Overthinking It

"Get up. I'm hungry."

"..." Something tickled Zheng Yichen's nose. He shifted in his sleep and turned his head away.

Standing before him, Lolise narrowed her eyes slightly...

"Whoa!" A sudden, icy sense of danger jolted Zheng Yichen out of his sleep. He sprang up as if he had been electrocuted, slashing at empty air with his dragon claws. He scanned his surroundings warily until his gaze settled on Lolise.

"I'm hungry."

"Then eat. Isn't there plenty of roast meat left?" Zheng Yichen glanced at the meat remaining on the spit.

"I don't eat leftovers."

"Huh? Fine." Zheng Yichen shook his dragon head, grabbed the remaining meat, and stuffed it into his mouth. "I'll go hunting. Don't wander off—uh, do whatever you want."

Remembering just how terrifying the little girl was, Zheng Yichen gave a light cough and headed out of town. The warning had slipped out because Lolise was so small. One look at her, and anyone would think she might get abducted.

After leaving town, Zheng Yichen did not head straight for the forest. He first circled the town, checking the roads. None showed signs that a large number of people had left.

There had been so many people in town. Even if they had scattered in different directions, there should at least have been plenty of tracks near the exits. But there were none!

"Guess that's an unsolved mystery." After searching for a while and finding nothing, Zheng Yichen gave up looking for clues. Even if he found something, what could he do about it?

"Strange. There never used to be this many wild animals in the forest." Carrying a wild boar, a wolf, and several rabbits, he glanced back at the forest from time to time.

The forest was rich in wildlife, and all the time he had spent hunting there had never seemed to make a dent in it. Most of its creatures were small. There were plenty of large beasts too, but not so many that he could expect to encounter them on a casual stroll.

This time, he had barely gone in before running into a whole bunch of them... Had mating season come around again?

When Zheng Yichen returned, Lolise was engrossed in a book she had found somewhere. He left her alone and fetched water to prepare the fresh meat.

By the time the first piece of meat was nearly cooked, Lolise had set her book down without him noticing. She stared straight at Zheng Yichen... or rather, at the meat held before the tip of his claw. She still looked faintly dissatisfied. "Is this all you know how to make?"

"What kind of delicate work do you think I can do with these claws?" Zheng Yichen waved them in annoyance, stirring up a gust of wind. Only after experiencing the dexterity of human hands did he realize how clumsy these claws were at certain tasks. The comparison stung.

"I see. Read this first, then." To Zheng Yichen's astonishment, Lolise reached out and traced a line through the air beside her. A black rift with perfectly smooth edges appeared by her hand. She pulled out a book and tossed it to him.

He fumbled to catch the book, which was smaller than his palm. "Roasting Meat from Scratch? What the heck?"

With a vague sense of unease, Zheng Yichen opened it. Sure enough, it was a cookbook. "Are you trying to make me your cook?"

"If that's what you want, I agree," Lolise said flatly. She hopped down from the stone platform where she had been sitting and came over to him. With a light flick of her fingers against one of his scales, he felt that familiar pinprick. He turned his head and saw that she had collected another tiny cup of his blood. It was so little that the loss was negligible, no worse than sweating a bit more.

"Are you a vampire?" He finally could not help asking.

"No." Lolise set the cup aside. Rather than explain why she had taken his blood, she gave him a simple demonstration. She pulled off one glove and placed her bare hand on the wolf's head Zheng Yichen had tossed aside. The head withered and crumbled in her grasp. In less than a second, it vanished before his eyes.

"Holy shit!" If Zheng Yichen had any body hair, every strand would have been standing on end. Lolise had touched him plenty of times. "Is that something you have to activate?"

"It's passive."

"..."

"It doesn't work on you. That's why I'm so fond of you."

"If it worked on me, wouldn't I have turned to ash ages ago?" Zheng Yichen's mouth twitched. If her touch could do that to something already dead, how devastating would it be to a living creature?

"Exactly." Lolise nodded.

"Wait... what do you usually eat?" Zheng Yichen suddenly realized there was a problem. If Lolise's passive ability reduced things she touched to ash, how did she eat? Ash?

"You don't need to worry about that." Lolise glanced at him. "The meat's burning."

"Oh! Almost forgot!" Zheng Yichen hurriedly turned the meat on the spit. Some parts were charred, but they still looked edible. It would be a shame to waste them, so he would eat those pieces himself. He put several fresh pieces on the spit, but Lolise had already speared a piece of the charred meat. By some unknown means, she once again infused it with the half cup of blood.

"That piece is a little burnt..."

"It's fine," Lolise said without looking up. Watching her eat with such single-minded focus, Zheng Yichen felt an unexpected pang of sympathy.

She would not tell him what she normally ate, but it was easy to guess how hard it must be for her to get food. Otherwise, she would not be enjoying his lousy roast meat so much.

After watching her finish the piece, Zheng Yichen picked up a fresh one. "Want another?"

"I've had enough." She wiped the corner of her mouth. "I'm fond of you, so I won't treat you like a tool."

Scratching his head, Zheng Yichen tossed the meat into his mouth. He chewed it briefly and swallowed. "Let's not talk about that. What are you going to teach me?"

"That depends on what you're capable of learning."

"You mean magical aptitude? You test which element you're aligned with, and that determines what you can learn?" Zheng Yichen sat down on the ground, his interest immediately piqued. He had crossed into a world with supernatural powers. Of course he wanted to learn about them!

"You're overthinking it."