"I was sleeping for once." Flameswirl just yawned. "Does anyone have tea? It's too early for me."

Echo burst into the courtroom, breathing heavily.
"Sorry I'm late everyone, I had a *wheeze* I had a thing to do!" She unclipped her bag, taking out a few small bags of tea leaves.
She turned to Flameswirl. "You said you wanted tea, right? You want black and peach, green and lemon, or rose?"

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=98098&page=8#73 Author: Seek Time Posted: 6/7/2021 at 9:17 AM Niki strolls into the clearing. "I was cleaning through most of the night last night. My tiny cabin is a mess. I would like to say, my next-door neighbor, Echo, has an awfully noisy door. I heard it open and shut at least twice last night. I am very suspicious of her," Niki says, shooting Echo a glare.

"What were you doing last night yourself, if you heard Echo's door open?" Snekly asked. "Unless it was really noisy it shouldn't have awakened you."

Echo swished her tail "To be fair, my house is on the edge of the forest, far from most other villagers. If you didn't like the noise, putting your house right next to mine probably wasn't the smartest move."

"Even so, I make sure to lock my doors every night. After all, my house is stuffed with food, and I don't want anything from the woods getting in.
Especially yesterday."

Echo tipped her head at Niki. "I definitely heard you cleaning though, but how, I wonder, would you hear doors moving over all the racket you were making?"

She stood up now. "In fact, what makes you say it was a door making noise?"

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=98098&page=8#76 Author: Frostfire Time Posted: 6/7/2021 at 9:30 AM Echo swished her tail "To be fair, my house is on the edge of the forest, far from most other villagers. If you didn't like the noise, putting your house right next to mine probably wasn't the smartest move." "Even so, I make sure to lock my doors every night. After all, my house is stuffed with food, and I don't want anything from the woods getting in. Especially yesterday." Echo tipped her head at Niki. "I definitely heard you cleaning though, but how, I wonder, would you hear doors moving over all the racket you were making?" She stood up now. "In fact, what makes you say it was a door making noise?"

"Echo has a point with the final statement, Niki. What makes you think it was a door opening rather than the windows?" Snekly said. "However, Niki could probably hear door through the cleaning unless cleaning isn't a specialty of theirs. Most cleaning and tidying makes noise, yes, but it doesn't make enough noise to completely drown out any other..." Snekly trailed off. "Wait, you (Echo) said you had food in your house? Like, food as in watermelons, maybe?"

Echo brings her paws in front of her, flopping down on the ground, hard. "I know, and it's nice to have your company sometimes, but everything is stressful right now, with the death of Strawberry and-"

She stops talking abruptly and buries her head in her forearms.
When she looks up again, her eyes are sagging tiredly.
"And yeah, night hunting is a thing. To be honest, I seem to be doing a lot more night gathering these days. Like there are these little plants called moonlace, and they're really good for healing salves and potions."
Echo sighs from her place on the floor, "Unfortunately, it's not moonlace season right now."

Echo turned her attention to Snekly.
"That's a good question actually. Normally, I would brag about how I have anything anyone would possibly need." She laughed.
"Watermelons are one of the few exceptions though. They're not native to these woods. Regular sweet melons, sure, they're about as common as dirt. But watermelon? You'd need to go at least 3 days south for that."
Echo stretches, her spine popping. "No one has ordered watermelon in a while, so I'm out of stock. Even if someone did, melons in general spoil very easily, so there was no way for me to have a good melon for about a month"

"That's one of the reasons Strawberry was definitely murder. The watermelon was imported by someone, and," Echo turned, glaring at everyone, "whoever it was didn't go through me-"

"Which is really unfair, y'all! I know someone got killed, but still!! I pride myself on fast delivery and quality products, and the murderer didn't even have the courtesy to order the dang melon from me!"