Curiosity got the better of me

[HikariAngel]

A flock of majestic snow-white swans flew over Monica’s head as she lay on her back, gazing up at the sky. She didn’t know where the idea had come from, but it quickly turned from simple fantasy to a full obsession in no time at all. It was simple enough to overhear conversation of a shop that dealt in powerful enchantments; a shop that the catgirl was now standing before.

Swallowing the rock in her throat, she hesitantly reached for the handle of the door. What if the shopkeeper didn’t want to do it? What if she couldn’t? The questions nagged at her until she pulled the door open and stepped in.

A small bell attached to the wooden frame chimed cheerily, sending the nervous catgirl into a somewhat more relaxed state. It was amazing how something so simple could be so calming.

“Hello? I… I have a request for the Synthesis shop owner.”

Looking around, Monica didn’t see anyone resembling what she thought the master synthesizer would look like, so she walked up to the counter and rested her arms on the sturdy wooden barrier that stood between her and the most amazing process she’d never get to see.

[Lasair Anubail]

Lasair stopped what she was doing when she heard the tiny bell above her door chime and jingle in accordance with it being opened or moved. The translucent wings upon her back shimmered and shifted faster than the eye of almost any species could follow as her curiosity began to mull over who had come waltzing into her shop. She thought it might be her sister, or maybe even Tristram but it appeared they were taking their sweet time getting back here and giving her those items she’d asked them for. When the soft and hesitant voice of a woman rang out throughout the silence though, Lasair knew it was a customer and immediately jumped to her feet and rushed out.

The dark purple and heavy curtain which separated the front of the shop from the back area, where she did all her synthesizing shifted and moved and then parted as one tiny little Fae rushed out into the main area. Her golden eyes searched through the dim shop lit by a myriad of gentle glowing crystals as she looked for her customer. After only a moment, her eyes came to rest on the figure of a young...human? No, no, that was not a human. Humans did not have ears like that; they had small little ears that stuck to the sides of their faces kind of like hers, only a little less pointy. This girl’s ears looked like that of a cat and Lasair had to resist the temptation to touch them. Ohhh, she wanted to touch them so badly and see if they were all soft and cuddly!

“Hi!” Lasair said rather cheerfully to her. “I’m the Synthesis Shop Owner, Lasair at your service! How can I help you?”

Reminding her that Aileen would not approve if she practically attacked one of her customers, the small Fae approached the counter. It was clean for once. There were no items and left over weird things littering it and causing a huge mess. In fact, the wood actually gleamed in the gentle and soft blue light that allowed the many shelves and odd little items covering the walls of the shop to just come into view enough to tantalize any curious person, but still leave the majority of everything in shadows.

[HikariAngel]

The heavy lavender curtain moved and instantly Monica’s eyes were drawn to the child-like figure that emerged from beyond the unknown. An urge to leap over the counter and pounce-hug the adorable faerie- or fae- crossed her mind, triggered by the shimmering wings that trailed delicately behind the woman no taller than she was.

“Lasair? Oh! I’m Monica. Nice to meet you.”

Talking was the best way to suppress urges that would get her in trouble, especially when she was looking to not get thrown out.

“Well, I… I was running around Donnalaich, minding my own business, when all of a sudden an idea hit me. Well, the idea didn’t hit me, but I did run into a rather large, scaly draconian and the idea must have fallen from one of the dusty shelves in my head into my brain. But I was wondering if you could make an ice swan. It’s more complicated than that, of course… It would be like a, what is it, a sash. It would be a sash I could wear, and when I need it, it turns into a swan of ice with wings of snow. Oh! And if you could somehow make it so I could sort of ‘merge’ with it and have it turn into like a pair of ice wings that I could fly with… that would be soooooo cool.”

Her dark grey tail was twitching like crazy as she spoke; the extravagant, sweeping gestures of what the catgirl was looking for were probably more confusing than helpful. Her mouth was set in a face-splitting smile and her ears were perked straight up. She held her final pose, arms stretched straight out in imitation of a flying bird for a few seconds before realizing that she had probably made absolutely no sense at all.

“Sorry. I get a little excited sometimes, and I start to ramble. I can try explaining it better again if you didn’t get it. And if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I’d also like some sort of ward against heat and fire, preferably a necklace or pendant of some kind, if you can do that.”

[Lasair Anubail]

It was really hard to concentrate on what the girl was saying when her tail kept swishing around like that—Oh, my God she has a tail!—and her arms kept enthusiastically fluttering around in the air and trying to give her some kind of physical image to go along with her description. Needless to say, when she finally stopped rambling and her arms finally fell back to her side and remained still once more, Lasair understood the entire thing. Because really, who else in this crazy world was going to understand some rambling little creature with cute ears besides another rambling little creature with cute wings?

“All right! It sounds doable,” Lasair said as she rested her elbow on the low counter. Her golden eyes shot off to some place high above Monica’s head as she began to wonder over the ingredients. “So, basically you want a sash that can transform into a swan made of pure ice and snow and then you want that swam to also be able to merge with you and give you some wings?”

Yeah, that sounded like what she had wanted to say, only she had said it in a lot more words than that. But that was fine with Lasair!

“I’ll be right back!”

And with that she raced behind the curtain of her shop, leaving the girl standing there for a few minutes in absolute silence. Then finally she came back out carrying three tomes she could barely see over the top of and the weight of them along seemed to make her quite uneasy on her feet. One strong gust of wind and she’d fall right over! Luckily, there was no wind in her shop and she was able to slam the pile of tomes down without much worry for her own safety.

“Let’s see what you’ll need then, I get the feeling it’ll be a lot so I’ll write it down for you! Common good, yes? Yes? Awesome.”

She reached into some drawer or desk behind the counter that Monica couldn’t see and produced a creamy coloured and thick piece of parchment and a quill and a blot of ink.

Grabbing the first tome of the top, she began leafing through it faster than anyone had the right to as she other hand began neatly writing beautiful flowing letters of the ingredients she would need. Every now and again, she would cross something out and replace it with something she thought was better and when she was done with the first tome, she moved on to the second one. Then finally the third.

“So, let’s see to make sure I’ve got everything you’ll need. Wouldn’t want you to miss an ingredient, then the whole thing could just blow right up in my face!” She grabbed the list and began reading it aloud; to make a check to herself as well as give Monica an idea as to exactly what kind of hot water she’d landed herself in for such an item. “Well, for starts two yards of Sifan cloth, since this is an ice enchantment I would suggest the colour either being white or ice blue. Then you’ll need two or three ice blue dragon or draconian scales, two white dragon or draconian scales, and a small handful of mana dust. That’s the base for it. Next, I’ll need one completely clear and unblemished crystal and one ice blue crystal, no better make that two ice blue crystals. Actually, should probably...” Her voice trailed off as she picked up her quill and corrected a few things on the list. “Okay, so half a pound of Prevalida metal, two feathers of whatever bird you would like to turn into, oh yeah... the heart of that same bird too, so I hope you have a strong stomach!”

She smiled at the girl but paused before she continued as if suddenly something dawned on her. “Is there anything this swan is going to be doing in particular besides being made of ice and merging with you?”

The Fae really needed to know the specifics in order to continue giving her the list of items.

[HikariAngel]

“Exactly!”

Somehow, between the random gestures, incoherent babble, and rambling words that flowed from the catgirl’s mouth, Lasair knew exactly what she wanted and proceeded to reiterate precisely what she had failed to describe. The only logical explanation Monica could draw for the occurrence was the fact that cute things thought alike… and the fae was certainly cute.

The catgirl waited with perky ears and bright eyes when the other girl ran to the back room and returned with three massive books that she wondered how the fae actually managed to carry without falling over. When Lasair went to work, however, the catgirl’s eyes widened further than should have been possible. She had never been much of a reader, but even so, the speed at which the delicate girl was able to flip pages and manage to write with a perfect hand was awe-inspiring.

“The heart… but that’s so mean… I guess if I have to I could do it. The swan is pretty much something I can ride, so like on a long journey I can rest my legs. If you could make it so the sash released a thin mist when I wanted it to, that would be so awesome, since it’s always easier to freeze mist than to create the ice out of just magic and thin air.”

She leaned forward while she spoke, excitement tangible in the shop’s atmosphere. Her ears were indeed soft and fluffy, and they twitched here and there as she smiled. This was going to be SO COOL when she managed to round up everything she needed.

[Lasair Anubail]

Finally she couldn’t take it anymore! As the young woman leaned more heavily on the counter and brought her head closer to Lasair, with those cute little twitching ears of hers she just had to do it! There was no going back now. If she had just stayed firmly on the other side of not have come in just a little closer and if her ears had not moved in a really adorable way when she smiled than all would have been right in this world. But all of those things had happened. So without further thinking on it too much, the small Fae dropped her quill and reached out rather quickly before the girl could stop her and latched onto her ears with her small hands.

They really were soft.

The fur covering them was a pretty white and was very fluffy, reminding her of the fur of those tame Algora that some of the Fae like to keep around as pets. Or Coinins, those things were so cute! Until they tried to bite your head off, then they weren’t cute anymore. After a few seconds of gently running her fingers across the girl’s ears, Lasair retracted her hands with a huge smile and went back to work as if it had never happened. She scribbled down a few more ingredients and then handed over the piece of paper to the young woman.

“There ya go!” She said with a huge smile. “I put in a quick description for you about where you can find some of the items too. Though others you’re on your own for.”



• Two yards of Sifan cloth
• 2-3 ice blue draconian scales – ask a Draconian, I’m sure it won’t be too hard, they tend to like cute things.
• 2 white draconian scales – same as above.
• Handful of mana dust – comes off the wings of Fae
• 1 Unblemished, clear crystal – there’s a large waterfall with a cave behind it in the Cearnaigh Criostal (which is also the shopping district Monica is in)
• 2 Ice blue crystal – same as above.
• half a pound of Prevalida
• 2 Swan feathers
• 1 Swan heart
• Purified water – remember that waterfall...
• 2 snow bugs – found under rocks in the grasslands between Talmhaidh and Luthmor
• Ice shards – I’m sure if you asked a Fae...

[HikariAngel]

“Eyaah~ That tickles~”

It was bound to happen sooner or later. While it was the first time in her memory that someone had reached out and rubbed her ears like that, she was willing to overlook just how unprofessional it was based on several factors. First, and probably most importantly, it just felt good. It felt so good, in fact, that she completely forgot the rest of the reasoning about why it was acceptable (among other things) and set her chin on the counter.

A quiet rumbling came from her throat, rhythmic with her slow breathing. Her eyes were closed and her tail swished lightly. Oh, it felt so nice to have someone rubbing her ears like that… But, alas, the fae had to get back to work. The catgirl’s few moments of heaven were up. Taking the slip of paper, Monica smiled with a tinge of sadness, ears twitching slightly.

“I’ll be back before you know it. Bye then!” Then she was gone, quite obviously sprinting off toward the waterfall since most of her ingredients were going to come from there. She held the list close to her heart as she ran, treasuring the few minutes she had with the adorably cute fae.

[Lasair Anubail]

Lasair made a mental note to scratch the girl’s ears if and when she ever came back into the shop. After all, that noise she’d made in her throat had been just amazing and so cute sounding! She wanted to know how she could do it so maybe she could get one of her plushies to make a noise like that. It would certainly be funny if Godhand made that odd rumbling sound whenever she hugged him.

Placing the ink and blot back in the drawer on the other side of her counter, Lasair proceeded to close the tomes and bring them into the back room the customers never got to see. Where the actual synthesizing took place. In the back of her mind, she hoped the girl would return but with the list of ingredients she had given her, she was not so sure. She’d had plenty of customers walk out of those doors only to never bother coming back into them. Even that thin, girl...ohh, what was her name, Liliana, had taken quite some months to return and without her friends beside her at that.

Silently, she wished Monica good hunting and then proceeded to close down for the night. It was after all, getting late.



Both participants receive 50 experience.