Posted 29 December 2015 - 11:20 PM
Nico, finally beginning to cook after gathering the right utensils and assembling the meat and vegetables at hand, begins to sing in a deep, resonating voice. Songs of his homeland echo over the festival, drawing the attention of nearby patrons. Starting out slowly, bellowing out a bass-filled dirge, he begins cutting up the meat and vegetables with heavy chops. A nearby minstrel group lends their melody to his powerful voice. As the music gains in speed and volume, he adds the food to the grill. As the sizzling food begins to sear, he adds spices to the beat of the song, emphasizing words with both his voice and his motions. The sound of the music draws even more people to the performance, and the smell of the cooking food keeps them waiting for the finale. Once he smells that the meat and vegetables are nearly done, he pours a dark, spicy-smelling sauce over the whole lot. At this, the grill screams, spewing steam into the air with the final crescendo of the song. At this, the crowd erupts into applause for the performance.
The mutton vendor stands nearby, awestruck with his mouth open. "Wow, that was...I mean...Wow!"
Panting at the effort of keeping the song going, Nico strides up to the young man, grinning widely. "I told you I would bring you customers! Now, you had better get to serving them soon, before they start a fight. I say you could charge triple what you would normally get for that amount of meat and vegetables. I'll even give you the recipe if you let me go with some of that dried meat I saw in the back."