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twilightandmidnight · 7 months

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Whispers and Shadows: July 13th, 4024

Thr third chapter of Whispers and Shadows! This one is a little bit of filler but we hope you guys enjoy nonetheless.

Word Count: 13.4k

After an entire week of living in the giant house, Mint noticed a few things. One; it was very easy to get lost in a house like this. And two… Crystalline seemed to have a very specific routine she stuck to, the same things at the same times every day like clockwork. She always woke up at exactly the same time, followed by a light knock at Mint’s door to make sure she woke up too. She wasn’t sure why she had to wake up at the same time as Crystalline, but it didn’t bother her so she never said anything about it. She didn’t wake up very early anyway, so it was fine. She made breakfast, sat at the table with Mint to eat for about an hour, and then she disappeared into the bathroom for maybe twenty minutes to shower, and then came back out to water the plants and talk to her dad’s statue. She always left for work after this – something about fish, she had mentioned once. Mint also noticed that every day of the week had a different activity she went to do after work. She would go to visit Auk at the flower shop as much as possible on top of these activities, but there were specific things for each day as well. Wednesdays, for example, she always came back with a new box of tea from someone named Mistletoe. She seemed to drink a lot of tea. On Fridays she went to a grocery store run by a dragon named Icedrift to get groceries for the next week; usually things like fruits and vegetables, stuff that you can’t exactly hunt for that might be hard to grow yourself in a place this cold. Mint usually made herself lunch with whatever she could find in the house while Crystalline was at work, and when she returned home later in the afternoon, they would usually spend the rest of the night sitting in the living room or one of the bedrooms to talk about their days. Crystalline had just gotten home a few minutes ago and was currently in the bathroom, so Mint was waiting for her on the couch.

With the clinking of ice Crystalline walked into the living room saying, “Hey, what’s up?”

Mint jumped a bit, startled, quickly rolling up the scroll she had been reading and setting it aside.”Hey! Uh, not much. Was just waiting for you to get out, really. How was work and shit today?”

“Tiring. Some dragons just couldn’t wait for me to finish stocking the shelves and decided to try and grab products from out of the boxes. That was a nightmare.” She sighed, moving to the kitchen and digging through the fridge.

“Oh, that sounds… fun. You visit any cool stores afterwards, or was today just a work day?”

“I went to Auk’s, her hatching-day is coming soon y’know? We talked about it a little. Her brother is gonna come up which is pretty cool…” She strained while reaching for something in the back. “Oh speaking of, when I say soon I mean in like… two months? Yeah I think that’s it. Anyway, he’ll be there. Most of her customers will be at a party she’s hosting. You’re invited too.” She pulled out a container of leftover fish and bit into it.

“Oh, okay. Yeah, I’ll probably go to that if she doesn’t mind. Not like I have much else to do around here,” Mint laughed, trailing off for a moment. “Maybe I need to buy more scrolls. Or make some friends, but I feel like buying more scrolls is easier.”

“Yeah scrolls are definitely easier. The others here suck, and stink of rich dragon-ness.”

Mint frowned. “Oh, well that’s just boring. Rich dragons are so lame. Uh… I mean– I mean like, not you, but–” she sighed. “You know what I mean.”

Crystalline laughed. “Yeah I get it. It’s kind of weird cause our family is the poor of the rich if you get what I mean.”

“Yeah, I think that makes sense. I mean… yeah.”

Crystalline finished off her fish and threw what remained into the trash. “I love fish. It’s honestly the best meal, like I don’t think anything besides, like, walrus can beat it.”

Mint nodded. “It’s always been one of my favorites; that’s why I eat the fish snacks almost every day,” she laughed. “I do definitely agree that walrus is good though. I mean, I’ve only had it a few times since uh… Well I’ve always been shit at hunting and I’m like, super poor, so I could never afford to get it at the markets or anything. But uh… Anyway. Yeah. Walrus is great.”

“It’s definitely my favorite, I’m sorry you don’t get to have it that often. I’ll try and pick some up this week from work! I make this awesome fried walrus with this like yellow thing. You’ll see what I mean when I make it.” Crystalline smiled widely.

“Oh. I mean – that sounds great, thanks. You don't uh– I mean, don’t do that just because I said I like it. Just ‘cause like… I know it’s like, really expensive sometimes. So, uh. I don’t know what I’m saying actually, just– yeah,” Mint replied awkwardly.

The light blue dragon laughed, her smile slightly growing. “Don’t worry about it! Solstice will probably give me a discount anyway, also I have so many scales in the bank it’s ridiculous. Let me treat you, Mint.”

Mint sighed. “Okay. I mean, if there’s a discount, it’s– it’s probably fine. Alright. Anyway, uh… what were we talking about before?”

Crystalline’s expression went blank. “Uh… stupid rich dragons? I don’t know.”

“Yeah, I’m not… I’m not sure. Uh, okay, new topic time, I guess? What’s a random conversation topic?... Oh, okay. If you could live in any of the other kingdoms for like a month, where would you go?” Mint asked with a small smile.

“Oh my… that’s really tough! ‘Cause I want to say the Mud Kingdom since a friend of mine lives there, but it’s muggy and gross. The Sky Kingdom is cold but the dragons are… a lot. Oh! Maybe the beaches of the Sea Kingdom, they get cold at night and I could go into the water to cool off. I’m rambling aren’t I? Oh well, what about you? Where would you go?”

Mint laughed. “There definitely was a bit of rambling, but it’s ok. I mean I do it all the time, so it’s fun to listen to someone else go on about something for once. And I… See, I would say the Rain Kingdom, since the Rainforest with all the cool plants and shit seems really interesting, but like you said with the Mud Kingdom, it’d be, like, unreasonably hot and sticky. So uh… Honestly, maybe the Night Kingdom? I know there was like, that whole war or whatever all those years ago so it might be weird, but like… I don’t know, it seems like a cool place, y’know? Oh, except for the whole nocturnal thing. I could probably get used to that, though. Yeah, I think the Night Kingdom seems cool.”

Crystalline after that just smiled, staring at Mint with her blue eyes. “Yeah that seems cool…”

“Yeah, I dunno. Just seems like a really interesting place and stuff. So, uh… Um, what time is it?” Mint asked, randomly changing the subject. Crystalline looked to the clock on the wall. “I think it’s… seven o’clock?”

“Already?” Mint asked with a slight frown. “I swear it was just three, like… an hour ago,” she complained. “What the fuck?” Crystalline just shrugged and shook her head smiling. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

“If you consider laying on a couch and reading the same scroll three times ‘fun,’ then yeah, sure,” she replied with a small laugh. “Anything planned for dinner, or should I see what I can find?”

Crystalline gasped playfully. “You don’t find our conversation entertaining? How rude.” She hovered her talon over her chest where her heart would be. “Anyway, dinner? Oh yeah, I can make some salmon if you want.”

“Oh, okay. I mean you don’t have to, but if like– actually, I’m just going to stop talking. You know what I mean.”

Rolling her eyes, Crystalline got up and stretched out her wings, folding them quickly. “Yeah, I know. I’ll make it with some of the herbs I got from Auk. One of them is named after you. Or you’re named after it. I don’t know, but I picked some up. It smells good.” She went to the kitchen promptly.

“Oh, yeah. I always forget I’m named after a plant. Or… whatever. Yeah, that sounds great, thanks,” Mint nodded.

Crystalline smiled and went in the cupboards, grabbing containers that held different herbs. She pulled out the salmon and started doctoring it up. “This will be so delicious.”

“Mm. Smells like it,” Mint called, walking over to the kitchen. “Need help with anything? I feel bad just… sitting here while you cook all the time,” she said with a small frown.

“Well, you could grease the pan the salmon will go on. And if you wanna make some rice you can. All you have to do is fill a pot with water and then put two cups of rice in.”

“Right. Okay. Grease the pan. I can do that. What’s, uh… what do you grease a pan with?”

“Oh, right. There’s some butter in the fridge. Cut a small slice off of it and just rub it on the pan.” She now had a knife and was cutting the fish slowly.

“Oh. Okay.” Mint turned around, opening the fridge to search for it. “Butter. You grease a pan with butter. Why wouldn’t it be called buttering the pan?” She muttered to herself. “Oh, here it is.” She pulled out a stick of butter, greased the pan, then put it back and started to set up the rice. “That’s not too much water, is it?” She called over to Crystalline after a few minutes.

Crystalline peered into the pot, then gingerly stuck her claw in. “That’s about right. Good job.” She gave Mint a smile and grabbed the freshly greased pan.

“Oh, awesome. Alright, in y’go,” she said to the rice, dumping it all into the pot and moving it next to the stove. “Do we put this on now, or…?”

“Um…” Crystalline glanced at the clock and then to the fish. “Sure. The rice will need to cool down some anyway.” She opened the oven, a wave of hot air flowing out, put in the salmon and closed it. She grabbed a small handheld timer and set it for 25 minutes…

After the timer went off the two sat down together for dinner, chatting about their days, and hung out in the living room for a couple hours before Mint decided to head off to bed, Crystalline staying up for a bit longer before Mint heard her bedroom door open and close as well.

The next day Mint woke up, as usual, to a soft knock on the door. She sighed, sitting up slowly, and stretching out her wings. She hadn’t even gone to bed that late, but she was still tired. She got up and made breakfast, sitting down with Crystalline to eat before she had to leave for work. The rest of her day was pretty normal; she went for a walk in the garden, took a nap, ate a bunch of Fish Snacks… And then that afternoon she decided to explore the house a bit more before Crystalline got home. She wanted to see if she could help clean up a bit, have a nice surprise for Crystalline after a long day at work. So she walked around with a broom, looking at all the rooms that were unlocked, going down the hallway upstairs and checking some of the unused bedrooms. She did manage to get some things done, actually, which she was very proud of. She had half expected all the rooms to be perfect, seeing as the ones that were used every day seemed to be, but a lot of them had actually been quite dusty. She eventually made her way downstairs, and noticed that there was a hallway near the front door that Crystalline hadn’t shown her in the tour. All the lights were off, so she searched for the switch for a minute before finally turning them on, walking down the hall with her broom.One of the rooms was just a small sort of closet, so she swept that up a bit before moving on.

There was one door on the right, and one at the very end of the hall. She stopped at the door to her right for a moment, but right before she reached out for the handle, she actually looked up at the door. There were giant claw marks scratched into the wood, across the entire top half of the door. Some of them went so deep into the wood she could’ve sworn you could almost see through to the other side. She hesitated a second before pulling her arm back and backing away. I probably shouldn’t touch this one. I’m not sure it’ll open anyway with this amount of damage. I wonder what happened here… She frowned, moving on towards the end of the hallway. She realized, once she got closer, that the door was sealed shut around the edges, covered in a layer of ice. Crystalline’s ice, she realized. Now, the other door she had left alone because it was so damaged, she didn’t want to break it by accident trying to open it. But this… Why would this door be sealed? And she was so deep in thought, for a moment, that she didn’t hear the clinking ice sounds outside. She didn’t hear the door opening as she slowly reached out towards the doorknob. And she didn’t hear the dragon that was now at the other end of the hall, just arriving home from work.

“Mint, what are you doing?” Crystalline said with hostility. Mint froze.

“Oh, shit. Uh, sorry,” she slowly turned around, holding the broom out next to her. “I was… Sorry. I was trying to clean up a bit before you got home, I didn’t know if this…”

“I have it frozen shut for a reason.” Her claws dug into the floor. “Just…” She took a breath. “Please leave it alone.” She turned and walked away, quickly whipping her tail against the wall, groaning softly in pain.

“Uh… right. Sorry? I don’t…” She frowned, watching Crystalline disappear around the corner, thinking. What’s behind that door that she doesn’t want me to see? And… if it was sealed before I even got here, I’m not sure, but… If that’s the case, what’s back there that she doesn’t want to see? She sighed. I should probably leave her alone for a while, though. I don’t want to make things worse.

Oh, why not? Making things worse is so fun, the Voice cut in.

Oh my stars, this is not the time, she thought back. Why do you only show up when you want to fuck up something that’s already going wrong?

Because it’s fun? Your life is boring, you–

“Okay, I’m not talking to you anymore! Goodbye!” Mint said, much more loudly than she meant to.

“Mint, who’re you talking to? Is someone at the door?” Crystalline said loudly from upstairs.

“Oh, fuck,” Mint muttered. “Uh, no, nobody’s here! I’m just, uh… It’s fine!” She called back.

“Okay! I’m upstairs reading if you need anything.”

“Uh… alright, thanks!” Mint sighed. She really needed to be more careful with this stuff. If anyone found out about that voice they’d all think she was insane. Which, yeah, maybe, but she didn’t need everyone knowing about all that. I need to get out of this hallway before I do anything else, she realized, quickly walking out to the living room. She glanced over at the clock; almost four-thirty. Which also meant almost dinner time, so she didn’t really have time to do anything. Alright, sit and look at the wall time. She flopped back onto the couch, staring up at the ceiling. How did I get myself into this? Moving two towns away because of a random story I heard and ending up moving in with someone I just met? I mean, how insane do you have to be to do that? Insane enough to have strange voices in your head too, I suppose. And get kicked out of school after your parents mysteriously disappear. And… oh, whatever. We get it, Mint, you’re losing your mind. I mean you’re literally talking to yourself in your head and it’s not even because of the random voice this time. She sighed. She’d been doing that a lot lately. I wonder if Crystalline’s still mad at me. I mean, she seemed mad when she found me by the door but then when she yelled from upstairs, it was like… fine. So now I don’t even know what to do. Like, do I try to talk to her like normal again? Or should I still leave her alone? What about dinner? Oh moons, that’ll be so awkward if she’s still mad. I wonder if I could just bring the food up to my room? Oh, but what if she doesn’t want me to eat in there so I don't make a mess, that would just make it even worse. The garden, maybe? No, no, that’s stupid. This is stupid. I’ll just sit down normally, and… I could just wait to see what she does. Like, if she just sits there silently she’s probably still mad, but then if she starts talking about something normally it’s fine, so then I could talk like normal again. Unless she does that to try to trick me or something. Would she do that? I don’t think so, but…

“Hey, Pyrrhia to Mint, it’s dinner time.” Crystalline said suddenly.

“Oh, shit,” Mint jumped up. “Three moons, you scared the hell out of me. Wait, what do you mean dinner? It was just–” she looked over at the clock; five forty-two. “...four. Uh, okay. Did you cook already, or is that where we’re going?”

“I cooked, I brought the walrus home from work. I also wanted to apologize to you. I didn’t mean to freak out on you, that door leads to my dad’s room and I keep it frozen shut to preserve what’s inside.” Crystalline explained.

Mint just stared at her for a second, trying to process that. “Ah. Okay, yeah. That’s… Uh, sorry I just went over there without checking with you first,” she said, blinking a few times.

“Don’t worry about it, you had no way of knowing. I’m sorry, I should’ve told you in the first place. Now let’s go eat some fancy food.” Crystalline smiled and brought two plates to the kitchen table.

Mint smiled, vaguely waving a wing in a “don’t worry about it” motion. “Yeah, fancy food sounds great,” she replied, sitting down in front of one of the plates. “Ooh, that smells great. What’d you cook it with?”

“Uh… stuff. I don’t really remember, I just kind of did it on autopilot haha.”

Mint snorted. “Alright, that’s fair.” She took a small bite and her face lit up instantly. “Oh, shit, this is really good. How do you just cook stuff like this without even paying attention?”

“Well I’ve made this recipe a couple of times so I’ve basically memorized it. I also just remember what tastes good with what so if I wanna switch up a recipe I relatively know what to use. Like the yellow things and cod go good together. Or rosemary and salmon go good together, and the herb you’re named after, mint goes really well with this meat called lamb.”

“Oh, okay. That’s cool, I’d never remember all that. Although I do now have multiple questions. Like what, uh… What’s ‘the yellow things?’”

“I don’t know. I never learned their name and I refuse to. They’re the tiny yellow oval thingies. They look like circles when you cut them up. I’ve made this yellow juice with them before, you like it, remember?”

“...Are you just talking about lemons?” Mint asked, now very confused.

“Yeah sure, if that’s what they’re called.” Crystalline shrugged, eating her food.

“Second question, what the hell is lamb and where does it come from?”

“Oh lambs are like this baby version of a thing called a sheep and they come from the Sky Kingdom. Auk’s brother, Eider, got me some one time. It was pretty good. My favorite thing from there though, is pork. That comes from an animal called a pig.”

“Oh, weird. The Sky Kingdom has so many strange animals? Why am I just learning about this now? I bet they don’t even have polar bears,” Mint joked.

“They don’t. It isn’t cold enough for them to live there. They don’t really even have fish, or they don’t really have the fish we have anyway. The Sky Kingdom is cool and the Mud Kingdom is even cooler. They have cows.”

Mint blinked a few times. “Okay, not having fish is weird. Also, the Mud Kingdom is so lucky, what the hell? They don’t have to pay a shit ton of scales to import cows from other places, they can just find them everywhere? Follow-up question, you��ve seen other kingdoms?”

“No I haven’t. Auk and Eider went on this round the continent trip and they told me all about the other kingdoms. They said that someday they might do it again and take me.”

“Oh, okay. Well, that sounds cool. I’d love to do that someday; I’ve never even been able to stick a single claw outside the Ice Kingdom. The other kingdoms seem interesting. Less… annoying systems and rules.”

“Yeah definitely, the dragons in other kingdoms are less mean too. Well… most of them are less mean.” She finished the fish on her plate, licking her lips.

“I’ve always wanted to meet a SeaWing. Like, just to talk to them for a while or something. They just seem so interesting, like… They have scales that just glow, they can see in the dark sometimes, I think, and they just… live underwater like that? It’s so different from everything we do here, it’s so cool.”

“Yeah they’re awesome, their glowing marks are stunning. I’ve never met a real SeaWing but I think it’d be so cool. Speaking of stunning, RainWings are gorgeous. I saw a picture of their queen once and they’re beautiful.”

“Oh, really? I don’t even think I’ve seen pictures, actually. I just know they’re supposed to be colorful, I’ve never… yeah, I dunno.”

Crystalline smiled and carried her plate into the kitchen. “I’ll try and find a picture, bring it home. Maybe Mistletoe will have one…”

“Oh, alright. That would be cool. Thanks,” Mint replied, smiling back and finishing her food, clearing off her plate and following Crystalline to put it away.

“Hey! I have an idea.” Crystalline whipped around quickly.

“What? What’s happening?” Mint asked, slightly startled.

“You and I don’t really leave the house much. So how about I take you on a real tour of Glacis?”

“Oh shit, really? Yeah, that sounds cool. Uh… when would we do that? It’s too late now and you have work in the morning…”

“Uh… lemme check when I have time off…” She shuffled toward the mini calendar, clicking her tongue while looking at it. “Ah. I do not have time off for another two weeks. That’s… not the most convenient, but it’s fine!”

“Okay, well that still works. So, we get to go on an adventure in two weeks! That’ll be cool, right? Well, maybe not as cool for you since you already know the town, but it’ll be great for me,” Mint said with a small laugh.

“Oh yeah! It’ll be fun for the both of us, I haven’t gone around town properly for like… a year now. Wow. That’s sad. Anyway! Wouldn’t it be fun if Auk came with us too? I think she’d enjoy the day off.” Crystalline smiled happily.

“Oh, yeah! I mean I barely know her, we only met that one time and we barely talked to each other, but they seemed cool!”

“Yeah they are, it’d be a good opportunity for y’all to get to know each other too! My two besties becoming pals, it’s beautiful.” She hovered a talon over her chest daintily.

“Oh?” Mint said, raising her eyebrows. “We’re besties now?” She asked very seriously, trying to hold back a laugh.

Crystalline nodded. “Duh, you’re my roomie. Of course we’re besties! Also you’re like… my only friend that I talk to everyday, well besides Auk but she’s like… I don’t know what she’s like. Do you get what I mean though?”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Sort of like Bucket,” Mint nodded.

“Who’s Bucket?”

Mint gasped dramatically. “You don’t know Bucket?! Oh, wait, no,” she stopped suddenly, “You’ve never been to Thermia, of course you wouldn’t know Bucket.” She nodded again. “Well, I’ll have to bring you to visit one day so you can meet him.”

“Oh so that’s where you’re from, okay. Yeah you will have to bring me! We should just bring each other around the kingdom. I think you’d like Northspire, that’s where Auk and Eider are from.”

Mint opened her mouth to say something, then stopped and closed it again, frowning. “Wait,” she said slowly, blinking a few times. “I told you where I’m from?”

“Well I just assumed you’re from Thermia cause you brought it up, just now.”

Mint just looked even more confused. “I mentioned Thermia?” She shook her head. “Three moons, my brain is…” she trailed off, unable to even think of the right word for what she wanted to say.

“OH MY QUEEN EVEREST! I’M GONNA HAVE TO TAKE YOU TO IGLIS!” Crystalline shouted enthusiastically, it seemed like the stone walls shook a little as well.

Mint jumped back. “Holy fuck, what? What’s Iglis?”

“That’s a little hard to explain but basically there’s this animus guy there, he lives there, he’s named Whimbrel, did stuff with my powers and stuff. Yeah.”

“Oh. Yeah, that definitely… makes sense. Not vague at all. Sounds interesting though, so maybe we can make that a trip one day.”

“Yeah, hopefully! I think he’d really like you. So would Suki and Odi.” Crystalline smiled fondly.

“Are Suki and Odi, like… his roommates? Or pets or something…?”

“Um… how do I put this… they’re magical stone dragons who can shapeshift and basically act as his bodyguards and best friends.” Crystalling laughed nervously afterward.

“Uh… right. Okay, sure. I suppose that… makes sense.” Mint said, blinking a few times and staring at the ground for a second. “Yep. Okay,” she laughed, looking back up.

Crystalline glanced up at the clock and her eyes widened. “How is it eight-thirty already?”

“It’s what?” Mint quickly turned around to look at the clock, then frowned. “No, you read that wrong, that’s not eight-thirty. It, uh… hold on, I’m bad at this. Seven, and the… oh, no, fuck, it’s like nine-forty. I think. That’s worse, actually.”

“Oh wow. How time does fly. I think I’m gonna go upstairs and read. I should probably go to bed soon.” Crystalline spoke with a yawn.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Lemme just grab a glass of water and I’ll head up with you,” Mint called back, walking over to the kitchen and filling a cup at the sink.

“Alright, that’s cool.”

July 28th, 4024___

“Hey, you’re still sleeping. Get up, please.” Said the vague, fuzzy voice from somewhere above Mint.

“Shit… what? Damn, get out, fuckin… not the three-headed scavenger again, fuck’s sake…” She mumbled back, rolling over.

“...what? No, no it’s me. Crystalline. We’re gonna go on our adventure with Auk! Come on, get up.”

“I’ll fucking eat you.”

“Please don’t. I wouldn’t appreciate that.” She sat for a moment. “I’ll freeze you with my talons if you don’t get up. You won’t like that.”

“The fuck are you… talking about..? What?” Mint mumbled again, rubbing her eyes.

“I’ll do it, I will. This is a threat. Get up before I freeze you.”

“Three moons,” Mint muttered, sitting up, still rubbing her eyes. “What the hell is going on right now?”

“Mint you’re in your room right now. I’m Crystalline and I’m telling you that if you don’t get up for our Glacis adventure with Auk I will turn you into an ice cube.” Crystalline said firmly.

Mint slowly opened her eyes, blinking a few times before squinting up at Crystalline. “You’re sure you aren’t secretly the three-headed scavenger?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I’m glad you chose to not be an ice cube, that was smart of you.”

Mint took a deep breath, sighing loudly. “Gonna be honest man, I don’t think any choices were actually made. I had no idea what the hell you were saying, I’m not gonna lie to you.”

“Oh… okie.” She turned around and walked out of Mint’s room. “I’ll make breakfast! It’ll be ready in, like… some minutes!”

“Uh, okay!” Mint called back. “Wait, we aren’t late, right?”

“No! We need to leave soon though!”

“Alrighty,” Mint said, mostly to herself at this point. “Up time. Time to get up.” She sighed again, stretching out her wings before getting up off the bed. She picked up a few things she had apparently managed to knock off the nightstand in her sleep, fixed the blankets, and went downstairs to meet Crystalline in the kitchen. “Hey, what’s for breakfast?” She asked, pouring herself a glass of water.

“Just some sauteed salmon, nothing fancy.” Crystalline said nonchalantly, watching the pan, with a frozen spatula off to the side.

“...Right. Okay. Well, thanks for cooking all the time. Seriously, that must get annoying, with all the…” she frowned, gesturing vaguely at the spatula.

“Oh no, it’s fine! I love to cook.” Crystalline smiled gently. “Using frozen tools is frustrating but I know how to make them work.”

“Well, at least that. Hey, do you know if we have any fruit or something to go with this?” Mint asked, opening the fridge to check.

“We have yellow things, oranges, grapefruits, mangoes, and pineapples.”

“Oh, okay.” Mint snorted. “Yellow things. Actually, that might go good with salmon,” she realized, grabbing one of the lemons off the shelf, along with what seemed to be half a mango in a container. “We can finish this off too, I dunno how much longer it'll last in here.” She placed the fruits on the table.

“Yeah good idea, want me to make a fruit salad? Or do you just want me to cut up the mango?” Crystalline asked, shaking the pan gently, the salmon sizzling aggressively.

“Uh… I can probably try to cut it up myself while you finish that?” Mint offered hesitantly. I mean I probably won’t fuck it up, right? It’s just fruit.

“Yeah that’d be great actually! Maybe drizzle some honey over it too, it’s in the top left cabinet.” Crystalline replied, taking the salmon out of the pan, grabbing a small knife.

“Ok, sure,” Mint replied with a small nod, pulling out the honey and grabbing a knife to slice the mango. She put the honey off to the side and carefully held the mango still, beginning to cut it carefully into slices. The first few turned out alright, although slightly uneven, but that was fine. After she got closer to the end of the fruit, however, the knife slipped and she cut a gash into one of her claws. “Oh, ow, fuck.” She exclaimed, quickly dropping the knife. “Shit, I’m bleeding on the fruit now. Oh damn it. Shit.”

Crystalline gasped, startled. “Dammit, okay.” She quickly reached for the cabinet under the sink and pulled out a small roll of bandages. “Put your talon over the sink, Mint.” She directed while mixing salt water.

“Right. Okay. Sorry, sorry,” she winced, dripping blood across the floor on her way over to the sink. “Shit, I’m sorry. Blood must be a pain to get off the floors.”

Crystalline didn’t respond, her eyes simply widened but then she just shook her head. She held the cup of salt water over Mint’s talon. “Don’t hate me but this is gonna sting.” She poured the water out of the cup and immediately went to grab the bandages.

“Oh ouch, what the fuck,” Mint exclaimed. “Okay, great. It’s totally fine.” I wonder what that was about, though… “How is that even supposed to help?”

“It disinfects the wound, you most likely got mango juice in the cut when the knife got you. I wouldn’t want the wound to get infected and proceed to get you sick,” Crystalline said while unraveling the bandages. “Now I’m going to apply pressure when putting on these bandages, so this might hurt a little.”

“Right, that makes sense. I doubt mango juice in the bloodstream can be very good for you. Ah… ouch. Okay, great. Thanks,” Mint said with a small smile.

“You’re welcome. And to answer your question, getting blood out of the floor isn’t easy, but it could be worse.” Crystalline said as she started to clean off the bloodied cutting board. That’s… interesting. Okay then. I mean she probably just knows that because of a similar situation to what just happened. I mean, she seems to know her way around the kitchen well enough to avoid… that… I’m sure it was… When she was learning to cook, probably. I’m just being stupid. What am I even doing? She shook her head without even realizing she was doing it.

“Anyway, uh… sorry about that. I think most of the mango is still good, though. I mean… only a bit of it got blood on it.”

“It’s alright, it happens. Don’t you remember a couple weeks ago when I sliced my arm by mistake?” Crystalline asked, looking at the mango and disposing of the blood stained pieces.

“Oh, true. I don’t know how you managed that, though.” Mint shook her head again.

“It was just me not paying attention. Anyway, the salmon is ready, your plate is right there.” Crystalline gestured to the plate with her head.

“Oh, right. Thanks,” Mint replied, sitting down with her food and taking a bite. “Oh this is great, thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” Crystalline walked over with her own plate, sitting down quickly.

About an hour later they had finally finished eating and gathered what they’d need for the day, heading over to Auk’s store.

“Y’know,” Mint said suddenly, “I think Auk didn’t really seem like they liked me very much last time I was there.”

“What? Why would you think that?” Crystalline looked at her, surprised.

“Well, I dunno. It just seemed a bit weird. I mean, it was fine at first, but after you came back from that back room it just seemed like she sort of gave me a weird look. Maybe I was imagining it, but I don’t know…”

“Well I mean she didn’t know you then. I’ll admit she was a little apprehensive about me inviting a total stranger to live with me. But I tell her all about you when I visit her and I think she likes you.” Crystalline smiled warmly.

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair… Oh, well, I guess we’re about to find out anyway,” Mint said suddenly, realizing they were already at the shop.

Crystalline rushed up to the door and grabbed the door knob, jiggling it before sighing. “Shit… I got stuck again.”

“I don’t know why you didn’t just let me open it,” Mint sighed, breaking away the ice with her tail.

“I think it’s because I’m too used to having heaters on the doors.” Crystalline laughed.

“Oh, true. Okay,” Mint replied, holding the door open for Crystalline and following her inside.

“Hey Auk! It’s Crissie and Mint, we’re here to go on the adventure!” Crystalline called out into the shop.

“Oh, is it time for that already?” Auk’s voice called from somewhere in the back room. “One minute, I’m almost done putting this together and I’ll be right out!”

“Okay! Sounds good.” Crystalline replied and looked toward some pink flowers on the wall. “Ooh I’ve never seen these before, they must be new.”

“Oh, the ones in the front?” Auk called out again. “Yes, our main deliverer Edelweiss just brought those in yesterday. Actually, have you two ever met?” Auk asked, coming into the main area of the store. “I suppose not, huh? Maybe one day,” they said with a shrug. “Now, what are we doing first? Oh, and hello, Mint, it’s nice to see you again,” she said with a smile.

“We haven’t met, no. They sound interesting though. And we’re probably gonna show her around the main square first.” Crystalline smiled happily.

“Hey, Auk,” Mint replied. “Uh, nice to see you again too. I have no idea what’s going on,” she said brightly.

Auk clapped her talons together. “Lovely! Alright, should we head off now? Which shops are we going to first?”

“Well I don’t feel like stopping by work on my day off, so how about Mistletoe or Icedrift’s?” Crystalline said, shrugging slightly.

“Actually, what if we go visit Icedrift first? I had a couple things I wanted to pick up at some point, so that might be good timing.” Auk replied.

“Alright that sounds good! Now before I even think about it can someone open the door?” Crystalline said a little loudly.

Mint snorted, holding back a laugh, and immediately walked over to hold the door open again.

“Thanks, Mint!” Crystalline quickly skipped out the door, Mint and Auk following close behind.

They walked down all the town paths, careful not to slip on the ice, as Crystalline was leading the way – until they eventually reached something similar to the town square in Thermia, and they stopped in front of a store with a big sign over the door, labelling it “Icedrift’s Pharmacy” in big fancy letters.

“Oh, nice. This seems like a cool place,” Mint said.

“Yeah it is, Icedrift is super chill as well.” Crystalline commented.

“...‘Super chill?’ I mean yes, he’s an IceWing,” Auk said with a frown.

Crystalline rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I meant, Auk.” She smiled gently.

“Oh. Well I have no idea what you meant then, but Mint,” they said turning to face her, “Icedrift is a very lovely dragon. I’m sure he’ll love you!” Auk said with a big smile. Mint just smiled back, and Auk quickly stepped forward to open the door for everyone.

“Yeah for real, oh my word is that the newest line of…” Crystalline ran off, her voice disappearing into the space while she went excitedly to some product.

“Oh, I… Alright,” Mint trailed off, not bothering to go after her. She turned to look at a shelf on her right for a few moments, when a light purplish-blue dragon appeared next to her out of nowhere, startling her into dropping the package she had just picked up before she even had time to read the labels.

“Oh hello! How are you, new customer? Oh, hold on, wait, stop for a second. I absolutely adore your scales. Are they just like that? That’s so lovely. I’m Icedrift, are you new here? I would’ve noticed someone with scales like that in town. I’m sorry, is that a weird thing to say? I suppose that’s a bit rude. Apologies. Anyway, I’m Icedrift. Oh, wait, no, I’ve said that already…” he trailed off for a moment. Mint opened her mouth, but before she could even say a single word, he lit up again. “Oh my goodness, were you looking at the dehydrated blueberries? Those are my absolute favorite. Well, other than the strawberries. Oh, and I suppose the mangoes are lovely too. Well, anyway, you really should buy those,” he interrupted himself, pointing at the package that was still on the ground. “Oh my, and is that a crack in your horn? You know, I'm almost certain we have something for that, just over…” He frowned, turning around a few times. “Well, it’s somewhere around here!” Mint just blinked at him a few times.

“Uh… Yee-es, there is a crack, but it’s not really a big issue. And, um. Yes, my scales actually look like this.” She blinked again. “And I’m… my name is Mint. I just moved here about a month ago, and I haven’t really been out much. And uh…”

The strange new dragon blinked back at her. “The blueberries?” He asked as if it were the most obvious thing on Pyrrhia.

“...Right. Uh, I’ll try those. I, uh… Do you know where Crystalline went, actually?”

Icedrift suddenly gasped very loudly and dramatically. “CRYSTALLINE IS HERE AND NOBODY THOUGHT TO TELL ME?! Ugh! How could this ever happen? I must find her immediately, where has she gone?!” He exclaimed, much more loudly than needed, flapping his wings and quickly running off.

“...Three moons,” Mint muttered, rubbing her forehead. “Okay. Sure.” Almost immediately afterwards, though, Crystalline appeared from around a corner behind her; from exactly the opposite direction Icedrift had just ran off in.

“Hey! Have you met Icedrift yet?” Crystalline said, holding a box in her arms.

“Uhh… yeah. Yeah, that definitely just happened. I’m surprised you didn’t hear the, uh… the yelling, actually.” Mint replied with a small awkward laugh.

“Oh yeah I was on, like, the opposite end of the store. There’s this new line of essential oil perfumes that Princess Khione has been advertising lately, I need them. If they’re good enough for her, they’re good enough for me.” Crystalline smiled. “I can give you one of them if you want, the only one I really want is the Ylang ylang scent.”

“Oh, I see. That’s fine, you can keep them. I don’t really use perfumes anyway. Oh, and uh, Icedrift was looking for you. He seemed slightly outraged that nobody informed him you were here.”

“Oh shit, that’s not good. I should probably go find him then. And you should go find Auk, I have no clue where she is and I don’t want to lose her in here. See ya!” Crystalline ran off after that.

“Y-yeah, I… okay. Good talk.” She sighed. “Okay, finding Auk time.” Now that she thought about it, Auk had genuinely disappeared almost immediately after they all stepped into the store. She tried to look around, but she was just too short to see over these shelves. How big even was this place? I’ll figure it out soon enough, I guess.

After almost ten minutes of wandering around, she eventually ran into Auk again. Literally; she walked right into the poor dragon, causing her to knock over at least seven different bottles of some sort of fancy soap. “Oh moons, I’m so sorry, Auk. I was totally spaced out.” She stopped for a moment. “Oh hey, Auk! I was trying to find you!”

“Oh, really? Yes, I suppose I did just wander off; I’m quite used to coming here by myself, so I… Oh, anyway. Have you seen these?” She asked, holding up one of the soap bottles. “They’re lavender-lemon scented, isn’t that interesting? I might have to buy a bottle and see if it’s as good as it sounds…” she continued absently, reading the labels.

“Oh, I didn’t see that actually, those are interesting… Okay wait no, we’re getting off topic here. I was supposed to find you and, uh… Oh, shit. I mean, wait, fuck– I mean– three moons, I suck at this.”

Auk just raised her eyebrows. “I… am going to pretend I heard none of that. Alright, we should probably go find–”

“CRYSTALLINE!” A voice yelled from what seemed to be the other end of the store.

“Oh, look at that. I suppose Icedrift’s found her, then.” Auk said, tilting their head. “Well, we head in that direction now, I guess.” Mint nodded, following Auk over to the back corner where Crystalline was being yelled at by a very excited looking Icedrift.

“AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN TELL ME YOU WERE COMING, I WOULD’VE PREPARED SOMETHING, BUT NO, I FIND OUT FROM SOME STRANGE GREEN DRAGON THAT YOU’VE BEEN IN MY STORE AND I HAD NO IDEA? Oh wait, sorry about that, I didn’t mean strange in a bad way,” he cut himself off, noticing Mint standing there. She just shrugged. “Anyways. WHY HADN’T YOU COME TO SAY HELLO?! I HAD TO HUNT YOU DOWN!”

“I saw the advertisement for Princess Khione’s new perfumes and I forgot! I’m sorry for not saying hello Icedrift, but you need to try these. They smell so good just from the scent outside the box. How did you even manage to get your talons on these?” Crystalline laughed slightly as she spoke.

Icedrift sighed, settling down as he fluttered his wings by his sides. “Well, I suppose it’s alright… Long as you come find me first next time, alright?” He gave her a stern look for just a moment, and then immediately hopped back up, his face brightening again. “Aren’t they just lovely? And of course I’ve tried them, who do you think I am? I wouldn’t sell something like this in my own store without snatching a bit for myself. And, you know– Oh. Oh, well I suppose I can’t exactly tell you where I’ve gotten them from, but I have my ways.”

“That just makes it sound like you got them illegally,” Mint pointed out suddenly. Icedrift just blinked a few times, staring at her. “...Oh. Okay, I’m not even going to ask.”

Crystalline looked both of them up and down. “Okay… oh! Auk! Mint found you!” She smiled brightly.

“Yes, we met up in the soaps aisle. Did you know they have a lovely lavender-lemon scented one now? Well, I suppose I don’t really know if it’ll be lovely, but it does seem it. I think I’m going to buy one,” Auk replied with a small smile.

“Oh that sounds cool. Now that you mention it, Mint? Do we need more soap at the house?”

“Oh… we might need more for the downstairs bathroom, actually.” Mint replied, frowning as she tried to remember how much was left.

“Alright, I’ll pick some up while I’m here.” Crystalline turned to Icedrift. “You got any recommendations Icy?”

“Ooh, let’s see…” He stopped for a moment, clasping his talons together. “Oh, yes yes! There’s this lovely new flowery scent they’ve brought in from the Rainforest, I believe it was, erm… No, it’s the… Well, it’s something, anyway. You’ll see, it’s in a lovely sort of orange bottle!” he exclaimed.

“Okay! Sounds good.” Crystalline replied.

“Oh, are you leaving me again?” He asked with a sigh.

“You’re welcome to follow me around if you’d like, haha.” Crystalline beamed at him.

“Oh, are you serious? Well, I can’t exactly leave the store unattended, but for now?!” Icedrift asked, suddenly all smiles again.

“Yeah of course! I should come and see you more often, I miss hanging out with you.” Crystalline said softly.

“Well that’s just your own fault for not coming around here more often, isn’t it?” He pretended to be angry with her, making a face, but it was obvious he was just hiding a smile.

Crystalline rolled her eyes and started to walk away. “I’ll leave without you again…” She called teasingly.

“No! No, I was joking, I’m sorry!” He yelled, chasing after her as she started sprinting down one of the aisles.

“Oh, well, there they go, I guess.” Mint said, watching the two run off, Icedrift knocking multiple bottles off the shelves with his wings.

“Yes, they’re really going. Well, we should probably go after them, shouldn’t we?” Auk asked with a sigh and a small smile as she turned to Mint.

“Yeah, probably,” Mint replied with a small flap of her wings, walking down the aisle and picking up Icedrift’s disaster trail. They eventually, after following the path of items scattered across the ground, came across the two sitting on the floor in the middle of an aisle, eating what seemed to be bits of some sort of small fruit from little bags.

“Oh, lovely. Okay. What happened here?” Mint asked, gesturing to the ground which was covered in not only spilled chunks of fruit, but also other random assorted items that had clearly been knocked off the surrounding shelves. “We left you alone for like three seconds.”

“Well I saw these adorable little… um… goo thingies.” Crystalline held up a thin package that had a picture of an IceWing’s face with some purple stuff coating it. “I forget what they are called, and then I mentioned I was hungry almost immediately after that so we ran here!”

“And… the random pile of shit everywhere?” Mint asked, earning her a poke in the wing from Auk and a laugh from Icedrift.

“No, that bit’s just me, actually. Sorry about that. I’m not really good at, erm… wings?” He said (although it seemed more like a question), holding up his wings that he’d had flopped onto the ground before. “I keep smashing into shit and then it all just falls over. It’s not great, honestly. Kind of a pain to clean up. But anyway.”

“Yeah I kind of noticed that, are you okay Icy?” Crystalline asked.

Icedrift looked up, eyes wide. “What?” He asked with a mouthful of whatever fruit they had just been eating. “Oh, no it’s fine, that’s just sort of a thing. I never really got used to having these. You’d think after, what, twenty-seven years with them? You’d think I’d have it figured out by now, but it’s really just a very confusing thing to have to work around. Personally I think it’s not even really my fault, I think you’re all just strange for being able to exist so easily.” He explained suddenly, leaving an awkward silence for a few seconds afterwards.

“Honestly I feel you there, I mean look at how much of this shit has frozen over.” Crystalline looked down at all the things surrounding them. “Like I don’t understand how you all function without freezing everything you touch.”

“...The same way you’d have done it before the curse?” Icedrift suggested, popping another fruit chunk into his mouth. “By all the snow monsters, what on Pyrrhia even are these things? Why are they so good…?” He mumbled to himself.

“You think I remember stuff before this curse? It’s been like… a year. I barely remember a week ago.” Crystalline sighed softly and grabbed another container of fruit chunks. “If I pay for these, can I eat them right now?”

Icedrift just shrugged. “I don’t know, sure? I’m eating these now, aren’t I? Also, you realize you’ve practically just implied you have no memory of the first, like, ten years of your life? Did you mean to do that?” He shoved more fruit into his mouth.

Crystalline trilled her lips. “Uh… I don’t know.” She layed back, dropping bits of fruit into her mouth.

“Well that’s a very vague reply,” Mint laughed, raising an eyebrow. “Hey, can I try one of those?” She asked, almost interrupting herself, pointing at the fruit chunks.

“Hm? Oh yeah, sure.” Crystalline sat up and slid the fruit chunks over to Mint. She looked up at Auk. “Do you want any, Auk?”

Auk jumped a bit, looking very startled to have heard someone call her name. “Oh I’m sorry, has someone been talking to me? I was reading these, I’m very intrigued.” They pointed at the labels on some sort of candy package. “I mean how can you even have candies without the…? Well, anyway, uh… sorry, what was the question?”

Crystalline giggled. “I asked if you wanted any of the fruit. Also what did they leave out of the candies?”

“Oh sure, fruit sounds lovely right now. And it’s the, uh… Well, I don’t actually know how to pronounce it, actually. Whenever I’ve read it in my head I just sort of make up some gibberish. It’s something with a bunch of X’s and C’s,” she tried to explain.

“Oh, yeah that’s weird.” Crystalline scarfed down more fruit.

“Mmm.” Auk frowned, turning the package over again before hanging it back on the shelf and grabbing a fruit chunk out of the container.

“Why would you even know that’s in the–? You know what, actually, nevermind! Now, you guys are lucky there’s nobody else in the store; Icedrift, you’d probably get kicked out of here if someone reported you literally sitting on the ground and eating your products. Seriously though, someone is gonna have to pick this all up. And, why do you own a store with such small aisles in the first place if you can’t walk through them without knocking everything over?”

“You know, that is a great question. I… Erm… No comment?”

“You never even thought of it, did you?”

“No, I definitely did not.”

“Icy, were you even involved in the planning of the building?” Crystalline asked.

“Well no, but this is the one I specifically picked out for my store. It just seemed to have the best vibes, y’know?”

“Seriously? You picked the place based on vibes? You really are something, dude.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment. Now, uh… we probably should clean this up before someone finds us here and I get my license for this place taken away. Also, you have to pay for all the things you’ve just eaten.” He said, pointing at Crystalline.

“True, and we should probably head out soon anyways. If we were planning on going around the entire town we’re going to run out of daylight, at this rate.” Auk pointed out.

“Ah shit, okay how much do I owe you exactly?” Crystalline asked, grabbing her coin pouch.

Icedrift frowned. “Well, let’s see… the candies we ate, plus the other things you were planning on buying, it…” He muttered to himself for a moment before he seemed to come to a conclusion, nodding. “About sixty-three scales, I believe.”

“Oh okay, great.” She got up and ran over to the counter and dumped out a random amount of scales. “Uh… to me that looks like about one hundred and two scales? Keep the change.” She called as she walked back to the group and started picking things up.

Icedrift shrugged, placing some items back on the shelves. “I won’t argue with free money,” he replied as they finished cleaning up the aisle.

“Okay, we seriously need to head out now, we’ve been in here for like an hour already,” Mint cut in, realizing she hadn’t said anything in a while. I hate big groups of dragons. Also they’re all friends already. Moons, this is awkward. Is this how the entire day is going to go? She certainly hoped not. As much as she loved Auk and Crystalline, it would definitely be a very tiring day if she had to hang behind while they caught up with old friends at every store they went to.

You’ve quite literally murdered multiple dragons before and you’re this scared about a bit of social interaction? Really, Mint, come on now.

Oh, you’re back again? Shame. It was actually nice having some quiet for once, Mint thought back with a frown.

“Alright y’all, let’s roll!” Crystalline hugged Icedrift goodbye and headed out the door.

“Alrighty, where we headed next?” Mint asked. I wonder how many different kinds of stores they even have around here. Probably not many, it’s a relatively small town. Some of them must need to sell pretty specific things though, for a store as big as Icedrift’s to be the general store of the area.

“Mistletoe’s shop! He owns an import store, I always get my tea from him. Honestly he and Icedrift are sort of similar in a way.” Crystalline said as she marched forward.

The shop was only a few doors down, so it wasn’t very long of a walk. A little bell chimed as Crys pushed open the door, and again when it shut behind them. Mint didn’t hear anyone walking around, so she started to wonder if anyone was even in the shop. Usually if the bell went off someone would come by to say hello, but there were no footsteps, so–

“Hello! Oh my, a new face! I haven’t seen an unfamiliar face in…” The blinding pastel purple dragon began to count on their claws but they quickly shook their head, putting their talons down. “It doesn’t matter anyway, does it? What’s your name? You know, your scales are the most beautiful shade of green! You must have absolutely gorgeous parents, I’m talking too much aren’t I?” The dragon panted slightly when they were done.

“Uh… thank you.” She blinked a few times. Three moons. “Um. I’m Mint,” she said slowly.

“Mint! A lovely name to match your lovely scales! I’m Mistletoe, what brings you here today?” Mistletoe said with a beaming grin.

“Oh. Uh, thanks. I’m… just here with Auk and Crystalline, we were touring the town since I’m new here, and–...” She trailed off after looking behind her, noticing that neither of them was anywhere to be found. “Oh. Well, they were here.”

“Auk AND Crystalline?! And someone new?!” He put a talon to his chest. “I think I might faint. Anywho, feel free to look around! We just got some new stock in, I’m going to go look for your friends.” He proceeded to run away crying out, “OH CRISSIE!!! I KNOW YOU’RE HERE!”

“I really did not need another Icedrift today,” Mint muttered to herself as she turned to look at a nearby shelf. “I think I’m still not awake enough for this.” After some careful examination of the first shelf to the right, she remembered what Crystalline had said, about this being some sort of import shop. Which explained the dried beef strips with a picture of a swamp on the package and the bag of “assorted dried fruits,” which had a drawing of a very happy, rainbow-colored RainWing on the front with an armful of mangoes. It was interesting, at the very least, to see all the things dragons ate more often in the other kingdoms. She hoped she’d be able to travel to every other kingdom at least once in her life. She wanted to see a real parrot. It was one of her main life goals, she’d decided one day a few years ago. She was determined to go to the Rain Kingdom and meet a parrot. She couldn’t even remember why she’d wanted to see a parrot so badly anymore, but her younger self had a mission, so she was going to stick with it. She smiled and shook her head, grabbing one of the dried fruit bags and moving on further into the store. There were many shelves covered in all sorts of baked goods, mostly from the sand and mud kingdoms, she noticed. She grabbed one tin labelled “Cactus Cookies.” She had no idea what that meant, but she figured, why not try it anyway. She turned a corner, reading the back of the Cactus Cookie tin instead of watching where she was going, and ended up wandering straight into Mistletoe, almost knocking over both of them and causing her to drop the cookies. “Oh, shit. Three moons, what the hell. Oh, fuck, I’m sorry-” Mint exclaimed, realizing what had just happened.

“It’s perfectly alright! Here let me help you.” He picked up the tin of cookies and handed them to her gently.

“Better you picking them up than me, Mistletoe.” Sounded the familiar voice of Crystalline.

“Oh, hey Crys. Ugh, I should’ve found a basket or something.” Mint frowned. “Do you even have baskets here?” She asked, turning to Mistletoe.

“Of course we do! They’re the finest wicker baskets you’ll ever see! I think Crissie has one.”

“Sure do.” Crystalline held up a beige wicker basket. “Here, put that stuff in this basket.”

“Oh, that is a nice basket,” Mint noted as she placed her items in it. “Anyway, where the hell – no, sorry, how the hell – did you and Auk disappear so quickly? Speaking of that, where did they go? I mean, I swear I turned around for two seconds and you were gone. How do you guys manage that?”

“Well I did it to avoid being bombarded by this fellow, I figured you could handle it though. And Auk… I don’t even know. They’re just like that.” Crystalline replied. That’s fucking hilarious. I could barely handle Icedrift, nevermind a second dragon who might as well be his twin.

“Rude! I barely get to see you two! I bombard you out of love.” Mistletoe scolded her gently.

Crystalline simply rolled her eyes. “Sure you do.”

“...Right. Well, uh, I’m going to go look around a bit more and possibly find Auk. Unless they’ve found their way across town by now. Who knows.”

“Oh okay, do you want us to come with?” Crystalline asked.

“Uh… if you want to, sure. I don’t mind either way,” Mint replied with a shrug. “As long as I eventually get my things back,” she laughed.

“Of course, Mint. I’m not some petty thief, what do you take me for?” Crystalline giggled slightly.

“Mm, I dunno. I’ve heard you can never be too careful in a town like this,” Mint replied very seriously, holding back a laugh.

Crystalline held back a smile, the corners of her mouth struggling to turn upward. “I guess not.” She then turned around and started walking away. “Come on my friends, walk with me.”

“Oh, okay. Where are we going?” Mint asked, jumping in line behind Crystalline.

“Uh… let’s try the aisle down like… this way.” Crystalline turned to the right and peered down the next aisle. “Nope, not there.”

“Ooh, that’s a cool set of paints though, hold on,” Mint replied, taking a few steps down the aisle to look at them more closely. “There’s so many colors! I mean, I can’t paint for shit, but it’s still really nice.”

“Oh I love those! Boa says he gets them from this RainWing painter named Fossa, apparently she makes the pigments out of fruit skins or something! Or was it… nevermind. They’re just lovely paints!” Mistletoe smiled, practically bouncing up and down.

“How on Pyrrhia would you make pigment out of fruit skins?” Crystalline questioned.

“I don’t know, it’s probably some science thing I could never understand.” He replied. Mint nodded. She had just figured they crushed up the skins somehow, but Crys did have a good point. And Mistletoe; it was more likely some strange science thing. She frowned slightly, reaching out to lightly poke at the paint set, little cups of bright paint set in a lovely glass container. She sighed. Did she really need paints? Was she even going to use paints?

She had attempted painting multiple times before in her childhood and it never worked out quite how she wanted it to. The paint always dripped and ran, or her horse turned out looking more like a shit blob than a horse, or… something always ended up going wrong. Maybe it would work out this time? She was older, after all. And she doubted she’d get any better if she never practiced anything. She sighed again, nodding to herself and grabbing the paint off the shelf, wandering off to find brushes and canvas, completely forgetting about Mistletoe and Crystalline standing behind her.

“Yoo hoo! Mint, where are you going? We’re still on our grand quest to find Auk! Come brave soldier, we must push onwards! Not be distracted by colorful liquids that turn into art!” Crystalline called.

Mint stopped in her tracks, blinking a few times as she turned around. Right. The mission. But… if she didn’t find canvases now, she’d probably forget later. Or get lost and never find the right aisle again or something. “...Right. I just, uh… Can I just do something real quick first? I don’t want to forget later,” she replied, fidgeting with the glass container between her claws.

“Of course, of course. But after you finish we must continue on our GRAND QUEST!” Crystalline said while overemphasizing grand quest.

“Yeah, I know. Grand, uh… grand quest.” She nodded, turning back around to find her things. She assumed it’d be in the same aisle, but– Ah. There they were. She nodded to herself again, grabbing four small canvases and two bigger ones, as well as a cup of assorted sized brushes covered in a plastic wrapping to keep them together. “Great,” she said, not really realizing she’d spoken aloud, walking back over to the other two dragons and placing her items carefully into the basket. Except for the large canvases; she realized she’d have to carry those herself, seeing as they were bigger than the entire basket. “Alrighty, let’s go!”

Mistletoe giggled with glee and ran down to the next aisles, peering into them, running down them and then to the next when he couldn’t find Auk. Not too much later he jumped up in the air once they reached the exotic medicine aisle and yelled, “I found her!”

Which was immediately followed by a soft shout, and a muffled, “...scared the shit out of me…” from that direction. Mint followed the sounds to find them, stopping just before she walked straight into Auk.

“Oh, hey Auk. We found you!”

Auk sighed. “Yes, I noticed,” she replied with a small glare at Mistletoe. “Anyways, I found some lovely plant based medications and scrubs, it’s so fun to see all the things my plants can become.” They held up a few jars they had been holding. “They can help dragons and they look lovely on a shelf! Anyways, how are you all doing? Have I missed anything interesting?”

“Only our epic quest to find you! Other than that… no you didn’t miss anything of importance.” Crystalline piped up.

“Oh, alright.” Auk looked over at Mint again. “Those are… some very large canvases. Do you have plans for those, or are you just buying things because they seemed fun again?” They asked with a slight tilt of their head.

“Okay first of all ouch,” Mint replied, frowning. “Those dried blueberry things were absolutely not just because they seemed fun, I’ll have you know I was practically bullied into buying those. And… yeah, I have zero plans for this. It just seemed like it’d be cool. Shit, you’re right, aren’t you? Damn it.”

“Bullied into buying dried fruits? Now where was this?” Mistletoe raised a brow in confusion, looking around the group.

“We stopped by Icedrift’s before we came here, and that is where the alleged ‘bullying’ took place.” Crystalline said while rolling her eyes.

“Oh really? Icedrift is lovely, but I haven’t seen him in quite some time. Oh well.” Mistletoe turned to Mint with an awful grin. “I’m assuming Crissie was the one who started the bullying.” He said, nodding his head to the side where the now offended frost dragon stood.

“Oh, I uh… I don’t think she was even there, actually; I think she had already disappeared by then,” Mint replied with a slight frown.

“Yeah, asshole.” Crystalline said. Mistletoe just clicked his tongue and directed his attention to something on the shelf.

“Oh yes, I think I heard all that happening,” Auk chimed in. “Vaguely, anyway,” she explained, waving a talon. “I was a few aisles down, I believe. Icedrift is a bit… much, sometimes. He does mean well, though.”

“You two both are a bit much,” Crystalline said to Mistletoe.

“No, we’re just fabulous.” He said while examining a small brightly colored package.

“Fabulously annoying, maybe,” Auk muttered with a small laugh, shaking her head.

“Insulting one of your loyal customers, Auk? Not a smart business strategy, hun.” He retorted, putting the package back on the shelf.

“Oh please, it’s not like you would stop coming anyway. Your shop would be bland as all hell if you didn’t have these flower pots everywhere, dear. Nice try, though,” Auk replied with a smile.

Mistletoe just sighed and muttered something under his breath, looking away.

Mint glanced between the two, trying (and slightly failing) to hold in a giggle. “Aaaanyway… What were we doing?”

“Well we were on a quest to find Auk; but now we’ve found her. So… we need a new quest. Anyone got any ideas?” Crystalline questioned the group.

Auk frowned. “That doesn’t sound like it was a very exciting adventure. Anyways, um… Well, I’m not really sure. How many adventures can you really have in a store like this?”

“We could have an adventure of all of us going to find the strangest item in the store currently.” Mistletoe said. “I often play by myself when business is slow.”

“Oh, alright,” Mint jumped in. “So would we split up and each find what we think is the strangest, then? Or do we go as a group and decide all together what the strangest thing would be?”

“I think splitting up would make the most sense…” Mistletoe trailed off.

“Yeah! That way we can have four weird items instead of just one!” Crystalline responded excitedly. Auk just nodded in agreement, stretching her wings.

“Alright then! Meet up back at the front in… ten minutes?” Mint suggested.

“Yeah!” Crystalline and Mistletoe said at the same time, smiling at each other afterward.

Mint nodded, dropping the loose string of carpet she had been fidgeting with and turning down the slightly crowded aisle, careful not to bump into any of the other dragons as they also went their separate ways. Alright, Mint thought; now where the hell do I go? She turned through at least seven different aisles before realizing she had almost ended up completely turned around; she was right back where she’d been – probably at least five turns ago by now. She also realized that she was just randomly wandering, and hadn’t even looked at any of the shelves. She sighed and shook her head, turning to the shelf to her right, immediately finding herself face to face with a tiny severed leg.

“Oh holy shit, what the fuck?” She exclaimed, quickly backing up. She frowned, squinting to read the label so she didn’t have to get any closer. “Enchanted leg from a s… squee… What the hell is a… ‘a squee-rell?’” She frowned again. “Okay, uh… Keeps away… Wait, ‘Keeps away bugs?’ What on Pyrrhia does a leg have to do with bugs? Alright, that’s going on my list. No, y’know what? I’m just choosing this, actually. No way in hell I’m finding something stranger than that in my travels.” She said to herself, carefully grabbing it by the packaging, not wanting to actually touch the strange fuzzy object. She had no idea how long it had been, so she made her way back to the store expecting to have been late, but none of the others were there yet. A few minutes later, Auk came around the corner.

“Oh, Mint! I hope you haven’t been waiting long. Look what I’ve found! ‘Stringy Soap – soap made out of yarn and honey.’ How does that even work?” They asked, giggling. “Anyway… No sign of the others yet?” Mint shook her head. “Mm. What did you get?”

“Uh… y’know– you’ll see when we show our things to the group.” Mint decided. Only a couple minutes later, Mistletoe and Crystalline came around the corner, seeming to be deep into a very random conversation.

“No, that’s not what boats are used for. You can’t take them on land, especially not through the woods no less.” Mistletoe said to Crystalline quietly as they reached the group.

“So then why do they exist? There’s no way the water is that bad that they just can’t swim in it or fly over it.” Crystalline responded with an edge.

“I… okay.” Mistletoe said, slightly defeated. “Anyway, hello you two! What did you find in your travels?” He said with his usual pep.

“Aha!” Auk exclaimed. “Stringy Soap! Yarn and honey, it claims. How would that get any cleaning done? Isn’t it absurd?” They explained with a wide grin. “It’s hilarious!”

“That is definitely strange! I didn’t even know I sold that…” Mistletoe looked surprised, muttering something to himself, then rolled his eyes at seemingly nothing. “Anyway, Mint! What did you find?”

“Oh yeah!” She pulled out her item, holding it up to the group. “Squee-rell leg! It… I don’t know,” she paused, flipping it over to read the label again, “It says it’s ‘enchanted to keep away bugs.’ Which is just as absurd as Stringy Soap, really, because there were so many there’s no way they were Animus enchanted, so it really must just be bullshit. Also, what the hell even is a squee-rell? Anyway, that’s my thing!” She explained excitedly.

Crystalline laughed softly. “Mint, it’s pronounced squur-rul. But also yeah that’s really cool and definitely a weird find.”

“What do I sell in my store?” Mistletoe questioned, most likely to himself.

“Squirrel?” Mint repeated. “Squirrel.” She squinted at the label again. “No, no, Squee-rell makes so much more sense. If it were ‘squirrel’ it wouldn’t be spelled like that. That’s just… stupid.”

“I guess so. But you’ll never guess what I found.” Crystalline put her basket in front of her and pulled out a string of beehives and wasp nests. “Isn’t this so weird? Like what would you ever use this for? Are you gonna rehome some of… whatever lives in these things? I don’t know honestly, I didn’t read the thing on the shelf describing it.”

Mistletoe gaped in shock and looked absolutely mortified. “How…”

“Oh. Oh my,” Auk said.

“Holy shit,” Mint exclaimed, poking one of the nests. “Where did they even find enough of those to put ‘em on a string like that? Were there more on the shelf? That’s a lot of hives, three moons. Also, did they find them empty like this, or like… murder a bunch of bees and shit? Man, I need to find the shelf those were on. Is it supposed to be decoration, maybe?” She sat back. “That’s crazy.”

“There were only two. Mint, maybe we should buy this and hang it up in the house somewhere. Like maybe over the garden door or the kitchen or something.” Crystalline responded.

“Oh, true. That would probably look nice over the garden door. Maybe… Maybe on the outside though, in case something tries to move back in. I don’t want any of those guys in the house. Made the mistake of poking at a nest in the forest once to try to figure out what it was; never tried that again. Those little fuckers hurt when they get you.” She frowned, recalling the large itchy bumps across her arms and talons for weeks after that day. Every time she’d tried to scratch them, they ended up bleeding, which always just caused even more pain. She never poked a wasp nest again after that.

“That sounds… scary. But yeah we probably should hang them outside. I also think they might be too broken for the creatures to move back into again.” Crystalline gestured to the wasp nests’ layers coming undone.

“Oh, yeah. Still… just in case.” Mint shook her head. “Anyway, what’d you get, Mistletoe?”

Mistletoe looked up from the nests and dug in the basket as well. “I… I found a fake stuffed hamster.” The eyes were obviously made of plastic and the fur wasn’t real. The feet had an odd realistic quality to them though… “How did you guys find these things? Like Auk and I’s finds were normal, wholesome. You two… you two really have a good eye I suppose.”

“I mean I don’t think it’s exactly our fault,” Mint pointed out. “Maybe you need to walk through your store once in a while, check what you’re selling here.”

“Yeah dude. Do you even get to see what Boa brings you half the time?” Crystalline said.

“Yes I do! I look inside the boxes and then stock the shelves. But he does always keep a box he insists on stocking himself… But even then I’ve looked in that one before and there’s been nothing too abnormal! At least… I didn’t see anything abnormal…” Mistletoe trailed off.

“You might want to try to pay a bit closer attention to that, then. Also, um… where did you say you knew this ‘Boa’ from?” Auk asked.

“Well actually he and I met about ten years ago, I always went to the Mud Kingdom on special occasions to get my tea. Then we brought up our jobs into conversation and a deal was struck. I would pay him a reasonable amount of money if he would supply my store with exotic things from the other kingdoms. He’s a wonderful friend.” Mistletoe rambled on.

“And, um… How exactly did this deal-striking go?”

“Well it went quite splendidly as far as I’m concerned. I mean I have a successful shop, he gets a hefty salary, I think we make a good team.”

“Wait, how do you go from just talking about jobs to making a deal like this? Also, what the hell did he do before?” Mint jumped in with a slight frown.

“Well ten years ago my business had just started, and it wasn’t doing very well. I needed help but I didn’t know how to ask for it. When I told him what I thought would help fix my problems he jumped at the opportunity. He used to be a cattle merchant, so he never got to leave his kingdom. So once I offered to pay him basically for traveling he wanted to be my employee. And that’s how our arrangement has been ever since.” He explained in great detail.

“Oh, okay. I totally thought you got tricked or something. …Hey, does anyone know what time it is?” Mint asked suddenly, realizing how long they’d been standing there.

“It is…” Crystalline said while looking around. “... Ah! It is six o’clock.” She said smiling, but then she paused and her eyes widened. “Six o’clock?!”

“Oh. Oh dear. Well, Mistletoe, I’m afraid that’ll have to be our visit for the day! We’d meant to tour the whole town with Mint today, we’ve been here far too long and it seems we’re quickly running out of daylight. I’ll see you again soon, though; I believe I have a delivery for you tomorrow,” Auk explained.

“Ah well that’s lovely, thank you! I almost forgot about that. Anywho, are you all buying your items? If so, I will need you to pay for those.” Mistletoe said, raising a brow.

Crystalline hummed and grabbed her satchel of scales. “Here.” She pulled out a small bag from within the satchel. (bag-ception) “In there should be about two-hundred scales. Does that cover it?”

Mistletoe took it hesitantly. “That more than covers it! But I can’t take all of this–”

“Yes you can. Bye. See you at some point, Mistletoe!” Crystalline then bolted for the exit and out the door.

“It’s rude to pay and run!” Mistletoe called after her. “And you left your basket!”

Mint shook her head, grabbing the basket of all their items and running off with Auk after Crystalline. “Bye, Mistletoe! It was nice to meet you!” She called behind her.

The rest of the night was spent rushing from shop to shop, walking around for a few minutes, maybe buying an item or two before leaving. There was a bakery, a cafe, what Mint assumed was some sort of produce store (most of the shelves were just covered in an extremely unnecessary number of cucumbers), and a few other stores similar to Icedrift’s. They ended the tour at Auk’s shop to drop her off, Crystalline buying a few more flowers and saying goodnight before they walked back to the house. Crystalline had bought a new set of plates that she thought were very pretty, and Mint ended up with – along with her other items – a small cake, a small fern in a brown pot, and three new pillows. By the time they were back at the house and had everything sorted out, it was almost two in the morning, so both dragons fell asleep very quickly after going into their rooms.

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