CHAPTER SIX: AND SO IT BEGINS
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Snippet Seven (2): Hijinks At The Market
As Leonard pulls the three with him into the house, Fabian thinks about all that needs to be accomplished. He absentmindedly notices Tânia and Monika guarding the front door while Gaspar slinks around to the back of the house. He smirks and decides to start to gather the market crew to leave. "Nicolae, Phillip, Loreta, Ferran, and Vanessa, please come to me so we can get this done as quickly as possible. No one wanders alone. Phillip guards Nicolae, Loreta guards Vanessa, and Ferran guards me. Now take my hand and we will go to the main house resource market first." He turns around and walks away from the house. What he doesn't see, is that Vanessa looks at Rebecca motioning her to join them. Nicolae sighs and distracts the Gheyo so they don't notice the addition until it's too late. Vanessa links her other hand with Rebecca and winks at Odeta (who giggles in reaction to all of this.) "3,2,1!" Fabian says as he ports the 7 of them to the market.
They land on the outskirts of the market and Fabian leads them forward into it before Loreta realizes their addition. "Wait, Rebecca? Uh, Fabian..."
Fabian slams to a halt and sighs deeply. "If you want to come along next time, just tell someone. Just go with Loreta and Vanessa. And no detours." He glares at Rebecca and Vanessa. "We need tents, all kitchen supplies, beds/bedding, bathing supplies, and Nicolae, you should consider getting many calendars." He thinks to himself for a minute. "Loreta, Vanessa, and Rebecca get the kitchen supplies and the tents. Phillip and Nicolae get the beds and bedding supplies. Ferran and I will get the bathing supplies. Here are my personal banking tokens to buy everything with. Buy whatever you think is needed and feel free to splurge." He hands Loreta and Phillip a token and leads Ferran away from the rest in exasperation.
Phillip and Nicolae nod their heads and head off towards the bed store before leaving the three women alone. "Well!" Rebecca exclaims, "What a good time to contact my sister!" Loreta shakes her head and mutters about crazy pareyas. "Hi Iso! Your favorite sister here, please meet me at the kitchen supplies store, The Stocked Pantry, in about eighty or so minutes. Ta!" Rebecca quickly sends the message and then tugs her two companions toward the tent store. "Let's get done with the tents so we can spend more time with my sister!"
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Loreta looks at the many bags at her feet. "Did we really need this many tents, Rebecca??" She chews her lip.
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"We've got 31 people already, and you heard Fabian, 20 more Gheyos AND 20 more Pareyas. We'll need the three large tents, three 1-2 people tents and four 3-4 tents for sleeping. And that doesn't include the 2 covered tents for cooking and 2 covered tents for dining. Plus the 1 covered tent for just sitting around!" Rebecca defends the order. "Not to mention that any healers we gain will want somewhere to heal. We'll be able to repurpose them once we are living in the house." She stubbornly says. "Now onto the cooking store! You'll love Iso!"
"Rebecca!" A teal-haired woman runs up to Rebecca and gives her a bear hug. "It's been forever since you've been at the house! Mera Judit and Mera Trudi have missed you at the house!" She notices the Gheyo and Pareya and hisses while putting her hand on a dagger hilt. Isobella quickly pulls Rebecca behind her and threatens the two with a deeper voice, "Fuck off before I turn you into mincemeat!" She fully pulls out the dagger while simultaneously pulling out her pastel green wings.
Rebecca grabs her sister's hand and barks out, "No! Loreta is my Gheyo and Vanessa is my companion." She forces her sister to resheath her dagger. "I would've told you, but I figured you would be chill enough to not attack without getting introduced." She rebukes the angry Dragel as Loreta stares at Isobela with a hand tensely grasping her curved shortsword. "And put your wings away," Rebecca says as she smacks the back of her sister's head.
"Now, if you're willing to play nice with my two bonded, I might have an in with a bonded circle for you." Rebecca continues. "We need to buy an entire kitchen, and I mean everything from cooking stoves to dishware. And you can have a hand in choosing things for your potential submissive. Are you in?" She cajoles her sister. Loreta makes a noise, but Rebbca quickly goes, "Zzt! It's Alexia's choice, not yours." Isobella slowly nods in agreement while Loreta angrily looks at the two of them.
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While this is all happening, Nicolae yanks Phillip to a stationary store that is next to the bathing store. "I hope I'm not wrong about our new mage, but I'm hoping he can connect calendars and notebooks together." Nicolae comments as he browses the store wares. "Let's grab 35 identical notebooks and 20 identical calendars. 50 fountain pens and 100 vials of black ink." They purchase everything and move on to the bathing supplies.
Phillip looks at the bags at their feet as they lean against the building. "Are you sure 20 bars of soap are needed? And 15 differently scented candles? And 20 sets of color-coordinated towels!" Phillip quietly whines as he tries to forget about how much money they just spent.
Ten minutes later a message gets sent to them from Fabian that declares, "Ferran and I are done and the gaggle of girls are on their way to us. Rebecca recruited a sister to help cook for the next few days. If you are done, meet us at the market entrance. I'm done with the hijinks already..."