Borealis Seventeen - Egg City

     Ember poked the yolk of one of her eggs, cooked sunny side up, until one of the eggs popped. The warm, organgey yellow stuff inside oozed up and bled out as soon as she removed the prong of her fork from the puncture. Plump liquid slowly covered half of the plate. It was weird, so Ember popped the second egg to fill the rest of the plate.
     Aurora, who had asked for her eggs scrambled, leaned over and lightly scolded Ember, "Don't be wasteful. Your eggs will be cold soon. Eat." She shoveled the last of her scramble into her mouth, barely chewing and mostly inhaling.
     "Okay," Ember said. She hadn't ever seen eggs before, and although she should have had the same appetite as Aurora, given that it had been well over a day since either had eaten anything, the sight of such a peculiar food was particularly off putting to her. So, she just sat there, making faces at the eggs in between pokes.
     Food was much different inside the city. Everything solid came in cubes or spheres of rich blues, deep purples, and emerald greens, and the liquids often shown in glowy reds, yellows, and oranges. Everything was flavored. Everything was sterile and delicious. No one knew where it came from, but such simple food hardly begged much inquiry or thought.
     Ember turned to Garnet, who had just walked around from behind a nearby corner-- Some scouting had been in order after breakfast, he felt-- and said, "Garnet, are you sure this food's alright? It's all yellowy and gross. And, what the hell is this white stuff around the edges and all these black dots?"
     Smiling and trying hard to stifle a laugh, Garnet responded, "Yes, Ember. It's fine." He sat down next to her and pointed at the black dots on the eggs. "That's pepper and the white bits are mostly made of water and protein." Pointing next to the goop Ember had let all over the plate, he chuckled, "And that's the best part."
     "What is it?"
     "It's the yolk. It's the part of the egg that would have eventually fed the embryo of a baby chicken, had the egg been fertilized."
     Chickens... Ember had only ever read about chickens. "Where did you find a chicken?"
     Garnet smiled and stood up. "Don't you worry about that." As he walked away, presumably to continue scouting, he added, "You need to eat. Think of the eggs as the medium-small cyan spheres you're used to having."
     Although that didn't fully satisfy Ember's curiosity and half revulsion, it did give her the courage to at least try the eggs.
     They were even better than the spheres, and the texture was something phenomenal.
     She quickly wolfed them down, stopping occasionally to chew and really think about the flavors of the eggs. Meanwhile, Aurora stood a few feet away, staring out at the vast, duned desert before them. They were on the very edge of the city.