What's for Breakfast?

It was early in the morning, when the party awakened from their sleep. They had set up camp along the river, so there was plenty of water to drink and stock up on.

Things were going rather slow. They weren't packed up yet, it would be unlikely that they were going to be hitting the road soon.

Blaze and Maple were talking and snacking on the wild berries that the party had found while walking in the woods the night before. While Francium and Sophie practiced their spellcasting with Flare and Marina watching. Ansel was in the water, hunting for smaller fish that the party could eat while on the road. He was rather good at it, being part fish himself.

Qu stood there, watching everyone, with a mental shadow hovering over his face.

He felt so irritated. It was as if nobody cared that he was suffering, they just went on with what they were doing without a care in the world.

Again, he heard it. The soft growl...

He was hungry.

Oh course, he was too quiet to ask for some berries, he wasn't even sure if he really liked berries. He would gladly eat fish, but in his current state of mind he would probably end up eating Ansel as well.

As a proud dragon, Qu had always been fond of the usual dragon delicacies; such as virgins. He could very easily kill off anyone in a seven-yard radius, however the only humans he could sense for miles were his own travel companions. He knew that things probably wouldn't go over too well if he decided to kill one of his party members.

And so he was forced to stand there, staring at everyone intensely. Since he'd left his hometown to join this quest, he began hating mornings. So very much.



Qu became so caught up in his thoughts, he didn't even notice Blaze getting up and walking over with a handful of berries from the sack.

"What's with you?" Blaze asked with good intentions, despite the rather rude way she chose to word her sentence.

He snapped back into reality.

"Wh... Where is the..." He blushed a little before taking a deep breath, which seemed to make all the difference. "Were there any... ranches on the map?"

He didn't think that she would, but somehow Blaze caught on right away.

She took a berry from her palm and held it up for him to see, "If you're hungry, you know there are..."

"I don't... really care for those." He felt the need to say, loud and clear.

"Suit yourself." She plopped it into her mouth, and continued snacking on them.

Was she trying to make him angry?

Qu decided to repeat himself, "Are there any ranches on your map?"

She quickly ate the rest of the berries and went to get her bag, "Wait a moment."

After bringing the map over, the two of them looked at it together.

To his surprise, there was a farm only about twenty minutes away from the next town over.

It was still nearly a full day of travel, but with the promise of delicious meat at the end of it all, it seemed well worth the wait.

"Let's go there."

"Sure, maybe we'll get some fresh milk to take with us, too."

Qu nodded.

Milk was fine. He never minded the taste of milk. But it wasn't milk he was after.

"Just don't kill any people."

Was she reading his mind, or were his intentions that obvious?

He glanced over to the river, watching the ever-growing pile of fish.

He could hear a "Isn't that a little excessive?" from Maple and thought to himself how he could devour that entire pile within seconds.

"With a mighty dragon like me, the rancher will hand over his complete lifestock without a second thought..." Qu sounded dazed as he said it, "but I suppose I'll let him keep any humans."

"Good!" Blaze gave him something resembling an anime thumbs up. "And on the way there, we can stop in the town and have some cake."

He smiled. Some good old tea and cake, washed down with sheep's blood, sounded just about right.

"Want to help pack up? We'll leave right after."

"...I'd be glad to, Milady."


And so they did just that.