<< First - < Previous - Next >

Welcome to ...inhale
Bremen's Bananas and Bones and Baubles and Bartering Bazaar!

A half-mile away from the entrance to Tunnel N along the wall you come upon a section of floor that has been surrounded by baubled gemstones. Spaces in the semi-circle have been made for obvious entrances and exits and mounds of dirt have been piled up within, upon which various items have been put on display. Within this little 'shop' there is a single employee, a... well a hybrid thing that is currently sparkling form head to toe to fin to wing to tail. Should you venture closer you will find the following items stocked upon the dirt pedestals:

Pile of pristine bananas You count at least a few dozen bananas trying desperately not to come clattering down from their precarious pile

Heap of banana peels For every banana in the previous pile there are at least two banana skins in this pile. Someone has been hungry!

Glowing banana kabob A single banana, glowing brilliantly, skewered on some kind of black spike. Is this someone's idea of art?

Charred deer skull Someone definitely tried to set this on fire at some point, but why?

Femur A pile of three classic-looking bones. They seem to be relatively fresh.

Baubled gems In a pile at the back wall are the remaining glowing gemstones that weren't used in constructing the border. Where did this thing get them?

Polaris was quickly becoming like a second home to the young springbok. She loved the energic feeling just being in that place gave her. She loved the fungi, the like plants but not plants, that filled the area. And she loved the way it glowed around her like its own magical spell. It was not Eridanus by any stretch of the imagination but she loved the otherworldly feel of the place. Every so often on a random day the antelope doe will find her way through the tunnels to explore the area.

On one such particular day Enka decided to explore in a direction she had not previously gone. Light hearted with no real plans she trotted along. She had no real idea where she was going, but she had nothing else pressing to do so it didn’t bother her. So why not wander a bit down the secret little pathways or Polaris while invigorating herself?

After a bit of time trotting a strange new light could be seen in the distance. Curious, she stopped and looked it over. It was similar to the glow of the fungi but somehow different. She walked closer at a slower pace, analyzing the area with great interest. As she moved closer it became clearer that it was a circle of lights. Whatever could it be?

Soon the springbok got to the circle of lights. Instead of answers, though, she found even more questions. Glowing gems were scattered in a circle. More than that, there were strange mounds of dirt that each had a pile of some sort more curious than the next. Fruit and peels, bones and baubles. It was a strange array of curiosities.

And at the center of the circle stood the prince of curiosities himself. Over all his body seemed a bit similar to Rift but much smaller than the cougar. He had a stone on his forehead like she did but it was a yellow color and shaped differently than her. But that was where similarities appeared to end. He had feathers and fur, slicker in some areas than others. He had wings and a bill. Enka had no earthly idea what he was other than very interesting looking. But he had a pleasant demeanor and sparkle that was hard to not smile at.

So, smile she did. She moved between the strange gems into the circle. “Hello there!” she greeted warmly. “Is this your home? It's very shiny.”

---

Speech
Thoughts

Tags: @Bremen
Notes:

Energy! The room was so incredibly full of energy that Bremen barely knew what to do with himself! As always when he woke up earlier he ate all the bananas that he wanted, threw the banana peels that had gone bad out a good distance away, and got the shop in pristine condition for whoever would be next to stumble upon his little trading post. He'd even poked the banana spike to say hi to the voices!

That wasn't enough though. Even after moving all the bad peels far away and making sure only the freshest ones were left in the pile the little hybrid was still bursting with energy. There was only one thing to do then; improve the shop! He still had a pile of illuminated stones that was going unused, and the wall behind the trading post was pretty uneven. Perhaps he could find ways to attach the stones to the wall without them falling off all the time?

As Bremen sat amidst the displays staring at the back wall a voice piped up behind him, causing him to hop up into the air in surprise. His birdlike neck bent back at an angle allowing him to see the new visitor and as soon as he landed he spun around the rest of the way.

"Welcome, welcome, thank you!" the little creature chittered, looking up at the three horned deer-antelope thing. "It is my home but also my hobby. I call it Bremen's Bananas and Bones and Baubles and Bartering Bazaar. Everything you see here is for trade. Even the dirt if you really want to give me something for it."

Without even waiting for a response the little creature ran toward the banana display and jumped up to grab a free sample from the top of the pile. Unfortunately he slightly misaimed his jump and went barreling through the middle of the pile instead. Ungracefully he landed on the other side, first neck, then wings, then the rest of his body. Were he too concerned with him image the flop might have been mortifying, but within seconds Bremen ws on his feet again.

"Umm..." he started out, looking at the absolute chaos around him. "I have a... special deal today! yes, a very special one-time offer." His tone was quickly shifting from addled to confident once more. "Help me make the sop pretty and you can have as many bananas as you want. Or even take a piece of the shop with you to make your hone shine brightly too!"

---

’Thinking... thinking... thinking…’
"This is my voice, isn't it neat?"
Tags: @Enka

Enka watched with curiosity as the strange creature tumbled from one side of the enclosure to another. He appeared erratic, moving from location to location and thought to thought with little in the way of conscious direction. For most, the strange hybrid was probably perplexing at best and frustrating at worst for most who wander in this direction. In truth, Enka was struggling a bit to keep up initially.

But the hybrid’s excitement was almost tangible. He seemed to be an agreeable sort and Enka couldn’t help but feel at ease in his presence. She even giggled a bit as he tumbled into the banana pile before skipping a few steps over to make sure he was okay. Apparently, her assistance wasn’t needed though as he recovered fairly quickly. The antelope wondered for a moment if this was a regular occurrence for him. Considering his lackadaisical attitude, it would appear to be the case.

“A special deal?” Enka repeated softly. The idea of trading and such was a new one, but a very interesting one. There wasn’t much in the shop she was particularly interested in (although the bananas did look tasty as they were probably summoned up quite recently). The mention of taking a bit of the shop was intriguing though. The shining orbs immediately caught her attention. She didn’t really have a place for her own for it, but the desire was there. Perhaps she could find a good place in Eridanus to put it. It was about time for her to explore and make a place of her own after all.

And all that Bremen (as she assumed his name to be based on the store’s name) asked of her was to help make the shop look nicer. Enka leapt into the air eager. “Oh yes yes! I can do that! I can make the shop look pretty in no time!” Her tail and rump both quivered with excitement.

With that, Enka skipped around the entrance she had appeared at. In her excitement she skipped sensing for the hidden plants and instead went immediately into trying to coax them out into little sprouts. Luck was on her side, though, as a few little green strands began to appear at the edges of the opening. Enka gave a bay of glee, moving along to the other openings to repeat the action. There wasn’t a lot of baby plants but there was some.

After a moment she skipped towards where Bremen was to catch her breath. Her center horn still resonated with the spent magic, the greens shimmering brightly against the creams. “How’s that? I might be able to make them bigger if you’d like. Or I can help you clean up the shop a bit?” she suggested with a glance at the banana piles. The antelope was finding the whole process quite enjoyable.

---

Speech
Thoughts

Tags: @Bremen
Notes:

Bremen watched with some curiosity as the happy little deer agreed to help and pranced over toward one of the shop entrances. Silly thing, the shop entrance was all finished right now; it was the interior of the shop that was full of a disarray of bananas.

The creature's horn began to shimmer as the greens within shone brightly and little specs of green began to emerge from the ground below. Gracious! He'd judged too soon; even as he stood there with a single banana in his beak ready to be placed back on its pile this visitor had come up with an amazing idea for how to make the stop even better than it was before.

"Amazing! I've never met anyone who could do that before!" he cheered as he put the banana down and dashed over to get a closer look while the plant mage caught their breath. "That's a good idea too. I bet the bazaar would be even nicer if there were flowers and bushes and trees along the pretend wall instead of just glowing rocks."

That would take a long time though, longer than his visitor probably had. Plus he wasn't sure he had enough to trade in return for such a huge project. He'd definitely have to take time to scavenge later on. For now though he had work to do! In a flash the small hybrid darted back to where he had been a second before. "That seemed like it was hard though I don't want you to accidentally hurt yourself. Is there an easier way to make plants grow? I know there's lots of them in the other rooms and it seems silly that they'd all have to be brought to life by magic."

Of course there were a lot of big impressive things in the cave that could probably be made and modified by magic. Maybe there were a bunch of really magical creatures that hid in the rocks away from sight that had made them? He hadn't seen anything like that but that didn't mean it couldn't be right.

---

’Thinking... thinking... thinking…’
"This is my voice, isn't it neat?"
Tags:

Enka couldn’t help but smile as the strange Bremen creature complimented her floral addition to the shop. It was at least a start to prettifying the shop some. Granted, Enka did have a particular love of plants so her opinion was rather biased in that regard. But they did reflect nicely against the glowing stones. It gave the place a sort of ethereal feel which was fitting for both being in Polaris and for the strange creature who cared for this place.

The springbok shook her head which sent her large ears flapping. “It wasn’t too hard. Especially here. Magic seems to be easier here for some reason. And I like working with plants. It would just take some time.” She looked around at the shop’s circumference. “A lot of time....” Indeed, with the size of the shop it would take a while to fully decorate the area with flowers. Not to mention the additional work of coaxing them to grow more. That would be quite an endeavor.

Though not an entirely unsatisfactory one. Perhaps not here, but maybe elsewhere. Having a little area like this filled with a variety of plants and strange baubles and such. For a moment she wondered if she could create something like that. But why not? Bremen created this … what did he call it again? Bizzare? No, Bazaar. Couldn’t she do something similar? Maybe in Eridanus somewhere since that was her home. How exciting of an idea! Enka gave a broad grin as her mind turned over various ideas and concepts.

“I’m not sure if there’s an easier way or not to make the plants,” she replied to Bremen’s second set of musings. “The plants were already there, though. They just needed a bit of help in getting started. I just gave the sweeties a bit of a push to get started. But now they’ll grow big and strong for you with time, unless you use magic to speed it along. I’m sure there are other plants around here as well. You might be able to plant some yourself if you’re patient with it.” Though, from what she could tell, he was most likely not very patient at all.

Enka looked around the shop curiously. There were quite a variety of strange items she hadn’t seen before. Though the deer skull made her a bit unnerved with how similar it was to her own head. With a ripple along her hindquarters, she moved her attention away from the skull. “Where did you find all these?” she asked softly, moving closer to look over the stranger objects.

---

Speech
Thoughts

Tags: @Bremen
Notes:

The small hybrid nodded emphatically at his visitor's words, careful not to hit anything with his horn as he did so. "This is a really magical place! I think it's because of that big blue spike in the ground you can see in the distance. I walked on it once and it made my feet all tingly and caused me to run super-fast for a few minutes."

That had been a fun race, even if he'd only participated in it because he thought his noodlekin was running too. Turns out his silly sibling had just been in the audience to cheer everyone on. Still, he'd apparently been really good at running and was one of the first ones to make it past the end. He even helped clean up afterwards and used some of the track to make this place.

"Hmm, so if I just put little plants in the ground then they will become big plants then?"

He seemed deep in thought. He could probably look around the plant room for tiny plants to dig up with his horn and carry them back to put here. It would take a while and he wouldn't be able to have the shop open during that time but the end result would probably be worth it. There were lots of plants in that room, no one would miss them. Or maybe he'd just look for other plants in this room like she had suggested. That would probably be better since they would still be close to home and grow up stronger.

As he thought his visitor started looking around the shop, perhaps picking out something they wanted in return for their beautification efforts. She seemed intrigued by the deer skull, and no wonder! It probably belonged to an ancestor of her kind from long ago. He'd have to throw in a few extra bananas if she wanted that one, by all rights she had a solid claim to it anyways. But what would she do with it? It could probably be worn on her head since it was so much larger than hers, she could pretend to be as big and strong as they probably were. Then again wearing the skull of an ancestor on your head was kind of silly, right?

Alas though, she didn't seem interested in it. Perhaps someone else would want that one. "I found these from all over the caves! The skull you were looking at was an art piece by my old kingdom's bone keeper, the banana spike came from that weird black and green wall in the magic competition area, and the pile of glowwy gems came from the running track."

---

’Thinking... thinking... thinking…’
"This is my voice, isn't it neat?"
Tags: @Enka

There had been a bit of a disturbance not far from her home. The wolf's keen ears easily caught the sounds, and so she sought to find out what it was, and if necessary to chase it away.

She stuck to the shadows, taking in the rather odd... thing. A nest, maybe? It was surrounded by piles of dirt, and sparkling things caught her eye. Slinking closer, making sure to not be seen, she could make out... yeah she had no idea what they were. Long, slightly curved yellow things, and things that looked rather similar to them. There was a glowing one on a... stick? And bones! A beautiful skull, charred just so, and a pile of femurs that made her teeth itch. Oh, she wanted to chew on them! There were some more glowing things, but really she didn't care.

Another Gembound approached - for a moment, she thought it a Lesser, however it began to speak and thus she discarded the notion. She slunk forward, careful to keep out of sight, and listened in on their conversation.

A... Bazaar? She had no idea what that was, but it sounded interesting. Thankfully, the little... thing, she had no idea what that Gembound was, was quick to explain, saying that the items that were sitting out were for trade.

She observed as the one Gembound made some plants grow around the openings, and then converse with the... well, she assumed it was a hybrid, but it looked nothing like any of her siblings. Only then did she approach, listening as the one she assumed was Bremen announced where he had found the items.

"Hybrid," she called. As she approached the entrance, mushrooms bloomed in her wake, a small patch growing in the wake of each pawstep, leaving a stepping stone path of sorts. "You say your items are for trade. What would you want in place of the skull and a femur?"

@Bremen

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

“Blue spike…?” Enka cocked her head to the side in puzzlement at Bremen’s response. Then she realized that he was talking about the strange spire. The springbok turned to glance at the looming tower in the middle of Polaris. To be honest, she had never really given the object much thought. It was simply a feature of the cavern much like the other caverns had. She had never wandered too closely to it or had much of a desire to explore it. Her interests laid with flora, not stones after all. Though now a slight bit of curiosity was perked at the idea that it might be connected to the great sense of energy that made Polaris so striking.

She made a mental note of the idea and returned her focus back to shop. At the mention of the “glowwy gems,” Enka moved closer towards them. They were inviting with their soft glow. Her mind went back to it’s earlier idea of having a place of her own similar to Bremen and his shop. A small area in Eridanus, filled with a variety of plants. That sounded heavenly.

An idea came to Enka suddenly. Her ears jerked up, her excitement clear on her face. “How about this! I’ll teach you how to care for plants and help you create more plants for this shop. And you let me have some of these orbs. Maybe you know how to get more? They seem perfect for my little garden.”

“My little garden.” It was the first time she spoke the words out loud, but it sounded heavenly in her ears. That cemented the idea that she would have to create such a thing. Perhaps Rift would be able to help with this too. She’d have to do lots of planning for it. It would need a water system, and little pathways to wander along, and maybe a boundary like how this shop was laid out.

Enka’s thought raced before her. So distracted was the antelope by her fantasies that she didn’t even realize the she wolf approaching from the shadows. To be fair, Enka was naive and never worried much about predators and such. It was startling to see the sudden appearance of the dark canine with fur similar to the shadows from which she appeared from.

The creature’s interest in the bones was a bit unnerving for the springbok. A long-ignored instinct warned her of danger. But she quickly tried to silence the thoughts. After all, Bremen was a friend and he was able to make another trade. She should be happy for him! And happy that the skull would be removed soon it sounded like.

She noticed the trail of mushrooms that followed the wolf’s paws. Enka smiled towards the wolf. “You make mushrooms?” she inquired with a nod to the trail of fungi nearly created. She continued, “I do similar, though I make plants. Isn’t it nice to help the little dearies grow?” Perhaps with this common thread, she will have two new friends by the end of the encounter instead of just one.

---

Speech
Thoughts

Tags: @Bremen @Jayberry
Notes:

The small hybrid's head snapped to the store entrance as another figure appeared, canine. What a coincidence, Bremen was part canine too! Well, a fox was not like a wolf exactly but they were close enough, right? Oh, but this canine didn't seem to have any other creature in it, much less and birds or cats or dolphins. Perhaps they weren't alike at all.

But they were still a customer!

"That sounds like a great idea! You help me make my shop look pretty and I can help you make your garden look pretty." He wasn't sure what exactly a garden was, but it sounded like a special place for the deer-creature like this bazaar was for him. "Go ahead and take a glowy gem from the pile as payment for the plants you already made. We can figure out a time to meet up later so you can teach me how to make the plants grow and then you can have even more orbs."

Having finished attending to the business at hand Bremen dashed to greet the approaching customer. "Welcome to my bazaar!" he hailed, listening in response to their request.

Neck craned back to look at the different bone piles. Those were very high value items, or at least the highest value items he had at the moment. He'd definitely have to go out and search for more things to stock. What would be a good thing to ask...

"For a femur I will take a batch of mushrooms if you can make any edible ones." he started, his gaze focused into the distance as he thought and though about what he could possibly ask for in trade for the skull. "I can make that trade right now if you want. Just grow the mushrooms in the banana peel pile so they can stay good and healthy." Mushrooms grew on decomposing things like logs and bananas, right? "For the former-fire-skull I'd want something unique like it, something you couldn't find just anywhere. Perhaps you could go find some cool metal thing from Orion or the tunnel to the windy swirly room? If you find something really cool I might even throw in some extra bananas on top of the trade as a bonus."

---

’Thinking... thinking... thinking…’
"This is my voice, isn't it neat?"
Tags: @Jayberry @Enka