Chapter 16.
530 1 17
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

Chapter 16.

“How is it?”

“It’s… somehow not as bad as I thought it would be. It creates a very strange sensation in your mouth and then there’s a sudden explosion of flavor like it’s being injected directly into your taste buds.”

“Right? Isn’t the texture inside your mouth and flavor really peculiar?”

“I guess.”

Albeit a bit reluctant and hesitant, I finished the rest of the tentacles without putting up much more of a fuss. After the first tentacle, I found  there was something strangely addictive to it. Maybe it was the slight danger that came with eating it that made it taste even better. Perhaps the greater the danger in eating something, the greater reward via flavor. 

Now that I thought about it though, would anyone really be crazy enough to try turning this jellyfish venom into something edible? Everyone was probably too busy researching methods to neutralize the venom after it entered the body rather than wasting valuable resources investigating methods to turn it into something edible. Even if they did do what Adele had done and made it taste good, once the ingredient in this peculiar dish was disclosed, I’m sure health inspectors would immediately shut the operation down in fear of a potential accident.

Of course, there were other poisonous aquatic species that had been turned into delicacies, such as the puffer fish, but nobody actually intentionally went and outright ingested the neurotoxin found in the liver, ovaries and intestines. Those organs were always carefully removed by highly trained licensed chefs. As the puffer fish was eaten raw, there was likely nobody who tried to turn the neurotoxin in its organs into something edible. 

I really had to be careful on this island though, not all venom was the same. The mechanisms by which they were delivered into the body and how they attacked weren’t all the same either. There were different types of venoms, three main classifications; cytotoxins affected cells, neurotoxins attacked the nervous system, and hemotoxins directly targeted blood and organs.

The box jellyfish venom fell into the class of hemotoxins which attacked the blood unlike the puffer fish which targeted the nervous system.

Something to take note of was that not all venoms were affected by high heat like the box jellyfish venom was. I knew for certain that the puffer fish in particular had a highly heat resistant neurotoxin; frying, boiling, or baking it was completely useless.

Well, if Adele came out with a puffer fish next time I’d definitely fight her with my life on the line if she really wanted me to try out some fried liver.

I may not have been too familiar with the box jellyfish’s venom, but I’d at least learned a bit about the puffer fish and its venom back in university.

“Darling, aren’t you going to thank me for the meal?”

“What? Oh, yeah. That’s right... T-thanks… I guess.” Thankful? I’d be much more thankful if you made me something normal for a change.

“What’s wrong? Do you have something you want to say? You really don’t sound very thankful at all.”

“If you could make something a bit more normal for a change of pace... I’d probably be a lot more thankful towards you.”

“Normal?”

“Yeah, normal.”

“You mean like rat soup?”

“No, I mean like chicken, pork, or beef, something like that.”

Adele put on a confused expression, “Isn’t it the same thing? They’re all meat, right? Just from different animals with different flavors and textures.”

“They may all be meat with the only difference being the animal they come from, but those are the animals the vast majority of humans on this planet eat as the standard.”

Adele put on a face full of struggle and grumbled out, “I'll consider your suggestion, but I make no promises.”

My expectations were low. I had not a single shred of confidence that she genuinely took my words to heart.

“Darling, let’s head out. With the fire you made, we can more or less keep any animals at bay. In the wild, animals tend to avoid flames in fear of forest fires.”

“Then the reason we didn’t first concentrate on finding shelter was because you were worried we’d be attacked by wild animals?”

“Yes. Wild animals should never be underestimated. If left with no choice, we can set fire to the area in the event we need to escape from them. We can block off a path with flames and force them to take detours. Let this be your second lesson in survival.”

“Your third lesson is, in the event you are engulfed in a wildfire, stay low to the ground while moving. The smoke will rise and this will allow you to breathe in the oxygen closer to the ground. If left with no other choice, you can find a dug out burrow in the ground to hide in and wait out the fire, that can also potentially save your life.”

“You intend to burn this place to the ground?”

“Of course not. This is just in case of a dire emergency, a last resort so to speak. In the wild, fire can be thought of as one of man’s greatest lifelines. Although, I don’t really expect we’d need to use this sort of lowly tactic to escape as I’m confident I can single-handedly topple even the mightiest bear, but you can never be too careful. Anything can happen in nature. You need to always be on your toes and expect the unexpected. If something can go wrong, it will undoubtedly turn out worse than just simply wrong. That is a critical lesson I’ve learned the hard way over the years when roughing it out alone in the wild.”

“I see.” I absent-mindedly muttered that out.

“I don’t think you really understand just how scary it can actually be, but that’s okay for now, I’ll be by your side the entire time. Even if you want to die, I won’t let you. You need to take responsibility for not leaving me to die back in the forest all on my own after all.”

Adele picked up a thick stick, lit it on one end and turned it into a torch. She packed a few similarly sized sticks away in her bag and hooked a few more narrow ones on the pockets of her bag. She also broke the narrow ones in half and gave them sharp pointed ends.

She kicked up some sand over the fire and put it out.

“Darling, let’s go.”

17