Getting through the flames had required little magical talent, which warned Astrid that perhaps battling the element of Fire wasn't the actual point of this task. She turned to look at the flames over her shoulder. The gap she had made when she had passed through it had closed back up again. Astrid shook out her arms and legs to make sure she'd properly extinguished the elements. Not that she would ever admit it, but she was surprised her little stunt hadn't so much as singed her eyebrows.

"Fire can't burn fire, prick." She smirked at the flames.

"You're on fire."

Astrid jumped at the unexpected voice and spun around. The earth itself titled underneath her feet. Matthias watched her through weary, brown eyes, his lips held into a tight line. What? Struck with confusion and the fear that maybe smoke inhalation was causing her to hallucinate, she stared at him in return and began to ramble as poorly as Sebastian.

"Correction: I was on fire." She wiggled her fleshy, unburnt fingers at him in proof. "On purpose, I might add."

"Of course."

His skepticism failed to register, her brain stuck on trying to catch up with this unexpected turn-of-events. About five awkwardly too-long seconds later, the shock of seeing Matthias bled into a slow worry that sent her heart into her throat.

"What in Hel's Abyss are you doing here?"

The sweltering heat pressed against Astrid's already raw nerves. Methodically, she scanned Matthias from head to toe, fists clenched at her sides, her mother's parting words throbbing against her skull.

Make sure to act wisely, daughter.

Her mother had chosen Matthias as an item for her to save from the flames.

An item, she had said. Not a person.

"Is Matthias dead?" she had asked Savon only hours earlier.

"Even murdered her own meuredre," she heard Serah say again.

Astrid swore.

Matthias sighed. "This is not the place for dramatic grumbles."

"I'm swearing, not grumbling—oh!"

A round of dizziness rocked her without warning. She shook her head, which only made it worse. Dammit. The elemental burnout came from nowhere, leeching her of all mental strength. It left her breathless, and though she knew it was all mental, it seeped into her muscles. She felt her ankles rock unsteadily. Astrid braced her hands on her knees, gulping down air that didn't seem to be there.

Too much, too fast. 

Well, that was her motto. At least she was consistent. 

Astrid coughed out a meager snort and scrambled back to her feet. Sweat dripped from her hair. "Woah." Steeling her physical strength, she turned back to Matthias. "Fat load of help you were just then. Why even be here if not to save your princess from certain death due to magical burnout?"

Matthias didn't even bother to roll his eyes, but he did flex his arms beneath the restraints. Wait...restraints? It was the wince in his expression that spurred Astrid into motion again. She lunged forward, fighting the dizzying swarm of stars around her head, and stood before Matthias in three, hurried strides. His body was held taut against one of the strong, bronze forearms of the now motionless dragon by a tightly-wound leather restraint that wrapped around his waist and up his torso. Her fingers tested the elasticity of the strap around his wrist; her fingernail could barely slide between it and his skin.

"Curse the skies."

Sweat beaded along his hairline and trickled down the sides of his face. He was dressed in a simple, sleeveless tunic, the type of garment he would wear underneath his captain's uniform.

"Who the hell undressed you?"

"Your mother, I imagine."

Her fingers fumbled against the knot again. "Do not make this stranger than it has to be, 'Thias."

His gaze shifted from her face to the underbelly of the beast's hide as Astrid fumbled for the knots that held him there.

"Dragons," he muttered, a sharp bite to his tone. "Blasted menaces."

Astrid tried to force a smile. "You are a proper damsel, aren't you?"

Heat rolled down her spine as she unraveled one end of the restraints. The binding fell limply against Matthias's thigh, dangling towards the ground. It wrapped around her ankle and nearly tripped her in her haste. She kicked it out of the way. Why would her mother have chosen Matthias? Astrid frowned to herself because, of course, she already knew the answer to that. Her mother had even alluded to it weeks before: Your care for him caused you to lose control.

Well, she felt in complete control now. She was going to get Matthias out of here before her mother could use him as collateral damage against her. You have always cared the most for those who hurt you.

Astrid scowled. "I'm still angry with you," she snapped, her fingers slipping on his damp skin as she yanked at another knot. "About the portal, I mean."

He stood stiff and still even as Astrid reached around his back, her arm against his hip.

"Astrid, stop."

She ignored him and eyed the motionless creature that towered over them with a challenging expression "Do you think I can touch this monstrosity? If I touch it, will it awaken, do you think? It could flatten us both in one step." Astrid released a short breath as she loosened another knot. "It can't be alive, though. Machines have no hearts. Who do you think controls it?"

His left wrist broke free of the restraint and his fingers wrapped around her elbow without warning. He took hold of her and shook her slightly. "Astrid. Listen to me," he said, his eyes intent on her face. "I can't be what you choose."

"Of course you can," she argued. "It's my choice to make. Mine, 'Thias. Not yours."

A frustrated growl rumbled low in his chest. "You haven't looked to see what the other choice is. Use your head, Astrid. You've used a good deal of magic to get here. I know it has rattled you, but you need to regain control of yourself and look."

She glared at him. He simply raised an eyebrow at her in response and then jerked his chin to the left where the dragon's hind leg lay sprawled outwards from its thick body.

Astrid huffed, held his stare, and then very deliberately, pressed her palm into the dragon's chest.

It was surprisingly cool to the touch. "Well, I guess touching it won't waken the beasty," she said. "Good to know, I suppose."

Matthias narrowed his gaze, wordlessly expressing his stubborn disappointment. She sighed, and, with head held high, she followed where he pointed.

She recognized the base of her mother's epitaph immediately, upon which sat Davina's Monverta.

Bled as many elemental threads from the seven realms as she could. Imprisoned them all into the Monverta.

Her mouth went dry. "I—I thought I blew that up." She rounded on Matthias. "You truly think I would choose it over your traitorous arse?"

Matthias's jaw twitched. "I think you would understand what choice Her Majesty would deem worthy of a Salveretta."

Astrid's brain faltered at the Scribal word. One that the Scribes had claimed Davina had made up entirely. "Have you—?" she hesitated. "That word. Salveretta. It's very similar to Salvera."

"What are you—?" Matthias's gaze narrowed on her. "You spoke with the Scribes."

The accusation was clear. "I hardly had a choice," she argued. "Not after that portal stunt you pulled!"

"And what will your choice be now, Your Highness?"

She pursed her lips, arms crossed over her chest. The thick material of her shirt was damp with sweat, and the sudden realization of it made the air around them suddenly thicker and hotter. She sucked down a breath and glanced from Matthias to Davina's Monverta.

Of course her mother would expect the kingdom's Saviour to choose it. The last remaining relic of magic. The hope it represented. For the kingdom. For her mother. For her family, It was difficult to hold on to all that hope now, however, when faced with the lies of the Scribes running wild through her brain and the truth of the lengths her mother was willing to go towards for this tournament.

For their plan.

A plan Astrid began to realize she knew very little about.

Well, Astrid had a hope of her own.

But hope could be so feeble.

Recklessness served her much better.

"I could take both."

"You're meant to take only one."

Astrid waved a dismissive hand. "Rules are for the weak."

"They're also for the living," Matthias countered. He tossed the last of his restraints into the flames, having freed himself with one hand. She'd almost forgotten how irritating he could be. He glowered like he had read her thoughts. "If you attempt to take us both, that beast awakens, and we're dead."

"You're telling me this now?"

He shrugged, rotating his shoulder muscles. "It's better than telling you after you attempt such an idiotic plan."

Her mouth twitched but she swallowed her retorts, which were plentiful, and turned in a slow circle to assess their limited surroundings. Matthias's watchful eyes were on her as she sauntered up to the dragon and patted the smooth curve of its shin. She traced the lines of the beast all the way to the base of its tail. Her neck craned upwards to view the dragon's long, strong neck. It would be, at least, a nine meter climb. She'd mastered worse before.

Besides, this Monverta was a fake. Her mother would never be selfless enough to risk the true one.

Satisfied, Astrid straightened and grinned at Matthias over her shoulder. "Do you trust me?"

His response was immediate. "No."

"What a shame," she admonished before she launched herself at her mother's hideous epitaph.

She had expected the book to be heavier even it it wasn't truly Davina's Monverta. When she wrenched at its light weight, she tumbled backwards from the unnecessary momentum. It was no matter, however, for it only took her a second more to right herself and then toss the fake Scribal artifact into the air.

"Catch!"

The only way she knew Matthias had caught it was the muffled oof he exclaimed and the thump it made when it struck against his chest. First step, complete; now, the fun could really begin. With a running leap, Astrid jumped at the dragon. Its tail had started to twitch back and forth as it awakened. No matter. Her foot used its thigh as leverage, and she pushed off the metallic muscles, scrambling up the slippery surface. Her fingers clasped around one of the golden spines that stuck out at intervals from the dragon's thickly hunched back.

Her mother was simply going to love this.

Panting, she grinned to herself before clambering the rest of the way up the dragon's shifting body.

If this didn't put on a show, she wasn't sure what would.

O O O

Sebastian.

The queen's Monverta looked innocent enough from where it stood on its wooden base at the paws of the dragon, but Sebastian heard it whispering. As eerie now as it had sounded all the times before.

Come to me. Find me.

His blood had been used on those pages; it called to him. Sebastian's heart thumped unsteadily as he took a step closer. The glow from the surviving flames created a reddish hue across the worn leather; it looked strangely like blood. He couldn't help but think it was his own, bleeding from the book's pages. His fingers twitched.

Carissénas. Promised one.

"Bash. Sebastian!"

Sebastian startled at the familiar voice. It pulled him from the book's Scribal trance and forced him to turn his head towards the sound. His shallow breath caught in his throat, and he choked at the sight.

"Abel?!"

Her eyes narrowed on a snort. "Figures a book would catch your attention first."

Sebastian followed her gaze, thoughts spinning. "It—it isn't simply a book." His words were a hollow sound that caused the Monverta's whispers to ping against his skull. "It took my blood, tore apart Queen Davina's Keep. It speaks to me in dreams and—" he glanced away with a shiver, a feeling that only worsened as he turned his back on it—"It's full of the elements, Abel. It's an Author's book."

"I know," she said. "I mean, I can feel it, too, I think."

"You can?" He spun back to her. "I thought I was going mental!"

His words stuttered to a halt as he looked at Abel for the first time and truly saw her. Her auburn hair hung in a long tail draped over her shoulder like a tongue of flames that had left smeared, black ashes along her pale skin. A thickly woven rope dangled from her hip, and she picked at the frayed edges absent-mindedly as she watched him from where she sat, an eyebrow raised.

"Bash, you just appeared through a wall of flames, and you're the one who seems surprised?"

He shook his head. "Were you tied to the dragon?"

"They are rather magnificent, aren't they? I think Matthias fears them. Can't imagine why." Abel grinned and tossed something across the space between them. "I'm still underestimated, it seems."

A small, thin pocket knife clattered to a stop at Sebastian's feet. He stepped back from it, glancing from it, to Abel, to the silent book that lay innocently behind him. "Who tied you here? Why?"

Her smile was a bit pitying. "Queen Davina hoped this decision would be difficult for you to make." She pushed herself to her feet and reached out for his wrist. Her fingers were damp and hot. "This is the second task, Bash. You have to choose."

The realization came slowly, but when it did, it hit with the force of a storm. "No," he said automatically. "I—I can't—!"

He wanted to say that he chose her, of course he did, but he felt the weight of the book behind him, and his tongue faltered.

It pulled at his very blood.

Abel dropped his wrist, smoothing her palms down the length of the simple, beige tunic that hung from her willowy frame. Sebastian watched her movements, brain ticking. The tunic was much too flimsy to have been any garment Abel would have chosen herself. Had Queen Davina really done this? Had she truly taken Abel and tied her to a mechanical monster that could spit fire and burn down villages?

Surely not.

But then he remembered Serah and her claims against Davina, and Sebastian was not so sure at all.

His wide eyes met Abel's, but she only sank gracefully to the ground and crossed her legs beneath her, sitting as she used to while Imogene had told them the fables and legends of old.

"Tell me about this book."

His hand snagged on a wayward curl as he ran it over his head. "You remember my ma's stories about Scribes and their Authors? Each Scribe kept a book for their respected Author: The Tales of Monverta. Monverta is Scribal tongue for 'my blood.'"

Abel nodded. "That makes sense, considering all the stories claim the knowledge in these books would remain hidden unless an Author brought them to life with their blood."

Sebastian faltered. "What?"

"Yeah. The Scribe's ink would seep into the pages of their books and could only be revealed to others if an Author deemed them worthy." She must have seen the panic playing across his face because she eyed him curiously. "Only an Author related to that Scribal book could use it. Bash—why are you so pale?"

"I—" Sebastian swallowed his stutter. Tried again. "My blood revealed images in Queen Davina's Monverta."

"Oh." For a few seconds, Abel's mouth stayed like that, popped into the shape of a bubble.

Sebastian could tell she was struggling to find words that would calm him down. He wasn't sure anything would work at the moment.

"Bash," she began gently, "you are an Author. We had already suspected that, but—"

"The fact my blood brought the queen's book to life means I am related to it." Sebastian's heart pounded as wildly as the dragon's roaring flames. "The Scribes told Astrid and I that her mother wasn't an Author but she had had one."

"Her father?"

Sebastian felt sick. "Or mine." He shook his head furiously. "No. Astrid said we weren't related. She checked."

Abel's eyes glinted against the glowing flames. "Can we trust Astrid?"

"I do." His blunt words surprised both of them. "I have to. If I didn't, I would be alone in all of this."

Abel looked away from him. "You wouldn't be alone." When she met his eyes again, her tone was as firm as the steel in her expression. "We both know what your choice should be, Bash."

His stomach dropped at her determination, and he frowned, his chest jittery with adrenalin.

"What about you?"

A small smirk lifted her lips. "Kick my knife to me."

Wordlessly, he complied, and she flipped it into her grip when it clattered clumsily into her reach. She leapt to her feet, swiping her hair out of her face. The motion left a smear of gray dirt across her forehead. "I'll be fine," she assured him, "but if you're to be, you need to take that book. Now, make your move before this majestic creature wakes up again and spits fire at us."

Sebastian gaped at her. "Majestic?"

She brandished the knife at him. "Just do it before I change my mind."

It wasn't as difficult to turn away from her as Sebastian would have thought. Perhaps it was because she had given him permission. Or maybe the Monverta had a magnetic force of its own that pulled at his curiosity. His feet moved across the rocky plateau, the flames flickering high around them both. When his toes brushed the base of the wooden structure, Sebastian loosened a hot, ashy breath.

He stared down at the bound leather, imagining his bloodied face that had appeared in its pages, the memories that had assaulted him when he had first touched it, the explosion that had flung him and Astrid across the room. Just like he had done earlier with the elements and his connection to them, he shut down his constantly raging fears and logic and simply acted.

His hand wrapped around the book's spine and yanked it from its perch. It flopped against his chest harmlessly. For a second, he stared at it, confused. No words whispered from it. His skin didn't stick to it. No images. No terror. Nothing. He half-turned back to Abel to revel in the fact that nothing abnormal had happened when a shriek pierced the otherwise unnatural silence of the flaming circle.

Sebastian tripped in his haste to get to Abel, the book clutched to his stomach. "What did it do? Are you okay?"

But Abel, who appeared unharmed, wasn't looking at him; she peered into the sky instead, her tawny eyes widened. "That bitch is insane."

Sebastian blinked into the clouds drifting overhead. And then blinked again as an enormous shadow dropped from the sky with another cry of joy. Not distress. Happiness. He stared in awed disbelief at the golden speck astride the shadow's giant back like a rider atop a horse.

Astrid's shout rang from above. "Catch this, Seabass!"

His instincts reacted faster than his brain could question what, exactly, Astrid meant for him to catch. All he knew was that any object dropped from that height could do some serious damage, and with Astrid, who knew what she was capable of throwing. He dove towards Abel, catching her with one hand by the elbow and yanking them both beneath the belly of their stationary dragon as Astrid's object fell from the sky.

Well, their dragon had been stationary. Until now, it seemed.

Abel and Sebastian rolled to stop in a tangle of limbs against the hind leg of the beast just as something thumped off the dragon's neck and onto the ground. Sebastian pushed himself up onto his elbows to peer at the fallen object.

Astrid had thrown him a book.

There were two Monvertas?

Confused, he glanced from the one on the ground to the book still held tightly under his scraped arm.

Abel pushed at his leg that trapped her to the ground and hopped lithely back to her feet, staring up at the sky with a hand over her eyes. "Can we do that, too?" When she looked back at Sebastian, her face shone with wonder. "She has Matthias. We could get out of here just like them, easily."

Easily dead, Sebastian wanted to say but he had already crouched by the book Astrid had tossed. Could Davina truly have two of them? Sebastian placed them side-by-side. They really were identical; except his had a long, jagged crack along the spine, worn patterns that decorated the leather binding like vines. It warmed beneath his hand. He sucked down a breath and flipped open the front cover of it. The pages were completely empty except for an inscription on the inside of the cover:

Authors held a mind for control,
And bade the others halfway whole.

Sebastian reached for it. As his hand stretched over the old leather, his fingertips tingled. His palm fell to it like a magnet.

Something hard and unyielding rammed into his shoulder blades. With a muffled shout, Sebastian fell forwards, his cheek slamming into the corner of Astrid's book.

"Bash! Roll!" Abel shouted.

Sebastian sprawled onto his right side. He pushed himself onto his hands, wincing as his ribs screamed in protest, and scrambled backwards, looking up at their awakened dragon. As if it had sensed the threat of Astrid's beast, the dragon swerved its neck from side to side. Two large, metallic white wings unhinged from its sides, the edge of one of them centimeters from Sebastian's head.

Sebastian swallowed and stared up at it. The webbing membrane looked impenetrably thick and razor sharp. Something wet trickled down his spine, and suddenly Abel was there, tucking her hands under his armpits and dragging him backwards, her knife clamped between her teeth.

"The books!" Sebastian fought to regain his footing. "It will stomp on them!"

Abel snorted and tugged him a final time before abruptly dropping him. He swayed on his feet, a dizziness that was worsened when he saw the blood on Abel's hands. "You're hurt."

"It's yours." She shook her head, eyes on the dragon whose head turned in time with the movement of Astrid's wild flight through the air. "We have to get out of here." She side-eyed Sebastian's scraped and bleeding spine before returning her attention to the skies. "Think we could catch a ride?"

"But the books—"

"Forget the damned books, Bash!"

Surprised at Abel's sharp tone, Sebastian assessed her expression as a dark shadow cloaked it into further obscurity. "But you said—!"

He looked up to find Astrid's dragon, wings pulled tightly to its sides, spiraling like an arrow straight down towards them.

"Get down!" Astrid's voice ordered.

Abel swore, grabbed Sebastian by the hand, and tugged him across the plateau in the opposite direction. His toe rammed into one of the books, kicking it along with them, nearly tripping up Abel's sure, swift steps. Behind them, there was a mighty, shrieking crash as the two dragons collided. The force of it shook the earth. He and Abel fell into a roll. Sebastian grabbed her by the waist as they tumbled across the ground towards the flaming wall. Sebastian realized what was going to happen and felt his instincts roar against the hot, approaching threat.

His power erupted into a scream as he shot his hand into the flames.

There was a moment where his skin felt so hot it almost froze. His lungs contracted so tightly he could barely register the pain, and then the fire parted around them and he and Abel toppled out onto the other side.

The noise of the crowd surged around them, nearly drowning out the short, unsteady gasps that Abel made against his neck.

Spectators screamed riotously. "Who's that?"

"It's not Her Highness!"

"Stop the task!"

"Look! There she is!"

Sebastian glanced up at the glittering stands; some spectators forced their way back into the tunnels in their haste to get out as Astrid's dragon roared a battle cry and swept out its wing. It angled into a ninety degree drop as it spun in midair like a twisting toy top.

Abel hissed against him.

"By the Scribes! You're okay." He loosened his hold on her. "Did I burn you? Just breathe. Take another one."

He shifted her from his lap to the ground when one of the Monvertas fell from between them. The one with the crack. The one that had tingled. It had somehow ended up tangled between their stomachs in their mad tumble through the flames. The book flopped, unburned, next to Abel's hip. His gaze locked on it until Abel coughed. Her fingers dug into his blistered wrist as she forced herself to sit.

Her voice shifted like smoke. "Bash, look."

The crowd screamed again. Astrid's reckless dragon swerved towards the spectator stands before soaring over them. Its wings sent a powerful gust of wind over Sebastian's head, flinging his hair back from his forehead. Even more Halorians rushed towards the exits now, especially when Sebastian's dragon suddenly reared out from its flames and leapt into the air in a jolting pursuit.

Curse the Skies.

Queen Davina's voice rang out throughout the mountain. "Loyal subjects of Halorium."

Sebastian turned to where she stood on her own viewing platform. For a split second, he could have sworn she met his stare, blue eyes glinting like spears of ice that sent a chill down his arms. But, in a blink, the physical feeling disappeared, though he remained unsettled. For instead of searching for Astrid's well-being in the mighty dragon clash taking place above, she looked out at her people, palm outstretched.

"Your well-being has always been, and remains, my priority. Fear not, for I will not allow harm to befall any of you."

From beside him, Abel's head tilted inquisitively as she squinted up into Davina's viewing box. "She's been hurt."

It appeared Abel had been correct. Queen Davina leaned against one of her guards, his shoulder acting as a crutch to keep her steady and upright. Oh, gods. It was then that Sebastian remembered the crowd yelling earlier as he had struggled to breathe that their queen had collapsed.

Right after that strange voice had forced voixili out of him.

For what is taken from Earth must be given back.

Sebastian's body shook with the impact of the two dragons that finally clashed in midair. The awful, mechanical screeching jarred Sebastian from his dar, spiraling thoughts in time to hear Davina make her next announcement:

"Master Caius, deactivate the beasts."

"No!" Sebastian jumped to his feet, breaths seizing painfully in his chest. "You can't! Astrid's up there!"

Not that he had expected Davina to hear him amidst the chaos, but she couldn't do that! At least the crowd shared his concern: hushed whispers swept through the stands. Some who fled even froze, hands over their lips like prisoners fearful of speaking treason. Sebastian felt his heart shake, constrict. Squeeze. Concern. He wasn't sure it was an adequate enough word to describe how he felt in that moment. His head spun. Stomach churned. Every breath he sucked down seared his throat and choked his lungs.

An orange, hot glow lit up the hazy sky as Astrid's dragon spewed fountains of flames to distract its pursuer before leveling into a twisting dive.

The elements tugged at his gut. He watched Master Caius who reached into his robes and pulled out something small and indecipherable. It glinted in the sunlight peeking out from behind the gathering clouds. The dragons were machines; they must be made up of pulleys and gears, wires and circuits, and to stop a machine...

"It's a switch," Sebastian realized. "He's going to cut the power source."

Abel frowned. "But...Astrid is the queen's daughter."

Sebastian's intestines knotted around the threads he felt stirring there.

Even murdered her own meuredre.

Heart hammering, fingers flexing at his sides, he watched the tiny speck that was Astrid with dread. Her dragon pivoted so sharply that its left wing clipped the ledge of the plateau. It jostled Astrid atop it who slipped sideways. Something leapt off the wing and rolled onto the plateau.

Not something. Someone.

"Matthias!" Abel took a step towards the fallen captain. "Astrid pushed him off."

The pressure in his stomach became unbearable, pressing into his head. "She chose to save him."

Voixili, that eerie voice of the queen's Monverta purred again.

The book he had pulled from the flames thrummed beneath his grasp. It felt pleasant even as the voice came again.

Do not fear, child.

Sebastian's nails cut into his palms.

Abel cried out. "Why isn't she jumping?"

Probably because Sebastian's dragon jumped first. Like some master puppeteer had cut the strings of its marionette, the dragon's wings snapped shut against the wind and dropped from the sky like a burning meteor.

Master Caius had flipped the switch.

It fell gracelessly like a boulder tossed from a cliff and collided into the back of Astrid's dragon. The two beasts slammed into the side of the plateau, loosening bits of rock that clattered down the sheer mountainside. Matthias clasped his ribs, yelling angry, loud words at the queen's box. Spectators swore and shouted, some even applauded, but Sebastian ran towards the lip of the plateau, instinct overtaking his brain. The impact of the collision had flung Astrid into the air. Sebastian skidded to a halt at the edge, the power he held inside of himself tearing at his organs to find a release.

Voixili, the book insisted, but Sebastian refused to listen this time.

Instead, he channeled Astrid, imagining her hand on his stomach.

Go, he ordered his power. Release!

He threw out his arm into the wind like he'd seen Astrid do so many times before and cried out to it.

Astrid halted mid-scream, her body held aloft by mere threads of Air as the two, lifeless dragons tumbled down the mountain's chasm and into the dark depths below the precipice.

- - -

Oh, boy, I'm so excited for the chapters that are to come!! We're so close to getting to the chapters that will explain everything. Well, mostly everything. :)

Thank you for reading!! If you're still here, here's a fun, random question for you to answer: Pizza or hamburgers?