"So we are all in agreement that this was the weirdest day of our young lives?" The Goose nodded in and so did the elf. The orc too a deep breath and scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. "Honestly that was more ruckus than I was expecting out of a basic demo quest, but we can bring it up with Kaster back at the the village..."
*grumble*
Both the Goose and Falla blushed as their bellies rumbled in unison. Luckily, Bulka wasn't at all dismayed with this update. "Well why don't we catch up over a nice meal? Haha, my sister Mollie packed enough for a small army. If you guys help me set up, we can resume talking over food!" The other two nodded in unison and they made their way to an ideal picnic spot. A couple minutes later, and they had a blanket spread and several boxes of food packed out. The goose's posterior was also given a napkin loin cloth, he didn't understand why he needed it but took their advice regardless. Eventually everything was calm and they all sat down to dig in.
"Wow you sure this stuff was made by Mollie? In the cafe all the sweets look adorable and are carefully decorated, these things look all lumpy and greasy." Falla took a clumpy pastry from a box and sniffed it carefully. She was surprised that the sweet actually smelled really appetizing, it was probably some kind of donut. A food she smelled, but never had because of her Mom wanting her to only eat lady-like things.
"Well my sister and I agree that fancy frou-frou stuff might be cute, but it's usually short on flavor. At home she likes to bake less cutesy, more hearty things. Surprised she still keeps it up, when she has a full time job at a cafe. I guess Mollie just can't get enough of baking and cooking, she's a natural hostess! Just like adventuring is my passion." Bulka took a big bite of a garden sandwich, while the Goose was sniffing a donut with his human nose. "Come on try em' you two, you need calories when you are doing intense movement like this. Millie warned me that if ya stick to your old eating habits you'll run out of fuel, and that can be dangerous in this line o' work. Not so much now, but same can't be said when you start taking missions that are code red." With the encouragement, Falla to a ladylike bite of the fried dough and her eyes immediately lit up.
"Oh my gosh! I will never doubt you ever again Mollie! Yummy, yum, yum!" Fall asleep next bit was slightly less dignified, but still miles above the sort of bite Bulka would take. Meanwhile the Goose tore into his donut, thinking it was way better than any scrap of moldy bread he got in his old world. He didn't have much of a taste for sweets then, his tongue's palette must have changed in his human form. He wondered if the dessert he gave his life to make was this good.
For once, Bulka didn't seem to mind that her world had been turned upside down. Maybe hanging out with her former rival and a Goose-turned human wasn't such a bad thing. Still , she had questions now that the mood was lightened. "Ahem." Her two companions looked up at her.
"I believe we still have to make some introductions here, so from what I am gathering yer a goose from another world, right feather-head?" She pointed at the slim man with blueberry donut jelly smeared across his stuffed face. Unable to honk, he nodded his head. "So the humanoid body is a new development, right?" He nodded again. Falla made awkward eye contact with Bulka, and the orc smiled mischievously, "hear that Falla, ya have been lusting over a damn bird!"
"Shhh, don't make me feel more dumb that I already do!" She begged with a big blush on her face. Luckily the goose was too absorbed in consuming the fattening pastry to care what was being said.
"Honk, honk?" He managed to force those sounds out between mouthfuls. As if he was questioning what he had missed conversation wise.
"Haha, well anyway mister Goose, we'll need a name for ya. Calling ya by your species seems kinda wrong, wouldn't want people going around calling me 'Orc'." Falla giggled as she took a canister of coffee and daintily pressed her lips against its tin surface.
"How about Gosling! Sounds dashing and means young goose, perfect for a handsome young man!" Falla blushed at the almost naked their covered in donut filling. Bulka suspected that it still hadn't suck in for Falla that her new crush was a literal bird brain. Not that she really cared who the elf fancied as long as she was tolerable to be around, which might have ended up being the case.
"I was just going to call him Bob, but hey, Gosling does sound mighty dashing. We'll keep it, if that's okay with you goose-man." The newly christened Gosling nodded as he stared at his warped reflection in another shiny tin mug. He really did look like that otaku from Japan. Except he had facial markings beneath his red eyes, which was different from his counterpart's brown ones. He also possessed white down feathers for hair. He had to admit there were uglier humans he could be stuck looking like, though this body was so thin and looked like his murderer. He was going to have to build some muscle if he wanted to attract a mate and scare off enemy ganders. "Oh hey Gosling, for the record this here is Falla and I am a Bulka, though I am sure ya already overheard our names...But hey! Welcome to the party I guess?"
Falla's body stiffened as if she wasn't sure she heard that right. "Wait the three of us are going to be a party?" A tear began to form between her closed eyelids, and Gosling wondered if she always had her eyes shut or if she just blinked every time he looked at her. Bulka leaned against a stump and smiled, with just a hint of uncertainty.
"Yeah well my best pal totally shot me down, so might as well team up with ya and show that fool that being a solo player is not what it's cracked up to be! He'll be begging to join us as soon as he sees how much fun we are having as a trio..." Gosling was barely following what Bulka was saying. She kind of began ranting to herself and zoning them out.
"Honk...?" He whispered to Falla, and the elf girl just shrugged.
"Kobra is the jerk she has a crush on," she whispered in his ear, "and he's a total sleaze, she could do way better. Mollie and Kaster really want her to find a guy worthy of her, so I am going to make it my mission to find her the perfect man." Falla winked. "You'll hep right mister thief?"
She grabbed his hands and looked at him ever so sweetly. For some reason his mind wandered to his first love, a dainty swan in the next district over from his neighborhood. He had never seen her species before, and was instantly infatuated with the novelty of her beauty. Too bad he was stabbed by an Otaku before he got to know her better. Why was he having this same feeling again, did he think this elegant elf with the perpetually shut eyes looked like a swan? No, of course not. He shook himself out of it and responded to her request with a mischievous smile and a, "HONK!"
"...and that's how Kobra handled that one time he got a slime stuck to his head...and what the heck are ya guys doing over there?" She put her fists on her hips and leaned forward to make eye contact with the conspiring duo. "Sheesh, good thing I am here, other wise you two might have been up to some 'cherry popping' as Mollie would say!" The orc shook her head and crossed her arms. To be fair to Falla, the orc had somewhat hoped the thief summoned would have been been her replacement to Kobra, well more accurately an alternative if her best friend never came around. After having met him though, and realizing he was goose, she just couldn't see him as anything more than a dumb bird she had to protect.
"What's cherry popping? Sounds kind of tasty, I love cherries! Especially the tart ones juiced into a syrup for crushed ice at festivals!" The elf drooled at the idea of the sour dessert, even though she just filled up on sweets.
"Honk!" Gosling also liked this idea with cherries, he was eager to flex his, now human, taste-buds some more. Bulka just laughed at the two of them. While she felt weird about her enemy, turned friend, crushing on a bird, when thinking about it from Falla's point of view it sort of made sense. She didn't really see him in his goose form yet, and he did leap in to save her. Still she didn't think somebody who used to be a normal goose had any business being in a relationship until his human side became his dominant side. Luckily those two seemed to be super innocent, and she was probably going to have to protect them. She looked at her axe cast to the side and then turned to them.
"Alright team, let's pack up and show Gosling off to Kaster!"
Falla leaped up and beamed excitedly, "so it's official, we are really becoming a party? If so can I make a name suggestion?" Bulka shrugged, she didn't care much about small touches like that anyways.
"Go for it!"
Falla beamed and looked at Gosling with a radiant smile. "Team Goose Chasers!"