Brynne Loses an Eating Contest
Eating contests were for fairs or carnivals. They were not meant to be part of a quest to prevent a demoness from gaining immortality, so this was just rude.
There was nothing any of them could do about it, not that Brynne was complaining. Aru kept opening and closing her hands, willing Vajra back to her, but her lightning bolt was now tightly wedged under Sparky’sfoot, along with the scimitars and mace. At least he wasn’t tossing Vajra up in the air and catching it, as he was doing with Mini’s danda stick.
Mini sniffed. “Dee Dee doesn’t like being treated like that. It’s a very sensitive instrument!”
Sparky, who had his back to them as he muttered some enchantments, ignored her.
Beside Aru, Brynne started pacing back and forth and massaging her jaw.
“Please don’t say you’ve got some kind of magical jaw that unhinges,” said Aru. “If that’s the case, I’m out.”
Brynne said something likeMah djaw dush not unhish!
“In Hungry Brynne, that means ‘It doesn’t unhinge,’”translatedAiden. Then he whispered, “Although it kinda looks like it.”
“Almost ready!” announced Sparky, turning to face them. He stepped aside and swept his arm in avoilà!gesture.
Right in front of the entrance to the Ocean of Milk stretched a long picnic table with a red-checked tablecloth. Its entire surface was covered with bowls and plates of different foods. They stepped closer to examine it more closely, and the aromas made Aru’s mouth water. There was steaming lentil soup, thick pieces of naan studded with fennel seeds and garlic, coconut and quince chutney, pickledmango, and hundreds of different kinds of vegetable stew. Aru saw one of her favorite snacks lying on the far side of the table: idli, savory disk-shaped rice cakes that she thought looked like UFOs.
But even Brynne looked a little wary of the mountains of food. Where had it all come from?
Mini, who hadn’t had anything but a power-nap chocolate bar since being captured, started to reach fora piece of naan….
“Ah-ah-ah!” Sparky said, suddenly appearing beside her to slap her hand away. “Only for the contestant. Now, where did I put those utensils and napkins?” He rushed over to a picnic basket that had magically appeared on the ground.
Sparky moved ridiculously fast. One minute he was standing in one place, the next minute he was somewhere else. It was as sudden as a flame eruptingat the end of a matchstick.
Aru sniffed the air. “Do you smell that?”
“I didn’t do it,” said Brynne, turning red.
“It smells like something is burning,” said Mini. “But I don’t see a fire…. Oh no. What if thereisa fire? Do you know that in most fires people get asphyxiated by smoke, and then they—”
“Die?” asked Aiden and Aru at the same time.
“Yes!” said Mini.
“So, are you forfeiting orwhat?” yelled Sparky from the other side of the picnic table. He was seated at the far end, holding a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other, with a napkin tied around his neck. Aru wondered where he had stashed their weapons.
“No way,” said Brynne.
She sat down opposite him. On her left was the naan and a couple of wet paper towels for her hands. On the other side was a tall glass of water.From Aru’s short-lived stint in cotillion etiquette classes, she knew that water always went on the right and bread on the left, because if she pinched her index finger and thumb together while holding up the rest of her fingers, it looked like adon her right hand (for drink) and abon her left hand (for bread). It was the only thing she had taken away from class. (Oh, and half of some girl’sbraid, but that was completely by accident. Honest.)
“So, let’s begin,” said Sparky. “I’ve always had a big appetite. Sometimes it gets me into trouble.”
Brynne cracked her neck from side to side. “Me too.”
“One time, I ate only ghee nonstop for twelve years,” said Sparky. He lifted a bowl to his mouth and started slurping.
Sparkyhadto be joking about the ghee. Aru thought ghee was disgustingon its own. It was just clarified butter!
Brynne must have thought he was joking, too, because she said, “One time, I ate everything in a bakery. In one day.” Then she started inhaling food like she was a vacuum cleaner.
Whoa, Aiden wasnotkidding. Aru’s jaw hurt just watching Brynne.
“Told ya,” he said.
