“That is an awful lot of gammon, dear…” Retvik gasped as he entered the kitchen where his partner Gath was cooking. Gath had a massive smile on his face, looking way too proud at the massive lump of smoked flesh he had been cooking all day.
“It is! Why do we only have gammon in the winter?” Gath grinned. “It is my second favourite meat yet we eat it so rarely!”
Retvik shrugged as he wandered over to the fridge to get himself some water. “I do not know. But that is far too much for the two of us. That is enough meat for at least ten vok.”
Gath continued grinning as he spooned broth and stock over the top of the massive slab of meat. “Well it is a good thing that we are having many vok round!”
Retvik hesitated. “Wait, who are we inviting around over Macromera? Have I forgotten something? I thought it was just the two of us?”
After finishing off with the meat, Gath turned to a very large saucepan hovering over a fire pit and started stirring it. “You and Tenuk said we were inviting that other group here. You know, the Raptor and her friends.”
“I… I did?” Retvik blinked. “When…”
“Tenuk called earlier to remind me about it. He said you already discussed it?”
Retvik shook his head. “I did not discuss anything with Tenuk. Who did he say was coming?”
Gath put the spoon down and thought to himself. “Hm. Well, you and I, of course. Tenuk as well. Elksia and her new friend Vel. Psiksi and Kass. Tenuk’s little brother Kohra. He also mentioned inviting the Raptor and her friends.”
“The Raptor and her friends? You mean the guard, the accountant and… Kohra? Kohra is already coming though…” Retvik tutted, then got up and reached for his communicator. “I will call Tenuk. Find out what we are doing.”
Gath nodded, then went back to tending to his meat while Retvik called Tenuk.
The communicator rang quite a few times. Retvik counted the seconds. Thirty five in total before Tenuk picked up.
“Hello Tenuk, I am not interrupting anything, am I?”
Tenuk seemed out of breath. “No, not at all. Just couldn’t find my communicator… What’s up?”
“Gath tells me we are inviting a lot more vok round for Macromera tomorrow. I want to clarify who we are inviting.”
“Oh…” Tenuk trailed off. “Oh yes. We were going to invite Phovos’s little team, but I believe Timik wanted to visit his family and Phovos said she had other plans. So it’ll just be Kohra and Kayen popping by. Poor Kohra has a broken arm so I asked him if he wanted to spend the week with me.”
“How did he break his arm?”
“Long story. We’ll probably share tomorrow.”
“So the Raptor is not coming? What about the…” Retvik paused. “What about their unconventional partners?”
“What, you mean the deities?”
“Yes.”
“They all mostly split up.”
“How do you know?” Retvik grunted. “I was trying to keep track of that mess and it suddenly fell silent, but you managed to keep on top of it?”
“Well I’ve been working on things pertaining to deities that makes these things easier to follow!” Tenuk explained. “But yes, Yisini and Epani both backed off and Arkadin disappeared off the radar.”
Retvik sighed. “Very well. So tomorrow it will be me and Gath, you and Kohra, Elksia and Vel, Psiksi and Kass and little Kayen.”
“Yep.”
“Wonderful. See you tomorrow…” Retvik put his communicator down. “So, Gath, that’s a total of ten vok.”
“Exactly the amount of vok I bought meat for!” Gath grinned. “We will have a lovely day tomorrow. I cannot wait…”