Chapter 19 Nostalgic meal.
I was in the mood for Pasta. Never noticed how I hadn’t had any in my whole life until now, but once the thought crossed my mind, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I grabbed Theresa, and called out to the older girls. “Who wants to get really messy making food?!” With a glance, the trio of my sisters who had decided to stay sisters, giggled and came funning after us, while Theresa almost had a panicked look on her face. I opened all the pasta racks I had installed on the Kitchen walls, then demonstrated the Pasta making process. I entrusted Theresa with the cutting of the pasta itself, and showed the tallest girl how to hang the finished strips so they could dry. Then I started grinding meat. There was quite a decent amount of trim to be ground, so there would be plenty. Once the meat was ground, I popped out to grab a few armloads of Tomatoes, a hefty amount of Onion, Celery, Garlic, Bell Peppers of various colors, as well as fresh Basil, and Oregano which luckily the former land owners had growing, and it was simply wild at this point. I quickly started the Tomatoes stewing, and cut up all the other veggies. Once I had the Tomato Sauce at the right consistency, I moved onto frying the Meat. Once all the meat was fully cooked, and the veggies had been added, properly seasoned with the herbs, and some pepper, I poured the sauce into the pan. The process was more difficult due to using fire, instead of the cook tops of my old world, but I managed. Then I put a large pot of water on to boil.
I had a special basked that would just fit inside the water pot, and when the water was fully boiling, I put the basket in, and collected a batch of pasta to cook. All in all, it was twelve batches of pasta, so there was plenty to feed everyone. This wasn’t a fancy restaurant, so I just mixed all the Pasta into the Spaghetti sauce I had made. Theresa looked at her Kitchen, smelled the aroma of the food, sighed in acceptance of the mess level, and then got busy cleaning first the girls, and then with my help, the Kitchen itself.
The first bite was all it took for everyone in the dining hall to instantly decide that this was the best thing they had EVER eaten. There were Green beans served on the side, but all the kids just mixed them in with the pasta, in order to hide them from their taste buds. I smirked, having expected that very thing, but who cares, the food was being eaten. “Husband, what is this?” Alian was amazed, both at the flavor, and the fact she had never seen Pasta in her life. I smiled as I replied. “This is a Pasta dish. Pasta is the boiled strips of simple dough, there are different names for the Pasta depending on their shape, this is technically Fettuccine, as it’s a strand type, but flat. The dish itself is commonly called Spaghetti, however the Spaghetti pasta is a round strand, and there’s angel hair, which is the same, only very fine. The dish’s name changes based on the sauce used, and its presentation. I might try and do an Alfredo next. That’s a crème based sauce.” Theresa, and Alian both had eager eyes, no doubt for different reasons, but they both wanted me to make more dishes like this. “Now once I figure out how to safely dry the pasta and store it, we can make huge batches of dried pastas to have on hand for quick use. Making the Pasta fresh is simple, but rather time consuming if you’re in a rush to feed all these kids.”
It was then my new Mother finally managed to arrive to eat. Clearly something had held her up, so she was only just now getting away. Her eyebrow raised at the new food, but she didn’t hesitate a second once she had her own plate in front of her. “Mark, if you had told me about this, I’d have been here an hour ago, paperwork be damned!” I laughed at that. “Then I suppose it’s good you didn’t know, cause now that pesky paperwork is already done.” She nodded agreeably. “Suppose you’re right at that, and this is a fine reward for my effort too.” Dad gave her a side hug, and a kiss on the cheek, making several of the boys giggle, and the girls moon at the sight, wanting their own Man someday. She pulled a quest note from her breast pocket. “Almost forgot, can you deal with this?” I took the paper once it was handed to me along the length of the head table. It was a quest to subjugate a pack of true dire wolves, right smack in between my two towns. Apparently their alpha had decided that people were food. “Yeah, I should have this cleared up tonight, even if Marie isn’t ready to go out.” She just looked at me. “What, I didn’t say you weren’t ready, I just said even if!” She shrugged. “I supposed I can allow that, but if you’re hunting, so am I.” Marina spoke out then. “Mark, mind if I tag along? I don’t do much questing, like my forge n all, but getting some more strength couldn’t hurt, and I am registered at the guild.” I looked at her, and Analyzed her stats.
Marina
Age 16
Level 8
Strength 40
Constitution 35
Dexterity 15
Endurance 50
Speed 20
I stopped looking after that, but I did notice her class. Battle master, it was a powerful class, but not as powerful as it could be. It meant she could use most weapons equally well. But I suspected that there was another better class. War master, would need her to have use of all weapons, IF it existed. “First, come with Marie and I to the training yard, I want to test something.”
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Once we finished eating, Marie, Marina and I met at the training field. “Ok, I know you have no skill with this, but please just do what I ask. I want you to borrow Marie’s Bow, and try shooting the target.” Marie having an idea of what I was attempting, even if she didn’t know the specifics, handed her bow over, and let Marina use her archer’s guard, and then handed her arrows. Within five attempts, she had hit the target, and her eyes popped open in utter shock. “My class, it evolved, never even heard of War master before! I’ve got Archery as a skill, and it’s already at level 30, how is that possible?!” Marie laughed. “Because you’ve practiced with throwing knives. Same thing happened to me.” She looked at Marie, still shocked. “What class are you then?” I answered for her. “Ranger, combination of Assassin and Forester. With that out of the way, all your weapon skills should have had a tweak of some kind, maybe decent, maybe a single level, depend on how Archery effects and synergizes with the rest.”
She looked at her status, and then spoke. “Aye, several have gone up, and I even got a Perk off Archery, increases my speed and dexterity by half, the dex is really nice, I’ll be able to do more detailed work in the Smithy now. Be faster while I’m about it as well.” I loved that instead of seeing the war potential, she saw her crafting applications. “Ok, let’s go kill us a Wolf Pack. I’ll be carrying you again, at least till we’re close enough to stalk the pack.” She returned Marie’s Bow, and the arrows she had fired, and went to get geared up. Unsurprisingly, her weapon of choice, was a massive war hammer. Which since her class evolution, she was able to swing around like it was a feather. “Never thought I’d say this, but I need a bigger hammer! Not complaining though, just means I get to hit harder, when I have to anyway.”
I scooped her into my arms, and just before sprinting off, gave her a quick kiss while she had her arms, and hammer wrapped around my neck for support. We took off at a dash, and the scenery blurred as Marina’s tail whipped my legs. Once we got to the area we were aiming for, I slowed, and stopped letting Marina down. “No fair, why didn’t you kiss me before we started running?” I smirked at her. “Cause I wanted to have a reward for safely carrying your Sister wife here.” This caused Marie to pause, then blush, and accept my embrace, and a passionate kiss. “Hey now, my kiss wasn’t that good!” I chuckled with desire as I tried to equal the passion between them, which actually worked in our favor, as standing there, seemingly oblivious, had lured the pack in question.
Marina wasn’t oblivious either, and as the first wolf attempted to catch her from behind, she casually flicked her Hammer, slamming the wolf into a nearby boulder, cracking the boulder in the process, while the spine of the wolf clearly snapped. The rest of the wolves attempted to turn and flea, aside from the Alpha who had already committed to leaping at me. My uppercut smashed through his ribs, and pulverized his heart, and lungs, and Marie’s arrows flew fast, and straight. “Rather lacking aren’t they? Maybe we should track them back to their den, make sure it’s the whole pack gone. Something doesn’t smell right.” The girls nodded, and I stored the wolves he had killed so far. Marie took point as she was the best at tracking, and moving silently.
It took over an hour to find the den, but when we did, there was a roughly humanoid creature, green and covered in pustules, and the wolf pups, and the Alpha female were clearly being held as hostage against the rest of the now dead pack. Whatever it was, it must have beast tamer skills, and was using them to cause trouble for the people of this area. I signaled Marie, who took careful aim, and dropped the creature instantly. The alpha female didn’t hesitate to rip the thing’s throat out to ensure it was dead. She then menaced me, as I slowly approached. I touched the corpse, and it vanished, startling the she wolf who backed away to defend her pups. I noticed a small item on the ground. Picking it up, I started hearing words in my head. “I will not let you harm my pups, leave!” I looked at the she wolf. “So this THING didn’t even have skill to control you, just this damned trinket huh? You and your pups are safe, but sadly the pack is dead. It would be wise to move your pups as soon as you can, find a new den before less honest hunters show up here. I’ll give you meat so you and your pups can be strong for the trip.” So saying I dropped a carcass from a previous hunt, I hadn’t ever gotten around to processing it, but the storage had kept it as fresh as when I killed it. Still warm and everything. The she wolf sniffed the carcass, then grabbed it with her teeth, and pulled it into the den. “You killed the pack, but the pack was trying to kill you, it is the way of things, I will kill you if I see you again, but for now leave.” We did as she said, though her threat was non existent, and she knew it. This is troubling. There was an intent here, and whatever this thing is, I’ve never seen one. Hopefully Mother Ruth will know something, otherwise it will be another trip to the Capitol for information.” Marie, and Marina sighed in resignation. “At least I leveled, twice actually, that Wolf I killed was actually decent experience. Level ten now.” I smiled at that, and then scooped her into my arms again. “You’ll need to work on your speed, so you can run along side us.”
She pouted a little. “But I like when you carry me like this.” I chuckled. “I can always carry you when the mood is right, regardless of if you can run yourself. However, I’d rather you be able to flea from anything honestly troubling, and who knows when running to save a child will be needed.” She grinned. “Ok, I’ll do some running, try and get faster, saving the little ones is a good reason, and besides, then you can’t escape me so easy when it’s my turn right?” The two giggled at that, and I joined in. We sprinted home at top speed, much to Marina’s delight.