[Day 3 - Dawn/Early Morning] Ain't Duty Grand

[Usagi Zenko]

Zenko appears again, a little earlier this time having taken a cue from Cook, ready once more for making the morning meal. Whatever else was going on, everyone would need to eat.

He itched the back of his head a bit, a bit unhappy he couldn't bathe every day.

[Agasha Qian-Fan]

Apparently bathing this morning had been something Qian-Fan had made time for as his hair was still wet as he stepped into the galley. With a little bounce as well, contact with water having made him happy as per usual. If Kaimenko was around she would have probably described it as 'swishing' or 'flouncing'. A quick bow.

"Good morning, Usagi-san! What do we have today?"

[Usagi Zenko]

He turns and gives a bow. "Ah, nothing yet, Agasha-sama, unless Cook has made breakfast before I even start my duties." He offers a smile, "It should be ready in...oh, half an hour at least."

[Agasha Qian-Fan]

A bright smile beamed back.

"Ah good. Time to read before my duty shift then. A rare occurrence."

He made his way over to the tables and took a seat. The almost ever present book was produced from his belt and he began to read.

[Volsung]

Cook came trundling into the galley again, a large collection of dried fruits held in her apron. She looks up at Zenko and the Agasha and does an odd bow/curtsy so she doesn't lose her produce all over the floor. Then she trundles past both and sets the fruits down on a counter space. "Usagi-sama. Would you please arrange that on a plate to be ready to be served. The stove is working fantastically since you fixed it. Better than when I got a Monk of Shinsei to bless it after I beat him at riddles." She smiled at the Usagi.

[Usagi Zenko]

Zenko nods, moving to get a plate and start arranging the dried fruit. "Oh? Won in a riddle contest? Now there must be a tale."

He seems in quite a fine mood, especially at the praise from his possibly self-imposed sensai.

[Agasha Qian-Fan]

The Agasha looked up from his reading to smile at the happy Hare. He might have acquired a strange nickname from the crew, but he seemed enthusiastic to help all the same.

[Volsung]

"Oh hai. We had one of those worldly monks on board, Captain was taking them from Crane lands to Phoenix lands. Well the man had a love for riddles and was always cackling and qworking about the ship and making a nuisance of himself with riddles and chasing poor Salt and Pepper all over the deck." She shook her head slowly.

"Well one day the man decides to mouth off about my food, and I've never hit a holy man in my life but by the Kami was I tempted to that day. So I figured he liked riddles and I challenged him to a contest of wits. His riddles against mine. Well this was the most promise of excitement most of the crew had had for the whole trip. We both set up on a calm day out on the foredeck and started trading riddles. Back and forth we went for a whole hour, and each time we'd get a little more obscure."

Cook grinned. "Finally though, I hit him with this one. 'Five brown horses on a red hill, they clamp, they stamp, and then they stand still. What are they?' Well the monk chuckled at first, thinking he knew the answer. Then he stopped, and pondered, and kept on pondering for a whole hour before he finally gave up." Cook was laughing at this point in time. "So I told him. 'It's Knot's mouth!' And there was Knots, smiling with all his five brown teeth in his head!"

[Usagi Zenko]

"Bwahhahaha.." Zenko guffahed at that. "Goes to show you, worldly doesn't mean you have anything extra between your ears, eh?" He shakes his head, grabbing a second plate to continue arranging the dried fruit. "Salt and Pepper though? Who are they?"

[Volsung]

Cook smiled. "Story isn't done yet Usagi-sama." She coughed a little. "Now where was I. Oh yes. Well after that the monk had to chuckle and asked me what favor I would have of him. I told him to bless my stove to always make the best of food. After he did that, he disappeared during the night. All we found in his cot was a black feather." Cook nods sagely as she finishes her story.

"Now then. As for Salt and Pepper. They're..." She looked around the floor. "Ah, where'd they go? Little rascals must be off harassing somebody." She didn't look particularly concerned over that. "They're ferrets. Mice catchers."

[Usagi Zenko]

"Ohhh...a black feather?" he blinks a few times. "One of the kenku, you mean? Or a bird spirit? That's two stories of bird spirits I've heard in almost that many of days..."

He shakes his head..."Ferrets? Huh...I wonder how I've missed them up to now."

[Agasha Qian-Fan]

Qian-Fan looks up again from his reading.

Ferrets? I thought we had kittens?

He carefully looks around as if expecting a ferret to appear from under his feet or something.

[Volsung]

Cook grins as the Usagi understands the story and winks to him in amusement before she moves on. "Hai, ferrets. One black and one white. They're sneaky little buggers when they want to be. They'll turn up when they think they can sneak a meal though."

[Usagi Zenko]

He nods at that. "I'll keep an eye out then." He offers a smile, and goes back to work for awhile.

Stifling a yawn with the back of one hand, he stretches after a little while, before getting out a third plate and arranging the fruit on that as well. "I'm remembering a story about a monk who'd visited the shrine to Inari, back at Shiro Usagi. No bird spirit, as far as any of us knew. Was a bit of an odd character though."

[Volsung]

Cook grins. "I love hearing stories, Usagi-sama. Any chance I can win it out of you with a bribe of food?"

[Agasha Qian-Fan]

The Agasha gave up all pretense of reading and looked alertly at the Usagi. It seems that Rabbit Story Time would have a rapt audience.

[Usagi Zenko]

"Hmmm...." he thinks on this a bit. "How about instead, one of these mornings you help me with a traditional Hare breakfast for the crew? As much of one as can be made with the ingredients at hand, at least..." He smiles at his counter offer, thinking back on his homeland and the many meals he's enjoyed there.

[Volsung]

Cook frowned, looking at the Hare hard for several moments before she finally relented. "Very well, Usagi-sama. I look forward to learning new techniques."

[Usagi Zenko]

Zenko grins broadly. "No worries! Its just something that has a bit of a...kick to it." He shakes his head, rearranging the fruit on the current plate, not liking it for some reason.

"So this monk, a real tall fellow stopped by one autumn. Great big bushy eyebrows, and nary another hair on his head." he holds up a hand up above his head a good ways.

"He tells us that he's traveling to all of the shrines to Inari in the Empire, one by one, in random order. Had been doing it for fifteen years already, crossing and then crossing again. He carries this great big pot, with a bunch of stones in it, that have the locations of all the shrines known to the Brotherhood." He holds out his hands to show the size of the pot. "When he arrived he sat down in front and took the stone out for our shrine, throwing it over his shoulder. Then he came in blessing the shrine."

[Volsung]

Cook frowned. "Doesn't seem right to take a stone from a shrine without permission or a blessing first. Even if he was a monk." Cook looks to the Agasha then. He was the Shugenja, he would know more about this.