Lyria arrived at the market, which greeted her with a bustling and lively atmosphere. Traders called out to passersby as she made her way through the crowds.
She reached the spot where the cart was parked. After Cyris unlocked it, Lyria and Cyris, wearing matching aprons, immediately got to work. Cyris wrote the day's menu on the signboard fixed to the cart's body:
Moonbrew Coffee — ₤5 each
Starberry Cupcake — ₤6 each
Chocolate Cupcake — ₤7 each
Lyria quickly mixed the batter for the chocolate cupcakes and poured them into a cupcake tray, which was immediately placed in the oven to bake. While Cyris added the chocolate batch to the oven, Lyria started mixing the batter for the starberry cupcakes, which Cyris then added to bake alongside the first batch.
As the cupcakes baked, the aroma traveled even further than they had expected. Since the beast-folk have very sensitive noses, the front of the cart soon filled with a curious crowd, all wondering what smelled so heavenly.
When the cupcakes were ready, Lyria removed them, and the piping hot treats were put on display for the crowd to see.
A cub, seeing what he knew was food, and smelled even more wonderful than candy grabbed his mother's sleeve, telling her to buy him one. Though the mother felt the price of whatever they were selling was a bit outrageous, she moved to the front of the cart to buy some, curious about the taste herself.
Cyris answered the beast-woman since Lyria was already making coffee.
"I will take three chocolate cupcakes," the woman said as she scanned the code to pay.
After receiving the alert, Cyris wrapped the cupcakes up for her. The mother gave her child one, telling him to be careful since it was still hot. She then took her own cupcake and bit into it.
Her eyes widened as if she were experiencing a sugar rush; to her, everything was in fast-forward as the cupcake disappeared from her mouth and into her stomach. The child, no different from his mother, licked his lips and looked at the last portion, which was clearly kept for his father. Looking to his mother, who also looked at him, the mother silently made a decision: she cut the final cupcake in half, and they both ate it, ignoring the crowds' gaze.
The crowd had been watching the mother and child devour the cupcakes. Convinced it was definitely a delicacy, someone else decided to try it. As if a spell had been broken, everyone immediately formed a line to get the cupcakes and coffee.
By noon, instead of the line diminishing, it became longer. Lyria had to take a few minutes away from the customers to eat her lunch.
By evening, with the sun setting, the last set of customers left. Lyria and Cyris decided to rest, as it had been a very tiring day. After a while, they decided to pack up since it was getting dark.
"I will be returning the keys tomorrow," Cyris said as they walked home.
"I will also get another batch of ingredients tomorrow," Lyria said, which made the father and daughter, despite their tired expressions, look at each other and burst into laughter. They continued their journey home.
When they got home, the door was opened by Finn, who laughed at the tired expressions on Lyria and Cyris's faces. The laughter earned him a flick on the head from Thorne.
Lyria ignored the laughter and simply lay sprawled on the sitting room floor, saying, "I am so tired. I will never leave this floor where I am laying." This earned laughter from her brothers and a chuckle from her dads, including Cyris.
When it was almost time for dinner and Serena had returned from work, Lyria, who had rested for a while, stood up. She went to take a relaxing shower, changed into a long gown, and, with a towel wrapped around her head, went to the dining table. This invoked laughter from her family, and she was later captured in a video by Finn, which made her chase him all around the house after dinner.
Noticing she would not be able to catch him, Lyria decided to give up and headed into her room for a beauty sleep.
Lyria woke up by noon the next day. After freshening up, she went to eat breakfast, which was now lunch for her.
"Lyria, I am going to the market to give Lulu his key. I remembered you saying you wanted to get more ingredients," Cyris said to Lyria, who was rubbing her rounded belly.
"Daddy, I am not going. I need rest, seriously," Lyria said before going to her room.
After hearing the door close, indicating someone had left the house, Lyria ran out, fully dressed for the walk to the market. She stopped only to see Cyris waiting for her on the couch and Finn at the door, sticking out his tongue and mocking her for saying one thing and doing another.
She just rolled her eyes at him as she left for the market with Cyris.
She followed Cyris to see Lulu to thank him, and she also gave him some cupcakes of both flavors and a coffee. After sitting for nearly an hour, she realized why Cyris took so long the last time he came to Lulu's shop; he had been talking from the time they had arrived. If not for his wife's help, they would not have been able to leave an hour later. After bidding goodbye to Lulu, Cyris followed Lyria to get what she needed for the next sale.
Upon getting home, after placing the things she got in the kitchen, feeling lazy, she decided to lay in her fluffy bed and watch Pawgram reels.
Some minutes into watching the reels, a text came in from the original owner's best friend, Tessa Moonfall.
Tessy: hey, bestie how are you doing?
Lyria: cool how about you?
Tessy: same just bothered. Can you believe mum says it's time I got married.
Lyria: wow that's wild.
Tessy: you get me, I was thinking if you can house me until she gets through this period of marriage please I have gone to 20 blind dates within 3 days. And I feel like I will definitely die if I went for another one today.
Lyria: sure you know I got your back.
Tessy: you're a life saver I will be there by lunaris and send my regards to everyone at home. And tell daddy Rowan I will be coming so that he can make those lovely spicy chicken feet for me. Bye, love you.
Lyria: love you too.
Lyria really liked Tessa who happens to be parrot type beast woman. And she has a very straightforward and blunt personality which matched Lyria's new soul.
Smiling after thinking of their interaction, she rolled in bed. As she was about to continue watching Pawgram reels, a familiar cold sound she was getting used to chimed in her head.
DING!