Flames of Passion
A Grooselan story
“Kitchen delivery!” one of the magic-focused clan-fellows belted out.
“Finally,” Art grunted. It’d been a while since the last one, and he wanted to have a word with the convoy. He covered his present work and headed out to direct the placement of the supplies.
A few boxes later, he caught sight of the person he was looking for. “Katherine! What’s up with the delivery schedule?” he flagged her down.
“Be grateful you get one at all,” she told him when he got closer. “We’ve got bandits on the roads and food deliveries are big targets for animals, too.”
“… Burnout…” was all that Katherine heard from Art’s mutter, but it was enough to raise her eyebrows.
“Hold on, Art, you don’t know that. Don’t go accusing other clans. Especially not here: sometimes I feel like the Mercenaries are just looking for a fight with ’em.”
“Well, they should keep the bandits off the road, at any rate. It’s their food you’re delivering. You still not approved to hire a guard?”
“Attacks go up, compensation goes up. You’d think for running the economy, the Artisans would be fine with paying, but they’re trying to poach recruits from the Mercs instead. I keep trying to tell ’em that can only last so long, especially since we do things differently, but the Convoy head doesn’t pull enough weight.”
Art sighed. Whenever the price of recruiting outpaced the price of hiring would probably be the first time they’d actually pay someone. They might be the Artisans clan, but Art couldn’t call them the Merchants clan. Too stingy for their own good. At least they were probably the friendliest of the lot for their members, what with matching your job to your Trait. And with his being Passion, he got to pick whatever he wanted regardless. Top it off with his Trait’s magic actually being useful in his desired task of cooking and the leadership was pretty happy with him even before they got to taste his food.
“Anyway, got some special ingredients in there for ya. Have you ever worked with tomato before?”
“Tomato, tomato…” Art paused, then frowned. “I’ve tasted it, but it’s not local, is it?”
“Someone set up a couple of greenhouses for it. You got dried ones, though; keeps longer. I suggest keeping them in their jars until you’re ready to use them.”
This time Art smiled. Katherine was known for her curiosity—though to be fair, it could almost fit within her Adventurous trait. “You opened one?”
“The farmer had some to smell. The normal flavor is more concentrated and aromatic than usual.”
Art nodded. That might be useful without even putting it in the dish, though his customers probably wouldn’t leave anything on the plate. “I’ll keep that in mind. You’ve probably got other places to be. I won’t keep you.”
“Right you are!” And with that, Katherine boarded her vehicle and set to her job, and Art headed off for his.
While Art had tasted tomato before, it hadn’t been in his own dish, so after getting the more usual food ready for the clan he set about figuring out the tomatoes as part of a small dish for himself. Tomato was rather acidic, he knew, though not so bitter as vinegar. So, after making sure he was well away from the people presently eating, he opened a jar.
Katherine was not kidding. The scent was immediate and pungent, and nobody would mistake the acrid scent for something meant to be in tonight’s meal. He pulled one out and tasted it, then swiftly deposited it on a plate. Note to self: do not ingest whole and raw. Passion scurried over to check on his Origin and noticed the tomato, and the overgrown ladybug decided to try it as well. He did not get much further than the human before returning it to the plate.
Seeing his Trait gave Art another idea. What if it was toasted? Not one to waste an ingredient, he pulled out a small pan—custom-made to sit on a dome—and set it on Passion’s shell with the tomato inside. “Just a little, please. No need to make it crispy.” The shell visibly glowed before bursting into flames, though small ones this time. With all their practice, Passion could control the heat his shell output with precision, though flames would appear no matter how cool, so long as the heat was “on.” A minute or two later and smoke had begun to rise from the red flesh of the fruit, signifying that it was ready for round two.
Art carefully wrapped a towel around the pan’s handle and moved it to the wooden countertop, then scooped out the scorched berry. After it cooled enough to handle again, he sliced off a part. Or, well, tried. Art kept his knives sharp, but the tomato refused to be cut. He took the paring knife to the stone for a few strokes, examined the blade again, and tried slicing again—and again, failed to actually split the fruit. Fine, be that way. One thing Art had learned from hanging around here was that sometimes a bigger blade could handle what a smaller could not, even if the target did not look to merit it, and so he would be splitting this tomato simply by weight of blade alone. The bigger knife indeed did the trick, and finally Art could sample his roasted tomato.
Ah, not bad. Though still quite strong. He had one more idea that was more in line with how the fresh tomatoes he’d tasted long ago had been used: as part of a sauce. He could not mash these—slicing was difficult enough—but perhaps a thinner sauce would work, with the tomatoes performing a similar role to that of herbs and spices. One or two would probably be enough for the dish meant only for himself—Passion had his own meals—and he could save the rest for use with the clan.
One scrumptious dinner later, Art was positive that he had made the right decision. These would be a valuable addition to his cooking. He only hoped they weren’t so expensive that the clan would not continue to purchase them, although he also hoped that his assistants wouldn’t revolt against needing to cut the rubbery things. Cooking for an entire village would take a lot of tomatoes.
Thanks for reading! I want to write some more with Grooselan before I get into the serial in the World of Chaos setting, and this week’s item was inspired by my adventures in cooking last weekend. I always give an effort to try something new, though I don’t really like tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes were a bridge too far for me. Chopping fresh tomatoes is only mildly difficult; chopping dried ones is frustrating. That was not a recipe I opted to save.
I thought it would be funny (and entirely in keeping with human behavior) for each clan to have its own name for itself and a different, somewhat derogatory nickname that all the other clans used for it. (The clans are rivals, after all.) The “Mercenary” clan is, in fact, the Hero clan that we’ve seen in other entries, but Art isn’t part of them. He’s just been hired out to them, because it’s not really a Hero-type job to be cooking for everyone. However, he does get some of his assistants from the Hero clan.