|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 8:01 pm
 It was a time Ikebana usually used for other things. Calligraphy, roaming the hillside with his father, making arrangements for the new clients he was starting to receive. Buying flowers, brewing tea with Jasmine, working out with Judo, meditating with Zen. But today, he was alone, and he was running errands.
His mother had given him a small list of things to do, places to go, and things to buy, along with a small allotment of money. This cafe/bakery was his last stop, where he was told to pick up a cake. Why did they need a cake? He hadn't asked.
The quiet phony slipped inside the bakery, trotting up to the counter. The bakery looked open -- the door was unlocked and the lights were on -- but there wasn't anyone at the counter! He looked from right to left, trying to make sense of it.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 8:17 pm
Barley didn't even hear the bell.
Had it been any other day that her mama would leave her to attend the shop for little while, she would had been the best daughter in the world! Helping any and all customers, or clean up the floors while waiting, but no today. Barley had been a bad girl already, and was being even worse.
She wasn't suppose to be doing a recipe form a book she had nicked from her cousin(Why C.C. had checked out a recipe book from the library was beyond her). She wasn't suppose to brew or make anything in the kitchen beyond coffee or tea when her mama wasn't around. She was suppose to be minding the shop.
But no, instead she was in the back, keeping her eyes on a pot, ears perked and focus on it as she waited to come to a boil. Beer. She was brewing beer! Oh her mama wasn't going to be happy, specially with the smell, but the book said this was non-alcoholic, which meant Barley wasn't being bad, at least not on this part!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 8:23 pm
Ikebana blinked and looked around the shop, turning in a complete circle. The bakery was open, he was sure of that -- wasn't he? His certainty was beginning to fade, the longer he was alone, with no shop owner galloping out to deal with him.
Normally, he would have just left, but his mother told him they had already placed the order for the cake... he couldn't come home empty handed!
"Hello?" Ikebana called, leaning over the bakery counter, his front hooves on the counter to give him balance, trying to see into the kitchen. There ... seemed to be someone in there. Maybe they were decorating a cake or something?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 8:35 pm
One of her ears twitched in annoyance for a moment. Oh what was that? She frowned, tearing her eyes away from the pot. She hadn't heard the shop's bell go off, so there couldn't be anyone here, right? Looking between the door and the pot, she tried to decide what was more important. Ruining this drink after working on it for a whole hour already was not something she wanted to do.
She stomped her hooves on the ground in annoyance, trying to decide if checking the front of the shop was worth a whole hour's work being ruined. "....."
Barley turned back to her pot, just a few more minutes and it would boil and she could turn the heat down and let it simmer. THEN she would check what that noise was.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 8:50 pm
Someone was definitely back there. Ikebana could hear the shuffling of hooves, although there was no response. He snorted gently to himself, looking back over his shoulder another time to see, just in case, if anyone else had come out.
No such luck.
Ikebana pushed through the counter door and trotted into the kitchen space, purposefully going at a slow pace, and poking his head over the threshold so as not to cause the person too much surprise.
"Hello...?" he ventured again, peering into the kitchen.
There was another phony there! And a foal, too! Ikebana could not hide his surprise.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 9:00 pm
Barley squeak in surprise, turning around on the stool she perched herself on to lower the heat when the brew started to bubble. She nearly fell off it, but manage to keep on. The champagne color of the phony brought her cousin to mind, but the mane color was wrong...as was the gender once she register the other's voice.
She took a deep calming breath and leaped down from the stool. "What are ya doing back here?" Her voice polite, while panic bubble in her. "Din't ya read the sign? Staff Only, please."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 4:59 pm
Usually, this sort of rebuke would garner a polite 'excuse me' from the foal, but in these circumstances, Ikebana felt well within his rights to be just where he was. He frowned gently, then gestured back into the shop. "Sorry," he said. "But the sign said open and nobody is manning the shop. I need to pick up a cake -- do you know where the shop owner is?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 7:57 pm
"She ain't here at the moment." Barley frowned, she was suppose to be minding the shop. Shoot. She tried to herd Ikebana back to the main floor, really, if mama came right now and saw a customer in the kitchen, she'll be in much more trouble. "But if yer cake is ready, then I can help ya find it. Come on, let's go back to front and I'll look it up!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:03 pm
Ikebana took a few steps back away from the threshold, blinking in surprise.
"Is she going to be back? If you are busy, I could wait for when she comes back..." said the colt, looking back over his shoulder again. The kitchen smelled thickly of something Ikebana couldn't quite place, slightly bitter in its scent, and heavy in the air. It was strangely appealing. He stole a look up at what Barley was working on, now quite curious.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:08 pm
"No, I can attend ya!" Barley plaster on a smile, glad that he had come in just in the lull. The pot would simmer and she would get this increasingly more nosy customer out of the shop. "Let's just go to the front. We have to check that your cake was made!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:14 pm
"Alright..." said Ikebana, allowing himself to be shooed from the kitchen and into the shop proper again. He felt mildly annoyed at being so treated, but he checked the irritation and trotted back into the bakery, making sure to move back into the customers' section again. "It's for Scent Puff, the cake -- I'm not sure what type it is, but she said it would be ready to pick up today."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:32 pm
Barley hopped around behind the counter until she was up on another stool, grabbing a book. "Scent puff?" She blinked a few times and murmured mostly to herself. "I wonder why auntie Scent want a cake..."
She paused on the book and looked down at Ikebana. "Wait a minute, you are one of them cousins I got a while back, aren't ya?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:35 pm
"Auntie Scent?" Ikebana repeated, and the filly's question took his own right out of his mouth. He blinked, his annoyance evaporating, as he looked at this filly in a brand new light. "Cousins?" he said. "I am Ikebana, Scent Puff and Taiko's son. Are you -- Bon's daughter, then...?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:46 pm
"Nice meet ya, Ikebana. I am Barley Pop, and ya, Bon is my mama, and my papa is Bluegrass." She chuckled softly. "Haven't been at Auntie's in a while, shoulda had visit when I heard I got new cousins, but" Her nose twitched. "Her house always a bit stuffy with perfumes and whatnot."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:49 pm
Ikebana broke into a smile at Barley's words. So he had a cousin! His extended family was bigger than he expected...
"Nice to meet you, Barley," he said. "But -- you're one to talk. Whatever you're cooking in there smells amazing, but it definitely lingers around the bakery."
The words were not said maliciously, but rather with a note of teasing sweetness, like one could do with a family member, newly met or not.
He paused then.
"Wait, then -- if Aunt Bon is out, does that mean you were supposed to be out here?" Ikebana asked, sliding a suspicious look at his cousin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
