The pieces of paper that chef Tuguo slipped into the hands of the four hungry customers were filled with captivating images. Each dish was described in two or three brief sentences and accompanied by a hand-drawn painting showing an artistic rendition of the dish. The children stared at the artworks, unsure whether what they were looking at was even actual food or just a surrealistic combination of colors slapped onto a realistic image of a plate.

"I'd like some omelet Ario and the Atiku duck, except with rice instead of potatoes, please. And medium spicy, if possible," Glavas ordered after briefly scanning the menu.

"An excellent choice. I see you are quite knowledgeable about my specialties."

"Not exactly. Never had them in my life. I just heard a lot about your traditional food and have been itching to try it ever since." The hunter grinned at the chef.

"Ah, I see. Have you traveled from afar?" The chef initiated a pleasant conversation and waved his arms around. The wind as if suddenly burst into a room without a single opening. It blew through the drake's feathers and eventually died down into a mere pleasant breeze.

As the hunter and the chef talked, the ingredients started to float around them. The eggs cracked, but the insides didn't spill, as if gravity simply made an exception for them. With a few careful gestures, the dragon commanded the food to begin preparing itself. The yolks started mixing themselves with the whites in a breathtaking dance. Invisible claws precisely diced the onions into tiny bits, which then flew high to the ceiling and spread out like the stars in a night's sky. Herbs began shaking violently in the kitchen, turning into powder, and then evenly spreading just a few centimeters beneath the layer of the floating onion. The stars now had a hint of green to them.

When the children saw that, they didn't want to wait one moment longer. Each of them picked a meal that looked the most mysterious to them and then they eagerly awaited what enticing preparation procedure would the dragon perform. The chef smiled as he accepted the orders and waved his arms to put new ingredients to work. It was a glorious sight to behold. The man's hands looked as if he was directing a concert, but his fingers danced through the air like they were playing an invisible piano. Fresh meat started to dance around a bright ball of fire, flipping and turning to ensure it was well-done from all sides. Sauces were forming wild nebulas all around the tiny room, hanging onto several tiny magical stars, which kept the ingredients cooking or just maintained their heat.

"Wow, this is amazing! This guy's like a real wizard!" Alma gasped and turned to Glavas to see his reaction. The old elf, however, did not seem to share her enthusiasm. His little notebook was open on a new blank page, his fingers were nervously tapping against the table, and his eyes were staring unblinkingly at the omelet being prepared in the background.

"You okay, Glavas?" the girl asked.

"He's messing up the eggs," the elf mumbled.

"Come on, have some fun. You're such a killjoy."

"Look at it, he just dumped like twice as much salt into it."

"Maybe he's just preparing it differently than you would."

"But it's supposed to be traditional. You can't have a tradition with... wait, where are those diced Plisk leaves going?"

"I don't know. There's so much happening all around us," the girl's eyes darted around the room and her smile appeared completely automatically once she saw another batch of ingredients flow past her.

"It's not an ingredient for yours nor Surdi's dish. And it's coming too close to my eggs."

"Just take it easy..." Alma gently patted him on the back.

"It's coming... don't put it in. It doesn't belong there. It's too strong for the omelet," he kept on mumbling until the diced leaves finally touched the surface of the eggs.

"Nope! Nope! Not doing this. Sorry, but you're doing it wrong. Excuse me!" Glavas shouted as started climbing over the counter and onto the chef's side. The drake had to quickly move out of the way, which had quite disastrous results.

Tuguo's focus was gone. He had to save the meals before it was too late. The stew brewing in the far corner of the room was beyond saving and fell to the floor first, splashing over half the room. The other sauces quickly slithered into the nearest pots and pans the chef could find. The gorgeous onion floating by the ceiling could no longer afford to disobey the essential laws of physics and started falling, right onto the children's heads. In the meantime, Glavas made it over the table. He gently scooped the eggs into a big bowl and started picking the herbal leaves out of them. Only once everything was either saved or all over the floor did Tuguo turn to this intruder. His gaze was showing just how many veins there could be in an eyeball.

"What. The. FUCK!" he shouted at the hunter. "Have you lost your fucking mind?! Look what you've done! It's everywhere now!" He gestured across the room covered in a stew, onion, mushrooms, and loads of other things.

"Look, I didn't want to do this, but you were about to perform a culinary murder!" Glavas explained.

"What?" Tuguo asked in a silent voice and veins on his forehead were so visible they pushed away his feathers.

"Just... listen. You put too much salt into this. Even now..." he dipped his finger into the eggs and licked the contents. "Yup! Oversalted. I knew it! And these herbs? They have a bloody minty taste! You're adding mint into a freakin' omelet? It's not a dessert!"

The chef needed a moment to collect his thoughts before speaking again: "I studied the culinary arts for over 7 years..." he practically whispered.

"Well, that proves nothing. I studied magic for three and they kicked me out anyway. Points to you for sticking there for so long, but I don't exactly see any diplomas hanging around here proving you'd know what you're doing. Because this... This is just an atrocity, man."

The drake started at him for a few more seconds before taking a deep breath.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Surdi shouted with the best intonation he could as the doors to the establishment flew shut behind them. "They took all the money and threw us out! What will we eat now?!"

"Calm, down. Stop shouting," Glavas replied.

"Oh, is there a problem?! Am I too loud?!?! Sorry!!! I can't tell because I'm deaf!!!"

Glavas frowned and physically held the dragon's mouth shut. "You know far too well how loud you are, don't play the disabled card on me!"

"He's right though. We have no money for lunch or dinner now and we are all hungry. What will we eat? Do you even have a plan? Or did you just ruin the expensive food for nothing?" Alma turned her wrath to him as well.

"Calm down, okay? Both of you! You're making a scene and people are watching."

[Oh, now you care about making a scene?] Surdi signed, having given up on prying Glavas' hand off his mouth.

"Look, we can make more money. All we have to do is just find some simple job and get it done. Easy."

"Yeah? And where do you want to find a customer? The thing you did this morning was the only assignment for a hunter this city had. Are you just gonna wait for someone to need you?"

"You just had to ask, didn't you?" Surdi growled at Alma a couple of minutes later. His hands were too busy to sign. He was holding a large sheet of cardboard and showing it to any passerby. The text on the sign said: "Hunter for hire, will work for food." Alma was standing beside the dragon, handling a similar poster. Meanwhile, Glavas was scouting the nearby streets. Should any guards or officials be approaching, they'd have to either hide the signs or very quickly get out of there.

"Well, it's been a while since we begged for something. I guess it's kinda nice that some things don't change in life."

"I thought they would with Glavas."

"Well, he's not too different from us. A weirdo with no proper home, wandering the world, getting money wherever he can."

"Yeah, exactly, a weirdo. We were already two weirdos. We didn't need a third."

"Excuse me!" an older man called out to them from the other side of the street. "Are those signs real?"

"No, they're just in your mind," the young girl snapped at him.

"I meant... you two kids are hunters?"

"No, we're not. We just help one out. GLAVAS!" Alma shouted to the sky.

The man nervously looked around, unsure which of the slightly freaked out onlookers could be the one bearing that name, until finally, a short elf dressed in dirty and tattered black clothes appeared from one of the alleys.

"You called me?"

"Yeah, this man might have a job for you," Alma told him the news.

"Nice! That's wonderful! Glavas! More than just your traditional hunter. I can remove any bothersome creatures from your vicinity. If they are willing to move on their own, you get 50% off," the hunter introduced himself with a grandiose bow, even taking off his hat.

"Ah, you look much more like a hunter. You see, dear sir, I have a bit of a problem with a Scalder."

"A Scalder? Another one?"

"No, the same one. I know that somebody managed to chase it back into the lake, but it came back and now it is sucking the water out of my fields. The crops are completely drying out."

"The same one? How can you be so sure?"

"Well, it has the same red coloring. And can you imagine two Scalders living in one lake?"

"Hmm... Yeah, that is unlikely. They are loners who self-reproduce. Therefore, a pair would only be a parent and a child. Did it look smaller perhaps?"

"No. I'd say they looked about the same."

"I see," Glavas scratched his chin. "Unlikely that a parent would keep an adult child so close to them. And there are no other larger bodies of water anywhere nearby. Well, let's just assume it's the same one. We can resolve why it came back later. Where is it now?"

"Gone. But it will come back. There is still much water in those fields."

"Yes, I am sure of that. Well, take us to the fields then, please. We can discuss strategies once we get there. Oh, and in the meantime, why don't we talk about my reward?"

The farms were just outside the city, barely twenty minutes of walking. However, even in such a short time did Glavas manage to negotiate a price that would guarantee them at least a solid dinner and a night spent in a tavern that wouldn't be falling apart. The rhythmic wailing of their stomachs helped greatly in persuading the man to agree to the hunter's demands.

"Huh, would you look at that, it's really gone," Glavas proclaimed once they finally reached the field.

[Is that all your hunter's wisdom?]

Glavas merely growled as a response to the sarcastic remark and headed deeper into the field.

[Huh? What did you say?] "Hey! I couldn't make that one out!" the dragon shouted but was completely ignored.

"Hmm... well, it might be gone now. We will have to set up a trap for it," the hunter mumbled and turned to his apprentices. "Alright, you're going to help me out this time.

"H-Help you out? You mean with the trap, right? Not with the actual creature?"

"Oh, come on. It's just a Scalder. No sharp teeth or tusks. No magic or supernatural abilities. Just many tentacles. That's easy!"

[No no no, we are not hunting it!]

"I don't like the tone of your... hands. Come on, you've been traveling with me for a while. You can definitely help out a bit. Plus, I know you guys can fight. I saw what you did to that warehouse, Surdi."

"We... we'd very much like to just sit it out if that's okay. We usually fight only to survive. This is..."

[Scary.]

Glavas sighed. He noticed how Alma was avoiding making eye contact. Surely, Surdi would do so too, if he didn't need his eyes to understand words.

"That's alright. Every hunter is scared at the first job. I was too. I don't want to force you. If you are scared, you can just help me set up the trap and then hide at the edge of the farms. But trust me when I tell you this: You two would definitely be ready for this."