Ahmond tilted her head, staring at the three supposed adults in front of her, all of which had their heads on the counters. Their depression countered the otherwise cheerful vibe of the pink countertops and tables of the ice cream shop.

"What's going on?" she asked, staring at the three of them, feeling like poking one to detect a pulse or any sign of not death. But she got only groans in return.

Vanos finally spoke up, "It's that time of the month again. And you know what that means." Ahmond's eyes widened.

"You mean we have to attend the poetry recital?"

"What, no, that's my thing!" Vanos said. "When did you have a problem with a poetry recital?"

She stared at him blankly, and he growled. "Anyway, it's time for all three of us to come up with some creation, a food item, and winner gets on the menu."

"Sounds like a fun game," Ahmond said. "I'm going to guess that none of you have any ideas?"

"No, it's more like we don't have any judges," Mosor said. "We can't simply introduce all three to the menu. It's not practical at least."

Ahmond's eyes went to the ceiling as she thought. "I've got it," she said, her tail wagging. "I'll simply get my friends and we'll figure out who has the best dish."

Kyofi said, "I didn't know you made friends already. You have a little brat squad you're running around with?"

"I think you guys keep forgetting I'm in my forties," she muttered. For dragons, that was roughly the equivalent of a teenager for some other species. Later teenager.

"When you're fifty, then we'll talk," Kyofi said. "Anyway, run along and bring your little friends back, okay?" She waved a dismissive paw at her. Ahmond groaned and ran off.

Kyofi said, "I love messing with her." The other two laughed as they liked messing with Ahmond too.

***

"Alright, welcome to the first annual-"

"We do this every month, Ahmond-"

"Alright, welcome to Dessert Games," Ahmond said, shooting Kyofi a dirty look. With her was a small hyena and a crimson. Crimsons being a race of weasel-like creatures, with long narrow bodies, and highly advanced fingers and toes. They were naturally padded and had great flexibility.

"This is Lilu," Ahmond said, pointing to the hyena. "And this is Rosod," she said as she pointed to the crimson.

"Our main customers are roughly your age," Vanos said, then presented a bowl of ice cream for their tasting.

"And what has our chef made for us today?" Ahmond asked as she looked over at the concoction.

Vanos said, his head high and swelling, "This is my best dish yet. Imagine two scoops of fine vanilla." He made a sweeping gesture with his arm as he presented the dish. "Topped with a cherry and a drizzling of warm fudge, with dissolved marshmallows."

"And what is the name of your dish?" Ahmond asked, keeping up her best presentation voice like speaking for national television.

Vanos said, "Celestial Delight." Kyofi made a gagging gesture, and Lilu laughed. Vanos looked at Kyofi, but Kyofi's face returned to normal.

Lilu sniffed the ice cream, and said, "Ice cream might kill me if I actually had it. I can't eat that much, considering literally half of every draconic is lactose intolerant."

"No they're not," Vanos said. "I mean, we have hard times digesting milk most of the time, but it's perfectly safe to eat."

Rosod took a spoonful and bit into it. "Pretty good, I'd try it again. But seems kinda generic, like it would already be on the menu, right?" She laughed again.

Vanos scrunched his face in confusion, not knowing that Kyofi had her eyelid pulled down and her tongue sticking out. Getting the idea, he whipped around, and Kyofi wasn't pulling any faces.

"I know what you're doing," Vanos said. "You are going to stop, or I am going to have you instantly disqualified!"

"You don't have that power or authority," Kyofi said. With a shrug, Vanos went back to get Lilu's scoring.

Lilu took a small bite and said, "I guess it's okay. I'll say the same things that Rosod said about it."

"I'm getting the idea that child judges isn't exactly the best idea," Vanos said. Then Lilu laughed and Vanos shouted, "KYOFI!"

"Actually that time it was me," Mosor admitted. Vanos squinted his eyes at her, while Kyofi pulled down her eyelids again. This time, Vanos turned around to see the expression.

"I'm going to the backroom and that's that!" he shouted. In his histrionics, he shouted while walking up the stairs that, "I made the best dish I could. You're all upset that I made the best dish four months in a row, and none of you have had a win. Why, Grandma Sunday would be ashamed of all of you, uncouth, vulgar, unintelligent, brutish, jerks!"

Kyofi said back, "Put down the vocabulary cards, and read up on How to Not Be a Loser 101. It should be right next to the book of You Suck."

Ahmond said, "I'd join in the tasting, but I feel like since Vanos is my brother, and you two are only my cousins, it's pretty obvious... I wouldn't vote for him."

Kyofi said, "Smart kid."

Ahmond said, "Our next chef in this competition is Mosor, and she'll be presenting her own creation."

Mosor said, "Ahmond, please stop this little act." Ahmond grimaced, as Mosor presented a drink. "This is a blend of peanut butter, chocolate sauce, and bananas."

"Do you guys only make stuff that dires, like you, can't eat, is that what you like to do?" Lilu asked as she stared at the drink. She took a few sips and shook her head. "Does not work well."

Rosod had some and said, "I like it a lot."

Lilu said, "Fine, but I don't like it as much as I liked that yellow guy's. What's the last thing you got for us to try?"

Kyofi pulled out a donut. Then she dropped it on Vanos' dish and said, "It's a combination between ice cream, and a donut."

"That's not a creation, and you know it," Mosor said to Kyofi. Kyofi grinned at her cockily, and held up the donut.

"This is a marvelous invention," Kyofi said. "Why, I would never have thought of it myself, but there I was, thinking about how anything can be improved with donuts."

Lilu said, "Her invention wins." Rosod and Ahmond nodded.

Mosor said, "That's not fair! The rest of us had to experiment for days, and I did my best to find the right blend!"

Kyofi said, "Go upstairs with Vanos. Read up on How Not to Be a Loser 101. It's right next to the book-"

Mosor grabbed her drink and threw it at Kyofi, covering her in the sticky drink. It drizzled down over her eyes.

"You're dead," Kyofi said. Mosor's angry expression froze into a more scared one as she stared at her sister who was easily two feet taller.

***

"You didn't say we would get dinner and a show," Lilu said as she watched Kyofi chasing Mosor while Mosor ran over the tables.

"This looks good to you, but I have to clean this up. Part of my apprenticeship," Ahmond told them. She shook her head. "Man, did I join the wrong family business."

Vanos came back down. "May I remind you all that you're insane, unruly, unnatural, imbecilic, crude-"

Ahmond said, "Have you been complaining the entire time, Vanos? How do you have enough air for that?"

Mosor took an elegant leap, and her backpaw grazed the bowl before she safely landed behind the counter. The bowl tipped and shot forward two scoops of vanilla ice cream at Vanos' eyes.

Vanos couldn't see too well, but Ahmond grabbed some cherries on the counter and threw two at Vanos. They bounced off his head. "What the- Who was that?" His head thrashed.

Lilu said, "What you have to do is try and angle it like such." She taught Ahmond the basics before getting two bullseyes, giving Vanos cherries as pupils.

Kyofi dragged Mosor by her tail to the backroom. "Vanos, come in here, and we can deal with Mosor."

Mosor shook her head and did some quick thinking. She kicked her back leg at a cabinet, and the rumbling caused more tubs of ice cream to fall on Kyofi. Kyofi screeched and released Mosor as she was pelted with frozen dessert.

Ahmond said, "I like how this turned into a food fight."

Kyofi blinked, as did Vanos since he finally got the vanilla out of his eyes. "A food fight," Kyofi said. "That's not a half-bad idea."

***

"Welcome to the first annual-"

"We've been over this, kid."

"Welcome to the first monthly Ice Cream, Frozen Dessert, One for All and All for One, food fight of the month, hosted by Ahmond!"

Kyofi, Mosor, and Vanos stood in a triangle, only five feet apart from each other. Ahmond announced the rules.

"This is judged based on the creativity of how you beat your opponent with ice cream." She pointed to several tubs of ice cream that had fallen on Kyofi. "Sprinkles, cherries, anything you can think of."

Mosor and Vanos stared at each other at the start, before both pushed over Kyofi. Kyofi grunted and the two grabbed tubs of ice cream.

Kyofi came up and knocked into Vanos before forcing him on the ground. He tried kicking her off, but she grabbed a spoon. "You like two scoops of vanilla, right?"

Mosor followed her lead and scooped up some vanilla herself, and both dropped a scoop on Vanos' buttocks. Kyofi playfully drummed on the ice cream, and by extension, Vanos' bottom, while singing.

Ahmond said, "Point to both Mosor and Kyofi."

Mosor grabbed the chocolate fudge, and squirted it down on the tiled floor. Then she grabbed whipped cream, and sprayed it over the chocolate fudge to reduce friction.

Lilu said, "Seems like Mosor's preparing to do something. But it doesn't take that much for a plan to fail."

Kyofi released Vanos and grabbed a tub of mint ice cream. "Thankfully all of this is borderline expired, right?"

"I'm not an idiot," Mosor said. "Nor am I wasteful, that stuff I knocked over was all basically about to go expired soon." But she stared out at the window, mumbling.

Kyofi shrugged, but Vanos slipped out from under her, and uppercutted the mint ice cream, that way it went into the face of Kyofi.

Kyofi backed up, startled by that sudden chill. Vanos set up two jars of cherries in front of Mosor's slip and slide, before stepped on the counter.

Mosor jumped onto the counter. Vanos turned to face her, and Kyofi knocked over a pile of ice cream tubs. Whoever fell down would be soaked.

Vanos slapped at Mosor, but she ducked down, and hit his leg. Vanos slipped onto his front, and his leg hanged precariously over the edge of the counter. Mosor went and tried headbutting his ribs over into the mess.

Kyofi jumped over the ooze puddles. She landed on the counter, grabbed both, and did a double superplex on them. All three fell into the lake of ice cream, causing a splash.

"This is awesome!" Lilu said, and Ahmond beamed. This was certainly cementing her friendship with these two.

Kyofi got up on a table, and jumped down, doing a cannonball, landing buttfirst on Mosor's chest, taking her down for the count. Kyofi stood up on her hind legs, but Vanos pushed her over onto the jars of cherries. The jars shattered and she slid along the trail previously established by Mosor and slid out the glass doors.

Vanos stood victorious.

Ahmond said, "And our first ever winner of the food fight is Vanos, which means we're putting his dish on the menu."

Rosod said, "This seems like a bad way of deciding who has the best dessert idea, personally, but if this is how you do it."

Vanos said, "Okay, now, Ahmond, clean this up." Ahmond blinked but figured she didn't need to mess with the champion. Vanos added it to the menu.

Mosor muttered, "I better get cleaned up. But this will make an excellent addition to The Firefly Diary." Kyofi nodded, and Vanos came with meaning all three went home to wash up.

"Family left you behind," Lilu said, and Ahmond nodded. "Cool, well, I guess the rest of us did too." Lilu and Rosod left, and Ahmond blinked to herself. She began singing and mopping.