Welcome to Gaia! ::

Piper wasn't entirely sure why she'd felt the need to enter the curiosities shop. The hiccup had simply been passing by with an armful of supplies to take back to the camp when the goat head on her right arm had given a small grunt and pulled the young woman towards a place calm Balcombe curiosities. All three of her snake headed tails hissed and writhed as if uncertain about the building. Normally Piper would have taken that as a sign to back away but the longer she stared at the harmless looking building the more she felt drawn to it, the more something inside her insisted that going inside was imperative. So with the bag of supplies still in her good arm the brunet carefully opened the door and walked in.

"Hello," Usually Piper didn't feel the need to announce her presence but this was different. Here she wanted to know who else was in this place that stirred up such strange compulsions in her, that meant speaking up and attracting the attention of any other occupants.

It was rare, even on this planet full of strange people, for anyone to be pleased by Piper's looks. The chimera hiccup was usually either viewed as intimidating or just plain creepy and Piper had trained herself over time to ignore the way people avoided meeting her eyes or talking to her. The enthusiastic greeting by this boy was thus surprising and it made the golden orange eyed young woman grin. Besides, the kid who greeted her was an odd looking thing himself, the sort she expected to see in the children's army fending for himself.

Despite the way her snake tails bobbed and weaved, giving echoing hisses back to the one in Kay's hair, Piper was not dissuaded from talking to him. "Thanks" Piper winked one eye as did the goat head on her left arm. "You are also interesting, do you work here?" Would he know the secrets of this place?

Ahh so the boy was unofficial staff, it meant he probably knew about any sort of gossip there was to be had about the place. Although having been in a few minutes now Piper didn't sense anything all that out of the ordinary. The Chimera hiccup had no control at all when the goat head opened it's mouth and proceeded to lick the boy is response to the the petting. S he was however shocked, normally such a bold move would have been lethal" That could have bitten you you know" she chided him. " I'm Piper" the young woman shook her head " What's the point in a long name if you have to shorten it anyways?

"Xbalanque" Piper repeated slowly then grinned "If it's a hero's name it should be treated with respect." Sure his name was a serious mouthful but that didn't mean one should just give up on it. After all for it to have ever existed it had to be reasonable to say if you worked at it.

Ignoring the pissing contest going on between her tails and the odd feathered snake on the boy's head Piper looked around the shop again. It was well sort of random. " Tell me Xbalanque is there anything unique about this place, or perhaps your Na?"

In her peripheral vision Piper caught sight of something shiny, glossy paper?

" Just curious, it's one of those places that has an air to it's atmosphere" Piper murmured as she strayed away from her new young friend and in the direction of the corner of the glossy paper she could see. Actually she was just fishing for information for the most part although something in her felt compelled to bend down and tug the paper free from under a jack in the box that sat on a nearby shelf. It slid out slowly followed by a spine and the rest of the book it was attached to.

Delicious cake puzzles the title read and the front cover of the clearly homemade booklet showed some sort of crazy scene goign on during it.

Piper flipped through the pages as she pondered Xbalanque's word. " I don't think the average child could figure this out." Hell she was pretty much lost as to what it wanted other than for her to find way to get to cake. Perhaps reading it more would help it make more sense. The chimera turned to face the dark skinned boy again. "It's interesting to me it' she pause d unsure if she should share this information. " It feels like I need to read it."

Piper grinned "Thanks, I'm certain if nothing else it will amuse me for a few hours." Plus it was free and in her situation free was always good. The goat head rolled it's eyes and snorted, clearly not agreeing. Piper ignored it, long since used to such behavior.

With a sigh the golden eyed woman looked at the bag of supplies she'd set down earlier. " I should probably get those back to the camp." If anything spoiled it'd be a waste of money. " Could I visit again or would your Na mind you hanging around older women," she asked half teasing. Piper was not overly social with outsiders but Xbalanque looked and felt like a kindred spirit.