Rory didn’t get to do much the rest of the day when they returned to the palace. He found, strangely, that he was still shaking a bit after the little incident inside the Woodlander’s dungeon. The haunting moment when Devrum had tried to squeeze the life out of his own body by strangling himself wouldn’t leave his mind.

It helped to talk to the others and get it out of his system. Viv provided a sympathetic ear, holding his hands in her singular own. Honestly, he just appreciated being back beside her again.

The others tried to focus on the positives instead, which also helped in a way. After all, they had accomplished good things. They had helped the dwarves and the Woodlander form a partnership, while getting nice deals out of it for themselves too. Even better, they were on the verge of discovering how to procure meat.

Rory had to admit that the possibility intrigued him a lot as well.

He was too tired to contemplate much else over the rest of the day. Didn’t help that there had been no news from Arelland yet. A part of him felt sad considering the possibility that the elf might have considered their friendship ended. Ah well. Nothing to be done for it.

The next day turned out to be quite pretty. With the sun shining brightly in the cloudless sky, a chill breeze blowing into the palace grounds, and the smell of pine in the air, Rory thought he could almost feel like he was in paradise.

As promised, the dwarves arrived before long. Rory and the others had just finished breakfast when there was the familiar shout that they had guests approaching. Sure enough, Devrum had arrived. There was no minelord with him this time, though he did come in with an entourage.

And, strangely, what looked like the corpses of several monsters being dragged in on strange carts.

“What are those?” Viv asked of no one in particular. “Wait, you said meat, right? They didn’t mean monster meat, did they?”

“Greetings,” Devrum said. Despite the experiences of yesterday, he seemed to be back in his taciturn mood. Maybe that was just his default state. “I trust I find you well.”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Rory looked at the dwarf a little intently, but it was hard to tell anything under all his coverings. “Are you sure you’re alright? After yesterday, I mean.”

Devrum scratched at the wrappings around his neck where he had been injured. Or rather, where he had injured himself. He must have been doing it unconsciously, because he suddenly paused and snatched his hand behind his back. “I am fine. It was just a little moment of fear and panic. But now, as foretold, we have brought you meat.”

Viv stared past him to where some of the others had gathered around the monstrous bodies with all kinds of looks, though most of them did bear some amount of curiosity. “Well… you brought monsters.”

“Yes. Monstrous meat, if that’s what you’d prefer to call them.”

“I am not sure I’m in the mood for meat from monsters.”

“Considering you are in an apocalypse, I doubt you have the luxury to be picky, yes?”

Viv sighed but didn’t contradict that. Rory could sympathize with what she felt, but he agreed with Devrum. Their pickings were slim. They couldn’t turn up their noses now.

“Is it actually edible, though?” Rory asked. “I understand you dwarves can probably eat it well enough, but we’re built differently. Maybe your guts evolved to enjoy… what is that, Emberteeth meat? Ours might just cause us to die.”

“Well, you wouldn’t know if you don’t try, now will you?”

That was a fair assessment. They decided there was no harm in a careful attempt at least, so they began helping the dwarves with the monstrous bodies.

The Emberteeth were fresh. When asked, Devrum replied that they had gone hunting on their way to Belcourt Palace, making sure they had their carrying gear with them to pull in the big bodies. Rory and the others cleared a space for them on the outside of the palace, just to the left of the courtyard’s centre.

It was interesting to see the process of butchering the creatures up close. Rory wasn’t as interested in the more rudimentary processes of skinning, gutting, cleaning, and the like. The dwarves had brought proper tools for it—their versions of big butchering knives, gloves, masks, and aprons, hair-and-beard-nets, and the like—which they shared with the humans.

They had to get some practice in, after all. There were a few things they needed to be aware of when trying to prepare Emberteeth meat, apparently.

The organ the monsters used to throw fire was flammable, so they had to be careful they didn’t accidentally jostle it too roughly. A meaty, bloody explosion was not something to look forward to. They also had to take care not to accidentally activate the spike pouches, which would leave the unfortunate among them impaled.

But the actual intriguing part for Rory was the consistency of the Emberteeth’s physiologies.

The organs that controlled the functions that gave them so much trouble when the monsters were alive were Rory’s true target.

When the dwarves cut up the corpses, they were happy to point out a bulging, blue sack from around the Emberteeth’s stomach area, a thick liquid sloshing around inside it. Apparently, that was what let the monsters breathe fire.

“How do they turn the liquid into fire?” Rory asked. “I imagine that’s a flammable liquid and they have a mechanism for spraying it, setting it alight in the process?”

“Correct,” Devrum said. “They eject the liquid in a pressurized spray through pores inside their mouths. These pores produce heat as well, setting them afire.”

Viv peered at the bulging sack. “It’s interesting to contemplate.”

“What is?”

“The fire triangle. Over here, fire needs three things to function properly. Fuel, heat, and a supply of oxygen. Cut off any three, and the fire will go out. But these Emberteeth are creatures from a different world. Did that world have a strong supply of oxygen as well, or do they have a different gas that works in place of oxygen?”

“Well, I have no answer to that, but I imagine it suffices to know that worlds that support intelligent life do have a lot in common.”

“Fair.”

While they continued talking about the Emberteeth’s flames, cleaning up more of the body to get the meat, Rory decided to Weave the bulging sack. The lines of white light sank into the pouchlike organ, soon reducing it to a blue Sigil with a picture of a stream of fire.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of the Firestarter. Shiver me timbers, it’s hard to get warm in here. Here you go, this little Sigil should help you set the world ablaze instead.

[Teal III] allows heating up 7 objects to a fiery state in 1 minute.

Stats

Type: Concept

Rarity: Remarkable

Tier: Teal III [0%]

Efficiency: High [73%]

Interesting Sigil. When Viv and Devrum inquired, Rory explained what he had found.

Not that it was more interesting when there was the rest of the Emberteeth to dissect and cut up. They were making progress in getting the meat out of the creature. Several dark slabs that strangely reminded Rory of wet wood had been piled up in one corner.

“And here you have the protrusions,” Devrum said, tearing open a bit of the carcass and showing them a bunch of bumps just behind its back area. “This is from where it projects its spikes.”

“Oh, that’s amazing.” Rory had worn masks too, and he leaned forward and peered to get a better look. “This reminds me you don’t have to worry about cleaning up all this mess when you’re done.”

“It is of no import. We will be happy to clean it up before we leave.”

“No, I mean, I can use my Weaving to get rid of it all. It’ll also give me a new Sigil to play with. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a Sigil of the Emberteeth before, so that might be fun.”

Devrum grunted in acceptance. He showed how the organs that sprouted the spikes still technically functioned. It was a bit gross to watch, but Devrum pushed his hand through a layer of fat and muscle, then squeezed. Over on the other side, a small hole opened up before a foot-long spike burst out.

“You can stab someone with that, huh,” Viv said.

Rory nodded slowly. “Yeah…”

It didn’t take long for them to finish up. They had acquired a big pile of meat, all carefully arranged in separate piles to indicate different types. The leftovers of the Emberteeth’s corpse were left in one corner for Rory to use his Weaving on, which he did, gladly.

New Sigil!

You’ve obtained a Sigil of the Emberteeth. Sometimes, you don’t need to a be a gigantic flying lizard to be able to breathe fire. An overgrown hamster with anger issues can suffice too.

[Teal III] allows Emberteeth evolution across 36% of the body and using pyromantic abilities for 24 minutes per day.

Stats

Type: Evolution

Rarity: Remarkable

Tier: Teal III [0%]

Efficiency: High [63%]

Rory glanced at the black Sigil with the image of a smoky fire coming off dark spikes. Picture perfect to represent an Emberteeth. He looked up to see that his Weaving really had removed everything, including all the blood, bits of innards and bones, stray fur, and the like.

He was still going to ask the mats they had used to be washed thoroughly, though.

Pocketing the Sigil, he joined the others. They were sorting the meat. Devrum and his dwarven accomplices refused to take a cut, saying it was business compensation, but Dez eventually convinced them to at least stick around for lunch before leaving. Besides, they were going to have to show the humans to how to actually cook the meat.

Rory did peripherally note the process, despite not having a ton of interest in the actual minutiae. They’d been making do with the meat from the grocery trips. However, they were in danger of running out soon at their current rate of consumption.

That’s where the monster meat came in. According to the dwarves, it didn’t hurt to wash the meat from the Emberteeth thoroughly. They didn’t need to worry too much about germs since the Emberteeth’s internal temperatures made sure most microbes couldn’t survive, but it never hurt to be safe.

There was also more meat than they could store in the freezers they had taken from the groceries. That was fine. Rory had the idea of using his Sigil of Frozen Lighting to turn an entire room of the palace into a walk-in freezer for monstrous meat. He wasn’t too keen to see what sort of effect the electricity had on the meat, but at least the ice would keep it well preserved.

With that done, the dwarves pointed out how different kinds of meat could be cooked in different ways. The meat from the thighs and legs were the softest and most delicious, and the back meat was best cooked in chunks to properly soften them up. Meat from the breast area tended to be stringy, so slow-roasting that would be ideal.

As they cooked, they were careful to taste it and make sure the meat didn’t have a toxin or any other sort of negative effect. A few of them volunteered to test, but Bo forced himself to first place. Afraid though he might be of monsters themselves, their cooked meat was a different matter.

It wasn’t an easy decision. Despite the multiple volunteers, it was best to risk the person with the least “value”. Rory didn’t like judging someone like that, but apocalypses weren’t about making easy choices after all.

Thankfully, Bo was fine. He said it tasted a little smoky and spicy on its own, but after a while, they determined that it didn’t have any harmful effects. They even made sure to test it with several different sample sizes, trying to see if having more of the meat caused any troubles they hadn’t foreseen.

Nope. Bo really was fine, for which April and their kids were quite happy.

Eventually, they all gathered around for a nice, hearty lunch. Rory sat next to the dwarves, trying out the new food.

“How do you like it?” Devrum asked.

Rory took a long sniff. Viv had cooked it well, preparing it like beef stroganoff. He took a bite, chewing as delicious flavour burst across his mouth. After swallowing, he smiled. “It’s great. Didn’t expect it to be so good. Though, I think I’ll need a bit of a drink.”

Devrum laughed a little as he swallowed down some water. “It is naturally a bit spicy, isn’t it?”

Rory nodded. He hadn’t expected that level of heat, but it was a nice flavour. Rory quite enjoyed the rest of their meal.

“Thank you for that,” Rory said when they had finished their meal and the dwarves were about to take their leave. “We’ll try to get our own Emberteeth, practice on it with due care. Maybe some other monsters too.”

“Be careful when you attempt using other creatures,” Devrum cautioned. “They all have their own dangerous physiologies that must be carefully avoided. I would suggest waiting until you have contacted one of us to give you a demonstration before attempting it yourselves.”

“Ah, that’s fair.”

Devrum coughed. “It will not be free next time.”

Rory snorted. “Of course not.” Then he grinned. “Neither will our complementary meal.”

Devrum almost laughed at that, but he coughed and turned around. “I shall see you later then, Rory.”

“Farewell, Devrum.”