Chapter 167: Flat Bread

The two beastmen grinded up half of the basket of wheat berries before calling it a night. Finn promised to let the Council know about the success of the project before he left.

Once he was gone, Theo got started on making dinner as it was almost sunset, getting Kiro to help him out. Meanwhile, Serena cleaned up the grinder before heading back to the hut.

Theo had already moved the basket of wheat berries and bucket of flour to the hut for her. She entered her subspace with the basket of wheat, using it as an excuse to talk to Liz.

Seeing the system napping in its basket, Serena said loudly, "Can you find me some flour recipes please?"

She knew Liz was already aware of her presence and was just refusing to get up. And just as she thought, Liz snapped an eye open before it let out a massive yawn.

"You finally done..." Liz murmured, hoping down from its basket. It then walked over to and added, "You can make something basic like flat bread and add shredded bits of meat and vegetables to it.... Hmm it seems some are more complicated than that... But I guess it’s a start."

As it spoke, a familiar blue screen popped up with the flat bread recipe. It was pretty simple using only flour and water. She would then need to use her flat stone to cook them over the fire.

But it was something easy to start with.

She could try the other recipes tomorrow. Maybe even make something for the Council to try out. After all, she needed to make flour popular within the village to have it become a staple.

"Thanks..." Serena finally said, turning to the kitten. "I’ll bring you some of this dish once dinner’s done."

"You should make me a bowl and send it into the subspace instead of just sneaking around." Liz pointed out. "Surely that’ll be easier."

Serena pursed her lips at those words, keeping quiet for a moment. She then said, "Sure..."

And with that she exited the subspace, taking the bucket of flour with her. She kept it some distance away from the fire after learning that it was combustible when it got close to fire.

So if it doesn’t make for a great food, it can be made into a great weapon. Serena mused to herself as she moved to grab some water and a bowl to mix everything in it. Make small pouches with them maybe and throw them at the enemy before using some fire arrows...

She shook her head at that thought, thinking it was perhaps better if she kept that knowledge to herself for now. After all, that type of knowledge would be bad in the wrong hands.

Not to say that the rabbit beastmen were bad, but one bad apple could ruin the bunch. Not to mention that things were peaceful right now. No need to give others an excuse to attack them over knowledge.

She didn’t want to go back down that violent path again.

Theo noticed what she was doing and walked over to her, asking, "What are you making?"

"Some flat bread to test out the flour." Serena answered, carefully adding some flour into the bowl, making sure to measure with a smaller bowl. "We can shred the skewer meat and place it into the bread... See how it tastes."

"Sounds good." Theo nodded in understanding. "Do you need any help?"

"Just need the salt... I’ll have Kiro help me with the rest." Serena stated. "I think the cub will like this messy part."

The cub was lazing around in the grass, looking completely bored with himself so Serena decided to give him something to do. Plus she had to tell him no when he wanted to try out the grinder.

Those stones were heavy and she didn’t need him accidentally crushing a finger or something in between those stones. She could tell he was pretty upset about her answer, but his safety was more important right now.

He would have plenty of time to try out the grinder for himself when he was older.

"Sounds good." Theo murmured. "I’ll have him bring the salt pouch."

"Thanks." Serena smiled at the tiger beastman.

He gave her a smile back before heading back over to the fire. He checked on the skewers, turning before he called out to Kiro. After the cub stopped in front of him, the tiger beastman handed him the salt pouch.

Kiro soon came over to Serena as she was finished measuring out the flour. She didn’t want to make too much in case they didn’t like it, so kept the amount of flour used to minimum. The rest would be stored in her subspace for now.

"Sister, you wanted this." Kiro said, holding up the pouch.

"Yes, thanks." Serena took the pouch and added a pinch of salt to the flour. "Do you want to make flat bread with me?"

Kiro glanced over at the bowl and noticed the flour in it. "Is this... that new food?"

"Yes... Well one of them anyway." Serena said. "I’m going to add some water and then I will need to mix it all up... It’ll be hard work though, so I need someone strong."

"I’m strong!" Kiro exclaimed, lighting up at her words.

She smiled, glad her tactic worked and said, "Alright then. Go wash your hands and we’ll start."

Kiro nodded his head in understanding and ran off to do as he was told. She watched him, noticing that Theo was covering his mouth with his fist.

It made her want to blush in embarrassment. No doubt he heard everything with his beastman hearing and was now trying not to laugh at her.

However, she couldn’t dwell on it too long because Kiro soon returned. She then added the water, using a little less than what the recipe needed. Serena wanted to be careful with the water, believing bread making was similar to clay.

"You need to start mixing the water and flour together with your hands." Serena instructed, adding the last bit of water. She then set the bowl down and showed him how to do it. "Like this..."

Kiro followed her instructions and helped her knead the flour and water together. As he did so, he exclaimed, "This feels weird."

"It does..." Serena agreed, watching the flour and water mixture stick to her hands.

Perhaps she should’ve looked for a way to stop her hands from getting messy like this. Hopefully it would be easy to clean up afterwards.

The mixture was a little dry so she called over Theo to add a bit more water for them. Once he did that, she asked him to set up the flat stone for her so she could use it later.

She let Kiro mix the dough until it turned into a solid ball. By then the cub had gotten a bit tired, so she had him go clean his hands while she kneaded the dough for a few minutes.

"The skewers are almost done." Theo called out as Serena moved over to the flat stone.

Serena nodded her head in understanding and mused, "Seems I’m just in time."

She set the bowl down, grabbed a bit of dough and rolled it into a ball. She then pressed it down, flatting it with her hands.

Serena didn’t have a rolling pin which seemed to be a long wooden log, but she would make one some other time. For now, she just had her hands.

Once it was quite flat, she put it on the stone and started working on the next ball of dough. Theo, meanwhile, was removing the skewers and working to shred them. Even slipping a few pieces of meat to a hungry Kiro.

Serena turned the flat bread after placing the second one down. A few parts of it were black, so she made a note to cook it for less time. Experimenting here was key to get the right timing.

Theo was finished with shredding the meat by the time Serena was working on the fifth flat bread and moved over to her side. He began adding the meat to the center of the flat bread before rolling them up according to Serena’s instructions.

He then gave the first one to Kiro to try while Serena and him got into a rhythm. Serena would make some flat breads and he would add the meat to them.

They were keeping it quite simple for now, but if it worked out well, then Serena was keen to try other variations of this meal.

"How’s it, Kiro?" Serena suddenly asked, watching the cub devour the flat bread and meat.

"It’s good." Kiro answered after gulping down his food. He knew better than to answer with his mouth full because Serena would scold him. "But I need some water..."

"I’ll get you some." Theo said, getting up.

"Yeah..." Serena murmured before turning back to Kiro. "But as long as you like it that’s good."

Just seemed she’d have to try to make them less dry. Otherwise it would be hard to eat. Still, she’d have to try the dish out first. Then she could make a discussion on what to add to it.