On his way to the war room, Mordecai was distracted by a conversation in the nearly empty main hall. There were currently no delving guests at this level, but Li was talking with several laganthros from different tribes, and he appeared to be teaching them sothing involving large floppy-style pointed hats. He held back a sigh when one of the rabkin reached into a hat and pulled out a dire rabbit that had been on the first floor a few monts ago.
Then a buzzkin reached into another hat and pulled out a bunkin. The ritual allowed the summoned rabbit to be pulled out by the ears safely, with that part of the magic dissipating as soon as the summoning rabbit let go. At least the magic seed to tie into the dungeon’s territory, though that was disturbing too, to have an external force manipulating the rules of your reality and power like that.
He shrugged and smiled, then gave a ntal tug on Kazue’s attention to make sure she saw what was going on as he approached the small group to applaud. “That’s a neat trick you taught them Li. I don’t think I would have thought of that, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to teach it to them so easily.”
“Aww,” Li did his best to blush under his fur as he glanced down with a smile, “It was fun Mordi they were all so interested in learning how to do it after one of them saw do it though I started with one of the little bunbees as just a trick to show off but they really liked it so I pulled more of them through and then they all wanted to learn how to do it so I’ve been teaching them for gosh I don’t know how long but it must have been a while cause I’m starving did I miss lunch? That ans that I need to eat both lunch and dinner now what’s going to be for dinner?”
Mordecai laughed, “Well, I’m not sure myself, why don’t we go find out what’s in the kitchen?” To Kazue he added, “Hey love, pass on the word that my avatar won’t be there anyti soon, but let them know I am paying attention if everyone wants to move forward when Bellona and Orchid are ready.” He probably could have found an excuse, but he liked Li and felt bad that he’d arranged so much of the ratling’s entertainnt to involve others, “So what have you been up to?”
“Well you know the super cool spooky swamp you just made well I’ve been playing there a lot lately and I think its super neat the creatures you have there the crab bunnies are kind of funny looking and scary fun when they open their mouths like that, and then you got the neat squirrel cousins throwing shade like that I think I like them a lot but the best thing of all is the neat music that Carmilla ca up with after I accidentally knocked over a pile of pots that she had a group cleaning it seems that there were a bunch of bards there and she put them to work figuring out how to make music that sounded like that with that sort of ‘sick beat’ which is a cool phrase she just ca up with that I like a lot so she wasn’t too mad that I knocked over all the pots and pans and stuff though she did ask to go pick up the ones that fell into the mud which I started to do but then I slipped and skidded down a little hill into a quicksand hole where I was sucked down into a dark cave and I got lost but there were all these fairies and stuff down there and more slis like Klastoria though they weren’t as smart as she was and liked to play rough so we played a lot of tag until I found this tunnel that I scrambled up that suddenly popped open and left at the bottom of a salty lake and I had to swim up and there were these two dragons there who I think are your bosses but anyway they were willing to play with because no one had made it down to play with them yet which is a sha, I hope you get so people who can make it all the way down there soon hey what’s that sll it slls great!”
While Li had been talking, he and Mordecai had been walking to the kitchens, and the chefs had pulled together a al for them. The rabbit tribes had gone off to spread the neat new trick they had learned, and Mordecai was fairly certain that by the end of the day, every one of them would be able to do it. It was probably best that the ritual only seed to work on other rabbit kin. “Sounds like you have been having fun, I’ll need to check out this new music that Carmilla is working on. I hope she doesn’t work the bards too hard,” it was probably best to not find out what sort of muse the swamp witch was being for the poor musicians.
“They didn’t seem to mind the more she berated them the happier they seed even which was weird maybe it was so sort of reverse ga where the more she yelled the happier she was but I don’t get it cause no one explained the rules to still they were banging on all sorts of stuff to find out what sort of noise it could make to find which ones were going to be good for their new music. The tiny fairies liked it too and they looked neat bobbin up and down in ti with the beat it looks like it is going to be a blast I gotta see what kind of parties they are going to have.”
All of this was said around mouthfuls of food as the voracious ratling devoured everything placed in front of him. The resources of a dungeon could feed him easily, but for others, it could be a sort of test. Those who tried to bring harm to the ‘child’ ransacking a castle’s kitchens would often find misfortune befalling them in their attempts, while good fortune tended to co the way of those who did their best to feed the ‘starving kid’.
Mordecai didn’t think that last particularly applied to them, feeding Li wasn’t a notable drain and Mordecai was already well aware of Li’s nature, so it didn’t seem like it would be a fair test. While his friend ate, he decided it was a good ti to shift the topic a little, “I wonder if Bellona will like it. I hope so, she’s decided to stick around and make a ho here as a contractor. And I think she only wound up coming here because of everything that happened when you two were playing hide and seek. You are a pretty good lucky charm you know.”
“I don’t know if it was because of so much but if it was then I am really happy to have helped you both out because she seems pretty cool even if she's more serious than you are sotis but still nice you know? And I saw you two play fighting that was intense with the axes and shields and fire and lightning it was kind of scary in a fun way I wanna see you playing like that with more friends though it would be nice if there were more people who fought like around even though the scary ladies have been fun to spar with they don’t really fight the sa way you know and miss Kazue keeps getting mad every ti they feed the little clay tea dragon ad and stuff and they really shouldn’t because its a tea dragon not a beer dragon or would that be a beer flagon hey do you think they sell tea by the flagon cause I think its normally sold by cups and pots but it would be neat if they sold it by the flagon I bet it should sell for like nine coppers a flagon that seems like it’d be the right price cause a silver would be just a little too much I bet cold tea by the flagon would sell really well in the south cause its all hot and dry there do you think anyone has set up cold tea stalls down there I bet they have cause who ever did that would be super rich I’m sure.”
It took the ntion of the won feeding ad to Cimbu for Mordecai to be sure which ‘scary ladies’ Li ant, the rest was a little hard to follow but he felt Kazue latch onto the idea of a cold tea. She’d noticed lukewarm teas were easier to enjoy if they were sweet, so now she wanted to experint with the thought.
“That’s not a bad idea Li, and Kazue likes the idea. She’s going to see if she can’t work out a nice sweet tea blend to offer to our guests chilled to quench their thirst. Do you want to be our first taste tester? Which ones do you like the best?”
Kazue started creating mugs of different blends, even mixing in a little fruit juice for so variety and to add a bit more sweetness. Too much honey would tend to settle out in cold tea, and the juice would add so flavors that could go well with certain floral notes. The ones that Li liked the best were going to be good for kids and adults with a sweet tooth, like Kazue, while Mordecai did his best to help with tasting the others.
The process delayed everything for quite a while with regard to finalizing the contract, but at least the people waiting got a chance to enjoy so new flavored drinks. Mordecai didn’t rush Li despite the inconvenience to his other guests, but the god shard could only do one thing or be in one place for so long. Eventually, Li declared that it was ti to play again and that he was going to go racing down the river with the bunyips. Mordecai wished him good luck and then stretched as he gave himself ti to refocus.
While he’d been spending ti with Li, he’d also been paying attention to the conversation in the war room. It had turned quite interesting, and it seed that Xarlug would be sticking around while the other three traveled. This was partly because of a blossoming interest between Xarlug and Bellona, and Kansif was amusing herself by threatening to stay behind and play chaperone for her cousin.
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