“Hungry.”
That was Arkay’s first thought as he woke up. He was technically always awake, but his physical form needed a good eight hours of rest every 20-25 hours. Plus, sleeping was nice. Arkay hadn’t slept that well though, and since he had just woken up in an unfamiliar location, it made him feel even more uncomfortable. Still, the hunger was a bigger issue right now.
Climbing out of the pile of cushions that made up his bed, Arkay looked around for the kitchen. It was only about ten steps away. In fact, everything in the house was about ten steps away. Dining area, TV, kitchen. Only the bathroom was further, in a separate room at the back of the house.
The kitchen was what Arkay wanted. The fridge in particular. There was food in there. Ready to eat. The fridge door opened with a little effort, briefly blinding Arkay in a cold yet yellow light.
There was more in the fridge than Arkay expected. It was mostly plastic reusable tubs filled with various stews, but one was filled with cereal flakes. About half a kilo’s worth of cereal. Arkay grabbed the tub and looked around for some milk. He quickly found some in a square carton.
Without thinking, Arkay ripped off the top of the carton, removed the lid from the tub and poured the milk in. He quickly realised that he had no spoon, but this didn’t deter Arkay. He put the edge of the tub to his mouth, opened wide and began to eat.
In a few mere seconds, all the milk and cereal was gone. As was half the plastic tub. Arkay had accidentally eaten part of it.
“Hm. Still hungry.”
Despite the meal, Arkay was not satisfied. He opened the fridge again and looked around, wondering what else he could eat.
At first, Arkay considered eating one of the stews. But considering how quickly he had eaten the cereal, he wasn’t so sure. There was one other thing though. A cake.
The cake was on the top shelf of the fridge. It was a big one, meant to be shared between at least 10 normal beings. It was a simple sponge cake with dried fruit in it, dusted with icing sugar.
Arkay stared at the cake, trying to remember if it was meant for anything special. After a moment, he reached for it, removing it from the fridge and putting it on the side. The question was, could Arkay wait until the cake reached room temperature.
The answer was no. The cake didn’t stand a chance as Arkay devoured it in seconds.
Now was Arkay satisfied? He wasn’t sure. He ate the tray the cake had sat on to check.
No, he wasn’t satisfied. But at the same time, he couldn’t go back to the fridge. If he was not careful, he’d eat the entire fridge’s contents. Instead, Arkay looked to the cupboards. Maybe there was something in those that would satisfy him.
He started with the lower cupboards and the drawers. But most of these were filled with utensils, plates, cutlery and other various kitchenwares. The upper cupboards were worse. They were all mostly empty. Apart from one.
“I can’t eat the spice cupboard…” Arkay sighed. Unlike the cake and the cereal and the plastic, spices were a tad harder to deal with. Arkay could eat them, sure, but it wouldn’t look good in the eyes of normal beings.
He couldn’t eat the other stuff though. He was supposed to be expecting people later on or something like that. Well, he could. In fact, he had already eaten half the tubs of stew the night before.
With another sigh, Arkay grabbed the salt from the cupboard and sat back down in the bed of cushions. He picked up the cushion he least liked, sprinkled salt on it then began to tear into the cushion with his teeth.
Before long, the cushion was gone. As was a second, equally disliked cushion.
But before Arkay could tuck into a third cushion, something distracted him. A knock on the door. Arkay immediately leaped up to go and answer it.
The door swung open, revealing a confused mortal. They could clearly see the mess Arkay had made.
“Hi!” Arkay beamed.
“Uh… They want to see you now… Our leaders…” the mortal muttered.
“Will there be food there?”
“Uh… I think so…”
Arkay smiled, pulling a piece of cushion fluff from his teeth. “Wonderful! Give me a moment to clean myself up and I’ll be right with you!”