Basilisa's tea

"Careful! This tea is very hot", said dragoness Basilisa the Beautiful while pouring some Chinese tea into a green coup. She was visited by our Pinky and Spiky gang who didn't have anything to do after eating some nice Chinese food.

Pinky said to Basilisa, "I like your teapot".

"My teapot is very special to me," said Basilisa. "My grandma gave it to me on my 180th birthday."

"You are so old...", said Spiky.

"Spiky, where are your manners? Everyone knows that dragons live for thousands of years. That's how they grow wise," said Pinky.

"Yes, wise and rich too," said Basilisa. "You see we dragons don't have any loans and mortages to worry about so we invest in cryptos and earn compound interest."

"So you are actually quite young then? Like a teenager?", asked Spiky again.

"More like a 6th grader...", said Basilisa.

"Oh I remember teaching 6th graders. They can be quite nasty. Never interested in learning about intervals and stuff." Pinky kicked Spiky under the table...

Victor sensing trouble asked Basilisa, "What kind of tea is this?"

"It is made from dried lotus leafs. Lotus frogs made them for me." said the dragoness.

Cornelius wanted to develop this subject further and asked, "Is it a fair trade tea?"

Basilisa said, "You talk too much. Drink up while the tea is hot."

But Spiky being an excellent reader of dragon's minds sensed a deflection and pressed Basilisa, "Come on, tell us. Did you pay the frogs fairly?" Pinky kicked Spiky even harder now.

"Ouch, Pinky! Why are you kicking me?", asked Spiky.

"I didn't kick you, Spiky...", said Pinky being quite red now.

Basilisa said, "You know, we dragons have very keen eyes and can see when somebody kicks or not. I'm certain you kicked Spiky twice now."

Pinky didn't know what to do and said, "OK, I kicked him because he was being impolite to you."

"Impolite? How so?", asked Basilisa.

"Well, he asked a politically sensitive question of a dragon being in her house forgetting the size of the hostess..."

"That's OK, I can answer it. You see, I payed the frogs fairly, I think. I bought them a vacation to exotic lands."

"Oh, that's very generous of you", said Pinky quite relieved now.

"Well yes, I sent them on a trip to South Africa."

"How nice. I want to see South Africa too," said Cornelius. "Did the frogs go alone?"

"Of course not. The're travelling with a group of storks!"