The Central Bazaar

"Chock...let?" She repeated, and reached out for the squishy thing. Apparently, she'd never been told not to take candy from strangers. Although... actually, it seemed like she might be one of those girls that didn't care what people told her and would do what she wanted anyway.

She shrugged the strap of her tunic back into place, and then began to unwrap the wrapper as she trailed along beside him. "My uncle makes weapons," she told Roy. "He is the best scimitar maker in the land. Or whatever it is they call it."

She dipped a finger in the melted chocolate and stuck it in her mouth, delighting in the taste. "Mm! We have nothing like this is Sakand!" she exclaimed, and ate more, only to burst laughing when Roy asked if her cheetah was a horse.

"No, you dumb boy. A cheetah is like a cat. A very large cat that will eat you if I don't like you," she informed him haughtily. "I'm Laisha. Who are you?"

She sucked chocolate from her finger again and looked at him, waiting for an answer.

"Roy? That's a funny name," Laisha said with a laugh. It was hard to tell if she was making fun of him, or if she was merely just amused. She continued to eat the melted chocolate, much to her delight, and then looked curiously at the list he presented her with.

"Not really," she told him. "I'm not a cook, but I'm sure we can find it in the bazaar. You can find anything here, so legend says." She shrugged her shoulder and then tossed her chocolate wrapper on the ground, licking her fingers of chocolate remnants.

"We should start in the Scarlet Quarter," she told him, and she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the stall of a man with a robust belly and a bright yellow turban. He had sacks open of every kind of thing -- spices, powders, nuts, dates.

"Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssss??" he asked, eyeballing the two young folk with a suspicious eye. Petty theft was semi-rampant in the bazaar, given all the color and distraction. petty theft by pale foreigner boys with feminine umbrellas was not outside the realms of possibility.

"It's called the Scarlet Quarter because of all the Saffron spice," Laisha explained as they walked, and came to stop in front of the merchant's large stall and belly.

The merchant stroke his great beard, oiled and fashioned to be in three upward-turned spices. "HMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......" he said and reached for the list.

He cleared his throat, and the necklace around his neck chimed, as if panicked that it has missed its que, and a little round disk came flying up and settled on the man's eye. It was an enchanted looking glass.

"Yourrr uncle, you say?" the large man said, rolling his r's. It made Laisha giggle, and she hid her laughter into Roya's shoulder. "And just WHAAAAT, is this... uncle's.... name?" The merchant asked, eying the boy in front of his stall, which was in front of his shop.

Laisha openly laughed as Roy was swallowed up in the big man's arms, and then her expression instantly became horrified as the merchant came to the conclusion that she was his wife?

No, sir! Not she! She guarantees it! But like Roy, before the young girl could say anything, the merchant had moved on.

Laisha shrugged her shoulders at Roy and followed him in, looking around the shop and comparing it to her father's while Roy and the Merchant talked.

"Aaaah, Rrrrrenalt, Rrrrrenalt, Rrrrenalt. Such happy days passed," he said as he settled into his wide, throne like seat that was carved like an elephant.

"We met hunting the Sphinx," the merchant said, reaching for his pipe and crystals as he launched into a magical tale of two dashing heroes, fighting off bandits and creatures, finding desert princesses and buried treasure over many magical nights and mystical days. "And yet... we never did find that Sphinx. Hmmm."

Laisha, who had taken a seat on the carpets before the mans seat, tipped her head to the side. "Who are you, anyway?"

"I?" Laughed the Merchant. "I am the Great Tabaigo!"

Laisha immediately went pale and looked at Roy. "Oh no."

But before anything could be explained, there was a great roar from outside the shop.

"Tttttoooooobaaaaaaaiiiiiggggoooooooooo!!"

Laisha was quickly on her feet and rushed to grab onto Roy's wrist. "You should go! Run!"

But too late! A merchant as big and round as Tabaigo was stomped in, holding Tabaigo's nephew by the scruff. Tabaigo put an effort to seem nonchalant, but he was red-faced on his throne -- clearly perturbed that this man had burst into his store.

"How rrrude!" Tabaigo said.

"Oh, no," Laisha groaned, and facepalmed hard.

"RUDE! RUUUUDE!!" yelled the merchant, waggling the nephew like a ragdoll and dropping him. He pointed at Laisha. "How DARE you marry MY DAUGHTER to YOUR dirty, pale-faced, foreign relative!"

"Here we go," Laisha sighed.

Tabaigo jolted out of his throne, "Don't you DARRRRRE call MY NEPHEW a dirrrty, pale-faced, forrreign rrrrelative, you suss-faced mongrrrrel!" He had stepped toward the other merchant and now bumped his belly menacing into the other man's.

The merchant gasped. "I declare the marriage null!" He pushed his belly back into Tabaigo's.

"My nephew wants yourrr daughterrr, and that's how it will be!" Now, Tabaigo shoved the other merchant.

"Kill me now," Laisha groaned and let her head fall into her hands.

"AND! You shall pay the Brrride prrrice to me!" yelled Tabaigo.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" roared the other merchant and his fist went sailing into Tabaigo's jaw, knocking the round man back into a pile of red spice that immediately went up into the air.

"AAAAAERGH!" yelled Tabaigo and he launched himself at Laisha's father, throwing blue spice and powder into the man's face as they knocked into a table of merchandise and began to pummel each other!

Amidst the rotund, brawling merchants, Roy did indeed slip out the back. More cries and yells came from the shop, and tons of people up and down the way in the bazaar came to look -- including the City Guard with their gleaming scimitars and the Hummingbirds put on their chest.

But Roy was free to wander, however... he's now missing his list, as Tabaigo's nephew had been the one that was supposed to gather the spices...

As Roy made his way back to the shop in the market, he'd find JUST that nephew sitting on a crate of something, sniffling and rubbing his nose. His face was dark and thunderous. he was not in a good mood. And the brawl was still going on in the shop as well, but most people were looking form the front windows and doors or inside the room.

It was just Royal and Tabaigo's nephew in the 'back alley' where brightly colored rugs and material made a sort of awning from one building to the next.

"What do YOU want?" he asked, petulant. Unfriendly.

Roarin stomps into the bazaar a palm-sized lump of gold in his pocket, one hand absently itching at his eyepatch. He gazes around looking for a jeweler, gold smith, or anyone that would deal in precious metals. He needed to sell the rock and get some useful things, like a few new flasks and a pipe and some decent leaf.