After about half an hour of searching, Giana finally found an empty spot, albeit a little dusty, where she could set up shop. She spread out the brightly checked blanket on the ground and started grabbing her finished pieces, both painting and sketch, from her cart and distributed them on the front portion of the cloth in what she hoped was a presentable way. Gods, but this was hard. Would anyone even buy anything?
She set out last her beat-up sign advertising her on-the-spot portraiture service, and her small holder containing the last of her pamphlets on the joys of hingle ownership, not hingle eating. They were dwindling, and she hoped that most of the missing ones had been read and not put directly into the trash bin.
She went into her small, shady cart and took Jeff out of his cage, and similarly liberated his new 'special friend' Lily. Not that she minded her pet's new relationship status, as parents often bought hingles for their children. The new babies, all five of them, squeaked when Giana's hand closed around their mother, so she let go and closed the door.
"Sorry, Jeffo. You'd probably do something rather indecent in front of the customers, anyway."
As a last-minute addition, she grabbed a stray piece of paper on the ground and wrote with a piece of charcoal, "HINGLES--ON SALE AS PETS. Inquire for price."
She took her place on the blanket, with Jeff settled comfortably in her lap, and waited for anyone to show up.

Calli could not read very well but she could spot a hingle from fifty paces. At first she was not near the small rodents. Then she was.

"You are so cuuutttee!!!!" She exclaimed, eyes scrunching up and smiling fit to burst. "Nanabo! Nanabo! Nanabo!"

She looked up at the girl running the cart.

"Hi, I'm Calli!" She said, extending her hand in greeting.

Giana shook the blonde girl's hand. She looked nice, and she certainly was big on Jeff. Maybe she'd be a good candidate for one of the babies?
"I'm Giana, nice to meet you! I see you like Jeff here. Do you have a hingle of your own?"

Sarinah had wandered from the Yellow Eye, looking around at the stalls. Everything was so fresh and alive, she almost considered getting another tattoo, but the girl doing them was currently with another person. Perhaps later, she might get some piercing done. The way the woman wore lovely earrings appealed to the brunette. And there were others with their navels pierced. That seemed to be a great eye catcher, and it looked nice too. Suddenly she stopped.



With a grin, the black haired witch followed the sound of Calli's familiar voice, finding her at a stall with beautiful artwork and...of course..hingles.



"Oes, and don't tempt her to get more. Soon she'll have more hingles than family." The dancer grinned, hands on hips.

Calli pouted at Sarinah.

"I do noooottt!" She whined, crossing her arms. "Froof belongs to Taegan, I only get to play with him sometimes."

Calli looked back to Giana, eyes shining still. She bounced a little in excitement.

"Yes, I really really want a hingle!" She said happily, hands now up near her face. "What does your sign say? Does it talk about prices? I'm afraid I can't read very well, the letters go all jumbled."

Above the din of the crowd came the sound of multiple children giggling. Before Giana could answer either Calli or Sarinah, three small wick children between the ages of ten and five practically scrambled towards the hingles on display. The oldest, a girl of maybe ten, managed to snatch the grubby, reaching wrists of both her siblings before their hands were on the small creatures.

"Ne, ye can't touch 'em. Neither of ye." She squealed, dark brown hair in pigtails waving as she shook her head and pulled the smaller children away.

"Awwww but–" Came the whine from the next youngest, a tan boy of possibly seven or eight, head almost shaved but for a dark brown strip of fluff down the middle.

"Daaaaaoooooaaah!" Cried the smallest one in shocked, unhappy, tearful surprise at being pulled from something so small and cute so suddenly. She would've been a cute little girl with short hair in a topknot if it wasn't for her sad face.

They were obviously siblings, all boney and lithe with similar pointy chins and puffy young cheeks. Their eyes were all green - except for the youngest one's which were hazel. The oldest girl huffed and looked at Giana, trying her best to play the grown up while the two little ones squirmed and whined. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the approach of a short, lanky man of a wick who might have been her father.

His tan was darker still, making the bright green of his mohawk'd hair stand out like a tree in the desert. His eyes were just as green and his broad smile held white teeth that might've shined in the right light. His arms were bare but covered in a practical garden of floral and ivy tattoos - like full sleeves of a shirt that wasn't there. He only wore a threadbare vest and baggy pants - both a patchwork of fabric and leather in a variety of hues. Almost every boney finger had a silver ring, and a large silver half-moon hung between his nostrils. He smelled like cook fires and spices, and tucked in his belt where a weapon might've been appeared to be a wooden spatula.

"Epameo, chips." He laughed and snatched up the now-crying youngest girl into both his arms from his daughter's grip, smiling apologetically at Giana, "I shouldn'ta pointed out yer hingles to 'em there, I guess. Are they fer sale?"

"Ah, that happens to me too, sometimes. I'd like to get away with a little some'm for them, but honestly, as long as they're going to good homes and not being eaten, I don't mind the price. Anything you're willing to part with's good with me."



The second customer was a bit more of a problem. He smelled like--was that kitchen smell? Not good. Sure, it was the kids that wanted one, but she didn't want her babies being served up with noodles as had happened to many a child's pet.
"Sir, maybe you'd like to read one of these pamphlets? After that, I'm sure I could talk to you about buying one of the babies as a pet."
She emphasised pet. Hopefully, he, along with other customers, was to be trusted; she couldn't see herself dealing with six grown-up permanent-resident hingles. Plus the ones she picked up. She had enough trouble feeding herself with the money she got.

The wick frowned a little, his expression muddying up the situation by showing discomfort - either he didn't want to read her pamphlet or he couldn't. Then, with another laugh, the man realized he might have been a little suspicious, "Oh gods, yer thinkin' I want t'buy 'em t'eat 'em, don'tcha, chip? Oh ..." He laughed some more, "Ne ne. If I wanna eat a hingle, I ent gonna go buyin' one. There's a difference 'tween hingles as pets an' hingles as food - it's all in how ye raise 'em."

He grinned as if he knew exactly what he was talking about, lifting the sniffling little girl in his arms above his head to rest on his shoulders. She promptly put her hands in his hair and giggled, totally forgetting about hingles entirely.

The little wirey man blinked, "Wo chet. Where's my manners? Name's Rhob. I'ma Fallin' Stone. An', oes, I'ma cook. An' a good one, hingles or ne." He winked, placing a hand on the head of his oldest daughter and the other on the spatula stuck in his belt, "This 'ere's Melody. An' m'boy there's Kai. An' this lil' whiner's Renie. Junta, folks." He grinned, white teeth standing out against his tanned face.

Looking to Giana, he added quietly, "Sorry t'scare ya, there. My little uns're just keen on th'fuzzy things, that's all."

"Ye mean we can't have one, da?" Said the oldest girl, bottom lip sticking out in an obvious pout.

"Ne, we ent got room for'nother pet, Mel, an' ye know it. 'Sides, ye'd have t'ask yer daoa anyway. She does th'thinkin' an' I do th'cookin', ye chen?" Rhob was obviously playing into an inside joke that only he could understand, but he laughed anyway.

Whew, oh, that was a close one. She had really been worried there for a second.
"Sorry, but a girl has to be wary. I know Jeff would bite my if I sold one of his kids as a snack."
She held up the offending little grey furball, who woke up from the nap he had been taking up until then and looked around, disgruntled.
She appeased him with a bread crumb from her pocket, and set him down again.

"So you're not buying one? Too bad. Kids seem to really like 'em."
Ah, well. There'd be others.
"Nice to meet you, Rhob, Melody, Kai, Renie."
Wait. Maybe there was some money she could make.
"Hey, would you like me to do a portrait of you or one'o the kids?"

Calli eyed the small children warily. If she wasn't careful she'd end up having to mind them all afternoon. She did not want to be stuck minding children again, they were cute but very good at getting hurt. She dug around in her bag for coins.

"I haavvveee... a shill and some tallies... How much is reasonably, Sarinah?" She asked, sidling closer to the older woman.

Sarinah nodded acknowledgement to the cook and his children, smiling. She wanted a family like that someday, and she could picture the tall man with the tattoos as someone much less tattooed with long hair. Shaking herself from that thought with a little self chiding, she looked back at Calli. It was far to soon for those thoughts.



The dancer looked down at her coins and then back at the hingles. They were nice looking animals. Bright eyes and shiny full coats. She looked at Giana.

"I would probably say a tally for the bochi. Is that fair chip?"

"Sure thing, sounds reasonable for one. Here, I'll throw in a little food I have made up. It's benny stuff...just lemme grab some from the kint, ye chen?"

Giana turned and rummaged through some bags at the back of her cart. When she came back, she held in her hands a small, handmade burlap bag.

"Here. Come back if you need any help with the little kov, okay?"

She then stood waiting for the girl's payment. It wasn't much, but she'd make more on other purchases, maybe to people she didn't like as well.

Calli handed over the coins gladly.

"Mujo ma! I can't wait to take him... her... home with me!" Calli grinned from ear to ear. "I bet Hal will love him."

She picked one of the little hingles up, silently gleeful at its tiny twitchy nose and fluffy fur.

"I can't believe people eat them..." She said, patting it gently. What should she name it?

"I know!" She said it emphatically, having been given a chance to talk about her favorite subject. "It just seems so...wrong."
"Say, would a certain young chip like to help me out with turning some others around to our state of mind? I need to print out s'more o' these here," and she gestured at her pamphlets, many dog-eared and less than crisp, "but we should be ready to go. Usually works, too. I've seen people read a pamphlet and look nauseous the next time they pass a food stand."
She smiled and scratched Jeff, who was getting a bit restless.
"Shh, nanabo, we'll have you fed and snug up with Lily soon enough."
She turned back to Calliope. "So, how 'bout it? Got any free time in th' near vicinity? Maybe on a seven?"

"Ya'd better not be buyin' our bochi anymore pets!" Came a voice from behind everyone gathered at Giana's kint. A few of the passing crowd parted to reveal a petite but very, very pregnant witch lumbering straight towards Rhob, waving a hand in his direction with an air of hormonal authority.

The green-haired man blushed, turning slightly with his daughter giggling from his shoulders, "Ne, of course not, dear. I was just –"

The woman came to a huffing stop next to her husband, hands on her wide hips, dark brown hair falling from the braided bun on top of her head and into her face. She appeared as though she really could be having their fourth child at any moment, the lovely patchwork apron straining to contain her. It was a wonder to behold - how did she ever travel to the festival in the first place? She narrowed her yellow eyes, glancing at her two loose children,

"Ya were just lettin' 'em look, eh?"

"O-oes. Exactly, Val, dear." Rhob grinned sheepishly. Apparently, he had a pet collecting problem.

Melody seized the opportunity to make herself useful, "There's babies, mama. They're soooooo nanabo." She pointed, "We just had to see 'em."

Val's face softened and she laughed, whole body shaking precariously, "Well, benny. I'm glad y'all were just lookin'. Now say mujo ma and let's get back to the cook fires in time to get lunch ready, ye chen?"

All three children groaned, but the oldest two at least managed to put on their cutest most innocent grubby faces and smile at Giana.

"Mujo ma."

"It was benny."

"Fotamos."

With reluctant glances, Melody and Kai scrambled off into the crowd. Rhob lifted a hand to make the little one wave before nodding his own farewell,

"Mujo ma. We might be baa-ouch." With a pinch, his wife stopped his promise of return, grinning at him, "Right. Come by an' enjoy a meal with us anytime. Fotamos!"

After another wave, they wandered off, obviously toward the communal cook fires.

"Fota--oh." The family had already left.
Amazing. The man who had seemed kind of scary at first (hey, she really couldn't help mistrusting cooks; most considered her furries their main dish) seemed--pretty nice. It was too bad they weren't coming back--however, she might run over to the cookfires later for lunch.
One thing for sure, she'd love to have a family like that.
She locked the tally she'd gotten from Calliope in her cashbox and sat back down.

"I sure would!" Calli said enthusiastically. "I'd love to help out! After what happened to Mr. Bingles..."

Calli made the sign against the evil eye.

"Where should we meet?" She looked over at Sarinah. "Would you like to help too?"

She smiled at her with dog-like devotion, eyes shining in bright light.

Sarinah looked at Calli like a big sister might, and laughed.

"Alright rosh, alright. I'm there! Let me know where and when." It felt a bit silly, but she could see the look in Calli's eye. She'd even tried to cut hingle out of her diet for the blonde witch.

"Oh, good," Giana said, relieved. "I usually need help with something or other, especially since I bring Jeff along. He really helps with the whole convincing thing, but if he gets away, he's toast."
"We'll meet up sometime; we're the same tribe, right, Sarinah? I don't know right now about time n' place."

Calli grinned, quite happy to be doing something in the memory of her old friend.

"If you two chips organise it, Sarinah can just tell me and I'll come!" She said jubilantly. "Maybe we should do it during a morning, before people eat lunch? That way they'll feel less guilty maybe. I bet Jeff is a big help."

"Sure, we'll meet on it, Calli." Giana started to pack her blanket into her cart, along with all its display items. "Look, I'm going to break for lunch, all right?"






((SORRY FOR LATELATELATE POSSTTTT))