Blind Date Resturant

"We have bubble tea," Karin offered. "It's a sweet flavored tea with cream and tapioca pearls. We have green apple, strawberry, peach, and mango flavored."

"Oh, I agree entirely. There aren't any beaches in the Country of Hearts that I've seen. Perhaps we can go to the beach together sometime?"

"Ah, so you're a collector?" Taliesin suggested, overlooking the oddness of digging out a KFC guy from a trash heap. "That's very interesting. I'm a bard, myself."

"Peach tea it is," Karin said with a smile. She left and returned moments later with two glasses of peach bubble tea. She set the glasses down and handed them both the giant straws required to suck up the pearls.

She then moved on to another table, Alice and Zack's. "Hi, can I get you two anything to drink?"

Alice smiled. She really liked Zack. Not that she would jump into things. Last time she'd done that, her crush fell for her sister instead. "You'd have to help me pick out a swimsuit," she said. "I'm afraid I don't have one."

When the server came and asked for drink orders, Alice said, "Could I have some coffee? Cream and sugar, please."

"Oh, I trust you. I'm sure you'll pick something cute for me," Alice said, smiling sweetly and innocently. By now, she knew how to handle men and clothing shopping. Unless it was Blood Dupre, whom Zack was nothing like, most guys would instantly feel bad about taking advantage of a girl with clothing choice when they said something like that.

Karin did her best not to laugh. Brilliant, she thought, walking away to get the coffee. She would bring some water for Zack so if he got thirsty he'd have something while she went and got what he would order.

"We sing songs of greatness and beauty," Taliesin said, strumming his harp. "We also bring the news around to places that don't often see visitors. We travel, so we hear a lot of interesting gossip." He smiled down at his dragon. "And meet very interesting people."

"Blue," Alice replied, smiling. She was dressed in blue, after all. To tell the truth, that was the only thing she ever looked good in. She certainly couldn't manage the red that Vivaldi, the Queen, always wore.

She recognized, though, that Zack seemed uncomfortable with this line of discussion and changed it with, "What's your favorite?"

"Oh? I should come visit there, perhaps. It might prove informative for a traveling minstrel such as myself." Taliesin grinned. "There might be stories to be told there that would never leave your town, don't you think?"

Karin walked into the back room and said to Bijou, "We should probably start taking meal orders soon. They'll be hungry, I'm sure."

Alice nodded. "Yeah." She took a sip of tea to fill the silence that had fallen between them. "So, um, what are you planning to get? For lunch, I mean." To tell the truth, she wasn't quite sure on that, herself. She busied herself with the menu, trying to decide before their server returned.

Taliesin grinned. "Oh, believe me, all sorts of bad things have happened to me. I was destined to be killed by a great beast. Instead, I made a friend." He patted the dragon on her head. "And I sang the legendary Song of Creation to melt the snow on a forever frozen mountain and survived that as well. I don't die easily."

Karin wondered how the hamster could manage to cook but didn't question it. Instead, she said, "Perhaps I should do the cooking while you get the orders?" She was a good cook, so it wouldn't be a problem to run the kitchen for the moment. She was more afraid that the little creature might get crushed under the weight of a stray turnip.

"That does sound lovely," Alice said, glancing over her own menu. "Hmmm... I think I'll be getting some curry. I haven't had any in ages."*

"Oh, of course I believe in curses," Taliesin replied, his nonchalant smile never leaving his face as he tuned his harp. "I'm a bard, after all. I've heard many stories about curses, and as I said, I was destined to die at the claws of a great beast."

The dragon rolled her eyes. Yet again she'd have to get him out of trouble, she was certain, but she wouldn't interfere. Not unless Taliesin tried to go home with this demon-possessed nitwit. Than she'd bare her teeth. Dragons weren't nearly so susceptible to curses, after all.

Taliesin pretended he hadn't seen his dragon roll her eyes at him. Instead, he continued with his feigned ignorance. "I know a lovely song about a cursed man, one turned into a frog. Or perhaps the story of a man cursed by an evil sorcerer in the woods who cursed the nearby kingdom with illness."

"Curry. It's a dish of meat in a spice sauce over rice. It's really good." She smiled. It really had been quite some time. "You're welcome to try a bit of mine if you'd like."

"Oho?" Taliesin put on a flirtatious grin. "Tell me, who would want to curse a girl as pretty as you? Perhaps a jealous queen who looked upon your beauty in a mirror instead of her own?"