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Or so she thought

"Rebh above In response, one of the fruits dislodged itself fro hand

Aldrec drew a small knife frolistened with juice, was red and pink, with tiny black seeds grouped together at the center He used the knife to cut out the seeds, and carefully placed theround He repeated the process with the other half of the fruit and then gave it to Mericlou

"It's good to eat," he assured her, and thenchuckle, "not that you'd be in any danger of being poisoned, though"

Mericlou took a large bite into the fruit, skin and all

It was sour … , she spat out the piece of fruit, and then gagging when she finally could, with an utterly stricken expression

Aldrec, she realized, was laughing

"No, no, no!" He finally said, trying to save face after he had ot to tell you Just eat the meat on the inside," he indicated the fruit's pink interior with his knife "The skin is sour enough to rust a car"

"Ugh!" Mericlou said, still tasting its repulsive tartness in her ain, but more hesitantly this time, Mericlou took a bite out of the fruit, careful this time, to avoid the tart skin

It was … Delicious! As a matter of fact, it was theshe had ever eaten It was so delicious in fact, that it took partially biting into the horribly sour skin to realize that she had devoured all of her piece She stared wistfully at the now eh she was full, she wanted more No … by the maker, she wanted it all!

"What kind of fruit was that?" She asked in astonish herself back to her senses She saw that Aldrec had taken muchless than halfway finished with it

"Royal Klidna," He replied around a piece that was still in his endary Royal Klidna? The god-fruit? The fruit whose taste caused the Kingdom Wars?"