Quinn

"It is indeed a miracle," Les said. "But what should be done with the dragon's corpse?"

Klein said, "If it needs taken apart, only the One-Horn Demons could, and even then, it would require at least fifty of them veteran monsters' butchers to deal with this one dragon."

Les nodded. "The One-Horn Demons don't deal with humans, so any request for aid from them would be impossible."

"Even if it was possible, by the time they could get here from Cliasa, the corpse would have already rotted," Klein said.

"I didn't know we'd need the One-Horn Demons to deal with the dragon's corpse," I said.

In my head, Vicky's voice said, I can deal with the dragon. There's nothing to it. There are a lot of great raw materials from a dragon. The fire core in this one has a lot of mana, and the scales can be used for armor and weaponry.

"Really?" I said, grinning in delight. "Sounds like a treasure trove of goodies from just one dragon."

Just a baby dragon this one.

"Then an older one like Hellfire will be even greater?"

Of course.

Klein asked Uncle Colt, "Why is my lady talking to herself?"

Uncle Colt chuckled. "She's not talking to herself. She's talking to her skill Vicky."

Les, at hearing that, said, "Skill? How is one able to do that? Talk to one's skill?"

"Well, she's unique," Uncle Colt said.

"Then should we store the dragon away while it's still super fresh?" I said.

Indeed, came Vicky's voice.

"All right," I said, marching up toward the dragon, very sure the crowd would have had enough looking at the gigantic corpse by now. "Move back, please. We're storing the dragon away."

Everyone looked at each other and one asked, "How, my lady?"

"Just wait and see," I said and then brought out my magic circle. This one was enormous, hovering over the dragon and covering it from the end of its tail to its head. There was an echo of oohs and aahs, and as the circle descended, the dragon started disappearing, and then it was gone.

"It's gone! The dragon is gone!" a boy said.

"Magic! The lady used magic to make the dragon disappear," a girl said.

"My word," Les said. "Such powerful magic even the likes of us Wood Elves have never seen or heard of before."

"The Mountain Dwarves, too," Klein said. "We've never seen or heard of such powerful magic either."

Turning around, I clasped my hands together and asked, "Anyone hungry?"

Lilly, who had been with Elizabeth and Maria during the whole scary fiasco, rushed over to me and wrapped her arms around my legs. She said, "Lilly is hungry."

I bent down and picked her up. "All right, let's have breakfast."

Twenty minutes later, I had three deep iron pots of chicken rice porridge out, along with tin bowls and soup spoons, and the soldiers started serving the civilians.

I decided on rice porridge since it was the sort of food that was easy on the stomach as half of the people had been starved for months and feeding them solids could kill them due to severe electrolyte imbalance, which could lead to heart and other organ damage, the dangerous refeeding syndrome. Hence, feeding them small portions of liquid food and keeping them hydrated was the best method until their bodies were used to working properly again.

Of course, those that weren't severely starved, civilians taken captive only a month or two before the rescue mission like Klein and Les and their men and some others, were served French toast, grilled sausage, and crispy bacon. To say that they enjoyed and appreciated the food was an understatement. Klein and his men couldn't stop gushing at how delicious the hearty food was while Les loved the rice porridge.

"What is this white thing in this soup, my lady?" he asked.

Feeding Lilly her bowl of rice porridge, I said, "It's rice. You know, the animal fed rice grain that Norsewood is so good at growing? That rice."

He widened his eyes. "The animal fed rice grain can be cooked like this?"

"And more," I said.

Lilly said, "Rice is delicious. I like rice."

"I'm glad you do, sweetie, because there are more ways you can cook rice," I said loudly so everyone sitting around us could hear. Of course, I was advertising it. "You can do fried rice, which is steamed rice cooked with vegetables like peas and carrots and corn along with either seafood or meat, seasoning it with soy and oyster sauces. You can also serve steamed rice with stew and casserole and soup as well as stir-fry assorted meat and vegetables and many other dishes, too, like crispy fried chicken or pork cutlets or deep-fried prawn or fillets of fishes which is called tempura, or you can turn steamed rice into sushi, which is one of my favorites."

"Sushi?" Lilly asked, looking up at me.

"We've never tried this tempura thing before, Quinn," Maria said. "Perhaps you've forgotten to introduce it to us?"

I chuckled. "There are so many different types of dishes, so I'm bound to forget unless I felt like eating it in the spur of the moment." I tilted my head to one side and said, "I know it's morning, but how about we have a taste of some of the dishes that are made with rice?"

Johnny, the elf boy, said, "Yes, please."

"I would love to try the sushi," Elizabeth said.

"I would love to try the tempura," Maria said, looking eager as always.

"Very well then," I said and leaned forward. My circle appeared, and within moments, trays of sushi rolls filled with sushi rice, crispy chicken, slices of avocado, cucumber, and carrots as well as tempura which were prawns, fillets of fish, slices of sweet potato and pumpkin appeared, and of course, the ever so popular around the globe that was Earth, fried rice. This one had prawn, Chinese sausages, and peas and corn and carrots in it.

"Oh my goodness," Lana O'Kenny said. "Look at all these foods."

Everyone leaned in and stared at the dishes, and I could see in their expressions how starved they were for delicious food.

I said, introducing the dishes, "This one is fried rice, sushi, and tempura." Seeing how eager they were, I said, "Dig right in, everyone. And make sure to eat slowly."

Immediately, hands crisscrossed over the trays as the food began to disappear. I picked up a sushi roll and popped the piece into my mouth. Mmm. So good. I missed this.

"It's so light and crispy," Lana said, eating the prawn tempura. "I've never eaten anything like this before, my lady."

"Me neither," Klein said. He popped a sushi roll into his mouth.

"This fried rice is delectable, my lady," Les said. "I could have never imagined we could eat rice, let alone turn it into something like this."

I said, "Well, I'm glad you like it."

It was then Uncle Colt walked toward us, and the moment he saw the new dishes in the middle of the circle of people, he said, sounding rather outraged, "Why didn't you tell me there are new dishes on offer?" Squeezing his bearlike frame between me and Maria, he leaned forward and took a tray that had some sushi rolls left. He then picked up some tempura, plopped those on the tray, and then walked away, munching as he moaned and then said, "My new favorite. So light and crispy."

Lilly looked at me and said, "Uncle Colt took all the food."

"He does that often," I said. "I'll make more, how about that?"

Lilly smiled and both Johnny and his brother Zach cheered.

After breakfast, I headed up to control room where Aldric was currently located with Connor while the soldiers cleaned and packed up, ready to depart and return to Norsewood within a few hours. I was just walking in when Aldric said, "We need you back at the dungeon."

"Why?" I asked.

Aldric, his face grim, said, "Vincent reported there are more civilians as well as... animals in the lower floor."

I widened my eyes in shock. "More? Oh, God!"