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!"
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.