by Victor Mason
URCHIN OF ATORANON
by Victor Mason
***
a Crimson Melodies eBook
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Urchin
Copyright © 2011 by Crimson Melodies
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Urchin of Atoranon
by Victor Mason
Jimmy was going to be in trouble. He was rushing through the busy streets, dodging some denizens that stood three times his size, ducking beneath shopkeepers' outdoor tables while ignoring their shouts of protest, and trying not to run through any of the Pa'liri that had had arrived in the city yesterday when the Bruma portal opened to the Winter Realm. There were two reasons he was avoiding the Pa'liri - one, they got very angry if you did run through them because it was considered extremely rude to occupy the same space as their incorporeal bodies, and two, the one time it had happened he'd had terrible nightmares for weeks. Plus it had felt, really, really, creepy. Almost as creepy as the time he'd accidentally touched that Reaper crystal in Frau Grimmlu's shop.
Thinking of Frau made Jimmy wish he could hurry faster.
"Ek mirn a rec'n pai!" The shouted warning broke Jimmy's concentration and he turned his head to find the source of the call. Unfortunately, it made him miss the fact that a frostwyrl had walked in front of him. He barreled into the small creature and found himself skidding to an ungraceful halt with his cheek burning on the pavement. Loud squawking with a backdrop of laughter assaulted Jimmy's ears, and he blushed furiously. He pushed himself to his feet saying, "Gomen, gomen!" since it was the only language he knew that was close to something a frostwyrl could understand.
The bird-like creature wasn't in the mood to be placated, however, after having been plowed into, and it began expressing it's irritation by pecking at him. "Ow, ow, stop, damn it, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Jimmy covered his head with his arms and flattened his ears to protect them from the frostwyrl's sharp beak. The thing wasn't really trying to hurt him or Jimmy would really have been in trouble, but it was definitely letting him know it was annoyed. His tail flicked nervously as he waited for the creature to calm down. After a handful of further pecks, the last of which stung rather sharply, he watched it saunter off toward the nearest shop and take up residence beneath a covered awning so it would be out of the way of the crowd while it straightened the feathers of its wings.
Jimmy's ears twitched as they stood back up and he was thankful the shopkeepers had stopped laughing. Seeing as the city of Atoranon had been his home all his young life, they all knew him, and every morning following Frau Grimmlu hiring him as a shop hand brought him along this path through the marketplace. Maybe I'll have better luck this time begging Frau to let me sleep in the loft over the shop. I know she said it's no place for me, but at least then she wouldn't have to worry about me coming to work late.
His eyes went wide at the reminder and he took off at a run, chiding himself for dawdling in the market square. He made it all the way to Frau's shop with only two more close calls - one with a sulfrak demon who would not have been nearly as kind as the frostwyrl. Sorry, Frau, can't come to work because i'm in the Helior plane. Somehow Jimmy didn't think Frau would have been all that understanding since she would have had to come get him. At least he hoped she would have.
Pushing aside the ripple of fear spurred by the notion of being left to his own devices in a demon realm, the kirin ran headlong into someone standing in front of the entrance to Frau Grimmlu's shop. Unlike the frostwyrl, this person might as well have been a statue. He didn't even budge when Jimmy collided with his legs, whereas the boy lost his balance and stumbled to the side before sitting down hard with a loud, "oof!" Oh man...
He looked up, his face flushing lightly for a second time, until he met the stranger's eyes. Jimmy found himself being regarded with a blank expression, as though the man had no reaction to the small, feline boy who had all but bounced off of him. It slowly dawned on the boy that this was probably a customer who would realize Jimmy worked in the shop as soon as they both walked inside. He could already hear Frau scolding him about his manners. What do I say? I don't know what language he speaks? He's not human, I don't think. What...
The man was suddenly kneeling beside Jimmy, whose eyes widened in alarm. His keen sight had not observed any movement, but their eyes were definitely now level. Jimmy, "eeped," in surprise just as the man's fingers swiped at his cheek. The boy watched in fascination as the stranger brought his now blood-smeared fingers - Right, the pavement after the frostwyrl. Must not have healed yet... - toward his own face and sniffed in a deliberate manner. After another silent moment during which Jimmy was still unsticking words from his throat, the man licked his fingers.
Jimmy watched in horror but the stranger's expression changed from a blank slate to suppressed grimace. He stood just as quickly as he'd knelt, leaving Jimmy bewildered.
"You work here, boy?" The question was stated in perfect Russian, with a hint of an accent that Jimmy couldn't place. It took him a second to realize he was being spoken to because the man's eyes had returned to studying the door to the shop. "Y-yes. Yes. I'm Jimmy. I'm sorry I-" His attempted apology was cut short.
"Tell your mistress I need to be invited in."
Confused but encouraged, Jimmy began to rise to his feet. "You don't need an invitation, mister. Anyone can-"
"She will understand."
A slight frown creased Jimmy's features, but he shrugged when it was obvious the man wasn't going to go inside. "Suit yourself," he said as he stepped forward to push open the door.
The artificial, amber colored light of the shop washed over him as he moved through the doorway. He glanced back once to see if the stranger had followed him in since he could obviously move faster than Jimmy could see, but even attuning his other senses to the task proved there was no evidence the man had entered the shop.
He was definitely still outside, but even there Jimmy detected nothing but a void. Which was weird because any time before this, using his senses, he'd always been able to feel something. This was a whole lot of nothing.
There was definitely a presence hidden somewhere in the nothing, though, and it made Jimmy take the man's request seriously for the first time. "Frau! I'm here! And there's a customer!" Crystal chimes jingled as his voice reverberated in the air, filling the room with musical tones in response to the noise.
"Oh?" A paper thin voice drifted down from the top of one of the shelves and Jimmy had to look up to spot the minute shop-keeper. Her gossamer thin wings were as long as she was tall, but she was a great deal shorter than even young Jimmy. The boy was grateful that he was still growing while Frau was definitely an adult. "I don't see anyone," she stated as she made a show of glancing around the main floor of the shop, her eyes long practiced at looking between all the displays that littered the floor, making a general maze out of the shop that most customers had to be careful of navigating.
Something tells me that guy won't have much problem. "Yeah, he's outside. Said he needs to be invited in."
Frau's luminous, cerulean eyes focused onto Jimmy's topaz irises. "Is that so. Did he give his name?"
&n
bsp; "Nope," the boy said, quickly looking away and moving towards the main counter of the shop. He ducked beneath the 'employees only' sign - inscribed with a special ink that made the note legible in a dozen languages - so he could get to the cupboard where his smock and gloves were. "Just said you would understand."
Frau stared at the door as though trying to see through it while Jimmy slipped the apron over his head and tied the strings around his waist. "He say anything else?" she asked.
"Ah...no..." Jimmy hesitated but quickly decided that he'd take the risk of Frau being upset about him for running through the market again. "I hurt my cheek on the way here 'cause I was rushing and fell and sort of had a disagreement with the pavement. The guy...well...it wasn't healed yet...and he...um..."
Frau saved him from his nervous stumbling. "Did he taste it?"
"Yeah," Jimmy admitted, the words whooshing out of his mouth in a relieved gust of air. "Yeah, but he made a face after."
"Well of course he would," Frau said mysteriously. "Alright. Guess I better see what he wants." She fluttered her wings to propel herself over towards the door. Tapping the crystal that would open it - since she couldn't possibly do it with her own strength - she looked out into the darkened area outside the shop and gave the stranger an appraising up and down once-over. Jimmy noted he was standing in the exact same spot, with the same posture, as he had been when the door shut moments ago. For a second the boy thought Frau wasn't going to ask him in, but then he heard her sigh in that resigned manner he'd heard all too often whenever he put something away in the wrong place.
"Come in, dearie," she said to the figure outside, "I'm Frau Grimmlu, but I think you already knew that, Mister...?"
"Mason. Victor Mason." The man stepped smoothly into the shop, his movements taking him just inside the doorway and not an inch farther while he looked around with a hungry gaze. Jimmy decided then and there that he didn't trust him. The guy was way too eerie. Frau, though, seemed intent on treating him just like any other customer.
"And what can I do for you today, Mister Mason?"
"Victor, please, Frau Grimmlu. I am grateful that you have allowed me into your crystalarium. You don't recieve patronage from my kind very often, I understand."
Frau smiled her saleswoman smile. "It's been more than a few decades. Jimmy's been here for two and he's never seen one like you before. Aren't typically touring in this part of the city."
The visitor smiled back. Something about it sent a chill up Jimmy's spine but the Frau didn't even bat an eye, which was saying something because she had four of them.
"Yes, I know. It is unsettling for us to be in this area. By design, I've been told, but I can sustain for a time."
"So I see," Frau inclined her head towards a crystal that was spinning behind it's display case. Jimmy started as he realized it was one for detecting the motion of ru energy.
Lifting an eyebrow, Victor stepped closer to examine the device. "Fascinating." He stared at it for a long minute while the silence stretched into the shop. Frau's wings fluttered in near silence and Jimmy's tail twitched nervously, but the stranger didn't move a muscle. When he spoke again it made Jimmy nearly jump out of his skin. "Send the boy away and I will tell you what I require." The man turned his head and locked Frau's gaze with his own. "I assure you I am not wasting your time."
Frau hesitated only briefly before nodding in agreement. She fluttered over to Jimmy and handed him the list of his responsibilities for the day, telling him to take care of all the things that would keep him outside of the shop before coming back. He suppressed a sigh and nodded, taking the list obediently.
He finished all the errands in record time but the stranger was long gone when Jimmy returned. Frau was troubled, but happy, which Jimmy took to mean that she had been paid handsomely for whatever dangerous item the stranger had bought from her wares.
Later, in an idle moment, Jimmy stared into one of the now-empty display cases. The memory of what it had felt like to touch the Reaper crystal that had been inside made him shiver all over.
I hope I never see that guy again, he thought to himself resolutely before turning back to his tasks.
Victor Mason left the Jan'Pur area of the city and did not look back. He never had occasion to return.
The little kirin boy was glad he got his wish.
###
“As always, thanks for reading.”
###
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