"Welcome to my glorious store new customers!" Xavier and Tyler both stumbled backward at the loud voice in their faces as they struggled to see both having to catch themselves on the door. Xavier then heard the voice laughing and he rubbed at his eyes to try and force some vision back into them. After a short while, Xavier began to see fuzzy shapes and could begin to piece some things together again. He could now make out a blob of purple and pink floating in front of his face still laughing at him and looking past it he could see the blurry shapes of the girls.
Tyler was agitated and rudely complained to the colourful blob. "Blinding someone isn't a joke you know. What if that was permanently effective?" The laughter only got louder and then began to gasp for air as the woman was laughing herself out of oxygen. Ethan then walked to the girls and was helping Sara look around at different items in the store as Xavier's vision finally came back enough to see clearly. He realized that the woman he was staring at was rather small and was floating in the air. She seemed small enough to be a doll almost and Xavier was confused as to what he was looking at. "Not to be rude madame Mystic but may I ask what you are? I have yet to meet someone of your species here?" She quickly stopped laughing and began floating around Xavier quickly.
"Hmm, I see so you're one of those woken that was summoned this time around aren't you?" She floated down to the ground and began walking up to a counter turning behind it and disappearing for a moment. There was the sound of a mechanism going off and she reappeared behind the counter at the top of it. "I'll excuse your rudeness as you're both nothing more than boys but for now you have been warned so be wiser in my shop. And to answer your question young man I am a gnome." Xavier looked at the women and then proceeded to look around at everything within the shop.
While looking around Xavier noticed a small collection of gemstone rings and started to inspect them. He recognized a few of them as sapphire and diamond rings but was intrigued as to why they were in a magic shop. "Ohhh looking to buy support rings are you? or perhaps something to fancy one of these young cute ladies that are with your group?" Xavier jumped and turned around looking down to see the gnome had snuck up behind him and was watching him. "No nothing like that I was just." he was cut off with a scowl and angered tone. "Not planning to steal from me now are you young man? That would be very unwise." Xavier shook his head and raised his hands defensively as a small part of his brain was asking him why he was so afraid of something shorter than his knee. "No Madame Mystic I was just wondering why you had jewelry in your magic store?"
Madame Mystic then smacked Xavier's ankle with what looked like a cane of some sort and then aimed it up at his face Xavier now clutching his ankle. "Do you not listen boy I said they were support rings. Every idiot knows what those are and what they do for adventurers. What were you born yesterday?" Xavier shook his head again and tried to think of a response. "No madame I was just wondering what they could do exactly, like how do they support people with their magic properties?" She then smiled and her voice softened again. "Oh I see you want to buy them and know what they do. Well, I can always help a paying customer. Well, the diamond rings are the rarest and hold spells in them so that a wearer can cast it in an instant. However, only one spell can be loaded within every twenty-four hours. The rest however provide elemental or status boosts based on which ones they are. Sapphire for example boosts your mana pool, Ruby your strength, Opal your magic power. Are you starting to understand now?"
Xavier nodded and he held up a sapphire ring inspecting it for a moment and nodded again. He then walked to the counter and set it on the wood. "I'd like to purchase this one please." Madame Mystic was already behind the counter and Xavier let her take it and examine it. "That will be three Yintu and twenty-one Xinta please!" Xavier then pulled Ethan over and made him pay her quickly afraid of what would happen if they didn't. Xavier then put the ring on his right-center finger and wore it to show it was the one he purchased. He then followed Ethan back to the group and was finally able to breathe calmly.
"So what are we looking at here?" Xavier asked coming over. "We are trying to decide on which orb we should get Sara. It's a tie right now between one that increases magics range or one that makes it's users element a bit stronger." Sintarra explained to Xavier and he then looked at the two. Sara eventually set one back down and raised the other up walking it to the counter. "I would like to buy this one please Madame." Madame Mystic smiled and as sweet as she could then gave her the price. " This will be seven Yintu please miss." They then paid her the money and the guys quickly ran outside to get away from the threatening gnome.
"Well that happened so now what would everyone like you do?" Ethan asked and while Sintarra was dragging him away and the others followed Xavier then handed Sara the Sapphire ring as well. "I probably won't get much use from me." She smiled and took it thanking him but put it in the bag with all their other equipment. The group then went back the way they came visiting several food stalls along the way. They enjoyed pork skewers, fried fish, mystery taffy and even the honey ice that Xavier had seen before. Eventually, they moved on to some of the games.
The first they tried was an archery game. Surprisingly the only one to win a prize was Devi who nobody expected to know how to aim a bow properly. "I use to hunt with my pa before I married my husband and became a warrior in hopes of joining a woken. He taught me everything he knew." She smiled and carried the toy doll that she had one talking about giving it to her daughter when she got home. Next, they played a bottle-breaking game and Tyler and Sintarra both won that game. To their surprise though the prize was a bottle of ale each which they decided to keep for later in hopes they could sneak it into the castle.
The final game they played was one that Ethan was made for. It was a memory game about the history of the kingdom and he answered every question correctly without hesitation. His prize was the most underwhelming though as it was a voucher for Ten percent off any item at the game owner's book store. As the group walked down the streets Xavier then noticed the alley he had looked down before and peered down it again. This time though he paid more attention to the sign that he noticed at the end. The sign was a deep black powder-coated steel and showed an anvil getting struck by a single fist and underneath it read "Torin's Blacksmith".
Intrigued Xavier then walked down the alley and decided to take a gander inside the blacksmith's shop. Surprisingly the door was left open and Xavier was free to look around the shop. What he didn't expect to see though was a silhouette of a large figure hammering away a piece of white-hot metal. As the sparks flew and spread themselves across the floor Xavier slowly approached the figure transfixed on the craftsman at his work. When Xavier got halfway across the room he heard a deep gravely voice from the silhouette call out in question. " Who are you? And what do you want from me?"
Xavier then spoke up. "I'm sorry sir I just noticed this place through the alleyway and I felt the need to come in. I was mesmerized by your work seeing it from the door and wanted a closer look." The man then set the hammer down and turned facing Xavier although with the burning forge behind the man Xavier could barely even make out his eyes against the shadowy face. "Are you sure you don't plan to mock or criticize me boy? I know others your age enjoy it a lot." Xavier was then a bit surprised by the statement but before he could refuse the reasoning he watched in horror as the man's arm crumbled with resonating metallic clangs. All the blacksmith was left with was a singular arm and a pile of scrap on the floor that had composed what use to be an arm.