"And a bone apple tea for me," Ash said as he carefully laid the drink on the table. Baro crosses his arms as he looks upon the extravagant feast before them. Thunderhoof steaks, freshly picked fruits, vegetables steamed or tossed in salads, rice, bread, cheese. Ash even took the time to grind garlic, herbs, roots, and minerals to make a marinade for the steaks. Apparently it's been absorbing flavors since the night before, Baro had no idea Ash was that dedicated to his meals. Ash skewered and grilled the steaks over a charcoal flame. They glistened beautifully under that fire, and even more so on a dinner plate under the stone-lights of the hut. Ash used the remaining marinade to make a sauce. It was truly masterful work, Baro has no doubt that Ash is a master of the culinary arts. However.
"Are you sure you should be doing all this with your arms like that?" Baro said as he filled his plates. Ash sips his tea and does the same.
"You feel it, right? The thunderblood mixture Janne made is great for recovery. As long as we don't push it, we can use our arms like normal and it'll heal fine in a few days," Ash said, tearing into the steak.
"Who's Janne again?" Baro said, eating steaming hot buttery baked potatoes whole. Barely taking time to chew.
"My mum," Ash said, emptying a bowl of steamed vegetables into his mouth. The combined nutritional value of those mixed greens on a different plane of existence. Their healing powers immediately cleanse the qi and body. Ash feels the honorable greens working through and cleansing his meridians. The protein of the steak already stitching his arm muscles back together. Ash opted to not use butter while steaming the greens, it's a small flavor loss that comes at great long-term health benefits. Losing a little bit of flavor is a small price to pay for keeping the meridians open, hopefully Baro doesn't mind. Butter when consumed excessively and carelessly is a high ranking meridian clogger, Ash in his right mind could not sneak butter into the whole meal. How could Ash repay the man who broke an arm helping by willingly feeding him meridian cloggers? That Baro has a most impeccable physique, like Ash, it must have took tremendous care and effort to build it. To sneak butter into his food at each turn would be a most heinous act. Sect Master Khan's memory would beat him with a stick for behaving with such arrogance and lack of care.
It's not just butter that requires caution. Most vegetable oils in excess can clog meridians too. Ash limits usage as much as possible. It helps that he isn't weakling trash who'll let an off putting taste stop him from eating what his body needs to thrive and develop. If he were weakling trash, there'd be no one in his household to benefit off the thunderhoof brain, lung, heart, kidneys, liver, and all the other weirdly textured yet incredibly nutritious cuts of meat. If Ash were weakling trash, he'd allow all these nutritionally luxurious parts to rot away, a blatant transgression against the spirits of food and nourishment.
Of course it took a long time for Ash to train his mind to handle organ meats, his training in the old world trickling down to this new one. Ash didn't even gag when he tried brain and testicles in this world, Janne on the other hand often felt sick just watching him eat, eventually she got over it and joined in. In his old world, the texture of brain and testicles took the most time to acclimate to. Even when starved, Ash could barely stomach such delicacies. Sect Master Khan kept mocking him for it too, always calling him weakling trash and worse for not being able to eat the stuff. Sect Master was certain that anything would taste good when you go long enough without eating. To some degree he was right, but shit tastes like shit. Even starved, the organs didn't taste that much better, but the starving method worked. Ash was too hungry to puke the organs out. Sect Master Khan once tricked him into trying goat testicles, he called it a delicacy. Ash didn't even know what it was and he wished to puke it out. If wasting food wasn't such a sin he would have let himself puke. Once master told him what it was, it was off to the toilets. Still, this specific form of torture was a discipline Ash was grateful for. He can stomach pretty much anything now.
In his old world there was an epidemic of fat people in the land of indulgence. Their mentality is to eat whatever tastes good in excess, without any regard for their overall health. A lot simply never learned what healthy eating even means. Many would spend their whole lives failing to understand why they couldn't cultivate the same body Ash could, making nonsense excuses like "genetic diff" or something. Others were lied to their entire lives by company marketing campaigns which paint disgusting body rotting foods as something to be celebrated and enjoyed with the family. Ash thanked the heavens each day for growing up in the Khal Sect mountains, free from the deceptions and indoctrination of these soulless companies and their greedy execs. The effects of those corporations careless greed is what elevated the land of indulgence to what it is known for. Sect Master Khan said so himself.
In that land, the people's clogged meridians and lack of discipline literally wither and suffocate their brains, making them dumber and easier to be controlled by those in power. People turned sheep, aimless without their shepherds. The goats roaming the Khal sect on the other hand are magnificent creatures, willing to even confront bears atop the steep slopes they call home. Ash has always been grateful for his environment, it made him strong like the mountain goats.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Sect Master called the sheep an unnatural evolution caused by human interaction and food control over many generations. People are animals too after all. The effects of these indulgent foods have been psychologically analyzed across the world, turns out there are added chemicals more addictive than heroin and cocaine in them. Ash has no problem with the sheep mentality, but he can't help but feel sorry for the people never given a chance. The lifestyle they've been indoctrinated into is rotting them away, and many can probably feel it on the inside, but have no clue what to do about it due to the constant deceptions fed to them by the media. It's one of the leading contributors to the absurdly high depression rates in the land of indulgence. It makes Ash sick. The powerful there had all the freedom in the world, and used it to destroy the people who gave them that power, absolutely ridiculous. Ash is guilty of enjoying a few cheeseburgers too, but he was raised to live without indulgence. The people in the land of indulgence can't even have a salad without drowning them in carbohydrates or fats. If such people were presented the food choices in the Sec Academy cafeteria, they'd order some of everything.
"You know a lot about the human body, is your mom a doctor or something?" Baro said, digging into the thunderhoof steak. With the way Ash trimmed the fat, the steaks are a stunning ninety-five percent protein. Baro can feel his sore muscles regrow with each bite. It fills him with happiness. The food Ash prepared was simply magnificent. He's avoided any and all excess flavor boosters too. No excess sugar, oil, or butter. He even served the vegetables plain. Such an act would have a chef whipped and beaten in culinary school. Ash's unorthodox manner of eating bland foods reflects his secluded lifestyle, yet Baro can't help but respect it. There's no indulgence in this feast, just raw power and energy which his body needs to recover. Ash even prepared specialty meats that the castle often throws away.
Baro remembers when his brother first sat him down and forced him to eat a thunderhoof heart. Baro cried for hours, begging for a cheeseburger instead. He tried everything. He begged, denied, bargained, and screamed, but his brother said his only other option was starving to death, that he refuses to be related to weakling trash. After a day of waiting, Baro gave in and ate the heart. That was when his brother stopped calling him names and showed a sense of pride. Giving him a pat on a shoulder too. It was uncharacteristically cruel of his older brother, but it was in line with the tyrannical attitude people often complain about in whispers. Baro didn't mind, tyrannical or not, older brother was onto something. That Thunderhoof heart did something incredible to Baro's body, it made his body stronger and his mind sharper. He's been addicted to the feeling since, even though the taste is still off putting. Ash doesn't even try to dress the food as anything else, he just puts it to the fire with salt and pepper. Was it his mom or dad that made him this hardcore?
"I have no idea who my mom is or what she does, I'd ask but she sort of abandoned me," Ash said, downing a bowl of berries as though he were drinking water. The anti-oxidants in those mixed berries will cleanse his blood from the taints of that scavenger hole, and his memories of the land of indulgence.
Baro looks down as he loads his plate with liver and kidneys. That was a depressing note, he's not sure how to respond. A mysterious and powerful mother, who taught him the ways of food in this discreet paradise... and then left him without saying anything. There is a fairly high chance that she's a ninja. Baro downs the coconut-rose water. A specialty mix Ash made... somehow, the process didn't quite make sense to Baro. Ash explained it helps keep the nervous system running smoothly his own cup of coconut-rose water.
"What about your dad?" Baro said between bites. Ash puts his fork down and looks wistfully off to the bright full moon high beyond the windows. He shrugs.
"I think I heard his voice as a baby, but that's about it. He's been gone since," Ash said.
"Did your mom ever mention why?"
"Nope."
"Did you ever ask?"
"Nope."
Baro slams his plate. How does this Ash meander his way through everything with so much talent without even bothering to stop and decipher the circumstances of his life. Literally could not care less what happened to his father, that's the impression Baro is getting. The truth was Ash was happy to just have a mother, he was so satisfied with the way things were and the routine he built that he never stopped to wonder why things were the way they were. After they clean the plates, Ash pops open a bottle of his specialty coconut mixture, it's off putting scent once made Baro uncomfortable and cautious about Ash's identity. Now he thinks the mixture is the result of freak coincidence. Ash uncovers a nearby hot spring, and pours in about a sixth of the bottle.
"This should be enough for the two of us. Let's rinse our body and clothes in the river while the scents activate."
"Do you bathe with your clothes?"
"I know it's weird, but trust me. Kireina Kami will even seep into the clothes your wear. It's great when your wear the same outfit almost daily."
Baro looks over his tattered gi. He's been wearing it daily for a year now. Bought it a little baggy so he'd grow into it too. His sweat got so deeply infused into the gi that he accepted it as the natural scent of the clothes. No matter how much he washed the blood and dirt out, he could not get rid of that musky taint of sweat. Yet Ash talks like it's the easiest thing in the world to clean. Well... if his mixture is as potent as the one's they use, it's worth checking out. Baro rinses himself in the river, and joins Ash in the spring, with clothes on and all.