“The term doesn’t just refer to the meat you eat, if you get my drift.” - Aaroz of Clan Bloodtooth, orcish adventurer, circa 644 FP.

As was the tradition, Miro as the host – typically the chieftain or the shaman were the ones to hold the position, but in this case Miro was the only one who knew Aideen in person and was their senior to boot – used a small knife to skillfully pluck out the eyeballs from the skull of the eland. He proffered one of the cooked orbs to Aideen, and with a smile, the two popped the eyeballs into their mouths together.

The way the eyeball popped in her mouth and gushed out the hot juices contained within was expected. The orb itself had more of a neutral flavor, though being cooked together with plenty of meat and seasonings for hours allowed the flavor to seep well into it, and its own crunchy, cartilaginous texture made for quite a novel experience, though she knew that first-timers to the tradition would have probably balked at the honor.

Of course, in her centuries of life Aideen had traveled far and wide and tasted all sorts of food, so it had not disturbed her in the least. Having food that stared back at you as you ate them was even considered the best sign of freshness, in some cultures.

She helped Miro dismantle the rest of the head, as was customary, her hands skillfully removing every bit of meat from the eland’s “face” and setting them aside for easy consumption. There was quite a bit of meat from the cheeks, and the tongue was similarly extracted then sliced into smaller pieces, laid alongside cartilaginous slices of the creature’s ear.

Between the two of them, the cooked head of the eland turned into a pristine skull devoid of any flesh in less than five minutes, then they passed the platter around and invited the rest of the group to partake in the feast. Miro had also mixed a sauce of herbs and spices that had been ground to a paste then diluted with more of the salted, buttery tea to use as a dip for the meat.

Aideen thought that the dipping sauce was a bit superfluous, as the eland meat itself was already flavorful and delicious on its own. It had a slight gaminess to it, and was fattier than typical for its sort, as antelope and gazelle meat tended to be lean, yet also a richer flavor to the meat. She thought that a good slice of venison made for a decent comparison, with a similar yet subtly different taste and a more tender and juicy texture.

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Combined with the dipping sauce, a riot of strong flavors was all that one could taste at first, only for it to mellow out and allow the meat’s natural taste to soothe the tongue as an aftertaste. Aideen felt that it worked better with the ears – which were mostly skin, a thin layer of fat, and cartilage – than the meat, as it had less flavor and was heavier on the texture instead.

They were served choice cuts from the rump of the beast where the flesh was tender and fatty, the meat almost melting in their mouths with plenty of juices and rendered fats gushing out as they chewed. The savory dough played more of a mediating role to cut down on the rich flavors once again, while enjoying it with some of the remaining stews also brought a pleasant mixture of flavor and textures into play.

For Aideen, however, the very best of the eland’s meat was the tongue. The cuts of tongue were lean and somewhat fibrous, yet tender and pleasantly chewy, with a delicate flavor that grew more pronounced as once chewed on the bits of meat. It was a shame that there was only that little bit of tongue in each animal, as it was by far her favorite cut of flesh.

She knew that there were social movements in some nations – the neighboring Clangeddin Empire being the most notable one – that advocated against eating the organ meats. Such movements often claimed that said flesh was “tainted” or “unclean”, which was a fair jibe since they always needed a thorough cleansing before they could be consumed.

Some parts like the intestines were where the animal’s digested food, which eventually turned to shit, rested before it was defecated out of the body, after all.

Most such movements originated from areas of plenty where they could afford to throw away a good chunk of an animal just to please their sensibilities, she noticed. The poor and the hungry were far less picky and would devour those same organs their “betters” considered repulsive without batting an eye, as anything is better than nothing when it came to hunger.

Situations like those at times made Aideen wonder whether prosperity is not in some way a poison of its own to people’s psyche. It was always in the more prosperous societies, where people finally had free time to be themselves rather than be mostly concerned with daily survival, that all sorts of strange and at times absurd ideas often came to be, from her centuries of observation.

Not even Ptolodecca had been spared from such cases, though in their case such movements rarely if ever managed to grow to any reasonable size. Other nations had no such luck, especially when the ideas caught on with their rich and powerful, who then propagated it to the rest of the populace by making themselves examples to be followed, even in foolishness.

It certainly made Aideen feel that the simple, straightforward life like what the orcs in the northern plains enjoyed had its own charms, and definitely explained why some tribes of therians in Elmaiya still lived by the old ways rather than the newer, “civilized” ways. There were many things that people often took for granted when they forgot about the harshness of life and survival, and it was something she never enjoyed witnessing.

She hoped it was something the northern orcs would not have to experience for themselves.