fancy a cuppa - feuepine

A bright sun illuminated the party area, a gentle breeze rustling the fall leaves of the trees. The cheerful sounds of of celebration rose and fell as cossetlings chattered amongst themselves. Tables were loaded with cookies, cake, tea, and other treats for Cossette's birthday.

As Theodore and Oros walked into the party clearing, cosprouts by their side, they paused for a moment to take in the scale of the party. Cossetlings serving tea were rushing to and fro, tending to tables of guests, and other cossets were bringing around platters of cookies and other sweet treats, warm and fresh from the oven. Oros beamed, turning to Theo.

“Looks like we made it in time! I see an open table over there, let's go sit down.”

The group carefully maneuvered through the party to a table near the edge, settling themselves into their chosen spots. Theo and Oros sat down in two beautifully decorated garden chairs. Chalkos, Oros's Sky Patoy, hopped up onto a third, followed shortly by Auritus, Theodore's Fairytale Lapito. The two shoved at each other briefly, before settling to a compromise to share the space on the chair. Ame, Oros's Rainy Lamba, settled underneath the table, lying down directly on his hooves, before promptly falling asleep.

A helping cosset came over, setting down teacups and plates, along with napkins embroidered with a cosmos flower. After they left to collect dishware from another table, a different cosset appeared, this time with glasses and a pitcher of water. They poured a glass of water for Oros and Theo each, and set out two shallow bowls for Auritus and Chalkos. Ame was given a ceramic dish with cosmos daisies painted in an elaborate pattern on the side. They rushed off to continue topping up water for the many guests. Oros watched the busy hustle and bustle of the party attendants with open awe.

“Isn't this incredible? It really shows an incredible level of management and communication to do all this! Cossette's family is so impressive! I wish I could run the library this smoothly…”

Theo glanced at Oros, brow raised, tail twitching in amusement.

“Oros, your library does not receive a number of visitors that would require this kind of organization, at least not all at the same time. Even if you did, which is unlikely given how small Algarum Cove is, the rules of social conduct for a library and for a merryday party are vastly different, once again this level of management would not be necessary.”

Oros pouted slightly, waving his hand at Theo's direction.

“You know what I mean~ I just admire the cohesion of everybody helping out with the party!” He patted at Theo's arm, pointing excitedly at some of the servers. “See there? The ones managing tea? They're following the ones with the cookie trays, but on a little bit of a delay! Since the cookies are probably a dry texture, you'll drink a bit more tea when you eat them! So they come around to make sure you have enough while you're eating the cookies. And then-” He tapped at Theo's arm more quickly, tracking the movements of the various servers with fascination, eyes wide. “And then the ones with cake follow the tea servers! Because you might have too much tea after you finish the cookies, so you pair the remnants of it with a more moist dessert, so you can finish both your drink and your meal at around the same time, without having to wait awkwardly for either! Ohhh, this is so cool to watch!”

Theo tilted his head, observing the servers, humming in consideration.

“That does seem to be the case. That's quite clever indeed. There's more thought required to hosting a party than I realized.”

Oros shrugged, resting his chin on his hand and gazing over the party, smiling widely.

“Well, this is a very big party. There's a lot to take into consideration. If you look, you can actually see that there's more tea servers than cookie and cake servers! Not all of the tea servers are following the desserts, either. People aren't predictable enough to have a permanent rotation of cookies-tea-cake. So the extra tea servers aren't on a specific circuit like the others are, they just go where they see they're needed!”

Theo nodded, squinting out at the festivities. As he did, he spotted a familiar figure among the servers, approaching their table with a tea tray in hand. He nudged Oros, who focused his gaze on the nearing cossetling. Oros blinked, before grinning widely and waving excitedly.

“Yunhua!”

The vibrant cossetling set her tea tray down on the table, her own matching grin across her face.

“Ory! Dory! You made it! Oh, it's so great to see you here, it's so fun! Everybody is having such a good time and the treats are so tasty- I keep having to stop myself from sneaking a few from the serving trays when we pass each other- and there's so many guests! I saw my neighbors here a few hours ago and they brought along their cosprouts too- you know their cosprouts, the cute little Jengipan and the Bebom- and they brought the nicest little embroidered skirt for Cossette!”

She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, covering her mouth with her hand.

“Sorry! I'm just very excited about this. As you can see, I'm helping out today! We have a few different types of tea if you're interested! I can tell you all about them, Cossette's mother- she's such a lovely cosset, she showed me some baby pictures of Cossette and they were so cute- blended them herself! We have two floral blends, two fruity blends, and there's one blend that's more of a green tea with some hints of mint!”

Yunhua pointed at each of the teapots on her tray as she spoke, each decorated with a different pattern of painted cosmos flowers.

Theodore spoke up, handing his teacup over to Yunhua.

“The green tea for me, please?”

Yunhua nodded eagerly, taking his cup. Picking up one of the teapots, she carefully poured a cup. Elegantly lifting the teapot as she poured, a smooth stream of tea slowly filled the cup, a faint but soothing fragrance emerging from the porcelain. She carefully lowered the teapot as she finished the pour, ensuring no stray drops escaped the spout or slid down the side of the cup. With a satisfied smile, she pushed the teacup back to Theo, before picking up a small green flag attached to a weighted base, setting it down on the table.

Oros leaned forward, examining the teapots.

“What other types of tea do you have?”

Yunhua grinned again, before pointing to each teapot in turn.

“So for florals, we have a chamomile with notes of honey and vanilla, and a lavender with hibiscus and lemon zest! For fruity, we have a peach with citrus extract, and a strawberry-raspberry.”

Oros tapped as his chin briefly, tail swishing behind him as he thought.

“I'll try the lavender, please?”

Yunhua nodded, taking his teacup and pouring another careful cup, before placing it down before him. Grabbing a purple flag, she set it down next to the orange flag, and cheerfully waved at the two.

“I've gotta go keep serving, but have fun! There's some party games over that way once you've finished your snacks, so make sure you enjoy yourselves!”

She departed with her tray of teapots, swiftly and gracefully moving back into the rhythm of the servers and the bustle of the guests.

Oros raised his teacup to Theodore, grinning.

“To Cossette's merryday, then?”

Theo smiled slightly, raising his own teacup to Oros's and lightly clinking the rims together.

“To Cossette's merryday.”

The two took their first sip of tea in unison as a server with a tray of cookies approached, signaling the start of a joyful partytime.