My Eldritch Horror Wife Followed Me To Another World
Chapter 108: Wild Cow

Chapter 108: Wild Cow

It had been a little more than a week since the events with Nuir during the sausage party. It had been a hectic couple of days, then quiet, and then the visit from Squawks, Lily, Mijko, and Vafrid. And then, Nick had a mostly peaceful time at home with the tentacle.

He was surprised at how empty the house became as soon as Nuir disappeared into the forest with the Midnight Panther, but he didn’t mind it. It was his and the tentacle’s home, and he didn’t feel lonely at all.

If he did, it was during the empty evenings when he stared into the vast and seemingly bottomless forest. Those moments made him feel isolated, like he was the only person left in the world.

But the tentacle was quick to pick up on his mood and comfort him. So, those moments were always fleeting and seemed to grow weaker with each one.

Besides, he wasn’t the only person left in the world. There was the tentacle, first of all. Then, there were all of his neighbors, kind and unkind. The unkind ones, like the Lowat tribe, he didn’t care much about.

But he greatly appreciated the kind ones. They had helped prepare everything for today, after all. He wasn’t the only one who wanted to comfort Sosora.

For now, it seemed that Sosora needed some privacy and quiet time on her own to cushion reality.

But the sourdough had started bubbling and was ready to become dough and bread. The Ursa family and Issa had also pulled through.

As expected, there weren’t any cows just roaming around the forest. The Angry Cow was an outlier of sorts, but not entirely.

There was a herd of cow-like things roaming around the forest.

Nick was pretty sure Earth didn’t have animals like them, and they didn’t quite look like cows. They were smaller, more agile, and their horns were more like the antlers of deer. But they weren’t deer, either.

Muhso brought one of each to demonstrate.

However, the translation magic or whatever it was that let Nick communicate with the natives of this new world translated it to wild cows.

Regardless of what they really were, they were close enough to the real thing for Nick to be happy. He had the Ursa tribe’s people help him do the same thing they did with the boars. They stripped the wild cow of its skin and blood and cut off all the useful pieces of meat.

Nick was a little unsure how to feel about turning his lawn into a butchery, but it was too late to care about that.

He used the pieces that looked like they would work and chopped them finely enough to compete with the best grinder. However, the minced meat was a little reluctant to stick together like bought hamburgers, so he had to cheat a little with eggs and flour. It wasn’t a big deal.

There were egg-laying animals in the forest, after all.

He made his burger patties, which interested the Ursa family and Muhso. But they were also interested in the rest of the wild cow.

Sausage was a little more advanced and required some trickery. But just simple cooking wasn’t that complicated.

They used Nick’s campfire and utensils to season and roast or fry the different parts of the wild cow, expanding their repertoire and passion for food. They experimented with different cuts, seasonings, and cooking methods.

But the real explosion of inspiration came when Nick moved on to the next stage of the hamburger-making. Toppings.

He was combining the meat with other ingredients, such as vegetables, roots, leaves, and fruit.

That was where Issa’s help came in. She helped both Nick and the Ursa people, who had no clue about the delicious and edible plants of the forest. She also helped grow them and prepare Nick’s garden.

Once he had the appropriate, most Earth-like vegetables sorted, he could finally work on the buns. They didn’t end up anything special. They were just round-ish breads that he cut in half, roasted slightly, and slotted with the patties and vegetables.

Naturally, he had to give his trusty helpers and taste-testers a taste.

Nick still felt there were things he could add to the burgers, like cheese, homemade mayo, or any other sauce. But the burgers were juicy and the greens were fresh.

There was such a thing as too much, after all. A simple balance to the flavors would be enough this time.

Besides, based on the satisfied expressions of Kai’s family and Muhso, the burgers were more than delicious enough to serve to Sosora.

They still had a lot of supplies left, there were many hours left in the day, and there was no reason to wait. So, a few days after Sosora woke up, Nick took advantage of Mijko, who just wanted some food, and asked her to relay his message to Malak and Sosora before she got a taste.

When he saw the forlorn expression on Mijko’s face as she sorrowfully wiped away the drool and turned away from the burgers she had been eagerly waiting for, Nick understood why Monkey seemed to take such joy in teasing her. Her face showed such a great range of emotions, and it did it vividly.

It took longer than expected for Sosora and Malak to arrive, but Kai, Lora, Kavam, Muhso, Mijko, and Tilo helped keep the plates clean and urged Nick to continue cooking and making.

They had to stop eating the buns, though, since they took a while to make and Nick couldn’t keep making them. He saved three buns each for Malak and Sosora.

The gathering inevitably grew quiet when Sosora arrived. This was the first time that everyone other than Tilo and Mijko had seen her since the injury.

She looked the same, other than the fact that she was almost being carried by Malak, with how much she was leaning into his arms.

But there was a scar across both her eyes and nose bridge that left them a milky white.