"Bella the Bunny. What a cute name!" I say.

It makes me happy that he named her. In my opinion, it says good things about his personality. Also, it is cute. He is cute. I need to hold back these kinds of thoughts though. I don't know if he is the hidden route. Also, I don't want too many warm feelings for someone I just met. Someone who still might murder me.

"What do you think Blizzie? Should be go see Jasper first?" I ask him.

"Yes! Keeper of shiny, giver of treats. Blizzie likes!" he says happily.

"The way that he responds to you really makes me think that the two of you are having a conversation." Alex says.

"That's because we are." I state simply. "Now then. Shall we be off?" I ask.

"Lead the way." he tells me.

On the way to Jasper's shop we talk about the stuffed animals that we have had in the past.

"I had this stuffed penguin that I absolutely loved." I tell him. "His name was Tux and I wouldn't be able to go to sleep at night without him. He was one of my first friends. When I was thinking hard about something I would talk to him out loud to try to get a clearer understanding in my head. He was a good listener. I guess that went into my idea of creating a stuffed animal that would keep all of your secrets." I admit.

"That is adorable." he tells me. "I have this stuffed sugar glider named Cupcake. I got it when I was pretty little, before people would make fun of a boy for having stuffed animals. Although, to be fair if I want something cute, I am going to get myself that cute thing. I have no shame about this!" he tells me. I am glad that he feels that way, though I am sad that even in a magical world, boys are still expected to not like cute things. Which is just dumb.

"Alright here we are!" I tell him when we are standing outside of Jasper's shop. I push the door open and we go inside.

"I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon." Jasper says, coming over to me with a large smile on his face. He then sees that I didn't come in alone and his smile falters for a moment. Only a moment though.

"Hi! My name is Jasper and this is my jewelry store. I don't believe that we have had the pleasure of meeting." Jasper says, extending his hand out to Alex. Alex gives his hand a good shake.

"My name is Alexander Ludus and I am new here. I just moved in a few weeks ago and have a shop of my own."

"Oh? What do you sell?"

"Magical bits, bobs, artifacts and whatever else I come across and think, oh that would be a fun thing to sell!" Alex says cheerfully. How is he such a naturally happy person?

"I might have to stop by there. Now then." Jasper says, clapping his hands together. "What brings you into my shop?" he asks us.

"Oh! We are making a wonderfully rare and magical artifact to use in my store. It is going to be wonderfully magical and should help people in their endeavors to be great magical connoisseurs!" Alex says. What a phrase. Is he really okay announcing that to people?

"Sounds like fun. What do you need from me?" Jasper asks, sounding intrigued yet slightly confused.

"We are missing ingredients so we are going around to try to collect what we are missing." I tell him. "And I thought that you might have some of what we need."

"What is it that you need?" he asks me.

"I am needing sapphire gem dust and ruby gem dust." I tell him.

"Dust huh?" he asks, pondering. "I do end up with some dust when I am shaping gems. How much do you need?" he asks me.

"You are the best." I say. "We need 9 pinches of each."

"Hmm. Wait here. I think I have that." he says and disappears into the back.

Instead of standing there awkwardly I wander around the shop, looking at this and that.

"Pretty!" Blizzie exclaims as we look at things. He reaches out to put his paw on the counter, but I take it and gently move his paw back into the bag.

"We can look at the pretties but we cannot touch, okay?" I tell Blizzie.

"Oh, okay!" Blizzie says and stares around intently. "Look. Don't touch. Look more!"

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I take that as my cue to keep walking around and not stay in one place for too long.

"Here you go!" Jasper says, emerging from the back with two jars.

"You are amazing! That you!" I say.

"I'm glad that I kept it. I don't like wasting things that you might want to use as ingredients." Jasper says, smiling at me.

I smile back and ask, "How much do I owe you?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll just add a touch more to your cost the next time you buy something from me. Is there anything else you think I may have?" he asks.

I pull the recipe list out of my bag and hand it over to him.

He looks it over.

"I have a necklace that is made up of pearls of wisdom. I will be sad to see it taken apart, but I wasn't able to sell it anyways. It seems people don't really want to wear something that provides them with extra wisdom. I also have a pendent made from a wind stone, and another with a water crystal That seems to be all I can contribute." he tells me.

"That is a lot to contribute. How much do I owe you for the jewelry?"

Jasper gives me a price and I willingly pay it. He wraps up everything and passes it over to me. I set it in my bag, and we make our way to our next shop.

Next, we head to the smithy.

"Hi Aria. Did you decide to come back for a sword?" Samuel asks me when we enter his shop.

"Sorry Samuel, but not today. I was actually coming in to see if you had something else."

"Something else?" he asks, then notices Alex.

"Hi!" Alex says brightly. "I'm Alexander Ludus. I am new in town. As I have a new shop Aria is being kind enough to help me make a really awesome rare artifact to help people better their magical talents and draw them in to buy magical items."

"It's nice to meet you Alexander. My name is Samuel. What are you two looking for?" he asks. "Also, what does this artifact do?"

"Oh! Well it will tell you what element your magic is as well as your affinity. Isn't it neat?" he asks. "Aria, hand him the list! Let's see if he has anything that we are missing!"

I do as Alex asks and hand him over our shopping list. I had been lightly crossing off items as we went so that we didn't accidentally double up on some things while missing others.

"Hmm." Samuel says and scratches his head while reviewing the item list. "I have the sands that you are missing. Also, I have the liquid silver and the materials for smelting glass. How much of it do you need."

We tell him the amounts and he nods. Samuel then walks to the back and I hear some things being moved about. After a lot of noise Samuel comes back to us.

"Here you go."

"How much do we owe you?" I ask Samuel.

"I want to say think of it as a welcome gift, but those items are pretty rare." Samuel says.

We agree that the items are rare. After discussing and agreeing upon the cost we make our way out of the shop, a few items richer.

After leaving the shop I review what we are still missing. I guess now I have a reason to go see Andrew the Alchemist.

"Hello." Andrew says as we enter his shop. "Oh. Aria. What do you need today." he asks, sounding a mixture of interested and bored at the same time. Charming.

"Hi! My name is Alexander Ludus. Aria and I are here looking for the missing ingredients for a wonderful, powerful, mystical magical artifact that we are making together." Alex says before Andrew even asks who he is.

"Hmm. Alright." Andrew says and holds out his hand. On instinct I knew that he was wanting the shopping list. His eyes scan down the list, narrowing and widening as he goes through it. "I have some of what you need."

"Thank you, Andrew. What do you have."

"Hold on. I'll give you your missing items for free and tell you where you can purchase the rest. In return I want to see your recipe and be the first to test the artifact." Andrew says.

"Done deal!" Alex says before I am even able to say anything. He is my competition; this would be giving him some good and useful information. Actually, that sounds fun. I am glad that Alex agreed.

"So quick to agree. Naive." Andrew says and walks into the back of his shop. It doesn't take long before he comes back to us. "Here. Your orb of darkness and orb of light. Now get out. I want to see this item as fast as you can make it. And I look forward to seeing that recipe. Oh." Andrew says. "You can buy the rest at the library."

"Thanks." I tell him. He chooses not to respond to us and we exit his shop. After that interaction I am actually a bit more curious about my competitor. He seems clever and knowledgeable. Also his cold nature is intriguing. What is he hiding under that cold demeanor.

"I didn't know that you could buy things other than books from a library. This place is great!" Alex says, still cheerful. Well, why wouldn't he be. We are almost done getting all of the ingredients that we need. However... I haven't gone to the library yet. I don't know what to expect.

"Have you bought anything from the library yet?" Alex asks me, clearly curious.

"Not yet so this will be new for me as well. One of Andrew's item sellers must have told him where to get more ingredients." I tell him.

"Well why wouldn't he have told you before now? Isn't that important to know? Does he not like you?" Alex asks.

"It's nothing like that. We are competitors. We sell similar items so he wants to keep his edge. It helps make competing more fun if we don't get our ingredients from the same places."

"I guess that makes sense?" Alex asks. Oh right. He is from a place where everyone sells similar things. I guess this might be a new concept to him. "Well on that note, let's go to the library!"

Alex and I walk to the library. On the way we discuss some books that we have read. I try to keep mine vague as I doubt that they have any of the books that I have read in this world. It wouldn't make any sense for there to be any books from my world here.

"I like reading books about adventure." Alex tells me. "About pirates and spaceships. Knights and daring rescues. Things like that are so fascinating to me. I guess part of me has always wanted to go on some epic adventure. Though, I am not a knight so it might make adventuring more difficult." he tells me.

"But wouldn't that make it all the more exciting?" I ask him.

"Oh! You're right, it would, wouldn't it. Maybe I would find a sensei who would teach me some mysterious skills that the world hasn't seen before! I would be charming and heroic! Hahaha!" he says, tipping his head back and laughing loudly. He really doesn't seem to care how other people perceive him.

"I tend to like fantasy and romance. I like being swept up by good prose and charming characters. I like to feel as though they are my friends, and they are confiding in me. Telling me about their struggles, learning magic with them, meeting wonderous creature such as unicorns and dragons." I tell him.

"Oh! I like those kinds of books as well." he says brightly.

It feels as though no time passes when we get to the library. This time Alex decides to walk in first. He burst through the doors and gasps and gawks as he looks around. I have to push him gently on the shoulder to get him to further into the shop.

As I step through the doors as well I see why he was stopped in wonder. There are rows of books on multiple floors. I don't know how many stories tall the library is. This is a wonderful place, I can tell. I breathe in the smell of books as I walk further into the library.

I shake my head to clear it and to refocus on the task at hand. "Focus Alex. We need to find where they sell our missing items." I remind him.

"Oh yes. Right. Right. We can come back another time to look at books." he tells me. Little does he know I will either be coming back later today or tomorrow. I have a lot of things that I need to research. Magic, familiars, the history of this world and kingdom. I can't be seen as lacking in knowledge.

"Hello." I hear a voice say and footsteps walking towards us. "Are you finding everything alright?"

The man that approaches us stands at approximately 6'1. He has long blue hair that is tied back with a black ribbon, and he has some bangs hanging down and framing his face. He stares at us with gray eyes, waiting for us to respond.

"Actually, we aren't. I was wondering if you could help us?" I ask him.

"Of course I can. This is my library after all." he says.

"Wonderful thanks." Alex says chiming in. "My name is Alex and that is Aria. We are creating a rare and wonderous artifact and we are indeed needing your assistance in acquiring rare and precious materials to finish crafting this object."

"Ah. I see." he says blinking at us slowly, processing everything that just spilled out of Alex like a waterfall of words. "My name is Aiden. Can you tell me what you are looking for?" he asks us.

"Aria, give him the list!" Alex loudly whispers to me.

I pull out our shopping list and hand it over to him. "Seems like you have almost everything." he mutters, looking for the items that aren't yet crossed off. "Waters of truth and seeds of knowledge? Interesting." he says, spinning his hair around his finger exactly like I do. "Yes. I do have those. 100 gold coins. Can you afford them."

"Of course, I can." I tell Aiden. I see him smile as he walks away from us. "Follow me."