“God, I'm hungry,” He had one hand against the wall as he limped through the streets. His bare feet slapped against the ground. When was the last time he had eaten? It must have been when he had been with his siblings during their fun “celebration”. His throat was painfully dry when he swallowed. After that fight he didn’t know if he felt better or worse. With great effort he was able to form an ice cube in his hand. He slipped the piece into his mouth. It wasn’t filling or anything but it took his mind off the pain. Somewhat.

I’m so hungry I can’t think. His stomach growled, begging him for anything. I bet that fire drake Sveno had would taste good. Maybe it’s fire abilities would cook it from the inside. A self-contained food unit. He would kill for something like that. It’s wings are long though. Nah, it would be just like chicken skin. It was his favourite part of fried chicken. The savoury crispy pieces that burst with flavour. He salivated. I can taste the tender flesh, the smell that would make anyone’s mouth water. It probably wouldn’t be very fatty but it would be just fine with some sauteed onions, some garlic and salt for flavour- nothing fancy. You really want to bring out the flavour of the meat. People often over-flavor meats, but that doesn’t make any sense. If the meat is such low quality it needs that many spices to mask its aromas no human should be putting that in their body.

He stumbled over a step, nearly tripping onto his face. “Where the hell am I even going,” he grumbled. He walked up the long stairs of the road. He could hear bustling folk ahead.

He stumbled forward walking through the small street. Noise and light emanated from ahead. He walked out. The noise hit him like a truck. People walked rapidly by him. There was the chirping and sounds of various animals. Street vendors lined the street. Reins snapped sharply.

“Move away kid,” He turned to find himself face to face with a dinosaur. It was a large lizard, it stood on hind legs and had short tiny t-rex arms. Its face reminded him of an iguana but it had the lifeless unblinking eyes of a fish.

“Hey, I said move it,” said the same voice. “You’re holding up the road.” A man behind the strange creature peered down from atop a wagon. Maxwell took quick steps backwards. “Sorry.”

His foot landed in something squishy. It had a warmth to it. A pungent smell attacked his nose. His face twisted in disgust. “Goddammit,” he said in a defeated tone. He’d stepped right into dung. It was gelatinous and viscous yet it had a thin layer of liquid that stuck to him. It squelched in between his toes. He scraped it off against the ground as best he could without puking. He’d underestimated how important shoes actually were. Dealing with the world like this with his bare feet was horrendous. He could feel the coldness of the ground more intensely, its unyielding hardness that made the balls of his feet fatigued and his soles scraped and bloody.

He latched a hand to his forehead. His vision swam. Black spots danced. Damn, I think I’m passing out, not again. As a side effect of most likely overusing his ice abilities his body would get fatigued and he would lose consciousness. Worse yet it seemed to be getting worse. They never happend with so little warning. I need to find a place to lay

…

His head throbbed.

“What is that?”

“This poor peasant boy.”

“Oh gods!”

“What do we do Annelynne?”

“My I didn’t know the outer city had poor homeless boys sleeping in the parks, we are truly fortunate. No, don't look at him, he will be depressed that we saw him and try to steal from us out of anger!” said the voice hurriedly.

“Come on ladies, let’s give a prayer to Luminus for this wretched child.”

The woman huddled around the dirty body of the young man clasping their hands together in unison.

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Who are you calling wretched? Maxwell’s eyes snapped open. He could smell a barbecue and there was a bubbling of voices. The ground was soft beneath him. He stared frozen at the group of finely dressed women. The one with a manicured finger prodding his cheek recoiled a fragile limb. She had the gracefulness of a swan but she looked as if a light breeze might knock her over. Her flowery orange hair was neatly put up in a bun. Their faces were heavy with makeup. One of them nibbled on some sort of treat. It was made of round dough-like balls. Its round surface was lightly browned and crispy and…. God I’m hungry. Despite the food she was eating her mouth never seemed to stop moving while taking those ridiculously small bites, still from the topmost one.

“By the gods, he’s alive!” they exclaimed in unison. Their mouths seemed to all move at the same time as if they had one singular brain. That annoyed him. Several of them had flamboyant umbrellas despite the bright sun. No, he’d heard of this. It was to prevent tanning from the powerful rays. Maxwell crawled to his feet. I must have passed out again.

“Oh Gods!” exclaimed another, a gloved hand at her forehead. Another simply muttered. “I mustn’t.” while peeking through her netted fingers.

“Eek! He’s getting closer.”

One of them fainted on the spot. “Annelynne!” they shouted. The constantly talking one fainted from the fact that she fainted, dropping her snack in her shock. The awake ones dragged the unconscious ones away hysterically. It was as if they were dragging their fellow wounded soldiers away from the frontline. Maxwell simply stared at them stunned. What are those weird pretentious women doing?

His eyes slid to the dough balls skewer on the ground. They were barely touched and the smell wafting from them was heavenly. Nah… He turned his back to it. It’s not as if I’m going to eat it… Well I might as well see what it’s about. He inspected it. He took a bite. His eyes widened. In the next 0.97 seconds he proceeded to delete it from existence. He wasn’t even embarrassed it was delicious. Dammit, I hate how good that was. WHen I think about what I would do to eat something like that again…He vowed to himself then and there. He wouldn’t do anything immoral just because of his circumstances. He wouldn’t steal just because he was hungry or hurt people. He would be no different from an animal then, no different from those that tried to hurt him.

He walked looking for the exit of the park. His head throbbed again. He rubbed his knuckles against his temple. WIthout looking he stepped into a pond. He extended his hands. Instead of sinking into the pool it froze. He banged his head into it. The ice cracked and he fell soaking into the water. He gasped for breath shooting to his feet. He didn’t know what was worse, the pain or the stares from the families on picnics watching from the grass.

A heavenly smell blessed his nose. He followed the scent to a giant tree. Its branches stretched out far above him. Vines wrapped around it with beautiful ripe grapes. They were far too high up for him to reach though. But that wasn’t what the scent was coming from. A small stall was at the base of it. The skewered dough balls were lined up in cups near the bearded man.

“What are those?” asked?” asked Maxwell pointing at the skewers. The man eyed him up and down. “Caldera, what else does it look like?”

“Caldera,” said Maxwell more for himself than to someone else. I knew the snack looked familiar. They’d talked about it while he had received schooling in the church. One of the instructors had said something.

“Luminus, right?”

“THat’s right, the local cuisine in the town where Luminus and the young emperor met hundreds of years ago. Everybody knows that” He looked around. “Who are you with, you’re part of the bloody rams aren’t you!”

“Rams?” Maxwell said, taken aback. He pointed at himself. “Me?”

The shopkeeper shook a fist at him. “Don’t take me for a fool, the Blood Rams, you look straight out of the slums.”

Gangs, Blood Rams? I have no idea what this man’s talking about. Here goes nothing.

“I just wondered if I can work for you?” asked Maxwell. “I’ll do whatever you want, please!” he said clasping his hands together.

“Is that some kind of gang sign, “he said at Maxwell’s hands. I’m just having my hands together? He separated them. Was that bad, is that not the sign of prayer? “I was just begging.”

“See you’re no good.”

“No, I mean begging for a job,” explained Maxwell. He did not do well to backtrack out of that situation.

“A job? You need a funeral, look at the sight of you, you’re half dead. And what the hell is that smell!” The man leaned forward grabbing Maxwell by the scruff of his neck. WIth his other he took one of the many thin sticks. Without anything on it it looked far sharper than usual. “Listen here, Kid.” He blew his rancid breath when he emphasised the word “kid”. “You’re bad for business, get out of here before I shove one of these skewers up your ass!”