“I got your stuff ready for you,” she said, looking toward the dorm’s entrance. Ms. Paula had set out paste fishing bait, a knife, a few simple seasonings, and everything else I’d been looking for.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that,” I told her.
“I was happy to,” responded Ms. Paula. “Go fish your hearts out!”
“We will!”
Lia, Rose, and I walked to the river behind the dorm.
“This is it,” I said.
“Wow, this water is so pretty!” exclaimed Lia.
“It’s so clear. You can see the bottom!” observed Rose.
Their eyes shone excitedly.
“Have either of you fished before?” I asked.
“A few times with my dad,” said Lia.
“Only for fun, really,” replied Rose.
“Oh, good. I’m sure you’ll both be fine, then.”
The fish in this river weren’t wary of people at all, so unless you were a total amateur, it was easy to have a good time fishing here. We put the special paste bait on our hooks and dropped them into the water.
A few minutes later, I felt a tug on my rod.
“Got one.”
I yanked my rod out of the water, pulling up a gorgeous white fish.
“That’s one,” I said.
It was an amyu, a river fish that had a large population around here, and our main target today. I removed the hook from its mouth and placed it in a bucket of water.
“Whoa, fresh amyu! It looks delicious!” cried out Lia.
“Yeah, it’s nice and fat,” added Rose.
We enjoyed fishing for another hour or so. Once we were done, I counted how many we’d caught.
“One, two, three…ten. That’s a good haul,” I told the girls.
The fresh amyu swam energetically in the bucket.
“Hmm-hmm, that’s a lot of fish!” said Lia happily.
“It feels good to catch so many,” Rose said with a smile.
“By the way, Allen… How do we eat these?” Lia asked.
“Amyu can be used for all sorts of dishes. They make nice, chewy sashimi, you can create a delicious stock if you put them in miso soup, and they’re often simmered, as well. We’re gonna take advantage of how fresh they are and grill them with salt,” I said.
“Wow, really?!” Lia exclaimed, her eyes shining like a child’s.
“Ooh, that sounds interesting,” Rose said, equally excited.
“All right, I’ll start prepping them,” I said.
I took an amyu out of the bucket and got right to work. I killed the fish, scraped the scales off with a knife, then used water from the river to wash the slime coat off its body. Next, I used a piece of paper towel to wipe off the moisture and lightly sprinkled it with salt, then finished it off by skewering it.
“Wow, you’re so good at that,” said Lia.
“You can cook, Allen?” asked Rose.
“Yeah. I grew up in the countryside, after all,” I said with an awkward smile.
Growing up in a place like Goza Village, where most of the people were older, you had no choice but to learn how to support yourself. Whether it was farming livestock, cooking, or household chores, there were a lot of things you had to learn to do on your own.
“Now I just need to start the fire,” I said, looking for dry leaves and sticks.
Lia’s head snapped up.
“Leave that to me!” She waved her finger, shooting out black and white flames, and in no time at all, we had a fire crackling. “Hmm-hmm, fire is my specialty. I don’t even need to summon my Soul Attire.”
“Thanks for that.” I lined up the amyu over the fire and waited as they cooked. Before long, the pleasant smell of grilled fish filled the air. “They’re cooking nicely.”
“They smell so good… My mouth is watering!” Lia said.
“Yeah, they look delicious,” added Rose.
After about another minute on the fire, the fish had turned nice and brown, and we were ready to eat.
“““Let’s dig in!””” We clapped our hands together and sank our teeth into the salt-grilled amyu.
Wow, this is delicious! The plump fish had a nice amount of fat on it and was perfectly salted. Each of the flavors came together to create a perfect harmony.
“Mmm! This is the best amyu I’ve ever had!” exclaimed Lia.
“No kidding. This is incredible…!” agreed Rose.
Rose and I had one each, and Lia gobbled up the other eight.
“““Thank you for the food,””” we said together, giving thanks to nature.
“Man, that was really good,” I said.
“Yeah!” agreed Lia. “I’m a little thirsty, though.”
“Me too. That fish was salty,” said Rose.
My throat was dry, too, now that I thought about it.
“Hey, Allen, is this water safe to drink?” Lia asked.
“It looks very clean…,” Rose said, gazing out at the river.
“Yeah, of course. But I have a better idea,” I told them, pointing to a large tree ahead of us.
“What’s that?” wondered Lia.
“Why are you pointing at that tree?” questioned Rose.
They both tilted their heads in confusion.
“Ah-ha-ha, not the tree. I was pointing at this,” I said, walking up to the tree and grabbing a vine wrapped around the trunk. “This is a gurgle vine. They absorb and store water from deep underground, meaning if you cut one like this…you get water.”
I cut the vine, and a clear liquid rushed out of it. When I put it up to my mouth, cool, refreshing water poured down my throat.
“Ahh… That’s so good!”
It really was unbelievably delicious.
“Y-you look like some sort of feral child…,” gasped Lia.
“You seem like you’d be able to survive anywhere, Allen,” said Rose.
“Why don’t you give it a go?” I suggested.
Lia and Rose shared a glance, then nodded to each other. They both cut a vine and put them to their mouths.
“Mmm!”
“Wow…”
They looked up for a moment, making me think they were done, but then they put the vines back to their mouths and began to chug the water.
“Isn’t it good?” I said.
“It’s amazing! The naturally sweet taste is so refreshing! I could drink this forever!” Lia gushed.
“This is so nice after the salty fish… I could get addicted!” Rose said.
They both continued to gulp down the water.
“H-hey, that’s enough! Gurgle vine water has a lot of fructose in it, so it’s poisonous if you drink too much!” I warned them.
“B-but…it’s so good…,” complained Lia.
“Just a little more…,” murmured Rose.
Getting them to stop drinking the sweet water proved to be quite the difficult task.
Afterward, we took a stroll through the forest, had a wood-chopping competition, and did all sorts of other activities we couldn’t do in the city.
“We’re back, Ms. Paula,” I said, having finally returned to the dorm.
“Oh, welcome home! Did you have fun?” she asked.
“Yeah, we did,” I said.
“It was a blast!” Lia said enthusiastically.
“Very rewarding, indeed,” added Rose.
“Ha-ha-ha, that’s good to hear. Dinner’s almost ready, so just give me a moment,” Ms. Paula said.
We sat down at the dining table to wait. Shortly after, Ms. Paula brought out the meal.
“Whoa, this is amazing…,” I said.
“Everything looks delicious…!” gasped Lia.
“How can one woman cook so much…?” wondered Rose.
Ms. Paula set a jaw-dropping amount of food on the table, including huge stuffed cabbage rolls, a massive serving of fried rice, and a whole roast pig. Each dish was as grand as the next, which was just the way Ms. Paula liked to cook.
“Ha-ha, and there’s a lot more where that came from! Dig in!” she encouraged.
“““Thank you!””” we said, putting our hands together in gratitude.
I picked up one of the meaty cabbage rolls with my chopsticks and stuffed it into my mouth.
“…!”