Girls Shopping

The sunset illuminated the city when they left The Tired Goose. The streets were still rather crowded, and also most of the establishments were still open, which allowed Nona to visit an animal post service.

Unlike the modest post office in her village - which had mostly pigeons and, occasionally, ravens - the courier service of the capital was huge and offered way more options. Aside from more common animals like bats, hawks or eagles, it also had more rare creatures such as giant fireflies, small dragons and even fairies - though unlike the other animals, these ones were paid for their messenger services.

These ones immediately saw through Thorny’s invisibility spell when they entered, and didn’t hesitate to tell the owner, who showed instant interest in the imp. After convincing the man that Thorny wasn’t going to work for him - and also managing to stop Thorny from starting a fight with the giggling fairies - Nona and Vesper each picked an animal to deliver their messages.

Nona would have loved to pay for a cute violet dragon, which was so sweet that he even allowed her to pat his head. But he was way too expensive, and she was already paying extra for the seven pages that she was going to send to her family. So, she contented herself with a rather fluffy and more affordable bat. Vesper, on the other hand, rented a simple pigeon and used her Animal Speech ability to directly tell her message to the bird.

“You sure you don’t want to send them a more detailed message?” Nona asked after they left the shop, not noticing Thorny giving the middle finger to the fairies - and getting even more infuriated when they just giggled louder as an answer.

“Yes, don’t worry. My mother and grandma are used to my short messages, so it’s enough to let them know that I’m safe and sound.”

“So, what’s the next stop?” Thorny said impatiently. “I hope it’s food because those pests made me mad.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get food. But before that,” Nona’s eyes shine with anticipation, “I really want to check some equipment and weapons.”

“Also I’ve heard that you can find the most beautiful clothes in Hairur,” Vesper added in a timid voice. “If we still have time, it would be nice to take a look.”

“To the shopping district then!”

“What?! N-Nona, we don’t need to go now! We can check it later!”

“Bah, we can check the weapons tomorrow: I’m very excited for some girls’ shopping, hehe.”

“And there it goes our sacrificing leader, putting others before herself as usual,” Thorny said with a resigned tone.

After a couple of wrong turns, they reached the shopping district. There was practically an entire street devoted to specialized clothing: shoes, hats, suits, robes, and even cravats. However, after seeing the small tags with prices attached to the clothes, the ‘girl’s shopping’ plan soon evolved into ‘let’s admire the clothes displayed through the shop windows.

It wasn’t until they were about to change districts when Vesper stopped in front of a more-fancier-than-usual looking shop. Nona followed Vesper’s eyes, which were fixed in a finely embroidered emerald cape.

“It’s beautiful,” she said while admiring the exposed clothing.

“Elven clothes always are.”

“Oh. How do you know it’s elven?”

“Please, dummy, it’s evident just with one look.”

“...Is it?”

“But it does not even have a price tag on it,” Vesper said. “So it’s either for exposition only, or too expensive to buy.”

“Well, we’ll never know until we ask!”

“Wait, Nona–!”

But Nona was already entering the shop. Nona’s effusive entrance caused the bell attached to the door to chime so hard that all the well-dressed customers inside the shop exhaled affected cries of shock.

“For the Glory of Yenom, could you please be more careful?” A woman in her forties, who seemed to be one of the shop managers for her uniform-like clothes, rushed to Nona’s side. “Do you even know how much that bell costs? It’s a relic!”

“Oh, really?” Nona frowned with confusion while staring at the still chiming bell - which looked like it was about to fall at any moment. “And shouldn’t it be better to have a less fragile and more functional item?”

The woman’s mouth fell open, as if they didn’t believe what she was hearing. Then, she wrinkled her nose.

“You are not from the capital, are you?”

“Oh no. I just arrived today.” At that moment Vesper hesitantly entered the shop behind her, causing Nona to look and smile at the awkward druid before turning to the woman. “Well, we arrived today.”

“I figured it out.” The woman managed to wrinkle her nose even more. “That would explain why you do not understand the exigencies of being one of the most renowned shops of the capital.”

“Indeed. It reeks of commoner from here,” said a customer with a perfect moustache and full of jewels, provoking laughs in the shop. The only one who didn’t laugh was a young man dressed in neat, travel wear, whose face was partly covered with a hood. His sharp gaze briefly stopped on Nona before focusing on the displayed capes once again.

“It reeks, you say?” Nona raised her arm to smell her armpit. “I mean, we just showered at the inn, so I’m quite sure that we are not the culprits.”

Her new comment caused the customers to laugh again even harder - again with the exception of the young man, who didn’t react at all. Nona was rather confused about that reaction but decided she could always ask Thorny about those laughs. Right then she had a mission to carry out.

“So, we had a question: how much does that beautiful cape cost?”

“Nona,” she turned towards Vesper when the druid softly grabbed her wrist and signaled towards the door with her head. “Let’s go.”

“What? But you seemed to like it so much! You sure you don’t want to ask about it?”

Before Vesper could answer, the lady clicked her tongue loudly.

“I will save you time, commoner. Even if you could afford such an exquisite piece - which you surely cannot - we are proud of the very selective clientele we have gathered over the years. “And for sure your friend,” the woman stared at Vesper from head to toe, “does not fulfill the minimal feminine standard.”

Nona was still trying to understand the woman’s words - that for the third time had caused several laughs to erupt - when she noticed Vesper’s grip tightening, and suddenly she was dragged outside the shop with surprising force.

“I don’t understand what she meant with that last bit…”

Nona shut up while looking at Vesper. Instinctively, Nona’s hand went to her short sword while looking at Vesper with concern. The druid had her eyes closed and her hands turned into fists on either side of her body while taking deep breaths. A dangerous aura was surrounding her, her long hair and clothes floating slightly in the air.

That aura was there for a few seconds, but then slowly started to vanish until finally disappearing, Nona removed her hand from her sword. Slowly, Vesper opened her eyes, just to rapidly avert them.

“Sorry. I…” Vesper was struggling with the words, her tone slightly trembling. “I usually control my emotions well. But when I don’t, I…”

Nona waited, in case Vesper needed more time to speak. But it seemed that was all the druid had to say. So Nona talked instead.

“I guess they were laughing at us and I didn’t notice, right?” Vesper’s silence was louder than any answer. “Thorny is right. I’m dumb.”

“No, you are not.” Vesper smiled at her fondly. “You can’t read the room sometimes, but you are not dumb. Just a bit too innocent.”

Nona smiled sheepishly, waiting for Thorny effusively disagreeing with Vesper’s comment.

Thorny didn’t spell a word.

And that’s when she realized.

Thorny wasn’t there.

“Wait…” Nona’s eyes opened wide. “Don’t tell me–”

“FIRE!!!!”

The high-pitched cry sounded at the same time that flames erupted inside the shop, forcing all the customers and the sales managers to abandon the shop in a hurry.

“Noooo, all my beautiful clothes!” cried the shop manager inconsolably. “All the exquisite, unique elven clothes reduced to ash…”

“They were not even authentic to begin with.”

“WHAT? E-Excuse me, young man, are you accusing me of selling fake clothes?! Because that’s a very serious accusation!”

“You said it, not me.”

At that moment Nona felt a small smack behind her head.

“Pssst!! Let’s get out of here before they look for a scapegoat!”

Vesper, Nona and an invisible Thorny ran towards the closest alley, leaving the now enraged shop manager arguing with the young, hooded man while the other customers hyperventilated whining they were going to faint.

Just when they had put enough distance between them and the shop, they stopped.

“Did you cause that fire?” Nona asked when Thorny revealed himself.

“Nah, it was clearly a rare case of spontaneous combustion?”

“Oh, really? Ouch!”

“Of course it was me, dummy!”

“But aren’t you always telling me to keep a low profile?”

“Well, yes, but you know how much I hate exorbitant prices. Besides, if I don’t throw fire balls from time to time I get constipated, and that’s very annoying.” Thorny shut up when noticing Vesper looking at him and fidgeted in place. “W-What’s with that intense look, bestiary girl?”

“Thank you.”

For the first time since Nona met Thorny, the imp blushed a bit after Vesper’s solemn comment.

“Hey, I didn’t do it for you! It wasn’t as if it bothered me that witch calling our dummy leader commoner, or saying that shitty stuff about your femininity. Imps don’t care about that stuff at all!” Thorny half-closed his eyes menacingly when seeing Nona and Vesper puffing their cheeks. “You two better not start laughing or–hey, I’m serious! Don’t laugh, dammit!!”

Nona was still laughing when suddenly a couple of children passed running next to them and accidentally bumped into Vesper and her.

“Ooops, sorry, miss!”

“Be careful, you could have hurt yourself!” Still laughing, she turned towards Thorny. “You can try to appear as mean as you want, Thorny, but deep inside you are a softie–”

Vesper suddenly gasped, interrupting Nona. “M-My bestiary! It’s gone!”

“What?!” Thorny cursed and pointed at Nona’s belt. “Damn, and so it is your sword!”

“WHAT?!” Nona’s eyes looked at her empty scabbard in bewilderment. “My mother’s sword?! How is it possible?”

“You fool, obviously those kids are the culprits! Let’s go after them NOW!”