43 Overestimated Delicacy?

Crynn POV

Sizzle, sizzle, the meaty hyena meat sizzling with buzz on the grill, there's no need for any oil as the fat from the meat will serve as the equivalent here. The fragrant aroma twisted our smelling sense, the sound of fire only serves to further emphasize the delicious to-be-hyena. The shaking of the meat as it slowly being grilled to perfection of medium rare quality, effecting our tasting sense, our tongue palpitating with saliva, ready to pounce and just taste it.

And... Everything described above except for the first sentence is absolutely an overreaction, totally false. At least to me, its totally false. It doesn't smell that good, the grilling process is as simple as it can be and definitely not enough for me to salivate at just the sight of it. The smell of the burning meat is as normal as a burning beef steak. The meat obviously doesn't move around, it's clearly staying in one spot quietly being grilled with no movement whatsoever.

But why? Why is a delicacy, based on smell and shape, it's just like any other grilled meat out there. I looked to my left to see Warden gazing at it with such eager eyes and shaking lips, what an absurdity. At least Evelyn is still alright, with no reaction to the meat, only a slight eye twitch from her. Jonathan however is absolutely disgusting, hands rubbing together, tears glistening his eyes, and finally him and that constant lick of his.

I just don't get it, have these people never eaten in any average restaurant before or something. That meat has no difference to the steaks sold in a 24/7 fast steak house. "Emm, are all of you okay," this is clearly not the norm, I'm not in a food anime after all, what's up with this group of travelers.

They all looked at me, their scary half opened eyes stared at me like I'm one of those stupid animal in a zoo attraction. I'm incredibly bewildered, "Never mind then," I held both hands up to signal 'peace'. As they turn their eyes back to the hyena meat, their mannerisms turn the way as it were before, I can only gape in confusion.

"O'Connell, what's wrong with them," I gave a careful whisper towards O'Connell, from what my sight can perceive, O'Connell is by far the most unaffected besides me in this group. "You must know that Egypt isn't the wealthiest country around," he whispered back while still flipping the meat over.

I nodded and nudged at him to continue, "And not being exactly rich means that the food itself is not exactly great compared to other Eastern or Western countries," he explained slowly and when I think about it, it does seem true, even when they have the pyramids, it still isn't sufficient enough to enrich the country.

"To summarize, I bet they've never really eaten good food before," he concluded seriously and indicated it at them, truly have never tasted delicious before huh. "Even the French MRE back when I'm still in the army is better than this hyena," he laughed and continue flipping the hyena meat, adding salt and pepper every once in a while.

"You're in the army," I stated incredulously, this man doesn't seem serious enough to ever been in the army nor does he have the bearing of a soldier. "Is it that hard to believe, I'm a capitaine of the French expeditionary forces in Egypt," he smugly declared while racing his hands up in the air to salute. "A captain huh, what makes you quit," I tried a sensitive question next to know more about this unique protagonist.

"We were searching for Hamunaptra back then, lets say that once we found it, some people weren't very happy with that and decided to slaughter everyone, I escaped with my life, those black wearing dudes that night on the ship, they were the ones whom destroyed our entire battalion. If I were to get back to the military base, I'd be held responsible for the destruction and so I chose to desert. Of course they all thought I'm dead as they never bothered to put a wanted sign anywhere."

I can hear the tragic sadness in his tone and eyes as he gazed at the lone fire, looking all lonely himself. I sighed, "That's life alright," that's some real inspirational words to be spoken towards someone just after retelling their terrible life stories. He just smiled and say nothing more, focusing back on grilling the meat, isn't this taking too long.

"How do you end up in the French Army, you sure don't look anywhere near French to me," O'Connell is a blonde man and is certainly American, his accent states em'all. "Well, I was travelling in the Middle East when I cam across the expeditionary forces recruiting, I decided to join and in a few years, I reached the rank of capitaine," O'Connell proudly presents his ex-title once again.

"So, mercenary huh," I brought out my gun, to fiddle with it and look at it closely. "Not mercenary, more to gun for hire, or simply tour guide," O'Connell looked down to my gun and raised his eyebrows. "Have you cleaned it yet?" no not really, I never got into situations where I'm required to clan my gun. I've used a fair share of guns before, but never extensively, though I could be called a gun and explosives expert only in model but not in parts.

I'm not expert enough to be able to dismantle any type of modern weapon, ballistics wise, or even explosives. O'Connell looked at me for a moment and I finally shook my head, he frowned for a bit before getting back to his hyena meat. "I'll clean it for you after this," he said in the light of the fire, sizzling the still not ready meat. I mouthed a whisper of thanks to him, its most polite to thank someone first rather than later after the job is done.

"So everyone! It seems that your hyena steaks will be ready shortly! I believe it's been long enough and that its time to... Feast!" O'Connell suddenly and unexpectedly raised his voice to the whole salivating onlookers and announced the great news.

I will judge whether this dish is either overestimated and all talk or if its really a delicacy hidden in the wild.