-Arizona-
“Come on Velvet, you can’t hide in the hotel room for the rest of your life.” This was kind of sad in a way, but I was going to eventually get her to come out of her room. “Besides if this Paprika was as strong as you say she is, then wouldn’t she just go through the wall next to the door?”
It took a few minutes, but eventually the nails began pulling out of the door when Velvet began pulling the wooden boards off of it.
With a crazy fluff butt friend like this, they just might miss what Jade was going to do with the pirate hat she was wielding as she left the hotel this morning.
-Cheerilee-
So I was going to learn something about an Abyssinian cultural dance, from what I could see Jade looked to be wearing something akin to a cheerleading uniform. A purple sleeveless shirt and skirt, but she still wore her shorts under the skirt.
She was performing her cultural project for me first, mostly because she had a museum robbery to plan and a comic convention she wanted to go to.
I sighed and wondered what would be the point of warning anyone about the museum robbery? Jade would still undoubtedly do everything anyway even if they did increase security
I would have to learn to deal with trouble makers eventually, but I don’t think Jade was someone I could actually deal with. As a teacher, I will just see her cultural project and just be hooves off about the whole thing.
Why didn’t Kuril try to reign in her daughter more? She did it to make Jade do this project, why not do the same thing when it comes to the less legal things Jade does? Was Kuril honestly letting her daughter make the life choice of becoming a classical fantasy rogue?
I would not say this out loud, but Ogres and Oubliettes is actually pretty educational as far as Jade’s inventiveness is concerned. Jade is actually living up to being a rogue and its quite horrifying to me how effective she is at doing so with her increasingly subpar math skills.
You may be asking yourself why I didn’t tell anyone of authority about this. Well the simple answer is this, I had no proof that Jade was actually going to do it even when I and everyone who lives at Airship Mauled knew she would.
It’s why Jade was so vexing to deal with, you don’t know how she’s going to do something until she’s already in the midst of doing it.
Sighing while shaking my head, I trotted up to the booth where Jade and her mother were set up. The mystery dumplings booth wasn’t in the best spot, but it was in the middle of the cultural festival at least.
I think that’s the point though, they wanted to be in a poor position as to not acquire too much attention and become too swarmed to keep up with demand for their snacks.
I honestly don’t know how the festival commission even let Kuril get magical food into the event, but they had signed off on it with the caveat that Kuril warns ponies about what they are getting into.
That’s why there was a sign with a warning on it placed next to a smiling Kuril who was leaning on the counter, ready and waiting to get this early morning started. She even tipped her half pirate, half witch hat to me in a friendly manner.
The sign read this: Warning, may contain beans, cream, fruit and random ‘completely temporary’ harmless magical effects. If you are allergic to any of these things, then that’s on you and we’re not responsible for what you do with this food upon purchase. You should know better and should take better care of yourself.
That was almost insulting somehow, but it certainly fits with how Abyssinians did things when it came to their mercantile nature.
“Well okay then. I’m almost afraid to ask this, but what is your cultural feature Jade?” I seriously doubt they would get many customers with that sign, but this was both Jade and Kuril working together.
The mother and daughter team seemed quite ready to do this thing.
“It will be the dance of my people, I’m going to advertise the delicious magical mystery dumplings that my mom is making here.” Jade’s tail was flicking about excitedly as she pulled out the pirate hat from her pack. “I tried one, turned my fur entirely bright purple for five minutes and tasted of blueberries.”
From what I know of their magical alchemy lexicon, didn’t that hat cause her to… oh that is evil! Jade’s going to lure customers in by forcing a heart song to happen! Well at least it’s quite fitting for her to pull something like this.
“I’m sorry, but your daughter is evil.” I stated and Kuril just smiled.
“True, but she wouldn’t be my kitten if she wasn’t going to do something silly like this.” Then Kuril frowned a bit, that caused the fur on my neck to stick out a bit in worry. “Usually she dislikes heart songs with a passion, but she’s apparently making an exception for this. Which makes me wonder why?”
Jade started whistling a tune loudly. Oh here we go, I can already hear the music forming around us as Jade shifted her hips back and forth in a bouncy manner and then she chucked the hat off into Kuril’s waiting paw.
It was as if Kuril was expecting Jade to do that. Quite a few ponies were curious as to why Jade even put the hat on if she was going to throw it away, but I knew the truth at least.
“Nyan nyan~. Nyan nyan~. Hello, nyan~!” Okay she was doing a cute little two motion pawing movements to the left in the air, then two to the right, then one to the left and then quickly to the right where she smiled cutely. She took a step forward with her left leg lifting her right arm up. “Gorgeous, delicious, our culture is yeah-ah~!”
Taking a step forward with her other and doing a twirl before smiling brightly as she sung out the last word while taking a stance with both her arms raised in the air, a lot of ponies took notice of the music shifting in the air and started to flock towards the booth.
Why were we always so attracted to heart songs? Jade hopped back and started the first part of her dance again, but she was singing something different this time.
“Hello, welcome, come for a magical dumpling or two~?” Jade was doing the same dance all over again, but the crowd was eating up how cute she was acting. I however wasn’t taken in even if the dance looked catchy and several ponies started doing it along with her. “You absolutely have no idea what even one of these will do~!”
“Mystery, dumplings, they all do amazing things~.” Now Kurilian was singing too, they were tag teaming their audience effectively. It was amazing to watch the two dance in sync with one another, makes me wish I was that close with my family. “Color change, adding tails and or maybe even fake wings~!”
“Try one, buy one, see what you get~!’” Continued Jade who was continuing to draw more ponies into this and why was I joining the dance? I can see why Jade dislikes the somewhat involuntary nature of heart songs. “For I have a bet that you’ve never tried anything quite like this yet~!”
“Crazy, tasty, these I dumplings I do make~.” Kuril sang as they danced along, these two have drawn quite a crowd. “As the witch of good taste every bite is a worthy one to take~!”
“Nyan nyan~. Nyan nyan~. Hello, nyan~.” The crowd sang following Jade as she continued the same repetitive dance, even I was doing it and that meant it was catchy enough. “Gorgeous, delicious, our culture is yeah-ah~!”
With that the song and dance was done with Jade putting her limbs behind her back, she and her mom were both smiling in the same cat like manner.
“Ah, the dance of our people. The song is always different, but it’s always a classic.” A small Abyssinian adult with lavender and beige fur came forward with a large sack on his back. “The name’s Neko. I’d like to try one, how much?”
“Wait, Neko as in the infamous ‘Traveling Neko’?” It seemed as if Jade knew of him. “The merchant guy who goes to really dangerous places to sell useful things at double the price they are usually worth because of supply and demand?”
“Mew got it in one, you have quite a cute kitten there ma’am!” Neko grinned brightly as he sat his bag down and pulled out an abacus to start flicking the beads about. “Also I only double the price for adventurers that hadn’t thought to buy some of the things I carry ahead of time. Can’t do that in a city like here, but out in the field where there’s a chance of me being killed? I call it ‘hazard pay’ in my line of work.”
“Thank you, Jade was admittedly a very precocious kitten when she was younger. Also that’s the reason you’re infamous among Abyssinian kind you know, some consider you greedier than a griffon even though you always sell products as the situation demands.” Well that was interesting to hear Kuril. “Usually in dire situations, but the product you sell is always good and worth the cost based in emergency needs.”
“Not sure I would want to buy anything from this Abyssinian, but a culturally famous merchant is always nice to hear about. He sounds like quite the character.” I commented dryly.
“Look at this way teach. Neko was always stated to be friendly, not stupid and has a good head for money.” Turning to her mother Jade continued. “Neko asked for the price of our dumplings, why don’t you rattle it off for the whole crowd to hear mom? Also throw in the contest as an incentive.”
“Contest? Sounds like you got something of a cat’s paw for customer drawing attention.” Neko received a nod from both Jade and Kuril. “So what’s the offer?”
“As we stated earlier, these dumplings are all a mystery! The taste is always good, but what happens after you eat them is likely to be both strange and magical. So with that in mind, four bits to a dumpling, buy four for twelve.” Clearing her throat and preparing to announce something loudly, Kuril seemed to have some very important say about her pricing. “The first being to turn into a frog upon eating one of these dumplings will win one hundred and fifty bits, I promise it’ll only be a temporary if it indeed happens!”
“A frog? Well that explains the witch thing you got going on.” Yes Neko and it was the one thing Ms. La Perm has never managed to achieve, though she definitely qualifies as a witch.
“That’s because I am a witch, one that has never turned anyone into a frog.” Kuril sat back and waited, she stared Neko down. “Newts, mice, blue jays, moles, squirrels and all that, but never have I done a single frog! So buy three get one free is in the hopes that someone eventually becomes a frog.”
“Heh, I’m a bit of a gambler…” Neko slapped four bits on the table. “Give me one.”
A lot of the ponies watching the interaction started talking amongst themselves with baited breath to see what would happen when the cat ate his dumpling. Kuril placed a dumpling on a napkin before him and Neko picked it up to take a bite.
“Hmm… warm cheese cake cream filled? It’s delicious!” Neko then looked down and around at the crowd, he’d turn into a giraffe. He shrugged and tossed what was left of his dumpling up to his mouth to finished eating it. “How long does this last? I can’t be known as Neko the infamous giraffe, doesn’t sell as well as being a really short Abyssinian.”
“None of the dumplings will last more than five minutes at most, the shortest time is about ten seconds.” Kuril turned to the crowd. “I’ve also made them in a specific way to prevent wings from working should someone acquire magically acquire them. I don’t want any accidents after all. Same thing with horns and or being randomly transforming into an alicorn. No power behind it, but a short lived change in looks. Anyone else want to try?”
A lot of ponies seemed uneasy, but they weren’t leaving they were all curious and looked eager to try one. I turned to Kuril and opened my mouth, I actually wanted to try
“I’ll take one.” That must be Coco, I think she was a local my students befriended the other day. She place four bits on the counter and took the dumpling. She bit into it and hummed loudly, the magical effect of this particular dumpling seemed to have inverted her fur, mane and tail colors. “What is this?”
“Ah, you got one of the sweet bean paste, ones. Don’t mind the color change, miniscule changes usually last longer.” As Kuril explained that, Neko off to the side reverted to being his normal self. Kuril turned to me. “Do you want to try one Ms. Cheerilee?”
“Of course.” I took a step forward and placed a four bits down, I found a dumpling in front me. I picked it up and bit into it, the sweet taste of peaches and yogurt entered my mouth and with a blink the entire world seemed slightly smaller. “It seems, I have turned into a false alicorn. This look just doesn’t quite suit me Ms. La Perm, though the taste was quite phenomenal. I ended up with peaches and cream.”
“Why thank you.” Kuril grinned as ponies started lining up. “If I do get a frog today, it’ll be one hundred and fifty bits well spent.”
“Say, can we talk you into doing a marketing deal with us?” A young unicorn stallion stated as a he came forward. “I’m Flim by the way.”
“I’m Flam and what my brother means is that we’ll be taking the four for three deal!” The other young unicorn stallion, Flam, stated while twelve bits were placed down. Kuril gave him his four dumplings and leaned closer to Jade who was whispering something into her ear.
“No, I don’t think we will be doing any extraneous business with either of you.” Kuril seemed to be watching the two carefully. “My daughter is a good judge of character and besides, this isn’t actually my main business anyway. I already run a restaurant and I’m well-staffed with helpers already. Thanks for the offer though.”
What followed was the two yellow coated and red haired brothers complimenting Kuril’s food, they also turned into a turtle dove, a hippogriff, a deer and a fox with multiple tails which seemed oddly appropriate for the stallion somehow.
“Jade what was the fox creature, do those actually? I know what all the other transformations all were.” I knew there was no one better suited to answer that than Jaded La Perm.
“Kitsune, magical trickster foxes that grow more tails the older and more powerful they get.” Jade was always a fountain of bestial knowledge. “The usual maximum being nine.”