Adding To The Party

 With a weapon figured out and a plan in place to make it happen, Millie could now better appreciate the city. Some buildings looked fairly run-down. Others may have been alive. Some of the taller ones had glass domes at the tops, presumably for any werewolves that may have been present to bask in the light of the full moon.

Two banks sat side by side on one street. One looked to be a financial institution, the other more of a blood bank, complete with a sign reading: “Now Serving O-”. Millie had to admit, she was a bit curious as to how the blood around there was sourced, sort of hoping that that wasn’t what had really happened to a few of her predecessors. If this whole thing was just an excuse to drain her blood, she was going to be very upset.

She’d worry about that later, though. On one street, tucked in between the Grimoire Emporium and a coffee shop, was the hardware store they were seeking. The building was a small one, a display of rusty shovels in the window. What Millie wanted, mainly, was some lumber. A couple of six-foot planks should do it.

Nibbles squeezed her way through the door first, with Millie and Talia following. The interior of the store was slightly cluttered, with a headless figure getting things organized.

“No, no, your left,” a voice called, seeming to come from a head on the counter.

The figure moved a bit to their left, pushing the shelf of tools up a little.

“Yes, yes, that looks way better,” the head said. “I think we can have a break now.”

That would be just Millie’s luck, wouldn’t it: get to a hardware store just in time for the one staff member’s break. But the head glanced toward the trio that’d entered, and she could just vaguely see the head’s green eyes.

“Oop, scratch that. We might have some customers.”

The headless body approached their head, and now Millie could get a better look at them both. The body was a little taller than herself, a bit slimmer. On their nametag were a few choice words: “Amaia” and “They/Them”. Well, then. That cleared up a few things right away. As for the head, a pair of wide green eyes glanced at Millie and Nibbles. Their cheeks were littered with freckles, and their long-ish hair was red.

“How can I help you?” they asked, a faint Irish lilt to their voice.

Nibbles responded by sniffing them intently, nearly knocking their head from their arms. “N-nice lychan…” they yelped.

Millie sighed and pulled Nibbles back. “Yeah, sorry, she’s just WAY too friendly for her own good...anyway, there’s something I’ve been wanting to put together, and I was told this would be a good place to start.”

Amaia’s shoulders tilted a bit, their eyebrow arching a bit. “What’ve you got in mind?”

Millie pulled out her sketchpad again, setting it on the counter. Amaia set their head right next to it, their eyes scanning the sketches. They let out a whistle, muttering about the size of these freaking weapons. She pointed out the scythe in particular.

“I’d need some lumber and some tools to carve that to the right shape,” she said. “Thinking the shaft would be about six feet in length.”

Amaia stared at it for a while, before outright laughing in response at the idea. Millie glanced down at her toes, wondering if this was a terrible idea. Noticing her reaction, they reached out and tapped her shoulder.

“No, no, not judging you at all,” they said. “It’s just that it’s nice to find another wielder of a huge, not-super-practical weapon around here. Believe it or not, I haven’t met that many.”

“Really…”

Now, Millie was curious. Maybe she could get some pointers from this person. Or rather, from this dullahan, she realized. Just how commonplace were dullahans around here, anyway?

“I can almost definitely help you with the lumber” Amaia said, tucking their head under an arm like a basketball. “Follow me.”

They led the way to the back, Millie trailing behind them. Along the way, she had some questions. She didn’t ask all of them, however, as she felt that asking someone how they could speak when their head and lungs were separate from one another might have been a bit insensitive. She was also a bit curious as to if she was from Ireland, or if Ireland even existed around there, but also wasn’t sure.

And so, she resorted to…

“So, a dullahan?”

A chuckle. “Yep, since birth. I didn’t go into the family business of reapin’ souls, though. I felt more like my place was here, running the hardware store.”

Millie smiled. “You run this shop alone?”

“Sure do. Business is steady enough. Not too crazy.”

They reached the back of the store, where there was a room filled with various pieces of wood. Pine, cedar, oak, cherry… Admittedly, her indecision was kicking in, and she had no idea what would be the best to work with. The dullahan watched her, head and upper body tilting somewhat.

“If I might make a suggestion?” they offered.

“Please.”

They strode over to the pile of poplar, picking up one of the longer planks. “Try this.”

Millie picked up the wood in question, grabbing a second plank and giving the two a little swing. She chewed her lip a bit, thinking that this could probably work for her. “And I can make a little groove in the middle for some graphite, right?”

“Should be doable.”

“Great! Any idea where I could find some of that graphite?”

“Nope.”

Millie sighed. So that was back to square one, then.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” said Amaia. “Is there a reason you’re building this thing?”

Millie tapped her chin a bit. It wasn’t like Talia had told her it was a secret mission, after all. That was likely something that’d definitely need to be stressed to Nibbles (not that she’d listen).

“I got pulled in from another world, isekai-style, and was asked to hunt down and destroy this life-draining shapeshifting beast.”

“Really…”

She looked at Amaia’s face, seeing a slightly dangerous smirk cross their features. Part of her wondered if she needed to be worried. She thought that she was hiding this expression well enough.

She was not.

Instead, Amaia patted her arm. “You’ll probably need some training with a weapon of that size, and I happen to be well-versed in using large and potentially ungainly weaponry…”

Millie sighed in relief, as she had no idea how she’d wanted to ask about training. To have the dullahan be the one to broach the subject made that so much easier. She nodded.

“I could come along on your quest, if that’d help.”

The witch smiled. “If you’re okay with my dog and rollin’ with royalty.”

The dullahan blinked, having not noticed Talia earlier. “She came with you?” they asked, voice low.

She nodded, wondering if that was the absolute wrong thing to bring up. “If it helps, she’s already offered to foot the bill for stuff.”

Amaia followed her out to the main part of the shop, making sure their head was out of the way of the huge poplar planks Millie was hauling. Nibbles (having already been exploring everything in the shop as Talia tried fruitlessly to pull her back) glanced up at her person’s return.

She rushed over and sniffed the planks, as Amaia selected a few good tools for shaping it into a pencil. Talia looked over the full purchase, and at the dullahan. They seemed to be avoiding eye contact with her, as though said eye contact would cause them to burst into flames.

“Hey, by the way, they’d like to come along with us and help me train with using a ginormous weapon,” said Millie.

Talia looked at the dullahan. “Is that so?” she asked.

“Y-yes.”

“Good, good. I can only help her so much with my own knowledge, and I’d like the mission to succeed this time.”

“New friend?!” Nibbles squealed, wiggling excitedly.

“I guess so,” Amaia replied with a bemused chuckle. “Um, Amaia, by the way,” they said.

Talia and Millie had both noticed Amaia’s nervousness and so didn’t have the heart to point out that they had that right there on their nametag. Nibbles, not being able to read, didn’t have that knowledge, either, so it was also good for her benefit. The vampire and witch both introduced themselves to their new companion, all four of them heading off together with the purchase once all was situated.

As they walked along, Amaia sighed. “Sorry about being so nervous about this,” they said. “It’s just that this sounds like something I should really be a part of...see, I ran into one of those freaks myself a couple years back…”

Millie glanced over at them, eyes wide. “Spill. Please!” she said.

Amaia stated that they would as soon as the group found a place to stop for a bit.