No Coffee in Rizkaland

Rachel Heffington of Inkpen Authoress has begun a new link-up called Chatterbox, akin to the Snippets of Story that Katie hosts (and I shall be posting mine the day after tomorrow) and similar to my own Character Encounters. (She also compares it to Beautiful People, but I've never actually done BP, so I can't say that for certain.)

The theme of Chatterbox is showing your characters through conversation. She assigns a theme, and you have your characters talk about it. (Sorta like how I assign a location and you meet your character there.) Who knows - it may even find its way into your book!

This month's theme is coffee ... a topic that none of my characters have ever given enough thought to warrant a conversation. But I've worked through my list of characters and came up with a cast and setting that is at least somewhat logical for such a conversation. So here goes ... Clara and Andrew on coffee. (Told from Andrew's POV, so Clara will be referred to by her title, Water Princess, which is how I keep it straight in my head whose POV I'm using in the book.)

"They don't have coffee here in Klarand."

Andrew's head shot up from the tiny fire to see the Water Princess staring down at him. Even after blinking several times, he still could only come up with one word for his response: "What?"

She smirked as she sat down cross-legged on the other side of the fire. "They don't have coffee in Klarand," she repeated. "In fact, it doesn't exist anywhere in Rizkaland."

He blinked again, glancing helplessly towards their sleeping friends. "And you'd ... like some?" he guessed.

She made a face, and he instantly knew that he had guessed wrong. "Coffee is disgusting, and terribly bad for your health."

"Then ... why'd you bring it up?" He found it almost impossible to even think with her staring at him like that.

"Because we've already discussed how Rizkaland doesn't have chocolate, and coffee follows naturally from that." 

"That was five days ago."

She smirked again. "We've been busy, but now we aren't. So we can continue the conversation."

Andrew glanced towards the dead-end wall along which she had been pacing like a wildcat for the last three of those days. "I've ... noticed."

Her gaze followed his to the wall and a growl rumbled in her throat. "I don't like inactivity."

"Obviously."

"Which is why coffee is not a good thing for me. You think I'm bad now - I'd be a monster if people gave me coffee."

"Except that you don't like it."

"Precisely." She was silent for several seconds, then turned him a sharp look. "So, do you like coffee?"

He looked down at the fire in an effort to avoid that sharp look. "Not plain, but with ..."

She snorted. "Exactly, you have to add SUGAR to make it taste good. And do you know how unhealthy sugar is?"

"I've heard."