"Matt. I've known you for this long, and you have had many ideas, some smarter than others, but I think this is your stupidest so far." Natalie commented.

"Shhh! You'll wake them up, I'll die, you'll have to revive me, and it will be your fault!" Matt jabbed back playfully.

Somehow, Matt had gotten the great idea to attempt to tame one of the many dragons they had encountered. 'Their meat is too tough and bland to eat, what else are they good for!?" he had argued.

So here they were. Matt tip-toeing up to one of the sleeping beasts while Natalie, Lance, Anna, and NoLegs all stayed back at a decent distance.

"This cannot end well…" Anna said, shaking her head.

Lance scoffed, "Hey, at least we'll get a good show outta it.

NoLegs meowed in worry about his owner getting hurt, but didn't make any attempt to stop him.

Matt was about 10 feet away from the dragon now, hardly daring to breathe. He heard his teammates whispering behind him, but trying to block them out and focus on his prize. The giant scaly beast right in front of him. Now that he was so close, he was stuck on what to do. Jump immediately on its back? Should he weaken and debuff it a bit like when they captured other foes?

While he was paused in contemplation, he heard a mocking tone behind him.

"Ya chicken? Bawk Bawk! Ya gonna back out now? Bawk Bawk!" came the familiar tone of the gunner.

Matt gritted his teeth to resist yelling and risking waking the dragon up. Now that he was so close to it, he could see the individual scales and how shiny they were. How fluffy and soft the beard and neck of it was. He wanted to reach out and pet it, which he could do all the time once he tamed it.

"Eh. No time like the present!" Matt thought as he suddenly jumped on the dragon's long neck.

"MATT, YOU IDIOT!" Natalie screeched as the swordsman suddenly leaped onto the dragon, waking it up. She charged up a magic attack, prepared to hit the beast if it left so much of a scratch on Matt.

The dragon jolted awake and groggily whipped its head around to try and dislodge the unexpected and foreign weight from its neck.

Matt persisted, holding on for dear life as the dragon shook him back and forth wildly.

After that didn't work, the dragon tried scratching Matt off, while Matt narrowly avoided getting kicked by.

With how close the dragon's claws were to hitting Matt, Natalie was getting nervous, but she didn't want to risk throwing the attack and hitting Matt, so she held off on it.

As Matt's brain was getting shaken out, a pizza slice fell out of his pocket, which the dragon noticed and quickly gobbled up.

This gave Matt an idea.

"You want food, huh? Then go... FETCH!" Matt yelled as he chucked more food he had in his pockets. The dragon happily bounded after it like a hungry dog as Matt chucked more and more food for it to chase.

"Figures the dragon Matt chooses is a foodie," Lance said, rolling his eyes.

"So long as he doesn't run out of food and the dragon decides to eat him instead," Natalie mused.

This continued for a while before the gluttonous dragon finally slowed down and rested on the ground. Matt took this opportunity to slide off the dragon's back and stalk over to his friends with an uncharacteristically smug look on his face.

"Pretty good if I say so myse-" Matt boasted before being cut off by a sharp whack to the back of his head.

"MATT! That was stupidly dangerous! What would have happened if that pizza hadn't fallen out of your pocket! What if! What if…" Natalie scolded angrily before bursting into tears.

"Oh, geez Natz… I'm sorry for worrying you. I promise I won't do anything stupid like that again…" Matt comforted, hugging the sobbing mage.

"Bet he'll do something stupid within the next 24 hours," Lance whispered, nudging Anna.

"Pfft. I bet 12 hours!"

"You sure?"

"Guys, you aren't really helping here…" Matt murmured, glaring daggers.

"Sorry…" Anna and Lance both apologized.

After a brief moment of awkward silence, Anna spoke up.

"So… Whatcha going to name it?"

"Huh?" Matt questioned, lost in thought.

"The dragon! Now that you've tamed it, you've got to give it a name!" Anna said gleefully.

"I guess so…" Matt trailed off to glance at his new scaly friend.

The golden color and the slightly slimy looking texture, although in reality it was cold and smooth, reminded him of homemade Macaroni and Cheese.

"Hmm… How about Macaroni!" Matt exclaimed.

This produced a giggle from Natalie, who was still curled up on his lap.

"Macaroni? Really Matt?" the mage questioned, trying to suppress her giggles, "I bet if the dragon was awake and understood English, it would be offended at such a silly name."

"I-I! B-but!" Matt sputtered indignantly, "I mean, it was tamed with food! And I like food! A food name is perfect!"

"Hm… How about Mac for short?" Anna offered.

"Sure! Macaroni, or Mac, it is!" Matt whooped while looking at the dragon.

The dragon stared back with a half-lidded gaze, likely stuffed from its free meal. It yawned, showing off its large maw and wicked teeth, before rolling over and promptly falling asleep.

Matt chuckled at the sight before his stomach growled loudly.

"Uh… You guys don't happen to have any extra food on you, do ya?"