Dragon Riders

Chapter 10

Lucas was right. The food was like charcoal, literally. It looked as if the cook had just stuck it outside and told the Dragons to go at it. I took one look at it crinkled my nose, and when Lucas and I sat down next to Stacy and Grace-Ann, I noticed that Stacy was looking at her food in a similar manner. However, Lucas and Stacy were scarfing it down like it was chocolate cake and they hadn't eaten in three days.

            Glancing at their plate I looked at mine and noted that they did in fact have the same food. Looking back up at Stacy I noted that she had started pocking her food with her fork, as if she expected it to do something other than sit there, and decided that I needed to eat something. Picking up my own fork I cut off a chunk of whatever burnt husk I was being served and quickly stuffed it into my mouth before I could change my mind about it.

            I started gagging a second later.

            Reaching for the cup of water that had been thunked onto my tray with such violence that half of the water had splashed out, I quickly downed the other half, swallowing the burnt poison that I had made the mistake of eating. Coughing and hacking I felt Stacy hammering on my back as half of the cafeteria turned to look at me.

            After I had finished my little dying situation I whipped off my tearing eyes and peered around to see that most of the cafeteria had gone back to eating, mostly filled with laughter.

            "That happens to the best of us." Grace-Ann's voice sounded from beside me as she slid a cup of water across the table to me. "The idea is to cut it into small pieces so that you can swallow it straight. Small sips of water so you take it like some medicine." She told me as she motioned to her plate, where pieces of questionably edible charcoal were cut into minuscule pieces.

            Coughing a couple of times more I nodded my head and started cutting my charcoal, seing Stacy out of the corner of my eye doing the same. "So what is this?" I asked, my voice a little hoarse from trying to expel my lung. "Or what is it supposed to be?"

            Lucas chuckled, his eyes starting to regain some of the humor they held before whatever had happened in the hallway, which I was still trying to figure out. "It's a fish of some kind. The idea is that if we eat like we're prisoners while at school we wont mind eating like prisoners if we're actually prisoners." Lucas said with a grin as he stuffed a burnt piece of fish into his mouth and quickly followed it with a sip of water.

            Nodding at him and completely trying to get the idea of being prisoner, ever, out of my head as I quickly followed Grace-Ann's directions on how to eat eh food I grinned when I didn't actually want to rip my tongue of my mouth, as it was the poor appendage would never be the same again.

            Grace-Ann and Lucas started discussing, I don't know something in code, leaving Stacy and I to discuss random things.

            "So, have you found a name for your dragon?" I asked as I popped another piece of burnt fish into my mouth and took a sip of water.

            Stacy shook her head as worry lines bent her forehead. "No, she's being picky, but I mean she wants her name to mean something, like Opher's." She told me as her fork chased around a piece of fish.

            I grinned and shoved her with my shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find the perfect name." I told her as I felt the table sake and shift under me. When I glanced up it was to find that two more men had joined us, one on the left of Lucas and the other on the right of Grace-Ann.

            The one on the right of Grace-Ann was a short olive skinned man with deep brown eyes set in a round open face. His head was topped by a buzz cut of black hair and his lips were quick to twist into a smile. "Hey! I'm Dennis, I see you've learned how to eat the poison this place tries to pass off as food." He noted as he glanced down at my mostly empty plate.