Update: A Curse Chapter 3 Has Been Written

I've finished writing the latest chapter of A Curse and will start editing tomorrow at the earliest. All depends on how well I'm doing.

Here's a small unedited excerpt of what to look forward to:

"Why not just eat it now?" Scourge asked.

"Dragons cook their meals if at all possible." I replied and turned my head slightly to see that she was less than a foot behind me.

"But it does no harm to us to eat raw meat?"

"Don't you like cooked food?"

"I like your meals but...the joys of making a fresh kill can't be replicated by what you're doing."

I chuckled at that. Scourge was more a being of utter wilderness than a mere dragon. How could you tell the wind the importance of a name? How could you make death understand your fears of crossing that barrier? When I died the Shadowbinder wouldn't care about my achievements, she would merely care about my eternal servitude of her.

"You're right that killing my food is always more rewarding." I agreed. "But there are tastes and flavors that can only be achieved through cooking."

"So cooking is a fun game for you?" Scourge asked and I went back to looking at the mutton.

"It is and a rewarding one at that. I'm able to make you, Alex, Daenerys, and Jeor happy with my meals."

"If cooking is so fun why doesn't Daenerys usually cook?"

"Because she was a queen and queens don't tend to cook their own food. There are servants for things like that."

"Wasn't she something before she became a queen? Why not still harbor a joy of cooking from them?"

"Daenerys' time before becoming a queen was...it's not a pleasant memory for her. Even if she enjoyed cooking back then, her memories would have become tainted."

Scourge became silent as both of us thought briefly about my second wife's past. She had been beaten and abused to the point it was a miracle there had been anything left of her. Yet she had still managed to hold onto herself and briefly rule the Fire in Ice Clan.

"If my...my family hadn't attempted to kill me would cooking make sense?" Scourge asked. "Would I have liked cooking?"

"I don't know, my love." I told her. "You would have had servants your entire life so you might not have even thought of dabbling in it."