tasty

I picked up the habit of carrying around an easily accessible pouch of red pepper from an old friend who started a lot of fights and told me she found it a lot easier to fight when the opponent is blind and in pain. I figured it could help me out of the occasional scrape, but these days, I mostly keep it around because it's tasty. There's a lot of empty road out there and after a while having a bit of spice to your meals helps make them more tolerable. My friend was the one who did the cooking back before we went our separate ways, so I guess it's nostalgic in a way. I'm not as good as she was but it still brings back memories when I cook something up in the evenings.

I met a merchant on the road the other day and she gave me a look when I asked if she had any red pepper. "It's funny," she said. "Just yesterday I ran into someone else asking for pepper. Don't usually see travelers looking for it."

"This traveler. Skinny, scruffy, talks a lot?"

"That's the one."

"She was heading north on the road here?"

She nodded. "You could probably catch up if you hurry."

I paid and hit the road again. Prior to this little exchange I was just wandering, but now . . . well, I was just saying how I missed my friend's cooking. Maybe I can catch up to her on the road. No luck so far, but I have a good feeling.