Confidence, uncertainty, pining, sass. These are just a smattering of the fleeting feelings one might feel as they transition from one stepping stone in life to the next. For Bianca and Mana, that time is now. Having sunk years of their life into a ramshackle stand, the two women have moved their way on up to a prim and proper shop! A potions shop. It's the beginning of a new journey for the Corgi and Rabbit alchemist duo. One that holds preposterous potential for events both silly and fantastical.

This isn't a story, at least it doesn't feel like one to me, so much as it is an introduction to a cast and world I could do some fun things with. In time I plan on doing more but figured, instead of just sitting on this indefinitely, why not post it?

---

Perusing Potions

By: RaddaRaem

Stubby tail thrumming side to side, the corgi rested her soft palms against her hips. Thick plump fingers twiddled against the worn cotton leggings that clung tightly to her frame. Head tilted back, the muscles in her cheeks began to ache as she still wrapped her head around the sheer scope of it all.

“There is an inside too, you know.” Eyes half-lidded and one ear flopped, the rabbit standing at her side gently nudged at her business partner’s shoulder. The soft but steady smile creasing the canine’s face refused to falter.

Wrapping her puffy and sweater smothered arms about her chest, the Corgi couldn’t help but bask in the glow of their latest accomplishment. A shop! An honest to goodness shop of their very own. Not a stand. Not a shack. But a shop! There was just too much to gush about. She could start off with the layers of frost that caked the edges of the windows. Or the cream colored bricks, crafted from the clay she’d handpicked, that stacked on high towards the slanted shingled roof. Though, honestly, she would have gone with birch wood for the door. Maple wood wasn’t a bad choice by any means but she still felt Mana’s eye for color coordination wasn’t quite where it needed to be.

“So help me if you get started on that damn door again. I see you ogling it, Bianca.” Buck teeth pressing against her bottom lip, the rabbit shook her head dismissively. Mana’s robe swayed gently with the shifting of her shoulders.

Bianca hummed innocently while she forced her line of sight ever upward. Then of course there was the crown of the establishment. Decadent but not pretentious. Classy yet welcoming. In flowing cursive the sign bolted above the door simply read out: “Potions”

No effort made to mask her impatience, Mana exhaled. A steady stream of mist whistled out from between her lips while the rabbit’s puffed out cheeks deflated.

“You can at least try to care, Mana!” Bianca eagerly barked back. Arm tossed out to her side she gently smacked her bunny buddy on the shoulder. “Be proud! Be… be anything but whatever it is you are right now!”

“Kinda hard to quit being cold,” Mana mouthed back. She smirked at the additional smack on the shoulder that her response elicited. The huffs and barks that followed caused the lagomorph’s lips to creep ever upwards.

Bianca turned up her muzzle in playful disdain. “Alright, alright, alright. Mark my word, I will drag your bunny butt right back out here so we can give this place a good and proper gushing!”

“When it’s above freezing, sure,” the bunny finished for her corgi companion. Short spiked hair ruffling against the base of her floppy ears, Mana took the initiative and hopped on over towards the perfectly acceptable Maple wood entrance. Hand clasped around the still smooth and freshly polished wrought-iron door handle, she tugged it towards her. A gush of air, moist and tinted with a sinus-clearing smattering of herbs and spices, billowed out towards her. A singsong jingling accompanied the suffocating smell.

Both women swatted their hands before them and coughed as the fruits of their alchemic labors overwhelmed their olfactory senses. “That… that’s going to take some getting used to,” Bianca spat out. Much to Mana’s chagrin the corgi propped open the door behind them. A delightful jingling rang out once more when the slab of wood brushed past a wispy string trailing down from the bell hanging above the entrance.

Waving a hand before her wrinkled button nose, Mana shivered as bitter gusts of wind poured into their shared shop from behind her. The both of them had operated out of open-air shacks and stands for so many years that they’d forgotten the sheer scope of the scents, smells, and fumes that accompanied the crafting of their concoctions. Hurf. This was supposed to be huge step up for the both of them! Not some podunk transition from an open-air shop to an open-door one. The chattering of her buck bunny teeth within the confines of her skull on the job was not something she ever intended to become reacquainted with.

Drawing shallow breaths, the rabbit took to papping and patting at the pockets lining her robe. “Should have a couple of ‘em stashed away somewhere…” she grumbled. Mana’s ears perked to attention some number of paps later. Scrunching her fingers, she felt the fraying fabric of her robe mold around a hard circular lump lodged against her thigh. Hand slinking into said pocket, those thin fuzzy digits of hers curled around something smooth and cold to the touch.

“Watch your step,” Mana casually cautioned the corgi. With a flick of her wrist she sent a pale, practically translucent, stone lobbing through the air and clacking noisily against the wooden floor. It took to wobbling of its own accord as the magics nestled inside it were jostled awake. Splinters and dust bunnies gently circled around it. “There,” Mana coughed while she leaned back and kicked the door shut with one of her broad feet. “Should be able to choke down some of this now that the air’s circulating.”

Bianca pulled the practically non-existent collar of her sweater up over her muzzle and allowed her snuggly soft winter wear to filter her first few breaths. “You could always just dress for the weather you know!”

“Or hibernate for it like you have,” Mana mused aloud as she poked at the corgi’s now exposed muffin top. The rolls of white and tan colored fuzzy flab sagging over Bianca’s cotton waist jiggled at the rabbit’s touch.

Embarrassed barks sounded out from between the threads of fabric pulled taut over Bianca’s muzzle while she tugged it back down into place around her neck. Once more her generousness found itself hidden beneath the slimming contours of her sweater. With a huff and swing of her hips she sent Mana fumbling for her footing. “Winter, I can understand. Come spring though we’re propping that door wide open! So much more inviting and welcoming that way and you know it!” Bianca snooted as she cocked her head to the side and eyed her bunny buddy. She giggled at the grumpy groan she received in response. That matter settled, the canine took to focusing her attention elsewhere.

Just before them lay the main attraction. The potions, lovingly and expertly handcrafted, that so wonderfully justified this shop’s very standing! A handful of shelves lorded over the center of the store. Simple tonics, really. Concoctions that would do no harm were they to be dropped or mishandled.

The corgi padded through the airy aisles, hands clasped behind her back and mindful not to trample the wind gem rocking about, and leaned in close to investigate them. Her nose booped against one of the curved glass containers when the canine lurched forward courtesy another fit of coughing. It jostled and tinked noisily against the surrounding potions while bubbles peeled off the interior of the glass.

Shivering, Mana let her eyes lazily drift between the shelves. Crisp pieces of parchment had been wrapped around the posts that held up the horizontal planes of wood. “Health and Wellness,” the rabbit plainly stated as she read one aloud. “Be it to stave off illness, cure it, or heal non-life threatening wounds the look no further! Imbibe one mouthful a day until potion is exhausted for maximum preventative and curative effects.” Mana tilted her head to the side, her ears flopping along with it. Concoctions that spanned the entirety of the hue of green, from translucent jade to earthy moss, lined the layers of the shelf behind the paper proclamation.

She brought her attention back to the parchment. Conveniently listed below the hail to healing was a color coded list. Dabs of paint stained the paper handily showed what curative or preventative boon corresponded with what color potion. Mana hmmmed.

“That’s a business venture ‘hmmm’ if I ever heard one,” Bianca barked through the potion lined shelves. The corgi’s soft fuzzy face could be seen trying to poke between the gaps in the vials. “What’s on your mind?”

Mana twiddled a set of fuzzy fingers against her chin. “You know… Ol’ Angus is planning on opening a new pub just down the way. I was thinking-”

“No,” the Corgi decisively answered. Bianca’s eyebrows fell as flat as her tone.

“Come on, you didn’t even let me finish!”

“Don’t need to,” Bianca barked. Muzzle scrunched up, she snooted in disapproval. The vials flanking the canine’s snout clinked against one another as she gestured, prompting a worried arf.

A prolonged sigh wafted out from between the rabbit’s lips. “Pfffff. You know good and goddamned well the bar flies that practically live with him are some of our best customers. Those bums can always be counted on to shuffle in here ready to shill out top coin for our hangover cures.”

Slowly, and with hesitation, Bianca retracted her petite muzzle from between the settled glass. “I still have my doubts about whether or not we should have drafted those potions in the first place…” she reservedly huffed.

Mana shrugged. Her loose fitting robe puffed out courtesy of the gentle, albeit stagnant breeze, that circulated through their shared shop. “There was a demand and we filled it. Simple as that. Hey, if we hadn’t then someone else would.”

Buck teeth poking out from between her lips, the lagomorph took to tapping a long broad bunny foot against the floor. “We wouldn’t be where we are now if we hadn’t. And you know it.”

Rolling her eyes, the Corgi declined to acknowledge her unscrupulous bunny business partner. “There’s a difference. We’re… we’re curing what ails them. Not enabling them.” Arms crossed about her chest, sweater muffins resting atop her soft forearms, Bianca stared down past her chest and at her twiddling toes.

“I’m just saaaaying. If we were to partner with Angus we’d be all the richer for it. We stock him directly with the uhhh ummm what did we name it again? Something alliterative, I remember that much.”

“Ethanon Ethagone,” Bianca grumpily growled in reply.

Snapping her fingers, Mana nodded. Her ears flopped back and forth and came to drape down against her trim back. “That’s it! We keep him stocked with the Ethanon, which we’ll charge a pretty penny for, so he can hawk it all directly to those bar flies of his. That’ll get them drinking, and of course, spending, more. End result of all that being Angus ups his business and so do we. It’s a win-win!”

Tail wiggling atop her generous rear, Bianca clenched her eyes shut. “And the part where we encourage rampant alcoholism? You planning on concocting a cure for that too while we’re at it?”

Steepling her hands, Mana hmmed and hawed. “Wellllllll. I mean. Since you’ve broached the topic…”

“MANA,” the Corgi all but barked. “Erfff. Why am I even entertaining this conversation? No means no. End of discussion.” With a dismissive wave of her hand, Bianca took to plodding her stumpy limbs down the aisles once more.

Tufted tail flitting against the back of her robe, Mana’s posture slackened. “Alright, alright! Take a joke, Bianca. Not even I’m that bad.”

Eyebrows arched, Bianca shook her head. “Ethanon started off as a joke too.” Chest rising and falling with every breath, the canine was relieved to find wracking coughs no longer punctuated every exhale. Meandering back and forth through the aisles, floor creaking gently under her padded gait, the Corgi contentedly found herself traversing the outer boundaries of their arranged wares. Her attention drifted towards the walls plastered with paper.

Somewhere underneath all that pulp and parchment lay polished planks of birch. Bianca hmmpphed. If she had known that this was how they’d come to decorate the walls she wouldn’t have spent so much time picking it out. The Corgi forced a smile at the thought of the pocked and punctured planks of wood embedded with nails. Reaching up to pinch a piece of paper between her fingertips, careful not to smudge the ink upon it, she eagerly eyed the lovely cursive she had emblazoned upon it.

“Now let’s see… did I forget anything?” Bianca pondered aloud as Mana sidled up alongside her. Flapping gently before them against the wall was a stock listing. The prices were scribbled alongside each item.

“Well that’s a given,” the rabbit chimed in. The lagomorph reached up and tapped at a color coded map that detailed where to find what kinds of potions. “I mean. We’ve already gone and labeled each aisle as it is but a little redundancy never hurt.”

Taking turns with their commentary, Bianca and Mana lobbed their opinions back and forth as they perused what all they had drafted up.

“We’ve got the ledger spelling out what potions are offered up on a made to order basis,” Bianca hmmed.

“I hit up Gustav and that printing press of his the other day,” Mana replied. “Got us a few copies of it so now we have a copy nailed to the opposite wall and another one at the counter.”

Hmmming, the canine scrunched her eyes. A padded finger papped repeatedly against piles of parchment. “Could’ve sworn we used to offer our surplus herbs and ethers for sale. Mana?”

The rabbit rolled her eyes. “Look, Bianca. I’m not about to supply our competition.” She puffed a breath of air into the Corgi’s face following the disapproving growl and scowl she received in response. Mana couldn’t help but giggle as her best friend nipped grumpily at the air. “Oh don’t give me that look. When was the last time we overstocked on Arnica? Saffron? Winter worm?” Brows arched, she awaited her answer.

Bianca took to scratching at a soft fuzzy cheek. She hrrffed out one non-answer after another. Truth be told… well. The two of them had been at this long enough to gauge the subtle shifts in demand from one season to the next. Over the years the wants and needs of their patrons, their neighbors, and their friends had become intimate knowledge.

Chin nuzzling against her soft sweater-clad shoulder, the Corgi huffed. So much of their business had become a matter of reading routines. The showers of spring and winds of winter brought with them aching joints and arthritis, meaning that Aloe and Boswellia took on renewed importance amongst the greyer furred fuzzies that frequented their shop. In turn, Schizandra sold steadily come summer and fall to the fresh faced and dust stained farmhands that hailed from the surrounding plains. They all but relied on it to keep them standing, much less working, through the long hard days that came with sowing and reaping a harvest.

“Hmmm?” Mana’s bony bunny elbow nudged Bianca repeatedly. The Corgi’s stocky frame jostled with every additional hmmm. “You know I’m right. I know I’m right. Say I’m right. Say it.” Buck teeth poking between her lips, the rabbit ribbed Bianca for all she was worth.

“Do I have to?” Nostrils flared, the canine heavily exhaled. Her body continued to bob back and forth as the nudges continued unabated. “Fine. How’s this? You’re not wrong.”

There was a pause in the pokes. “…You can do better than that,” Mana smirked.

“Mmmmppph.” Bianca barked when the prods picked back up. Any reaction would only encourage her. Lips pursed, the Corgi allowed her eyes and ears to drink in the sights and sounds of their shop to be. There were the shelves, angled gently, and the stock upon them that bubbled and hissed at irregular intervals. The missives, maps, listings that all fluttered gently along the walls.

Without warning, crackles and pops agitated the ambience. Those fuzzy ears of Bianca’s flit at the sound. Ah, that reminded her! There was still the matter of- “Alright, you’re going to get tired of that eventually,” she mumbled aloud as Mana’s offending appendage sank into her cushioned frame. With a swing of her generous hips, Bianca bopped the bunny aside. Ignoring the ‘oof,’ and the accompanying tunk, her train of thought continued chugging along unabated.

Creaks and groans sounded out as the Corgi’s plump paws thundered against the floor. Bianca carefully carried her stocky frame in between the aisles that clinked and clanked to the tune of her gait. Snapping a padded thumb and index finger together repeatedly, she all but throttled the inkling of an idea that threatened to slink away from the forefront of her thoughts. That’s what she had forgotten to check in on!

Ears flopped down and nose wrinkled, Mana nursed a sore shoulder. “Hmmph. Well, was wondering when you’d get to wandering on over there.” The bunny’s expression flattened when the thumps of those stumpy Corgi legs came to an abrupt halt. “Now Bianca. In my defense, it is a really fucking heavy table.”

Hands pressed against her cheeks, the corpulent canine sank her pointed teeth into her lips and breathed deeply. Bianca should have had every reason to be overjoyed and to send her tail a thrumming at the sight of such a beloved piece of furniture. So many memories, pleasant and otherwise, had come to be associated with it. To start there were the quartet of stone legs holding aloft the top of the table! She’d bonked her tubby toes and knees against their rough surfaces many a time. Then there were the raised polygonal columns, jutting out from the table’s black basalt surface, which lined the outer edges. Even now, vials sat nestled atop the curved indents worn into their tops. That feature alone practically sold her on it when Bianca first laid her eyes upon it.

The Corgi held her breath and slapped her padded palms against the coarse pocked surface of her first, and thus far only, alchemy table. Her fingers traced along the outermost ring of dimples in the stone that circled its circumference. In turn, her nails scraped loudly against the tiny carved canals that extended out from each one. They converged and ultimately emptied out into the innermost ring of basalt craters embedded into the table’s surface. An ideal means by which to allow volatile ingredients and mixtures to come together at a cautious pace akin to a drip feed. The ability to craft such demanding and delicate potions was what allowed Mana and herself to even make it as far as they had.

Fingers twiddling, Bianca huffed and held her hands above the centerpiece of her alchemy table. A cut of the finest iron mesh, weaved to the demanding standards of the local knight’s guard, lay spread across an ash stained pit. Spent charcoal and burnt wood chips let loose what little heat remained within them with every snap and crackle. Sure, there was something to be said about being able to boil and stew ingredients at her leisure above a bed of ashes. That unimpressive utility all but paled in comparison to the fact that it offered waaaaarm. Wafting wonderful warmth that kept her going day in and day out when she operated out of nothing more than a shack tucked lodged in the village’s heart.

On any other given day, Bianca would have found herself waxing nostalgically about every feature and flaw that characterized what was effectively her workplace. Not today. Today, she found herself preoccupied predominantly with the gaping, sawdust lined, gashes and errant splinters that littered the floor beneath it. “MANA.”

“Cut me some slack!” The rabbit wailed.

Growls, huffs, and harrumphs flooded free from between Bianca’s lips. “We haven’t even opened yet and our workshop already looks like crap!”

“Oh like anyone besides us’ll be back there!” Mana’s broad feet thumped against the unmolested planks of wood that lavishly lined the potion shop’s center as she made her way back towards the potion shop’s inner workings. “Nobody’s gonna care!”

“I will!” Bianca barked. Fists clenched, folds of fur scrunched alongside her muzzle while the Corgi followed the scrapes that had since sullied her shop. A low growl echoed within her throat as her eyes traced the winding wounds in the wood out into the hallway.

Mana offered up a pitiful shrug when she came upon her buxom business partner, head cupped between her hands, sighing until her lungs emptied. “What else was I supposed to do?” she defensively inquired. The rabbit furrowed her brows as Bianca extended, and then promptly retracted, her index fingers.

“You… could have just left it? Where we do every night? Like we have been for the past decade?” Running her hands back through her hair, Bianca’s growl dragged out into a groan. “By the gods, Mana. It would not have killed us to leave the alchemy table in our shuttered shack for just one last night. Just… one. Not once, after all these years, has someone tried to steal it. If not then why, why why why why why, would they start now?”

Petite sweater muffins resting atop her crossed arms, Mana dismissively wiggled her whiskered nose. “Welp. Good thing I dragged the friggin’ thing back here before you could go jinx us,” she unapologetically shot back. With a huff, the rabbit stamped a thick foot against the ground. “You know, maybe if someone had lent me her husband for the afternoon none of this would’ve happened.”

“Hah!” Facetious laughter accompanied the Corgi’s toothy smile. “Hahhhhh. No. Like I’d give you an excuse to flirt with Ro.” Broad back turned to the bunny, Bianca hmmed and took stock of the workshop at large. Polished metal vents, free from rust, adorned the angular intersections where the walls and sloping ceiling came together. The canine rumpled at her puffy sweater sleeves as cold drafts wafted in. “Good, good!” she thought to herself. At the very least they weren’t in any danger of gassing themselves with a volatile mixture of ingredients, arcane and otherwise.

Ears draped down along her back, Mana hmmphed. “Oh, what? Suddenly all is right now that I’ve been denied another pass at the hunky husky hubby of yours?”

“Pretty much!” Bianca barked back happily. Nub of a tail wiggling in delight at the deflated sigh dragging out behind her, she allowed her gaze to drift over the drawers lining the far side of the room. Her paws thumped gently against the fucked up floor as she approached. To her delight a dull golden glow, accompanied by a gentle hum, overtook the entirety of the stylish storage.

Padded fingers twiddling, Bianca eagerly reached out towards one of the many horizontal handles that lined its surface. A great golden keyhole, shimmering gently over the uneven surface that alternated between wood and metal, made itself manifest. The Corgi tried tugging open a sliding drawer to no avail. Clacks and the locking of etheric tumblers sounded out in the frigid workshop.

Lips gone flat and cheeks straining, the boisterous bunny reluctantly reinserted herself into the conversation. “So.” Her dismissive airs masked any curiosity she might have possessed. “See you went all out on security. Not that I’m complaining.” Symbols and shorthand adorned the individual shelves stacked upon one another. Locked within each were select ingredients that were expensive, dangerous, or exceedingly rare. Twiddling her fingers against her fuzzy chin, Mana watched as Bianca delightedly tried ripping a shelf right out of the drawer’s frame. What looked like a crude and poorly drawn snowflake had been carved into the wood above the handle. Within its icy arches some sort of noodle wriggled. Winter worm. The self-professed alchemist winced at the thought of the countless caterpillars, crunchy and shriveled, with half-grown stems of parasitic mushrooms sprouting from their squishy skulls. Blech.

Bianca fumbled with the remainder of the drawers. None opted to yield. “Better safe than sorry!” she barked. “I mean… it’s certainly not my intent but. Well. This brand new shop does flaunt our success so to speak.”

“It’s bound to send some folks the wrong message, I getcha.” Padding up alongside her business partner, Mana hmmmed and hawed at the magical security system. “So…” The bunny slipped her fuzzy fingers through one of the polished metal handles and tugged. It didn’t so much as jostle. “How’s it work?”

Hands resting upon her hips, the Corgi excitedly raised an arm and waggled an index finger.

Mana snrrrked. “How long were you waiting for me to ask?”

“I don’t have to answer that,” Bianca nonchalantly barked back. Standing beside the drawer, she held her soft arms out to her sides gestured at the conjured keyhole with her twiddling fingers.

Thin fuzzy digits cupped over her mouth, the rabbit couldn’t help but giggle. “Here comes the spiel.”

“Oh let me have this,” Bianca casually mouthed back as she rolled her eyes. “As you can see, this magical lock prevents anyone and everyone from procuring the precious ingredients locked inside! And yes, before you ask, it’s about as effective at preventing a smash and grab as any other lock is. So shoosh.”

“You’re no fun,” Mana teased. Hand circling about her wrist, she motioned for the Corgi to continue.

The canine shuffled her shoulders as she straightened her posture. “Besides, I could use the practice! It’s been weeks since I tried to sell someone something.” Clearing her throat, Bianca directed her audience’s attention towards the summoned security with a flourish of her hands. “Now, hopefully, the very first question that comes to mind is how might we open such a lock?” Bianca’s jaw went slack as her eyes bopped against the sides of their sockets. “I. Hmm.” She tapped a padded finger against her soft chin. “Do you think I should solicit an answer from them? There’s always something to be said about engaging your audience but…”

“But people are dumb,” the bunny opined. She smirked at seeing the Corgi puff out her cheeks. “Hmmmm?” Mana’s floppy ears perked up while she flashed a toothy grin. Bianca huffed and grunted as Mana took to ribbing her once more. “I don’t hear a no!”

“…Your words, not mine,” Bianca reluctantly acknowledged. She ruffled the fur along the back of her neck while her ears flicked nervously. Her attention darted up from her plump paws to her business buddy bunny at the sound of a sigh.

“Bianca, we’ve been at this for how many years now? Just because we took a month off doesn’t mean we’re going to suddenly start sucking at our livelihoods. Relax.” Hand held out before her, Mana tapped at her fingers as she reassured Bianca one bullet point at a time. “We’re still smack dab in the middle of the village. Foot traffic is as good as it’ll ever get here.” She tapped against another splayed out digit. “We are not just ‘a’ potion shop, we are ‘the’ potion shop. Even if folks had other options to contend with they know good and goddamned well to stick with us.”

Pride welling in her generous chest, Bianca came to rest her hands upon her hips. “We have built up quite a reputation for ourselves! We sell salves, not snake oil.”

“Damn right!” Mana snooted with a swish of her head. Upturned chin directed at the Corgi, the duo quietly beamed at one another. The pleasant silence hung awkwardly in the air as the rabbit took to thumping a foot against the ground while Bianca took to thrumming her fingers against her thighs. “…Anyyyyway. How’s the damn drawer work? Can’t exactly brew what it is that keeps us in business with that in the way.”

Clasping her hands together, Bianca barked softly when their conversation abruptly lurched back on track. “Oh! Right. Well, you just kinda…” Leaning forward, wrinkles forming in her sweater as the Corgi’s tummy pressed against her thighs, the canine reached forward and pressed her palm against the keyhole. Wisps of magical energy rose from her furred digits. Hovering above her furred limb they sparkled in the muted glow of the fading fire before lazily drifting into the keyhole. They silently sank into its shimmering surface while ripples pulsed out where magic plopped against magic. A clink and clank of a tumbler being pushed into place echoed throughout the room as the conjured keyhole simply faded from sight. Tail swishing to and fro, Bianca’s thick fingers curled around the smooth metal handle bolted to a waist-high shelf. She tugged. Soft creaks sounded out as the drawer’s wooden wheels advanced along the carved track.

“Just do that!” Palm cupped beneath the drawer, the canine slid it shut with ease. Giggles slipped free from between Bianca’s lips when Mana hopped over only to be denied. The keyhole immediately flared back to life and refused her access. Patting at her bunny buddy’s shoulder, the Corgi brushed her hand up and along the back of Mana’s head and sent those droopy ears flopping upright. “Now if I set it up right… either one of our magical essences should unlock it! Go on, give it a shot!” Smile creasing along her soft cheeks, she watched on eagerly as Mana glared at the insufferable security measure.

The rabbit’s petite chest expanded negligibly as she inhaled. It contracted just as little when she huffily exhaled. “Fiiiiiine.” Mana pressed one hand against the solid slab of ether while the other impatiently tugged at a drawer. To her consternation, the bunny continued to be denied access until all the razzle and dazzle had run its course. “Finally!” She sighed in relief when she was granted access to their ingredients. “I’m not going to have to do this every friggin day am I?””

Bianca shrugged. “Guess we’ll find out!” she excitedly answered. The Corgi audibly grumped at the groan she received in reply. “Oh how is this any worse than before?” Arms crossed, the canine watched those floppy ears of Mana’s droop once more with a sense of smug satisfaction. “You mean to tell me you miss the days gone by when one of us forgot the key to drawer? When we had to hurtle halfway across the village and back, racing against the rising sun and praying that we remembered where we misplaced it, so that we still opened in time?”

“Just rub my nose in it and get it over with,” the bunny grumbled with her shoulders slumped. She noisily took to sliding and slamming drawers open and shut. Mana grumbled every time she came across something out of place and hurriedly resorted the contents of the shelves to her liking.

A raspberry let loose from Bianca’s lips. “Oh would you stop. We are the keys now! Much more convenient, and secure, this way if I do say so myself.” Paws thumping along the floor, the canine grimacing as the scrapes in the hardwood pinched at her padded soles, she moseyed on back into the hallway. She sighed at the gashes cut into the ground that traced all way towards the back exit. The Corgi let her hand drag along the wall, thick fuzzy fingers twiddling against a closet door as she passed, before she came to a halt. A draft, subtle but very much felt, wafted out from the door before her. Advancing forward she arfed when a metal ring, looped round woven twine, bopped against her forehead. Bianca went cross-eyed while she struggled to shift her focus between the distraction dangling down before her from the ceiling and poorly sealed door leading out back. The Corgi gently brushed aside the hatch pull and showed herself outside.

Palm plopped against her forehead, the canine groaned. Twin trails of upturned soil cut through her otherwise lovely lawn. The plowed path stretched from the back stoop all the way to the beaten path running alongside the shop. “Dammit, Mana,” she cursed to herself.

“Are you still going on about that?!” A familiar voice faintly yelled out from inside.

Bianca rolled her eyes. “Darn those big ears of hers,” she thought to herself with a shake of her head. The Corgi’s prim hair brushed along the back of her neck and along the sides of her head. She ran a hand through it while she hurriedly cast a glance over what passed for her backyard.

A series of sticks, generously spaced apart and jutting from the earth, served to mark the loosely defined boundaries of where her property ended and her neighbors began. Smack in the center of the Corgi’s staked claim was, if she had to say, an adorable little garden plot! Or. Well. What would be, anyway. Right now it just consisted of frost covered rows of tilled soil. Eventually though, the plan was to grow their very own ingredients, and food, right within reach! Off and away a ways, nearly bordering the so called property line, sat an open air shack. For now it housed the rusting hoe that Roark had used to till the… eventual garden plot. Bianca hmmmed. Fingers twiddling against a cheek she entertained whether there was prudence in using it to house some of their more volatile ingredients.

The Corgi shrugged. She’d sort it out in due time. Proudly beaming at the work in progress, she made her way back inside, mindful to slam the door shut behind her. Bianca huffed at the draft that still managed to work its way inside.

Brushing her hands together, Mana hopped out from the toasty confines of their workshop. “While you were taking yourself on a tour, I did us a solid. ”

“You know Diana’s going to be attached to you by the hip once we’ve finished moving in, don’t you?” Bianca chimed in. She tried not to smile when the rabbit turned back to look at her neatly organized handiwork and slouched. “She’ll be hounding her Auntie Mana day in and out to let her learn what all goes into brewing the most potent of potions.”

Mana pursed her lips. “Was nice while it lasted,” she stated with restrained exasperation.

“Aww don’t be like that! You love having your little helper around the shop!” Bianca cheerily replied. Her heart aflutter, she made her way back into the potion laden portion of their soon to be potions shop. A faint breeze brushed against her face as a curious knocking tapped against her ears.

“She’s your daughter though! Shouldn’t she be your fuzzy little shadow?” Mana moaned as she hopped past. The bunny patrolled past the shelves until she found what she was looking for. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. Kiddo is the cutest Huscorgi there ever was. I love Di.” Pacing down an aisle, the trim and slim bunny scooped back up her wind gem and slipped it into one of her many robe pockets. “What she does to my workstation though? Not so much.”

Hands on her hips, Bianca couldn’t help but bask in the golden glow of the early afternoon sunshine pouring through the windows. Everything, everything except the now ugly-ass workshop that is, was positively perfect! The stocked shelves, pristine swept floors, announcements along the walls… it was a dream come true! Gosh, should see slink on behind a counter and sneak a peek at what it would be like to greet faces both fresh and familiar? “No, no,” she told herself as she neglected to stifle her welling smile. She’d save it for when they’d opened good and proper!

“Pretty as a picture, ain’t it? Better not get used to it,” the bunny smirked.

“Why not?” Bianca barked back.

Eyebrows arched, Mana took to hmm hmm hmming. “People are gonna bumble around. Track in snow and mud and dirt. Knock over a potion here and there. You name it. This place is gonna lose some of it’s charm through wear and tear.” She sidled beside her business partner and slapped a hand against the Corgi’s soft shoulder. “Otherwise, if it stays all perfectly picturesque that means we’re doing shit business.”

The Corgi sighed. That blunt bunny buddy of hers did have a point. Even so! That didn’t detract from how pleasant it all was, and would be, to finally man their very own shop. Bianca gently bumped hips with Mana as the two quietly and contentedly drank in the shimmering sights, subdued sounds, and rustic herb-laced smells of the fruits of years of labor.

“Hmm… I never did show you around upstairs yet, did I?” Bianca thought aloud after a time.

“Sure didn’t. Still can’t believe you’d wanna live where you work,” Mana hehed.

Pointed ears perked up, the Corgi growled playfully. “Like I keep telling you, it’s convenient! Come on, let me show you around.” Gesturing for her friend to follow, Bianca thumped on towards the back. Chin held high, hmming and forcing her eyes up towards the ceiling lest she acknowledge just how fucked up the floor was as she plodded down the cozy hallway, she came to a stop before that taut twine string that served as a hatch pull.

Fingers curling around the metal ring looped round it, Bianca tugged. A rectangular hatch within the ceiling creakily swung down along its hinges. Tonks and clonks sounded out seconds before a ladder slid out from within it. With a clunk, its wooden legs came to rest before Bianca’s paws. Toes twiddling, Bianca lifted up a leg and let a thick paw come to rest along one of the wooden steps.

“Sure that’ll hold you?” Mana teased.

“Smartass,” Bianca barked back without looking back as she ascended.