Who: Hawke & Blue What: Hawke meets a potential friend Where: The remains of the cafe When: Saturday afternoon Rating: PG for Hawke's mouth Status: Complete
The cafe looked as if it was on fire with the amount of smoke pouring from it. Hawke was not burning the place down, which he was sure would shock some residents. It smelled of smoke, a few herbs that he found and drying meat. Rosalind had recommended this place to him for salting meat and it turned out to be the perfect place for Hawke to smoke it as well.
There wasn't as much as he hoped after harvesting. The beasts had destroyed a lot in their rampant feasting and careless ripping open of guts. It was certainly not as clean as butchering pigs back on the farm in Lothering. Hawke had saved what he could, gave the hide over to Logan and took up shop in the cafe to preserve what had been saved.
He used half the salt he found on some of the nicer, fattier cuts and brined them. There were plenty of vegetables he was able to throw in as well and sturdy glass jars that were better than the oak barrels of home. It took him longer to build a decent smoker. The damn thing was hard to seal with the building was falling apart.
After a few days of hard work he had a room that held a majority of the smoke and he was able to hang the meat from the rafters. He smelled like smoke but was damn proud of his work. Hawke stood outside the smoking shed, arms crossed over his shed as he monitored the coals and fires. He'd probably be here until nightfall, perhaps even have to stay the night to make sure nothing went wrong. At least he'd have plenty of food.