Playing Games(11)

“We need to decide.” Brodie said impatiently. “Can you eat?”

"I guess so," I told him, steeling myself. "Though if I have to eat fish guts, I'm going to kick your ass when we get home."

He grinned and ruffled my hair. "I'll kayak, then. This thing says to return here once we've completed both tasks and gotten our tokens, so we'll meet back here when we're done. Sound good?"

I nodded, tucking the disk under my arm. "Good luck!"

Brodie dashed off towards the distant shore, his yellow coat bright against the sea of white snow. He followed a marked path and disappeared out of sight a moment later.

Time for me to do my challenge, too. Ugh. I was not looking forward to chowing down on whatever horrors they could come up with. I glanced at the sign, and followed the arrows that said 'Thule Meal.' There was a path dug into the snow, and I raced forward, clutching the disk in hand.

Sure enough, the marked path led behind that thick snow wall I’d seen earlier. I could hear some odd sounds as I approached, my cameraman dogging on my heels as I headed toward the task. When I turned the corner at the wall, the sounds of retching hit my ears just as a horrible, overwhelming fishy smell hit my nose.

Oh…gross.

There was a table marked with a flag, and I headed there. An Inuit woman nodded her head at me and handed me another disk. I flipped it over, reading the instructions. Choose a banquet table. You will be dining on an Inuit delicacy that has been popular for thousands of years, dating back to the days when the Thule lived in Greenland - a dish called mukluk. Mukluk is whale blubber still attached to the skin. Sometimes it is eaten raw, sometimes cooked. You will have a chance to sample both cooked and uncooked versions.

My stomach heaved a little at the thought.

Select your table and begin eating. You must clean both bowls before the judge will hand you your challenge disk. If you need to get sick, a bucket has been provided under your table.

Oh dear. I clutched the disk to my chest, scanning the competition area. Sure enough, ten folding tables had been set up in the snow, covered with a red tablecloth edged with traditional designs. On the center of each table, two bowls had been heaped high with…stuff.

Five of the tables had someone seated in front of them, eating slowly. The sixth table had someone bent over their bucket, clearly puking.

I counted heads. Six people at the challenge. Three teams behind us. That meant…everyone was still here. Holy shit, we'd caught up. It was probably planned that way by the race organizers for additional drama, but I didn't care. We weren’t dead last.

I headed for the closest open table - next to the puker – and sat down at the folding chair there. A napkin had been left on the table and I folded it in my lap. There was a water bottle at my feet, in case I wanted a drink.

I pulled the first bowl close to me and took a look at it.

It was…not good. The mukluk had been carved into chunks, and each chunk was two different colors - dark on top, and white on the bottom. I guessed the white was the fat, since it was shiny and glistened. I swallowed hard. This must have been the raw food, right? I leaned in and sniffed the bowl, while the person next to me got sick again. I glanced over, frowning, just as the puker sat up and leaned back in his chair.

It was Liam, the rocker.

Ha! I tried not to smile at his misery, since I was probably going to be in the same state pretty soon, but it was clear that Liam couldn't hold down his mukluk. Both bowls in front of him were less than halfway gone, and he'd probably gotten there a lot earlier than everyone else. His complexion was tinged an unpleasant green.

He looked over at me, and must have noticed me studying him, because he scowled darkly in my direction.

So I grinned. And popped the first piece of mukluk into my mouth just to fuck with him.

Immediately, I regretted that choice. Mukluk was awful. The taste was something like super fatty, slimy sushi, and it had a texture like gristle. It was cold on my tongue, and it smelled worse than anything. I shivered and forced myself to swallow the piece, then reached for a piece of the cooked mukluk. It wasn't nearly as bad, though still pretty foul.

I alternated pieces, gagging between each one. Every few minutes, to my side, Liam would make a quiet heaving noise and then proceed to grab his bucket, which only made my stomach turn a bit more. I began to hum to myself to drown him out, grabbing pieces of mukluk and eating as fast as I could.

There was a lot of damn mukluk in the bowl. Soon, my entire mouth tasted like fish, and all I could smell was the scent of slightly-turned mukluk. I held my nose for a few pieces, and then decided to just suck it up and cram a piece of cooked mukluk in with the raw and chew fast. The taste was still awful, but it helped masked the slimy gristle-texture, and so I kept pairing and swigging with water.