205
A Taste of Home
"Rye, you're getting my shirt wet", Ryan chided, pushing Rigel back. The latter's crazy grin looked out of place on a face streaked with tears, but Ryan understood.
"Pizza", Rigel said, shaking his head and laughing. All the weariness from the return journey, all the frustration of not being fast enough to catch Urien, had washed away with those tears of happiness. "I'm gone for a few months, and you reinvent pizza! Just to welcome us back!"
Ryan shrugged his right shoulder. "Had to re-invent it -- we don't have cows, so there's no proper cheese. We always liked the mushroom Hawaiian, but we didn't even have the right kind of mushrooms till Eraigh snagged some -- they grow great in horse shit! No pineapple, and the Celts just don't get the idea of Canadian bacon...."
Rigel's laugh shut him up. "Tell me at least it's real tomato paste!"
"Oh, yes", came the solemn reply. "And real yeast in the pizza dough. But everything else--"
"Is absolutely wonderful", Rita cut in, "and very strong -- the cheese tastes almost like feta". She held a piece of the "Cavern Pizzeria's" product under her nose and breathed in deep. "Ryan, if you weren't already a lord, I'd tell Rigel to knight you for this! A bit of home.... and a brilliant choice, too."
"It needs a red beer", Tanner offered. "I--"
"Ate four pieces already, with King Artur's ale", Austin observed. "You wouldn't leave any for the rest of us if you had a red to go with it." Squire and military commander stared at each other, then laughed.
Sir Wade Appleway regarded the wedge of food on his plate dubiously. It was his second, and he still hadn't made up his mind about the first. The ale was good, and the bread sticks twisted with herbs in their layers, but this concoction of fruit -- though Lady Rita said tomato was a vegetable -- sauce and meat bits on thin bread topped with whitish-yellow cheese was too odd. The food he'd had traveling with these Snatched had been somewhat strange to him, but this -- an attempt to replicate an old favorite from their home earth, Lord Ryan had said -- was unlike anything he'd ever eaten.
With a sigh, he lifted the slice. As a diplomat, even if but a messenger, it was his duty to do his best to avoid offending his hosts.