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Velvet star had decided to go out for dinner tonight with her family, which was her two young sons. It was a Friday night, end of the week and she thought it would be nice to do something as a family. She chose the Leaping Cherry Salmon Inn because it had a restaurant that was family friendly, with a sizeable play area for the kids filled with coloured balls, stuff to climb on, swings, slides, a flying fox, plenty to keep them entertained. Plus it had a nice outdoor beer garden/dining area with big wooden picnic tables under large shady umbrellas and for when it was hot outside, air conditioned indoor dining with comfy squishy chairs around the tables as well.

Velvet had driven herself and the boys here in their family's 4 wheel drive. She and Aaric had both chipped in some of their savings to buy it and it was a lifesaver. Catching taxi's everywhere was sure to get expensive otherwise.

Velvet had parked in the street just outside the Inn and went around to the back seat to unbuckle Sorbet, her two and a half year old, from his carseat, picking him up and settling him on her hip. She grabbed the diaper bag and looked over at Flourish, her six year old, big brother to Sorbet "Flourish, honey, stay with Mommy until we get to our table, okay? We need to order our meals before you two run off to play on the playground" she said, shutting the car door and checking she had everything.

She held out her hand as she walked around the car and onto the concrete path leading up to the rustic looking Inn. "Hold Mommy's hand please" Her dainty pearlescent hooves clip-clopped on the hard ground as she walked towards the front of the building, trying to decide if they should sit inside or outside.

Flourish's paws made almost no sound as he skipped alongside his Alicorn mother, obediently holding her hand. "Mommy, when we play in the ball pit, I'l make sure Sorbet doesn't get lost again" he promised, making Velvet chuckle.

"Thank you, that would be very helpful. You're a good big brother" she replied with a smile. Her sons were pretty well behaved. Their mother was gentle but she was strict when she had to be.

"We gonna eet!" Sorbet kicked his legs back and forth, tail joining them as he squirmed in excitement. Little sparks flickered off different points of his body, appearing as the tiny sparks that came off sparklers and tickling Velvet.

The woman walked through the front entrance into the air conditioned restaurant area indoors, looking around, hooves echoing on the hardwood floors, still trying to make up her mind. You had to walk through the indoor dining area past the bar to get to the back where the beer garden was. As she was wandering through, debating on sitting outside where Flourish and Sorbet could run around the garden and play under the picnic table, or inside, where they could access the playground more easily, she felt Flourish's little paw slip out of her hand and before she could grab him, he'd wandered off towards a table where sat a well dressed kitsune in a fancy red suit that complemented his creamy white fur and styled hair.

The young Cattalicorn was following his nose, drawn to the sight and scent of what was on this man's plate. He approached the table, sniffing appreciatively and pointed at the meat. "Scuse me, sir, what kind of meat is that? It smells REALLY yummy!" His rainbow cat tail waved in the air behind him, whiskers and ears pointed forwards. "Can kids eat that?" his wings shuffled softly as he shifted his weight from one paw to the other.

Velvet of course, was mortified and came hurrying over with fast clip-clops, blushing bright red as she grabbed her son's shoulder with one hand, trying to usher him back towards her "Flourish, what do you think you're doing? We don't talk to strangers! Now stop bothering this nice man whose trying to eat his dinner and let's go choose a table" she hissed at her eldest, looking at the kitsune with an embarrassed and apologetic smile "I am SO sorry, sir! My son is very friendly. He loves talking to anyone. I hope he didn't bother you too much" she apologised. Sorbet in her other arm, stared at the man curiously and pointed at his tall fox ears "Ears!" he squealed. He spotted the man's tails and pointed at them next "Tailsh! Zorbet hash tailsh doo!" Velvet shushed him as loudly as she dared and let go of Flourish to push down her younger son's pointing hand "No, no, we don't point at people. It's rude to point" she said firmly yet with a gentle motherly tone. "Yes, he has tails. You have a tail too"

"Sorry, Mommy" Flourish saw the smirk appear on the kitsune's face and that was all the boy needed to know to make him want to be friends with the man and chat to him some more. Flourish obediently walked back over to his mom's far side when she ushered him away, but simply clung to her dress and leaned on her while looking at the man curiously as he answered him.

"Roasted pork?" he nodded, "Thank you" he pulled on Velvet's dress "Mommy, can I have roasted pork too? It smells really good!" he licked his lips, his mouth watering at the scent.

Velvet took a moment to answer him "We'll see. Wait till we're at the table" she said quickly. Velvet looked even more embarrassed and a bit flustered "Thank you for answering him and; sorry about the noise" she said earnestly, deeply apologetic as she covered her youngest's mouth firmly, "He gets excited easily. I'm so sorry to have bothered you. We'll be going now" she grabbed Flourish's hand and started to pull him away to a table at the far side of the room, wanting to put as much distance between her and the man as possible. Talk about humiliating. No wonder parents joked about getting back at their kids for things like this when they were older. The man had looked important, wearing a suit and all. Why did her kids have to pick that person, out of all the people in here? Velvet wanted to turn invisible.

She asked a server for a high chair and a booster seat and got her children situated at the table. They'd been given kid's menus and colouring pages with a small pack of new coloured pencils each. Velvet sat down and tried to recompose herself, running a hand back through her hair with a sigh as she grabbed the adult menu. She looked at her sons and got their attention "Boys. Listen. Remember how Mommy told you not to talk to strangers? It's very important not to go up to people you don't know and start talking to them, okay? Not unless Mommy says it's okay, or you're with me and I talk to them"

"I wasn't going to him, I was going to his meat" Flourish complained, "But then I saw him, so I thought I would ask. Miss Johnson says to ask questions if you don't know something. And now I know what the meat is"

"Yes, well, you were lucky this time. But you might have annoyed him by pestering him with that question. He could have been a dangerous man, you don't know. And Miss Johnson means when you need to ask a parent or the teacher, not a complete stranger..."

After she had talked to them a bit more about why it wasn't good to go up and start chatting to random strangers, regardless of what their meals smelled like, she chose a mixed salad for herself, being vegetarian, and then fish fingers and chicken nuggets for Sorbet. The server had come back to their table and Flourish was frowning at his menu "Mommy, I can't find the roast pork. I want roasted pork" he said desperately.

Velvet quickly looked on her own menu and found it, biting her lip at the price of the meal. Paying rent, bills and groceries took up most of her fortnightly salary. But she supposed she could let him try it just this once. "Well, okay..." she looked at the server "Can we please have a serving of roast pork but cut into bite size pieces for my son? I'll eat the rest of the meal" she said. The server smiled and wrote it down on the order pad "All right. And, anything to drink?"

"Cola for Flourish, here, and Sorbet will have a lemonade. I'll just have some iced tea" Once she finished ordering, the boys occupied themselves with colouring in their menu colouring sheets and Velvet went to reach for her phone, only to realise it must have fallen out of her pocket somewhere. She started to search in her large handbag slash diaper bag and then her pockets but couldn't find it anywhere. She started to panic. She relied on that phone for so much. Little did she know it had fallen out of her pocket when Flourish tugged on her dress and was by the table where the kitsune man was sitting.

"Sorbet, Flourish, did either of you take Mommy's phone? You know you're not allowed to play with it unless I say so, right?"

Usually, Velvet would have heard the sound of her phone hitting the floor but she was so flustered and preoccupied about the current situation that she didn't hear it over the sound of her hooves on the floor and the general banter filling the restaurant, her attention on corralling her kids and getting to a table to chill out and regain her composure. Sorbet was looking around from a higher viewpoint than most and didn't notice it and Flourish was fully focused on getting his paws on the roast pork.

By the time they were seated, had ordered their food and were colouring and chatting, she had no clue where it had fallen. The boys heard her question them and both answered with clueless, drawn out 'noooo's and shaking heads. That was when Velvet felt it; a surge of magical energy. She wasn't quite sure which direction it came from, since the restaurant was mildly crowded with people having dinner and other families but she soon found out. She gasped when the kitsune appeared at their table in an instant, surprised as anything. Velvet Star blushed again and looked fairly ashamed "I- yes, yes, it is. Thank you so much. I'm so sorry! I don't even know how that happened. I swear me and my family aren't here for the sole purpose of causing you trouble tonight" she said with an embarrassed laugh as she took the phone in her dainty hand. "I'll keep a better eye on it from now on"

"Hi again!" Flourish said, looking at the man and waving cheerfully. "Thanks for bringing my mommy's phone back" He looked at Velvet "Mommy, what part of the cow is the pork?" he asked, looking genuinely puzzled while they waited for their meals to come out of the kitchen.

Sorbet looked at the man and pointed to him with a red pencil "Wed. Wed!" he indicated the suit colour, then looked at his pencil "Wed...wed" He repeated it, smiling. He then looked at the fluffy tails again, easier to see now "Fwuffy!" he reached out to them longingly, far too far away and locked in place in his highchair to actually be able to touch or grab them.

Velvet covered his mouth again with a loud "Shhhhhh!"

Velvet was extremely grateful to the man who'd returned her phone to her. They didn't have a landline at home because it was cheaper for her to use a mobile phone, as a lot of people did nowadays. All of her social contacts and phone numbers for services were saved there, not to mention precious photos of her children growing up and of her deceased husband. Plus it held social media where she could talk to other single moms raising a family.

She couldn't help but be flustered for a different reason when she saw Nao's charming smile. He was very attractive. Pretty. And his voice was pleasant too. His words made butterflies appear in her stomach. She flashed him a friendly smile in return, her expression thankful to match her words. And then Sorbet chimed in with his renewed recognition of the colour red, successfully linking the colour of the pencil to the suit Nao wore.

Velvet was embarrassed again and quickly shushed her toddler, knowing his high pitched and enthusiastic voice likely hurt the foxes' ears. But she smiled at his response to her son, warmed by his patient demeanor with him. She mouthed 'thank you' in Nao's direction and then spoke to Sorbet "Yes, good job getting the colour right. That's a red pencil and a red suit" she replied softly and was very grateful to the powers that be that Sorbet was stuck in his highchair because if he'd grabbed Nao's tails that would have been the breaking point. She would have gathered up their stuff and left in mortification. "Yes, nice fluffy tails. Those are fox tails. Remember the rule: hands to yourself. No touching other people without asking" She looked up at Nao with another warm smile "Thanks, you too~" she said sincerely, the tone heard in her words "Okay, see you". The purple smoke and sparkles delighted her children.

Sorbet looked at her and nodded once to her reminder, and she removed her hand from his mouth, just in time for their meals to arrive. Sorbet's plate of chicken nuggets in animal shapes and crumbed fish fingers, with tomato sauce and tartare sauce for each, arrived. Then Velvet had a big hipster vegan salad with all kinds of delicious things in it, and Flourish brightened instantly, bouncing in his chair, when he smelled and saw the roast pork on his plate. "Roast pork, roast pork! Yaaaay!" He picked up his fork and stabbed a piece, putting it into his mouth and chewing. The boy hummed in approval at the taste, swinging his legs back and forth on the chair "Mmmm~!" He then recalled his earlier question "Mommy, what part of the pork is the cow?" he queried, a bit confused.

Velvet laughed softly, "You mean, what part of the cow is the pork from? Well, it's not from a cow. It's from the same animal that gives us ham and bacon" she said "Do you know?"

Flourish thought for a second then lit up again "A pig!" he declared, and smiled when his mother nodded "Pigs are tasty~!" he then joyfully imitated the grunting oinks of a pig, copied instantly by Sorbet, with smaller, cuter oinks.

Velvet just gave a nervous laugh. "Come on, settle down now and eat your dinner" she told them. She herself was a vegetarian but she'd learned to get used to her husband's more feline body and needs and those of her sons. Still, thinking of killing animals for meat was still rather disturbing to her. If it came off a shelf at the grocery store, in a packet, it was easier to think of as just another grocery item. Although Aaric had said he would go hunting from time to time and would have taken the boys hunting when they were older. Something she disapproved of and that they'd argued over.

Velvet had tucked into her salad while the boys ate their meals, Sorbet's lemonade served in a sippy cup, Flourish's in a plastic kids cup and her iced tea in a tall glass. However, she couldn't stop glancing towards the table of the kitsune man, distracted and pondering. She liked him. She kind of wanted to talk to him. Perhaps when her kids went to play on the play place, she'd go over and strike up a conversation. He didn't look like he was from town, not with the way he dressed and acted, and she wondered where he was from, how long he was staying and why he was here. She'd like to ask him a fair few things now that she thought about it. She broke from her thoughts when she heard laughter and looked up to see Sorbet had stabbed a chicken nugget shaped like a fish onto his horn, with tomato sauce on it, and his big brother had put one on his and the two were giggling over it.

"Look Mommy, we killed the chicken nuggets! We're fierce hunters, mroww!" Flourish made a catlike noise in the back of his throat, reminding her all too much of their father. Her heart clenched painfully and the familiar sadness arose. She missed Aaric so much. She wished he could have been here with them.

Velvet managed to get her boys to quiet down and resume eating their meals, giving a tiny lecture on why they shouldn't play with their food. However, she knew it was hardwired into their nature. Cats did play with their food before eating it, and her boys were both part snow leopard. She could try to tame their instincts a little though.

She assisted Sorbet in eating his fish fingers and nuggets, promising he could go play as soon as he was full while cajoling him to have another bite.

Meanwhile Flourish attacked his plate of juicy and tender roast pork, munching it down with gusto. The boy was thrumming with soft purrs, squirming in glee with each bite. "Yummy, yummy, yummy in my tum-my~" Flourish sang, emitting a giggle.

Soon enough, their meals were finished and the boys were impatient to go have some fun burning off their boundless energy. "Mommy, can we go play? Can we?" Flourish begged, bouncing in his chair "I ate it all up, and I'm full" he declared, showing her his empty plate.

Velvet Star chuckled and stood up, moving to pick up Sorbet out of his highchair and wipe his face and paws with a napkin. "Yes, all right, you can go play. Just keep an eye on your brother for me, okay? And no playing rough with the other kids. Hands to yourself, okay? Remember not to poke anyone's eye out with your horns" she reminded them, reaching over to ruffle Flourish's hair and ears with affection. "Mister purry furry" she cooed. "Come on then, I'll walk you to the play area, then I'm going to finish my salad"

"Okay!" he chirped.

She took Flourish's paw in her hand, her other arm holding Sorbet on her hip, taking them over to the kids' play area that was walled off with thick safety glass that had colourful designs on it. It kept the noise of shouting, playing kids out of the main restaurant but muffled noise could still be heard, and the kids clearly seen through the clear glass panels. Velvet pushed open the heavy glass swing door and Flourish wrested his hand eagerly out of her grasp, padding into the play area. He waited as she set down Sorbet, the little one's pearly hooves touching the carpet for barely a moment before his big brother grabbed his paw and dragged him towards the play structure. "Come on Sorbet! Let's play! Let's go in the tunnels!"

Sorbet trotted after his brother, having to walk faster due to having smaller legs, nearly tripping a bit over his own hooves. "Otay!" he yelled. "Dunnewls!"

"Play nice you two!" Velvet waved bye to the kids and went back to her table to finish eating in peace. She glanced over at the play place occasionally but couldn't help looking towards Nao's table more and more. He was reading a book. She almost missed being able to eat in such peace and quiet. Being a single mother was hard. It was easier when Aaric was here to help out. She missed him so bad. It had only been a few months. His scent, his purrs, his softness..."Oh, Aaric...I can't do this alone" she murmured sadly to herself, munching a mouthful of salad. "Flourish and Sorbet need their daddy, and I need my husband, but you're not here. And I don't know what to do" she sniffed, dabbing at tears with paper napkins.

Around fifteen minutes had passed and Velvet had almost finished her meal, when there seemed to be a burst of commotion in the play area. A spray of flourishing rainbow lights had flowed out in a cone pattern of 8 metres long and 10 wide, encompassing several children within range. Velvet gasped and dropped her fork, shooting up out of her chair "Flourish!" she shouted. Shoot. What was she going to do? Did he really just cast the only spell he knew in a closed play area? WHY??? Panic filled her as she began to hurry towards the play place.

Other parents had noticed the colour spray spell as well, and were getting up and going to check their children. To Velvet's horror, she saw some of the younger kids had fallen asleep where they played, a few elementary schoolers were stumbling around, scared and blinded, bumping into things and bawling, and another few of the even older kids were swaying in place, dazed and stunned with colourful balls of fairy lights dancing around their heads.

Parents were shouting and scared. It was utter chaos.

"Samantha! What happened to you? Wake up sweetie, wake up!" a mother tried to wake her slumbering toddler who had fallen limp on the swings. "If I find out who did this...!" she threatened. "There'll be hell to pay!"

"Magic?! Who the hell cast a spell in here? My son is blind! BLIND! If this is permanent I'm going to sue" A father shouted, enraged and scared, hugging his son who was rubbing at his eyes and blinking to no avail while crying.

"Hazel! Hazel! Oh god, what are those lights? Hazel, snap out of it!" A mother and father were shaking their daughter, trying to rouse her from her strange state as she clutched the flying fox (zipline toy) for dear life and drooled, her eyes starry and distant.

"Oh gods, oh GODS, what am I going to do?!" Velvet said to herself, clutching at her hair and face. Panic was making her mind turn to static. She was frozen, hyperventilating. Help. Somebody help her!

((OOC: Flourish is purple. Scroll down to the image near bottom Velvet and Kids))

As the illusion spell was lifted by Nao, parents started to calm down but were still upset. A few of them thanked the kitsune, while others wanted to know whose child was responsible for the magic. Some of them grabbed their kids and pulled them out of the play area to go complain to management or just plain leave.

Velvet meanwhile, was still a bit scattered, but calmed down when she saw Nao appear and dispell the effects of the colour spray. She relaxed as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. She took a deep breath and turned to him apologetically. "Thank you so much, sir. I'm so sorry for all the trouble" she looked at the play place "Flourish! Come out here right now! You need to explain yourself, mister. You have until the count of three. ONE...TWO..." she said, raising her voice angrily and stomping her hoof.

The scared looking cattalicorn child came running out of the play place, carrying his younger brother "Wait! Wait! I can explain!" he yelled in a panic.

Velvet's eyes flashed "You know better than to use magic around other kids in an enclosed play place! What were you thinking? Bad boy!" she scolded.

Flourish cried. "Moooo-mmyyyyy, it wasn't my fau-wlt! It was an acci-deeent!" his wings flapped haphazardly and he had angry tears in his eyes. "It wasn't my fault. HE called our daddy bad names!" His tail lashed as he hissed. "And he called me a weak, athe-dic sissy!" he yelled, pointing at another boy who had come out of hiding at the same time and was shaking his head as he stood near his father. The other boy was a canine type; a wolf by the looks of it.

The wolf snarled and pointed at Flourish accusingly "NUH-UH! He's lying, he's making it all up. He stole my toy and cast a spell on me when I tried to get it back. He's a BULLY!"

Flourish put Sorbet down and hissed, enraged, at the other boy, puffing up "LIAR, LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!" And before Velvet could stop him (while Sorbet immediately clung to her legs and began bawling), he ran towards the other boy and they started hitting, kicking, and wresting, rolling around on the ground, Flourish emitting horrifying yowls and the wolf boy snapping and barking.

"Boys, BOYS! Stop fighting! No!" Velvet was shocked, scooping up her toddler then running towards the fight as her horn lit up and she floated both boys into the air with her own magic, sparkling aura's surrounding them, pulling them apart from each other so they hovered in the air "Fighting is not the answer here!"

She was stopped by a loud, angry bark as both children flailed in the air "HEY! put my son down! It's clear who's in the wrong here. Your child assaulted my child for no reason!" the boy's wolf anthro father stepped forward, growling in a threatening manner. "Jason would never do anything wrong! Your son obviously tried to hurt my son!" he snapped at her, showing his teeth. "And now here you are, setting the same example; non consensual spell casting. No wonder your brat did the same to my Jason"

Velvet felt a cold chill of terror streak through her as the angry canine father got in her face. The gentle herbivore took a step back, shaking "We should listen to both sides of the story before making any judgements!" she sputtered, "There's no proof your son didn't provoke mine. Flourish is normally a good boy!" she protested, confused, embarrassed, angry and upset. "I promise you he'd NEVER do something like this without good reason. Please take a step back so we can discuss this calmly as adults" she ordered, moving another step back, turning slightly sideways and cradling Sorbet close, protecting the sobbing toddler as she rubbed his back.

"There's no need to get aggressive, sir!" she reprimanded.