A busy buzzing day

It wouldn’t be long now. The twin gnomes, Lula and Tanzu, would be in the city of Isra proper and hopefully reunited with their friends; Quelci, Ershadt, and Lumpy. Upstanding Citizens all. The twins pulled with them a small, wooden, single-axel cart. The cart was full of random wares and different trinkets which rattled quietly under a thick gray blanket as the brother and sister pulled the cart along together, each holding their own handle as they walked.

Just off the road, Tanzu and Lula spotted a small brick building with a sign hung over the door. Tanzu stopped pulling the cart, and his walking pace slowed.

“Hey!” Lula said, looking at him in marked annoyance as her part of the load became heavier, and her brother’s slowing pace made him more of an obstacle than help. “Am I going to have to pull this great bloody wagon all the way to Isra by myself?” It was only then that Lula looked up to see what had caught Tanzu’s attention. A tailor shop.

“A tailor!” Tanzu exclaimed. “We need a coat!”

Lula looked at him strangely. It was a little chilly, sure, but nothing the clothes they had couldn’t protect them from. “We already have coats! And even if we didn’t, what good would a coat do? There’s two of us!”

Tanzu’s eyes narrowed as he looked at his sister. “The bigfolk in Isra hate us in case you’ve forgotten! We need one coat, so the two of us can look like one bigfolk, instead of two gnomes. They’ll be looking out for gnomes!”

“Fine fine! We’ll get a coat.” Lula said, and helped her brother pull the cart up to the brick building. “And a dress!”

“We’re not getting a dress!” Tanzu said quickly.

“I want a dress! I haven’t had a new dress in ages!” Lula complained. “And the first chance I see to get one, we’re taking!”

“We don’t have money for a coat and a dress!” Tanzu quipped.

“You be quiet and let me handle this!” Lula said. “And anyway we’re about to be rich! We’ve got a whole wagon full of crap to sell to the bigfolk.”

The gnomes bickered back and forth as they parked the cart near the building, and went in. Lula went in first.

“Hello?” she asked, looking around as she poked her head in the door. The furnishings might have been a little sparse, but the place definitely had to be open for business.

Penny worked diligently upstairs on a new pattern she had been itching to try out for a suit/jacket combo.
She hummed as she worked, her many legs making the tedious stitching much quicker than if a human were to do it.

Casey chuckles at their request. "please just call me Casey all that misses and mister junk confuses me. My associate Penny and I will get started on this coat of yours. Is there a specific color or material you'd like the coat to be made of? The soonest a large coat and dress would be ready would be later this evening." The bee buzzes going over to a sketchbook out on a nearby table and starts sketching a few ideas. One idea being a winter fur coat, another a large tailored formal suit coat, and the last being a trench coat type of style.

Another huge bee! The twin gnomes had spent the bulk of their life in the relatively ‘normal’ patch of forest that the rest of their clan of gnomes called home, and while there were certainly a number of magical oddities in their forest, there were no giant bees.

“Ahem. Mis.. Casey. Bee. You see, my sister and I only have about enough money for one present for our uncle. So just the pretty dress will do nicely, I think. A pretty dress.. For our bigfolk uncle..” Tanzu glared at Lula, still obviously unhappy with getting a dress instead of a coat for the two of them.

“Our uncle likes pretty dresses!” Lula insisted again. “And I suppose we only have enough money for just the dress, yes, but we brought a whole wagon-full of priceless treasures! We’re heading to Isra proper now to sell them. Maybe you bees would be interested in some of our wares in exchange for the coat too! Then our uncle could have a pretty dress and a coat. What-a-ya say bees? We have our wagon parked right outside!”

“No!” Tanzu objected, almost interrupting his sister. “Er.. I mean.. Those priceless treasures are for a specific collector! We’ve already promised our priceless treasures to them. Remember? There’s no reason for these wonderful bees to search through our priceless treasures if we can’t trade them for another present. Our uncle will just have to be happy with what we can afford! A dress.”

Tanzu continued to glare at Lula. He didn’t want anyone to search through their wagon, not for any reason.