It only took half an hour to reach the edge of the city where, instead of simply flying in from the top, Beil landed a few wing widths away and walked up to stand in line at the gates.
There was a man who looked like a goose scratching on a clip board with a pen somehow being held in his thin wings like each feather was a finger, and noted who people were as each creature walked up. A toad man stepped up next.
"State your name and business."
"Phineas, looking to get home before nightfall."
The guard goose gave him a once over and wrote down their name and a brief visual description and motioned him forward. Up next was a weasel of sorts.
"State your name and business."
"I'm here for a personal matter," she declared and tightened her hold on the purse she was carrying. Goose man eyed her for a second.
"And what would that be, ma'am?"
"I said it was personal, can we leave it at that?"
"I'm afraid not, we need at least a basic description of the reason for entry, and I still need your name."
She sighed dramatically and handed him the bag outright. "Laura, and I'm delivering this."
Cautiously taking the bag, Goose man gingerly looked inside before his eyes went wide and he shut it a little too quickly. "Hurry along then, can't keep the expecting customer waiting." As took it back and moved to pass through the gate his eyes watched her a little more diligently than necessary before it was Beil and Nova's turn to step up.
"Pardon the intrusion," Beil spoke calmly and Goose man jumped and whipped his head around in surprise. It was almost like he had forgotten why he was standing there. What was in that bag?
"Ah, right. Yes. 'State your name and business,' and all that."
He definitely didn't sound as professional anymore, and Nova eyed him carefully, which caused him to stare her down right back. She managed to win the staring contest when Beil started speaking again and the Goose went back into job mode.
"Beil and Nova, looking for entry to go shopping."
"What are you trying to purchase," he asked in a monotonous well practiced way, his eyes still drifting away from Beil and focusing more on hers. There was something about their icy blue hue that held his interest.
"Morphing garb, and basic supplies."
Goose nodded and jotted it down. "Anything to declare?"
"Why didn't you ask that to the last two people," she asked.
Goose man's eyes snapped to hers again. "I ask it when there is more than one Yokai attempting entry into Perennial at a time, or when I feel the need."
Nova decided not to antagonize the guy and make his job any harder and nodded. "Nothing to declare."
"Is the morphing garb for him or for you, " he asked her directly. Nova pointed at herself with her tail. "Can you please describe your second form?"
"Human."
"Really, well that's impressive, if it's true. Please shift into your human form for confirmation."
"I can't, we need the morphing garb because I don't have anything to wear as a human."
Goose man made a classic goose hissing sound in annoyance and pointed with his writing wing to a box on the edge of the gate. "There is a changing room for this reason, just shift in there and stick your head out so that I can see your face and you'll be in the clear."
Annoyed that this was turning out to be a whole process, and that she was causing a scene so that everyone else who had formed a line behind her was watching it all go down, Nova bitterly slithered off of Beil and held in a hiss of her own as she closed the changing room door behind her.
Shifting still hurt even though it was only into a human, but after a moment she stuck her head and one arm out to wave him down. It took an agonizingly slow couple of minutes of him letting a couple through before he saw her.
At first, when he registered her face, he was stunned. She was truly a beauty, and the power behind her eyes while as a snake was mildly intimidating had now trippled, trapping him in a stand still. All he wanted was to stare at her, figure out what game she was playing in life, and part of him drifted into a dangerous line of thinking for a moment before he forced himself out of it and he nodded so that she could duck back in and become a snake again, and afterwards she felt a little chilled, both from the cold and a sense of self conscious.
Climbing back up into Beil to warm up and feel a little more secure, something Goose man noticed and for some reason looked peeved about, the small party of two was moved inside quickly after all the waiting. Nova still felt his eyes on her, more then likely just like he had stared after the lady.
"Was it just me," she asked once they were out of hearing range, "or was he a little sketchy?"
"Yep."
That was about as informal as she had ever heard him speak and she wormed her head around his neck to look him in the eye.
"Just 'yep'?"
He looked calm but one of his eyes was twitching and she giggled softly.
"Never worked retail before?"
"Pardon?"
Oh right, he was seven-hundred years old...
"Oh boy, nope. I'm not sure how to explain it besides an agonizingly irritating service industry where you slave away for minimal payment and often have to deal with either incredibly rude or inappropriate people on a daily basis."
"Reminds me of war."
Nova choked out a laugh. "Eh heh, um, what?"
"Think about it for a moment: war may not be a service for money, most of the time, but you still have to stand besides creatures who make it their life goal to ruin yours, and they are supposed to be on your side of the fighting."
Nova nodded and went back to curl up in a ball. It made sense, sort of.
Either way that Goose man gave her the same feeling a creepy guy gives off like a bad odor. A slippery worm with bag intentions. She planned to avoid him as much as possible.
Relief from her thoughts appeared in the form of the city itself. It was massive, and busy, and the architecture was much more modern and advanced than the last towns she'd been to, for sure. It looked like a chunk of New York had been yanked out and plopped here, with smaller skyscrapers, more Eastern structural differences, and no ocean, but still. It felt similar to when her father had brought her from her little neighborhood to their own cityscape and they went shopping for her birthday.
Oh. Birthday. That was... actually coming up soon, for her old human self anyway...
Swallowing a weird lump that had stuck in her throat, Nova saw a pretty store along the road. It wasn't huge but it was one of several in the area, and unlike a stall, this one was a full building.
To her surprise Beil beelined for it once he saw it and ducked in, and with a heavy scent of incense and herbs and the sound of a pedal powered sewing machine, Nova was entranced. She swung her head around, taking it all in with awe.
There was a full wall of fabric rolls, hundreds of spools of different colored thread in a cabinet in the corner, Yokai and Ayakashi wearing expensive finery, mannequins of several shapes and sizes displaying completed works, and on top of all of that was very large glass enclosed shelving bearing beautifully cut gemstones, crystals, and what looked like very pricey metals and stone works.
Bracelets, necklaces, earrings, rings, broaches, pins, cape hooks, even someone's diamond encrusted gold tooth? Er... fang? All of it was a little much, especially one broach in particular.
It was intricately designed, and so were several other items on display, but this particular one was so flashy it was eye catching in any light, though to Nova it was honestly one of the gaudiest things she had ever seen in both of her lives. Maybe a lady who had just become rich for the first time and wanted to blow her cash on something that screamed 'I'm worth more than your town' would buy this, but it looked so impractical. On that note, how had this store not been robbed?
Thank God she was a snake and didn't have micro-expressions, she could hide her distaste about the broach and move on to the whole reason she had come here. Now who did she need to talk to about morphing garb?
"Excuse me," Beil tried for a Kitsune who looked like she was in charge and to Nova's surprise was ignored outright. Whenever Beil was involved for some reason Nova really couldn't stand it when he was treated this way, even though she really didn't care if she experienced the same disregard.
Slipping off of his back she straightening up so that she was still almost as tall as him, and keep in mind she wasn't the same little snake from the cave anymore, her size was that of a thick human arm and she was much longer now, as such she definitely caught the attention of pretty much everyone in the store.
A clerk stepped up politely and gave her a head bob of a bow. "Good morning, how can I help you today? Do you have anything in mind that you wish to look for?"
"I have a question, actually," Nova broadcasted in front of her, turning heads as the woman looked up. She appeared human at first glance, if you ignored the lizard tail and horns.
"Yes, miss?"
"Did you purposefully ignored my friend?"
Beil blushed a little at hearing her call him a friend but recovered quickly and looked at the lizard lady curiously. He hadn't been offended by being treated like he was invisible because he was so used to it but he still wanted to hear this. The lizard woman glanced at him and nervously smiled.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see them."
"Really? Is that right. You may need to get your eyes checked then, we've been standing in the center of the whole store for a while and you only have four customers right now, including the both of us."
She looked around and realized that Nova was indeed right. Besides Beil and her, there was one well dressed gentleman trying on watches and a posh looking older woman with big hair wearing a dress she didn't have on earlier, and both were watching as Nova called her out.
"Was it because we look worn by travel? Was it our species? Do tell, what made you and your higher up, and the three other employees, pass us over even when he tried to say something to get someone's attention?"
"No, no, that's not--"
Before she could finish her sentence, a clawed but well manicured hand held her shoulder. She froze and Nova saw her break into a sweat as a tiger man gently pushed her aside.
"Greetings, young one. I see you have been having a bit of trouble with my staff today. I offer my apologies and an inquiry about why you have come into my establishment."
Okay, the big cheese. Nova took a deep breath and, while Beil had taken a step back and was looking around at the small crowd anxiously, stared down the tiger with resolve she only really half felt.
"I wish to know why we were passed over, and I counted four times of it happening since we got here."
He raised a brow and an intimidating smile spread on his whiskers, showing off his glistening white fangs. "Is that all you wish to know?"
"No, but until this question is answered I won't be asking a new one."
His smile grew wider and he interlocked his fingers together in a relaxed position and leaned forward just a little.
"Dear girl, you are right. Your companion has neither an air of authority nor the smell of riches on him. How can we be sure that he did not simply stroll in here to browse at what he could never hope of acquiring?"
"Rude," Nova blurted before she could stop herself. Beil and the other employees all looked shocked and fearful at that, but Nova was a little too offended to care about wise choices at the moment. "Than if that is what you think of him, what of me?"
"You?" He raised both eyebrows this time, and his voice had also raised an octave. It sounded like a criticism meant for a child and Nova stopped her lips from being tightened.
She chose not to move, and she held off blinking too as when she did so it usually sparked more curiosity from the people she talked to. She wanted an honest answer.
"I see little difference with you, but you do have more resolve than your friend, I'll give you that."
"Is that all you see?" This time she deliberately blinked and the Tiger's smile faltered for just a moment before he recovered just as quickly to the point where Nova almost questioned whether it had changed at all.
"I see that you have taken a liking to the company you keep and I hope that a sincere apology to the both of you would be sufficient for you to remain and purchase what you came for. Is this acceptable?"
"It is," she said and eased the tension out of her coils.
He bowed a few more inches. "I deeply apologize for my own and my employees' ignorance and behavior. To compensate, I shall provide a discount for the both of you."
"Thank you."
"Now then," he said and straightened up, "what was your second question?"