Page 8 of The SnowFang Storm

I stirred out of my research. “Nothing yet. How do I verify the seal on a birth certificate copy is legitimate?”

Cye turned over a red pepper. “You think it wasn’t?”

“I think this is a scam.”

Cye weighed three red peppers in a single hand.

“You think I should have tossed all of it?” I asked.

Cye put one pepper down and the other two went into the basket. He picked up three more to examine. “I don’t know. Jun and Burian think you and Sterling need to hold still and then everything will go back to normal.”

Normal being how things had been before I’d shown up. “And what do you think?”

He shook his head sadly. “I don’t know.”

“Excuse me.” Hamid stepped into the conversation. “You could ask Vital Records if the certificate looks legitimate.”

Good idea. There was a Vital Records building in the city. They’d be able to take one look at the copy I had and tell me if it looked proper. We could make a stop on our way back to the flat, and I could dispose of this matter and turn my attention to things with teeth.

[Jun] >> CHEESY PUFFS.

Those were already on Cye’s list. Cye’s list included a large assortment of junk food.

[Jun] >> And someone ate my lemon cookies. The ones I had hidden.

Whoops.

Winter [Jun] >> That was me.

[Jun] >> Damn. You ate all of them?

Winter [Jun] >> Yes.

[Jun] >> Burian wants marshmallows. Big ones. Pink.

“Cye, do they make big pink marshmallows?” I had only ever seen white marshmallows.

“Oh, Burian wants marshmallows?” Cye clutched lettuce heads to his chest and his eyes shone bright.

“But do pink marshmallows exist?”

Cye nodded vigorously.

“Do they taste different or something?”

“Well, when I make them I might put some flavoring in them, but the ones Burian wants are just pastel pink.”

“You can make marshmallows in a kitchen?”

“Of course!”

Well, pat me on the head and call me a bumpkin, you could make homemade marshmallows?! “I thought they had been created by modern science and needed ingredients created in a lab.”

Cye laughed. “No, they’re just sugar, cornstarch, and gelatin.”

This was a revelation that took a few minutes to sink in. Marshmallows seemed so unnatural. They were like the sweet, squishy cousin of Jun’s much loved cheese puffs, or cheese-in-a-can. Not that I objected to cheese puffs or cheese-in-a-can or marshmallows, but the sheer fact that they could possibly be organic seemed impossible.

[Jun] >> And hot chocolate packets.

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