Another Favor

The both of us followed Josh into the clearing and in front of one of the large birds. With fiery red wings, a sharp hooked beak and piercing black eyes, the Avis lowered its head closer to us.

"Hello there, Chef. I heard from Josh that you are quite...innovative with food ingredients."

As the Avis opened its beak to talk, I could see its purple tongue.

"If I could ask for a deal, would you create some food for our younglings? We can't always only rely on the Lupos for food. You see, those Colonizers brought some pesky invaders that don't like to follow the rules. And they aren't exactly picky eaters either. So we struck up a deal with the Lupos, free range in our territory in exchange for food. But it's not as if we can rely on the Lupos forever. We promise the reward will be quite handsome."

Sneaking a glance at Josh, I was concerned that this small 'deal' of ours would cause quite some changes in the dynamics between the Lupos and the Avis. Josh, seeing my worried look, waved his hand nonchalantly with an expression that read 'don't worry about it'.

"The Lupos and Avis now have a relationship that goes past a deal like that. You don't have to worry about anything, we have both discussed this already. Besides, since we are past our ...rocky relationship, we have discovered several benefits that make having a symbiotic relationship, much better than being predator and prey."

Looking at me for my nod of approval, the large Avis then told us to grab onto its talons. It then flapped its wings and lifted all three of us off the ground. Closing my eyes as I felt the air pressure increase, I held my breath as I could feel us getting higher and higher before suddenly our feet touched something soft.

Opening my eyes, we were transported into what seemed like an enclosed space with an open ceiling, surrounded by walls made of wood and bones stacked on each other. We must be inside one of the nests.

Standing up and brushing the dirt off, Josh introduced the three of us to the ingredients that were scattered all over the nest. There were bones of different animals, both predators and prey, as well as branches from tall trees, fruits that only those who fly can harvest, and the most interesting ingredient of all, several large nuts the size of my palm that were lying around. They kind of resembled acorns.

Noticing my gaze, Josh gave an extended explanation of these nuts.

"These are sky nuts, usually only found very high up above the canopy. Since the canopy of these tree species are especially thick, the nuts usually fall onto the canopy instead of dropping to the floor. There they are either picked up by animals that can fly and are brought back to the nests as building materials or food, or they are eroded by the elements at sky level and the seeds which are inside the nuts, are scattered by the winds at high elevations. These seeds can then travel very far. Of course, the Avis are most carnivorous so they do not eat these nuts, but instead use them as bargaining chips with either smaller nut eating birds and animals, or us."

Getting closer to the nut, I rapped my knuckles on it and heard a mostly hollow sound. Lifting it, it was definitely much lighter than its size would suggest. Gripping the top of the nut, I tried to twist it open. But even after using all my strength, until I could feel my face turn red, the top of the nut still didn't budge.

I then heard a sigh from beside me before I saw a hand, from Josh, take the nut and deftly twist it open with a quick flex of his hands. Passing the two parts back to me, I nodded a thanks before peering inside the nut.

The nut, as I guessed, was hollow on the inside. And inside it were several small and round white spheres, which were probably the seeds Josh was referring to. Taking the seeds, which were the size of a pea in my previous world, I checked whether they were edible before putting them into my mouth.

Crunching it with my teeth, I could feel a very distinctive nut-like flavor spread all throughout my tongue. Like a blanket, it covered my mouth and refused to let go. Even when I swallowed the taste seemed to linger, as if fearing to leave. I finally drank a little water to wash the taste down.

This 'stickiness' of the nut flavor would be quite an interesting combination with some other foods.

Taking out a container again, I stored some of the seeds into it and kept it.

Then Josh continued our tour around the nest, where I took more samples of the ingredients there until I was satisfied. Josh then whistled into the air and the large Avis would reappear and lift us out of the nest, returning us to the outside world.

"We hope to see you later with the promised goods. Chef."

The Avis spoke as it gently dropped me on a soft pile of leaves. It then landed slightly further away. Closer to its kind.

Waving goodbye with its wings, we left the clearing and Josh took us to several other spots until my survival belt was almost full. We then headed back to the camp.

At the camp, Josh announced that the day's trip was done and that we were dismissed. Before we left though, I asked Josh why the Avis would request me to help solve their food issues. After all, if they were not considered 'sentient' by ASCI, then I was pretty sure their digestive system wouldn't work the same as us. Why ask for a chef from a different species?

To my question, as Josh opened his mouth to answer, Tim jumped in before anyone could stop him.

"That's because the younglings have a 'weaker' digestive system, which makes their diet quite similar to us in that they are omnivores. They only turn fully carnivorous when they are adults. In fact, the most common food ingredients for younglings are ingredients found on the ground, which they can find by gathering. But since walking around is pretty dangerous for younglings now, the Lupos help the Avis gather these ingredients."

After Tim 'helpfully' interjected, the three of us finally split up and headed back to our houses. But before I went into the house, I turned around and noticed Josh and Tim heading into the same house. I remembered all the looks Josh gave Tim ever since we met, including the scowl Josh had after Tim interrupted just now, I almost felt sorry for him.

Lighting a candle for Tim in my heart, I closed the door to the house and took out the ingredients I had gathered. There were many of them, all different types, from berries to barks to leaves and nuts.

Setting aside the interesting ingredients, the sugar syrup, the cocoa bark, the seeds as well as a leaf that had a milky smell, I grouped all the ingredients based on what I thought would work well together. Then, taking the mortar and pestle from my bag, I started grinding a little of the inner bark.

Maybe it was like the rain bark back at Mors, where it needed to be ground to bring out its potential as an ingredient. But if grinding it didn't work, I was also planning on soaking it and seeing what that would bring me.

The containers had a limited quantity, but it should be enough to experiment on for one day. And if I ran out, I could always collect more. Furthermore, I had separated the ingredients we got from the nest into another group as well. I also had another favor to fulfill, and it seemed they wanted food items that they could make from whatever ingredients they had gathered themselves.

Although I had no idea how they were going to prepare it when they had no opposable thumbs. Maybe use their beaks to slowly grind it?

Reigning in my thoughts, I scooped some of the bark powder and tasted it. It was not that bad, but not what I was looking for. Setting a bit of the powder aside and mixing it with the sugar syrup, I tasted it once more.

Hmmm. It still didn't taste up to par.

Separating the cocoa bark into several small batches, I tried mixing it with some of the ingredients I thought would work well with it. And most of the results were mediocre.

Sure it was edible, but the ingredients didn't complement each other.

Finally I was left with the seeds being the last on the list of components that I thought would at least be edible with each other.

Picking several of the seeds with my fingernails and dropping them into the cocoa bark powder, I grinded them both together and then tasted them.

This time, I finally had the results I was looking for. It tasted different from any of the chocolate I had ever had in my previous world, but in a good way. The stickiness of the nut flavor was lessened by the bitter cocoa flavor, but not drowned out. Instead, it was like an ever-present aftertaste that seemed to take off a bit of the bitterness of the cocoa but still leave a pleasant taste on the tongue.

Satisfied, I noted down the combination then continued on with the other experiments. One down, and a lot more to go!