"If you want, I can flavor the rest of the deer for you," Belle offered. "Dejaal said there's plenty around, so if you want I can cook something for you."

"Could you?" Temeraire asked hopefully. Andy nodded to Belle.

"Do it," she said. "We should find a town and get whatever you need for it. I'm fairly sure they both like Asian spices." Temeraire and Lien both nodded in agreement.

Belle nodded. "Alright. Well I don't have any on me at the moment but I do have some other things on me. Cayenne, coriander, cinnamon, couple other things."

"That will be just fine," Lien commented. "Andy is a wonderful trainer, she really is, but..."

"But a cook, I am not," Andy finished for her. "I will freely admit that."

Belle snorted. "Well I love cooking, so feel free to request things. Do you want the deer cooked or just seasoned?"

"Both ways are acceptable," Lien replied. "We will complain about neither."

"Bookverse, they each had a personal cook who did everything they could think of," Andy translated.

Belle snorted. "Alrighty then. This should be interesting. Although I think I'm going to need to start getting bigger bottles of seasoning..."

She pulled some spices out of her bag and went back over to the deer, starting to season it. This was kind of interesting, actually. One more thing to put on her pretend resume: cooking for dragons.

"You're spoiling them," Andy teased Belle. "We'll never hear the end of it now."

Belle snorted. "I figured. That's okay. They pay me in free rides and entertainment." She grinned broadly. "See? It works."

Andy snickered.

"Just think, there'll be a third one soon," she pointed out. "One that will end up getting just a big as they are."

Belle shrugged, not too concerned with that.

"Yeah, but that's not too bad. I mean they do the fishing, or catching of whatever. All I do is season and cook. Not bad at all."

Andy grinned.

"Point," she said.

Belle grinned and managed to get the deer seasoned before pulling it over to the dragons.

"There, try that," she said, taking a few steps back so as not to get in their space. "At least I'll have an idea for next time now."

Temeraire motioned for Lien to go first. She did, dipping her head down to take half the deer. She then pushed the other half over to him.

"I like it," she said after a moment. Temeraire nodded his agreement as he took the other half of the deer.

"Awesome. Spicy enough, or would you prefer more?" Belle looked between the two of them, trying to figure out what exactly they liked.

"Perhaps more spice next time?" Temeraire replied. So he liked spice, so what? Lien also nodded her assent.

"Alright. Well I finally have a use for my cayenne and chili pepper besides, you know, chili and barbecue sauce." Belle grinned. "So more spice next time. Got it."

Andy grinned.

"You have no idea how glad I am that we're traveling together," she said.

Belle laughed, going back over to the venison steak and starting to cook it.

"Like I said, I'll finally have a use for my cayenne and chili pepper."

Andy laughed a bit and just watched Belle cook.

"Alright, dinner's ready," Belle called after a little bit. She got her own plate of food before moving out of the way.

Andy nodded and got up to get her own plate before getting out of the way.

The next few days passed in relative peace. Belle went out with Temeraire a few times and filled up the freezer with good food. She also figured out the best way to cook for the dragons and season things, even though she'd need to make a grocery run soon.

She blinked when she saw a few gryphons on the other side of the lake, going to get a drink and get some fish.

Both of the dragons noticed the gryphons as well, but thankfully hadn't started growling to warn them off yet.

Andy noticed the gryphons a little after Belle did.

"We've only been here three days, how are they so comfortable this close to a nesting pair of dragons?" she asked.

"They're not close. They're on the other side of the lake, more than two or three hundred yards away. And we are right next to dragon territory, so they're probably used to dragons coming out a little ways away from the rest." Belle shrugged.