Welcome to Gaia! ::

With Pink Lemonade’s help, Cirrus had set up his own stall. It was really no more than a wooden box with a small sign at the front saying ‘Free Fortune Telling Service’. The Free part of the sign was a mess, having been scrubbed out and re-written multiple times before he’d finally won the right to put whatever he wanted on his own darn sign. Apparently Pink Lemonade didn’t believe in doing things for free.

Cirrus had his tea leaves, tea cups and a thermos of hot water all ready to go. He had been sitting there for three hours without anyone going past and the already miserable colt was growing even more disheartened by the second. It didn’t help that he had a nagging negative voice in his ear.

"It’s not that boring, Baskerville. These things take time." Cirrus said, looking around at a black rabbit amongst the group of soft toys that were arranged carefully around him. "… and I’m not a failure. Not yet."

Deciding to ignore Baskerville’s mad ramblings about drowning himself in a bathtub of tea, Cirrus had turned back around, only to meet the gaze of a blue eyed colt that had wandered over.

Cirrus blinked slowly, uncertain what to do now that somebody was actually at his little stall. It took the other offering a polite greeting before Cirrus cleared his throat and replied with, “good day, sir.” This was a customer. A real-life customer! He almost looked around to give Baskerville an ‘I told you so’ but didn’t want to turn his attention away from the golden phony for a second.

“Would you be interested in having your tea leaves read today?” He asked; his big eyes and pale features looking overtly hopeful, while also giving the appearance that a refusal would instantly shatter the poor fellow’s heart. “I’m very talented at revealing the future.”

Cirrus looked instantly relieved when Ikebana agreed to have his fortune read. He doubted he would have been able to handle Baskerville’s derision if the other colt had walked away. He smiled back, the little used expression looking slightly strange on the pale fellows face. “Please take a seat.” He suggested. “I’ll prepare the tea.”

He moved one tea cup and saucer over, emptied a generous amount of the loose tea leaves into it and then poured in the hot water. Each action was treated methodically, an intense look of concentration of Cirrus’s face.

The first job done, Cirrus looked up at Ikebana and explained; “Now it just needs to steep. It will only take a few moments.” He went silent; head tilted and expression slightly glazed, as if listening to something. After a while he shook his head and continued with the explanation. “When it’s cool enough, you drink it. I hope you like earl grey. Drink slowly, making sure to leave a small amount of tea in the bottom.”

While he was talking (and staring vacantly) the tea had finished steeping and he carefully pushed it forward. “Okay. You can take your time. Don't burn your tongue.”

Cirrus watched Ikebana drink with his wide-eyed gaze; focusing intently on every sip the other colt took. He seemed to be enjoying it, so that was a big plus. The young fortune teller was trying not to seem too excited at having someone to read fortunes for other than himself and his plushies. Pink Lemonade sometimes let him do hers, but she hated tea and rarely took his advice seriously. Maybe if she had she wouldn’t have gotten food poisoning last week.

“Oh well, yes. The longer you take and the longer you focus on the tea and give part of yourself to it, will give a stronger reading.” Cirrus replied. He lifted himself up a bit, wings giving a small flutter, trying to see how much Ikebana had left in his cup. “When you only have a small bit of tea left, swirl it around the cup to disperse the tea leaves and gently, very gently turn the cup over onto the saucer to empty it. Wait, three breaths and turn it back over.”

If Ikebana’s conversation skills where not up to par, Cirrus certainly didn’t notice. He nodded eagerly. Oh yes, it was a fascinating art indeed. He might have gone on further on the subject, but Mr. Snuggles had just reminded him that he needed to keep up an ‘air of mystery’ and so was trying to look a little more sombre.

“Very good.” Cirrus breathed out. “I’ll take it from here.” The pale colt smiled faintly at Ikebana, but his attention was no longer with his customer, instead all his focus was on the tea cup. He moved it closer and peered inside.

He began his inspection, taking his time in locating and indentifying the various tea leaf clumps scattered around the cup. Now and then he would murmur a word or two, “bee… bat… arrow down… fish… star…”, his mumbling continuing until he finally sat back with a pleased sigh.

“This is a nice reading and very thorough.” Cirrus said as he began to explain. “You’re on the right path.” His head tilted, gaze still on the cup. “Do what makes you happy. Stay with it and you’ll achieve success. You’re allowed to be a bit selfish, so don’t feel guilty about doing things for yourself. The weeks ahead are going to be busy, so try to not wear yourself out or you’ll get quite ill.” He moved the cup around. “Someone intends to cause trouble in the near future. Don’t walk away from it or it will happen again. Oh, and very soon you’ll meet somebody that will become very important in the future. But I can’t see in what way. And I’d highly suggest not eating any fish for the next week.”

There was nothing else Cirrus could get out of the tea leaves, so he looked back up at Ikebana to check his reaction.

It was not uncommon for someone to be ungrateful when given a reading of their future. Cirrus could understand that. Some people didn’t like the idea of knowing what might be ahead. He was always worried about getting such a reaction and usually psyched himself up for disappointment ahead of time. But he had enjoyed Ikebana’s reading and this time rejection of his advice would have hurt terribly.

When Ikebana revealed his thoughts on the matter, a big smile spread across the little colt’s face. “I-I’m glad.” He stammered out. If he could make one person happy by reading their tea leaves, he looked forward to more of the same.

He blinked owlishly at the gold coin. “Oh no, but I couldn’t accept your money.” Cirrus said instantly and then cringed, as if expecting someone to come up behind him and give him a whack for his lack of business sense. “Well…”He studied the coin. With this he could thank Pink Lemonade for helping him set up his little stall.

“I’ll take it.” He offered Ikebana a shy grin. “Thank you very much. I wish you well in your future.” The Pegasus paused for a second and then blurted out, "oh, my name is Cirrus."