Fast as Beak!

A girl named Arlene can't find a tavern where she can work. Although she claims to be a very experienced and skilled cook, having worked in the most unusual and mystical kitchen in the entire Sphere and beyond—the kitchen of Argont.

Everything there was unusual: vegetables too large, knives too sharp, as if they could cut through the universe itself. And ovens with a heat that could bake bread in seconds. And in this kitchen, there was an unusual courier. He looked very much like a familiar rooster, but with an unusual tail. And his name was Beak.

The courier delivered flour from another city, live fish still sloshing around in the bag, and sometimes sacks of stardust. If a recipe called for the freshest eggs at dawn, the rooster would arrive exactly one minute before the first light. He was late only once—when the neighbor's cat intercepted him. Arlene then had to replace the chicken eggs with lark eggs. The dish was called "Morning Without a Courier," and it became a hit.

According to Arlene, Beak died of old age after dropping his last order—a truffle worth more than the capital of Erikuria. They say the truffle was buried with him. Mushrooms with small beaks still grow on his grave.