Chapter 257 Fish Boil
Aleshia laid the fish out on the counter, feeling perplexed about how to cook them in this environment. Without a fire available, her main objective became finding a place to start one. After searching the kitchen several times, she eventually found something resembling a fire pit. Next to the fire pit were the tools she needed to start a fire: an iron rod, flint, some kindling, and a sort of attachment.
Aleshia tossed the kindling into the pit while waiting for the fish to thaw. She cast a small flame of magic, lighting the kindling, and then placed the thawing fish into a few pots she had cleaned. She set the pots on the tray above the pit and waited for the fish to cook.
After a while, the delicious scent of cooking fish began to fill the air. Aleshia could smell the fish but knew they weren't ready yet. Some of the kids were waking up by this time and started chatting about the smell. "Hey, do you all smell that? It smells like food!" one of them exclaimed. "Wait, is that fish I smell?" another asked. "I'm getting hungry!"
As the comments increased, the camp began to stir. Some curious kids could no longer contain themselves and started making their way into the kitchen. They saw several pots lined up with steam rising from them, along with an irresistible aroma of fish. The children's stomachs began to growl as their hunger grew stronger.
The children began to crowd around the fire pit, and Aleshia noticed that it could be dangerous, so she warned them to move back. "You'll burn yourselves if you get that close, okay? So, can you move back? You could smell the fish from much further away, so you can stand back a bit more and still enjoy it," she said. The kids all agreed, although some of them moved away from the cooking pot reluctantly. Once everyone was at a safe distance, Aleshia created a small wall around the fire pit as a guardrail, in case the kids forgot to keep their distance.
As the ice encasing the fish melted, it turned into water and formed a sort of soup base, infusing with the fish's flavor. Aleshia wanted to flip the fish to ensure it cooked evenly on the other side, so she searched for something to flip them. Looking in the drawers, she found wooden spoons, forks, knives, and various utensils, but she didn't uncover what she was looking for. Nevertheless, she took out the longest utensils she could find and used the flat, wide ends to flip the fish, allowing it to cook properly.