Chinatown

"Wakey-wakey~", a soft feminine voice echoed in RJ's ears.

In response, RJ just sorta grumbled a bit before his mind went back into focus.

He wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but he was aware that he was currently lying down on something rather soft on a bench in one of the city's parks.

"Nyghhh? What happened"?

"You used some of your skill points to unlock your magical potential and learn some things", Tatterhood informed him.

"Okay...where are we"?

"A park in a quaint area called 'Chinatown'. Lovely place, love the smell of the food here".

"How did you-".

"Bellerophon".

"Woof", the dog (goat) barked in confirmation.

"Nice...and how long have I been laying on your lap"?

"For about five minutes", she answered while scratching his head, "you looked very comfy".

"Huh... I'm gonna get up now", RJ said before lifting his head off Tatterhood's surprisingly comfortable lap,"so...how and why are we Chinatown"?

Tatterhood dusted off her jeans before standing up to face him.

"Three reasons", Tatterhood said while holding up three fingers.

"First, I didn't know where you lived in this city, so I had decided to drag you around while I went sightseeing", she said while putting down a finger.

"I...how did you carry me?", RJ asked.

"Bellerophon and a little magic".

"Huh", he said as he turned his head towards the aforementioned "dog".

"Woof".

"Strong goat".

"Second, you'll be able to do this yourself later, but magical beings such as I are able to detect one another. I sensed a presence around here and figured you might be interested", she informed RJ while putting down a second finger, "but that's not the most important bit".

"What's the important bit"?

"The last and most important reason we're here is...I'm hungry and that place looked interesting", she said while using her last finger to point to a restaurant behind RJ.

Turning his head back, he was greeted by the sight of rather small restaurant called "The Lotus Noodle House: Chongqing and Szechuan cuisine".

"Noodles actually sound...wait, aren't you like a game... spirit...thing?", RJ asked, "How can you get hungry"?

"Normally I don't, but I am subjected to the laws of this reality when I take on this disguised form", Tatterhood explained as she grabbed RJ's hand and pulled him up, "Now come on, I want to see if the food is as good as it smells"!

__________________________________________

Rats.

As much as people hate to admit it, it doesn't matter what city in the world you go to, you will find rats.

In abandoned buildings, inside city parks, within the tunnels of city sewers and even inside the walls of that one relative who calls them, "their precious babies", rats are in basically every city. In this particular instance, this rat was hanging out in the garbage area of a restaurant in Chinatown.

*Sniff*

"Rotten fish"

*Sniff*

"Three day old tofu"

*Sniff*

"Freshly thrown out beef"!

The rat squeaked with glee 5as it dived into the refuse pile and began to gorge itself.

Survival of the fittest in more wild ecosystems normally entails being smart enough to recognize food and hiding places, fast enough to avoid predators and run away with food and strong enough to fight off weaker rivals. In an urban environment, a rat could ditch the other two while just being smart enough to recognize when and where a restaurant just dumped it's leftovers.

This particular rat lucked out and found a restaurant in Chinatown with a decent sized dumpster and not other rats in the area to compete with. There was the occasional stray cat, raccoon and crazy hobo, but it learned when to disappear from such things.

This rat, like countless others of his kind, would eat, mate, eat, mate ad infinitum until it dies of old age or as someone else's dinner.

Unless...something happened...

As rat gorged itself on discarded foodstuffs, it failed to notice a tiny crack in reality had occurred within the confines of it's meal. It wasn't enough to let anything big through, but it was just enough for magical energy to infuse itself into a dried chili pepper.

After finishing part of it's meal, the rat had taken notice of this strange chili pepper and was inexplicably drawn to it. Normally it would avoid eating such things, the spice would upset it's small stomach. But there was something...alluring about this particular pepper.

Without a second thought, it chowed down on the pepper...and then it felt a powerful burning sensation rock it's body!