Chapter 4 Lunch Time Part 2

Folken's stomach loudly declared that its patience had come to an end. The only thing that saved him from being the object of the children's ridicule was the lunch bell.

Finally, Folken thought. "Okay, children you know what to do."

***

In the hallway, Folken saw that several classes were outside. The class directly ahead of his contained students that were smaller than the first graders. They were neatly assembled and wearing happy expressions. They were listening attentively to their teacher.

Those must be the kindergarteners. They look like such sweet children. Folken looked down at his students and noticed that some of them had already lost that sweetness. Blaine and his friends in particular looked sullen. I wonder if they act this way when their teacher is here... probably not. Ah, the fate of the substitute teacher.

As he thought of his current position in life he heard an adult female voice. The voice was very close. He turned toward the source it was the kindergarten teacher.

"Teaching a class is the last place where I would expect to find the Strategos of Zaibach," The woman said.

Folken smiled a bit. "That makes two of us, Ms.?"

The woman smiled back and supplied her name. "Ms. Mitchell."

Ms. Mitchell had short brown hair and eyes of a pleasant shade of blue that stood out even more because of her eyewear.

She reached a hand out to shake Folken's, but he surprised her by lifting it to his lips and placing a delicate kiss on her hand. Despite being in Zaibach for nearly a decade, some habits were hard for the former prince to break.

A blush spread quickly across the woman's face. She was not used to being treated in such a way.

All of the kindergarteners said, "Oooooh." Most of the first graders laughed but many of the first grade girls looked at Folken in a new light. Though many of the girls thought that boys their age were dirty little heathens, they still could appreciate the gallant gesture of the man. Of course none of the girls thought that any of the jerky boys could ever grow up to be like that.

"Strategos Folken is pretty classy, huh?" Theresa whispered as she nudged her shorter friend Jasmine in the back.

"Yeah," Jasmine responded with a dazed voice.

Blaine was busy making gagging motions. "Oh please, what a jerk!" We definitely have to do something to this clown now, he thought.

"Well...." Ms. Mitchell had to clear her throat before she could say a complete sentence. "The children are probably hungry."

"Yes, you are probably right," Folken agreed.

"Let's go children," Ms. Mitchell said to her students.

***

In the main cafeteria Naria, Eriya, and Zongi listened to Dilandau drone on and on in the hopes of identifying the poor soul who was the subject of his gossip. So far Dilandau had been very loud but vague.

"The look on his face was just classic!" Dilandau said, while spreading his arms out and grinning to emphasize, 'classic'.

"Um, w-what did his face look like, Lord Dilandau?" the often cowering Chesta asked. After asking the question, the blonde Dragon Slayer tensed his body in preparation for the vicious slap that was to come.

The slap never came. Instead Dilandau beamed even more because the blonde's question allowed for more of his theatrical dramatizations.

"First he turned around like this." Dilandau faced away from his men and slowly turned around.

"Then he did this." Dilandau widened his eyes for the briefest of moments as if he had been caught doing something particularly embarrassing and then his face flickered into an angry mask, and finally settled on an aloof expression.

"I've never seen him look so flustered, but that only lasted for a little while. Of course he turned into his usual stick-in-the-mud self," Dilandau said as he returned to his seat.

"I would have paid money to see that. He's always so calm, cool, and collected," Miguel said as he attacked the rubbery baked chicken with a knife and fork. "It's really irritating!"

Naria thought there was something strangely familiar about the mannerisms that Dilandau mimicked, but she could not put them to a person. Maybe he's making fun of one of his superiors, she thought.

"I don't know, Lord Dilandau. It seems like teaching children would be a nice break from the usual things he has to do," Chesta stated plainly. Not being slapped for his previous comment made him feel quite a bit braver.

Dilandau turned from Miguel and fully focused his ruby-red gaze on Chesta. He moved his food tray and utensils out of the way so he could turn in his seat and rest his left arm on the table.

Chesta met his leader's frightening gaze and hunched his shoulders and leaned back into his chair trying to make himself smaller.

Chesta's actions again seemed to be unnecessary because Dilandau's voice took on a mild conversational tone. "Why do you say that, Chesta?"

Chesta gradually straightened up in his chair. "Er, well," he started warily, "he has so many responsibilities to deal with day in and day out."

"Mm-hmm," Dilandau murmured, wanting Chesta to continue.

"It'll probably be like a mini vacation for him. He'll probably play fun games with the kids like, 'Dornkirk Says' and 'Duck, Duck, Dragon!' Chesta said, while stirring some green peas into his mashed potatoes. "And maybe they'll work in coloring books."

The violet-haired Dallet turned to Viole and raised his eyebrows and mouthed, "What the...?"

Viole shrugged his shoulders and returned his attention to Dilandau.

Dilandau seemed to be taking in all of Chesta's possible fun activities and nodding his head when appropriate. The other Dragon Slayers were nervously waiting for what was to come from the conversation.

"So you think he's having fun teaching the little runts?" Dilandau asked.

"Yeah, he could be. Don't you think he might?" Chesta asked around a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"You know Chesta, you almost sound as if...." Dilandau's voice trailed off as he looked down appearing to be deep in thought, trying to find the right words to finish his sentence.

"Sound as if what?" Chesta asked before he swallowed his mouthful of food. He then ate another spoonful.

"Sound as if you want to give him a pedicure or something," Dilandau said with the first audible hints of malice. He proceeded to imitate the poor Dragon Slayer in a whiny voice saying, "You work so hard day in and day out, Sir. Maybe we should give you the whole spa treatment."

The other Dragon Slayers suppressed their laughter because they didn't want to hurt Chesta's feelings. Gatti only succeeded in getting milk to come out through his nose.

Eriya looked on to what was happening and turned to her sister and Zongi. "He is so mean to his men. Blondie was only trying to stick up for whoever Dilly was dogging."

Zongi looked down at Eriya due to her strange choice of words. He agreed with her but had something else to add. "To be honest, I'm surprised that Dilandau hasn't slapped him yet."

"And no, I don't think that Mullet Head is having fun with the children, so why don't you shut up before I slap THE TASTE OUT YOUR MOUTH!" Dilandau yelled putting his face one-inch away from Chesta's.

After that outburst the entire cafeteria went quiet. It also was clear to Naria, Eriya, and Zongi who Dilandau was talking about.

"But I was just-" Chesta started, but was interrupted by a swift slap to the face. He found that Dilandau was true to his word because he was no longer able to taste the food that was in his mouth.

"That's it!" Eriya said as she slapped her hands on the table, "I can't take this crap any longer! No one disrespects Lord Folken that way. How dare he call him Mullet Head!" She pushed out of her seat causing the chair's metal legs to make a screeching sound and proceeded to walk towards Dilandau with a murderous gleam in her eyes.

Zongi and Naria glanced at each other and got up also, fully prepared to back Eriya up 110%.

***

The cafeteria in the Children's Center was as bright and colorful as the classrooms. There were different colorful bulletins showing information such as the 'Students of the Month' and 'How to be a Young Productive Citizen of the Ziabach Empire'. Better yet there were no life or any other sized portraits of Emperor Dornkirk around to scare the children while they were eating.

There were many small round tables that had light gray tops. Near the back of the cafeteria was small set of steps that lead to a section with more tables.

Some of the children went to the lunch line while others who had bag lunches headed straight for their usual tables.

It seems that the children can handle themselves. Now it's time for me to get something to eat! Folken thought.

He noticed that Ms. Mitchell went into a different line than the children. There were other adults in the line as well. This must be the line for the teachers. Folken picked up a food tray and stepped in line behind Ms. Mitchell.

Two older women busied themselves behind the canteen. Both wore crisp white uniforms and hairnets. They were very pleasant to the students and the teachers.

"What would you like, dear?" One of the gray-haired women asked Harold. Her hand was already hovering over the baked beans.

"The usual, Mrs. Sullivan," the boy replied cheerfully.

Folken looked over as the event took place and sighed when he heard the sound of the beans plopping into Harold's tray. Oh dear.

Folken turned his attention back to what he could choose from. He noticed that they had prepared salads and he picked one with diced chicken and oranges as toppings. The soup looked pretty appetizing too. When he got to the other server she beamed at him.

"You grace us with your presence, Strategos."

"Thank you," Folken said.

"What would you like, Sir?"

He quickly looked at the soup of the day sign that was at the head of the line. "I would like the clam chowder."

The woman got a bowl--which was much larger than the soup bowls she usually handed out--and filled it to maximum capacity. She put the bowl on his tray and asked would he like a roll. Folken was never one to turn down food and considering how hungry he was the thought would have never entered his mind.

Now with food, Folken set off to tackle the next challenge. Where would he sit?

***

Eriya stood at the head of the Dragon Slayers table looking very aggressive. She had her feet apart and had her left hand on her hip. Dilandau was still glaring at Chesta so he didn't notice her, but the other Dragon Slayers did.

Miguel coughed in hopes of getting Dilandau's attention.

It didn't work.

Miguel coughed even more theatrically. Viole caught on to what his fellow Dragon Slayer was attempting to do and joined in.

Dilandau quickly turned in his seat to address them.

"If you're going to hack up a lung, go someplace else and do it. I don't want to get your TB!"

Dilandau was about to turn back around to continue yelling at Chesta when he finally noticed Eriya standing near the Slayer's table. To make things even more annoying her twin sister, Naria was approaching too, along with an unfamiliar man.

Dilandau rolled his eyes and sighed. "Well, look what the cat dragged in. It's 'Folken's Strays'."

He took a look at the man that was with the catwomen and added, "And a friend."

Eriya took another step forward.

"Look here you little punk. You better stop talking crap about Lord Folken, or else."

The 'little punk' draped one of his arms over the back of his chair and look at his Dragon Slayers with an expression that said, "Is she threatening me? I mean, really."

Eriya was getting more agitated which was visible by her clenching and unclenching her fists. It took all her self-control to keep from popping her claws.

Dilandau looked back up at Eriya and said, "Or else what, little Miss Kitty?"

Naria and Zongi walked up to flank Eriya in a show of support. They would not allow anyone to badmouth Lord Folken either.

"Or else," she smiled a wicked little smile, "I'll cut you." She figured now was a good time to pop her claws for dramatic effect with her hands at her sides. Maybe the jerk would do something stupid enough to provoke her to use them.

Naria did a little head nod. "Ditto."

Zongi originally wasn't going to say anything. He thought that looking menacing was good enough but Dilandau gave him a disgusted look that just pissed him off.

"I won't cut you. I'll just kick your ass."

Dilandau stood up abruptly and in his haste he bumped into Eriya, causing her to stumble into Zongi.

The Dragon Slayers were so busy watching the situation escalate, they forgot that they were supposed to be backing their leader up.

Miguel was the first to snap out of it.

"C'mon, you have to admit it's pretty funny that Old Crusty sent Mullet Head to watch the crumb crunchers."

"What, you want some of this too?" Naria asked. Usually she was the more laid back of the two girls but she could get feisty when Folken was concerned. "And I don't think you're one to talk about crumb crunching." She pointed a finger to show the beige breadcrumbs on his navy blue uniform.

Zongi gripped Eriya's shoulders to steady her.

"Did you just lay your hands on her?" Zongi asked.

"No! She was in the way. I was trying to kick your ass!"

"You must have done something to her. She didn't lose her balance just for the hell of it," Zongi said loudly. He removed his hands from Eriya's shoulders and asked her, "Do you usually go around losing your balance for no reason? Are you an alcoholic or something?"

Eriya looked up into Zongi's green eyes and saw a hint of something. She thought she knew where Zongi was going with this line of questioning and decided to play along."

"No, of course not. He pushed me!" she said while pointing her finger at Dilandau. "You saw what he did, didn't you, sister?"

Naria looked very serious as she nodded her head.

Dilandau scoffed. "You're lying!"

Zongi stepped in front of Eriya. "Are you calling the lady a liar?"

Dilandau took another step forward. "Apparently so!"

The other people in the cafeteria began to quietly talk amongst themselves as they watched what was happening. Naria managed to pick up on some of the comments.

"Did the Dragon Slayer captain just hit that woman?"
"Something's going on over there."
"I can't believe that he just pushed that girl!"
"What do you mean she tripped. When have you ever heard of a cat tripping?"
"You think there's going to be a fight?
"Maybe we'll finally get some entertainment around here."

The gears in Naria's mind started turning rapidly.

"Hmmm. If we do get into a fight with Dilandau and his underlings we could say that it was because he attacked Eriya first. We'll be stretching the truth just a teensy weensy bit, but we have witnesses that could support that view of the events." She smiled mentally because she needed to maintain her stern expression. She crossed her arms for added effect.

"I love it when a plan comes together."


***

Folken looked at the multitude of rounded tables and took in the small chairs. "There is no possible way I could sit and be comfortable," he thought. Folken could just imagine his knees hitting the bottom of a table as he sat down in one of the small seats. He was so tall that his knees would practically be at chest level.

Ms. Mitchell walked up the stairs to the back area and set her food down on the table. She thought that it was nice that she could eat without the children swarming her but still be close enough where she could observe them. As she checked on her class she noticed Folken looking down as if he were lost in thought.

Maybe he would like to sit with me and my friends.

She walked down the stairs towards Folken.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, Lord Folken, but I was wondering whether you would like to sit with me and my associates?" she asked somewhat hesitantly. She felt like a goof calling her friends her associates but she didn't want to seem unsophisticated.

Folken started when he heard the voice. He saw that it was Ms. Mitchell again. Her being able to sneak up on the Strategos was not due to her being good at the art of stealth, it was that Folken was so preoccupied.

"Yes, I would like that. Thank you." Folken was very relieved that he didn't have to make a fool of himself sitting in one of those small chairs. He followed Ms. Mitchell to her table and sat down next to her.

"Ms. Minase and Coach Dyl should be here shortly," Ms. Mitchell informed Folken as she put her napkin on her lap.

"Coach Dyl, the name says it all, but what does Ms. Minase teach?" Folken asked.

"Oh, she teaches the general science class for the younger students and biology for the older ones.

"Biology. A very interesting subject," Folken remarked. He was a man of the sciences, but biology was especially interesting to him. He used physics and chemistry everyday in his work, but not so much biology.

Ms. Mitchell watched him as he talked. When he said biology it made her blush. "Oh stop being stupid! It's not like he's talking about anything perverse. That's just you with your mind in the gutter," she thought. He was a very attractive man and he seemed nice.

"Is everything all right?" Folken asked.

"Oh yes. I was just thinking how I wasn't too good at the sciences. I was always better at Literature and History," she lied.

Before she could get herself in more trouble she saw that Coach Dyl and Ms. Minase were coming up the stairs. They looked like they were having a heated discussion, as usual, Ms. Mitchell noted.

"I'm telling you, these children, they have no discipline," Coach Dyl said. The Coach was of average height with short, brown hair with bleached tips and brown eyes. He wore a simple outfit comprised of a white tunic, blue pants, and brown boots.

"Really Coach Dyl, I don't understand why you would say that. They're only kids." The woman was taller than the Coach and had shoulder length hair a slightly darker shade of cyan than Folken's. Her eyes were russet colored and she wore a dark purple dress.

"They come into class and you tell them to do twenty laps around the gym for a warm up, then they moan and groan like I've asked them to do something crazy. Especially those boys. They're lucky they don't have it as bad as I did coming up."

Ms. Minase sighed. "Why do you insist on doing that?"

"Doing what?" Coach Dyl asked.

"Talking as if you're a bazillion years old. In fact, you're only what... twenty-six?

The Coach was going to respond to her quip when he noticed who was sitting at their usual table. He had to remember to close his mouth.

"What's your problem?" Ms. Minase asked. She turned to see whatever it was that the young 'old-timer' saw and when she saw it she had to fight not to have a similar reaction.

Wow, he's even better looking in person," she thought. She hurried to the table so she could make his acquaintance. Coach Dyl followed behind her.

"Afternoon, Strategos Folken. I'm the Phys Ed teacher, Coach Dyl. You doing observations?" The two men shook hands.

"Good afternoon, Lord Folken. I'm Ms. Minase, the science teacher." She put her tray down and leaned over to shake his hand. Folken repeated the courtly gesture he performed on Ms. Mitchell and Ms. Minase almost fainted. She quickly sat in her seat before her legs gave out.

Folken answered Coach Dyl's question. "No actually I'm here as a substitute for Ms. Millard."

"How have the children been treating you so far?" the Coach asked.

Folken thought back to what he heard the Coach say about the children being undisciplined and decided they weren't as bad as all that. "They have been manageable for the most part."

"That Blaine boy is in that class. You got to watch out for that one. He's a little troublemaker."

Folken nodded. "Yes, he is precocious."

"That's strange, he was my student last year and I never had any problems out of him," Ms. Mitchell said as she cut her chicken breast.

"I haven't either. He's always well behaved in my class," Ms. Minase added.

Folken took in this new information. "Ah, I see. Maybe Mr. Blaine only likes to be instructed by attractive women. The Coach and I don't fit that description."

The two women glanced at each other then at Folken and laughed shyly, hoping their faces weren't too red. Folken smiled. All the adults at the table started to eat their lunches. The teachers barely reacted when they saw Folken's metallic hand. Today was really turning out to be a nice day. One of the nicest he had in a long time.

***

Blaine looked at the three teachers and the substitute eating lunch. "How did that jerk end up sitting with two of the prettiest teachers at the school?" the blonde boy thought. When he saw the two women laughing at something that metal man said, he was hit with a wave of jealousy so strong he could barely stand it. "Oh you're really going to get it, now."

"Look guys," Blaine said to his friends, "I think I have a plan."

***

"You know what? I really don't like your attitude, boy," Zongi said.

"You don't like my attitude," Dilandau repeated. "Just who the hell are you, where you think that you can talk to me in such a way. I the captain of the Dragon Slayers. I run this here." He waved his hand in the direction of his men. "Now what are you running, besides your mouth?"

"Are you going to slap the taste out of his mouth too, Lord Dilandau?" Chesta asked softly.

"I think I'm getting tired of talking," Zongi said.

"What the hell is that supposed to mea-"

Dilandau was cut off by Zongi punching him in the stomach.

"That wasn't the most honorable thing for me to do, but oh well," Zongi thought without much remorse.

A chorus broke out in the cafeteria. The words were quite simple and it was catchy. "Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight."

Dilandau staggered back from the force of the surprise blow. He bumped into the table. He quickly recovered and threw a right that Zongi was able to dodge easily. He threw a punch with his left that just managed to clip Zongi on the jaw. It wasn't anything too serious.

"Not bad. Not bad. He was able to get that little hit in. Zongi decided it was time to stop playing around. He hit Dilandau in the jaw to show him how it was done. The blow sent Dilandau careening into Eriya. She pushed him off of her. "We have to stop meeting like this," she joked. He looked a little dazed. She backhanded him to snap him out of his stupor.

"Damn!" a soldier in the back of the cafeteria said, loudly.

That man's exclamation roused the Dragon Slayer's into action.

"It's about time you idiots," Dilandau yelled. He was trying to defend against Eriya's quick attacks.

Dallet was advancing on Zongi when someone grabbed his shoulder length hair and pulled. Hard.

"Y'know, you really need a haircut," Naria said mildly as if she weren't about to pound him. She decided not to hit him in the face because he had a pretty face. He shouldn't be scarred for life because his leader was a jerk.

"Get off Lord Dilandau, you jerk!" Chesta was running towards Zongi who was currently in charge of Dilandau's beating. Chesta's weapon of choice was his food tray.

Zongi certainly wasn't expecting a tray full of mashed potatoes with green specks--"Peas?" he thought vaguely--to come flying at his head.

He didn't stand a chance.

While he wiped the starchy food out of his eyes, Dilandau used that opportunity to rain blows on his stomach. He relished each hit that landed.

"I'm going to beat your ass," he said and then took a breath of air, "until I get tired."

Naria got up after tackling Miguel saw that Zongi was in trouble. She ran over to stop Dilandau but Chesta got in her way. She hissed at him but he didn't back down. Using her enhanced agility she swept his legs out from under him before he knew what was happening and stepped over him. She tapped Dilandau on the shoulder.

"What? Don't you see I'm busy?"

She slapped him on the back of his head.

He quickly rounded on her. "What? You want some of this too?" he asked throwing her own words back in her face.

Eriya ran to a table that was behind Naria and Dilandau and grabbed a half of a grapefruit. Only Naria could see what her sister was doing.

"Sure. Why not?" Naria said, not giving away her twin's position with her eyes.

Dilandau was in the process of throwing a punch when Eriya crept up behind him and put her left arm around his torso, effectively restraining him. She had the grapefruit half in her right hand and proceeded to use the Dragon Slayer's nose as a makeshift juicer.

"Oh my eyes. Damn you!" Dilandau said as he struggled to break out of her hold. As he yelled some of the grapefruit juice got in his mouth. It must have been a ruby red.

Naria was laughing so hard at the sight before her that she didn't see Dallet coming with his meatloaf. It hit her in the face. Some of the gravy got in her hair.

The chorus changed to, "Food fight. Food fight. Food fight."

"Yeah, those girls kick ass!" the soldier in the back said.

Zongi recovered then grabbed a tray of food and dumped mixed vegetables down the back of Chesta's uniform.

"There you go," Zongi said, not unkindly as he patted the submissive Dragon Slayer on his back.

Dilandau was finally able to sidestep and momentarily make Eriya lose her balance. "Ooooh, I hate you two girls.

"Feelings mutual, jerk face," Eriya said as she pushed him. As he lurched forward, he slipped on some of Chesta's mashed potatoes.

"Ow!" he said when he fell on his butt.

Zongi jumped on him and started to beat him soundly. To his left he saw some more of Chesta's discarded potatoes. He grabbed a handful and scrubbed Dilandau's face with them.

"Yeah. Now what?"

Dilandau spat the potatoes that got in his mouth out and asked, "Who the hell are you? I don't even know you!"

"Oh you know me, Lord Dilandau." As the man said that his voice started changing. It went from deep and gravelly to something that sounded almost reptilian.

Dilandau's eyes widened. He knew that voice.

Just to make sure Dilandau knew Zongi shifted back to his true self for a brief moment and went back to his adopted form. Most people who saw that thought they were seeing things. But Dilandau knew better.

"Ugh! I knew I smelled something weird!" Dilandau said. "Get off me!"

"Nope. Not until you say, "Lord Folken's the greatest!"

The Dragon Slayer started thrashing around even more. "Never. Because I'm the greatest!

Apparently the excitement got to be too much for some of the crowd because armed soldiers were heading towards them. These soldiers were the Zaibachian Military Police.

"Awww, who finked?" the same loud soldier in the back asked.

The largest soldier stepped to the front and asked Naria and Eriya, "What's going on?" in a booming voice.

Naria pointed at Dilandau and said, "That man shoved my sister!"

"And things got a little hectic from there," Eriya finished while glaring at Dilandau.

"No. It was all just a small misunderstanding!" Dilandau said from his spot on the ground.

"You all are coming with us!"

Eriya looked at her sister. "Well we wouldn't have been able to have lunch with Lord Folken anyway, Sister."

"Yeah, I know," Naria said, disappointed. "But you do have to admit," she whispered, "this was kind of fun!"

The two catgirls smiled. "I hope Lord Folken's day is faring better than ours."

The middle of the cafeteria was an absolute mess with bits of the day's menu decorating the floor like a kindergartner's finger painting.

The armed soldiers herded those involved in the fighting into a manageable group. Many of the perpetrators had food on their faces and smeared on their clothing.

The head soldier shook his head. "And you're supposed to be the elite," he said with disgust, "Move out!"

Chesta looked back at the cafeteria floor. "I wasn't even able to finish my mashed potatoes," he said, "and those were good potatoes."


***

A/N: I'm not dead. Yay! *hears crickets chirping* Gah, this chapter is entirely too long but I didn't want to have lunch time broken up into three parts. Sorry for making so much fun of Chesta, but you do have to admit that Dilandau abuses the mess out of him during the series. *LOL* The poor thing.

I actually treated Dilly halfway decently in this chapter. I could have made it one of those, "There were two hits. I hit him, then he hit the floor" deals but I let Dilandau get a few hits in on Zongi instead of Zongi doing an immediate K.O. If you're still upset you can do like Johnny Storm and "FLAME ON!" I think Dilly would like that.