HLnovel Episode Two Hundred and Thirty-Five: Magical Junkdrawer
Episode Two Hundred and Thirty-Five: Magical Junkdrawer
The Cat remained glued to my side as I finally rose to go make some lunch. I kept things simple with some soup from the freezer, and half a grilled cheese sandwich for each of us.Simple comfort food. The veggie soup tasted like home, while the grilled cheese reminded me that everything would be fine. The cheese melted perfectly between the two slices of bread. It made me wish for some bacon and tomato, but sometimes you only had what you had in the fridge.
I almost asked Betty if we had some, but resisted.
“I… I don’t know what this afternoon will need,” said the Cat. A thin string of melted cheese dangled from his chin, making me want to giggle. His words kept the chuckling inside my chest, though.
I reached out with a napkin and wiped the cheese off.
“We’ll figure it out,” I said with full confidence, before continuing, “together.”
I picked him up and we headed to the front of the shop. Instead of coffee, I pulled together a hot chocolate for myself. The thick scent filled the air as I steamed the milk with a little vanilla and the chocolate sauce.
The Cat watched with patience, but didn’t ask for any.
Once I sat down and cupped my mug he inched closer, until his side touched my elbow.
The shop had shifted while we were in the kitchen. Instead of books, we had all sorts of items all over the shop. Stuff piled up on the center table threatened to spill over. Craft supplies were mixed in with old records and broken nicknacks.
The shelves to the right had baskets with stuff spilling and draping over the front. Faded tags noted what was stacked where, and everything was mixed with a healthy dose of dust.
It floated in the air, the sunlight from above highlighting each little bit of it.
“This feels like a second hand shop or something…” I mumbled, as I studied the layout.
“Maybe the magical junkdrawer of the universe?” added the Cat. He’d told a joke. He didn’t even know what a joke was, but he’d told one. I had to pause for a second to register it, but then I let it pass. Making a big deal out of it seemed rude.
I reached out with my magic all around us and felt the telltale signs of magic.
The strange porcelain pitcher with feathers sticking out of it practically vibrated with magic. Same with the dust covered records, and the random pebbles next to them.
“Magical junk drawer, I like that,” I said, before taking a sip of my hot chocolate. The warm chocolate drink relaxed every muscle in my body, and my shoulders practically sunk to the floor.
The Cat’s tail lightly touched my arm before snapping away.
“Are you ready?” he asked, staring at the door.
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My voice came out stronger than I thought it would. “Let’s do this.”
The door unlocked, but nothing else happened.
I relaxed, sipping on my warm beverage, letting my eyes wander over the room. I loved going to thrift and antique stores where you’d never know what you’d find. This set up made me want to wander through it all and start digging.
After we helped our customer, hopefully I could spend some time just sorting through whatever we had. Though, with this much stuff in storage, and with all of the books as well, it made me wonder about how much stuff Betty had beneath the surface.
While we accepted deliveries and such, where did all of this come from?
“Cat, how long have you been collecting stuff with Betty?” I asked, after taking another sip and setting my mug on the counter.
He turned to look at me with his green eyes. “Too long…”
“And all of this, you collected?”
He shook his head. “All of my libraries and collections are housed inside the shop as well.”
I tilted my head to one side as what he said sunk in. Most of this stuff was his? Like, actually his, from before he’d been cursed? Did that mean we were trading off his personal collection of things?
“Don’t look like that…” he said with a frown, before bopping my arm with his nose. “Trading things for my freedom is the least I can do. It’s only stuff. You would be surprised at what sort of things people bring as gifts when they visit a Fey Lord.”
The cold impression left from his nose remained after he pulled away, but I resisted brushing it away. He pressed his side against my arm, sniffing at my hot chocolate.
I motioned to it. “I can make you one with cream, if you’d like?”
He shook his head and turned back to the door, without saying anything else.
The door slowly opened and the bells jingled with a tiny sound before cutting off as a great big breeze blew through the room, along with giant drops of rain.
The rain paused in midair, then vanished when the door snapped shut behind the wispy, translucent gentleman. Faint wings fluttered behind him, before vanishing as he removed a hat from over his head.
The heavy scent of summer thunderstorms filled the shop, knocking out even the sweet scent of chocolate, and the dust.
“Oh, my,” the man said with a flutter.
“Welcome to the shop! That looks like quite a shower,” I said with a smile.
The Cat’s whiskers twitched. His voice whispered inside my head, “That’s a sky elemental.”
The sky elemental floated above the ground as it flew closer to the center table. Its form moved more like a see-through shadow than a physical being, stretching in odd ways.
“Maybe you can help me…?” He held his hat in his hands with a frown. “I might have caused a whee accident in the skies…”
All of the hair on the Cat stood up.
“What type of accident?” I asked, setting down my mug and concentrating, before pushing out a wave of golden magic. Slowly it washed over the room, making several objects sparkle. When it touched him, threads reached out in all directions.
“I might have torn a small hole in the sky…” he said as his cheeks darkened, becoming less see-through. “Just a wee-one, of course, nothing catastrophic… yet.”
“He’s lying,” whispered the Cat, standing up. All of the hair still stood directly up as he glared at the elemental.
The elemental’s eyes went wide as the Cat moved. “Ok, it’s potentially catastrophic, but I can fix it with a little help! Nothing much, just something to close it with.”
“A tear in the sky…” I couldn’t even imagine that sort of thing. “To where?”
The question slipped out as I traced the lines reaching off him to various spaces around the room. Several things on the table might be useful, and I stepped around the counter.
“The elemental plane of water,” he said, while scratching the back of his head, clearly embarrassed. “I hoped to visit, but the magic went a little off-course. Now, I need to fix the problem, you see.”
“Wait, was that not rain?” I asked, thinking of the giant drops of water that’d tried to come into the shop.