The first thing Nick took out was a foldable plastic table from the storage closet on the second floor. It was a little clunky and unwieldy, but it was the perfect workbench for turning a wild animal into sausage. Hopefully.
After bringing that out, he had to stop Kai and clarify that they needed dry kindling, not just small branches and twigs. Kai looked a little down after being informed of his mistake, but Nick didn't fall for it. No consolation sausages for him.
Then, he brought out a bunch of knives, a couple of cutting boards, bowls, saucepans, and spices.
When he had everything he thought they might need, he was about to help Kai gather kindling, but the tentacle stopped him before he could walk further than it could reach. He remembered the lurking dangers of the forest.
It was a good idea to stay close to the forest. So, instead of gathering kindling and firewood, he started working on actually lighting the fire by rummaging through his house for a lighter. He knew he had one somewhere since he had a pile of candles, but it took a while to find it.
By the time he did, a lot of time had passed already.
Nick wondered how long it usually took for Lora and Kavam to hunt since he couldn't even begin to estimate, what with it being a fantasy world and the two being impressive specimens. But it should take a while. Hunting wasn't easy or something that could be done just because they wanted to.
Still, they would need smoldering coals to cook on, not a raging fire, so he couldn't light the fire too early.
He made sure the fireplace was secure with the stones Kai had gathered so that the fire didn't spread and burn down the forest. Then, he sacrificed a few pages of an old newspaper to kickstart the kindling and get a gentle flame going. He carefully added slightly bigger twigs and branches, steadily building a fire.
Lora and Kavam returned sooner than Nick had expected, and they came carrying a rather hefty boar whose throat had been ripped out.
Nick was a little uncertain about it being a boar. He had heard boar meat was pretty rough and could have a bad or at least boring taste. But at the same time, it was the closest to a pig one could find in most forests.
Nick decided not to dwell on it and just make sure to add plenty of herbs and spices.
"Now, I'm not sure about this part, but we need to drain it of blood, right?" He asked uncertainly. He wasn't used to butchering animals, after all.
"We did that on the way." Kavam smiled reassuringly and pointed at the boar's throat. He had carried it over his shoulder with the head pointed to the ground. The blood had poured out as best as it could. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough.
However, that made Nick remember something else.
"I…I heard that one of the monster kings was a boar. Won't it get angry?" Hadn't Lora and Kavam seized one of its kind? Wasn't that the same as taking the Roaring Boar's family?
The two looked at each other for a moment, considering Nick's question.
"It—it should be fine," Kavam said after a few moments.
"That's right. The Roaring Boar isn't known for caring about stuff like that. If it's mad, it's mad. If it isn't, it's a beautiful day."
Nick nodded, deciding to trust their judgement.
"Alright, then I guess we don't have anything to worry about. Let's get started. Since I'm not, well, used to this kind of stuff, I'll just tell you what needs to be done if that's okay?"
Lora and Kavam nodded and picked up a boar again after asking Nick for some rope or twine.
The two worked together perfectly after Nick asked them to pick apart the boar and take out the fattier pieces of meat. They tied together the boar's hind legs and strung it from a tree. It would be much easier to skin it like that than to do it on the rickety table Nick had brought out, if it could even handle the boar's weight.
Nick looked on as the two gentle-looking parents tore into the boar with his prized knives. This kind of work was a little rougher than what they were made for. But they got the work done, and they were probably just a little duller than before. No harm done.
Kavam hung the boar pelt, head and all, over another branch on the tree while Lora got started.
It looked brutal what she was doing, but she deftly and easily carved chunks of nice-looking meat from the boar's body and put them in the bowls Nick prepared.
Now, it was his turn to play with the protein.
He didn't have a meatgrinder, and even if he did, he wanted to do this in a way that Lora and Kavam could replicate. So, after asking them to take out the boar's innards, he started chopping.
Without a meat grinder to mince the meat, he could only do it by hand. That meant cutting it into crumb-sized pieces himself. It was finicky, but once he got into the rhythm, it almost became enjoyable. He didn't have as much of a problem with it as he thought he would.
However, he was interrupted by Lora asking him what they were supposed to do with the innards. She held them up, and Nick realized that they were already full. That was not good. They needed to clean them and clean them thoroughly. He frowned for a moment before remembering that he had a hose and an outlet on the side of his house.
He never used them since he didn't have any flowers or anything that needed watering, but they were still there, and hopefully, they still worked. The rest of his water did, so he saw no reason why it shouldn't.
He just hoped it would also work for this.
Nick pointed it out and helped Lora get started. He also directed her a little away from the house when she blew the innards clean. Then, he quickly returned to his station to stop Kai from eating the ingredients.