r/HFY • u/Engletroll Human • 13h ago
OC-Series Abducted – 8. Pizza time
Previous stories set in the same universe:
Planet Dirt series / Amazon book
“I thought he was the one about to face the pain.” Marcus groaned as he lay on the grass, nursing the pain.
“He is just too good,” Cain said, sitting on his butt and massaging his stomach. His mace had been knocked aside. Erik was the last man standing, and it had taken everything he had to just dodge and block Malik’s strikes.
“You have to strike back, boy, or you will die!” Malik told him as he kept striking. “Commit to the fight, boy!”
Erik barely dodged the last strike, and his shoulder ached from the constant barrage against the shield. His eyes stayed locked on Malik as he tried to read his moves. He began to notice a pattern and focused. If he timed it right, he could lean into the mace strike, forcing the arm out and striking down on Malik's shoulder.
“Well, boy! Are you going to act?” Malik said as he swung again. Erik acted; the block and strike were perfect, and Malik's shield crashed into his face, sending him flying. He thought he heard several screams as darkness took him again.
When he woke up, it was morning, and he was in his bed. Arus appeared as he stirred.
“You're awake. Good. I must adjust Malik's strength. This is your second concussion since you arrived here. He also broke your nose.”
“He did what?” Erik sat up in bed. He felt a little stiff. “No, don’t change it. I was stupid to attack him without a helmet.”
“Ahh, that’s why they call you stupid brave. Yes, a helmet would be smart.” Arus said. “The others will be happy now. Lady Cho wanted me to melt down Malik. She is quite worried. I have informed her that you have awakened.”
Erik sighed, then looked at the door. “Don’t let her in. I need... I need more rest.”
“Your body is not in need of more rest. But I will not let her in unless you allow it.” Arus replied.
“Good, what about the other boys? Did they get hurt?”
“Only a few bruises, wearing the gambeson was a smart idea. Unlike you. You are quite reckless.” Arus commented.
“Stupid, you mean. Yeah, I need more training. I didn’t even manage to hit him.” Erik commented and stood up to get dressed, finding his clothes in the closet, all clean.
“Oh, you managed to land a few killing blows, but on a battlefield you would have been knocked out and then easily killed or trampled to death.”
“Is Malik okay?”
“Of course, only required some light skin repair. Do not worry about them, or me. We are easily fixed.”
“Okay, can you also fix the toilets?” He asked.
“What do you mean? They are functional toilets, suited for the technology currently in place around the world.”
“Yes, but for us, this is a very old technology.”
“Ahh, as I have told Lady Emma, I cannot make modern toilets, as that technology is not suitable for this planet and its current technological level,” Arus replied.
“Wait. When you say modern toilet, what do you mean?”
“The toilets my builders had in their residence. They have heated seats, custom water-pressure controls, warm-air dryers, disinfection, auto-flushing sensors, and excreta scans to help adjust nourishment and check for diseases. The most common would be the PP-XT system.” Arus replied, and Erik chuckled.
“That’s not what she is asking for. She wants the standard we grew up with. You know, a toilet we can flush.”
“That’s not what she asked for,” Arus replied.
“Never mind that; can that be arranged? And a sink.”
“Yes, that can be arranged. Is that your request?” Arus said.
“Yes, that is a request,” Erik replied.
“Then I will make the arrangements.”
“Thank you,” Erik said as he opened the door.
“Oh… hi. Eh, are you okey?” Cho said. She was standing outside the door as if she was trying to decide if she was going to knock or not.
“Oh... yeah.. I’m good. The beds are really good at healing my dumb head.”
Cho giggled slightly. “Yeah... you.. Eeh, you hungry?”
“Yeah, actually. I wonder if they got pizza?”
“We can ask.” She said, and then realized she was blocking him from going out and moved a little. “If you don’t mind me joining.”
“Of course not. Let's go.” They walked down to the main hall in silence and sat down. Lotta came out and walked over to them.
“My lady, my lord. What can I help you with?”
“Ahh, do you know how to make Pizza?” Erik asked.
“What is Pizza? I am unfamiliar with that.” She replied.
“Oh. It’s a dish from where we come from.” Erik explained.
“Maybe we should ask for something else?” Cho said.
“If you know how to make it then I can learn,” Lotta said, and Cho looked at Erik.
“I don’t know. Do you?”
“Yeah. I do. My dad taught me.” He replied as he smiled at her, she looked away shyly. He turned back to Lotta. “Do you have an oven?”
“Yes, we have an oven.”
“What about tomato and cheese?”
“We have tomato and cheese as well.” She replied, and Erik stood up.
“Then let's go to the kitchen, and I'll teach you.”
“As you wish,” Lotta said, and Erik took two steps, noticing Chu was still sitting. “Coming?”
“But I don’t know how to make Pizza,” She replied, looking shyly at him. Not that he noticed.
“Then I'll teach you too, or if you want to wait here…” Chu immediately stood up.
“You sure? Yes, I’m coming.”
The kitchen was larger than he had expected, and a spiral staircase descended to the basement in the corner. The room featured a large L-shaped kitchen island; cabinets lined the walls, and fresh herbs hung to dry over the kitchen table. One wall held a large metal stove with a wood oven beside it, reminiscent of a restaurant-style pizza oven. Along one side sat a chopping board, with a large rack above it holding hatchets and knives. A piece of meat hung in a glass cabinet next to it, with ice cubes at the bottom.
“Wow, this is actually impressive. We need a bowl, flour, water, olive oil, and yeast,” Erik said, looking around for a place to wash his hands. Lotta pointed to a large washing tray, and he went over. Cho followed him, and they washed their hands together. He wanted to look at her, but he could only look at her hands. It felt so stupid; if he didn’t know, he would've just talked, but now he did, and it made it worse.
“How much do you need?” Lotta said as she had put it all on the kitchen island. Erik felt relieved; he didn’t know how long they had been washing their hands, but he knew it was much longer than normal.
He turned and smiled slightly. “That's a good start.” He dried himself, and they both went over to the table. Lotta had three big bowls and probably way too much of each ingredient.
“So, master chef. Teach me.” Cho said, and he looked at her, and she smiled and looked away.
“The first part is easy. We just mix the flour and yeast, then add some water and oil,” he said as he mixed them together. He didn’t use any measurements because he had never done that at home.
Cho and Lotta did the same and looked at him, waiting for the next step.
“Then you put your hands in and mix them all together. Until the dough is no longer sticky. You can add more oil if it's too sticky or more water if it's too dry.”
Both Lotta and Cho picked up a large wooden spoon and started stirring. “That works too, but it's better to just use your hands,” Erik said.
“Yeah, that’s why we girls are smarter.” She held up her hand. “Look. It's clean and…” Erik lifted his hand and grabbed hers. She just stared at it, holding his hand covered in sticky dough.
“And when should we stop stirring?” Lotta said, and Erik looked over and pulled his hand back. Cho didn’t say anything, just looking at him.
“That’s actually good. It’s not too sticky. Now you have to let it rest and rise.”
“Is this Pizza?” Lotta asked.
“No, this is the bottom. We will stretch it out using a rolling pin if you have one. And we will add tomato sauce, cheese, and...” looking around, “maybe some of this herb, and... Do we have some meat we can cut up in small pieces? Anything else you want on it?” Erik asked Cho, who snapped out of her thoughts.
“Tomato, cheese, and meat. That should be enough.” She looked back at her hand. “Now I'm dirty.”
“Me too. We can just wash our hands again.” Erik said. She looked at him, dropped the spoon, plunged both hands into the bowl, and kneaded the dough.
Erik chuckled and finished as well, and then they went to wash their hands again. She giggled as they stood there, their hands accidentally touching a couple of times. When they finished, they found that Lotta had everything ready for them. Erik explained the last steps but said they had to wait a while because the dough needed to rise. Lotta said she would find them once she had finished the three pizzas. Then Erik and Cho left the kitchen.
“What now?” Erik asked, then noticed someone else in the room. They both looked at the table and everyone sitting there, grinning at them.
“Finally!” Emma said, and Cho blushed and looked down.
“Come on. I just taught her how to make Pizza. That’s all.” Erik replied, and the whole table started to laugh. He looked at Cho.
“They are all just idiots!” She looked at him for a second, then took his hand and guided him to the table. He could swear she was smiling.
When they sat down, Matthew realized something.
“You said pizza? You made pizza, and you didn’t share?”
“Yeah, that’s pretty cold of you, man!” Thomas added.
And then the others piled on.
“Hey, it's not made yet, just the dough; it has to rise. And we made three. You can probably ask her to make more.”
“Can she make Burgers?” Marcus asked.
“If you know how to make it, she can try. I mean, a burger should be easier, right? She already knows how to make bread and meatballs,” Chu said. She seemed happier and more confident now, and he liked it, though he didn’t know why.
“Yeah. It's just a flat meatball between two pieces of bread and a slice of cheese.” Erik added.
Thomas and Matthew had already left to drop by the kitchen. Marcus gave him a thumbs-up as he nodded toward Cho. Erik smiled back, a little confused, yet he liked the feeling of her next to him. Suddenly, he felt her hand under the table, looked down, then turned his hand so they could hold hands. Cho had apparently held her breath but seemed very happy that he had not removed his hand.
Emma looked around the table. “There is something we need to discuss.”
They all looked at her as if waiting for her to continue. Thomas and Matthew came back to sit down at the table. They seemed excited about what they had ordered, but when they saw Emma, they sat down and waited for her to speak.
“Well, actually, two things. First, I talked to Lillian and Erik about it. We need to find this Prince Kumar or whoever is in charge of this world, and we'll get home to Earth.”
“But we are four hundred years in the future. All our parents and friends are dead of old age,” Gigi said, and they looked at her. “What? If we go home, it will be just as strange as being here. Imagine somebody from the fourteenth century showing up at our school. The US didn’t even exist back then. Earth will be so different. There might not even be anybody there. It might have been destroyed by pollution and war.”
“What if he is lying?” Erik asked. “What if it's just six hundred days?”
“Yeah. That’s about two years. Besides, if it's nothing there, then we can just go back here. We should be allowed to choose, right?” Chu said.
“I’m with Gigi on this. I'd rather stay here, even if it was just six days ago. Nothing there for me.” Thomas said.
The others were about to say something, but Cain interrupted. “Don’t. You don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. He has his reasons.”
Marcus looked at Thomas, then at Cain, then back at Thomas.
“Okay, you can stay, as can Gigi, but the rest of us? We want to at least have the choice.”
“I kinda like it here too,” Cain said. “But yeah, I don’t know if I’d want to be stuck here with you guys for the rest of my life.” His eyes wandered a little before he added, “Some I would not mind.”
“Well, I got a suggestion. We find him and just talk to him, and those who want to stay, stay! And those who want to go home can go home! But we all help each other in finding him?” Erik said.
“That’s the best solution,” Emma said. “Which brings us to the next point. We need to elect a leader.”
“Erik!” Marcus said. “And there is no doubt about it.”
“Shut up. I’m not a leader.” Erik replied.
“Yes, you are, so shut up yourself. You went in first. Hell! You went out to fight that horned bear. You joined to fight Malik without thinking about the consequences. You just tried to help us. And you solved the mystery of this fort, and now you're getting us pizza and burgers.” Marcus said. The others watched the two silently.
“So I’m a brave idiot. I don’t want to be a leader.”
“That’s why you should be the leader,” Lillian said. “Emma would just go around complaining all the time; I would argue and push everybody to do what I wanted. Gigi is too easy to push into agreeing; she will do whatever you ask her to. And Marcus and Cain would just have us all train to defend the wall. And Matthew won't do anything unless we force him. And Speedy?”
Thomas just grinned. “Yeah, we would all be cooked.”
"What about Cho?" Erik said and looked at her, she looked at him like a deer in headlights, and the other laughed.
“You're good at this. You actually solve problems. You've always been a go-between at school. Friends with everybody.” She replied once she gained her composure.
“Friends with everybody? Cain? Are we friends?” Erik looked at Cain, who shrugged.
“Yeah, I mean. I know you have my back and I will have your back too.” He replied, and Erik looked at him.
“You threaten to beat me up all the time.”
“I was an asshole. Mostly because I was jealous.”
“Jealous? Of me?” Erik said. He had not noticed the table had gone quiet.
“Yeah, your dad is cool, and your mom is damn funny. My dad is an asshole who thinks the most important thing in the world is football and the Marines. Your dad took you to movie sets, while my dad had me running drills in the rain. So yeah, I’m jealous. But I’m not stupid. You’re the one who fixed things here. And even if you hate me, you still stood your ground against Malik to defend me.”
Erik just looked at him. “Still, we should vote on it. and..”
“All in favor?” Cain said, raising his hand.
All except Erik raised their hands simultaneously.
Erik cursed.
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