Felicia swallowed nervously as Daniel made his way up to her, his eyes narrowing in search of any hint that she could’ve once again wasted all her time waiting for them. Awkwardly the cat girl shifted in her seat, letting out a wooden giggle, and tried not to let on that she had spent the last few hours just sitting behind the counter again, reading the entire time. She had wanted to go up into the inn for that, but there had been some loud noise that scared her back down. What if the skeletons had returned while they had been away?!
“Ah, much better.” Daniel nodded with a cheerful grin of his blazing eye and Felicia felt completely lost.
“Y-yeah, I did stuff…” She said slowly, oblivious to the fact that he had noticed the book she had hurriedly sat down on and approved of it. As quick as she could, Felicia changed the topic before this unintentionally comedic misunderstanding could be cleared up.
“R-right…” She coughed, clearing her throat, and eagerly dove into her professionalism. “Welcome back to Zaunder’s Counters. Where we have new goods right out of the woods! And… a quest? There’s was some weird noise back at the inn and it would be great if you two could check it out.”
“Hey!” Key squawked.
“I mean you three, of course.” Felicia smiled, holding back a small laugh.
“Sure, we wanted to get back to the inn anyways.” Mako hopped up to the counter with a grin, looking rather cute as she struggled on the tip of her toes to lean over it. Her grin only widened.
Threy and Mako exchanged a quick glance, both thinking the same. Yep, this was definitely the work of Raymond and his collection of rescued dragon beans. An amused twinkle played within their eyes. Oh, this could potentially be a ton of fun.
“We take the quest.” Threy chuckled, holding out his hand and before Felicia could shake it, with a flick of his wrist he handed her another five keys. “And we found these, too.”
Her eyes sparkled as she was quick accept them, totalling the current discount to 10%.
“Great~! Thank you so much! …I don’t have any new special items for sell just yet, though. Sorry.” She sheepishly apologised quite unnecessarily. Then she nodded more firmly. “Oh, but I’ll give you a 1.000 G for finishing up my quest.”
Perhaps that amount would have been a fortune… but as it stood, both still had more G than they knew what to do with yet.
———
There wasn’t much need to put off their return to Zaunder’s Haven any longer and so, after hopping behind the counter, the trio joined Felicia within the Zaunder’s Counters’ cockpit. The display appeared like a wooden replica of that of a modern car while the windscreen wrapped from the entrance around the whole cockpit in one single plane, giving it a wonderful open and warm look. Especially with the warmer woods used to line the walls.
“…wait, how the heck do you get from here back behind the counter so fast?” Threy blinked as Felicia took her seat behind the wheel. She tilted her head to the side and furrowed her brow uncertain.
“Did I forget to tell you…? Well, this thing’s pretty autonomous and immediately drives through the gate when you two come near the markers. I probably could turn that off… but I would rather not risk it…” Felicia explained.
“Muh, you shouldn’t have explained it…” Mako pouted annoyed as she laid sprawled out on her back on the cozy couch immediately to the right of the cockpit entrance. Her tail hanging lazily down the side and flicked occasionally.
“Ah, but do I always sit behind the counter…?” Felicia decided to humour her with a chuckle and with a smooth flick she started what was likely the engine of this strange, wooden vehicle.
The gate began to swirl open and with reckless speed Zaunder’s Counter rocketed forwards, sending a startled Threy flying into the shotgun seat while Key had to hold onto his head for her dear life. All while Mako was able to laugh cheerfully from her spot, watching amused at Key fluttering under Threy’s hat like the wig she was clearly moonlighting as.
It was hard to describe the feeling of moving through this portal. Gravity worked yet it did not. Everything felt light, as if they floated, while at the same time an incredible weight seemed to press down on them from all directions. The warping tunnel around them glowed with blue and turquoise light.
And then everything snapped back to normal and the wagon came to a screeching halt within an oversized underground hangar that felt like it was missing at least another two years of construction to finish whatever had been supposed to fit inside here. A solid, rust red, rugged stone wall obstructed the way where the portal had just opened up and a simple, steel staircase lead up to a wooden door that looked completely out of place. All of it illuminated by lights embedded into the ceiling stone.
“Were there a warship or some secret fighter jets supposed to be stationed here…?” Mako sweatdropped at the scenery. Unsure what to make of it.
“Don’t ask me, as far as my Alice self is concerned this had always been here.” Felicia pouted, looking rather put out by the fact that she had no idea what a room under her supervision was supposed to be used for.
“I… I dohonn’t know either!” Key chimed in, a dazed grin on her face and eyes swirling with dizziness. She was still hanging onto Threy’s head as if being blown backwards, as if locked into her position. Like hair. Like a wig.
Gently, Threy plucked her off and held her in his arms. Unable to help herself, Felicia scratched the little dragon bean under her chin which she happily leant into, tail trembling and breaking out of its paralysis.
———
“Well, let’s see what we can find back in the inn!” Threy declared as he and Mako hopped out of the wagon’s side, his voice echoing loudly as the sound bounced off the cavern’s walls.
“Bye~!” Key waved towards Felicia, riding atop Threy’s shoulder.
“I wish you good luck…! From all the way back here!” The cat girl called after them, her voice muffled the moment the wagon wall slammed close again.
Threy and Mako winced at the deafening echo leaving an annoying ringing in their ears. Shaking their heads, they made their way up the stairs and to the wooden door above. It easily swung open and they found themselves entering Zaunder’s Haven’s wine cellar. Bottles laid out in wooden shelves while massive barrels lined the walls, some of them stacked atop each other.
“Wonder how much those would sell back home…?” Daniel mused as he let his gaze wander across the fancy bottles. Some of those wines even had a sparkling, blue glow to them. There were also green, yellow and the rest of all known colours.
“We would’ve to convince them they are even safe to drink first.” Tania grinned back. “So, probably a ton!”
“Let’s ask Felicia if we can buy a few of them later.” Daniel chuckled and Tania bopped her head in agreement.
Neither of the two had much interest in alcohol, the few times they had tasted any had been years back now and beyond not just liking the idea of being drunk, both also just straight up disliked the taste. And no, hiding it under a ton of sugar didn’t make it better. Just drink a normal, sugary drink instead!
Finding the stairs leading further up, Threy and Mako left the cellar behind and then saw themselves entering the inn within a room just behind the counter, the open door gazing right out into the empty entrance hall. It wasn’t the kitchen but more of an in-between room with a more general practicality to it. Empty and able to used for all sorts of things.
Tania’s ears twitched. The sound of scurrying feet, muffled thumps, laughter and mild chatter echoed from above. Muted and distorted by the distance, it did sound rather eery. Especially when you still remembered the skeleton invasion vividly.
“…or exactly like a group of kids eagerly abusing the fact they are under absolutely zero adult supervision.” Tania’s eyes twinkled amused, hand covering her mouth as she giggled brightly into herself.
This sounded exactly like the time when she, Daniel and all their friends had a sleepover at Luna’s home and her parents had left them all on their own. Because they thought Luna’s big brother would look after them…. Which he didn’t and instead visited his girlfriend. An entire family house all to themselves. The memory of her being all alone in another part of the house, hearing the muffled sounds of her friends in the distance, was still vivid as ever and nearly identical to now.
“Boo!” Daniel whirled around at her with a teasing shout, looming over and making her jerk and nearly stumble.
“Gah! Damnit, Daniel!” Tania gasped, whipping around half in anger, half barely able to keep herself from laughing. Her attempt at a glare utterly ineffective when her lips twitched with a widening grin. Not that her glare lasted all that long afterwards and the two chuckled lightly.
“You better look out, I have a perfect position for an uppercut now.” She grinned wide up at him, tail flicking in emphasis.
While those two joked around, Key hopped down from Threy’s shoulder and took the lead. Heh, she was the oldest dragon bean and their guide to boot! Naturally, she should be the one to go first. Proudly, she puffed out her chest and flitted ahead.
“Come on!” She called out to them, eyes sparkling bright.
“Our Guide has spoken.” Threy nodded solemnly.
“Yep… beanpole~” Mako teased him back, brimming with glee that she was actually able to use that against him now! She rushed after Key.
“Oi!” Threy exclaimed in mock anger, keeping right on her heels.
Key beelined towards the stairs, already halfway up the steps when Threy and Mako managed to catch up with her. A gasp could be heard and a splash of blue ran out of view near the middle of the stairs. Well, looks like their arrival had already been noticed.
“…guys…new…ily…ed about… here!!!” A muffled shout could be heard only a moment later and a flurry of movement was audible immediately after, excited chatter and bright giggled echoing down the stairs before finally falling suspiciously silent. If you ignored the badly held back giggles, that is.
Key didn’t notice. Or if she did, she certainly didn’t seem to pay any attention to it as she rushed after her dragon bean junior.
“Prank ambush…?” Threy whispered bemused to Mako who had to keep herself from snickering.
“Oh, absolutely not.” She giggled, leaving no doubt as to what she actually meant, and was already looking forward to whatever those dragon bean kids had planned for them. Her eyes narrowed lightly, as long as it wasn’t anything annoyingly messy, that was.
By the time they reached the second floor of the inn, Key had already vanished out of their view. The doors to the guest rooms had all been opened, some only slightly ajar while others had fully swung into their rooms. The only question now was… in which room or rooms had they all hidden themselves in?
And now that Threy thought about it, they had kinda completely forgotten to explore the stairs leading up to the next floor and the upper cliffside part of the inn.
“Something to look into later…” He mused aloud.
“What?” Mako blinked.
“Ah, just thinking out loud.” He waved her off with a smile and with twinkling eyes motioned towards the doors. “So, which room we wanna try first?”
———
“Hey, guys…! The heroes Lily talked about are coming up here!!!” Mat exclaimed as he skidded into the hallway, the blue bean panting hard while all four others froze for a second. Cutely, Rin flailed awkwardly as the black and green bean had been balancing at the edge of a bed, falling over backwards with a roll onto the floor. She really should have gone through with her jump first.
“Rin…!” Luke cried out dramatically, crocodile tears streaming down his face as the silver and grey bean leapt in slow motion towards the edge as if planning to catch her… good five seconds after she had already hopped wide eyed back to her feet.
Aria looked like a deer caught in headlights, fitting to her soft green palette and her deer-like horns, standing tense and startled with wide eyes in the middle of the room, staring at Mat like he was some kind of alien intruder… or just the aforementioned, very bright headlights of a car coming right for her.
“Let’s go, surprise them!” Lily was quick to take charged and beamed with excitement, whipping her head back and forth before gazing up at the wardrobe with sparkling eyes. “Ambush!”
““Yeah~!”” Came the excited cry from the others, running and tumbling and falling all over each other as they scrambled to find a good place to hide at.
“Uh, right…!” Mat didn’t hesitate to hop up the desk to the side and from there took his pose atop the door frame, pressing himself felt against the wall.
“Hide, hide, hide…! Agh, dang it!” Rin swore as she now hung awkwardly from the door itself, out of view. Oh, the door frame could’ve easily supported a second bean hiding up there… but that kinda required her to pull herself further up. And while her tiny, upper legs already doing all they could to hold on, her lower legs wiggled uselessly through empty air. Now she hung there, looking very nonplussed.
Climbing up the side of the wardrobe, Lily didn’t take long to wiggle herself into the dark gap between the outer ceiling and the top of the wardrobe, giving her a perfect view over the whole room. An excited grin sparkled on her lips.
“Wawawawha…???” Stumbling over own feet, Aria ran in circles back and forth as she had no idea where to go. Already her eyes were starting to spin dizzily.
“Here, Aria, follow me…!” Luke called out to her, tail waving for her to move. The girl didn’t even think twice and hopping up the sides of some desks and then up the curtains, the duo made their way up to the timber joists that spanned the room’s central ceiling. Hopping across them, Aria gave Luke a grateful smile and then they gazed with sparkling eyes and excited grins down. They loomed there, like hunters ready to ambush their prey!
And into this chaos ran Key.
“Heya, I’m Key! And Im with Threy and Mako and…! Oh, hiding! Okay…!” Quickly she flitted behind the bed, squeezing herself under the nightstand. Not fitting quite as well as some of the other beans would have.
Lily blinked. She hadn’t even known there had been another dragon bean with her two heroes! And she larger, too. For a moment Lily’s eyes narrowed… she looked kinda like a bore. But at least she had hid! A grin was back on Lily’s face and with bated breath and wiggling backside like a kitten on the hunt, she turned back towards the door where Rin was still hanging awkwardly, waiting for Threy and Mako to step through.
———
“Hm, this one I would say.” Mako mused with a grin, pointing at the room directly opposite of the suspiciously swaying door. And the soft giggles.
“Yeah, that’s a good start.” Threy nodded, their eyes meeting with twinkling amusement. Wouldn’t do to go straight for the fun, had to play along first after all!
With deliberately clear steps, the duo strode towards empty room. Doing their best to look like they were actively searching for the beans.
“Hm, I wonder where they could’ve gone…” Threy thought out loud, kneeling down to look under beds, wardrobes and more while Mako futilely tried to peek into the higher hiding spots.
Suddenly being small proved to be quite the hindrance to her learned skills of hide and seek. She had always been overlooking everything! And now… she actually had to get on her toes just to try to look atop a medium high shelf! Didn’t help that her curvy boobs squished against the wood a bit uncomfortably.
“Muh, still totally worth it, though…” Mako blew into her cheek stubbornly, huffed cutely and crossed her arms as she and an amused looking Threy exchanged tactics.
They continued to mock-search around the room for a minute longer, listening to the small giggles from the room across, before finally cutting the chase.
“Now, which room next…?” Mako asked this time, tapping exaggerated at her chin while looking towards the remaining, empty rooms. Maybe put those beans on a bit more suspense? See how long their patience would last~? But, nah, that wasn’t as fun. Not with all the anticipation already wafting from those kids.
“Let’s try this room then.” Threy overly casually motioned towards the still swaying door, giving a carefree shrug and smile.
“Sure, sounds good to me.” Mako nodded back just as exaggeratedly carefree. Her lips were twitching, fighting an ever more difficult battle to not grin wide and obvious, as she took the lead.
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And with Threy right behind her, the moment she stepped inside the collective cry echoed through the inn’s walls.
““AMBUSH!!!””
Luke and Aria pounced at Mako, sending her sprawling onto the floor as she quickly turned to have them seemingly coincidental barrel into her arms and soft chest instead of knocking their heads into her hard shoulders and own head.
Mat, at first wanting to pounced immediately as well, hesitated as he realised that Rin was still awkwardly and futilely scrambling to climb up. Hurriedly, he instead stumbled across the door to pull her up as he pounced at Threy… which turned more into a combined, tumbling fall as he lost his footing and Rin just so managed to catch him by his tail.
“Eeep…!” Rin squeaked out wide eyed, spinning through the air before coming to blinking halt atop Threy’s chest besides a shellshocked, wide eyed and sprawled out Mat. Her eyes began to sparkle at how cool Threy’s flaming eye was!
“Vic… Victory…!” Lily cried out as she took a second to squeeze her way out from under the ceiling, landing in front of the laughing duo as they held onto two beans respectively. The wardrobe top had been a great hiding place! …it hadn’t been a great spot to leap from. Which she realised the moment she had hit her head during her first attempt.
“Surprise~!” Key was the last to add, posing tall and smug atop the bed. She had taken about as much time to squeeze her way out from under the nightstand as Lily had from under the ceiling when she finally understood what they had actually been planning.
Lily pouted cutely annoyed at the bigger dragon bean.
“We ambushed you.” Aria smiled brightly at Mako, the bean’s tail wagging with innocent cheer.
“Yeah! We totally did!” Luke laughed, wiggling his way out of Mako’s arms and hopped back besides Lily. “That was an awesome idea, Lily!”
Lily puffed her chest out in pride, preening, and smugly smirked up at Key who didn’t even seem to notice as she hopped back down from the bed.
“Yeah, you certainly took us by surprise.” Threy chuckled as he sat back up, looking amused at Rin as the black and green bean tried her best to look like she was somehow in charge, posing dramatically atop his shoulder. Awkwardly, Mat had climbed onto his other shoulder. Overall it looked more like Threy had now one smug and one nervous dragon bean parrot on his shoulders.
“That was great!” Mako laughed as she hopped back to her feet, carefully holding onto Aria in her arms where the most innocent bean had snuggled into her. She beamed happily down at her friends from her new and plushy seating.
“So, I’m Daniel, or rather Threy in this body… And that there shark’s name is normally Tania, now Mako.” Threy began, poking his thumb towards said shark girl. An amused grin played over his lips. “And we already know the Crimson Lily. So, what are your names?”
“I’m Aria.” Aria beamed.
“Heh, I’m Luke. I’m like the muscle and super cool guy here. Which is why I’m all metallic silver.” Luke smirked, oblivious to utterly failing at being cool much to everyone else’s amusement.
“Oh, I’m Marina! But you better call me Rin!” Rin declared with sharpened eyes, narrowing cutely as she quickly whipped her head between Threy, Mako and Key until she was starting to get dizzy and had to stop.
“And I’m Mat. Matthew, but Mat’s easier.” Mat introduced himself last, looking rather uncomfortable up high like this. Why did he decide to climb onto the doorframe earlier again? After some flustered attempts to climb down, her was very glad when Threy held his arm out towards the floor and he was able to flit down along it.
Key passed him by immediately to settled back on Threy’s shoulder and to reaffirm that she was the important Guide here and all and not that young bean Rin!
“Hehe, I already introduced myself a bit but from the top…! I’m Key, these two’s most important Guide and helper on their journey to take on the evils plaguing the Lands of Floreta! So, I’m like the queen or empress of all dragon beans.” She puffed her chest out, sound very self-absorbed. Threy flicked her over the nose.
“Hey…!” Key squeaked out, pouting at him as she rubbed her nose.
“Woah…” Aria sparkled at her words, not even thinking she could be lying… or just exaggerating.
And while Lily grumbled annoyed at Key’s words, the other bean was bigger and older and that meant people would always listened more to her than them. Luke also looked rather dubious.
“Well… uhm, you can be our honorary empress then?” He offered up.
“I take it!” Key beamed, ignoring the deadpan stare she had earned form both Threy and Mako.
“She’s pretty full of herself…” Mat mumbled to Lily as he moved to her side, flanking her with Luke on the other.
“Yeah… but she doesn’t seem that bad…” Lily reluctantly replied. And it wasn’t like Key would be here with them all that often if she was staying at her heroes’ sides. Key was still a bore, though! Cos tree!
With introductions over, and ignoring the battle for dominance over Threy’s shoulders between Rin and Key, the heroic duo approached the actual reason for why they had come up here… well, the second reason since their first was already done.
“So, the owner of this inn…” Threy began - internally he wondered if Rin would be sneak into his Realm of Darkness - before being interrupted.
“Her name’s Lisa and she’s super nice!” Mako bopped her head as she chimed in, ignoring Threy’s bland stare.
“…LISA….” He continued with emphasis. “…has given us the quest to look around because all the noise you made had her terrified that some skeletons had made their home here. Mostly because Raymond never bothered to tell her he was bringing you here.”
Lily looked away, feeling guilty and ashamed, but it had been so much fun to play with all of her new friends!
“Oh no, we didn’t mean to…!” Aria blubbered with wobbling lip and tearful eyes. The doe of a dragon bean was still in Mako’s arms and looked like she had accidentally tripped over a puppy and was now personally responsible for all its ills.
“Aw, don’t worry. We’ll get this all cleared up and introduce you to Lisa.” Mako reassured her, giving the distraught girl a warm and gentle hug.
“O-okay...” Aria bopped her head with a light sniffle, soaking Mako’s blouse in tears, while looking determined to apologise. Luke rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything while Mat agreed alongside Lily. Rin… was currently getting acquainted with the mysteries of the Realm of Darkness. But though she was already learning quite well the skill of diving through its pathways, Key was still eclipsing her in the understanding of this dark art.
“Can you stop this?! My coat isn’t your playground, dang it!” Threy exclaimed as he finally had enough, snatching up Key first and Rin second without even having to look. He didn’t even want to know where Rin had found that black cape and sleek, black mask covering her eyes.
“The Queen of Darkness apologises.” Rin spoke solemnly, wrapping herself within her cape… and immediately found herself trapped, helplessly and desperately wiggling inside her cocoon while making adorable sounds.
Threy stared blankly at this mess of a dragon bean and then turned towards Key with a pointed stare. She was the older one here, by her own words, so she should be more responsible as well!
“… I’m sorry.” Key reluctantly replied, looking not at all apologetic. She had to defend her rightful spot!
“No cake for you.” Threy deadpanned, making her gasp in horror.
Aria giggled at the comedy before her, the tears and sadness forgotten, while a grinning Mako took Rin out of Threy’s hands and freed her from her own undoing.
“Freedom!” Rin cried out as she plopped down into the shark girl’s arms right besides Aria, smiling brightly.
Threy just groaned, shaking his head while doing a bad job trying to hide his smile, and clapped into his hands to leave this chaotic interruption behind.
“As I was going to say, and Mako already mentioned, let’s get down and have you all introduce yourself to Lisa! Don’t worry, the only one she’s gonna be mad at is Raymond.” He declared, giving a deep chuckle.
“Let’s go!” Lily eagerly jumped at the chance to clear her guilty feelings, already scurrying out of the door.
“Fine…” Luke sighed exaggeratedly while rolling his eyes, trying his best to look as reluctant and cool as possible, and followed after her.
“W-wait for me…!” Mat scrambled after them.
Threy and Mako glanced at each other bemused, looked like they had to catch up with them now.
“Is she really going to be okay with us…?” Aria asked nervously, fidgeting in Mako’s arms as she looked up at her.
“Now, that’s really something you won’t have to worry about.” Threy chuckled.
“And if she throws us out I’ll make us a castle of darkness…!” Rin cheered, nodding firmly as shadows roiled around her body and then gathered above her front paws. Her eyes gleamed with unknown power. And the promptly dispersed as she grinned reassuring at Aria who beamed back, not at all concerned about what just happened.
Also, why did Key look so proud all of a sudden?
This was probably a bit of a… no, this was absolutely concerning! Which was why Threy decided to just promptly ignore it ever happened much to Mako’s amusement.
———
““Woah…!”” The beans gasped in awe as the door swung open and unveiled the vast underground cavern slash hangar beneath Zaunder’s Haven. It was massive. It was empty. And the wagon hadn’t moved a single bit.
Excitedly the quadriga of beans, since Rin had hopped back out of Mako’s arms, flitted down the stairs to run all over the cavern. Luckily the duo managed to herd them back before this could turn into a multi hour session of catch. And a few minutes later they reached Zaunder’s Counters, the side wall swinging open a moment later.
“You’re back! Did you…?” Felicia began hopeful only to blink and trail off as she saw the small group of dragon beans. It took less than a second for her to connect the dots and an amused smile came to her lips, feeling a bit embarrassed by her realisation. “Then I guess those are the spooky skeletons I heard.”
Awkwardly the four kids shuffled in front of Threy and Mako before Lily stepped forwards, the crimson dragon bean had been the last to join but had already become sort of the leader or at least the face of their group of friends.
“We’re sorry for scaring you… I should’ve made Raymond talk to you first before playing!” Lily called out, looking up at Felicia with apologetic eyes before giving a deep bow that had her nearly hit her head against the ground.
“N-no! It’s all my fault since I was the first to get here…!” Luke hopped forwards in her defence after fidgeting nervously. “And Lily only got here a few hours ago, so she can’t be at fault at all!”
“I promised to make Raymond talk to her, though!” Lily exclaimed, narrowing her eyes at him.
Amused, Felicia watched as the two began bickering about who was at fault here more while Mat watched exasperate from the side. She was honestly a bit lost on the specifics here but it was clear that those kids really had nothing to apologise for. Whoever that Raymond guy was, was at fault!
“I’m sorry, too!” Rin called out rather unceremoniously, cheerfully waving while still wearing both her cape and mask. Though she had rolled up the cap so it wasn’t about to get her caught up in it again.
“Y-yeah, sorry for bothering you.” Mat nervously added, not feeling very comfortable.
Wiggling within Mako’s arms, Aria hopped forwards and with big, innocent eyes looked up at Felicia as she landed before both Lily and Luke, interrupting their bickering.
“We’re sorry that we played so loudly and scary in your inn. Please don’t throw us out. We’ll be more quiet from now on, promise!” Sadly Aria drooped and stared down at the ground as she pawed at it nervously, finishing with her promise.
Felicia felt her heart ache at the innocent, young girl.
“Aw, I really would’ve to be dead inside to refuse this apology.” Felicia mumbled to herself before smiling gently and speaking up more clearly. “Don’t worry, I will not throw you out. This inn is free for you with everything going on! And it could use some more lively activity anyways…”
The cat girl gave a sheepish laugh, rubbing her neck. Internally her eyes narrowed. Yes, free for them. Because Raymond was going to pay her back quadruple… plus 100% compounding interest every day! The eldritch merchantry was in full agreement with her decision. Proud even!
“Oh, thank you!” Aria beamed up at her, running up the steps and cutely struggled to climb onto the counter before tackling Felicia with a warm hug. The inn keeper looked rather startled, awkward, at that but hesitantly returned the gesture after a second. She was not really used to all of this direct affection from people outside her family.
“D-don’t worry about it…” She replied, feeling her breath hitch at how adorable and innocent this little bean was.
“Heh, told you she wasn’t going to throw you out!” Mako puffed her chest out as the… well, less of a problem and more of a bit of misunderstanding was cleared up.
“Of course not. I would be disowned as a Zaunder Heir if I threw those kids out.” Felicia drawled amused, setting Aria back on the counter where she beamed cheerfully up at her. Which is to say, she would disown herself first for even thinking about doing so!
Chuckling to himself, Threy strode up the stairs and behind the counter. Mako was right on his heels, leading the other four kids into Zaunder’s Counters.
“Well, I’m borrowing your kitchen.” Threy declared cheerfully while setting Key down besides Aria, giving a lazy wave as he vanished into the kitchen. The older dragon bean looked still shellshocked at the realisation she would be missing out on the coming, delicious baked cake by Threy’s hand.
And soon enough the delicious smell of said freshly baked cake wafted through the air.
“So unfair…!” Key cried out, tears streaming comically down her cheeks.
———
“Dealing with kids is going to be the death of me…” Felicia droned, looking utterly dead inside with dull eyes and frazzled hair as she plopped onto the chair. And then her head hit the table, slumping for too exhausted for even her soul to escape again.
She had looked away only for a second and as soon as she turned back around they had been all over the merchandise! Her heart and mind had nearly shattered at the realisation that they could be punished by the store at any second...! Only for nothing to happen. And then she had sweated real hard in realisation that they were playing around with very dangerous items and that neither Threy nor Mako could help her out here without getting blasted by that dumb punishment system themselves!
“There, there…” Mako awkwardly patted her back and sweatdropped nervously. She had watched the entire misadventure from the side and nearly had a heart attack as well. Now the counter was locked tight behind a multitude of heavy iron chains and Rin was pouting hard as she scratched furiously at the glass keeping her away from the collection of bronze needles, daggers and grenades.
“Of course nothing happened. We dragon beans don’t play by the rules, after all.” Key spoke up with a light grumble as she climbed reluctantly atop the table.
“That would’ve been great to know earlier…” Felicia drawled, glaring at her deadpan while Mako bonked their guide lightly over the head.
“Sorry.” Key grumbled lightly, rubbing her head with a frown.
At least Aria hadn’t been involved with all of this, the naive bean tilting her head with confused smile as she stood on the table besides Key, making a cute “Huh?”.
As for the other three kids: Lily had been shooed into the kitchen by Mako to help Threy out, Luke and Mat joining her. Luke because he didn’t want to look like he was any less willing to help out. Mat because he felt like he could actually do something and not just awkwardly stand around there.
But now Threy was coming back, carrying a tray filled with delicious looking chocolate and strawberry cheesecake, gasses of cold ice chocolate to the side with straws included for the beans and a bowl of delicious pudding. Laughing excitedly, the trio of beans rushed along with Threy, scrambling onto the table.
“Dessert~!” Lily cheered.
Felicia’s nose twitched and - with sparkling eyes and drooling mouth - life began to return to the cat girl’s appearance, bringing colour back to the washed out grey. Already she looked much less like a spooky ghost!
“Ooh, chocolate sweets are so good~” Felicia salivated.
“Woah…!” Aria gasped, drooling cutely, as Threy set down a plate of delicious cake for everyone at the table. Self-consciously, she looked around. “But… shouldn’t we have dinner first?”
“Oah…!” Luke sputtered in pure horror at her, eyes gaping wide at her. How could someone ask something like that when delicious sweets stood before them?!
“No worries, today it’s perfectly fine~! Mmh~” Felicia reassured her, already blissfully mewling around her fork full of melting, sweet and juicy chocolate cake. She practically beaming with joy and neither Mako nor Threy would’ve been surprised to suddenly see her literally radiate with light.
Assured by Felicia, Aria bopped her head in understanding and then dug savouring into her own piece of cake.
“We helped with the strawberries!” Lily explained with a smug grin. “And we even made the pudding all on our own!”
Threy just smiled softly, giving a reassuring wink to both Mako and Felicia, who had frozen slightly concerned with her spoon wobbling with chocolaty, gooey goodness just millimetres away from her mouth. Then she happily popped it inside, relieved by his smile. Sure, the kids had done the physical labour but Threy had made sure that they didn’t add anything weird into and subtly turned off the stove before the milk had been able to boil over. Next time he would make sure to actually teach them… and explain that normally all of this didn’t get done in only ten minutes. More like two hours and longer.
“Hey, Rin…! Come one up! The cake’s definitely tastier than those chains!” Lily called out towards Rin with a giggle. The extremely personality strong bean was actually gnawing at one of the locks in that moment. It was probably a good thing she forgotten all about her dark, shadowy powers for now.
She blinked.
“Ooh, cake~! And pudding!” Rin gasped, locks, chains and amazing items promptly forgotten in favour of some sweet treats.
“Up you go.” Mako laughed as she helped the small bean onto the table.
It was a cozy and cheerful atmosphere that had spread across the the room and everyone relished within the delicious desaster that Threy had made for them.
Morosely, Key watched from the side. No cake for her. She blinked when Threy sat down at her side, setting a small plate before her as well.
“No cake for you, just as I said.” He chuckled as Key sparkled at the delicious looking chocolate cherry muffin displayed on her plate.
“Thank you…!” Key beamed, already halfway through devouring the delicious treat.
“Hehe, no problem.” Threy grinned, ruffling her head which she approved with a happy purr.
And he was rather glad that apparently Key was an outlier in terms of cake addiction.
———
After all the cake had been devoured, delicious chocolate slurped empty, the pudding bowl had been licked sparkling clean by Rin and everyone had helped with the dishes, Felicia, Mako and Threy had lead the group back up to the actual inn. And during the last rays of the evening sun, Threy had unpacked those weird cards again to keep the kids occupied.
“Liminal Shine breaks your hand!” Luke smirked as he laid out his cards.
“Reflected by the Unit Prism.” Lily stuck out her tongue.
“Hah! But victory is mine with the Card of Unlimited DOOM!!!” Rin cackled victoriously while Mat watched from the side, looking completely lost at his own hand. He had no idea how those three managed to understand how this game worked at all. The fact that Rin consistently won was rather concerning regarding the game’s nature, though.
Amused, Tania and Daniel watched them play, comfortably seated on the wall-sided couch to the side. As fun as it had been, just being able to sit down without needing to do anything was just wonderful relaxing. But Daniel was a bit confused why Felicia was fidgeting nervously behind the counter whenever he looked over, quickly hiding that book she was reading. A twinkling grin laid hidden behind his collar as his blazing eyes flared animatedly. Now, what kinda kinky smut was Felicia reading~?
“Haa, is it bad that I had a ton of fun today…?” Tania spoke up with a soft smile, stretching herself wide as she sat slightly to his side.
“Nah, I feel the same.” Daniel answered as he turned back around. Slowly she nodded.
“Yeah… and I think its also because I just.. Know we will win this.” Tania said, looking a bit embarrassed by her own confidence, and sweatdropped. “I mean, we kinda smashed through that Dual Boss.”
“I can already see you adding this to your list of games you left broken behind you…” Daniel drawled, smiling wide as he thought of the list Gao Mako’s Students had been curating over the last few years.
“…huh.” Tania blinked as she realised he was kinda right. She had been breaking stuff already just as always, hadn’t she?
Thoughtful, she leant back against the cushioned wall and a comfortably silence fell over their table again.
Key had been playing with the kids, or rather supervised them under the guise of doing so, and looked frustrated at her cards as Rin somehow managed to smash through her awesome hands like a cackling wrecking ball every. Single. Time!
“Uah…” Aria let out a cute yawn, showing her tiny canines. The young bean hadn’t really played for a while now, her cards laying forgotten at her side, and with the stars sparkling up in the beautiful night sky she had finally dozed off. For a moment she swayed on her tiny legs before slumping to the side, smiling peacefully as she cuddled into Key’s side.
Her yawn was infectious and the other kids followed her suit, the high strung energy quickly washed away by sleepy yawns, bleary blinking eyes and the instinctive need to deny as much.
“Muh… we aren’t… Uah~… aren’t tired…!” Lily grumbled at their amused looks, not convincing anyone.
“Yeah…! I can still…! I can still… I can still… still…” Rin declared cheerfully only to blink more and more dazed as she lost the train of her thought.
“Uah~ Sleeps good…” And with a sleepy smile, Rin curled herself up where she stood within her cape and soon was fast asleep, her whistling snores joining Aria’s own gentle breaths.
“Nooo…! I wanna stay up more…” Lily complained, weakly struggling against Felicia as the cat girl moved out from behind the counter to scoop her, Luke and Mat up in her arms. “Dragon beans can totally stay up longer!”
“I sleep when I want…” Luke agreed, blinking with tiny eyes as he nodded stubbornly but didn’t even attempt to escape Felicia’s hold.
“Nope, young beans need their sleep, too~” Key cheerfully declared Lily as she gently heaved Aria onto her back. Proudly she puffed her chest out and absolutely lied without shame. “And I always went to bed early!”
Lily puffed her cheek up with a sleepy grumble, believing her immediately. What a bore!
“Yeah, I think I could do with catching some sleep.” Mako smiled, letting out a wide yawn of her own, before hopping up from behind the table. Gently, she picked up Rin’s snoozing form while Threy followed behind her.
He stayed near Key as their Guide tried her best to carry Aria herself… but had to give up when she realised she couldn’t jump easily down from the table without accidentally waking the cutest of beans. Reluctantly she hopped into Threy’s arms, pouting prominently as he carried her bemused up the stairs.
The other three had fallen asleep in Felicia’s arms by the time they had reached the kids’ room. It was the same one they had been hiding in earlier and was now officially assigned to them. Bedded on soft cushions, the adults sneaked quietly out of the room and closed the door.
“Well, see you tomorrow morning.” Felicia whispered to them with a smile after showing them their room, letting out a wide yawn of her own, before vanishing back down the stairs.
““Night.”” Threy, Mako and Key returned.
And after a quick shower to wash away the sweat and grime of the day, the trio flopped into bed without any further delay, joining the others in their sleep with soft breaths and quiet snores.
This had been a well deserved break but tomorrow the harbour cast into a dark gloom of blackened clouds awaited.