Dragon of the Sweet Sea

How food carving brings people together

The tiny apartment was bursting with plants in all colors of the rainbow.

No. What had looked like plants at first sight was actually fruit and vegetables, carved into an explosion of shapes and forms: yellow chrysanthemums, pink and white roses, an orange pumpkin fox, a turtle with a shell made of several slices of passion fruit and a snowy white crane with wings blushed red. There were even faces in pale green and blue that reminded Vivi of those masks they sold to patrons at Carnival Night. Each and every sculpture was preserved in its own cryo container.

She whirled around to the inhabitant. "We were wondering why you never come out to the bar. These must have taken so much time to create!"

Embarrassed, Nuqita ran one webbed hand over her blue-scaled hairless head. "I like carving. It is calming and it reminds me of home."

"Did you learn on Gani then? I've never seen or heard of this skill before. I bet old Balashab would kill to get some of those for the casino."

Even before she'd finished speaking, Vivi knew she'd made a mistake. Raising both hands, she stepped closer to Nuqita but the Quiendh had narrowed her black eyes and retreated.

"I'm sorry," Vivi muttered. Nuqita never invited others into her apartment and here she was, trampling all over that hospitality with her big mouth!

Eventually, Nuqita sighed and motioned towards the small coffee table in the corner. Vivi almost hadn't noticed it under the large bouquet of tropical fruit shaped into flowers and leaves. She sat hastily while still wringing her hands in her lap.

"Every day I enter the aquarium and play up my exotic appearance, I seduce patrons with my dancing and my eyes because I have to. This," she gestured at herself, her deep blue scales and webbed hands and gills, "belongs to M. Balashab. My carving does not. Maybe it is the last thing that belongs only to me. I want to keep it that way."

"That was stupid of me," Vivi agreed. "It's just… The waitstaff barely earns minimum wage. It's probably the same for you too, right? I hate it! I wish we could escape this awful system that keeps exploiting us but… I just don't know how."

"I do not know either."

They sat in silence. After two, three breaths Nuqita served hibiscus tea and they talked of other things. Vivi still didn't know if her friend had forgiven her but when she stood to leave, Nuqita took a container that had been hidden behind a squirrel and a tiny palm tree and brought it over.

It was a dragon. A pale green-blue sea dragon with a shimmering scaly body, clawed feet and long slender whiskers trailing in the air. "What…"

Nuqita pushed it into her hands. "This is for you. For your hair," blushing, Vivi tugged at her turquoise strands, "and for our friendship. I had fun today."

"Are you sure? I can't…" How odd that she could spew the dumbest things but words deserted her when it truly mattered. "Thank you. This means so much to me."

Together, they might find their way to a place where they didn't have to hide and keep things to themselves anymore, Vivi thought as she carried the dragon back to her own sleeping pod.