Alice frowned at the little meatball girl that was lying down across her lap. She pursed her lips as she brushed the sleeping girl’s hair back behind her ear. “It’s like someone wanted her to be eaten by wild beasts. Who would let a child wander around looking like this if that weren’t the case?”

“Didn’t your father say he dressed you up as a baby griffin?” Mr. Skelly asked. “I don’t see how it’s any different. Perhaps this girl really likes meat.” He laughed as he leaned forward and lifted a raw slab of thinly cut meat off the girl’s arm. He put it into his mouth, and it passed through the bottom of his jaw, dropping to the ground. “Tastes like salt and pepper.”

“You can taste things?” Alice asked, raising her eyebrow. Did that mean skeletons really could feel pain? What if she was torturing Mr. Skelly every time she punted his head off? She swiped her finger across the girl’s back and licked the sauce. It was salty with hints of spice. “…Seriously?”

Mr. Skelly chuckled. “I’m just kidding you,” he said as he waved his finger underneath Alice’s nose. “There was so much salt and pepper left behind on my fingers. It was easy to tell what it’d taste like.”

Alice glared at the skeleton, but before she could say anything, a rustling sound caught her attention. Mr. Skelly grabbed the meatball girl as Alice took out her shield and turned it into a tower shield. Two women came into view, wearing clothes made of woven grass. Their eyes lit up upon seeing the meatball girl and Alice. One of them smiled and approached Alice. “Are you two the new sacrifices?”

Alice shifted her shield to the side. “The new what?”

The woman didn’t answer as she stepped even closer. “Honey, salt, and pepper,” she said, staring at the little meatball girl. “It seems like she came from Hornet Village. And only Sterben Village would adorn their sacrifices with human skeletons. But it seems like the dragons already ate all the meat on it? That’s odd; they usually never do.” The woman stepped around Alice and reached out to grab the little meatball girl. “Poor girl. She’s so young too. I wonder what her elders told her.”

As the woman’s arms wrapped around the little meatball girl, Mr. Skelly grabbed onto the woman’s wrist. She screamed and jerked back, falling onto her butt. She scrambled backwards on the ground like a crab, but Mr. Skelly didn’t let go, letting himself get dragged along while cackling. The woman’s shrieks filled the air, and her companion ran away while screaming her head off. A moment later, Alice’s shield slammed down onto Mr. Skelly’s spine with a loud cracking sound, pinning him to the ground. “Stop with the skeleton shenanigans!”

Mr. Skelly’s cackling stopped as he sighed. “But terrifying people is one of the only ways to enjoy life as a skeleton, you know? You can’t taste things; you can’t smell things; and you can’t even feel things. If I don’t terrify people, what’s the point of living?”

“You’re not living,” Alice said with a snort. “Do some good for the world. Instead of creating terrified faces, try making people smile. Sheesh, look at how badly you frightened the poor woman.” She crouched down and pried Mr. Skelly’s fingers off the woman’s wrist. “Are you alright? He’s a skeleton, but he’s just a big doofus; he won’t hurt you.”

“I-it’s a moving skeleton! I-it talks!”

Alice sighed and pursed her lips. “That’s right. It’s a talking skeleton. You can think of it as my familiar,” she said as she helped the frightened woman to her feet. “My name is Alice. Who are you? What was that bit about sacrifice to the dragons?”

The woman stared at Mr. Skelly, who waved back at her, before averting her gaze while swallowing her saliva. “You’re not a sacrifice?”

Alice shook her head. “No. Are people regularly sacrificed to dragons around here?”

The woman’s head bobbed up and down. “Yes, but the dragons don’t actually eat the sacrifices. They said we taste bad….” The woman shook her head once and took in a deep breath. “Every time a new sacrifice is offered up, the dragons would leave her alone, and we’d pick her up to bring back to the village.”

“Back to the village the sacrifice came from?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. She lifted the little meatball girl, who was still unconscious, and frowned. “Wouldn’t that ruin the village’s purpose of sacrificing someone in the first place?”

“No, no,” the woman said. “We bring her to Sacrifice Village. We live in a little valley to the south. If we try to go back home, we’d be sent back here with more sacrifices to appease the dragons that we escaped from even though the dragons don’t care…. If we try to enter a different village, the same thing happens.” She shrugged. “That’s why Sacrifice Village was established. We have several hundred women living there.”

“And all of you were sacrifices,” Alice said, her expression blank.

“Yes.”

“You’d think people would learn,” Mr. Skelly said, scratching his head. “Why do villages offer sacrifices? Is it like a protection fee? The dragons threaten you to pay or something along those lines?”

“No,” the woman said, shaking her head. “Dragons possess great amounts of mana. As long as they are happy, the mana that passively radiates out of them is filled with abundance and life. The crops grow well, and the sky is full of rain. But if the dragons are sad or angry, the crops wither as drought plagues the land. And with the constantly raising taxes, the villages need more and more crops to survive.”

Alice turned her head towards Mr. Skelly. “Is that true?”

Mr. Skelly shrugged. “I’m not an expert on dragons. But even if it’s not true, it makes sense. If villages are short on food, they can sacrifice people to have less mouths to feed. Brilliant.”

“That’s not something you should be praising,” Alice said with a snort. “I don’t like the ruler of this land already—raising taxes so much that people are being offered to dragons? I wonder if Vur will overthrow them if I asked him to.”

“Why not do it yourself?” Mr. Skelly asked. “Are you forgetting who your husband is? I’m a great commander.”

“But you don’t have your army,” Alice said.

“Then we can just make one.” Mr. Skelly wrapped his arm around Alice’s shoulder. “Rally the people around you. Become a leader for the peasants to follow. Engage in warfare and overthrow the evil king. Let’s do it. It’ll be fun. Didn’t you say you enjoyed your time at war with me?”

Alice bit her lower lip. “I did…, but—”

Mr. Skelly slapped Alice’s back. “It’s decided then! Let’s start a war.”

The woman stared at Mr. Skelly and Alice as if they were crazy.