Twisted Wonderland 2

Doing Just Fine

"Man, the Camel Bazaar is huge!" Cater wipes his brow.

You've been walking around the bazaar for a while now, though it feels like you haven't even reached halfway.

"It looks like all the stalls are sorted by category; fruits, flowers, and household goods are all in separate groups." Trey observes.

"What do they sell over here?" Malleus asks.

"Nuts and dried fruit." Najma answers. "Those are all staple snack foods here. Everyone likes them."

"There's so much!" Cater looks to all the different stands. "Whole heaps of fruit and nuts and other goodness!"

"They've got chickpeas, pistachios, sunflower seeds. Lots of nutritious stuff." Trey turns to Najma. "Which do you like, Najma?"

"Oh, definitely the dates." She grins.

"The fruit from date palms, right?"

"Yeah!" Najma nods excitedly. "People generally eat them dried. There are also date jams and jellies... oh, and syrup!That store there has a ton of them. See the dark brown dried fruits? Those are dates."

"Let's check 'em out." Cater grins.

Jamil hesitates. "Look, um, if we could move on sooner rather than later-"

"Why, Jamil Viper! It's been years!"

A vendor wraps Jamil in a tight hug.

Jamil frees himself from the bear hug. "Uh, yes. Hello."

"Doing a little shopping? Just make sure you don't cause another scene!"

You tilt your head. "A scene?"

Jamil's cheeks tinge pink. "You still remember that? I was just a kid back then..."

"What's he talking about, Jamil?" Trey asks.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

The vendor chuckles. "Well, you see-"

Jamil groans. "Don't! Fine, I'll explain it myself! Just don't say anything. Okay, it's like this... I may have caused a bit of trouble here years back."

Cater quirks an eye. "Whoa, really? That's kinda hard to believe. You're one of the most responsible guys I know."

Trey nods. "For real. So what happened?"

"I used to love dates when I was younger. Najma and I would stop by here all the time to pick some up. But one day, we got a little surprise with our purchase... a bug."

"A bug?" You question.

Jamil sighs. "It was sitting right in my hand with this nonchalant expression, like, 'Yeah, I'm just hanging here with my date buddies.' It freaked me out so badly, my first reaction was to use magic."

"What kind of magic?" Cater asks.

"...Fire magic."

"I know he was trying to get the bug, but he ended up burning the whole awning for my store." The vendor adds.

Cater's eyes widen. "Yikes. I never knew you were so violent, Jamil."

"I was a kid, okay?" Jamil says indignantly. "I didn't have the best control of my magic!"

"My awning was scorched black! And you wouldn't believe how hard it was to calm down Jamil. He was bawling up a storm!"

"This guy right here, huh?" Trey points to Jamil.