Fork City: In a Brave new world

CHAPTER SEVEN| Or We Could Stay A Little Longer?

"Damn," Paul said. "This food is actually... not very bad."

     "See?" the king said.

    Paul was the last to finish his soup. We were still waiting for the drifts. The king had described them as tiny little critters that only showed up when it would rain. They were plentiful, and they were sweet when salted.

     "Deus ex machina for you, Paul," he went on.

     Again, I raised an eyebrow. He was trying too hard.

     "Okay, so after the drifts, I know you loved the mages, but we're all out of those; we'll serve you some bread with what I don't like, but hope you will- fish."

     Paul smiled. "Oh, I love fish!"

    What do you know?

     "Love it? We have lots of it," the king said. "Cage says he's addicted to it-"

     "I am," he said. And as he said it, a few people approached him, and he excused himself for a moment. We all watched as he left the eating place. It wasn't a restaurant, really, because, as the king had said, nobody paid for anything.

     "So, don't worry; he'll be back," he said. "Just worry about the fact that this food is overstaying its welcome on the cooking pot."

     And he shook his head slightly to compose himself.

     "Okay, so let's talk about earth," he went on. And we all exchanged looks. "How is earth like now? I always have a great respect for that planet. It has wonderful people, great environments; everything's great about it."

     Oh, you can say that again.

      "Um... It's fine; the people are fine," Aileen said. "They are just a little less good nowadays."

     "Less good?" the king asked. "Less good how?"

     "Well, it's a long story," Aileen continued. "And I'm still hungry, so maybe... later?"

     "No, no," the king insisted. "I'm listening. The food is not yet here."

       She smiled shyly. "Well, there are crimes such a murder..." And she looked curiously at us but we waved her off. And she went on, even though fairly now more aggressively. "... rape, bribery, theft, robbery... um, corruption... um, discrimination, unfairness... tracheary and all that stuff. All that is in our world today."

     Oh dear heavens. I swore that if there'd be an invasion, it would surely be her fault.

     He bent his head. "Wow, change is truly the constant to our universe."

      "Aren't you going to make a move?"

      I felt like standing up now. How stupid was she? What was she thinking?

      "I'm afraid I don't have that area of jurisdiction," he said, now looking up. And I relaxed slightly. "If your kings- or what are they called...?"

     "Presidents," I quickly responded.

     "Yeah, whatever they're called," he said, and I frowned, "they're the ones to fix those issues, not me."

     Well, at least, he'd not changed his mind. But I lowered my head and screwed them warningly at her, and at whoever else was going to make such a dumb act.

     "Vrshch!" the waiters said as they came in with the plates filled with drifts.

     The little brown insects with had a scent so sweet, that it made me start to feel hungry all over again.

      "Let the crunching begin." But before that, I'd had prayed first. I'd previously forgotten to pray for the soup and I quite felt guilty about it.

     "Okay, so this is amazing," Paul commented.

      I smiled. He was finally appreciating extraterrestrials.

     "This, to me, is Fork City at it's best. The food we eat here is spectacular," the king said.

      And Paul quickly asked, "Could we stay a little longer?"

     All eyes were on him now.

     And my face was twitched with annoyance. For heaven's sake, were these people were out of their minds?

     "Are you sure?" the king asked.

     And everyone else, apart from me, seemed to nod.

     "Well, there's enough room for everyone in the castle, isn't there?" he said, smiling broadly.

     And there was a whistle. But it wasn't from any of us at the table. We all turned to see Cage nod the king over. And the king's seat screeched as he rose up, and his shoes tapped across the floor as walked over. All majestically.

     Well, his strut was overwhelmingly confident. Maybe he was a little too happy.

      "Eh?" Aileen said with a suggestive smirk as she turned to Paul. "What do you think of them now?"

     "I think I should've been open a little more," he answered.

     But they came back a few seconds later.

     "A few moments please," the king said from afar, waving at us.

     We all nodded as we regrouped.

     "You guys have just made the huggest mistake of your lives," I snapped. "What if this turns out to not be a dream? What if it's real?"

     "Real?" Paul chuckled. "Are you listening to yourself? How can any of this be real?"

     "But we can't all be in the same dream, can we?" Kirsten came in.

    "Yeah, but-" Paul said, thinking. "If this isn't a dream, one of us will be chosen to become the hero, and slay a demon or something."

     "Oh my god," Aileen said. And we all rolled our eyes as we moved on.

     "I have a... a watch. It's been stuck to me," I stammered. My face was colder now... "And, I think it's the one I think brought us here."

     "Oh, so that's the thing you were worried about," Kirsten said. "I understand now... A dream can't be this long too so-"

    "Don't tell me, you think this is real, too, Kirsten?" Paul asked.

     "Now that you've said it, I also think it's real," Aileen came in.

     "Really?" I asked, now happier.

     "Of course not," Aileen said. "Where on earth would you hear aliens exist?"

     "And you tried to make the king your friend?" Kirsten asked.

     "Only to keep the dream light," Aileen said. "I don't need nightmares."

     Oh gosh!

    "So we'll leave after this?" I asked Kirsten, and she nodded. "Good."

     "You leave; I'll eat like a glutton," Paul said. "Fish." And his eyebrows played a little as he said the word.

     "I'm not a pig like you, Paul," Kirsten said.

     Oh no, hopefully, that boy wouldn't burst into an outrageous rage again.

     "Oh shut up," Paul he said, and much to my relief, as he looked at Aileen. "We'll stay, won't we?"

      Good thing he was in a jovial mood.

     "Yeah," Aileen answered and with a hesitant face.

      "And that's that," Paul said with a confident nod before he heard the waiters approach, bringing the longingly-awaited drifts.