Chapter 176
It wasn't quite time for bed and the group certainly wasn't ready to wrap things up for the night. After some discussion they had decided to take a walk and browse the shops that lined the avenue they were on.
The avenue had shops running along both sides of it in buildings of various shapes and sizes and was itself dotted with various food carts and street vendors that offered a wide range of merchandise.
Aiden had them stop at a food cart. “I'm hungry after throwing all those axes,” he said as he got in to line.
“You're hungry because you're Aiden,” Norri insisted as she pointed at him accusingly.
Jay laughed and turned to M'redith who wasn't paying attention but was instead looking further down the avenue at one shop in particular.
“What's up M'redith?” Jay asked.
She looked at Jay as if she had forgotten he was there. “What? Sorry! Was looking at the shops. I think there's a gem shop over there! I want to go!” she said in excitement.
“Sure, but can we get Aiden's food first?” Jay said with a smile.
M'redith rolled her eyes, “I'd argue if I thought it would do me any good,” she said with a smile. “Fine, lets get whatever this cart is selling and then we can go browsing.” She finished with a bright smile which she aimed at Jay.
Aiden bought the group each a triangular 'cup' made out of a folded piece of paper. Inside of it were a number of fried dumplings.
“You ever have dumplings?” Aiden asked with a wide grin after he had finished paying for the food.
Jay shook his head. “My mother used to like them but I never tried them.”
Aiden nodded in excitement, “Well then you're in for a real treat. Dumplings are just dough that has a filling. It's a catch-all word that describes many different foods, all cooked differently. There are fried dumplings, baked dumplings, boiled dumplings, and so on.”
Jay shrugged, “And these are fried?”
Aiden nodded happily as he chewed at his first dumpling. “Fried is the best. These are filled with cream cheese! Other kinds have other fillings, like meats or vegetables.”
Jay grabbed one of the dumplings in his cup and popped it in to his mouth. The fried dough was delicious all on its own but the burst of cream cheese flavor at the center provided a great contrast to the flavor of the fried dough.
“Ok,” Jay mumbled, “I think I like dumplings now.” He went quiet as he focused on chewing.
M'redith leaned up against him as she ate the cup of dumplings that Aiden had handed to her.
“Thank you Aiden!” Norri said as she rocked on to her toes as she ate her dumplings.
Jay and M'redith echoed her and Aiden smiled widely.
The act of buying something for all of your friends is not a universally experienced activity. You have to have money to be able to do that, and Aiden had grown up with none. To go from a place of having nothing to having enough cash to treat his friends to a snack was an amazing feeling for Aiden.
Jay noticed M'redith's cup waft up in to tiny motes of light just as he ate his last dumpling. His cup went up in to motes as well, joining with M'redith's in the air around them before disappearing entirely.
Aiden and Norri finished last and everyone looked around for what to do next.
It was Jay, oddly enough, that picked their next destination. He led them in to the neighboring shop and through the wide open front entrance – there was no door, just a door shaped hole where the door should go.
As they entered Jay had to duck his head so that he wouldn't hit it on the door frame.
Jay smiled as he breathed in the aroma of flowers and plants and loamy dirt.
“What is this...oh. Come on Jay!” Aiden groused as he realized Jay had led them in to a flower store.
“We don't have to stay here long, just give me a minute,” Jay said absentmindedly before he moved to the back of the shop and spoke with the employee at the counter.
“Can I get a single red rose please?” Jay asked with a smile.
The woman behind the counter had short blond hair and wore a bright yellow sun dress. She looked at Jay with deep brown eyes. “How would you like that cut?”
Jay shrugged, “To wear?”
The woman blinked, “To wear?”
Jay nodded, “Yea, like in her hair? You know how women tuck a flower behind their ear or in their hair? Like that.”
The woman smiled and laughed lightly, “Sure, I can do that, give me a moment,” she said and went in to the back room.
Norri had become captivated by the many flowers and plants and was going through them one at a time. “Can I get one too?” she asked before she remembered that she had her own money. She had opened her coin pouch to see what she had left when Aiden stopped her.
“I'll get you a flower,” Aiden said with a smile. “A girl shouldn't have to buy her own flower,” he stated adamantly.
The employee had returned to the counter and Jay's entire group gathered around as Jay paid for the single red rose and presented it to M'redith.
M'redith's eyes shined brightly, “Thank you, Jay,” she said quietly before she accepted the rose.
The thorns had been removed and the stem cut to five inches. M'redith did her hair up in a complicated set of braids that then went up in to a bun. She wove the rose in through her hair and set it just above her left ear.
“And what would you like?” the blonde woman asked Aiden with a kind smile.
“What's a good flower for Norri?” he asked as he nodded his head in her direction.
The woman smiled and shrugged, amused. “Have you tried asking her?”
M'redith laughed and Jay grinned as he pushed Aiden lightly on the shoulder.
Aiden shook his head, “Sorry Norri, do you have a preference?”
Norri nodded. “Yellow.”
Aiden looked confused and shot the employee a look that begged for help.
“I think I know just the thing. Hang on,” the employee said before she ducked back in to the rear room for a few moments before she returned with a single yellow flower.
“That looks like a lily,” Aiden said as the woman set it on the counter.
Norri shook her head and the woman pointed at her and grinned.
“Nope! It's called a freesia. Give it a smell,” the employee said and held it up for Aiden to smell.
Aiden took a deep breath and pulled his head back, “Whoa, that smells amazing!”
The woman nodded, “They're very fragrant. Do you like it?” she asked Norri who nodded happily.
Aiden paid for the single freesia while Norri managed to put the stem behind one ear. The stem was leafless and smooth and slid easily through her hair. The blossoms themselves were trumpet shaped and colored bright yellow.
It looked great on Norri and the flower's perfume was noticeable when one stood close to her.
“Thank you!” Jay said and the others echoed his thanks as well as they left through the door-less open doorway.
“Mine is next!” M'redith stated and headed off to a narrow looking building.
Aiden watched her go for a second before he quickly followed behind, “Hey! Wait up!”
The others all followed behind M'redith until they'd reached their destination.
The front of the shop wasn't much to look at, but what was in the windows certainly was. Polished geodes, sparkling purples and whites, were stacked up on shelves. There were agate slices in a rainbow of colors, blue and white agate bookends, and shimmering craggly amethyst clusters.
“Whoa,” Aiden remarked as they arrived in front of the display window, “those look expensive.”
M'redith nodded, “Lets go look.”
The four of them filed in to the store and had to be careful where they walked. There was barely enough room for shoppers between the shelves that lined the walls and the center display full of what looked like polished rocks.
M'redith's face fell as she saw that the rocks had been polished.
“What's wrong?” Jay asked in confusion, “These all look amazing!”
M'redith pointed at the thirty or so bins down the center. “They're all polished. I'm not collecting polished stones. Just the raw stuff.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
She seemed very disappointed and was about to leave when a tough looking older man came out from the back room. “Evenin! How you folks all doing?”
He wore a pair of overalls over a long sleeved white shirt. He stomped over to them in thick black boots. He held out one hand and looked over at them with black eyes under a head of gray hair.
M'redith shook his hand, “Good. I was looking for raw not polished – do you have anything like that?”
The man tilted his head slightly, “You mine?”
M'redith nodded before she changed her mind and shook her head, “Sort of? I want to. I have a kit and everything I just need to find the time to go mining.”
The man nodded and appeared to forget about Jay and the others for a moment.
“I sell mostly polished final products for display. I do have some blind bags though – those have unpolished gemstones in them sometimes.” The man said with a nod. “They're all from my own mining over the forty years or so I've been at it.”
Norri spoke up, “Blind bags? What's that?”
The old man reached over next to the register and lifted up what looked to Jay to be a paper bag, the kind you would bring your lunch to school in.
“So you don't know what you're getting?” Norri said curiously.
“Nope. You buy it blind. Hence,” the old man said with a shrug, “blind bag.”
Norri nodded just as M'redith brought out her own coin purse.
“How much and how many do you have?” M'redith asked in a no nonsense tone of voice.
The old man raised an eyebrow and smiled, “50 silver a piece.”
Aiden coughed. That was a lot of money for a paper bag with who knows what inside.
The old man knew it and smiled, “I'll make you a deal. If you don't like the first one I'll let you trade it for your money back.”
That was a deal M'redith was not going to need. She wanted every blind bag he had. True, she wanted to collect her own gems, but this would let her jump start her collection and give her some rocks to display in her room.
“I'll take them!” M'redith said as the old man looked a bit taken aback.
“Er, you really want all of them? You don't want to even try a bag first?” the old man asked curiously.
M'redith shook her head, “I know what I want.”
The old man nodded, “Ok. Well, it looks like I have five left – that'll be 2 gold 50 silver.”
M'redith looked crestfallen when she realized that she didn't have enough. “I'll just take one I guess.”
Aiden looked at Jay and they shared a quick look before Jay spoke up.
“I'll get them for you if you really want them?” Jay asked as he peered at M'redith in an attempt to gauge how serious she was.
M'redith threw her arms around Jay and hugged him tightly, “Thank you Jay! I'll pay you back.”
Jay laughed, “No you won't! I need to get rid of some of this gold somehow.”
The old man boggled momentarily at the thought of having so much gold that one 'had to get rid of some of it.' He took a fresh look at the group.
They wore new armor but carried weapons that looked as if they had seen some use. Some people would tell you to check the armor to tell if a person had any combat experience. The old man had learned that didn't always work. You had to check more than that.
That was the trick, the old man knew – you didn't just look at the armor, you looked at the weapons too.
So, new armor, old weapons. They all looked young except for the tall one – he looked a little older. Tallest man he'd ever seen actually. Nothing else about them gave off any indication that they were swimming in gold.
“...draft? I just need one.” Jay finished saying.
The old man had missed what he had said and apologized. “Sorry! Got lost in my own head for a bit there. What were you asking?”
Jay smiled, “A bank draft? Do you have one for First K'tharkle?”
The old man slapped the counter and reached under it before he pulled out a bank draft and handed it to Jay. Jay took out his writing kit and began to fill it out. It only took a minute and afterwards he closed up his writing kit and stored it in his backpack before he handed the now filled out bank draft to the old man.
“Good doing business with ya!” the old man said as he handed five sealed paper bags to M'redith who took them with an excited look on her face.
M'redith looked at the old man, “Do you mind if I open them here?”
The old man laughed, “Go right ahead. I'm not exactly overwhelmed with customers at the moment!”
Everyone gathered around M'redith as she popped open the first bag. She carefully slid out its contents on to the counter.
A rock the size of two fingers slid on to the counter. The stone was a deep royal blue with white lines running through it. It didn't shimmer or sparkle but the blue coloring was striking. A tiny tab fell on to the counter as well. It read 'Sodalite.'
M'redith smiled and picked up the rock carefully. It was attractive, yes, but unpolished and not the fanciest of rocks. She looked a little disappointed and the old man laughed. M'redith looked up at him with a bit of confusion.
“You're new, so you don't know. Here, hold this,” the old man said as he handed her what looked like a magical hand lamp. This one had a smooth mirrored nub in place of a bulb. Using it looked easy enough, you just pressed the button on the side, M'redith noticed. It was fashioned so that you could illuminate an object without looking directly at the nub that generated the light.
“That is an ultraviolet lamp,” the old man explained. “Never look directly in to it. Now turn it on and shine it on your sodalite.”
M'redith depressed the button on the magical hand lamp and held it over the sodalite.
The rock lit up in bright yellows as if the rock was internally lit with fire.
All four of the Glimmerhides made appreciative noises. M'redith clicked the light off and then back on which made the light seem to pulse in the sodalite.
“How much for the light?” M'redith asked hesitantly.
The old man shook his head, “Those are two gold a piece and I only have two of them. No idea when I'll get more.”
M'redith looked over at Jay with a pleading expression and mouthed, “I'll pay you back!”
Jay grinned and mouthed silently back, “NO.”
M'redith looked crestfallen before Jay realized that she thought he had said no to giving her money – he had only meant no to her paying him back. Rather than try to explain and fix that he took the quick and easy route.
“Can I have another bank draft, please?” Jay asked and M'redith's face brightened considerably.
He filled out the second draft and handed it to the old man who stored it away under the counter. He then pointed at M'redith. “That one is all yours, congratulations!”
M'redith hugged Jay again tightly. “Thank you,” she said before she carefully stored the rock back in the bag it had come in.
The next bag she opened was different from the first – the rock she got was visually stunning even without the use of a black light. A slip of paper joined it. It read '3.5 carat opal.'
The rough stone was unpolished and shined in iridescent rainbows. As M'redith picked it up and rotated it the colors would change and sparkle.
“Opal is beautiful!” Norri said in wonder.
“Here, look at this,” the old man said as he picked something up off of one of the shelves that lined the shop. He presented it to them and set it on the counter. It was a perfectly polished opal and it looked magnificent. It sparkled like fire. “That is what it looks like polished,” he pointed out before he set it back up on its shelf.
M'redith carefully stored her opal back in its bag and set it with the bag she had already opened. Three to go!
Everyone watched in excitement as she picked up the next bag. This one was heavy. She looked at the old man curiously and he grinned widely, “You're going to love this one!” he said.
She carefully slid the contents on to the counter but was unprepared for what she found.
Two halves of a four inch rock slid out and the old man urged her, “Careful!”
M'redith carefully turned over both halves and was presented with two little caves, chock full of crystals. The label that fell out of the bag read 'Raw Amethyst Geode'
The two halves fit back together perfectly. When she looked close at each half she could make out hundreds of tiny purple crystals all pushed up against each other. Around the purple amethyst was a ring of white crystals, then the rock itself.
“It looks like a starry night the way it sparkles when you move it,” Aiden said somewhat poetically.
The old man pointed at the geode, “That one is worth over a gold, at least. It's in practically perfect condition and the crystals are a nice dark purple.”
“Why didn't you just sell it then?” Norri asked curiously.
“Because I love mining for gems and rocks and I love seeing others get excited over mining. The looks on your faces when she opened her bag was payment enough.” the old man explained.
“Thank you,” M'redith said with wide eyes as she carefully stored her geode back in its bag and set it aside with her other already opened bags.
“Next!” Norri said excitedly and M'redith nodded in agreement as she grabbed the next bag and carefully opened it. This one rattled as she moved the bag and instead of turning the bag upside down she reached in and carefully removed three round slices that looked like drink coasters.
They were see-through and each were a different color. She had an ocean blue, a pink and white, and a purple one. She placed them on the counter and reached back in the bag to look for a tag. She pulled out a little strip of paper that read 'Agate Slices.'
The colors were of varying shades on each slice and striated like the rings on a cut tree trunk. The colors though – they were deep and vibrant as if the contrast had been turned up. They were beautiful to look at and it was a few minutes before they were ready to move on to the last bag.
M'redith took the tag out first. 'Fluorite' it read simply. She then carefully pulled the crystal out of the paper bag and set it on to the counter. It was blue, the color blue you'd see in the water around a tropical island but it wasn't just one shade of blue. The crystal reminded Jay of churning surf, all blues and blacks with flecks of white.
The old man motioned to her to use her light. She flicked it on and the fluorite fluoresced brightly. The blue had morphed in to a deep glowing purple with white flecks.
“Oh I like this one, look at that!” Aiden said a bit too loudly but no one shushed him for a change.
M'redith turned off the light and gently set the crystal back in to her bag. She grabbed her five bags of gems and put them carefully in her backpack.
The old man watched in horror, “Careful with those! You really should store them in a case!”
Jay grinned, “Going to sell me one of those too I assume?”
The old man laughed, “I sell mostly polished gems not carrying cases. These were probably the last uncut gems I had set out for sale. I'll have to make new bags now. I'll put that on my list of things to get to. So, you happy with your blind bags?”
M'redith nodded rapidly, “I love them! I'm going to set them up in my room, I can't wait.”
The old man nodded, “Well, good luck to you then. And if you do ever get around to mining I'd love to see what you come up with. Always fun talking with a fellow miner!”
M'redith shook his hand with a firm grip and the group all headed back outside.
“That was fun!” Norri said, “I didn't expect it to be that much fun.”
M'redith nodded in excitement. “Did you see that geode with all the amethysts? Gorgeous!”
Aiden and Jay shared a look and shrugged. They were certainly cool looking but neither Jay nor Aiden had felt the need to collect them as M'redith did.
They gathered outside of the gem shop and discussed what they should do next.