Real Cooking (D'ero

[Ise]

D'ero walked over to the stream and washed the knife off before he started filling the water bag. Filling the bag was slow and boring and his hands were soon freezing in the cold water. Still, he spent more time glancing back to try and see what Jarshan was up to then paying attention to how full the bag was. He had thought at first that maybe they were making a soup or a stew since she needed so much water. Though roasting the bird made him doubt that. Unless Southerners just did their soups and stews differently. The young man just hopped dinner didn't take as long to cook as it had to gather the right materials. He was starting to get a little hungry.

Once the bag was full of water, D'ero poured some of it back into the stream until it was only three fourths full. He carried it back to the fire, keeping a tight grip on the bag as he flashed the clean knife to Jarshan.
"Already took care of it. Didn't want the blood to dry on the knife."
Tuber peeling now. Not as fun as cleaning out a wherry but it would be easy. Hopefully. Some of those tubers had been hard as rocks.

Handing the bag of water to Jarshan, D'ero then went and found the pack that the tubers had been placed in and pulled them out.
"Will I need to cut them up as well? And if so, how big do you want the pieces to you?"
He took his seat near the fire, holding his hands out to it to let them dry off and warm up a little more.

[Marnark]

Jarshan accepted the bag of water, and slipped it under her three-legged stick frame. Feeding the top up through the hoop she stretched it out and back down over the hoop again before letting go. Simple elasticity held it to the frame and quite wide open at the same time. Moving the whole frame closer to the fire but not over it, she stuffed the ends down into the dirt so that it wouldn't wobble.

"Depends. How soon do you want to eat? Sooner, cut em up smaller. Later, don't cut em at all. They'll cook either way." Jarshan told him, while musing on his very strange word choices. She'd understood him, and that was the important part. But so very often he came up with what had to be the strangest sentence construction. Reaching over to the wherry, she turned it a bit so that a new side was presented to the heat.

Pulling out the herbs they had gathered, she broke and tore them into small pieces and dropped them into the bladder of water. Now, all she had to do was wait. Wait on the water to boil in its bag, wait on D'ero to cut up the tubers, and wait on the wherry to finish searing.

Scooting back away from the fire's heat, she looked over at where D'ero was working. She watched him in silence for a short time, before pulling out the knot in her laces at her throat and loosening the cross-threading that ran down the front of her leather, holding it shut. She didn't pull it out, instead loosening it a bit to allow some air in. Between the heat of the jungle and the heat of the fire, the leather was providing a bit too much warmth even for her. She wasn't going to be dashing through underbrush or battling felines any time soon, so it didn't need to be closed.

[Ise]

He peeled the tubers, being careful to not nick himself with the knife as he took the skins off. Most of the tubers were easy to peel and then he started cutting them up into smaller chunks. He didn't feel like sitting there for hours waiting for some of the hard tubers to get soft enough to eat.

His cutting went quickly until he grew distracted and almost sliced his thumb. He stopped slicing the tubers, looking over at Jarshan to make sure he really was seeing her undo some of the laces for her leathers. D'ero shook his head a bit, trying hard not to grin.
"That's not nice."
He went back to cutting, taking his time a little more now as he kept an eye on Jarshan. He couldn't help but watch her now. Though he did have to remind himself that he had to behave for the night.
"And yes, I know you haven't even done anything but loosen things a little but it's still not nice. My mind just goes running with the possibilities."

He was also slightly jealous that she could loosen up her shirt and get a little air. He was stuck with his shirt either on or off. And he wasn't going to test his luck and start taking clothes off just yet. Dinner had to be made first, and then eaten, and then maaaybe he would see what Jarshan's reaction was. Taking off his shirt was bad, he was just too hot in the jungle.

[Marnark]

She laughed at him when he floundered and then started complaining. "Hey, you're the one thinking all those naughty thoughts of yours. I can't help that." She pointed out. Even if she was highly amused. Silly boy was getting a taste of his own medicine and not realizing it. Sitting there all happy in his clingy wet shirt.

As he finished chopping the tubers, some of them albeit rather hard and difficult to cut, Jarshan reached over and scooped them up a handful at a time. Pouring them into the heating water inside the bladder, she picked up another stick. Taking a moment to peel the bark off of it, she used it as an impromptu spoon and stirred it.

After awhile, she lifted the golden-seared wherry off of the fire and reset it on its spit away from the fire where it could cool off. It was not done yet by any measure of the imagination, clearly still raw on the inside. But Jarshan didn't seem to care or mind. After it had cooled off enough to be handleable, she took one of her knives and started cutting chunks off of it, easily slipping the blade between joints on the limbs and removing the majority of the meat off of the body itself. Each piece was dropped into the bladder as well, as soon as it came free from the carcass. Almost as soon as the meat landed in the hot water within the bladder, the liquid changed color from a vague milky-green color from the tubers and herbs to a robust tan color. It also started to smell like something other than tea. Now it smelled more like a mouth watering stew.

After all of the meat was in the bladder, which was now quite full to the brim, Jarshan gave it another stir with her stir-stick. With a fire-poking stick, she rearranged the fire before adding more fuel. But she kept it well away from the bladder. The liquid inside the bladder kept it from scorching and burning, but only so long as it was not directly over any flames. Coal heat it could handle. So she shifted flameless coals to closer to the bladder's distended bottom, while adding fresh fuel to the side farthest from the bladder.

The longer it cooked, the darker the stew became until it was quite brown. Some of the tubers cooked before the others, and mushed out into nothing in the liquid. But that only served to thicken the bubbling solution, while the firmer tubers finished off cooking to a palatable texture. Once she deemed it was done, she lifted the tripod stand out of the dirt and moved the whole bladder away from the fire. "There. See how easy that was?" She asked. "Hungry?" Sticking her stir-stick back into the bladder, she stabbed a piece of wherry and lifted it out, dripping in the flavored gravy it had stewed in. It was cooked well enough now that it was trying to fall apart off of the end of the stick. Handling the stick carefully so that it wouldn't do that, she first blew on it to cool the steaming morsel off, and then extended it to D'ero to try.

[Ise]

D'ero resisted the urge to pout a bit. It wasn't his fault that she was hot and that he was a guy who liked hot women. Instead he just let out a slightly sulky sigh. He still didn't think it was fair that she could do that. It seemed like cheating to him. Of course he didn't realize he was doing much of the same thing to her. And even if he had, he couldn't help it. It was hot! Too hot! It wasn't his fault his shirt clung to him, nor was it his fault that he had been forced to cool off in the river a bit.

He managed to finish chopping the tubers without cutting himself, even though he kept trying to sneak peeks at Jarshan and some of those tubers turned out be only slightly softer then rocks. But Jarshan didn't complain about them and dropped them all into the heating water.

As they waited some more for everything to cook, D'ero went back to the stream to wash the knife off again before coming back and sitting down next to Jarshan. He enjoyed being closer to her and it gave him a better view. Of the food. He behaved himself and only tried to glance down her top once before he settled for just watching her as she stirred the flavored water before the wherry was cooked enough. He handed over the knife to her, watching as she cut the bird up and tossed the half cooked meat into the water. He grinned a little to himself, pleased that he had been right that dinner was going to be some sort of stew.

Once she was done with the knife, D'ero took it back from her and washed it off again. With Jarshan doing all the cooking, he might as well make himself a little useful and keep things clean. He came back and sat next to her, watching in silence as the stew bubbled and thickened up until his mouth was watering at just the smell of it. He was about to ask her how much longer they had to wait when she pulled the bladder away from the fire.
"Yes, I'm starving now."
He helped hold the stick still as he leaned forward and took the piece of meat off it. He chewed it slowly, letting it cool a little more before swallowing and nodding.
"That tastes wonderful. Worth all the hard work and the wait."

[Marnark]

Jarshan grinned at him, and then handed him the stick. "Then help yourself, Starving." She told him, before taking her knife and whittling on another stick industriously. She hadn't missed all his not so subtle ooching closers, and his divided attention between the food and her. But she opted to not comment on it lest she start something... that and it wasn't time to embarrass the snot out of him just yet. Yet.

Some part of her found it flattering, even though she certainly would not admit it. She liked attention after all. A few quick strokes of her knife and she had a couple more eating-sticks all whittled down and peeled. "Watch. When you don't have spoons, this is how you do it." She showed him the two sticks she was using, and how to use them together to manipulate pieces of food. "But remember to blow." Jarshan snickered. "It's hot after all." She gave him a second stick to go with the first one. "Now you try."

"Do you think you could do this, now?" She asked, plucking a tuber piece out to blow on and then eat. "Getting the spices just right to taste will take practice, but in general it's really very simple." Naturally a body couldn't spoon up gravy with sticks, but once the whole thing cooled and congealed slightly, it could then be eaten. Cooking and eating out in the woods with next to no utensils was not a very civilized thing to do ... but hey. They were eating. And eating well.

[Ise]

D'ero took the stick from her and poked around in the stew before he was able to skewer another piece of meat while Jarshan whittled more sticks down. He blew on the meat he had before eating it and taking a second stick from her, looking between the two of them and how she was using them. He watched how she used them before he tried to copy it, his own two sticks being used in a much more awkward and clumsy way.

"I think I'll have an easier time cooking then eating like this..."
He worked the sticks open and close, almost dropping one of them a few times before he altered the way he was holding them. The way he held them wasn't pretty but he seemed a little more comfortable with them and risked trying to grab another piece of meat. It took a few tries before he managed to grab ahold of it and pull it out of the thickening liquid but he finally worked the food into his mouth.
"Yea, the cooking half will be way easier then eating without a fork or spoon. Though I doubt I'll be able to do anything quite as good as this for a while."

He was forced to eat slowly with the sticks, getting a little bit better with practice. And so long as he didn't drop anything in his lap, D'ero didn't care how funny he looked as he tried to find ways to use the two sticks to eat. Jarshan made it look so easy.
"Does this mean I'll have to try and make you dinner soon?"

[Marnark]

Jarshan didn't do much eating, rather preferring to watch as D'ero worked out how he was going to go about doing it. After awhile she just couldn't help herself and she started snickering. Which evolved into a full on laugh. "You know ... if you have the spare pocket space, you can always use a spoon or something that you bring along." She pointed out.

Snickering almost uncontrollably, she reached over and took the sticks from him, tossing them aside into the leaves. Reaching into her belt pouches, she produced a spoon for him, and placed that in his hand instead. Lifting one eyebrow at him, she asked; "Better?" She didn't manage to say it without a giggle though.

No, most certainly had not escaped being made fun of, that was for sure.

"Try? Try? What do you mean try? Either you are or you aren't. Which is it?" Jarshan asked. "Don't tell me I showed you how to do that so that you can refuse to use it?" Using one of her own sticks, she poked his boot a few times. Mostly because poking him anywhere else probably would have drawn blood, given that she'd just finished whittling sharpened points onto the ends.

[Ise]

D'ero took Jarsha's laughing in stride. He was sure he looked hilarious to her. He could tune out her snickers but once she really started laughing he rolled his eyes at her a little though a smirk rested on his lips.
"Next time I'll remember to carry a spoon on me. Maybe just a full set of silverware so I never have to try this again."

He picked up a piece of tuber, dropped it as he tried to pull it out, picked it back up and dropped it again before Jarshan pulled the sticks out of his hands and threw them into the trees before handing him a real spoon. He clung to the spoon, being a goof as he snuggled it.
"Oh sweet wonderful spoon. What would I ever do without you?"

D'ero stopped messing around with the spoon and instead dug into the stew, enjoying it far more now that he could actually get a bite of it while the food was still hot. He ate a few bites of food before nodding to Jarshan.
"Alright, I will be making you dinner soon. Saaay next week? Unless you have another Shield outing coming up. Maybe I'll even learn something new that I can surprise you with."
He moved his boot out of the way of her stick and offered her the spoon in case she wanted to try and eat with utensils instead of sticks.

[Marnark]

Jarshan just stared at D'ero for a moment, and then burst out into peals of laughter. "What are you? A nine turn old girl snuggling her very first dolly made of something other than cornhusks?" She teased, clearly amused by his antics. "Maybe I should leave you two alone?" she added, jabbing him all over again in a whole other direction.

But she was slightly smug to see how he just dug into the thick gravy like soupy mess that was the meal. Either he really really really liked her cooking, or he was just plainly starving to death. She wasn't sure which, given he was a young fellow with a high workload. He might well be starving to death on the inside after so long without food!

Tilting her head to one side, she just looked at him for a moment after his statement. "I know it seems otherwise, but I am not always on missions you know." She pointed out. "But learning something new is always good. You need to be able to make more than one dish after all." Jarshan agreed, wiping off her sticks on her thigh to clean them off after all that boot-poking she'd done with them. She waved off his offering of the spoon. "Keep it. I get the feeling you're going to need it a whole lot more than I will." She teased, dipping the sticks in after a tuber bit and lifting the morsel out. "Starving fellow that you are." Jarshan smirked before popping the bit into her mouth and chewing thoughtfully.

[Ise]

Embarrassing himself was well worth it to see Jarshan laugh like that. And unless she went around telling others in the Weyr, no one else would even find out what a goof he was being with the spoon.
"Well..."
He looked between her and the spoon, giving the utensil a kiss before letting out a dramatic sigh and putting it down.
"No, no, you can stay don't worry. I think I'm done."
He gave the spoon one last, look of longing before he burst out laughing as well.

Though D'ero was hungry, he was not yet starving. He liked Jarshan's stew. Though it was a simple meal, it was still better then most of the things the Weyr served in the to everyone. And the fact that it was made by Jarshan sure didn't hurt his opinion of it.

"I never know when you're going out for Shield work. But I do want to try and learn how to make something else. Really try to impress you that way."
He was already starting to think of what he would do for her and how he would get the things he needed. He could find the herbs he wanted when they walked back to the Weyr, which would help to make sure that he was picking the right stuff and not something poisonous. But the rest he wanted to be a surprise for her. A week would give him time to get everything together and hopefully learn a new trick or two in the kitchen.

He took the spoon back and took another bite of the stew, watching as Jarshan managed to make eating with sticks look easy.
"You're so kind. I think you just want me to keep the spoon because you're getting cramps from laughing at me so much."
D'ero smiled a bit, not minding the teasing one bit. He knew he looked pretty funny with the sticks, and funny with the spoon as well. But Jarshan's good spirits made it well worth it.

[Marnark]

Jarshan laughed again at him, and shook her head. Boys. But she was nice and didn't poke him all over again for his antics. She really had to wonder how and why he affected her the way he did ... most people didn't put her through such wild swings. But here was D'ero, little more than a kid if a rather big one, a rider, and from the north. Who just put her through paces every time she encountered him. First an insanely lusty night on a mountainside, and now a giggle fest in the forest. What was he going to provoke next?

Jarshan snorted. "You and me both. I never know when I'm headed out on a mission either, until I get word. We usually just patrol around the Weyr you know. Home every night... or day as the case might be. Things have to be stirring afoot to send us out into the jungles or to the Holds. Doesn't happen on a schedule, you know." she poked a finger through her laces to scratch a spot there. Impress her. He wanted to impress her ... and was so bold enough to say so. He was ... so strange. So different from everyone else. Why? She didn't know. Even stranger that he wanted to impress her with culinary skill he utterly lacked. Most males usually tried the macho approach... but that never worked on her. Those types usually ended up eating their balls for lunch.

Jarshan grinned at him, but shook her head. "No, I don't have cramps. But it is hard to eat through laughter, true." she reached out and made like to poke him with her sticks, but she didn't quite make them actually go that far. She had no intention of hurting him after all.

[Ise]

"Well good to know I'm not just missing anything. Do you guys normally get some warning before you'll be gone on a mission or is just kind of random on how much time you get?"
D'ero slowed down in his eating, trying to show that he was paying more attention to anything Jarshan had to say then he was the food. It was hard to do but he was curious to know more about the Shield.
"Maybe you should try to talk to everyone, get them to make a schedule. I'm sure the Holdless would go with it too if you told them that you had a hot date and didn't want to be pulled away from it."
He chuckled a bit, he wasn't even sure if either of their dates could really be called hot ones. And didn't think that the Holdless would be so nice.

D'ero eyed Jarshan's stick as it came at him again. He wasn't too worried about her just poking at him, though didn't think she would do it again. Why poke at him when she could instead be eating their dinner?
"Yes, it is hard to laugh at me and eat at the same time. I guess you have to pick one or the other. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll do something else embarrassing soon enough and give you more to laugh about."
He couldn't help but get a little silly around Jarshan. Something about her just made him feel more comfortable, he didn't mind making a joke about himself if it got a laugh or a smile out of her. And being out in the middle of no where didn't hurt either.

"Ssoo when I make you dinner is there anything I should know? Like is there some food that you really hate? Because if there is, with my luck I'd be making a whole meal out of it."
He was slightly worried about something like that happening. Cooking was going to be hard enough for him, especially if he had to try and learn multiple things that were harder then just boiling things together. He didn't want to spend too much of his time wondering if Jarshan would hate it or not.

[Marnark]

Jarshan shrugged slightly and shifted how she was sitting to a more comfortable position. "Completely random. I never know when we'll be headed out more than a night in advance. If that much. If something really dire is going on, we'll head out immediately. But most of the time for most missions, we get a one day warning. Because most of the time we set out pre-dawn, rather than pre-dusk. As good as we are, we rather like to avoid random run-ins with wild whers, you know." She smiled slightly. "Usually after a mission, we get a day or two to rest up before we go back at it. That is sort of what today is. Downtime. Keeps us from getting too burnt out too fast."

Jarshan couldn't help but laugh at his absurd idea of getting the holdless to adhere to a mischief schedule. That didn't even require an answer, she knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he knew it was absurd and impossible. But it was a funny notion nonetheless. Even if his sitting over there sniggering at himself wasn't infectious enough.

"Oh, so being funny requires embarrassing? What is it that embarrasses you then, hm?" Jarshan asked, picking one more morsel out to eat before setting the sticks aside. It was a good thing she wasn't terribly hungry. Between the small size of the rather big bladder, and his voracious appetite ... it went away fast. But that was good. It would be a bad thing to have to figure out how to tote a bladder of leftovers back to the Weyr. As it was, she could wash the thing out and hang it to dry inside out.

A random shrug was almost all the answer he got so far as what foods she liked or disliked went. After a moment she did deign to clarify though, as if having needed a moment to compose words to go with it. "I usually eat anything edible. I do tend to eat a lot of meats, but that's just a given from what I have for a job. Other than that, you really can't go wrong." She offered a small smile. "Just be sure to not burn your water, and you should be okay."

[Ise]

It was a shame that Jarshan didn’t get much warning before she was sent out on things but D’ero figured they’d both have to get use to things like that. He had a feeling he wouldn’t be getting much warning when it was finally time to go fight Thread.
“Well I’m glad that you’re willing to spend what little downtime you get with me.”

He gave her a little smile before letting out a sign and leaning back a bit as he sucked on the spoon.
“I think most of the things that have gotten you to laugh today have been slightly embarrassing to me. Can’t say I’m going to go into the weyrhall and start making out with my spoon for just anyone. And trying to eat with the sticks was pretty bad too. And yet both things had you practically rolling around on the ground laughing.”
He gave a little shrug, he was willing to be a little more goofy and relaxed around Jarshan but wasn’t yet ready to do anything like that around his fellow weyrlings or the riders. Being from the North, he was still an outsider to those that hadn’t been in lessons with him.

“So no foods that you really hate or anything that makes you break out in rashes. Well that’s less to worry about at least. And I’m pretty sure I won’t burn the water but I won’t make any promises. I just hope you don’t expect a very pretty looking meal. My mom could make week old leftovers look like a meal fit for a Lord Holder, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a talent I picked up from her.”
So long as things tasted good he didn’t think how is food looked would matter too much. And she probably wasn’t expecting some fancy looking meal knowing that he wasn’t much of a cook.