I looked carefully at the soup, with herbs and tubers inside the warm fluid. A meaty aroma filled the air, even though I hadn't seen her put any sort of meat in there. I drank some directly from the bowl and was surprised at how pleasant it was considering how simple the ingredients were. It was warm and slightly creamy from the tubers being cooked into the herbal broth and dissolved to make a simple but pleasant meal.
"It’s delicious! "Thank you," I said as I returned to my soup. It was a bit messy drinking and eating the chunks without a spoon, but after a few spills from rushing through it, I managed to slow it down enough to not make a mess of myself and my hoodie. But given the situation I'd been in the day before, my clothes were anything but clean.
"Not a problem," she said, scooping out a portion for herself. "It is easy to make, we will gather herbs once we’re done."
"Is this like a meal you have every morning? Or is it a special dish?" I said, placing my empty bowl beside the stool.
"We all eat it before starting a long day," she said, getting up and placing the bowls inside the hut, swatting away the insects coming for the soup before placing a large plate on the soup pot. "Given that this is your first real day here, you’ll need the energy." She then goes back inside the hut and pulls out two weaved baskets and hands one to me. "Let's go pick some herbs; I'll tell you about the plants here," she said, waiting for me.
I quickly got up and dusted my back before proceeding into the thick foliage beside Tilli’s hut. We soon ran into a cool forested area, with the large trees blocking the rising sun and its heat with their densely packed leaves. I struggled not to trip on the bendy, forgotten branches and random holes on the forest floor. But every time I had the chance to look up without the threat of falling, I watched as Tilli walked with grace, almost as though she were royalty. Her head was always held high, and her long skirt was picked up gently enough so that it didn't get dirty. Even though she was dressed like any other villager, she seemed truly out of place.
"What was the root that I helped peel?" I said, genuinely curious about the vegetation here.
"That was an uxo nut," she giggled. I felt instantly embarrassed, now knowing that was what the soup I just ate was made from. It only made sense. "This is the plant," she said, cusping the leaves of a plant about the height of my hips. It had gagged, large, dark green leaves bundled in groups of five with smooth, slightly fuzzy white stems, many of them attached to a larger, much thicker stem.
"Is the whole plant edible?" I said, rubbing one of the leaves and observing the plant even closer.
"No, everything but the root is extremely toxic," she said, making sure that she said it loud enough for me to hear. I immediately stopped and hoped that I would remember not to put my hands anywhere near my face until I was able to wash them. "The uxo plant is actually one of the ingredients for something called assassin's tea."