Amar woke up the next day, frustrated. After yesterday's events at the club, he thought that he was definitely going to dream and meet the Avlev person in Gourmet's Paradise. In fact, he was eager to dream and get some answers from Avlev.
But as fate had it, he slept like a log without a single dream. After giving it some thought, Amar texted to Gabriel asking if his nightmares had stopped or not.
Instead of a message Amar got an call from Gabriel. Picking up the call, he heard Gabriel's tired and shaky voice as he explained that not only did his nightmares didn't stop instead, they got worse, becoming more vivid and detailed, before he went on to describe them. One specific line he said was stuck in Amar's mind though, "If I could only hear the creature's growls and shadows before, now I can feel the creature staring back at me, ready to leap out of the river eat me whole!"
River?
Bewildered and confused, Amar texted Elijah, Ruth, Levi and Mariam asking if they were ok.
And the replies he got made him even more confused, Elijah, Ruth and Levi were having the same nightmares as Gabriel while Mariam said she was ok and didn't dream of anything.
Feeling confused, Amar thought, 'After using my blood in the recipe, I thought that I would be the one getting the nightmares, but I am fine and so is Mariam, while the rest are not. Why? Is there something that only I and Mariam did? And why did Gabriel specifically say river?'
If he alone was not getting the nightmares then Amar would say that using his blood prevented the nightmares, or maybe it was because he talked with Avlev in the mysterious 'Gourmet's Paradise', but with Mariam in the picture couldn't say that anymore.
Shaking his head, Amar stopped his thoughts and decided to check the market, on the way to his college. Getting out of the bus which he took, Amar saw a different type of fuss than he usually did in the Westport's market.
A angry crowd of shopkeepers with fishes in their hand were arguing with a man in orange waterproof jacket, who was arguing and shouting back on them.
Amar didn't want to go near that mob but noticing Nicole in it, Amar decide otherwise and called her out, "Hey! Nicole! What's going on?"
Hearing her name, Nicole snapped her head to the right, finding Amar, "Huh? Amar? What's up?"
"That's what I am asking! What is going on?", Amar replied back, pointing to the fish in Nicole's hand and then at the crowd.
"This?", Nicole said before she went ahead and explained the situation. "There has been a real shortage of seafood in the market for the last few days, but yesterday the fish supplier said that the problem was solved, and he will supply seafood to every shopkeeper tomorrow. But as you can see, he brought stale ice stored fish to us today.", Nicole sighed, while showing Aman the gills of the fish, which were brown and sticky instead of red. "That's why the crowd is angry."
"So, there are no fishes today too?", Aman tentatively asked to which Nicole just shrugged, "No, no fishes."
After that conversation, Amar went straight to the college, and even got a little late due to his detour. During the whole day, Amar kept thinking about the strange things happening to the him and the whole group, before he finally arranged a recipe club meeting.
He had decided to explain his strange dreams and the Gourmet's Paradise to his friends.
***
Meanwhile, in the Alhaidek Empire, Master Pig-Me-Out was got up with a startle, "
"WHAT!? Are you sure!?", he asked the informant who delivered the news.
The sweating informant quickly gave the Master a deep bow as he said, "Yes Master! It has been confirmed!"
"By the Dao... I have to inform the Terrace and that punk Avanden about it!", Master Pig-Me-Out said, as he rushed towards the platform of Limbo.
***
For Avanden Erhryst it was a bad day. He couldn't contact Master Shore who had gone to meet with his friends and was yet to return, nor could he find the book with ritual recipe to attract the Great Beast.
It was then that Old Freim announced, "Master, Elder Mithal from terrace along with Master Pig-Me-Not have come to visit you. They want to talk to you about an urgent matter."
'Pig-Me-Not and Elder Mithal? It must about the hunt. But what urgent matter would need them to come unannounced?', Avanden thought, surprised.
"Prepare to serve the guests while I welcome them in.", Avanden said, as he went towards the entrance of his mansion.
A few moments later, Avanden sat across Master Pig-Me-Not and Elder Mithal from the Savorian Terrace, and directly asked, "Did something happen?"
"Yes, and it's quite a problem.", Elder Mithal said without beating around the bush. "The Great Beast, it has been trying to escape into the mortal realm and it has partially succeeded."
"What!?" Avanden exclaimed, never expecting this big of a surprise before he calmed down and asked, "But how?"
"Through the use of mist of Limbo. Though, there isn't enough mist for the Beast to completely travel through, but just it's aura can create several repercussions in the mortal world.", Master Pig-Me-Not explained.
Hearing the situation Avanden nodded, and asked, "But where is the mist of Limbo coming from? The River of Wailings shouldn't have any source of Obsidian Oblivion."
"That we are uncertain, but it seems some kind of spell.", Elder Mithal answered.
'Some kind of spell? The Great Beast attraction ritual recipe!?', Avanden quickly concluded, but kept a poker face while Elder Mithal told him some finer details of the incident, and when he had calmed down enough Avanden stopped the Elder and asked, "So, the Savorian Terrace wants me to prepone the hunting of the beast, I presume?"
"Yes. We want Master Avanden to hunt the beast as soon as all the equipment is delivered."
"That is fine with me, but do we have that kind of time?", Avanden inquired, not expecting leisure in this urgent situation.
"That will be fine, lad.", Master Pig-Me-Not said, "We will minimize the consequences of the Great Beast's aura. Rather than that, are you confident about hunting the Great Beast with no preparation time. You should ask Master Shore for help if you can't."
"I am confident, but I will inform Master for sake of good order.", Avanden said, before he discussed the finer details of the plan with the two.
Half an hour and a lot of planning later, the guests left Avanden's mansion, finally giving him the chance to relax.
It wasn't easy to hide the fact that the spell could be his ritual recipe from an Elder and a Master. But he succeeded nonetheless. Tired, Avanden sighed and asked Old Freim to keep trying to contact Master Shore. Thinking that maybe his master knew the reason behind this phenomenon, while he himself went on to prepare for the hunt.