Mutants Misplaced

Chapter 39

Pizza Time!

In the kitchen of the Bannered Mare, Mikey had gotten to work teaching Hulda the secret of pizza. With an uncharacteristic amount of carefulness and precision, the young turtle selected the ingredients most suitable for his beloved dish. The biggest issue was the dough, but that was also easily remedied as Hulda had set several doughs for the bread to the afternoon.

Happy with the feel of the dough, Mikey quickly worked it into shape. The tomato sauce was also easily made, though he had to use slightly different herbs for seasoning, but at least he had garlic. With lots of cheese at his disposal, the base of the pizza was complete, all that was missing was the topping. Opting for a simple pizza, Mikey chose to use strips of ham, he would have wanted to use pineapple and pepperoni but that didn't exist in Skyrim as far as he knew.

Out in the dinning hall, the team could feel the scent of the improvised pizza as it was baked in the oven. It didn't smell like a pizza normally would, but there was no mistaking it, it was a pizza.

"I hate to admit it, but it does smell real tasty." said Raph.

"Who would have thought that Mikey would be able to make a pizza in a place like this?" said Sephie.

"We're not out of the woods yet, we still have to see if it taste any good." said Donnie.

"I wonder just how this might change this land. And I would like him to hurry up, sitting here and feeling the smell is making me rather hungry, despite that I've already eaten." said Tyroth.

"Me too." said Mona and Leo nodded.

A few minutes later, Mikey and Hulda came out of the kitchen with a large wooden plate with Skyrim's first pizza, and it looked as good as it smelled. Cutting up the pizza, the eight people present each got one slice. Unfortunately, it was nothing left for Devina, but since she was out, it didn't matter.

"Behold! The king of foods and food of kings, the pizza!" said Mikey proudly.

"Shut up and let us eat in peace." said Raph.

Taking their first bites of the pizza, the group was pleased.

"This is good, Mikey, very good." said Mona. "It's not quite like those back home, but it's close."

"Thanks, sis."

"Mmm, I understand why you like this, it is like nothing I've ever eaten before." said Hulda. "And it wasn't as hard as I thought. If people are willing to try, I'm quite sure that they will like it as well."

"It will be a real hit! We have to try many different toppings as well." said Mikey.

After finishing their slices of pizza, Mikey and Hulda went back into the kitchen, so Hulda could try for herself. The others stayed in the inn as before, but they didn't remain inactive as they had a lot to take care of before leaving again.

"Checklist, Donnie, what's on the agenda?" said Leo.

"We need to plan out our path to Morthal, see how long it might take. Then we require supplies like food and more medicines if possible, should be able to trade some of the stuff we acquired from the bandits' nest, like the staff."

"That Belethor should be willing to buy much, if not all of what we have, but I'd rather not meet him again." said Mona. "I kind of promised him that we'd supply him goods from our home, it was the only way to get him to lower his prices, and I can't imagine that he'll be overly happy to see us without the goods."

"You did say that we'd get him that once we had gotten home, but yeah, he won't be happy." said Raph.

"Let me deal with him, you guys focus on the supplies." said Tyroth.

"I'll stay here, out of the sun, and someone have to look after the inn while Hulda is preoccupied." said Sephie.

"Donnie and I will stay too, just in case, and we still need to check the map." said Leo. "Once we're done, we'll get some rest before leaving once the sun has set."

"Speaking of which, wonder how Devina is doing?" said Donnie.

At Skyforge, Eorlund worked hard to craft the dragon teeth into weapons. He continued to spend hours heating, hammering and cooling the teeth as if they were of metal, mixing in some ebony to make handles to them. He had a certain fire in his eyes, having the chance to work with something as rare as dragon materials really got his blood pumping.

As he worked, Devina sat nearby, keeping to the shadows, close enough to see how the weapons took shape, but far enough from the heat of the forge. It wouldn't be much longer before Eorlund was done.

Cooling of the weapons in the water one final time, the water evaporated from the blades as he pulled them up again. Giving them a thorough examination, Eorlund was not satisfied with them, he was damned proud. The best thing he had ever done. The only thing left was to bind the handles with leather for a better grip, but that didn't take very long.

"They are finished." he said. Devina approached him expectantly and was presented with a set of two beautiful daggers. The handles were of black ebony with a ring at the pommel, and they had broad triangular crossguards. The straight blades were completely made of of the dragon teeth and had a dark bone colour. Significantly thinner than they were as teeth, the blades had edges that were razor sharp.

"Impressive, but how sharp are they?" Devina asked.

Eorlund took one of the daggers and walked over to the anvil. Slashing along the side, a few sparks flew as the dagger left a deep cut in the metal with little effort.

"More than sharp enough." Eorlund said as he then wrapped up both daggers in a piece of cloth and handed the bundle to Devina.

"I know not what you need these for, but I know better than to question you."

"Thank you, Eorlund. What do I owe you for this?"

"Nothing, it was my pleasure to be able to work with something so exclusive as dragon teeth."

"You are far too kind, thank you." Devina said, putting the bundle in her bag. "Now I have to go, but I'll come by the next time I'm close to Whiterun."

Back at the inn, Hulda was making great progress, learning quickly all the different techniques that Mikey used to make pizza, even how to toss the dough over her head. But that is not to say that it went smoothly, her first toss ended up landing on Mikey's head, as did her second, and her third, the fourth missed and by the fifth, she succeeded.

"I think you got it now." Mikey said proudly.

"It wasn't as easy as you made it seem, but I'm glad that I learned how to do it. Just have to teach a cook as well, but after that, I think pizza will become a great success."

"I know that it will." said Mikey with a triumphant smile. "But now comes the worst part, cleaning up."

Despite having promised not to, the kitchen did look like a mess. Though, to be fair, it wasn't only Mikey's fault, and even if it had been, Hulda would still have helped clean up. As it were, it didn't take very long before the kitchen was clean and ready for cooking.

In the hall, the girls had had several customers over the hours, hunters, farmers and a few guards that simply wanted something to drink. Having helped Hulda with such tasks once before, Mona and Sephie easily saw to the customers' needs and since Tyroth had made a name for himself as a bouncer, no one dared to even try to cheat them. Even during the time that he wasn't present, it was a well known fact that the others were in his company.

It hadn't taken Tyroth very long time to finish his shopping for supplies, selling their 'confiscated' items at Belethor and buying medicines and food for the money. Like Mona had feared, Belethor wasn't too happy, but he didn't dare do anything against the large dragon, especially not after being told that Tyroth had killed another dragon with his bare hands. That, and the greedy man really wanted to get his hands on some of the items, like the lightning staff.

About half an hour after Tyroth returned, Mikey and Hulda exited the kitchen, after cleaning up. Shortly after, Devina walked in through the front-door as well.

"Welcome back." said Donnie. "Everything went well, I assume?"

"Without any worries, thanks for asking." Devina responded. Then, she stopped and smelled the air. "Mmm. What is that smell? Is it one of those pizzas Mikey was talking about?"

"Yep, I think we got a few slices left that are still hot enough. Go ahead and try one."

"Don't mind if I do." Taking a slice, Devina sat down by the table with Leo and Donnie and began eating. Despite having lived for over five hundred years and travelled much of the world, she had never tasted anything like a pizza. And she loved it.

"Mm! Wonderful! Why hasn't anyone thought about this before?"

"A good question. Another one would be; why did you take the teeth?" Leo asked calmly, making Devina almost choke on her pizza.

"You didn't really think that we wouldn't notice? We have been trained to be very perceptive. But why did you do it?"

"Well… Um..."

"Because I asked her to." said Tyroth as he walked up to the table, earning confused looks from the two brothers. "I had an idea about what to do with them, and since Devina knows a great deal of more people, she wanted to help after she overheard me thinking out aloud. But I forgot to give her the teeth, so she had to get them herself."

"I'm sorry for not asking, I though that it was okay." said Devina.

"It's alright, but why didn't you tell us about this?" asked Leo.

"No offence guys, but I wanted to keep it a secret, as it was supposed to be a surprise."

"A surprise? What do you mean by that?" asked Donnie.

"It will easier to show you." Tyroth turned around and called over to Sephie, who was still by the counter.

"Hey, love, what's up?" she asked when she reached the table.

"We got you a little something, that I hope you'll like." said Tyroth and nodded to Devina, who pulled out a bundle of cloth from her bag and gave it to Sephie. She was confused to why she was given a gift, it wasn't close to her birthday, and while she enjoyed the various spontaneous presents from her lover, this didn't have the same feel to it.

Gently unwrapping the cloth, she was greatly surprised to see a pair of beautiful daggers, with blades made of some strange material that looked familiar.

"No way. Are these the teeth Mikey picked up?"

"That's right, might as well have some use of that bastard's remains. It would have looked nice having the teeth mounted on our wall back home, but I prefer something a bit more practical, and I think you will agree." said Tyroth.

"They are awesome!" Sephie half cheered, half squealed, as she picked up the two daggers. They were slightly heavier than her own, but also had slightly larger blades, especially regarding the width of the blades. Walking away a few meters from everyone, Sephie started to swing and stab against imaginary foes, increasing her speed as she went on and doing more agile moves. When she stopped her practice run, she threw one of the daggers at one of the wooden pillars in the room and the blade dug deep into the wood.

"I love these! They feel so right in my hands." Sephie said as she retrieved her new dagger. "How did you manage to make these?"

"I know Skyrim's best blacksmith, and he was more than willing to work with dragon teeth. Didn't even want to get paid." said Devina.

"So they didn't cost you anything? That's good, but I still owe you for your help." said Tyroth.

"You don't owe me anything, after everything you guys have told me about your adventures, not to mention what we've been through together, I have more than enough material to write several books, and that's more than enough."

"Free dragon daggers, huh? Well, I won't complain, on the contrary, thank you so much, both of you." said Sephie and gave both Devina and Tyroth a big hug, as well as giving Tyroth a kiss. "These will definitely be useful. Just imagine the looks on our friends' faces when they see these."

"First we have to get back home, but we'll make it, I know we will." said Tyroth.

Long live the pizza! Man, I love that food, and so do at least two people in Skyrim.

And now we know why Devina was acting so sneaky, she was helping Tyroth upgrade Sephie's arsenal with Dragon weapons. Beware anyone who thinks she is easy prey, her new daggers got quite the bite.