Midsummer

The table is filled with the tavern’s finest. Local fowl cooked to perfection, fish properly stripped of skin and bones, raw fruits and vegetables given a cool wash that left them shining in the dim light. There are pastries, soups, classic dishes and regional specialties, along with one or two from foreign lands. A blend of sweet and savory foods, laid out so that each dragon can go at their own pace and choose what they’d like to put on their plate.

Eclipse was heartily tucking into his meal, barely paying half a mind to what was happening to those aforementioned ‘interesting dragons,’ when he felt something bump into his side. Blinking at the sudden contact, he looks down.

There he sees an Imperial, a young one at that, scrambling away from him. They’re thin, much thinner than a child their age should be, and so caked in dirt that it’s hard to see the almost golden hue of their scales. They make a sorry sight, and the fruitive glance they sneak at his table of food is all the more depressing.

“Well that won’t do,” he says, a little to himself. This is a festival, after all. He grabs a cake, some kind of vegetable-based one, and places it on the floor. When the little imp does nothing, he nudges it towards them. “Eat up, then.”

They hesitate for a while longer before darting forwards and pulling the plate to themselves. They curl over the food and take large bites. Eclipse tilts his head to the side and asks, “Where are your parents, young one?”

The smaller dragon tenses and mutely shakes their head, ears flat against their skull.

That won’t do either, he thinks. It may be prudent to find the young one another place to live. The town failed to care for this child, so maybe a change in scenery is in order.