It was just after dusk and the sun had set. Visitors from near and far flocked to the fair in droves and the market was in full swing. It wasn't a night market without the nightlife, and it was a seasonal activity for all who had family from Kujishoku. But most of all, this fair was a once in a lifetime opportunity to truly make her creation the next big fad! Yes indeed, the goldfish plants that graced the garden were made by none other than yours truly! They were the most harmless things in the bunch really, but these varieties had a lot more mandrake in them than the others–which made transporting them to Canelux a bit of a pickle. Myouga had to hire an assistant arcanist to put the planimals to sleep while moving them through the portal, or her eardrums would be gone. It all started when a strange bespectacled man named Seymour approached her asking if she would like to contribute to an outstanding festive event. His attention had been caught by her latest batch of mini goldfish plants, and he claimed they were 'absolutely frightful'. 

Taking it as an odd compliment, the small oni agreed on the spot and cooked up a batch of the loudest alchemical hybrids she had ever made, created from the hardiest goldfish breeds and exotic flora. Weeks before the fair opened, she shipped the well-watered goldfish plants to their new home and was paid for her trouble. Instead of silver, she asked for a tent to sell her remaining stock to fairgoers and tourists. And so, here she was weeks later–sneaking away while her stall was unattended to put up some targeted product advertisments in the garden. Under her arm was a roughly nailed together wooden sign that had her name and stall location in the market for any prospecting buyers of the goldfish plant variety while a hammer was in her hand. The hammer she borrowed from some fairground workers who were on break, and probably wouldn't miss if she returned it quickly. 

As she ducked and dived through the floral abominations, her hat nearly got eaten by a flytrap only for it to receive a mouthful of mints shoved into its gullet. "Hey, no eating! If you want a snack, take this!" Several mint candies suspiciously shaped like goldfish flew into the gaping maw as she snatched a puffy white hat from its clutches. The plant didn't seem to appreciate the free samples, and it spat them out only to find its prey had escaped. At long last, she could see the calico colors of Shubunkin goldfish wobbling in the distance. Amid the eerie sounds and shrieks of unfortunate visitors, the sound of hammering echoed through the garden or horrors. To those who were curious and unharassed, they would find a small individual pounding a crude sign into the soil in front of some strange plants with live goldfish for flowers.

Wesley stood cautiously at the gate of the eerie garden, a mix of fear and curiosity filling his heart. It was said that this place was cursed, with spirits lurking among the tall and twisted plants. He knew he should turn back, but something drew him forward. Cooking. Despite their horrific appearances and dastardly smells, these were exotic plants that couldn't be found anywhere else in Revaliir. Not easily at least. His heart racing, he pushed onward, each step more hesitant than the last. The shadows seemed to stretch darker here, and the air grew chilled. The young man felt a sense of dread creeping up his spine, but he couldn't resist the morbid fascination.

One of the first plants that had jumped out at him, and terrified him, was the still corpse flowers. Unlike regular corpse flowers, they actually looked like a rotting corpse. He stumbled a bit when he turned through the garden and saw one, truly believing it was a corpse before he gave it a closer look. Just as he was letting out a sigh of relief, he could hear a strange whimpering sound. Wesley's eyes widened with disbelief as he saw a whimpering man-eating flytrap. His initial terror faded away as he approached the poor crying creature. It was hungry, that much was clear. Though he didn't know what was wrong, he offered up a small treat he had bought earlier at the fair. Bat jerky. The plant snatched it up from his hand, swallowing it in one gulp. Wesley turned to leave but was stopped as the man-eating flytrap began to rub against his hand… as if asking for pets. Confusion filled his mind as he found himself petting a plant. 

It took him a bit to escape the man-eating flytrap. He followed the strange sound of screaming to an odd goldfish plant thing. The sight of such an abomination to mankind almost made him turn back. The goldfish's eyes were popped out of its head and its mouth open to shout out its misery. The whole thing was melted onto a plant. Wesley could only wonder what beast could have dreamed up such a plant. He also wondered… could it be cooked? Just as he arrived, he ended up bumping into a smaller person placing a sign in front of the plant. Perhaps that was one of the garden workers? 

"Excuse me." He says gently, worried that he would be bothering her. "Do you know who made this plant?" 

Myouga had just about finished hammering the sign in when someone asked the question. A big grin spread across her face as she started chuckling. "Hehehehe~" Finally, it was her time to shine! Turning around the small oni beamed at Wesley, grinning from ear to ear. "That would be me–the great and magnificent Myouga! Soooo are you interested in taking a few back home as souvenirs? I'm taking orders, custom or bulk–either is fine with me!" She practically bursting with enthusiasm and looked very out of place here in the midst of these floral monstrosities. But on second thought, the goldfish plants did seem somewhat different from the rest of the garden. Less nightmarish and more bizarre, like something spawned from a sugar-addled child's imagination. Myouga's fingers formed the shape of a tent as she awaited Wesley's response in anticipation. She knew this product placement was a good idea! Maybe she'd make a sale today!

Her mind was running wild with all the possibilities she could make with this encounter. All the exotic new varieties she could introduce using different plants from Onnen, expanding the line to include new breeds of goldfish, making shiny versions of the usual goldfish variations, miniature versions to fit on a desk… With many years of alchemical experience under her belt there was no limit to what chimeric combinations she could make. And from what Wesley could pick up from what she had said, she'd made these sort of things before. Perhaps she was the scariest thing in this place after all. 

This…. small… child was the one who made this horrific entity? Once upon a time, he would have accused her of lying but after his many years with the absurdity of the rose family, such a thing no longer was outlandish to him. The young man paused for a moment, then glanced back to the fish. He silently wondered how attached this young girl was to her plants, so he decided to put this as delicately as possible. 

"Can they be cooked?" He asked. 

There was always a risk of strange plants hurting people. Normally his biggest concern would be poison or allergies but with this plant…. he worried that the plant itself would cause bizarre side-effects. His heart raced at the possibility of cooking the goldfish plant. Would this count as vegan? Or vegetarian? It technically counted as a plant. Then there were concerns about how to cook it that he'd have to consider before he bought one. 

"And can they be silenced?" Wesley added. 

The thought of bringing the screaming goldfish abomination home to his girlfriend and accidentally waking her up terrified him far more than any crime against mankind. 

"Oh… I'm sorry. I'm being rude. My name is Wesley."

"Sure. Maybe you could make them into a smoothie? I've used them in mints before." She then pulled out a peppermint colored candy in the shape of a red and white goldfish. Clearly Wesley was holding enough concern for both of them, as Myouga had already gone a step beyond the expected. And when he asked if there was a way to make them quieter, she replied: "So you'd like a variety made without mandrakes? That's what makes them scream." The more he asked the more he would learn things he might regret knowing, like just how familiar the arcanist was with the process of creating these creatures. 

Myouga had pulled out a quill and paper as if he had placed an order. "Pleased to meet you Wesley! Can I call you Wes? You seem more like a Wes. If you're interested, I have a ton of different kinds of goldfish plants in almost every fish shape, foliage color, and size available! There's even variants specifically designed to meet customers' needs. We got the classic, Feeorin fuchsia, midnight black, Sidhiel blue, Jasumin gold, Virens red, drought and cold tolerant varieties, and much more!" Her charcoal grey eyes gleamed like that of a small animal eyeing an unattended snack at a picnic. Now that Wesley had shown sufficient interest in her creations, she was determined to seal the deal–or at least try and get him to spread the word to his friends and family.

"Maybe." He muttered at her smoothie idea. 

Smoothies were like the cheap trick of the cooking world. Anything could be placed in a smoothie and work. Some didn't work of course but that didn't stop the culinary failures out there from throwing everything into a smoothie. He took the peppermint-colored candy that she offered and tasted it for himself, trying to judge the taste or at least figure out what it would be like. Unfortunately, the peppermint part was too strong for him to tell. 

"So the mandrake is why they scream. And yeah, you can call me Wes." 

He listened to her long list of available goldfish plants and their varieties. The young man thought for a long long while as he let her rant. When she was finally done, he gave her a sweet smile. An idea had formed in his mind. Back home, he would always do the shopping and bartering for Hana, since her strategy was usually to just whack them on the head and take the goods anyway. A… strategy for sure but not good for long-term business. 

"How about we make a deal?" We suggested. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that you have had a hard time selling these goldfish plant… things. If that's true, perhaps I could try to figure out how to cook these for you, then send you the recipes so you can use them as a form of advertisement?" 

If there's one thing Wesley knew about people, it was that they would eat ANYTHING. All one had to do was slap the label exotic and people would come running. 

"I will buy a regular goldfish plant and see if I can cook it. If I can, then maybe we could arrange for free samples to be sent of these different variations. In return, you'd get all the recipes I can come up with for the plants." He suggested, "Would that be an idea you are interested in?" 

Myouga scratched her chin in thought, then rubbed her hands together when she saw how it could work. "Yessss! Yes! That's perfect!" If she had been actually thinking about making a profit she'd be peddling to an entirely different kind of crowd, but the small oni just wanted to not so subtly gift people something she thought was interesting and fun. Unfortunately her sense of aesthetics wasn't a match with most people's tastes, and unless she found a collector of exotic flora there wasn't much hope in selling more past the first batch. Mints aside, she hadn't really tried seeing what else they could be made into since she mostly focused on making them as pets. But if this meant more people would be interested, she was all for it.

"In that case, I'll need to get you a nice one! I got a whole bunch of them back at a booth I got set up in the market. Oh don't worry, the regular ones aren't half as loud as the ones in the garden here. These ones had extra mandrakes in their makeup." She beckoned Wesley to follow her as she dashed out of the garden of floral fights and made a beeline for a specific spot. She quickly shoved the hammer she borrowed back into the toolbox she had swiped it from, then headed to her base of operations in the fair. The booth was a very simple one, without much decoration. Several wooden crates were overturned to create a display of half a dozen goldfish plants of varying foliage colors and fish varieties. Behind the display was several more of the same plants and a bucket of water to ensure they remained hydrated. Despite leaving it unattended for so long, not a single thing had gone missing.

"Alrighty, let me see…" Myouga looked over her stock and picked out a classic red and white goldfish plant with a sunflower's base and stem. The colors kind of reminded one of the fish-shaped mints she had on hand, and it was easy to see where she got the idea. Holding the pot out to him, the 'flower' wobbled slightly as she grinned from behind. "Here you go! That'll be 50 silver please!" The goldfish plant's eyes looked around with the same blank stare of its namesake.

Letting out a small sigh of relief, Wesley felt glad that she'd agreed to his deal. It would help her business too, as he could hardly imagine what people could want from these things beyond eating them or using them in a freak show. Her enthusiasm brought out a small smile from him as he saw her racing off to get the best one she could provide. Wesley ran after her and followed her to the very simple wooden booth of hers. For a moment he wondered if the simplicity of her station warded off any pickpockets or thieves. Then again, the products themselves would scare most away… 

He let her fiddle with the plants until she finally held out the pot of a large fat red and white goldfish morphed onto a sunflower stem. His confidence wavered. Could he really turn that thing into something delicious? Even if the taste was good he wondered if anybody would actually be willing to eat it based on visuals alone. But… if chefs turned blobfish into edible delicacies then anything could be eaten! And he made a deal! It was his job to pull through. 

"Thank you," Wesley said, taking the goldfish plant. 

He handed her the silver and then thought of something. 

"Oh. What would be the best way to contact you when I have the recipe finished? I travel a lot so I don't have an address."

With the way he traveled around with Hana, staying in one place was next to impossible. He didn't have any magic that would help him with contacting others, as he was more of a hunter and chef than a magician. 

Myouga was happily counting the silver from her first real sale at the fair when Wesley asked how he could contact her afterwards. Normally she'd just give him directions to her house, but since he mentioned he was traveling a lot that wouldn't do. There needed to be a place that would allow them to meet in the middle, so to speak. "Hmm, let me see… Oh I know a friend who lives up in Baltil! He has family there and keeps in touch often so if you send them a message they'll let him know to come over. Uh what was their clan name again? Aldebrandt! Yeah, that's the one! Their family symbol's a crossed torch and a flaming sword. Can't miss it." Baltil was one of the biggest centers of trade in Parvpora, so Wesley would at least have heard of it. Whether you were a mage, alchemist, or a fighter–there was something the dwarven city had for you. Not to mention world-famous mead halls and ale breweries only rivaled by Komiteia!

"I'll tell him you're looking for me and he'll pass on your news to yours truly." She wasn't sure what that former student of hers was up to nowadays, but she knew he always went back to visit his family during the holidays without fail. He wasn't exactly what you called an ace student, but any student of hers knew their stuff. His graduation project wasn't anything groundbreaking, however it did have an interesting twist on applied alchemy. Maybe it was because one of the judges happened to be suffering from a receding hairline, otherwise that faulty beard growing tonic probably wouldn't have gotten a passing grade. "His name's Idris. I'd describe him to you, but I think you'll recognize him once you see him. He likes to dress with pizzazz." The little arcanist wiggled her eyebrows.

Wesley listened to her directions on how to contact her intently. Balti was a famous city in the Zujiuchu Mountains and infamous for its dwarves. Perhaps the woman was so short because she was part dwarf? It would explain a few things… Keeping his inner thoughts silent, he simply nodded to her explanation and wrote down the name in his small journal, so he wouldn’t forget it. He was eager to visit Balti anyway and knew it had plenty of new discoveries to offer.

“I think that will work.” Wesley said, “I’d also like to buy a few more goldfish plants. I might have to experiment several times and I’m guessing not all of them will be successes.”

He purchased three more so he’d have at least four to work with. Wesley also realized he’d have to do some more research into edible flowers and how to cook them, since half of the fish was also a flower. But cooking was a challenge and a research project for him to scope out. Besides, it was fun!

“And if you manage to come up with any other unique…. ingredients, you can let me know when we meet up again.” He suggests, "Thank you for your time." 

With that overly polite goodbye out of the way, Wesley head off with his new fish freaks packed away in one of his bags. There were still plenty of tasks ahead, such as getting these abominations home before Hanna saw them, and lots of research ahead. But the idea brought his heart up and made it all feel worthwhile.