As RJ watched Tatterhood cut the burning rat beast in two, a sudden thought came to him.
"Waitaminute...how am I going to get down"?
But before the thought of free falling to a boiling lake of soup could be fully processed, a series of announcements from the app occurred in his head.
[Mission: Emergency Encounter has been completed]
[Objective: Capture or Exorcise the Huoshu-Gula variant has been achieved]
[Three skill points has been credited to user (RJ)].
[Reward Package has been sent inbox].
[Special Reward: Ember of Gula has been sent to inbox].
[Disconnecting in 3...2...1...].
As the announcements were being made, the Wolf-Headed Ogress and Zouyu turned into balls of light before flying back into RJ's phone. RJ's perception warped once more and as he fell downward, he disappeared.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RJ's perception came back a moment later to that same table, with Tatterhood sitting across from in her "Tatiana" form. RJ evidently shook a bit at the sudden shift in reality, he wasn't sure if he would ever really get over that sensation.
Looking towards the kitchen, he noted that there was no insane fire going on. He just saw the chef preparing their dishes, pop music from a speaker playing in the background.
Out of curiosity, he decided to check the time to see if time had stopped like the last time this happened to him. Surprisingly, it had actually progressed by twenty minutes. He was about to ask Tatterhood what had happened, but he was interrupted by the waitress and the smell of freshly made food.
"Here are your orders, sorry for the wait!", the waitress said in a chipper manner before setting down two steaming bowls of noodles, a whole fish covered in sizzling red oil and slices of cold beef and tripe in red oil, "hope you enjoy it"!
"Thank you, miss", Tatterhood said with a smile as she proceeded to break open her chopsticks and dig right in. RJ for his part just sorta stared at disbelief at her nonchalance after almost dying in a literal soup pot.
"Aren't you going to eat? These noodles are delicious", Tatterhood asked as she slurped up another bite.
RJ stared a little longer before shrugging, sighing and digging into his own bowl of noodles.
"Huh...these are possibly the best noodles I've ever had", RJ commented after his first bite.
"Someone once said, that the finest wine after a battle is a bottle of water. I'd like to distort that to mean that the best thing to eat after a battle, is a bowl of noodles...and mest", Tatterhood commented as she ate a piece of sliced beef.
"Amen to that...want to get dessert after"?
"Ja"!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Squeak?!", the rat exclaimed as he shot up awake.
Confused, he rapidly looked around to confirm that nothing had happened to his lovely little dumpster home.
Rotten vegetables, stale rice, and partially eaten fish...everything was as it was. Calmed at the familiar sights, he proceeded to grab a piece of food and began chowing down.
The little rat had the strangest dream. He dreamt that he was a powerful fire spirit that turned into a fire demon and that all the world was his dinner. But just as he was going to begin his feast with a delicious soup, one that he had smell countless times before, he was suddenly attacked by a crazy girl, a goat, a dog, a cat and a schmuck with a mirror!
"How rude!", he thought as he kept eating his pilfered piece of bok choy.
Was it so wrong to listen to his instincts?
Was it so wrong for him to want to eat until he was full?
Was it wrong...
Was it...
Was...
When?
"When...why...how am I thinking?", he thought to himself in a bout of self-realization, his chewing slowing down with each complex thought going through his normally empty skull.
He placed his food down next to his seat carefully then stared at his open paws, a thoughtful feeling behind his eyes.
A sudden thought came to him, a familiar feeling, like it was in a dream....
A moment later, his paws suddenly became ablaze with a beautiful red fire.
"Huh...that's new...".