at least he hoped that's what he had. “Damn,” he said out loud in Pavi. “How am I gonna cook this?” Daske never was one to plan very far ahead. He looked around as though he might spy a frying pan or some other cooking utensil. Then he walked down the beach a ways along the tree line to a vine maple, twisted trunks leaning out over the sand. He found a suitable branch and sawed it off with his knife. He used his knife to strip off smaller branches and outer bark as he made his way back to the camp fire. He was pleased with himself. He had made himself a skewer with which he would now cook some seafood-kabob. OOC : The lateral muscles of the sea cucumber look sort of like strips of bacon. I have tried them fried in butter and they're quite edible. I have never tried sea urchin gonads, which is what the chunks of meat are, but I have read that in some parts of the world they are considered a delicacy.

[Sari]

The noise turned out to be nothing but a simple crab scuttling above her head. Turning her attentions to her now filthy coat, Sari gave herself a quick washing. She heard strange words from the man-with-the-fish and looked up, to see him frustrated over the sea urchins. Silly man-with-the-fish. Sea urchins were quite easy, you just started at the spot with the shortest and least spines, and, well, opened it. Maybe the man-with-the-fish had a bigger appetite than the small, though wonderfully tasting, urchin meat. Well, that meant more for her!

She saw the man-with-the fish get up. Now was her chance! Abandoning the strange cucumber, Sari bounded towards the unshelled urchin meat. She picked a few from where they lay, and scurried back, the only sign that she'd been there was a few marks in the sand, and the ever-decreasing urchin meat. She bopped behind her rocks and swallowed the meats whole, though her ribbon constricted around her throat. Then, again, she was alone with the cucumber.

Deciding she was full from the urchins, Sari picked up the bright orange cucumber and bounded back towards the fire. The cucumber slipped out of her paws halfway there, as her paws were slippery with urchin meat. She chased after the run-away cucumber, losing time in the short space she had. She left the cucumber where it rolled to, by the fire, and bounded back towards her rocks.

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

Back at the fire, Daske set about skewering his sea delicacies with the stick. He stopped and stared at the sea urchin meat. He was pretty sure about half of them were gone. Still sitting on the sand next to the fire, he slowly turned his head and scanned the beach in one direction, then in the other. He looked out toward the Black Lady, riding gently on the waves, but saw no one. He scanned the tree line but saw nothing suspicious. He looked up toward the sky but didn't see any seagulls, which would have been a likely possibility now that he thought about it. A slight movement caught his attention. A small animal we peering over some rocks at him. A light brown furry face, triangular black nose, bright blue button eyes. “Sea otter,” he said in Pavi. He picked up one of the few remaining pieces of urchin meat and tossed it in the general direction of the creature. “Give us a better look atcha, okay?” he said in Common. He was not smiling.

[Sari]

Sari instinctively caught the urchin meat, though the man-with-the-fish was scaring her now. The ribbon around her throat tightened as she swallowed, but she didn't let on. She looked curiously at the man, who had seemed happy with his food before, but now...

Suddenly she heard words. Oh, how she longed to speak, to sing. At first she didn't understand the man-with-the-fish, but when he spoke in Common, she recognized the words. She leaned out behind her rock, still wary of the man-with-the-fish. People looked better when they smiled, she always thought, and this person was not smiling.

She sat on her haunches, imitating the man-with-the-fish. She wondered if he was going to attack her, and tried to shake the thought away, because most things went straight for the kill, not wait. But maybe humans were diffrent? Well, most of them. That slaver man hadn't wasted his time. She shivered slightly underneath her fur. However, even as all if his went through her head, she returned the man's gaze. Not quite challenging, but a step below.

[Daske Baggywrinkle]

For the second time in his life, Daske found himself in a stare-down with a sea otter. Just like Sib, Sable's tavan, it was defiantly mirroring his stance. And just like Sib, it eventually won. Daske was unable to suppress a slight smile, which unfortunately probably looked more like a scowl on his scared face. The otter had a ribbon tied around her neck, and she seemed reasonably comfortable with humans. At least he guessed she was a she. He wasn't about to investigate that particular question any further. “You must be somebody's tavan,” he said. He looked around again but saw nobody. “Come on over and join me if ya want. Yer Svefra must be 'round here somewhere.” Then he had a thought. What if she'd gotten separated from her master in the storm? Or maybe her master died in the storm? He wondered what tavans did when their masters died. Did they return to the sea? Did they look for another master? Did they go off alone somewhere to die? Not having grown up among the Svefra, he didn't know. He turned his attention back to spearing what was left of his food and was soon holding it over the hot coals, turning it slowly. He figured the sea otter would join him if it wanted to. He set a couple pieces of raw sea porcupine meat aside just in case.