The Arctic Incident
New Version
One of the strangest creatures on the Earth, or more accurately below, is the common stink worm.
Stink worms can only survive below the earth crust and so have never been seen by humans. The stink worm can grow to a length of fifteen centimeters and a diameter of up to eight centimeters. The bigger a stink worm is the more meat there is on its soft boned skeleton and the more valuable it is to a merchant.
Stink worms are big business in the fairy world and have been for thousands of years.
They are very versatile and can be boiled, fried, baked or even eaten raw, though this sushi approach can be difficult to swallow as the stink associated with the worms does not disappear until they are cooked.
The current favorite way to eat the stink worm is in a dish similar to Bolognese, substituting stink worms for spaghetti. Deep fried on a skewer is popular among the younger generation.
What makes the stink worm so delicious is the juice. When the worm is heated in a pan or oven it bastes itself in a delicious spicy juice, which even the best chefs have failed to reproduce. This juice is in fact earwax from the hundreds of ears that covers each worm's body.
Some more sensitive fairies cannot forget that they are eating earwax and do not enjoy eating stink worms, but most are so entranced by the flavors that they are quite prepared to ignore where it comes from.
Goblins in particular love stink worms and are constantly inventing new ways to consume them.
The rarest and most prized stink worm dish is a stir fried bowl of stink worm ears. The ears are shaved from the worms' body, rolled in flour and then lightly fried. This dish takes hours to prepare and costs a fortune.
Goblins believe that if you eat a bowl of worm ears then you absorb the worms' memories of the places they have visited. This is not an appealing thought when you consider that a stink worm's favorite environment is fresh troll dung.