“If you’re sure,” Ming said, frowning slightly. “What do we do, then?”

“We’ll set up a station,” Arek said, rubbing his chin. “I’ll start cooking in the center of town so people can find the food. Meanwhile, I need the two of you to get as much wyrm and wyvern meat as possible. Actually – there are enough of them that we can be picky. Focus for their breasts and thighs. The other parts of their bodies are to muscle to taste good.”

“Okay,” Malissa said, nodding. “We can do that. We’ll grab swords from some of the guards to cut the wyrms. Anything else?”

“Yes, actually,” Arek said. “Be on the lookout for cooking oil of any sort when you go through the houses. Flour as well. I’ve got enough to make a good number of portions, but I can’t feed the city with what I’ve got now. Luckily, I doubt wyrms would have gone for raw ingredients, so a lot of them should have been left alone. Just check stores, houses, and restaurants.”

“Understood,” Ming said, her frown starting to fade slightly as a goal came into sight. Malissa gave Arek an appreciative nod as the two of them pushed through the crowd and headed into the ruined city around them.

Arek didn’t stay to watch them go. He turned and walked towards a nearby tavern. He pushed the door open and stepped inside. Aside from a weary looking man in a stained apron, it was completely empty. The man glanced up at Arek as he entered.

“Can I borrow this?” Arek asked, nodding to one of the round wooden tables.

“I suppose so,” the man said, raising an eyebrow slightly. “It’s not like I’m going to be able to fill my tavern anytime soon. Why do you need it?”

“I’m cooking,” Arek replied, grabbing the table and lifting it without much difficulty. It took some effort to maneuver it through the door, but it just barely managed to fit.

Arek carried the table out through the crowd and set it down in front of the council building. He set his travel pack down beside it on the stone. He returned to the tavern and grabbed another table. The man gave him a baffled stare but said nothing as Arek liberated it.

The orc brought the table over to sit beside his first one. Then he reared back and struck it with his palm. The wood crunched and shattered from the force of his strike. Arek repeated the process a few more times, then gathered everything into a small pile.

He wiped them off on his pants legs. He then took his wok out and set it beside the pile. A large bowl followed after it, along with a leather bag of flour and a flask of water. Arek used some of it to wash his hands.

He pointed a finger at the destroyed table. A weak flame sprouted on the wood. It expanded quickly, travelling across it until the entire pile was engulphed in fire. Arek set his wok down in the center of the pile, ignoring the heat completely.

The orc then dumped all the flour he had into his mixing bowl, nearly filling it. He grabbed the salt from his bandolier and added a healthy amount. An equal amount of rising-powder followed it.

Arek stirred the dry ingredients together with his claws. Once they were incorporated, the orc made a well in the center of the flour. He poured in the water and several healthy glugs of oil. Then he started to mix everything together.

A few people broke away from the crowd to watch as Arek cooked. He gave them a small grin but didn’t take his attention away from the ball of shaggy dough slowly forming beneath his hands.

He kneaded it until the dough turned smooth and slightly supple. The resulting ball was slightly bigger than his head. He slapped it onto the table and broke a small piece off it, flattening it into a disk as best as he could and setting it to the side. Arek’s hands moved faster and faster as he repeated the process. Within minutes, several dozen disks of dough had been stacked out across the table.

The crowd forming around him had grown to five people, three of whom were children and their mother. Arek tried to give them a comforting smile, but they flinched back. The mom kept her hands on the kids’ shoulders, stopping them from running away.

“Hungry?” Arek asked.

The woman examined Arek. Her eyes were hardened by pain or experience. Slowly, she nodded. “You should not cook in the open like that. Not many have eaten a good meal in the last week, and almost all our restaurants have been ransacked. People will be jealous.”

“Of what?” Arek asked, smirking. “Do you think I’m cooking all of this myself?”

She didn’t get a chance to respond. Ming and Malissa pressed through the crowd, both holding large bloody hunks of meat in the air before them. Dozens of gazes followed the women as they walked up to Arek.

“Where should we put this?” Malissa asked.

“Hold on,” Arek replied. “Let me get another table.”

The owner of the small tavern had given up on figuring out what Arek wanted with his tables. Luckily, it didn’t seem that he’d noticed what Arek was using for firewood, so the man didn’t stop him as he took yet another table from the building.

Arek set it down beside a good distance away from the fire. Ming and Malissa plopped the large chunks of meat onto it.

“Thank you. Did you find anything else yet?” Arek asked.

“Not yet,” Malissa replied. “We were going to get the meat first, then try to scavenge after.”

“That’s fine,” Arek said. “It’ll take me a little time to get the meat prepared. Could you focus on trying to find some citrus fruits? I’ve got everything else I need for the first batch.”

They nodded and slipped back into the crowd as Arek turned back to the table of meat. He pulled his cleaver free from his travel back, taking a moment to enjoy the feeling of the smooth wood in his hand. Then he got to work.