CHAPTER 52: COOKING FOR THE FIRST TIME

The next day, Theo and Kiro were up later than usual because of the party. Serena was up as normal, still not used to sleeping like a regular person.

Her nightmares were getting a bit better, but it didn’t stop her from waking up at odd times during the night. She was going to need more of those herbs to help with her sleep.

Once the other two woke up, Theo and Serena decided to head out with Serena foraging and Theo hunting. Kiro, meanwhile, would stay behind because Theo just wanted to do a quick stock up on meat.

Kiro being around with him would only make things take longer since he was still learning. Rico would only come in the afternoon to help finish up the fence, so gathering more food in the morning worked out for them.

After dropping off Kiro at the village center to hang out with his friends, Serena said a quick hello to the other beastwomen before they were off.

Of course, while she was saying hello she didn’t miss the shit-eating grin on Wilma’s face and the constant blush on Fay’s face. Things had definitely gone well last night then.

A few beastmen greeted them as they headed out, more now used to their presence and on more friendly terms. Theo dropped Serena off at the same spot as last time before shifting and heading off to hunt.

Once he was gone, Serena found more brown roots and orange roots. And since they were easy to store for a long time and made meals more filling, Serena kept to harvesting those. Especially the brown roots.

As she foraged for brown and orange roots, Serena also found some medicinal plants that Davis had explained to her when she was foraging last time. And now that she knew the method of getting them, Serena harvested some too.

However, she placed the medicinal plants in her subspace instead of her basket in case she needed the herbs during an emergency. An on-hand medical kit in a way.

While she was foraging she bumped into a few other beastmen who showed her more harvestable plants for food. Some were even nice enough to tell her how to store them properly for a long time.

Thus, by the time Theo returned with a deer for smoking and some wild birds for lunch, Serena’s basket was filled. They headed to the far side of the river to clean up the meat before heading back to the village.

Once back in the village, they went to get Kiro, who was a little sad to leave, before walking to their hut. Kiro helped Serena make a fire from their pile of wood.

Meanwhile Theo headed back out to get proper firewood to smoke the deer meat for the cold season as well as get wood for their wonky ladder. Apparently the beastmen from yesterday had given him some advice on that too.

Serena would be making lunch by herself for the first time today and she was a little giddy about it. For the most part, she had just been watching or helping out, but now was her chance to test out cooking herself.

And if she got this skill right, it would make things so much easier for her.

She planned to make wild bird soup, feeling it was something easy enough to try. Plus she’d watched Theo teach Kiro how to make the dish, so she was more comfortable than trying something like roasting the birds.

Because she had the chance of either making the meat very tough or worst case scenario burn the outside and undercook the inside.

Raw meat wasn’t an issue for them like how it was back in her world when humans ate meat. But she still didn’t want to take the chance of accidentally food poisoning them all. That would lead to so much trouble.

So, wild bird soup it was. She just prayed it would turn out good.

***

"So... How is it?" Serena asked Theo nervously as he sipped on some of her soup.

The soup looked similar to what Kiro had made, so it wasn’t a complete failure. However, now came the second test to see if she actually made the thing properly.

She got no notification from the system about her cooking, so either it was a skill she couldn’t obtain or the cooking hadn’t gone as well as she hoped it had. Thus the tension about Theo trying it.

"It’s fine." Theo finally answered, after swallowing down the soup he’d drunk. "Maybe a pinch more salt, but you did a fine job."

Upon hearing those words, Kiro glanced down at his bowl of soup. He’d been more nervous about Serena cooking, knowing the original owner’s skills. Thankfully though, Serena hadn’t inherited those skills.

That would’ve been a disaster to say the least.

"That being said..." Theo sighed, glancing at her hands. "Perhaps you should be a little more careful with the bone knife. You could’ve injured yourself badly."

Serena looked down at her right hand over in a coarse, white cloth. She’d accidently grazed her skin using the knife to cut the carrot roots. Honestly, the whole thing was more embarrassing than painful.

She was meant to be an expert at using a knife and here she was cutting herself like some rookie. And it wasn’t that deep of a cut. Theo just freaked out at the sight of her blood.

He wanted to take over cooking, but she threatened to not go with him to the healer if he stopped her from cooking. They compromised and Theo would cut everything else up for her once she got back from the healer.

She could do everything else.

"But I didn’t." Serena pursed her lips. "Everyone’s overreacting about a small injury..."

They didn’t need to. She’d gone through much worse injuries before. Even died after having a bomb rip her up. But she kept that part to herself. Because that would definitely put everyone into hysteria.

Instead, she just added, "I’ll be fine. It won’t kill me, so stop getting so mad about it."

"You..." Theo pursed his lips before shaking his head. "There’s no arguing with you. Just be more careful next time alright."

"Sure." Serena nodded her head. "I’ll be more careful next time."