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Tiger Balm's shop was located down an alleyway. The door was held open today, trying to coax in both sunshine and visitors. Various dried herbs hung from the ceiling and let off a pungent aroma and piles of containers, boxes and cupboards covered most of the floor. Every table surface was covered in miscellaneous items.

Tiger Balm hummed as she fluttered around the cluttered space, darting from one side of the front room to the other as she inspected her wares. Her stocks of ginseng were growing low and that would need to be addressed soon.

Tiger Balm came down to earth in front of Hard Truths, giving him a quick look up and down to assess his well-being. "Sure thing." Their first meeting might not have been much, but she remembered him... in a very neutral sort of way. Right now, he was just a customer in need of assistance.

"What for?" She asked, presuming by the way he refused to look directly at her, that his particular ailment was a little embarrassing. Constipation, maybe?

She nearly tossed him right out of her shop. He can come to her for help and he dared give her sass?

Tiger Balm’s nose flared and she stared at him with a look that promised some serious pain if he didn’t reign in his attitude. She ignored his compliment entirely, not even bothering to acknowledge the obvious attempt at flattery.

"Let’s try this again, what is the tea for? Are you sick? Is it just for a pick-me-up? Tea can do a lot of different things. Unfortunately though, I can’t help you with your personality issues."

"Do you want me to kick your a**?" She asked him with an exasperated roll of her eyes. I should send him packing, she thought to herself but instead lifted herself into the air and over to where she kept her tea ingredients.

After a brief time inspection of her wares, the Flutter perched herself on the nearby table. "You do realise that my teas aren't meant for first dates or a bit of afternoon delight. There is an actual fancy tea store down the street that does all that berry, rose, honeydew flavour nonsense. They even have one called Cleopatra’s Cantaloupe," she scoffed. "Usually how this works is you come in and tell me you've got a problem and I go ‘hey, I can fix that’ and put together a mix specifically for you that will probably taste like crap but hey, we can’t everything and then you feel better and I have some extra money in my pocket."

Tiger Balm idly brushed dust off a nearby book and after a good amount of annoyed glowering, decide to relent. "But since you said she likes to mix her own teas, I suppose I can give you some of my stock. Chamomile, cinnamon, dried ginger, ginseng, hibiscus, rooibus... that sort of thing."

The look she gave him clearly she suggested that despite her size, she’d give him an a**-kicking he’d never forget.

“They’re not 'fresh', because tea, if you haven’t noticed, usually consists of dried herbs. That increases their potency and flavour.” Tiger Balm gave a frustrated sigh. She did not relish the idea of stomping around the forest with this annoying male, no matter how cute she thought his attempt to please his lady friend was.

“Making tea with fresh herbs is entirely different game. Mint does well, but many others need to be dried first. Of course, you can make green tea out of just fresh tea leaves and I have a few plants of my own out the back.” Maybe, she thought as she gave him a sour smile, she could lose him out there. “But if you really want to waste some time, I’ll take you.”

"Think about it. You go out, pick a dandelion and drop it in some hot water. What do you think the result would be?" Tiger Balm tapped her hoof impatiently, but she was making an effort to give him the information he wanted. "You can eat dandelions, but is it good in tea or not? Certainly not fresh."

In a quick flutter of wings, she left her perch and landed in front of him. "Tea is generally made with tea leaves, which is why it’s called tea in the first place. More often than not you’ll have tea leaves in your blend. Of course, there are variations now which don’t… most of mine are mixes of other herbs and plants, without the tea, since their purpose isn't to be tea as such, but to help heal an illness."

She inhaled sharply, reigning in her temper. "And yes I enjoy surrounding myself with smelly, dried dead things and if you insult my home and shop again there is nothing on this earth that will save your miserable a**."

"For someone who doesn't even drink tea, you’re spending a lot of time correcting me about it."

Tiger Balm rolled her eyes. "You know girls aren't that picky, right? They’re impressed if a guy just tries to make them happy. You could climb a mountain for some rare tea plant but in the end, she’d be happy with something from the local store, as long as she knew you were thinking about her."

She grabbed her satchel from beside the door, putting it over her shoulders. "Whatever. Come on, we’ll walk and talk." She pushed past him out the door, still talking. "Sure tea can change colour, depending on what’s in it. There’s also these ‘blooming’ teas. It’s packaged so that once it hits the water, it blooms like a flower. I can’t make that sort of thing though."

Nobody could ever say Tiger Balm would stand in the way of true love.

"Yeah, well, let’s get this over with."

She was quiet after that, refusing any further conversation and they hurried into the forest. It was only then she began smiling, ignoring Hard Truths as she fluttered from one bush to another, inspecting the multitude of plants that grew there.