The moment Bracken had stepped off the zeppelin, she'd made a beeline for the city. Unable to hold her anticipation, she raced through the gates with Min Ti casually following her as if this was no big deal. Of course Min Ti would act like that, she'd grown up here and…

Woah…

Bracken stared as she really took in the site of Goldpaw.

The grand gate she'd just crossed the threshold of had been hiding a barrage of lights and colours she'd never truly experienced before. Neon pink, serpentine dragons on either side of the archway ahead of her, as if lighting the way to new sights with a welcoming glow. A bridge on either side of her each crossed the shimmering little streams of water and led all who passed over them to what was most likely the homes of either two very lucky households, or the most frequent guards to the entrance of such a lively city.

In the distance, spotlights dazzled the skyline and paper lanterns littered the overhangs on rooftops and gateways, brightening the streets with such a vivid gleam that she could just feel a certain energy build up inside her.

Armoured dogfolk guards patrolled around the area that seemed littered with citizens of similar race. Most were chatting amongst themselves and many were just milling about with one another, trading gossip or running errands. A few of them even turned to watch her awestruck face with knowing smiles probably thinking how silly tourists looked when they walked into Goldpaw and spun around to just take everything in.

"I take it, you like it?" Min Ti asked with a raised eyebrow that just screamed, 'You are so predictable'. Bracken laughed a little as their gazes met.

"Of course!" The engineer responded before racing along the square cobbles, passed the gate and into the street beyond. The grin on her face was unstoppable.

The street stretched for a while, with steps near its end. A wooden sales cart was parked in the corner a little further ahead than the gate she passed through, the dogfolk in charge, calling out for potential customers. Hot spicy food had assaulted her senses the moment she stepped near the source of such an enticing aroma, reminding her once again that she had gone without dinner last night and there wasn't enough food at breakfast to make up for that.

"Welcome, to the Sweet Saffron Tea House! Are you going to stay for a meal?" The dogfolk behind the bar smiled at her hungry expression as Min Ti came up behind her.

"What have you got?" Bracken asked curiously with a head tilt. She was starving, yes but she wouldn't eat just any junk they threw at her. Just then, Min Ti stepped in.

"If you're wanting food, you should know that most Goldpaw dishes are extremely spicy. Nothing like what you'll probably find in Broadleaf." She explained as the bartender laughed a little.

"Welcome back, Min Ti! I never thought I'd see the day you brought a friend here!" She smiled even wider at Bracken. "If you didn't notice, Min Ti's not exactly great with her social skills." Her tone lowered into a slightly hushed tone that was meant to be heard by the hunter in question. Bracken couldn't help the snicker that came from that as she took a seat at the bar.

"Oh, I think I noticed." She sent her guard for the day an amused smile. Min Ti had of course looked away awkwardly with her ears drooping slightly in agitation. "Relax… I'm only teasing." The engineer then turned back to the chef.

"My social skills aren't as bad as Mrs Chow Chow makes them out to be." The hunter grumbled.

"Mrs Chow Chow?" Bracken gave Min Ti a curious look.

"That's me!" The chef put a hand to her chest in pride. "Best food vender in all of Goldpaw!" She boasted as Bracken's anticipation skyrocketed.

"Impressive!" The engineer smiled broadly in excitement. "Come on, Min Ti! This'll be great!" The hunter sighed before taking the seat next to her.

"Dumplings please." Min Ti ordered casually, probably having been here a thousand times before. Mrs Chow Chow nodded, seemingly used to this before turning to Bracken.

"Uh, I'll have the same I guess." If it was okay for Min Ti, it must be good. Right?

"Is that a big bowl or a small?" The chef asked just to be sure. Bracken thought for a minute to gauge just how hungry she was.

"A big bowl please!" Her enthusiasm spiked at that.

"Coming right up!" The bartender smiled before heading to the back of the tea house to get started on their meals. With the two now alone, Bracken took the time to try and talk to her companion.

"So, what's to do here in Goldpaw?" She asked curiously, trying to ignore the enticing scent of her future meal.

"Not a lot really. There's the Lucky Stars Casino, Lady Luck, fortune telling, food and a library. If you want a souvenir, there's the Lucky Lotus Emporium but aside from that, there's nothing else to do." Min Ti explained with a shrug.

"Oh yeah, I forgot this place was pretty much based around gambling… So how does that work? Someone commits a crime and they role a dice to decide punishment?" Honestly, it had confused her when she was first told about it but now that she said it out loud, it really did seem ridiculous.

"Kind of. The dice of Lady Luck is thrown for each piece of evidence that is presented in a trial. It is then thrown again at the end of a trial to determine the outcome. However, recently Mater Pugnacious has been more lenient with it and has said that if the evidence is clearly real and is stacked up against someone, the dice is irrelevant and merely a formality." The hunter glanced around at the people passing. Apparently some of them were looking at them funny.

"Oh okay." Bracken nodded in understanding. That seemed much more fair than just deciding guilt completely on a single roll of fortune. Turning her gaze to follow her guard's, she noticed that her dark eyes had been burning holes through some form of black bird thing that someone sitting on the ground against the wall on the opposite side of the street had with them. It was squawking angrily in the guy's ear as he seemed to be on the verge of a mental breakdown.

"What's that?" She asked curiously as the plump creature hopped around its apparent master.

"That is a Duebill." Min Ti spat with clear malice towards the thing. "It's what you get when you can't pay your debts around here." The hunter's ears were flat back with distaste for the thing and her teeth had subconsciously been flashed in almost a snarling fashion.

"YOU OWE ME! YOU OWE ME!" Bracken jumped as someone with a much skinnier bird walked by. Her companion's hands clenched into fists at the sight.

"I take it you don't have a good experience with them?" The hunter gave her a look that spoke volumes of her hatred for them.

"No one has a good experience with them except whoever their master owes a debt to." She growled in response with a clenched jaw. "This place is built on gambling for big money after all. No one could possibly turn that down…" She grumbled sarcastically before shaking her head in irritation. "If you plan to head to the casino, think again. You walk in without one and leave with a fat one. They aren't the kind of thing you want to live with." Bracken nodded in understanding.

"Alright. If we go there, I'll be sure to trust my wallet to you." She offered a smile to try and brighten the mood but it didn't seem to work all that well.

"If we go there?" Brown eyes narrowed into a threatening glare that met a softer blue.

"Hey! I never said I would play!" Bracken raised her hands in defence. "I was thinking, maybe you could teach me how to play and we could have a few, games without stakes. Safe, fun games." She clarified as the tension seemed to leave her guard's shoulders a little at that.

"No stakes?" Min Ti asked, seemingly having to reaffirm the promise.

"No stakes unless you specifically give me permission to do so, which won't be at all." The engineer placed a hand over her heart with conviction. No way was she going to get a Duebill. No way in Nazcaä. "We can leave whenever you want, just let me scope it out, yeah?" Min Ti sighed and ran her fingers through her hair in exasperation.

"Fine. Just be warned, the people in there aren't always friendly." The caution was met with a firm nod.

"I understand." At the sceptical look the hunter sent her, Bracken clarified with the best defence around…

"The truth is Min Ti, all I've wanted to do all day is leave the castle for a little while. I didn't really mind where we went. I swear to you, that was my only goal." She smiled at the dogfolk woman. "Whatever happens now, I'll listen to you. I've accomplished what I wanted to for now." A long pause followed as Min Ti seemed to scan her expression for any signs of dishonesty. Apparently, she found nothing but the truth as she backed off, seemingly a little relieved. Her eyes suddenly narrowed again as if she'd just thought of something.

"How did you convince me today? You must have done something, I'm sure of it." The suspicion returned and Bracken flinched.

"Oh, um. Yeah, I mean no! I didn't do anything!" A small sweat was beginning to build along her brow as the engineer leaned further away from the hunter. No more words were exchanged for a long while as Bracken did her best to avoid her gaze.

Moments turned into a minute and a half before she finally broke under the sheer intensity of her dogfolk companion.

"I-I'm sorry! Min Ti, I'm sorry! I was just so sick of being locked in that room that I used a few tricks to get you to agree!" Her voice cracked with nerves as Min Ti continued to stare.

"What kind of tricks?" The hunter asked menacingly.

"I used an interrogation technique and a reasonable trick. I can teach you them if you'd like?" The engineer tried to bargain her way out of this but Min Ti just crossed her arms.

"I would expect you to tell me what you did anyway." The ominous tone did nothing to prevent the younger woman's anxiety.

"O-okay. Well, the interrogation technique is the whole 'good cop, bad cop' thing. If you scare the life out of someone, then ask nicely, they're more likely to agree with you. The other one, was when I asked to go to Broadleaf. If I'd have asked to go to Goldpaw from the get go, you wouldn't have agreed, so I asked for something unreasonable to make you more inclined to agree with something more reasonable." Bracken paused to take a few calming breaths. "I'm sorry I used them on you… There really is no excuse is there, really…" She stated rather than asked.

A long pause as Bracken tried to gauge the reaction of her companion, to no avail. Darn, she was in for it this time…

"Impressive." Min Ti suddenly said with a satisfied nod. If Bracken had been trying to drink, she would have done a spit-take.

"Uh… W-what? I-I mean thank you, but… What? Aren't you mad?" Her stuttering didn't go unnoticed it seemed as the hunter shook her head dismissively.

"I think we can both agree that this is far more interesting than preventing you from leaving the castle." The dogfolk admitted much to the surprise of Bracken. Not that it wasn't obvious they were both bored out of their minds, but to hear her admit it?

She must be going up in the world…

"Here you go! Eat up!" Mrs Chow Chow smiled widely at the two before placing two huge bowls of diced dumplings in front of them. She turned around for a moment after a little chuckle at Bracken's awestruck expression before grabbing something from the table. When she turned back around, she placed two cups of Peachy Players Punch beside each of their respective meals.

"And a little something on the house." The chef winked cheerfully at them as Min Ti raised an eyebrow.

"What's the occasion?" The question was met with another chuckle.

"Why, you finally making friends of course! You know, I don't think I've ever seen you talk to anyone for more than half a sentence, until today!" Mrs Chow Chow sent the still very amazed and very hungry Bracken a look. "Now don't worry if you can't eat it all. Most of my customers don't manage half of it."

"Oh, well thank you Mrs Chow Chow!" The engineer smiled excitedly at the chef before grabbing her chopsticks eagerly. Her anticipation turned to confusion as she tried and failed to pick up her desired dumplings with the utensils. In truth, she hadn't used chopsticks since she was a little kid. Shaking away her excuses, she determinedly tried again…

And again…

And again…

The fifth time she dropped her food, Mrs Chow Chow burst into laughter. Turning her attention to the two dogfolks, she could see that even Min Ti seemed amused as she tried to hide it with a practiced bite of a dumpling.

She smiled even in the face of her incompetence at having unintentionally put on a show for them before turning back to her meal. Deciding to do things her way, she nudged a dumpling against the rim of the bowl before pushing the chopsticks through the dough, successfully skewering it. Giving them a triumphant grin, she took a bite of her food.

Bracken's eyes widened as she turned her full attention onto the bite she'd just taken. It was… chewy, and… was that shrimp she could taste? Shrimp and… pork? Wow…

"You like that one?" Mrs Chow Chow had a knowing look in her eyes as if she knew more than she was letting on. Min Ti seemed to be watching her too, as if waiting for something to happen. Bracken hummed in agreement as she nodded her head cheerfully.

Reaching for another dumpling, she stabbed it and took a bite, expecting the same taste…

How could a dumpling taste so amazingly sweet?!

The chef chuckled at her expression.

"I will never grow tired of watching the tourists try my cooking." She smiled as Bracken focused on the meal. The next one was…

Hot! Very hot!

As soon as she could, she'd swallowed it down before reaching for the punch with an urgency she'd never felt before. Darn her mouth was on fire now!

After downing the majority of the drink, she finally registered the boisterous laughter from the chef and how hard Min Ti was biting the inside of her cheek. A few deep breaths later and the engineer finally spoke.

"How… many of those are in there?" She asked warily, despite her smile.

"Oh, only a few. It's like a game of roulette with dumplings. You never know what you're gonna get." Mrs Chow Chow explained as she came down from her laughter.

"I did warn you." Min Ti commented offhandedly as she tried to act casual whilst eating her own meal.

"True…" Bracken trailed off in thought. "What else is in here?" She asked with an abundance of curiosity, her gaze glued to the bowl in front of her. A chuckle from the chef brought her attention back to her.

"You'll have to find out for yourself. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise." She smiled before noticing something further down the bar. "Well, as much as I'd like to stay and chat, I have customers to attend to. Enjoy!" Waving goodbye, she headed towards her next customer.

"We will!" Bracken responded with a big grin before stuffing her face with another mystery dumpling.

Whatever else she did today, she was glad she did this. Roland can rant all he wants but there would definitely be no regrets on her part!

Today, was gonna be a good day…