"Knock it off you two! How am I ever going to write this?" shouted Ashton Anchors as he slammed his pen onto the table. He was addressing the two arguing snakelike dragons that protruded from his back. Rena had named the red one on the right "Gyoro" because of his "popping out eyes", whatever that meant. The blue was named Ururun because he seemed to have runny tear duct issues.
"What is it Ashton? A romance novel about barrels?" Celine chimed in. She was standing with Precis wearing that minuscule lavender number she liked so well. Her round breasts were supported in it like two barrels in a sling. She slid into the booth next to Ashton and crossed her long legs.
"Why is that guy always talking to himself?" Precis asked Celine as she sat down across from her.
"What? That guy!" Ashton groaned. "I have a name you know."
"Would you keep it down?" quipped Celine. "We're trying to have girl talk."
"Sure, sure" Ashton sighed. At least Gyoro and Ururun had stopped so he could work on his manuscript again now.
"So, Precis, what was this about Claude?" Celine batted her long eyelashes.
"I'm sure they never talk about me," Ashton sniffled to himself.
'Maybe that's a good thing' Gyoro said into Ashton's mind with a hint of a snicker.
"You know how Claude has been really down since Rena went off to find her friend," Precis began. She twiddled her tiny thumbs nervously as she spoke. Celine listened to the younger girl sympathetically.
"Oh, you mean Dias?" Celine asked putting a slim finger to her shiny red lips.
"Yeah, well I was thinking. How about if we go find them both and bring them back here?"
"You mean hunt down Dias so Rena will come back?" Celine asked. She paused for a moment in though. "Rena is one thing but I'm not sure if any one of us has the power to persuade Dias of anything."
Precis looked utterly downtrodden for a second but then a kind of desperate determination came to her face. "Can't we do something? He can't be that bad, I'm sure if we just talked to him…" She let herself trail off seeing that Celine's face was unaffected. "I don't like seeing everyone so unhappy."
"Don't worry Precis. It'll all work out. If you want I can go talk to Rena," Celine offered. Precis offered a small nod. "Alright darling, I'll go see what I can do."
The waiter arrived finally with the hot peppermint tea and bread that Ashton had ordered. "Here you are," he said politely while continuously curiously glancing back and forth at Gyoro and Ururun.
"Thank you," Ashton said to the quickly fleeing waiter. The break in his writing was a welcome one as he had already developed a hand cramp. He looked down at the basket of warm buttered bread in front of him.
Celine stood to leave with a sweet smile. "Well I better head out then. Why don't you have Ashton order you something to eat, ok?" She turned and walked away from them and Ashton thought he heard a snicker.
"Yes, Precis, is there anything you would like?" Ashton asked her eagerly. His green eyes shined simply at her. She didn't understand how he could so suddenly go from fits of wild neurosis to such a calm contented state. Maybe she was reading too much into it but there was something else in that stare, something like total acceptance of whatever may be. It made her look away.
"Maybe some dessert," she said taking the small paper dessert menu from its stand.
"Ok," said Ashton. "Anything you want. You can have some of this bread too if you want. I'm not really as hungry as I thought I was." He paused for a moment. "I mean, not that I wasn't going to share with you if I had been hungry-"
'Quit babbling, you sound like an idiot!' Gyoro warned him. Ururun dove for a slice of it himself and nearly gulped it down whole.
"Guys!' Ashton exclaimed, momentarily losing that peaceful glaze in his eyes.
"No thanks," Precis said. "I kinda only like bread when it's toasted."
"Ah, but we can fix that, right, Gyoro?"
'I'm not your living blow torch,' the red dragon snorted.
"Please?" Ashton begged under his breath. Gyoro agreed reluctantly and leaned forward.
"Guaaar!" Flames burst forth from Gyoro's open mouth igniting the basket bread and all. Ashton cried out and threw his cloth napkin over it in an attempt to stamp it out. The fire spread to the napkin sending quite the unsavory smell into the air. Ururun was quick to act and blew his icy breath over the whole catastrophe.
"How embarrassing," Precis muttered putting her hand over her face. She looked up to see that the waiter had returned, this time with an older important looking man whom she presumed to be the manager.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you to leave," he said to Ashton with a tight smile forced over his fury. His eyebrows were crunched into an anger stance; his eyes were fixed on the ashy ice chunk in the middle of the table. Ashton's face visibly reddened as he looked around and noticed that everyone in the whole café was staring at him.
"Uh, yes. Come on, Precis," he said causing her further embarrassment. He gathered his pen and paper before sliding out of the booth and holding out his hand for her. Precis ignored his hand and stood on her own.