"Oh! Sorry, I barely looked at the menu!" Faust exclaimed as he looked at the waiter. He quickly started flipping through the it. He quickly realized however that he didn't know what any of the food actually was or the text accompanying it.
Andrew and Luke also began flipping through the menu as they encountered the same problem. Their brows furrowed a bit and Andrew looked up at the waiter in confusion.
"Is this written in Uzosa?" He asked.
"Oh, you all must not be from around here. I'm not either, I moved here recently, but yes, they are in Uzosa. I can't speak it but most of the people around here can. I apologize because I haven't memorized all the people living here yet, so I just assumed you were locals. I'll go grab some translated menus for you guys."
The waiter then took the menus and began walking away to swap them out.
Andrew quickly accepted the waiter's answer, but Luke was sitting in his seat in confusion.
At the same time, Leo was having a mild crisis. Leo placed a finger on his head and began thinking, but he soon told the table the problem.
"It was gibberish." He said with a knit brow.
The Faust and Andrew were talking to each other but looked over when Leo had interrupted.
"What?" Faust asked.
"The menu. Yeah, it was written in Uzosa, but it was just gibberish. None of it made any sense." Leo said with rubbing his temples in slight frustration.
"I noticed that too." Luke muttered. Much like Leo, he seemed to be a bit confused.
Faust and Andrew looked back at each other, then to the two.
"You guys can speak Uzosa?"
"Montague, that giant guy from Riftmoor, was from Uzosaz. So obviously I had to learn it to annoy him." Leo explained.
"I used to live in the north-eastern part of Mixilo, so I grew up near Uzosaz. A few people I grew up with spoke it and I learnt quite a bit of the language." Luke explained.
"But how proficient are you two?" Faust asked, he continued saying, "Maybe it's just some word's you've never seen before."
"Trust me, I went very in depth. You don't want to know how many insults I learned to taunt Montague." Leo said.
Leo muttered under his breath, "So… so many…"
"I learned it for a few years and used it often around fluent people. Am I perfect? Not at all, but I know enough to read a description for food." Luke followed up.
"Wait, you two bring up a good point." Vera cut in with a confused look on her face, "The drinks were in Iuxnari while the rest was in Uzosa."
Iuxnari was the common language amongst the countries of the world. Most places at least spoke it, even if their national language was something else. But there were a few places that didn't use the language at all, like Uzosaz, which instead used their native language of Uzosa.
What Vera had said, killed the table's momentum entirely. They hadn't even noticed the two languages on the one menu. As they thought in silence, the waiter came back and placed down the menus. They quickly noticed the confusion amongst the table.
"Is everything alright?" The waiter asked nervously.
"What's up wi-" Faust began to ask, but Leo cut him off.
"Everything's fine." He grabbed one of the menus and shook his head towards Faust. He subtly nodded back. Leo really didn't want to eat here anymore. Bishop's words started eating away at his conscious.
Even with the translated menus in their hands, the group was still largely confused. Most of this food wasn't back where they used to live. It was instead obscure seafood from the surrounding wildlife. So, they all ordered stuff based off the descriptions. The waiter wrote their orders down with a nod and took their menus before quickly heading to the kitchen.
Then, everyone realized they hadn't even touched their drinks. They threw the strange menu to the back of their minds to enjoy the rest of the evening, but Leo couldn't help but think about what Bishop had told him.
With a sigh, Leo brought the water to his lips to take a sip. But the glass stopped right in front of his mouth.
'The smell. It prevails on this island, growing worse by the day.' Bishop's words briefly rang out in Leo's head.
The water smelt ever so slightly rancid. He brought the water closer to his nose and he took in a breath to make sure he wasn't delusional. But the result was the same, the water definitely had a strange smell.
"Does anybody else's drink smell?" Leo asked the table. They all looked at him for a moment before the rest of Doe squad quietly smelled their drinks. After doing so, they just shrugged. Their drinks smelt perfectly normal.
Leo put his water on the table without taking a sip and looked over at Hugo who also had water, "Maybe it's just the water, Vera, do you mind?" He motioned towards Hugo's water.
She paused for a moment before she lifted Hugo's water to her nose. "Doesn't smell to me…"
She took a slight sip, "Tastes fine too."
Leo heart skipped a beat when she drank the water. Something was definitely happening, he wasn't sure what, but in that moment, Leo chose to trust Bishop.
"Don't drink anymore." He said to the table with a serious tone. Andrew, Faust, and Luke instantly obeyed seeing how serious he was. They placed their drinks on the table and slid them away. Vera however was conflicted, but seeing the three trust Leo's judgement, she did so too.
The table descended to silence. The surrounding people easily drowned any of the small noise the six could be making. They waited patiently with their food and Leo had a very serious expression across his face, which quickly spread to the others.
Eventually the waiter came out with the food and noticed their attitude. He was hesitant to broach the subject, so instead he just let it be. He was relatively silent as he grabbed the food and placed it on the table.
With each plate placed on the table, the group grew more and more disturbed.
The first dish was placed in front of Leo. It was a fish with a few large gashes across it, splitting it open. Around the main fish was five smaller fish of various types, the fish looked a bit strange, they were definitely a type of fish Leo had never seen before and he knew a lot about animals.
The first of these smaller fish was slimy, the second a nice-looking flower delicately placed on top, the third's mouth was sealed shut, so forth and so on.
Leo picked up his silverware and began poking and stabbing the fish, separating them. He had no interest in eating the food since before the waiter even stepped out. Now, there was zero chances that Leo would be putting any of the fish in his mouth.
Especially since when he cut open one of the surrounding fish, strange eggs spilled out of them. He looked at the weird eggs and noticed they were permeated with a soft glow. Leo leaned back with a slightly disgusted face.
The second dish was handed over to Faust and it was a slimy fish, much like one of the one's around Leo's main fish. Surrounding it, was the same eggs that had spilt out of one of Leo's surrounding fish. Faust's fish, however, was much larger than the small ones around Leo's plate, meaning Faust's fish was all grown up. Strangely, his fish didn't have any eyes, at least not from what Faust could see. Much like Leo, Faust had no intention to eat the dish, instead the disgust on his face was clear for everyone to see.
The second plate was placed on the table in front of Andrew. It was a relatively normal looking fish, but it was a bit small. Andrew poked it a bit and stared at it. He noticed it was stuffed to the brim with a strange flower.
"It's ghost rose." Leo said as he looked over at Andrew's plate.
"What's that?" Andrew asked with an apprehensive expression.
"It's a rare rose that takes a long time to bloom. It's called ghost rose because it grows at a startling speed if grown with a dead creature as fertilizer."
"Oh…" Andrew mumbled as he put his eating utensils down with no intention of picking them back up.
Andrew gave the fish one last glance and noticed that the fish was stuffed with the ghost rose. Instead, the rose seemed to be growing out of it.
Then, Luke received his dish. After seeing the previous three fish, Luke already decided not to eat. He leaned forward and inspected it out of a morbid curiosity, however. He could see something along the fish's shut mouth, but he couldn't quite make it out. He took his utensils out of his napkin and brought the fish closer to his eyes with them.
He poked at it slightly with his knife until he finally could make it out.
"String?" He muttered.
He grabbed a napkin and pulled at it and string started coming from the fish's mouth. Not long after, the mouth of the fish opened. It had been sewn shut for some reason. With an appalled face, he looked inside the fish to see the same slimy eggs from Faust's fish.
"Nope." He threw his silverware down and the waiter placed Vera's plate down.
It was a fish absolutely covered in freshly cut onions. She visibly recoiled when the smell hit her. She looked down at her plate to see that mixed with the onions were again, the same eggs as before. As some tears began lightly falling from her face due to the onions, she grabbed Hugo and lifted him up.
She left the table, and the others did too, with the exception of Leo.
"Wait! Is something the matter?" The waiter asked as he saw everyone stand up after looking at the fish. "Is there a problem with the food?"
"We're not eating any of that." Vera said as she walked away with everyone, except for Leo.
"Could I get you all something else?" The waiter asked as the group got further to the exit.
"No thank you." They all said in some form or fashion as they got to the door.
"Wait, where's Mathias?" Andrew said and he looked around, only to see Leo still sitting in his seat, staring at the various plates.
Leo slowly stood up from his seat and turned towards the party. He took one final glance at his plate before making his way towards the exit. As the party exited the building, Leo was thinking about the fish on the table.
Each of the fish that were handed out matched the five small fish surrounding his plate. There was a single plate not handed out however, as it still was placed on the waiter's tray. It was Hugo's plate.
But if it matched the pattern, Leo didn't even need to see Hugo's plate to see whatever the fish was. It was already replicated on his own plate.
It was the most ordinary fish out of everyone's dish. It was even the only fish that Leo recognized, but despite being the most ordinary at the table, it was still strangely rare. The fish however, looked normal.
How it was served was also incredibly simple.
It was completely raw, and it had its head chopped off.