West smacked Chad's arm to get his attention and pointed to the tomato stand.
"Not my favourite food, but I can definitely get behind tomatoes for lunch. Better than starving at least." Chad's stomach growled loudly again and he looked down before biting out, "You shut up. I said we weren't starving today."
West snickered before grabbing Chad's arm to drag him to the tomato vendor. Beyond the head of long curly wool and odd sheep ears, Chad begrudgingly took note of her "be vegan, stop climate change" shirt and attempted not to roll his eyes.
"Hi! I'm Megan, what can I do for you two boys today?" The cheerful black sheep girl greeted as Chad and West got closer.
"Well, don't you just sell tomatoes? That's what I get from the sign anyways," Chad questioned, pointing to the crudely painted "tomatoes" sign.
"Well, I guess you're right, but it never hurts to ask anyway."
Chad looked at West who shrugged before speaking. "Um, gimme a second."
As West pulled out his very expensive and somehow still intact phone, he unlocked the screen and went to pull something up. Chad tapped his foot awkwardly for a few seconds.
"So," Chad drawled. "Do you really not sell anything other than tomatoes?"
"Well, there is one other thing, but I try not to bring it up. It upsets a lot of people which sure puts a damper on business," Megan replied.
"Oh come on, it can't be that bad. It isn't like you're selling human meat or something, is it?"
"Hm, you two sure don't know the customs here too well. You must be new, what did you do that the king sent you here if you don't mind me asking?"
"I mean, I asked you a question first but the fact that you don't know that I'm the prince is just insulting enough for me not to care right now. I'm here on-" Chad paused for a second. "Official business. Now answer my question lamb girl."
"I'm a sheep actually, and I'm so sorry your majesty! I didn't mean to offend," Megan apologised before dropping her voice to a whisper. "I also carry fresh fish that my boyfriend brings in. He catches it daily so I sell whatever he can't on the mainland. You must have met him on your way here."
"Oh yeah?" West piped in, still looking for something.
"I sure hope not, everyone we've met so far sucks," Chad murmured just loud enough for himself and West to hear, earning him a jab in the ribs.
"Yep! His name is Samson, he operates the row boat that takes people to the island. No one ever visits the island though so business that way isn't too good."
Both boys tensed at the mention of the less than pleasant fish man.
"That guy!?" Chad exclaimed, earning yet another elbow to the ribs from West. Chad cleared his throat. "Oh yeah, he brought us to the island. Uh, great guy, good company."
Chad glanced over at West still scrolling through his phone and then off into the distance on his opposite side. At this point, Chad's body was still rigid as he stood in front of the seemingly kind sheep girl. She seemed nothing like the grouchy fish guy they had met on their way over.
"West for the love of Caesar, what is taking you so long!?" Chad snapped, hoping to get away from the stand before Samson returned.
"Dude, I'm looking for a recipe. The signal out here is garbage, your dad really needs to fix that." West replied, still staring at his phone.
Chad looked at West in bewilderment "Bro, you know how my dad feels about the vegans, he’d probably execute me just for bringing it up!"
West rolled his eyes at the statement. "At this point I think your dad would take any reason to have you executed, remind me again why he hates you so much?"
"Well it all started when my mom got pregnant-"
"Hey, I’m sorry to interrupt, but are you going to actually buy anything?" Megan cut in, surprising the two boys who had both forgotten she was there.
At that moment, West lit up, thankful he could finally steer the conversation in a less awkward direction.
“Ah, sweet! The recipe loaded! Okay we’re gonna need...” West paused awkwardly to once again check the recipe, “Uh, twenty four tomatoes.” West continued to look over the recipe while Megan packaged them for the boys.
"Oh, Karpos help us," the sheep girl whispered under her breath as she counted to make sure she had enough quality tomatoes to give to the boys.
"Who the fuck is Karpos," Chad stage whispered to West.
West looked at his friend and shrugged. Megan tilted her head and looked at the two boys, mouth agape. While still silently trying to convey her confusion to the boys, she handed a bag of a dozen semi-decent looking tomatoes to West.
"Shit, that's a lot of tomatoes." The boy muttered to himself.
"You've really never heard of Karpos?" Megan asked, bewildered. Both boys shook their heads. "Vegan god?"
Chad and West glanced at each other before looking back at Megan. They both shrugged.
"You two seriously don't know about the god of fruit? The one who enhances fruit production, really?"
"Look, we really don't know anything, sorry," West replied.
"Yeah, why are you talking about the god of fruits anyway?"
Megan then handed Chad his own bag of a dozen tomatoes before continuing.
"He is my patron god. Tomatoes are fruit so-"
"Wait, what!?" Chad interrupted.
"Tomato is a fruit?" Megan repeated slowly. "Did you not know that?"
"No I didn't know that! What the fuck do you mean tomato is a fruit! Tell me she's lying bro!"
"No, she's telling the truth. It's been scientifically proven," West replied.
"That's disgusting!" Chat cried before giving the information time to set in. "Well, since my whole life is a lie, why was it again that you were talking about the fruit god or whatever?"
"Well, considering you two boys are buying out a math textbook worthy amount of tomatoes, I'm going to need help from Karpos to replenish my inventory. Karpos helps to watch over my crops along with the other vegans out here who grow fruits and sees that the production runs quickly and smoothly. He also makes sure that our fruits are healthy so it's good to ask him for help every now and then."
"Huh, interesting," West chimes, nodding in understanding.
"Okay," Chad added as he stared off into the distance.
Megan nodded. "Nice guy, really assuring, although his sister Lichaniká can make his words sound pretty threatening in a weird way."
She stared off into the distance with her brows raised in worry.
"Okay, now who is Lichaniká?" West asked, now very confused at the mention of the new name.
Megan shook her head to rid her thoughts and looked back at the boys. "You'll have to ask someone else about her, I'm not one to make mention of her too often."
Having finally finished her explanation, Megan gave them both a large, if not a bit concerned-looking smile.
"That will be eighty-four metrits."
“Eighty four metrits?! That’s a crime, in what world do two dozen tomatoes cost eighty four bucks?!” West ranted, knowing the ins and outs of grocery buying through volunteer work he did with his parents. At least, that's what he thought.
It was now Chad's turn to jab West in the ribs in warning. "Bro, for a Westly, you sure are acting like a Karen."
West looked down with a sad smile. "I get it from my mom. But that's besides the point! Eighty four metrits?!"
Megan cocked her head with a concerned smile. She didn't often have to deal with the horrors most face in customer service, so this odd interaction left her at a bit of a loss.
"I'm pretty sure these are the lowest prices you're going to find anywhere. You two are just buying a lot of tomatoes," she said.
West bit the inside of his cheek to keep from saying something too harsh and looked off into the distance. Chad looked at the sheep girl with empathy as West muttered angrily to himself.
"Bro, take a chill pill. Usually this works the other way around," Chad jeered, pointing between himself and his bro as he spoke before pulling out his wallet. He pulled out the two sole hundred metrit bills and gave them to Megan. "Keep the change."
Megan brightened slightly as she took the money from Chad's hand. "Thank you so much, have a great day you two," she beamed.
Chad waved as he pushed West away from the stand.
"You too, put in a good word to the gods for us, would ya?" Chad called as he walked further away with his tense friend. "Well that was terrible."
"You're telling me. I mean really, eighty-four fucking metrits! That's insane! Honestly, trying to weasel us out of that kind of cash it's no wonder she's with that grumpy fish prick," West ranted, arms flying out animatedly in rage.
Chad flinched back, eyeing his best bro.
"Dude, come on. She's not that bad, she's just trying to make a living. You did ask for a lot of tomatoes," Chad reasoned, holding up his bag of twelve tomatoes for emphasis.
West huffed before crossing his arms then began muttering to himself. Acutely aware of their time limit, Chad knew he couldn't just stand there and watch West glower at the ground kicking rock from under his foot. With that in mind, the boy moved in front of West and grabbed his shoulders, giving them a comforting squeeze. Chad then tapped West's cheek, making him look at the former.
"Bro, it's fine. If you think about it, we were only paying like…" after an awkwardly long time staring off into space, Chad pulled out his phone and opened up the calculator app. "3.50 per tomato. I don't think that's a lot?"
"Mom has taken me to volunteer at a few stores before and I have never seen anyone pay those kinda prices for tomatoes!"
Chad deadpanned. "How many people have you actually seen buying tomatoes? And actually, that's not important! Bro, we're rich! Who the fuck cares how much some random vegan chick on the side of the street is charging us for tomatoes!?"
"Yeah, whatever," West murmurs, earning him another shoulder squeeze.
"Chill. It's nothing, okay bro? You'll survive having to buy tomatoes and you'll survive buying whatever else we need."
West nodded, finally losing his stuck up attitude. "Yeah, okay."
"Thank you, now let's get going," Chad sighed as he started walking again. "What do you wanna make with all these tomatoes anyway?"
Before West could answer, the boys heard rustling from the bushes and out waddled… some type of animal probably. The boys sure couldn't tell. Both boys screeched at the top of their lungs.
"What the fuck are you!?" exclaimed West.
"Money, now," the raccoon-bunny-turkey-thing stated.
"Oh Caesar! It's Samson 2.0!" Chad shouted, shielding his face for protection. "West, kill it!"
"What!? I can't hurt an animal!" West replied before promptly getting aggressively scratched in the shin.
The boy hissed, cursing loudly before dropping his tomatoes and hopping backwards to avoid more attacks.
The hybrid took a step before fully lunging herself at West, latching onto his shoulder. She bit into it before sending a flurry of scratches down the length of West's arm, reopening his other wound in the process. West's anguished screams mixed with Chad shouting, "shit! Shit! Shit!" To create an ear splitting warning for anyone nearby and West slammed the hybrid to the ground. He contemplated kicking her like a soccer ball off into the distance but hesitated, feeling bad about her still just being an animal.
This gave the creature just enough time to get back to her feet and go to lung for Chad only to be met with West's hand blocking her. She immediately bit West's hand up to the wrist, causing him to flail his arm to get her off. With every switch of his arm's direction, the hybrid just dug her teeth in deeper to the point where West could hardly feel his fingers anymore. During all the commotion, she managed to also leave a pretty deep cut down half of West's chest, letting even more blood soak into his hoodie. Chad only continued to cower behind West, not entirely sure what to do and West smacked his bitten arm against the ground. The hybrid animal finally released her hold on the poor boy's arm and growled at him.
"Okay, okay! We give!" West shouted, almost in tears and bleeding profusely from his wounds. "Take whatever you want."
Unable to stand on his tired, injured leg, West slumped to the ground in defeat. He hung his head as the raccoon/turkey/bunny hybrid waddled (much like a bunny from Max and Ruby) up to the forgotten bag of tomatoes. Opening the bag, she began inspecting each tomato before leaving a single bit in each one before putting them back in the bag.
Making her way over to Chad, his eyes widened and he froze in fear. With shaky hands, Chad handed his bag of tomatoes to the clearly unstable hybrid. She did the same with his bag before beginning to waddle away as if none of the previous events had just occurred.
"W-wait," Chad sputtered and the hybrid turned around. "Who a-are you? What's your n-name?"
"Look for the wanted posters," she replied before walking back into the bushes and out of their lives, hopefully forever.
After the mysterious hybrid was out of sight, Chad dejectedly looked at the bags of ruined tomatoes and fell to his knees. "No! Our food! I'm still gonna eat 'em, I'm starving."
West once again hissed in pain and cursed under his breath. Whipping his head over in his friend's direction, Chad finally let the damage he took process and his eyes grew wide again.
"West! Great Caesar, are you okay!? Man, I hope you're up to date on your shots. I'm so sorry!" Chad rambled as he quickly shuffled over to his friend on his knees. "Your arm is bleeding again! And after we just patched it up too. Everything else looks so painful too."
West looked over to his now cut ridden arm and found the gauze to have been ripped to shreds and basically gone completely from his arm. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Also OW! This hurts like a bitch!"
"We have to find you a hospital or something, come on!"
With that, Chad attempted to awkwardly maneuver around all West's newly sustained injuries to lift him back to his feet. With a lot of difficulty and help, West was finally standing. He needed to lean on Chad since not only was his leg in too much pain for West to properly walk on, but he was starting to get light headed from the blood loss and lack of food as well. After getting their bearings, Chad began to lead West in the direction of where he thought someone would be able to help.
"I think those wizards said a doctor lived over this way," Chad murmured.
A/n: Consider voting if you like it.