“Yup again.  On the first day.  Been cooking for the group as often as I can to raise the level. Annie told me about levels.  Tell you what, stand here a bit, help me place these on the grill and tend to ‘em, and you might get the skill yourself since you killed this snake.  I figured out a while back that the skill levels faster if you’re using meat that you’ve killed, or ingredients that you’ve gathered yourself, rather than prepackaged food or bottled spices.”

“Awesome.  And that’s great information.  I’ll pass that along to Meg and Sam, and the others who craft using gathered resources.”

As they finished preparing the pieces of meat, Allistor observed the man next to him.  He was in his thirties, dark hair with a full beard.  Allistor was about to ask him about his attributes when the man spoke.  “I gotta ask.  I’m looking at these chunks of meat… just how big was this snake?”

Allistor chuckled.  “In all, it was about sixty feet long, I’d guess.  We didn’t stretch it out and measure it.  And the system described it as an infant!  I don’t even want to meet its mom.  Baby snake nearly killed us both.”

Dean just shook his head as he continued to prepare the meat.  A few minutes later it was all on the giant wood-burning grill.  The smoke smelled sweet and… well, woodsy.  Allistor inhaled deeply, enjoying the aroma.  He wasn’t thrilled about eating the snake meat, but Dean had sworn he could make it taste delicious.  There were fresh vegetables grilling on a smaller side grill, and someone had brought freshly baked bread.   Checking on the veggies, Dean cursed softly.  “Where’s the damn butter. I know we brought butter for these… Woman! Where’s the butter?”

The loud call startled Allistor, who was flipping a hunk of snake meat and nearly dropped it through the grill into the flames.   He turned as ‘Woman’ approached.  An elfish woman approximately the same age as Dean, she had a lovely face and long dark hair.  She wore a black T-shirt sporting a white unicorn with a pink mane and rainbow sparkles.

She placed a hand on Dean’s back and reached around in front of him to the little grill’s side table.  “It’s right here, mister grumpy.” She lifted a hunk of tin foil, wrapped inside of which were two sticks of butter.

“You’ve saved the day!” Dean exclaimed as he gathered her in for a kiss.  “Woman, this is Allistor.”

Allistor shook her hand, a slightly confused look on his face.  She laughed when she noticed.  “My name is Sarah. Dean likes to pretend he’s a caveman, calls me Woman and grumps about, growling at people.  But he’s really just a big softie.” She gave his butt a squeeze and kissed his cheek. “Nice to meet you, Allistor.”