"You know, if my memory was better," said Ted as they stared up at the bar. "I could probably just retell movies from my world and you guys would think I was some great writer or something."

Trizel shrugged. "I doubt it. Those kind of lies never last long. You would need to really remember them, not just the broad strokes."

"Well, that's why I said if I had a better memory." Ted explained. "Then I could do all of that. Hit all the big plot points, and get the dialogue right, you know?"

"I suppose that is fair," agreed Trizel. "I still do not see it. After all, there were many stories from my world, but retelling any of them? I would have had to have spent my life training as a bard instead of doing useful things."

"Hey, telling stories is important," Ted countered.

Trizel shrugged. "If you say so. I just think there are better things a person can do. Such as making alcohol!"

Ted smiled as he shook his head and let out a sigh. He looked up towards the stairs as his smile turned to a frown.

Trizel noticed this and asked, "Worried about the hen still?"

Ted nodded. "She looked pretty hurt. I think her leg might've even been broken with how much she seemed to hate when I touched it."

"Hard to believe," nodded Trizel. "There is no denying her skill in a fight. So, I have to wonder how exactly she managed to hurt herself."

"What? You don't think Sentenza attacked her, do you?"

Trizel shook his head. "No. I doubt he would have fared so well. I don't think any of us here could hurt her. Not even that imp and his magic." He glanced over at Ted. "But I am sure she will be fine. You did what you could, right?"

"Well yeah, but..."

"And she did not want anyone else to disturb her, right?"

"I...I guess, but that's still..."

"So I suppose there is nothing more to do. You should give her time to rest and check in on her later if you must."

Ted sighed. Trizel was right, but it was still frustrating how little he could actually do. Plus, he could practically still her squirming on the bed as he tried to clean her leg as gently as he could. It was like it had almost been snapped in half.

"Ah! I have an idea." Trizel declared.

Ted was shaken out of his thoughts as Trizel patted him on his back. "Huh?"

"I shall give you a challenge! To make alcohol out of something that shouldn't be alcohol. Then you will be worried about that instead of fretting over the chicken." Trizel rubbed his chin and then his eyes flashed open, and a wide smile spread on his face. "Aha, you have already made alcohol flavored with hot peppers, so how about one flavored with that...ginger root was it? That is hot, but in an oddly different way."

Ted stared at Trizel for a minute before he slapped his hand against his forehead. "Ginger beer. Ugh, I'm an idiot."

Stolen novel; please report.

Trizel's smile disappeared. "Hmm?"

"We've had ginger nearly this entire time, but I never made ginger beer with it." Ted let out a defeated sigh as he leaned forward. "I can't believe I missed something so obvious."

Trizel seemed to be processing everything, and then gave a short nod. "Hmm, I see. Well then there is only one thing to do."

Trizel stood up and grabbed Ted by the collar. He yanked him to his feet and began to drag him off towards the kitchen. Ted struggled to get his feet under him as the giant pulled him forward.

"Hang on a minute Trizel!" Ted called out. "I can walk on my own you know."

Trizel ignored him and dragged him all the way into the kitchen, where he finally let him go. "Alright then. Now you shall make this alcohol you forgot about."

"Wait, you've never had ginger beer? What about ginger ale?"

"Beer? Ale? Is there really much of a difference?"

Ted scratched his cheek with a solitary finger. "You know. I'm not quite sure actually...I'm sure an actual expert could go into all the differences, but uh...yeah, no clue."

"So would not ginger ale and ginger beer be the same thing?"

"Oh! I actually know that one." Ted piped up with a good deal of excitement. "Ginger beer tends to actually be alcoholic while ginger ale is usually just carbonated water flavored with ginger flavored syrup. Although a lot of ginger beers are just barely alcoholic so a lot of places around where I was from didn't have to list them as alcoholic. But, like Kvass, the carbonation comes from yeast eating sugars, which also produces alcohol."

"Kah vass?" questioned Trizel.

"That's a Russian drink. It's made with Rye bread, which we definitely do not have anything close to. Just white flour for us." Ted explained.

"Russian?"

"Uh...that's the name of a place where I'm from."

"Ah, I see. I thought it may have been another brewing term I was unfamiliar with." Trizel nodded.

Ted rubbed the back of his neck. "Right. Well, do you want to help me get this ginger beer under way? It should actually be pretty quick."

Trizel rolled up his sleeves. "Alright then, tell me what I need to do."

"Alright, we'll start with just two gallons of water. Put that in the bigger pot and bring it to a boil. Just make sure five gallons will fit in there, but we'll be starting with only two. Now, I'll get started on mincing the ginger." Ted explained as he got to work.

"Okay, so walk me through what all needs to get done," Trizel said.

"Okay, so this is another sugar wash, just with some flavor added."

"So, two pounds of sugar a gallon?"

Ted shook his head. "This one isn't going to be as alcoholic. Think of it as more of an addition we could add other alcohol into. This one will have about one pound of sugar per gallon."

Trizel nodded. "Alright, I'll keep quiet. Just run through the whole recipe really quickly."

"Okay, this is pretty flexible depending on what you want. The basics are ginger, sugar, water, lime juice, cream of tartar, and, of course, yeast. But for this, we're going to add just a couple of the dried peppers to really let you feel it at the back of your throat." Ted explained. "My Uncle always said that a good ginger beer should feel like a kick in your mouth, and that was his secret to really step it up a bit. Not enough peppers that you can taste them, but you'll still feel the heat."

Ted quickly diced up the ginger as he continued to explain. "So, basically every part could be adjusted, and you'd still get ginger beer. It's pretty forgiving. Want it more alcoholic? Add more sugar. Want less ginger flavor and kick? Add less ginger. But for this batch, we're going to do one cup of ginger and a single pepper per gallon of water. The ginger is diced, and the pepper we'll just cut lengthwise and toss in. We'll add a teaspoon of cream of tartar, and one cup of lime juice per gallon. Of course, we'll need about one pound of sugar, or roughly two cups per gallon. Finally, it'll have half a teaspoon of yeast per gallon."

Ted finished the ginger and began to juice the limes over the top of the pot of water. "We're going to put all the ginger, cream of tartar, and lime juice into the pot while it gets up to a boil. Hey, do you mind helping with the limes. We'll need to juice about fifty of these for all the juice we need."

Ted quickly sliced the limes in half, and he and Trizel squeezed them right above the pot of water. As they got close to the end, Ted walked away and pulled out a small sack of white powder and scooped out five teaspoons. After he put it away, he grabbed five peppers from the dried stalk that was hanging in the kitchen and split them down the middle before tossing them in as well.

Ted measured out the sugar, and the two of them waited as the water got to a boil.

"So, this is a popular drink where you are from?" Trizel asked.

Ted bobbed his head around as he tried to make up his mind. "Sort of. In the right circles, definitely. It's also pretty common as a home remedy."

"Oh? Are you an herbalist now? Making potions to heal the sick?" Trizel teased.

Ted scoffed. "As if. No, but ginger is supposed to be good for your gut, so when people have upset stomachs, drinking ginger beer is usually an early step to try and fix it. Some people even claim it does way more than that, but I never really took much stock in all that. Just the stomach aid stuff."

"So, just the stuff you could see more obviously?" Trizel asked.

Ted shrugged. "I guess."

"So, no faith that this is an ancient potion that can heal any sickness?"

Ted's mind drifted to Nugget, and all the tiny scrapes and blood she was covered in. It definitely wasn't a magical drink. There was no way it could help her heal. This wasn't Skyrim after all.

Ted shook his head. "Not really. Things like that don't just happen. If some mage did it, then maybe but not just me."

The two of them continued to work, and after the water boiled, they added in the sugar and stirred it. Once it was all dissolved, they moved it off of the heat and started to pour the other three gallons of water in to cool it down. After all, for the yeast it needed to be down to a little above seventy degrees Fahrenheit. Everything was going well, and they got everything put into a barrel that they loaded into the time machine.

knock knock knock

Ted and Trizel turned and saw Lulu standing just inside the door to the kitchen with a smile. "I got a surprise waiting! Better hurry up in here for the big event."