The Golden Spinning Wheel

"Eugh."

Once again, random noises issuing from the general vicinity of Addam's mouth were no strange phenomenon. He grunted, groaned, and even moaned with an alacrity that would make any coarsest mercenary shifty-eyed.

But as Minoth had been waiting for something, anything interesting to happen in this long, dull, hellishly humid evening, he spared the prince a glance, and found him gazing disdainfully into the bowl held somewhere south of aloft in his left hand.

Disdainful? Addam?

"Grubs in your grub, Prince?"

Addam winced, visibly.

"There might as well be." He ventured the spoon closer to the surface of the bowl's contents, then thought better of it, setting the implement down and peeling his eyes away from the bowl. "I thought I'd add the last of the dried trout strips I had lying around to the rest of my stew, for a bit of protein, but it isn't sitting well - with itself, or with me."

"But it is all food, to your knowledge?"

What was it about the ever-so-slight additional refinement of that phrase, versus "as far as you know", that made the situation so much funnier? Minoth was still chipping away at the semantics, but in the meantime, he liked to tease Addam with a twist of his own elocution, from time to time.

Sure enough, "To my knowledge..." Addam repeated, now not just disdainful but dejected.

"So we'll make dumplings."

"Dumplings? From this? I didn't take you to be the casually suicidal type, Minoth."

There were two supporting lines of logic: one, Minoth had eaten far, far worse many a time, and he still retained an aversion to waste that defied the resources they now had to hand; two, if there was Nest Extract in the stew already, then one acquainted oneself with the bitter taste of Flier sap without even thinking about it or the honey that could have been.

And for a third charm, Minoth had never met a dumpling he didn't like. Amazing what flour and water could do, huh?

Fishing around in their packs for the nice wooden bowl Flora had donated for the dirt-covered road ahead, as well as a small basket that could be repurposed into a steamer, Minoth rolled up his sleeves and got to work. The first ball of dough he pinched off was handed directly to Addam, who stuttered at first, but accepted the task and began flattening it into a round.

By the time all the wrappers had been filled, a sizable portion of the original offending stew unfortunately remained, but with a mouthful of hot carbohydrates concealing atrophied carrots and slimy onions, Addam found himself in brighter spirits.

"You've eaten grub dumplings, haven't you?"

"Why, of course! Only the finest from Chef Mythra."