Scratch what she thought earlier: She refused to accept this edible gift with open jaws.
Before her was a plate of lumpy dough balls with a watery residue around them, and one of the pastries even had a horrific face from the sauce.
It seemed it was warning her not to take a bite because the meal might be poisonous. The food she thought was dumplings wasn't what she expected. It was her first time seeing dumplings. They seemed small and soggy, but maybe that's just how they should be. Food always seemed small to her, anyway.
When she was a dragon, the servants would have to bring her giant portions of fruit to fill her appetite. Being humanish, she could pick a dumpling up and find it was the size of a ball.
"We present these delicious dumplings to you, 'fair yellow dragon'," Jin half bowed alongside Yin.
"With the sauce that came with em', please enjoy this meal as an apology for earlier," Yin said.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know if I can eat this.", she said, biting her lower lip, trying not to be rude.
"What?! Why not?! You said you needed nourishment, and these dumplings are nourishment enough!," Jin shouted, pointing at the plate.
"First of all, I don't even know what's inside these so-called 'dumplings'.," the girl replied as she pointed at the plate.
"It's...mystery meat.," Yin hesitantly replied.
"What's....mystery meat?," she raised an eyebrow looking at the brothers.
"Any meat you can imagine mystery meat to be!" Jin snapped, getting impatient.
"Like chicken."
"Maybe"
"Shrimp"
"Nope, sorry- no fish in it, I'm afraid.", replied Yin.
"Okay-beef."
"Mostly beef....Or it could be a mixture of both.", Jin said.
The girl stared deadpan at the brothers, crossed her arms, and turned her head.
"If it is a meat of unknown origin nor cannot be identified, then I refuse to devour it.", she replied.
Jin muttered, gritting his teeth as he simmered with rage. How dare she show such disrespect after they had worked hard to cook delicious dumplings in the microwave, only to be rejected! His brother, Yin, was the opposite. While his brother stewed, he was formulating a plan until a flickering lightbulb lit up in his head. Pulling his brother aside, he whispered in his ear. Jin nodded, starting to cool down as a small smile formed on his face. They nodded and turned back to the girl, snickering quietly amongst themselves. Yin approached the table, picked up the chopsticks and scooped up the dumpling and held it out toward the girl.
"Maybe before ya judge, you should at least take a teensy bite?, Yin said.
"Out of the question", she refused.
"Not even a nibble?"
"Not even a peck."
He pushed the dumpling closer, but it was about four inches from her face. She tried to turn the other way, only to be intercepted by another dumpling toward her right, courtesy of Jin.
"What's one little nibble gonna do, huh? That's all it takes to see just how delicious a mystery dumpling truly is," Jin said, sounding like a salesman trying to sell a crate of cup noodles.
"Once you take a bite, you'll be in heaven," Yin said.
"It's so delicious that you'll want to savor every bite and ask for more," Jin insisted.
The girl glanced at the two dumplings just inches away from her face. She narrowed her eyes but softened as a smirk formed on her face. Reaching out, she plucked each dumpling with her fingertips. The brothers' eyes glistened as their smiles grew, watching her closely and waiting for her to bite into the dumplings.
"Well then, if you say they're delicious, that one bite will allow one to be in heaven...How about you sample them yourselves!"
Without warning, she stuffed the dumplings straight into their mouths! Backing away, they chewed while their faces turned green as they forced the contents down their throats before gasping for air. Yin dramatically clamping a claw over his neck.
"Ewww-Ughhh~! S'nasty!", he said as he began to cough.
"Uh! Bleh! I can still taste it!," Jin said as he began to scrub his tongue with his hands.
The girl laughed as she watched the brothers' reaction to the dumplings. At least they weren't poisonous, but it was a good call not to take a bite.
While she continued watching, her ears twitched upon hearing the sound of a door opening behind her. Slowly, she turned as her ears picked up two new voices.
"Man, the market sure had some good produce today. Check out the size of this watermelon that Mrs. Cheung gave me! It's soooo ovaly!"
"I've never seen a watermelon that long in my entire life."
"Ever seen a square watermelon? I only saw it once in the wild when I was at the dock and there was this ship from Japan that drop by to delive-"
Pushing through the doorway were two stunning women. The first was a young chameleon demon: Pastel stripes danced along her smooth cyan skin. Her right fuchsia eye darted at her friend while the other darted around until it landed directly on the stage. That's when she noticed the girl and the brothers squirming as if trying to do the worm with ants in their pants.
"red...."
"Everything okay there, Camie?", the older lady asked her companion.
The other was quite a sight to behold. To the girl's surprise, a human woman stood next to the demoness. She had dark green hair with long sideburns and pointed twin buns. She also had a long green ponytail with two golden hairbands wrapped around it, resembling a scorpion tail. Adorned in a purple dress with a golden belt and shoulder armor, she wore a large purple gem in the center of her belt. Her headdress was purple and gold, with a pale lavender veil cascading down the back. Additionally, she wore pink lipstick and a significant amount of purple eyeshadow.
"Yeah, but we got company," she said as she pointed toward the stage.
The woman turned in the direction to where she pointed, eyes locking in on the girl while Yin and Jin took turns gulping down the bottle of water. The young lady entered defense mode as the two ladies approached the stage.
"Hey there. Haven't seen you before around here nor in our hideout. Did you get lost trying to get to an audition?"
"Aud.. ition?" the girl said as she seemed confused.
The chameleon demon leaped onto the stage, causing the girl to step back as she was being sized up. She took in every detail with darting eyes, unable to resist admiring her gown.
"Wow, who is your designer? Because I love your dress!" said the chameleon demon as her left eye landed on the girl's silvery blue hair. "Gasp! OMG! Your hair is so... sparkly! Like starry night sparkly! It's like you took the color from the night sky, dyed it into your hair, and voilà!"
She picked up a few strands, stroking it fondly, causing the girl to recoil as she backed away from her.
"Excuse me, but I would appreciate it if you didn't stroke my mane so carelessly."
The chameleon demon tilted her head like a confused puppy before letting out a light chuckle.
"Hahaha-Sorry, sorry-It's just I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen anyone's hair so soft, silky, and starry like yours. What's your secret?" asked the chameleon demon.
"I don't have a secret, nor do I know why I have hair like the sparkling night sky. I just woke up with it," she sheepishly replied.
"Ohhhh~I get it! You must've seen a shooting star and made a wish to have sparkly hair-boom! You wake up one morning, and there it is! That is so rad!"
"Rad...?"
"To my understanding, it means cool.", said the older woman as she carefully walked onto the stage.
"Cool?"
"Yeah-Cool means cool as in being awesome in your own way that stands out from the rest," said the young lady skipping toward her friend's side with a gleeful smile.
"Speaking of cool-can you explain why our friends are fighting over the remains of that water back there?" the older lady said, pointing behind the girl.
She turned slightly to find the brothers fighting over the last ounce of water in the bottle. They began to rock paper scissors for it. Tilting her head in confusion, she turned back to the ladies.
"I have no idea, but before, they were trying to poison me with bad dumplings."
"Hahaha-let me guess, did they try to make ya eat em' by making 'mystery meat' sound 'exotic' and 'whimsy'?", the chameleon demon asked.
"Something along those lines."
"Yep, the old 'sugar coating' tactic they'd try to get anybody to do or eat something. They got me the first time when they made me eat one of those soggy dumplings," she said, letting out a delightful chuckle. "Although it wasn't half bad with a little soy sauce to dunk it in."
"Wait-so you've endured this before?", asked the girl.
"Yeah, back when we were just getting to know each other. It was around the same time I met this awesome gal," she said, gesturing over to her friend.
The Scorpion Queen's cheeks flushed as Camille looked her way. She excitedly planted her palms on her face and wiggled like seaweed at the compliment.
"Camille, stop it! You're making me blush!" she said, trying to recompose herself.
"Am I now? Well, how would you like it if I told her how you ensnared me with those claws of yours during our little sparring match?" Camille teased, her cheeks flaring with a sneer.
"Claws?.....But, she doesn't have any..."
Before she can finish her sentence, Yin called out to her.
"Oi! Girlie! There's a scorpion on your back!", Yin called out to her.
"A scorpion?" she said, confused.
Why would there be a scorpion on her back? She slowly began to turn around to inspect for herself.
"Come now, why would there be a scorpion on my ba-"
Without warning, Jin popped the last dumpling in her mouth!
"Ha! Forgot about the third dumpling, did ja!?", he said sneering at the girl.
The girl stumbled back, with her palms clamped over her mouth. The mushiness of the dough sank between her teeth, while the mystery meat danced on her tongue. It was grueling and foul; she could feel her stomach lurching, and she hadn't even swallowed yet!
She tried her best to chew up the disgusting dumpling post haste until it was mush to let her gulp it down. Letting out a violent cough, she wrapped a hand around her throat as her skin paled. Camille was the first to hear her cry only to find her falling back toward the couch, landing back first onto the cushions! She quickly ran toward her side.
"New bestie!"
"Cough...cough...Bad....dumpling....Bad...dummmpling...", she cried
The girl coughed, her hand raised toward the sky before going limp. A tiny spirit popped out of her mouth, and her eyes rolled back.
"NooooO~! She's dead! Death by Dumpling!" said Camille, dramatically falling to her knees and crying dumb tears. "Just when I was about to make a third new gal pal, she up and died!"
"Aw, come off it! She ain't dead!" Jin said in annoyance.
"Yeah-whoever heard of dying after eating a dumpling?," Yin said.
The Scorpion Queen walked over to the girl, checking her pulse, and looked back at Camille.
"She's not dead, but she does seem slightly unconscious. Maybe she's enduring a stomach ache. You were the same way when you ate those dumplings."
"Oh yeah, I ate all three of those dumplings and had a terrible stomach ache within ten minutes. Fortunately, I had my Uncle Shuchang's elixir!"
Her eyes widened as she realized: her uncle's potion! Just the thing to cure her new friend's stomach ache!
Camille leaped off the stage and sprinted toward one of the benches. Her bag was resting against the oval watermelon. She opened one of the compartments and began to rummage around for the elixir.
"I know I had an extra bottle or two in here somewhere."
She searched for the elixir and threw random items onto the ground: a pack of gum, a dragon hat she got at the Dragon and Tiger festival, a rubber ducky, and a Monkey Cop DVD. After a few minutes, she retrieved a medium-sized square bottle filled with a bioluminescent green substance housing glowing specks of lights swimming through the liquid that one might've thought were fireflies.
"Here it is! Queenie, tilt her head up so I can get this medicine into her!" she said, opening the bottle.
The Scorpion Queen gently held the girl's head up. Camille approached the girl, lowering the bottle toward her lips and slowly pouring the liquid into her mouth, carefully ensuring she swallowed each drop. Color returned to her cheeks as the young lady sprung back to life. Her eyes began to flutter briefly, then slowly began to open. The first thing she saw was a relieved Scorpion Queen and Camille staring down at her.
"Oh, thank the gods! She's alright!" Camille exclaimed, letting out a sigh of relief.
"You had us worried there for a moment, Miss. How are you feeling?" asked a concerned Scorpion Queen.
"It was like I had just swallowed the most putrid thing I've ever tasted in my whole life," she said before smacking her lips and detecting an unusual taste coating her mouth. "Replaced by a limey but sour aftertaste?"
"That limey and sour aftertaste you're experiencing is my Uncle Shuchang's elixir! Cures what ails ya from a cold to a horrible stomach ache! You're welcome!" beamed Camille, holding out the bottle to show the girl.
"You....you saved my life?"
"Well, I wouldn't say 'SAVED YOUR LIFE,' per se. It was just a bad stomach ache that caused you to faint, and my uncle's medicine brought you back to life-no big deal," she said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck.
"To me, it's a great deal," she said, rising halfway as she kept her gaze on Camille. "You saved me, the Yellow Dragon, from a fate worse than death."
"Come on! You wouldn't die from a dumpling!", yelled Yin looking offended alongside his brother.
"To me, it felt as if I had swallowed a dying star about to explode inside me!" she snapped at the brothers, causing them to cower against the wall.
She returned her attention to Camille.
"Young Miss, I am forever in your debt. How could I ever repay you for saving my life? Name it and I will grant you what you most desire.", she proposed to Camille.
"What I desire most right now...Is for you to be my friend", she answered.
The girl stared at Camille confused at the response. This was unexpected. Her desire...was to be her friend? No treasure? A divine power? Not even a magical object of her choosing?
"For me...to be your friend?"
"Yes!"
"You sure you don't want anything at all? Like I said, I can give you anything you desire."
"Nope, sorry, already decided-My desire is you and I being friends.", she said with her mind made up.
The girl shrugged. She knew she wouldn't be able to change her mind. This demon was quite the quirky one, but a selfless one to not care for worldly desires.
"Alright then. I, The Yellow Dragon, will humbly accept your wish and be your friend.", she said.
Camille squealed tackling the girl back onto the couch, arms wrapped tightly around her she felt like she was being squeezed by an anaconda.
"Yaaaa~! I got a new girl pal! I got a new girl pal! That's three gal pals now!", said Camille.
"Might wanna ease up on the lizard hug there, Cammie. She's starting to look like a ghost again", the Scorpion Queen pointed out at the paled girl.
Camille's cheeks flustered as she loosened her grip on the girl and sat on the opposite side of the couch.
"Hahaha, sorry...Mama always told me I got a hug as tight as a Komodo Dragon.," she said sheepishly.
"It felt almost like Kui's grasp. Now, when I and Genbu trained, he'd always catch me off guard.", the girl said, stroking her arms.
"Oh, Genbu and Kui, huh? Are they your friends?" asked Camille.
"Yes. I have to find the rest of my friends, but I don't know where to start. Nor do I have the energy to begin my quest after my near-death with that dumpling."
"Don't ya worry, new bestie. Camille's gonna hook ya up with the good stuff. Wait. Right. Here.," she said, jumping over the couch as she ran back to grab her backpack.
The girl watched in confusion, wondering what she meant by "the good stuff"? Camille removed a container from her bag, opened the lid, and beamed at the contents.
"Aha! Here it is!" she beamed, turning around as she reeled her arm back, "New bestie-catch!"
She hurled a green block toward the girl. The girl's eyes narrowed as the object approached, and she almost instinctively caught it just inches from her face.
"Woah! Nice catch. You caught that lo mai gai like it was nothing," she exclaimed, returning to the stage, her backpack slung over her shoulder and her container in her right hand.
"Lo...mai gai?" she said, confused, looking down at the green square in her hand.
"Yeah. This is the 'good stuff' I was talking about earlier.", Camille said.
She tilted the green square in her hand. How was this any better than the dumpling? Only one way to find out. She raised it to her mouth and opened wide to take a bite, but Camille pushed her hand down.
"What are you doing?"
"I was about to take a bite?"
Camille shook her head, letting out a soft chuckle.
"Silly, you don't eat the leaf. You gotta open it if you wanna get to 'the good stuff.' ", Camille explained to the girl.
Camille took the square and began to untie the string. She unwrapped the leaf slowly and revealed a piping hot pile of steamed rice embedded with chicken and mushrooms sautéed in soy sauce. The tantalizing aroma teased the girl's nose, causing her eyes to sparkle, and her once upset stomach emitted a hungry growl, eager to welcome the meal.
"A tiny edible treasure was waiting within that leaf..."
"Yep, this is Soy Mushroom Chicken on rice. Give it a try," Camille said as she placed the leaf in the girl's hands.
The girl stared at the mushy rice layered with chicken. She raised it just near her chin, taking a small whiff. It was slightly sweet with a hint of ginger, but what got her drooling was the sauteed poultry mixed on top amongst the mushrooms and spices. She raised the dish closer to her mouth and took a small bite of the oval rice. She chewed thoroughly to fully experience the flavors. After just a few bites, her eyes lit up with delight. The sticky rice danced around her mouth, while the chicken and mushrooms tantalized her taste buds with each bite.
When she finished the first bite, she swallowed before returning her attention to the remainder of the leaf. Without hesitation, she scarfed down the rest of the dish like a wolf ripping flesh off an animal carcass. Camille and her friends watched on. While Camille's eyes sparkled to match her grin, Scorpion Queen and the brothers were surprised at the young lady's appetite. Bits of rice stuck to her face as she licked the leaf clean of any surviving grains.
"This truly is a delectable treasure. I've never tasted anything like this before!" exclaimed the girl, "Could it be possible I could have another of that...'lo mai gai' as you call it, please?"
"Of course! I got plenty to go around."
Camille plucked another lo mai gai from the container, handing it to the girl. The girl used her teeth to rip the string off, open the leaf, and devour the contents in seconds.
"Wow! I've never seen anyone tear into lo mai gai like that. You really must be starving."
"Hey, Camille, you better not give all that to Beast Girl there.", Yin called out to her.
"Relax. I got plenty to spare, and I'm not going to let her have all of em'.," she assured her friend.
"And don't call her a beast. The poor dear must have gone days without food, the way she tears into that leaf like a wild animal," asserted the Scorpion Queen.
"Even though she looks a bit like a beast?", Yin pointed out as he watched the girl lick the leaf clean.
"So? That would be like you calling me a gecko because I have scales. And FYI, my cousin is a gecko. There's a difference between geckos and chameleon demons, you know."
"Okay, okay. You've got a point," he said.
Camille walked toward the girl with a beaming smile as the young lady looked up to her.
"You still hungry? Because if you thought Lo Mai Gai was something, I got a bag FULL of yummy surprises you're just gonna love!, Camille told the girl watching as her eyes lit up.
"More delicious than lo mai gai?"
"Almost, but they'll definitely fill ya up, especially Zongzi-it's lo mai gai's dessert cousin, and I got one that is strawberry chocolate flavored.", she told her.
"Strawberry chocolate in rice? That is rather unusual," she said, tilting her head in confusion.
"Don't knock it till you try it, but I know you'll love it," Camille assured her.
"As long as it isn't a poisonous dumpling like the one your two friends tried to choke me with-I'll try anything."