Chapter 3 - Part One

“If you’re hungry I do make a mean apple soup.”
Ash had to rub her eyes and blink several times before she could take in what she was staring at.
“What?” Asked the tiny dragon and he spun around, inspecting himself. “Do I have something in my teeth?”
“Am I dreaming or is that baby dragon actually talking to us?” Ash heard Variety say as she came up behind her.
Ash was about to agree when the little dragon suddenly exclaimed, “Hey! I’m not a baby, I’m a fully grown Karigeta Dragon, the oldest of my kind,” he rambled reminding Ash of a character in a show she used to watch as a kid. “And may I say it is very rude to mention my, uh, lack of height, you know you don't look too perfect yourself, Princess.”
Ash and Vairety swapped a look of both amazement and wonder.
“Just tell me this—am I dreaming?” Ash asked her cousin.
“I don't know, pinch yourself,” Vairety replied and they both grabbed onto their arms and let out a little ‘ow’ since the pinching actually hurt.
“You guys are weird,” the dragon said, studying them closely and then he jumped up and grinned. “Fortunately I like weird—I’m Xi, if you’re hungry I have some food, a three thousand year old storage shack to be correct.”
Vairety’s stomach rumbled in response and the dragon—Xi—seemed to take that as a well honoured response and raced down the path shouting, “Follow me!” As he ran.
“Do you think—” Ash started but Vairety quickly cut her off.
“It’s food, Ash, I don't care if I’m hallucinating—food,” and with that she took off down the road.
“No more running!” Ash shouted and gave a little jog. She felt so tired, her legs were like jelly and her head was throbbing but as she moved, more and more down the path the smell of apple pie and fresh bread wafted down to her, (Ash has always prided on her good sense of smell) and she felt a little kick of energy and quickly chased after her cousin.
She almost ran into Vairety who was standing in front of a little cottage where Xi was rattling off information about himself. Something like ‘wipe your feet before you enter’ but Ash didn’t care.
“We can make introductions later, unless you want a dead body to move,” she snapped at him not even caring that she should be polite to someone who was about to give her the elixir of life—food.
Xi opened his mouth and then closed it again and disappeared into the cottage. Once he was gone, Ash quickly raced forward and realised that the door was made ‘tiny dragon size’ and she had to crawl like a dog, hating every moment of it.
“Ta-da! My famous apple crumble, sure to knock your socks off,” Xi said and placed a hot tray onto the table with his teeth. Everything in the cottage was miniature size, the table was smaller than the ones they had in kindergarten and the ceiling hung so low Ash had to crawl to get to anywhere.
“Did you wipe your feet?” Xi asked, eyeing Ash and Vairety, who was also on her hands and knees.
“Yes,” Vairety replied.
After pausing for a moment he grinned and shouted, “Dig in!”
Ash managed to eat the Apple Pie in one bite (because it was the size of a sausage roll) and finished her apple juice in one gulp. After that, Xi made apple soup, apple omelette, apple cake, and apple salad and apple ice cream for desert. By the time they had finished eating Ash was still hungry.
“Are apples the only thing you have?” Ash asked. Ash was not a fan of apples.
Xi paused, considering for a moment, and then said, “I have bread,” and went and collected them some.
Ash eagerly took a bite and then realised that it was apple-flavoured bread and tried not to glare at his smug face as he said, “More apple juice?”
“Yes please,” Vairety, replied brightly. Vairety was a fan of apples.
Xi collected the bottle and then sat down across from them. “So where are you headed?” He asked, “It’s not everyday that I see humans, especially young humans venturing around outside the Kingdom—not since Martin and Brock’s reign of terror, not.”
“Who’s Martin and Brock?” Ash and Vairety asked in union.
Xi’s eyes grew wide and he looked at them both as if they might have had too much apple juice. “You don't know? Where have you been? Under a rock,” and then he paused to consider wether or not that was possible.
The two cousins exchanged a look of worry. They had no idea how they were going to tell the little dragon where they were from.
“Look,” Vairety said, finally, because she could control her temper. “We’re not from here.”
“Where then?” Xi’s eyes suddenly grew wide. “Are you working for the Dark Brothers?”
“No!” They both exclaimed. “We’re not working for anyone, alright, we’re from Earth,” Ash snapped.
“Earth? Where’s that—the mountains?”
Ash frowned. “No, it’s a planet—a human planet, we accidently sent ourselves here when we found this necklace thing,” she glanced at Vairety who was nodding as she nibbled on an apple chip. “See, we were being pursued by a group of men and when he picked up this necklace we suddenly found ourselves here . . . in a lake.”
“The Lake,” Xi said, looking amused and then quickly straightened up under Ash’s deadly glare. “Well,” he said drawing out the word. “There’s only one person who can determine wether or not you’re liars, spies of the Dark Brothers, and for that proof we’ll have to go to the Kingdom.”
“Kingdom?” Vairety repeated.
“Yep, that’s over the mountains, into dangerous terrain. We’ll have to watch out for the Dark Brothers, and not the mention the trolls and dragons.”
Ash nearly chocked on her chip.