Prompt: Among discarded Courser barding, a glint catches your eye. Horned beetles with gemstones fused to their chitin armor clash against one another in combat. They are small enough to pocket – or eat as a crunchy snack, if you’re so inclined…

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“Did you have to adopt a slime?” Paladin asked.

“Yes, it was cute,” Majesty replied.

“But it’s so slimy…”

“Did you think a slime would not be slimy?”

“You know what I mean.”

Majesty chuckled as she followed through the brushes that Paladin had held aside for her. Next to her a small slime slid across the ground, following the duo of horses and their little mole companion that happily rode on Paladin’s back. As the mare passed the stallion a loud gurgling sound rang out. She froze.

“Hungry?” she asked, turning to look at him with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

“I’ll be fine,” Paladin grumbled.

“You didn’t eat last time we stopped.”

“Last time we stopped for food it was because you found beetles to snack on. While I may be impulsive I won’t eat a bug.”

“You sure? There appears to be another set of armor over there with more shiny shiny beetles in it.”

“What?”

Paladin’s head swiveled until his brown eyes landed on the abandoned Courser armor and saw the shiny gems… moving… skittering.

“I AM NOT EATING THOSE!”

“They won’t kill you. Let me just check that they are the same kind of beetles.”

Majesty trotted over to the armor and inspected the beetles. Flipping one over she eyed it until she was certain they were the same type of beetles as before. Looking at the armor more closely, it looked quite similar to the last set of armor, just a little bigger. Majesty wondered if they were from the same group of divers. Maybe the beetles were the reason they were abandoned, crawling under the armor and spooking the Coursers enough that they discarded their armor and fled only to realize the other member of the party also had beetles in their armor.

Opening a small bag, the mare began to scoop the beetles into the bag as Paladin just watched with a disgusted look on his face. Soon the mare returned to the stallion and held out the bag.

“May as well not waste the beetles if you want the gems on top of them.”

Majesty then shook a single beetle out of the bag and picked it up into her mouth. The crunch was loud and made Paladin shiver. His mole companion clearly wanted one though and so did the slime. Majesty gave each companion a beetle. The crunching of the mole’s, Quartz's, snack caused the stallion to nearly gag. While the slime was much more quiet the beetle could be seen dissolving within.

“Fine, FINE! Give me a darn beetle,” Paladin almost cried.

Majesty placed a beetle before him. It skittered. It shuffled towards him. The stallion nearly jumped out of his skin but forced himself to remain still in order to look less like a coward. Bending down he picked up the beetle between his teeth and popped it into his mouth. Quickly he bit down to prevent it from skittering over his tongue.

“Oh. That’s not that bad,” he finally spoke up after a minute of chewing.

The stallion spat out a few little gemstones and pulled the bag from his own supplies, placing the gems with the ones gathered previously. The group gathered around the bag, eating beetles and gathering gemstones. They were not large gemstones and would not bring in a large profit, but it was better than nothing at all.

“There. Feeling a little better?” Majesty asked as they finished the last of the beetles.

Paladin’s stomach returned to gurgling as if the beetles had only worsened the feeling of hunger.

“I’m still hungry.”

Majesty sighed.

“Alright, well, lets keep going. There is bound to be something ahead for us to eat.”
“Please, no more bugs…”

“I thought you enjoyed the beetles?”

“The beetles have bonus gems. That made it worth it.”

Majesty rolled her eyes as she got up and shoved the large leaves hanging over the path aside, motioning for Paladin to get his butt in gear. The stallion stood and lifted his head high, taking the lead like the good leader he was. Majesty just chuckled under her breath as she let her little slime companion through before following the rest of the group. The slime and mole were clearly happy and full for the time being, but the stallion sounded like he was starving as his stomach gurgled away, begging for more to fill it.