[PRP] A Dragon's Worth of Curiosity (Reticent Smiles & Ask the Leaves)

[LOLLI qAq]

Smiles was enjoying her day. She'd left home early and got to chase the sunrise. It was always a futile effort when she did, but the view she got as reward was worth it every time. It was one of the few times that even though she knew she had a delivery, pack balanced carefully across her hips, it wasn't time sensitive and she could take the day enjoying new places and avoiding other kin as she came across them.

A sigh passed from her lungs to her mouth and she smiled gently at her companion for the day- Her brand new tea dragon.

"What do you say we spend the day figuring out how to replicate the flavor of your tea?"

She had other pets and she loved them dearly, but they hadn't piqued her interest the way Hidden Hearts had. She wanted to know everything about her and the tea that she could make just by existing. Did what she eat change the flavor of her tea? Was it her mood? Were there ways of predicting or changing the outcome? How, and this was the important and scariest thought, could she recreate it to sell to others?

Her dragon chirped and skittered about at her feet. Tail against hind legs tickled and Smiles laughed. The doe went to snuff at the hair along her dragon's back when Hidden took notice of something. She stood on hind legs, her gaze intent on something in the trees past their eyeline, and then she took off-

"Hey!" Smiles yelled. "Come back!"

[Ruriska]

The tea leaves at the bottom of Ask’s bark cup had formed into the very distinct form of a perched bird and a leaping fish. Even after she turned it to the left and the right and tilted her head, it remained the same.

“Oh,” she exclaimed softly, quietly delighted, “there’s going to be a good surprise today!”

She glanced around at her little shop, tucked away off the normal path, a fallen log surrounded by thick growth, no signs to guide anyone her way. There was a small fire and a tortoise shell, merrily bubbling away, waiting for her to add any of the various tea leaves that were stashed neatly nearby.

Since opening her little business, Ask The Leaves had not had a single customer. Thank MotherFather. She wouldn’t have known what to do if someone actually showed up. So normally she spent all day drinking her own tea, trialing new flavours and reading her own leaves.

And this was the first time they’d suggested anything might happen.

Her ears flickered, catching the sound of something nearby - a yell? something in the underbrush? a.... c-customer?

[LOLLI qAq]

Smiles, for once singularly focused on her own goals and not paying attention to what could be around her, found herself careening into a hidden clearing. She barely had any time to skid into a stop as she noticed there was a doe sitting calmly in her path.

Now fully stopped- Smiles had the freedom and clarity to take in the situation she was finding herself in. Her tea dragon looped itself around her legs as she looked around and caught eyes with the kiokote.

"Oh," she said softly; a blush creeping across her whole face. "Oh no."

A million years late, but tag!

[Ruriska]

She might have looked calm but with the sudden arrival of a kin and her small dragon companion Ask The Leaves had simply frozen in space from the sheer shock of it. Strangers? In her clearing? Potential customers? What was meant to do? Should she tell them she was closed? Oh but the tortoise shell was right there and ready to go. She didn’t want to insult them!

Oh.

Was this the surprise?

Ask swallowed the lump in her throat and gave a wobbly sort of, “W-welcome t-to my s-shop”

me too! <3

[LOLLI qAq]

Smiles' eyes got even wider, lightly buggy, as she registered the welcome and her surroundings. This could have been a disaster!

"Oh," it came out like a too long held breath, "thank you."

At a loss for anything else to do, and not wanting to be rude, she sat herself down across from the kiokote and tilted her head to the side.

"A shop for what exactly?"