Thankfully, instead of panicking or acting rashly, I felt the calm grip of icy determination snake through me. I wasn’t sure whether to attribute it to my training or Alys’ presence, but I found myself able to smile politely at the fox trickster.

  “Where are my manners? I do apologize. My name is Thorn. May I have your name?”

  I kept my tone casual and light. More importantly, I reeled in my mana, careful not to let it snap out and turn the words into more than a simple request.

  The kitsune, to their credit, immediately looked amused. “You may call me Ritsu,” they said with a malicious little giggle, already fetching the ingredients we’d specified from their glass containers.

  At the same time, flames sprang up around Ritsu’s left hand. They quickly pressed their fiery fingers against a large, indented metal plate on the counter in front of them. This plate instantly began to heat up, carefully separated from the counter’s wooden surface by richly carved bricks.

  Alys perked up, her eyes eagerly following the kitsune’s every movement. Other races that could use fire instinctively were rare.

  The kitsune didn’t seem to mind her interest. They even played up their fire manipulation by making brief flashes of flame flare over their tails in dazzling displays.

  “You know, it’s really not healthy to pretend you are something you are not,” they quipped while showing off, their eyes briefly finding mine.

  “I would imagine not,” I replied. “It’s a good thing, then, that none of us are engaging in such an unwise venture.”

  The comment earned me another giggle, this one more amused than mischievous. Thankfully, they were beginning to focus more on the food than on us, which suited me just fine. I, too, was interested in their process.

  They extracted something that looked like a stick of butter and ran it over the plate several times, coating the metal in a light layer. Then they cracked a few eggs into a bowl and started mixing them energetically. They even demonstrated the full range of their tails’ capabilities, employing one to hold the bowl in place.

  While they did that, they used their one free hand to grab a pan and fill it with oil. That same hand seasoned the pan with several spices before dropping our selected meats into it. Fire flared again around their fingers, causing the pan to sizzle and spit all over the place in no time.

  I noted that the kitsune was wholly unconcerned by the splashing oil. It didn’t take me long to figure out why: they had conjured a very thin barrier around the pan. While their reckless handling of the implement still alarmed me, there was no real danger. The meat could literally explode in a shower of oil, and the mess would still be contained.

  Setting the pan aside, they began to pour the beaten eggs into the deep circular indents on the metal plate. They then picked up a wooden spatula and began poking each and every bit of frying egg, moving so quickly that their arm blurred. The food had no chance to stick to anything.

  The meat, vegetables, and cheese were slowly added in, followed by more beaten eggs. I watched in fascination as the little balls of assorted ingredients were cooked to perfection.

  “Any sauces, hmmm?” the kitsune asked with a big smile on their face. Flourishing their hand, they indicated a bunch of bowls that had seemingly materialized right next to the display of ingredients. I could smell the contents of those bowls with ease through all the other scents of the caravan and the kitsune’s cooking, and they smelled spicy.

  This was further proven when Alys reeled back by my side. Her hand twitched up to her snout, almost like she was about to cover it. Then a lazy smile stretched over her features as she leaned forward to sniff at the bowls.

  “That one,” she exclaimed proudly, jabbing a claw at a sauce with a strange reddish-purple color.

  The scent of it almost made me gag when the kitsune lifted the bowl. I felt like it had seared its way through my nose and down my throat to burn my lungs. Were I to consume even a tiny bit of that substance, I doubted that even my resistance to all things toxic would save me.

  I didn’t care about propriety, the people around us, or who might be listening. The words that came out of my mouth in the next moment were born entirely of self-preservation instincts.

  “I just want you to know: if you eat that, I am not kissing you for a while afterwards.”

  Alys flushed the brightest I had ever seen, but it didn’t take her long at all to work through her embarrassment. Her glare twisted swiftly into a sadistic smirk.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Oh, we’ll see about that,” she purred.

  I turned to the kitsune. “If you put any of that anywhere near my food, I am going to make you regret it.”

  “No worries, dear customer!” they assured me, cackling in a distinctly foxy manner. “I would never serve something that I didn’t think my customers would like.”

  Deftly collecting Alys’ portion of the ingredient spheres into a bowl, the kitsune drizzled the lot with a generous serving of the noxious sauce. They then handed the bowl to the dragoness, along a single wooden skewer she could use to spear the bits of food. Alys dug in with great enthusiasm. She didn’t seem inclined to talk at all, as long as the food was occupying her attention.

  I got my own bowl next, having declined any sauces. The food truly was delicious. The egg was soft and melted away in my mouth, the meat and the vegetables giving it a very nice kick. The meat itself was expertly fried. The vegetables, almost entirely unprocessed, still had a crispness to them that stood out nicely and complemented everything else with a hint of freshness.

  I was almost tempted to ask what spices the kitsune had added to the meat, but I didn’t want to give Alys any ideas about asking where she could acquire some of the sauces.

  “Mmm, this is delicious.” I hummed in delight at another bite of my food as the amused kitsune watched us eat. “My genuine compliments to the chef. How much will this cost us?”

  “You know, most people would ask that question before ordering and starting to eat,” Ritsu laughed.

  I shrugged, unconcerned. “We were talking about other things at the time. But the price will be no trouble. I can pay.”

  I wasn’t obscenely rich, but the money I had managed to save up before running away was well beyond the reach of an average family, even by the standards of a royal capital.

  “How about this?” The kitsune gave me a sly smile. “A story in exchange for food! I am curious about what would lead two individuals as unique as yourselves out here to the frontier, not to mention how you met.”

  I narrowed my eyes at them, but popped another bite of food into my mouth to show they could not unsettle me.

  “Do not take this as an insult, but I would rather pay,” I said when I’d finished chewing. “We need to find several different items during this outing, and we’re not even sure they’ll be for sale. We don’t have time for storytelling.”

  The kitsune pouted. “Oh, very well! Two copper coins, then. I’ll accept Snowdrop currency, obviously, but I’ll also accept any official coinage issued by any of the Courts. You can always trust their mint.”

  They gave me another sly smile. Clearly, they hoped I might out myself by handing them the currency of the Court from which I came.

  It was my turn to be amused. Grinning, I reached into the coin pouch I’d attached to my belt before we left Alys’ home and dug out two copper coins issued by the Summer Court.

  “Here you go!”

  The kitsune eyed the currency like it was hiding a great secret, then slowly took the coins from my waiting hand.

  “I hope you enjoy my food, then! You can either eat here and return the bowls when you’re done, or wander off and return them whenever you can. Don’t make me send someone to retrieve them, though!” they threatened jokingly, even going so far as to wag a finger at us.

  I scoffed at the idea that we might be tempted to steal these bowls. True, they were expertly treated with some kind of lacquer. They were also beautifully carved with motifs of flowers and animals, mostly foxes. But I knew Alys could do better.

  “We’ll just eat here, then,” I said. “Don’t want to make you send people after us.”

  The kitsune yowled in foxy laughter. To my surprise, though, they left us alone after that. This was probably because more people arrived and started placing orders, giving the cook new targets to needle, but I was grateful nonetheless.

  Though I had done my best to appear unaffected, the kitsune’s insinuations had put me on edge. I didn’t particularly enjoy that.

  We stood beside the stall and ate, enjoying the food and each other’s presence as we watched people stroll through the stalls.

  “Hrm. That was good,” Alys finally said, having finished inhaling her food. She immediately started eyeing my bowl as well. I moved the bowl a little closer to her, making her chuckle as she pushed it back. “No thanks. But hurry up, or I really will help you finish. We need to look for things.”

  “Really? And after I stopped at this stall because I thought you would enjoy it?” I teased, but I did finish my own portion quickly. It wasn’t difficult to do so. The food was excellent, and I was eager to continue exploring myself. “Here, give me your bowl. I’ll go return them, and we can continue.”

  Alys gave her bowl up without a fuss, and I moved to catch the kitsune’s attention. Their eyes snapped over to me as soon as I approached.

  “Ah, all done! I hope you enjoyed the dish?”

  “We did. What is it, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “Just a dish from my homeland, adapted to suit the local tastes and available ingredients. Anyway, if you are looking for interesting items, mayhap start with Morty’s Emporium? If you don’t find anything you like there, Mysty’s Curiosities would be your next best bet. Either or, really.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Those names are rather… similar.”

  There was that foxy laughter again. “I’ll bet! They’re siblings. They used to run a business together, then broke up their partnership after some… disagreements. They insist they hate each other, despite refusing to part ways fully. They always travel everywhere together.”

  “I… see.” I wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Thank you for the recommendation.”

  “Think nothing of it! If you find what you’re looking for there, I hope you’ll consider coming back for another bite to eat. I have several other dishes I can offer, and I think your lady friend would appreciate some of them!”

  “Right. We’ll definitely consider it,” I assured the kitsune truthfully, then walked away after one final smile. True, the experience had not been wholly pleasant, but the food almost made up for the cook’s prodding into my secrets.

  “Ready to explore?” Alys asked eagerly, her tail finding its place around my waist again.

  “Indeed. And the kind kitsune offered a few suggestions about where we can look for interesting items. We can start with the stalls they mentioned.”

  “Hrm. That sounds good. First, though…”

  “Yes?”

  I turned around to see her leaning in with a malicious glint in her eyes. Her tail tightened around my waist, keeping me in place.

  “Wait, Alys, we can talk about this!”

  She just laughed maliciously and gripped my chin.

  There was no escape.