Teach me to "Do The Roar!" Booysa! -05/03/23-Beets Sunwater
Jun 4, 2023 5:21:41 GMT
Andy Davy likes this
Post by Beets The Beetle (Feenix) on Jun 4, 2023 5:21:41 GMT
Co-written with everyone's favourite granny Bosalind "Boosya" Sugartooth
As the chill morning air rippled through her vastly longer hair during her latest delivery run of Paradise Frost pastries, Beets couldn't help but find her thoughts wandering back to the flight with the pink gemstone dragon Nuri a few days past. It had been a bit painful at first to receive such an enthusiastic greeting from the young dragonet, her warm smiling face reminding her all too much of the kind manner of her first dragon friend. But, as they had flown together, Beets had found her initial reluctance slip away, replaced by a buzz of excitement and fun that she hadn't felt in a long time, all the while spurred along by the broad smile and fervent growls of her brightly scaled flight partner.
It occurred to Beets as she dropped off a batch of cupcakes to a smiling mother enjoying an early spring picnic with her two children, that the dragons seemed to pick up the common tongue from their elders rather slowly. Yet there had been something deeper, something far more meaningful when the dragons had spoken to her in their strange language of guttural growls and purrs. Like they were speaking to her on another level. Other adventurers had been able to respond to these vocalizations, much to their dragon companions' excitement, but their meanings had been completely lost on Beets. If only there was a way...
Beets found herself absent-mindedly knocking on the door of her last patisserie delivery, the strenuousness of her thoughts distracting her as the home's owner took their time answering the door. "One a mille-feuille from Paradise Frost?" She announced almost mechanically.
As the door opened, a familiar pair of gray eyes on a round face framed by a red kerchief stared at her in surprise. Beets stared back. The old harengon froze, staring at Beets, like a cat caught fishing in an aquarium with expensive fish.
At the unusually quiet response of a delectable dessert delivery, Beets unfroze and took stock of Boosya’s dumbfounded appearance. Double taking as she looked down at the pastry box in her hands and back up at the stunned harengon. “Booysa?!” She exclaimed in surprise, unable to hide the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth.
"Beets? Oh, oh. Hello, dear," Boosya mumbled, glancing between Beets’ face and the box in her hands. Her voice lacked its usual patronizing benevolence. "I've completely forgotten you're doing the deliveries these days," was that a hint of annoyance Beets heard? Surely not from the sweet old granny! The harengon wrung her hands. "I... um..." Her plump fingers found the little double rectangle pendant on her chest, and her face lit up. "Would you like to come in for tea? You look..." Boosya adjusted her glasses. "Pensive! Tea's really good for that!"
“Oh.” Beets’ face twitched at Boosya’s mention of her thoughtful state, the strangeness of the order for the keen baker bunny quite forgotten. “Sure…Um I mean, yes please-”
Beets barely got to finish her phrase before she was all but tugged into what appeared to be the inside of a gargantuan stuffed toy, but in reality was the room Boosya regularly stayed in while in Daring Heights. Despite all the rooms at Three-Headed Dragon looking exactly the same, this one was covered in knit throws and duvets on every surface that was vaguely horizontal, enough for Beets to wonder if the shawls are alive and multiplying. Before she could ponder the subject, she was sat on a sofa that, due to the amount of pillows on it, could double as a very comfortable snare. Drowning in pillows, Beets identified that a colourful plaid in front of her was in fact a table cloth, and thus a table must have been somewhere beneath it. The room smelled of moth balls and soap. Beets sneezed. Boosya was busy pouring a fruity tea from a pot-bellied kettle into pot-bellied mugs. She flew around the room with a surprising speed for her age, arranging a plate of cookies and several pieces of her famous carrot cake (the one that could feed a person for a day and, on occasion, exorcize demons). The blur of activity in front of her stopped as abruptly as it started, and Beets found herself sitting with a mug in her hand and an assortment of sweets in front of her. Boosya sat on a stool across the table, her nose twitching over a steaming mug of her own. Out of the corner of her eye, Beets noticed the box with the mille-feuille being carefully shoved behind a chair by a fluffy foot.
“Ugh..Wow um, I like what you’ve done with place Booysa…it’s so…” Beets let her eyes scan around the room of knitted wonder, trying to find the right words as she mentally compared it to her own much sparser seasonal residence at The Three Headed Dragon, the roof.
“Soo… soooo you!” She selected finally with a forced grin and a sniff, all the while trying to move as little as possible to prevent triggering a smothering avalanche of comfort from the plaid and patchwork pillows pinning her to her seat.
Boosya waved her off. "Oh, thank you, Beets, noachi, you're so kind, but it's nothing, really! Just a way to pass evenings," She said, smiling at the praise, though Beets couldn't help but notice her nervous energy. "Anyway, dear, what are you up to these days?"
“I’m, mgh, fine.” Beets grunts, feeling the circulation to her wings slowly beginning to cut off. “Just deliveries mostly… Oh, got to fly with Orianna and some baby dragons the other day! That was fun! What about you?”
Boosya's face took on the expression of endearment that it had had so often her wrinkles actually perfectly aligned with it. "Awwww," she said. "Baby dragons? That sounds very sweet. I'm glad to hear that dear Orianna is alright after all the frights we've had on our journey to Kundar," she added as she took a sip of her tea and nibbled on a biscuit. "And I'm picking up brewing. Cyclone has shared such wonderful ginger beer at a tea party recently, I've decided to give it a shot. I'm thinking Oswald would appreciate some home brews... Besides, it's always fun to learn something new, isn't it?"
Beets had just managed to pull free her wings from the oppressive cushions at that exact moment. The impulse of her suppressed effort suddenly shot her forward with such force that she would have knocked the poor granny off her stool if it weren’t for a quick wing flit maneuver. Catching herself in the air, Beets fluttered down to the well rug-covered floor, taking in the puzzled look on the harengon’s face. “Oops. Sorry! Ahh… Say, now that you mention learning things. Boosya, you’re rather ol-I mean, experienced!” She corrected herself quickly with an embarrassed grin. “Do you know anybody that can speak dragon?”
“Oh! Oh, dear!” Boosya wobbled on her chair a bit, but remained upright.
She composed herself, switching into this new line of conversation. Her eyes immediately glazed over with memories. “Why, yes, dear… I remember a very sweet kobold I’ve met just after leaving my priory. I was a young and enthusiastic midwife, and he was a young brilliant doctor… taught me so many things…'' She smiled fondly. She quickly remembered herself and took a loud sip of her tea, finishing the cup. “Including draconic. Why do you ask, dear?”
“Dra..con..ic.” Beets savored the feel of the word in her mouth. Dragon-speak. She zipped up to Booysa’s side in a wingbeat. “Can you teach me? I… I can pay you!”
Boosya gave it a thought. She looked from Beets to a couple of books on her shelf. Then back to Beets. Then back to the books. Then back to Beets. Then, her eyes darted momentarily to the mille-feuille-containing box behind the chair. She sighed and gave a slow nod: "I... I suppose so…" Then her expression hardened a bit, and she adjusted her half-moon glasses. "But! You need to understand that studies require diligence! Attention! Effort! That will take some time away from flying out of the window and about the city," she concluded with all seriousness a rotund bunny in a kerchief was capable of.
"Ohhh thank you Boosya! Beets exclaimed as she fluttered up, clasping Booysa's hand excitedly between her own. "I'll be the best student ever! I'll even pay you in advance! Here, you can have my pay for today's rounds!" she said, pulling a small pouch from her belt and dropping it into the harengon's lap with a soft chink. "That'll cover your mille-feuille and a good few more...Wa-ait..." Beets’ eyes suddenly narrowed as she fixed Booysa with a stare, a playful smile spreading across her face. "Why are you ordering pastries anyhow? I thought you baked everything yourself?"
Boosya had the expression of a deer caught in the Daylight spell. "I... well... you know, it's always good to keep an eye on the competition..." She babbled.
Beets raised an eyebrow."Oh really? That's all?" Her smile grew into a wide grin, the points of her sharp teeth making it look unintentionally malicious.
Boosya wrinkled her nose. "Alright, alright! Aithyas..." she whispered, glancing to the side momentarily, then returning her eyes back to Beets. "They make these petals I just can't figure out! They are wafer-thin, and crunchy, and...and I'm too embarrassed to ask how they do it!" Beets felt a sharply increased pressure on her hand, and Boosya gave her a pleading, yet somehow intense look. "You're not going to tell on a poor old lady who's teaching you to talk to little dragons, are you?"
Beets was caught off guard by the sudden strength of Boosya's grasp as she pulled her in close. Maybe it was a trick of the setting sunlight through the window panes, or perhaps it was the stuffy atmosphere of the harengon's cosy room making her head spin a little. But for one moment, she thought she saw a flash of red reflected through the lenses of the harengon's pince-nez.
"Ug-no! O-of course not!" Beets replied nervously.
Boosya's face immediately took on its usual sweet expression, and she pinched Beets' cheek. "Thank you, dear! I knew I could count on you. Girls must have their secrets, mustn't they?" Having released her grasp on Beets, she quickly took a quill and made a list. "You'll need some supplies. I'm afraid I don't have much here, but, you know... books, paper, quills. All these things." She handed the paper to Beets. "I'll be expecting you next week, dear. Don't be late!" She said with a pinch on Beets' other cheek.
Beets soon found herself outside again, her belly far too full of many insisted 'one more' slices of Booysa's carrot cake and about a gallon of tea, her cheeks still red from pinch marks. "Why do I feel," she murmured as she shakily lifted into the air on her wings and headed for home, "that these lessons are gonna be a lot tougher than fighting a dragon?"
As the chill morning air rippled through her vastly longer hair during her latest delivery run of Paradise Frost pastries, Beets couldn't help but find her thoughts wandering back to the flight with the pink gemstone dragon Nuri a few days past. It had been a bit painful at first to receive such an enthusiastic greeting from the young dragonet, her warm smiling face reminding her all too much of the kind manner of her first dragon friend. But, as they had flown together, Beets had found her initial reluctance slip away, replaced by a buzz of excitement and fun that she hadn't felt in a long time, all the while spurred along by the broad smile and fervent growls of her brightly scaled flight partner.
It occurred to Beets as she dropped off a batch of cupcakes to a smiling mother enjoying an early spring picnic with her two children, that the dragons seemed to pick up the common tongue from their elders rather slowly. Yet there had been something deeper, something far more meaningful when the dragons had spoken to her in their strange language of guttural growls and purrs. Like they were speaking to her on another level. Other adventurers had been able to respond to these vocalizations, much to their dragon companions' excitement, but their meanings had been completely lost on Beets. If only there was a way...
Beets found herself absent-mindedly knocking on the door of her last patisserie delivery, the strenuousness of her thoughts distracting her as the home's owner took their time answering the door. "One a mille-feuille from Paradise Frost?" She announced almost mechanically.
As the door opened, a familiar pair of gray eyes on a round face framed by a red kerchief stared at her in surprise. Beets stared back. The old harengon froze, staring at Beets, like a cat caught fishing in an aquarium with expensive fish.
At the unusually quiet response of a delectable dessert delivery, Beets unfroze and took stock of Boosya’s dumbfounded appearance. Double taking as she looked down at the pastry box in her hands and back up at the stunned harengon. “Booysa?!” She exclaimed in surprise, unable to hide the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth.
"Beets? Oh, oh. Hello, dear," Boosya mumbled, glancing between Beets’ face and the box in her hands. Her voice lacked its usual patronizing benevolence. "I've completely forgotten you're doing the deliveries these days," was that a hint of annoyance Beets heard? Surely not from the sweet old granny! The harengon wrung her hands. "I... um..." Her plump fingers found the little double rectangle pendant on her chest, and her face lit up. "Would you like to come in for tea? You look..." Boosya adjusted her glasses. "Pensive! Tea's really good for that!"
“Oh.” Beets’ face twitched at Boosya’s mention of her thoughtful state, the strangeness of the order for the keen baker bunny quite forgotten. “Sure…Um I mean, yes please-”
Beets barely got to finish her phrase before she was all but tugged into what appeared to be the inside of a gargantuan stuffed toy, but in reality was the room Boosya regularly stayed in while in Daring Heights. Despite all the rooms at Three-Headed Dragon looking exactly the same, this one was covered in knit throws and duvets on every surface that was vaguely horizontal, enough for Beets to wonder if the shawls are alive and multiplying. Before she could ponder the subject, she was sat on a sofa that, due to the amount of pillows on it, could double as a very comfortable snare. Drowning in pillows, Beets identified that a colourful plaid in front of her was in fact a table cloth, and thus a table must have been somewhere beneath it. The room smelled of moth balls and soap. Beets sneezed. Boosya was busy pouring a fruity tea from a pot-bellied kettle into pot-bellied mugs. She flew around the room with a surprising speed for her age, arranging a plate of cookies and several pieces of her famous carrot cake (the one that could feed a person for a day and, on occasion, exorcize demons). The blur of activity in front of her stopped as abruptly as it started, and Beets found herself sitting with a mug in her hand and an assortment of sweets in front of her. Boosya sat on a stool across the table, her nose twitching over a steaming mug of her own. Out of the corner of her eye, Beets noticed the box with the mille-feuille being carefully shoved behind a chair by a fluffy foot.
“Ugh..Wow um, I like what you’ve done with place Booysa…it’s so…” Beets let her eyes scan around the room of knitted wonder, trying to find the right words as she mentally compared it to her own much sparser seasonal residence at The Three Headed Dragon, the roof.
“Soo… soooo you!” She selected finally with a forced grin and a sniff, all the while trying to move as little as possible to prevent triggering a smothering avalanche of comfort from the plaid and patchwork pillows pinning her to her seat.
Boosya waved her off. "Oh, thank you, Beets, noachi, you're so kind, but it's nothing, really! Just a way to pass evenings," She said, smiling at the praise, though Beets couldn't help but notice her nervous energy. "Anyway, dear, what are you up to these days?"
“I’m, mgh, fine.” Beets grunts, feeling the circulation to her wings slowly beginning to cut off. “Just deliveries mostly… Oh, got to fly with Orianna and some baby dragons the other day! That was fun! What about you?”
Boosya's face took on the expression of endearment that it had had so often her wrinkles actually perfectly aligned with it. "Awwww," she said. "Baby dragons? That sounds very sweet. I'm glad to hear that dear Orianna is alright after all the frights we've had on our journey to Kundar," she added as she took a sip of her tea and nibbled on a biscuit. "And I'm picking up brewing. Cyclone has shared such wonderful ginger beer at a tea party recently, I've decided to give it a shot. I'm thinking Oswald would appreciate some home brews... Besides, it's always fun to learn something new, isn't it?"
Beets had just managed to pull free her wings from the oppressive cushions at that exact moment. The impulse of her suppressed effort suddenly shot her forward with such force that she would have knocked the poor granny off her stool if it weren’t for a quick wing flit maneuver. Catching herself in the air, Beets fluttered down to the well rug-covered floor, taking in the puzzled look on the harengon’s face. “Oops. Sorry! Ahh… Say, now that you mention learning things. Boosya, you’re rather ol-I mean, experienced!” She corrected herself quickly with an embarrassed grin. “Do you know anybody that can speak dragon?”
“Oh! Oh, dear!” Boosya wobbled on her chair a bit, but remained upright.
She composed herself, switching into this new line of conversation. Her eyes immediately glazed over with memories. “Why, yes, dear… I remember a very sweet kobold I’ve met just after leaving my priory. I was a young and enthusiastic midwife, and he was a young brilliant doctor… taught me so many things…'' She smiled fondly. She quickly remembered herself and took a loud sip of her tea, finishing the cup. “Including draconic. Why do you ask, dear?”
“Dra..con..ic.” Beets savored the feel of the word in her mouth. Dragon-speak. She zipped up to Booysa’s side in a wingbeat. “Can you teach me? I… I can pay you!”
Boosya gave it a thought. She looked from Beets to a couple of books on her shelf. Then back to Beets. Then back to the books. Then back to Beets. Then, her eyes darted momentarily to the mille-feuille-containing box behind the chair. She sighed and gave a slow nod: "I... I suppose so…" Then her expression hardened a bit, and she adjusted her half-moon glasses. "But! You need to understand that studies require diligence! Attention! Effort! That will take some time away from flying out of the window and about the city," she concluded with all seriousness a rotund bunny in a kerchief was capable of.
"Ohhh thank you Boosya! Beets exclaimed as she fluttered up, clasping Booysa's hand excitedly between her own. "I'll be the best student ever! I'll even pay you in advance! Here, you can have my pay for today's rounds!" she said, pulling a small pouch from her belt and dropping it into the harengon's lap with a soft chink. "That'll cover your mille-feuille and a good few more...Wa-ait..." Beets’ eyes suddenly narrowed as she fixed Booysa with a stare, a playful smile spreading across her face. "Why are you ordering pastries anyhow? I thought you baked everything yourself?"
Boosya had the expression of a deer caught in the Daylight spell. "I... well... you know, it's always good to keep an eye on the competition..." She babbled.
Beets raised an eyebrow."Oh really? That's all?" Her smile grew into a wide grin, the points of her sharp teeth making it look unintentionally malicious.
Boosya wrinkled her nose. "Alright, alright! Aithyas..." she whispered, glancing to the side momentarily, then returning her eyes back to Beets. "They make these petals I just can't figure out! They are wafer-thin, and crunchy, and...and I'm too embarrassed to ask how they do it!" Beets felt a sharply increased pressure on her hand, and Boosya gave her a pleading, yet somehow intense look. "You're not going to tell on a poor old lady who's teaching you to talk to little dragons, are you?"
Beets was caught off guard by the sudden strength of Boosya's grasp as she pulled her in close. Maybe it was a trick of the setting sunlight through the window panes, or perhaps it was the stuffy atmosphere of the harengon's cosy room making her head spin a little. But for one moment, she thought she saw a flash of red reflected through the lenses of the harengon's pince-nez.
"Ug-no! O-of course not!" Beets replied nervously.
Boosya's face immediately took on its usual sweet expression, and she pinched Beets' cheek. "Thank you, dear! I knew I could count on you. Girls must have their secrets, mustn't they?" Having released her grasp on Beets, she quickly took a quill and made a list. "You'll need some supplies. I'm afraid I don't have much here, but, you know... books, paper, quills. All these things." She handed the paper to Beets. "I'll be expecting you next week, dear. Don't be late!" She said with a pinch on Beets' other cheek.
Beets soon found herself outside again, her belly far too full of many insisted 'one more' slices of Booysa's carrot cake and about a gallon of tea, her cheeks still red from pinch marks. "Why do I feel," she murmured as she shakily lifted into the air on her wings and headed for home, "that these lessons are gonna be a lot tougher than fighting a dragon?"