#this is why kids shouldn't be allowed to travel alone to murderous dungeons

[starswordartblog]

[Late for @oc-growth-and-development‘s OCtober prompts, day 22: Discovery. Uni and Nathan continue to find materials for magical clothing in weird ways. btw please don’t attempt to eat cotton.]

It had been a terrible adventure. Neither of the brothers wanted to talk about it, dragging their feet across town, hoping to get home as soon as possible. Uni's eyes turned lazily from side to side of the street, hoping to find something to talk about and distract themselves with, because their collective bad mood was really a bummer right now.

His gaze fell on the familiar building of Charming Taylor's, the best place in town for enchanted clothing and charms, and the only dude who would take Nathan's ridiculous tailoring requests —hey can you make me a coat that only covers half my body?— seriously, probably because a dude called Charming can't really complain on others being weird. That was an old joke already though, so Uni didn't feel like bringing it up again. His eyes turned to the poster pinned at the building's wall. Uni had seen a few times, a painting of some super rare cotton Taylor would pay a fortune for...

"Ah!" Uni screamed as everything finally clicked together on his head, grabbing Nathan by the shoulders and shaking him. "Nathan, I remember now, why those plants we picked up were so familiar!"

"What the hell?" Nathan shouted, pushing Uni's arms away. Uni just floated over him to the poster, pointing at it, his brother slowly coming over, grumbling as he readjusted his backpack that Uni had messed up with the whole shaking thing.

"What's it, wasn't that always here?" he glanced at the writing under the painting. "Labyrinth Cotton, very rare and powerful for enchantment, will buy any amount for good price... Wait, you think it's the same plant we found on those crates?"

"Looks like it, doesn't it? I think I still have some with me!" Uni opened the pouch on his waist and quickly took out a lump of light green cotton with shiny crimson leaves, a bit torn at various points, probably because he had shoved it on his bottomless pouch without any care.

"Why did you take so much of it?"

"Soft," was all the reasoning Uni needed. Nathan had the same habit of hoarding random trinkets from adventures so who was he to argue. "And guess I was right," he puffed his chest, "we might get some good money from Taylor with this thing!"

"Yeah sure, why not," Nathan shrugged, and they went inside.

The store was small, with wooden walls of a rich brown color, and one window at each side, which helped to make it less dark. Two mannequins stood at each side of the door, sporting a variety of outfit styles, and further on to the right were a few necklaces and brooches displayed under glass, with shiny plaques describing their magical effects.

To the left were the counter, and behind it, Charming Taylor himself, a young man with short and neat brown hair and fine clothes that displayed his skills as much as any mannequin. Because there seemed to be no customers around, he quickly stopped Nathan and Uni entering and greeted them with a wave and a big smile.

"Oh, Truefire brothers! It has been a while hasn't it, how can I help-" and then he jumped back with a gasp upon spotting the plant in Uni's hands.

"Hi, Mr. Taylor, we found some of this cotton you're looking for!" said Uni, extending his arms to show him the precious item up close while resisting the urge to laugh at his dramatic antics, for he was a very good business boy about to conduct some very good business and get some very good business money.

"That's, that's fantastic! May I appraise it?" he asked with his hands already on the lump, a slip of manners that Uni would kindly overlook for now, handing him the plant. "It's not fresh, and a bit damaged, but definitely still usable, and it's been so long since I could find it.” He laughed. “Ironically, while it's fantastic for defensive enchantments now, the plant is very delicate before fully maturing. It needs a controlled environment that's sadly beyond my skills."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

"And to think it tasted that bad," grumbled Nathan.

Taylor froze in place, blinking a few times, eyes wide and mouth making some confused noises. Yeah sure, Uni knew that must have sounded weird, but it hadn't been him starving on the worse dungeon of their lives which by the way Uni did not want to think about! "So," he tried to get the conversation back in track, "you can make enchanted clothing out of this then?"

"Of course!" Taylor snapped back to a smile, perhaps a bit too tense and loud to be genuine. "A resistant fiber well conductive to almost every enchantment, making it more versatile to work with than most armors, and light enough to be worn comfortably by pretty much anyone! To most people, it's the ultimate equipment!"

'So please stop cooking it', Uni could imagine the silent pleading on his eyes, which was so unnecessary. They had tried a bite in desperation, not a whole buffet. But it was funnier when people thought they were that stupid, so Uni made zero attempts to undo that misunderstanding.

"Wait," Nathan said, "if you made clothing with this, would it be green or red?"

"Oh? Well the natural color of the fiber is light green as you see," Taylor explained, tracing a finger over the cotton, "it should get a little darker after processing, but it can be easily enchanted to be of any color once ready."

"That's great, we can make something for Moira then!"

"Moira?" Uni tilted his head, but then it clicked. "Ah, yeah! Because she's always complaining her clothes are all red and pink with Mirian's enchantments! She won't need that if we give something just as strong!"

They both turned back to Taylor, grinning. "Can you make something then?" Nathan asked.

"Most certainly." Taylor seemed to have relaxed a little, back to his polite mannerisms and a gentle smile. "This isn't enough material for a full piece, but I'm sure I can manage it with the rest of my supplies, and for providing even this much I can give you a great discount. To confirm, it will be a gift to Moira Owen, sister of Mirian Owen, right?" They nodded. "I have made custom orders for both before, so that should make things easier. Any ideas on the design?"

"On the what?"

"What it will look like, Nathan," Uni replied. Of course he had jumped at the opportunity of making a gift without knowing a thing about it. Uni never figured out why people were against being a third wheel, lovestruck dorks are so funny to watch. "I guess Mr. Taylor can help if he already knows Moira."

"I surely can."

"Cool, I mean, you're the clothing expert so I guess that's better. Moira's gonna look pretty in anything anyway," Nathan shrugged, somehow saying the smoothest thing without a trace of embarrassment. Uni knew that would change immediately if anyone pointed out, and was tempted to do so, but decided to play the long game. It would be much better to tell Moira all about it later.

It would take these dorks like, thirty years to make her his official sister-in-law at their rate, but they were already family in every way that mattered so it was all great.