Ch 3
It didn't take very long for Caleb to notice that the rice was starting to come apart. He began to hear voices as he felt the pudding slide away from him.
"The other one's unconscious already. The sooner we get them to the base for interrogation, the better. The Master Chef wants to be sure whether or not the report was true." one remarked. Caleb shut his eyes and allowed himself to go limp. If they found him still aware, it would bring about too many questions. He dropped to the ground once the rest of the rice fell to pieces and lay still. "Well, that's the other one. Hey, ain't this one the old Chosen of Tethe'alla?"
"Yeah? What's your point?" the voice's companion muttered.
"Nothin', just making conversation." The voices faded as another boomed out in command.
"What's going on?! Stop slacking off and get these two loaded onto the carriage! We're going to meet with the Royal Crab in Sybak Port and... is that Zelos Wilder?" the leader trailed off in confusion.
"See? Told ya it was him." the first voice whispered smugly.
"For the love of red wine, what is HE doing here?" the same snobbish voice that had commandeered the attack on Caleb's Elemental Carriage snapped. "Why didn't anyone report that the Chosen was with the fugitive?!"
"I, for one, thought the old Chosen had gone off to retire with some out-of-the-way brothel for company. It's not my fault he decided he could take the heat and enter the kitchen!" the first voice complained.
"Tch, fine! Take the idiot along anyway. It's a sure way of showing the world not to underestimate the work of the Dark Chef Alliance, leaders of culinary masterpieces!" Caleb felt himself getting hauled up by the arms and dragged somewhere. Whatever it was that was going on definitely involved Wren somehow, and now he was involved as a hostage. For the umpteenth time since gaining a soul, Caleb cursed the fact that he was a recreation of Zelos' image. The face got him into far too much trouble than it was worth. At least it guaranteed his continued existance in this case; Caleb was fairly sure he'd be dead if he looked like an average servant. What would have been done to him? Would they have dunked him in a vat of bubbling broth? Maybe skewered him on a spear and roasted him over an open fire?
Caleb was beginning to get annoyed with the cooking puns that seemed to suddenly abound whenever Dark Chefs were in the area.
The Royal Crab was a ship owned by the Dark Chef Alliance and the most Caleb could see of it was in the brig. The ship set sail soon after they were imprisoned and Caleb decided it was safe to move again. The room was empty, save for a few blankets, a chamberpot, and Wren lying asleep beside him. He checked for a pulse, breathed a sigh of relief when he found one and shook his friend by the shoulder. Wren made a face in his sleep and groaned in annoyance as he opened his eyes. Sitting up, the blonde rubbed sleep from his eyes and looked around with a bleary expression.
"Where... are we?" he asked in confusion and held his head in his hands, "I feel horrible. What did they make that stuff with? Glue?" Caleb grinned dryly and sat back against a wall.
"Might have been glue. I'm glad to see you're okay. As for where we are, we're on a ship sailing to the northern land of Flanoir. The Master Chef of the Dark Chef Alliance wants to see us for some stupid reason." he replied and sighed, "I've lost the carriage and all those supplies. How am I ever going to get us back home now? Master Altessa needs me!"
"They took my hat." Wren grumbled after he checked himself over for injury, "Those jerks took my hat! That's two things I'm missing now! Can this day get any worse?!" The door opened and both men jumped to their feet in preparation. A Dark Chef stood in the doorway and studied them with an unreadable expression. "A Dark Chef grunt. She hasn't earned her hat yet." Wren whispered softly to Caleb, "Don't ask how I know; I just do."
"You do bear a resemblance, but you don't have the skill he did. For the sake of our plans, I suppose you'll do." the cook remarked haughtily, "What's your name, small fry?" Wren glared at the woman, arms folded over his chest. She smiled coldly. "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter anyway. You won't be around too much longer. As for the Chosen..." she went on, looking over at Caleb.
"Stop calling me that." Caleb grumbled, mirroring Wren's stance while impersonating Zelos' speech, "And hands off the merchandise while you're at it. I don't know where you've been." The cook laughed, flicking a lock of hair back over her shoulder.
"Oh, get over yourself already, you has-been. My tastes runs towards blondes anyway. They're more fun. What I was about to say was that you've gotten yourself mixed up in our little scheme, so I'm afraid the world will have to mourn the loss of a Hero of Union. So sad." Wren and Caleb looked at each other in momentary confusion, then smiled.
"She doesn't know what they're planning either." Caleb remarked brightly as Wren nodded eagerly. "I see why she's still just a grunt." The woman's eye twitched in irritation before she exploded on them.
"Shut up! You're both going to be toast once we reach the base in Flanoir! The blonde idiot will be used in the rites of the Feast of Souls and the stupid Chosen will be the first victim of the reborn Lord Famine! Symphonia will recognize the Dark Chefs' mastery of cooking or starve to death!" she yelled and whirled out of the room in a huff, slamming the door shut behind her. Caleb and Wren looked at each other again, this time in concern.
"Okay, that didn't sound good. A Feast of Souls and a famine-causing god set loose upon Symphonia? Why couldn't we have just gone to NeOzette to do our shopping today?" Caleb sighed, "We're no good at this world-saving thing; I knew I should have called for help when I had the chance! Genis was in Sybak! A blast of Eruption or even Indignation would have settled this!" Wren groaned and flopped down on the makeshift bed of blankets.
"This is horrible! What are we going to do now? I'm gonna get sacrificed and you're gonna be starved to death!" he cried hopelessly, "Without that thing I'm missing, we're going to come out of this mess well-done!" Caleb's face flashed an expression of annoyance briefly.
"Why do all cooks seem to have the need to use puns for everything?" he muttered and shook his head. "Okay, so we get you the thing you're missing... how will it help us get out of this mess?" Wren laughed bashfully as he rubbed his head.
"Ah, to be honest, I don't really remember what it does, but my body knows. If I can find it, my body will do the rest of the remembering and the thing should save us. I'm pretty sure of that." he answered and looked around, "Well, all we can do now is wait until we get to Flanoir. I feel like I had a run-in with these guys once before."
"So are you a member of the Wonder Organization? Ms. Hothead called you a fugitive from it." the doll pointed out as Wren joined him in sitting and waiting. The blonde shrugged and looked thoughtful.
"Maybe I am. It sounds familiar. It also explains how I know to use special recipes for battle." he agreed, "So I guess, yeah. I'm a member of the Wonder Organization." he mused and smiled, "At least I'm remembering more now. Maybe getting captured isn't so bad, if I can keep recovering my memory because of it."
"Then do you remember why you were hurt in the forest? And what you meant by a 'bad egg in the mix'?" Caleb pressed, intent on finding out more of what was going on. Maybe he still had a chance to contact one of the Heroes if they could escape in Flanoir. Wren snapped his head up and stared at him blankly.
"I remember that now... I didn't before, but now I do. These guys, and especially that snobby one, their leader, had been chasing me through the forest. They wanted something very important from me, and that's when I lost my other important thing. He's got it, I bet!" Wren declared and winced, "They wanted something so important, that I remember thinking it would be better if I died with it, than lose it to them. What could I have that's so valuable, I would sacrifice my life to protect it?" Caleb scooted over and hesitated only a bit before giving him a side hug. The cook was trembling. "I could have jumped into that ravine, hoping it would kill me. Is that why I was hurt? I failed to kill myself? I don't want to die! I don't want whatever it is I have that they want!"
"Hey, take it easy. You're alive right now, and we're going to keep you alive! I never had a friend before I saved you, and I'm not about to lose you to a bunch of kooky cooks with bad taste in clothing!" the redhead declared and smiled warmly at Wren, "Whatever it is that you have, I'll help protect it. Then you won't be alone and you won't ever have to risk your life for it. And I'll give whoever forced that responsibility on you a good punch in the nose!" Wren laughed, calming quickly at the sight of Caleb shaking his fist at some imaginary dictator. "Take that, you mean old Wonder Chef Man!"
"I doubt it was all the Wonder Chef's idea." Wren remarked with a dry grin and sat back against the wall, "Well, it's gonna be a while before we reach Flanoir. Let's get some rest and see what opportunity brings us."
Flanoir was frigid as always, with snowstorms and icy winds tearing at the ship. Caleb wrapped Wren in as many blankets as he could find and watched his shivering in concern. Wren had asked him how he could stand the cold and the doll made up a story of how he trained himself to ignore extreme temperatures. The blonde looked a bit put off, as if he could tell it was a lie, but asked nothing more about it. The ship pulled in and Caleb could hear the sounds of the anchor dropping and men scrambling around on wooden decks. The door to their room opened and a pair of Dark Chef grunts appeared in the room, each one holding an over-sized fork. The doll stared at them in astonishment, then turned to Wren, who didn't seem that surprised.
"Giant forks? Are they holding giant forks?! Are you telling me that these guys use super-sized utensils as weapons?!" he screeched. Wren furrowed his brows thoughtfully.
"Yes, but I think I had one, too. Where's mine?" he answered vaguely. The chefs surrounded them quickly and poked at their backs with the prongs of their 'weapons'.
"Stop chatting! Move! The Master Chef waits in our base for the arrival of the sacrifice!" one declared and pushed the two captives onwards. They walked down the plank off the ship and narrowed their eyes against the bitter wind as they looked up at a strange stone building that appeared to have been carved out of a mountain. "Dwarven slaves made this temple in ancient times, centuries before the Kharlan War. It is the resting ground of Lord Famine, an evil sealed away by the very first Wonder Chef." the chef guard told them with a grim smile. "I'd start praying to Martel right about now, little cook. You're going to be the one to wake it up." Wren paled and hugged himself as they were joined by additional grunts and herded into the temple. Caleb had studied the face of the building carefully, but found no weakness in the architecture. He sighed glumly and glared at the guard who shoved at his shoulder.
"Hey, knock it off! I'm walking already!" he snapped and turned to Wren as they were led deeper within the mausoleum, "If dwarves made this place, it's almost a guaranteed death trap! We won't be able to destroy the walls to create an escape of any kind." Wren only uttered a strangled moan. Caleb peered at him. "Wren? Are you okay? It's much warmer in here than outside. Are you sick?"
"This place... I know this place... I've been here before..." the blonde whimpered faintly. The group stopped in one chamber that overlooked a huge crater crawling with Dark Chefs. The walls were carved with images of death and destruction, an enormous black fog that spread over fields and towns and reduced them to barren wastelands. On the far side of the crater was a black casket roughly ten feet high, carved from a single piece of onyx inlaid with a menacing red orb. It was embedded in the wall and wrapped in chains. A massive, gold-colored lock kept the chains in place, but Caleb zoomed in on it and found the keyhole to be strangely shaped. The outline of a giant fork was carved into the lock. From its shape Caleb could see that none of the forks the Dark Chefs wielded would ever be able to fit inside. Set before the casket was a stone slab the size of an average man.
"What is that?" Caleb wondered aloud, staring down into the pit and fixing his gaze on the dull red gem. Wren made another strange sound and collapsed against the doll, who barely caught him in time, "Wren! Wren, wake up! What happened?!" The guards grinned cruelly at him as they began moving them along. "Hey! My friend needs help! He's collapsed, didn't you see?!"
"Doesn't matter. That's where Lord Famine sleeps. Your little cook friend will be handed over to it and the ancient evil will be bound to the service of the Dark Chef Alliance!" one of the group told him and opened up a steel prison door, "Here's your guest room. This time, you'll have company before your end comes!" Caleb and Wren were shoved into the prison cell and the door slammed shut, the guards laughing loudly on the other side. The doll twisted to land on his back, cushioning the force of the fall to avoid harming Wren.
"Ow." he muttered, more out of habit than actual pain. He heard rustling behind him and quickly sat up, blinking once to brighten his eyes and send twin shafts of shimmering blue light into the darkness. Gasps of surprise and shock greeted him as he was able to make out the forms of other cooks and chefs. "Oh, sorry. Don't be afraid. I mean no harm to anyone."
"It's a monster! It's been sent to kill us!" one woman screamed. Caleb frowned.
"I just finished saying I wasn't going to hurt anyone! Does anyone have a light? I can't keep illuminating everything with my eyes forever! I'll burn out the optic mechanism!" he scolded and sighed in relief when a few candles went on. His eyes returned to normal and he shifted position to better see the other prisoners. "Thanks. My name's Caleb, and this is my friend, Wren. We were captured by the Dark Chefs. Can you explain to me what's going on?" he asked.
"We're members of the Wonder Organization, dedicated to protecting the people from the cold and uncaring influence of the Dark Chef Alliance." a young boy of sixteen years piped up, "These jerks somehow learned about the story of the Wonder Chef and the Famine Lord, and now they're trying to use us Wonder Cooks to release it from the seal the Wonder Chef put on it!"
"Centuries ago, before the Kharlan War was even a thought in the peoples' minds, a great cursed wind spread across the land and brought death and destruction everywhere it went. That was the Famine Lord; it withered crops and spoiled food, starving thousands of people and animals." an elderly chef added, his hat drooping to match his bushy eyebrows and curled beard, "A brave young cook and his companion, a dwarven blacksmith, conquered the Lord Famine and sealed it within a black onyx coffin. That coffin was then laid to rest in chains within this temple, built by the blacksmith's family and brethren to contain it for all time. That young cook became the first Wonder Chef, and the Wonder Organization was formed to help survivors make good use of the little food left in the land, until the world could heal itself. His companion crafted a special fork for the Wonder Chef to use to continue protecting the culinary world. That fork is passed down to the heirs of the Wonder Chef Family as a symbol of the cause." The chef lifted his eyes to gaze sadly skyward.
"The Wonder Chef also created a recipe that fed thousands of mouths and was key to preserving the food supply and the continued survival of the people. This recipe was so potent, it cured the sick and injured, gave strength to the wretched and hopeless, and warmth to the coldest hearts. This is the Ultimate Recipe, known only to the heirs of the Wonder Chef Family. The Ultimate Recipe is a closely guarded secret, and must remain so, as it could bring death, not life, to many if it falls into dark hands." he finished.
"But the Wonder Chef is dead now, and the Ultimate Recipe is lost! It was supposed to be passed onto the next Chosen Chef, but now there is no one who knows it and no one to teach it and all is lost!" a young girl cried and buried her face in her hands, sobbing as her mother drew her into a comforting hug. Wren shifted and slowly opened his eyes, looking around in a daze.
"Where am I now?" he murmured and Caleb cried his name in joy, helping him sit up. "Are we still inside that temple?"
"Yes. You must be hungry after that ordeal. My name is Jacques, but my friends call me Old Jack. Tell me, young one, how did you and your friend get caught up in this heinous scheme?" the elderly chef asked gently. Wren blinked at him and rubbed his head.
"Um, yeah, I am kinda hungry. We haven't really eaten well for several days now. My name's Wren, and I was being chased by Dark Chefs in the forest near the Ozette Ruins and..." he began. The group of cooks gasped.
"The Ozette Ruins? That's the last place the Wonder Chef was going when he disappeared! Can you tell us what happened there?! Did the Dark Chefs attack the Wonder Chef? Is he really dead? What about the Ultimate Recipe?!" the questions came in a barrage and Wren looked faint from the assault. Caleb interrupted with a yell.
"Hey! Stop that! Wren can't tell you anything! He lost his memory when he fell from the cliff near the ruins!" he snapped. The cooks quieted down as two plates of sandwiches were brought to them. Wren placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him and shook his head.
"It's all right. I can tell them what I know so far." he told the redhead and turned to the Wonder Cooks, "I don't know much about what happened in the ruins, or even if I was there at all. As far as I can remember, I was being chased by Dark Chefs because they wanted something important from me." He put on a serious face, "Also, I recall having a very important message to tell the members of the Wonder Organization. There is a bad egg in the mix." The cooks gasped again and Caleb rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"That's not possible! A bad egg? Among the Wonder Cooks? Impossible!" they chattered, "Who could ever betray the trust of the Wonder Chef?"
"Don't call Wren a liar!" Caleb threw in, "It's got to be true! How else would the Dark Chefs know of the legend of the Famine Lord? How else would they know where to go to ambush the Wonder Chef? Only a traitor would know those things and would pass them on to the enemy!"
"Then the Wonder Chef is truly dead. He hasn't made contact with the organization for more than three months now." Jack sighed heavily. The others looked hopeless. Wren glared around at them angrily.
"That's it? You're just giving up?!" he demanded as Caleb slid his sandwich onto the blonde's plate.
"There's nothing any of us can do to combat an army of Dark Chefs without the Wonder Chef's guidance. The Dark Chefs will eventually find a Wonder Cook whose body will be an acceptable sacrifice to the Famine Lord and the world will be plunged into suffering for all time." the elderly cook pointed out, "That's probably what will happen to you, Wren. The Master Chef will offer you to the black casket. If the jewel doesn't respond, then you'll just remain a prisoner here with the rest of us. Same with your friend there."
"And if the gem responds?" Caleb asked in a low voice. The cooks looked at each other in worry.
"If the Eye of Famine responds, then Wren's soul will be devoured by the Famine Lord in the Feast of Souls and it will rise from its ancient slumber to wreak vengeance upon the Wonder Chef Family and this world." Jack finished and looked even more glum, "And without the Wonder Chef to prevent the seal from opening, or to reseal the monster, the world will be doomed."
"We should have gone shopping in NeOzette." Caleb grumbled under his breath, arms folded over his chest as Wren leaped up in sudden fury.
"I can't believe you're just going to sit around and wait for the end to come! Is that what the Wonder Chef taught you?! To always be ready to cook your own last meal?!" he declared, "How can you call yourselves Wonder Cooks, when you just give up at the first sign of hardship?! I may not have my memory, but I know deep in my heart that I can never give up! If you add too much salt to a soup, do you throw up your hands and say 'I give up; I'll never make good soup'?! NO! You find a way to fix it! Add slices of potato to draw out the salt! The soup is saved and people are well-fed and happy! This is just like that!"
"We throw potatoes at the Lord Famine?" Caleb murmured questioningly and earned a smack to the head, "Hey! What was that for?"
"Come on, everyone! We can escape if we work together and trust our skills!" Wren finished, "Will you help me fight the Dark Chefs and avenge the Wonder Chef?!" The cooks leaped up with him with supportive yells. Caleb rubbed his head and smiled sheepishly.
"I guess you can count me in, too." he remarked, standing up beside his friend. Wren looked at him in surprise, then concern.
"You don't have to get involved, Caleb. This is Wonder Organization trouble. It's going to be messy." he told him quietly, "We can make an escape and you can find a way home to Altessa's place, but I have to stay with these guys and fight."
"Wren, I was involved the moment I saved your life in the forest so many months ago. Don't expect me to run away from this." the doll replied seriously, then smiled and threw him a thumb's-up, "Besides, I have all of Tabatha's recipes memorized! I may not know how to cook up an exploding meatball, but I can make a miso stew that will heal you faster than you can cook an egg!" Wren smiled at him thankfully and turned to the cooks.
"All right then. Let's make a plan." the blonde decided and the cooks all gathered in a huddle.