A Place To Bloom

Taste

Breakfast was the usual slop.

The bowl of lumpy, gray-brown goop was paired with some smooth, plump, bright red berries that exploded with sweet, sticky juice as you pressed into them. When the lady came around with the coffee urn, I dug through my coin purse even though I knew it was empty.

Rock nodded in my direction and gave her a kren for me. That was two; I had to make it up to him.

Chirpy, perched on Geraln's shoulder, tilted her head down and pointed her nose at his bowl. Geraln picked up a berry and offered it to her. She took it and clamped down, only for it to burst and spray droplets of juice everywhere, including my face. Jame got some, too, and winced at having to wipe his face off. Geraln laughed and wiped his arm.

Geraln offered Chirpy another berry, but cupped his hands around her so it wouldn't go everywhere this time. Chirpy then craned her neck up high above his hands before clamping down and splattering everyone a second time.

Jame twisted his face and sneered, "seriously?"

Chirpy let out a joyous string of clicks and pointed down for another berry.

Geraln glared at her, "you did that on purpose."

At that, Rock slid over with a berry from his own plate and with a huge grin held it close to her. Chirpy held still as he squeezed down, splattering juice all over her tiny lizard face and all over Geraln. "You've got to be kidding me!"

She let out another string of clicks and chirped, then looked excitedly down at the berries while Rock chuckled heartily and grabbed another one.

Jame got up. "I'm leaving."

Geraln, too, shook his head with an exasperated sigh, set her on the table, and most of us stepped away. Chirpy grabbed another berry and scampered over to Rock who closed his eyes with a smile to receive the juice all over his face.

"There he is!" Jame looked towards the archway that wasn't filled with spider webs.

Borel stood with a native woman I didn't recognize, wrapped up in each other's arms. He took a lower step, and she still needed to stand on her toes to kiss him on the lips. He wore a black silk loincloth with a long flap at the front and back that was decorated in silver embroidery, and this woman's dark-green hands covered every slice of his muscled back. After a moment he stepped up and headed inside, only for her to swat his bum and wave goodbye with a seductive grin. Borel turned towards us with a big smile across his face.

Jame looked up at him. "Is that that dancer from last night?"

Borel grinned. Before he could answer, a new band of men was escorted into the mess by Taganu, the same man who knew the names of every alligator who lived in the moat. He gestured towards the breakfast line and faced them, "as soon as you're finished, come back out to the training grounds. Ahmi has some friends she'd like to introduce you to."

That gave me a good chuckle. I looked around and half our unit smirked with me. Geraln looked at the new men and exclaimed, "Racius?"

A tall, lanky Herali with his head low perked up and looked over at us with his eyes wide. "Gods!"

The same man tapped the shoulder of another who'd had his back turned. Oren's meaty face lit up when he saw us. "Holy fucking shit, man!"

The two clambered over to where we stood. Racius spoke first. "When did you miscreants get here?"

Oren added, "fucking hell, man, I wasn't sure about this place for all them horror stories, but now that I see you twats, we're definitely fucked!"