The next morning, Talia awoke to the pained cry of Erik outside. She sleepily staggered out of her hut to find him wrestling with an enormous beast, a furry creature twice his size with sharp claws and teeth. Its powerful body thrashed about as it tried to free itself from Erik's grip.

"Hey! What the fuck is this?!" Erik yelled, his face twisted with determination and pain. He managed to keep his grip on the beast, but it was clear that he was struggling.

"Oh, that's a Lambwolf. They're docile unless you provoke them," Talia nonchalantly replied, watching the struggle with a mixture of amusement and concern. "They're actually quite useful for protecting livestock. I can't help but think you provoked it."

"Provoked- I didn't mean to! I was busy trying to draw up some prototypes for a grill when this mutant strolled up on me out of nowhere! It was only natural for me to try and defend myself!"

Erik grunted as the beast thrashed about, throwing him against a nearby tree. The tree groaned and cracked, branches snapping under the impact. He winced and pushed himself back to his feet, then lunged at the creature, grabbing it by the neck. The beast growled menacingly, its sharp teeth inches from his face.

"Are you... going to help... me...?!" Erik wheezed, struggling to keep his grip on the snarling creature. The beast thrashed its head back and forth, trying to break free, but Erik's iron grip held firm. He glanced at Talia, hope flickering in his eyes.

"Help you with what?" Talia tilted her head, unconcerned. "The Lambwolf thinks you're playing with it."

Erik let out a frustrated yell, struggling to maintain his grip on the thrashing beast. "Just help me get it off me, would you?!"

Talia sighed, stooped down and held out her hand as she clicked her tongue. The beast immediately calmed down and bounced over to her happily. "It's okay, boy," she cooed, rubbing its fur. "He didn't mean any harm." The beast nuzzled against her hand and seemed content, though it kept an eye on Erik as if it were wary of him.

"I fucking... are there any other beasts like that I should know about?" Erik panted, struggling to catch his breath as he pushed himself away from the tree.

"There's too many to go into detail, but for the most part, Lambwolves are common here in the village. The children love to play with them and the farmers use them to help protect the livestock. This one here is just a pup," Talia explained, scratching the beast behind its ears.

Grumbling to himself, Erik walked over to the set of grills he had conjured, keeping an eye on the panting Lambwolf. Behind, Ill sauntered out of the shamble of a house, unfurling his wings as the dragon infant stretched. Talia alternated her pets between Ill and the Lambwolf, watching Erik curiously.

"Are those the 'grills' you mentioned last night?" She asked as Erik fiddled with the knobs.

"Yeah, that's them," he grunted, finally getting one to heat up. "They're not perfect, but they'll do the trick."

Fascinated, Talia and the two animals walked over to the grill as it roared to life.

"Amazing," Talia remarked. "To conjure such flames from seemingly nothing."

"Well, not nothing, exactly," Erik pointed to a stubby, metallic cylinder underneath the grill. "That's a propane tank. Thankfully, I managed to conjure it based off my limited knowledge, but it works."

As Erik began to cook the meat on the grill, Talia and the beasts sat down on a nearby log to watch him. The Lambwolf curled up at Talia's feet, content to rest while the dragon infant fluttered its wings, seemingly fascinated by the flames.

"Many people in this world usually use magic or magical items to help with cooking, but somehow what you're doing seems more... primitive," Talia mused as she watched Erik work the grill. "Almost as if you're reverting back to an older time."

"Well, in the world I come from, magic doesn't exist," Erik replied with a frown. "Or at least, not in the way it does here. Back home, we use science and technology to do things like this." He waved a hand at the grill, then glanced at the two beasts watching him. "But here, magic is the science and technology. So I had to figure it out as best I could."

As he spoke, Erik flipped the meat on the grill, careful not to let it burn. The smell of cooking meat filled the air, making the Lambwolf perk up its ears and twitch its tail. The dragon infant fluttered its wings even faster, trying to get a better view of the food.

"It must have been... difficult, adapting to this world so suddenly," Talia said thoughtfully, watching the beasts. "To lose everything you knew and loved... I can't even begin to imagine."

Erik's grip on the makeshift spatula tightened. "Yeah, well I was pronounced dead and got revived into this world, so I didn't really lose much."

Talia raised an eyebrow at his blunt response, but said nothing.

The smell of cooking meat filled the air as Erik finished grilling the meat. He placed it on a large plate and set it down on the ground between the two animals. They both seemed to sense that the food was there, as they both perked up and looked expectantly at Erik.

"Now that I think about it, where did you get the meat, Erik?" Talia asked. "I thought I'd be the one to gather all the ingredients."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Well, I just grabbed the closest thing to meat that I saw in the ice box," Erik replied with a shrug. "Figured you wouldn't mind me using it since I'm sure I'd make a profit off cooking burgers and pizza in this fantasy world."

"The ice box...?" Talia stiffened, her face turning pale. "Erik–"

Both Ill and the Lambwolf gobbled the 'meat' Erik cooked for them, licking the wooden plate clean. They glanced back up at him expectantly, as if wanting more. With a prideful smirk, Erik turned to Talia, who had a look of horror on her face.

"What?" Erik's grin faded. "What's wrong?"

"The so-called 'meat' you took from my ice box... It's not meat. It's not even food," Talia said, her voice tight with fury. "Those were the remains of my parents."

"Wait, what? Hold on, I didn't know! I'm so sorry!" Erik stammered, feeling like the world had just been pulled out from under him. He took a step back, his hands falling to his sides as he tried to process the information. "I thought they were just... animal meat or something. I didn't mean to–"

"Ugh, how will I explain this to my mother and father?" Talia strangely didn't seem too upset at the fact that Erik had cooked her parents. Come to think of it, she had worded it strangely...

"Er, are your parents... dead?" Erik tentatively asked. Talia shot him a confused frown.

"No? They're very much alive and well."

"Wha-" Erik's mind blanked. "What did you mean by 'remains' of your parents, then?!"

"Oh, I meant their tumors. They had fallen ill, but a medical sorcerer managed to remove the infected parts and I kept it for further study," Talia replied casually.

"Wait, what?" Erik exclaimed, feeling light-headed. "You kept the tumors from your parents as trophies?!"

"Study material. I want to be a medical sorcerer in the future." Talia corrected him, as if nothing about the conversation was out of the ordinary.

Erik felt queasy, thinking about how he had just cooked and grew more nauseous when he realized he fed human parts to Ill and the Lambwolf.

"Well, at any rate, I can just find other human parts to study," Talia got up and began to walk to the center of the village. "I'll be back shortly with the ingredients you requested. It might take a little bit of begging to grab consumable meat, but it shouldn't prove too much of a challenge."

Erik could only nod numbly, watching as the strange woman walked off, Illyanth and the Lambwolf trodding beside her.

"Wait, hold on, you definitely said 'begging' this time, right?"

----------------------------------------

The afternoon sun was high in the sky as Erik worked on his grills. For the most part, he had successfully created a grill that used both coals and propane gas. He couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment, despite the events that had transpired earlier.

Next to him were a couple of propane tanks. Aside from being unable to conjure coals; not that he couldn’t, it just took a significant amount of energy from him to do so, Erik was grateful for their existence. He had managed to hook the gas tanks up to his grill, allowing him to cook. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do for now.

The sound of soft footsteps momentarily broke him out of his concentration, and he glanced up to see Talia and Illyanth walking up to him. Talia was carrying two bags, with one of them dripping red. However, that wasn't the part that caught him off-guard.

"Hey, I could've sworn there was only one Lambwolf that followed you. Why are there two now?" Erik asked, eyeing the second beast suspiciously. Talia gave him a confused frown.

"Oh, this is just... the other one. It's been following me around ever since you fed it. I didn't want to leave it out, you know?" She shrugged and placed the bags on the ground beside her. "Anyway, here are the ingredients you requested. There's some raw meat, vegetables, and fruit. I'm afraid the vegetables and fruit aren't as fresh as they could be, but it's the best I could find."

"No, not the one from earlier- whatever," Erik sighed, glancing at the box that Ill set on the ground. "What's in there?"

"Bread. I recalled you saying that burgers required them?"

"Er, yeah. Why's it in a box?"

"Oh, this?" Talia held up the box. "It's to keep them from running away."

"Oh, okay," Erik did a double-take. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"The box traps the bread inside, so that they won't run away," Talia clarified. "They're very skittish creatures. I found that if you put them in a small space, they're less likely to try and escape."

Erik could only stare at the box in Talia's hands. He had no idea what to say. This was the strangest thing he had heard all day, and that was saying something. Bread... was skittish? Runs away? And required to be trapped in a box? His mind was reeling.

"Out of curiosity, how is bread made in this world?" Erik asked, still struggling to process the information. "Like, do people bake it, or...?"

Talia looked surprised by the question. "Well, it's made from flour, water, and yeast. You mix those together, let it rise, and then bake it in an oven."

"Oh. Well that seems normal–"

"Then, you have to douse it in pixie dust to rid the bread of toxins. The side effects of the dust animates the bread, causing it to have a will of its own."

"Ah." Erik nodded, slowly. "That doesn't make sense whatsoever."

Talia raised an eyebrow. "What, the idea of bread, or the whole process of making it?"

Wisely deciding not to answer her question, Erik knelt to check the other ingredients. Thankfully, they seemed normal. He glanced back up at the woman holding the box of bread.

"Well, I'll start cooking some burgers, I guess."

Erik picked up the bags and brought them over to the grill. He set about preparing the ingredients, carefully mixing them together and forming patties. While he worked, he glanced over at Talia, who was still holding the box of bread. She seemed to be studying him intently, her brow furrowed in thought.

"What's on your mind?" he asked, noticing her focus.

Talia glanced over at him. "Oh, nothing important. I was just thinking about how things work in your world. You seem so bewildered by how things work here that I can't imagine how strange it must be if I were in your world."

Erik shrugged. "It's not that bad. Sure, there are some strange customs and such, but it's mostly the same as here. People go to work, eat, sleep, that sort of thing."

Talia nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose that's true. In a way, it must be interesting to live in a world where everything is so familiar, yet so foreign at the same time."

Foreign was an understatement. Erik was beginning to wonder if he'd stepped into some sort of bizarre, alternate reality. He glanced back over at Talia, studying her features. She was so confident and self-assured in the way she moved, spoke, and handled the bread. It was strange to think that she was from a world where such mundane things as bread had a will of their own.

"Fucking Osiris," Erik muttered quietly under his breath. "Why the fuck did you revive me in this world?"