"They're more serious and ponderous and, uh, stricter about morals than most other people tend to be. There's a lot of flexibility to morals sometimes, really, but less so with priests. More judgmental, to help teach."

"Is flexibility safe? It sounds like it could get a lot of people mad at each other."

"It's a balancing act. That's part of what priests are for. And, like, non-criminal consequences like everyone thinking you're a jerk. So we can be flexible enough not to be oppressive, but stiff enough to keep everyone more or less on the same page."

"I can sort of understand that. So what is there to eat around here? I'll pay half if you get us enough of whatever you're having to split."

"I usually just roast up some meat and mushrooms and fruit I gather while trekking. But there's rice and sugar and things and a cookpot if you want something slightly fancier."

"Mushrooms? How sure are you that Hylians and humans can eat the same food?"

"You guys seem really really similar for the most part. Maybe humans have an inexplicable allergy to curry spice, I wouldn't know."

"I don't think humans can eat mushrooms but meat and fruit and rice should all be edible. How much do you want for any meat you catch?"

"If you cook while I wander around some and then we split, I'll call it even for the ingredients. Cooking's not bad, but tedious."

"I don't know how to cook. Is it something you can explain easily?"

"...Well, not that quickly. Nevermind. I'll cook. Fifteen rupees?"

He considers how little haggling he's seen outside the Hari Empire and just hands over fifteen rupees. "Do you cook things a lot here because you can't just magically make them safe to eat otherwise?"

"Uh, cooked food tastes better too. But yes. Eating raw meat or fish or eggs is usually a bad idea, you can get sick and throw up for days and maybe die."

Being visibly horrified probably won't help anything at all but he forgot that they also don't have death mages for after they've eaten bad food.

"Do you have epidemics here? Because if Milliways lets me visit you again after the war I'll help you with public health if you want."

"Epidemics are a big problem sometimes but there are ways to handle it, mostly. Or there were before the Calamity, at least. Something about weaker versions of the disease?"

"I don't know anything about weaker versions of diseases, do you still have any books about how that works? What's the Calamity done to your public health system?"

"Haven't seen too much of it, but you still have herbalists and medics and things in the bigger towns, and a few wandering ones, and people pray to Hylia for good health. Everything central is gone, but people are coping fairly well."

Nod. Probably not useful to check that "fairly well" means the same thing to both of them.

"Well. I'm glad you're coping well. So you were going to show me what's so tasty about cooked food?"

"Oooh, yes. Grilled mushrooms and honey-glazed meat sound tasty?"

That sounds like the deadly poison will probably be served separately. And Hylian mushrooms might be different than the ones back home. Or cooking them could neutralize the poison. The chances of dying of this meal seem acceptably low. "Sure, sounds great."

Link starts cooking! It's only sort of complicated. Chopping and bashing and seasoning and heating and boiling. She hums cheerfully during the process, and explains parts of it.

And he didn't even pay extra for the lesson! He watches attentively. By the time the food is ready he could probably make a mediocre but edible version of this dish given all the same ingredients and the same tools and a lot of extra time.

The meat is great this way, much better than just eating it plain.

"I know, right? Good cooking is one of the greatest pleasures in life. And I'm kind of a mediocre cook as these things go."

"That makes sense, of course people evolve to like eating, if you don't eat you don't live to have children. It's like staying the right temperature and having sex. But even more so because somehow cooking makes things better."

"...People as animals always creeps me out a little bit. We have an animal nature even if the spark of mind separates us from it." Sigh. "Cooking makes stuff easier to eat. Easier to digest, probably?"