"You have my memories though, aren't those helping?" Elia asks me.

"They can only help me so much! If I do the smallest things wrong, I am killed. Stabbed, drowned, burned alive, skewers, beheaded!" I tell her hoping that my point is coming across.

"I don't think that we have much time tonight. What is something that you feel you need to know right now?"

"My birthday party is coming up. I have your knowledge of dancing in my head but without trying it I am afraid that I will make a mistake." I confess to her.

"Oh. That's easy. We don't have a lot of room here but I will show you the basic steps."

Elia guides me through the basic steps to all of the dances that I will be doing. Once she sees that I am able to do they all on the first try she has me do some advances maneuvers. I am also able to get those right as well.

"See? Trust your memories."

"What about the times that I can't access them right away?" I ask her.

"I don't know. Hang in there until we meet again." she says. What does she mean next time? We are still talking, aren't we?

I guess not. I feel myself being shaken awake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Checkpoint!

"Good morning Aria." I hear Poppy says to me.

I wasted my time asking about the dancing. It seems I didn't really need any help with that one after all. I should have thought of something more important such as how she comes up with new recipes. Oh! It would also be nice to know for certain what element my magic is. Also, how do I even use magic. I have to hope my memories serve me well when I make new charms.

"Good morning Poppy." I say, stifling a yawn.

"I know that you like to pick out your outfits, but I chose one out for you today." she tells me. "Just so that you can get out there and spend more time with this Alex boy. And crafting." she tells me.

"You are trying to keep as much of my party a secret as you can, aren't you?" I ask Poppy.

"Perhaps. Now get up and let's get you ready." she tells me. I feel like we rush me through my morning routine, and I am out of my room and into my shop before I know it.

"Did someone use a rush spell on me this morning? Time magic?" I shake my head, feeling like I am slowly coming out of a daze.

"I don't know!" Blizzie says, sounding so happy about not knowing. He is the most adorable cat that ever existed.

"I did not check in with Alex on when we are next meeting up. Well, he knows where my shop is, and I have a lot of work that I need to get done." I tell Blizzie, settling in for a long day. Not a bad day, just a long day.

"Well Blizzie, should I make the knitted stuffed animals first, or do the carvings first?" I ask him.

"I don't know what that means." Blizzie says, looking up at me and cocking his head to the left.

"Should I make animals out of yarn or stone first?"

"Yarn! And you should make an extra one for me!" Blizzie says, sounding very cheerful.

"Alright. Let's look around the shop to see if we have any before we go and purchase some." I tell him.

We look all over the shop, but no knitting items are to be found.

"Well Blizzie, let's go shopping." I tell him and open my bag. Without hesitation Blizzie leaps into the bag and makes himself comfortable.

I sit still for a moment and access Aria's memories, pulling up where I need to go in order to purchase these items. It seems like neither of the shop owners know Aria well. That can either mean they won't notice that I am being strange or they will kill me for entering as it is out of the norm.

Since we decided that we shall be knitting first I begin my shopping at the craft store. There was a young woman behind the counter when I entered, casually reading a book. She looked over the book at me when I entered but then went back to reading. I supposed she isn't worried about me stealing any items as I have money.

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I walk about the store and grab a large variety of colors and textures of yarn, as well and some tiny beads, knitting needles and a basket to keep everything in. I then walk up to the desk and set down my items.

"Why are you shopping here?" she asks and I see the suspicion bar above her head raise.

"I am crafting more dolls to enchant and sell in my shop." I tell her, keeping eye contact the entire time.

"Oh." she says then gives me the cost of the items. I walk out of the store feeling a little bit nervous. Was she going to kill me or is that a good enough reason for her to not be suspicious? I am not going to question it.

I go back to my shop and drop off all of the knitting items. Once they are securely stored in my store I go to The Stonecutter's Shop. I have never been in a shop like this before, but from my memories Aria has. A few times.

I walk around the store and gather up everything that I was needing including; different colors of marble, some crystals, and different chisels. Once I am satisfied with everything, I make my purchase and go back to my shop again and set down my purchases.

"Okay now I need to decide from everything what animals I want representing each different element. Hmm." I look over at the notes that I had taken at the library yesterday. I find a pen (one of the neat feather ones) and write down my selections.

Air - Bird

Fire - Phoenix

Water - Kelpi

Earth - Stag

Light - Unicorn

Dark - Owl

Time - Immortal Jellyfish

Space - Gwyllgri

Spirit - Fae Fox

With that decided I get to work. I am actually surprisingly good at knitting. I found in my classes that I would focus better if I was doing something with my hands. After getting permission from my instructors, I would record the lectures and then knit during class. That would give me space to hear the lectures twice and have more engagement while I was in class.

I feel a bit sad that there are no music players here and I sit down to knit. I decide to make the tiny stuffed animals in the order that I have them listed. I hope that they don't take too long to make as there are only a few more days until my birthday party. I don't know how to feel about that.

Since I don't have any music I decide to sing to myself. "Even when you feel like you are, you are never alone. You may find yourself a long way from home but just know, you are never alone."

I sing as I knit and lose myself in the rhythm of it. The clacking needles, the sounds of the moving wool. There is such a calm and peacefulness to it. Also, there is something really nice about watching as something is actively being created. I am making them really small as well, so they come together even quicker.

As I finish the first of the animals, the bird, I hear a knocking at my door. Wondering who would be knocking I make my way to the door.

Pulling it open I say "Hello?"

"Hello!" I say and see Alex standing in my doorway. He is holding a large and well-padded bag in one hand, and a smaller bag that smelled of food in the other hand.

"I'm so sorry Alex, was I supposed to meet up with you at your shop this morning?" I ask him.

"No you are a-okay!" he tells me. "We didn't actually make any plans and I thought that if you didn't stop by then there was a good chance that you would be here. I am happy to know that I was right."

"You were. Come on in." I tell him and let him come into my shop. "Sometimes I get caught up in working and don't realize what time it is." I admit to him.

"I can understand that feeling. And it's exciting to hear that you have been able to start working. Are you okay showing me what you have so far?" he asks.

"Of course." I say and lead him into my workroom. "Go ahead and take a seat." I offer. There are two chairs in the room from when we last ate together. There is also a lot of space to set things down. You never know how large of ingredients you are going to be working with, so having a large space is always pretty nice.

"Do you mind if I set my bags down?" he asks, gesturing to a large empty space.

"Go ahead." I offer to him.

Alex sets his bags down and opens them. The first thing that he removes is a large wad of soft fabrics. He slowly and carefully unravels them, creating a spun circle of fabric on my workstation. When he is done carefully unwrapping the fabrics I am greeted to the sight of a beautiful glass orb with a circle missing from the top. It is clear and you can easily see inside it, but when the light hits it at certain angles it shimmers with a rainbow of color.

"It's beautiful!" I exclaim as he tenderly sets it down on the table.

"I'm glad you think so." he says bashfully. "I was hoping that you would think so."

I can't help but blush at his words. I have to admit that it feels really nice to have someone treating me so sweetly. That hasn't always been my experience, especially with certain types of men. I am glad to see that Alex doesn't fit into that grouping. For some reason I have begun to feel safe around Alex. It seems that Blizzie agrees as he decides to weave himself around Alex's feet, rubbing against him and purring loudly.

"I thought that we could add the ingredients that we have so far to the orb. Nothing in the recipe leads me to believe that it has to all be done at once." he tells me. I suppose that he has a point there.

"I have started working on the totems." I tell him and offer my knitted bird to him for viewing. "I am hoping to finish a set of knitted creations, as well as some carved ones." I tell him.

"I thought your concern was about the knitting being in fluid?" he asks.

"Which is why I plan on making a water proofing potion. You can stick around and help me with that if you would like." I offer to him. "Oh! Speaking of potions, did you use the minor luck potion?"

"I did before I blew the glass. I was beginning to have difficulty with it but then felt something flowing through me and it eased the difficulty." he tells me. It amazes me how he could feel such a difference. I didn't know he would be able to feel a potion at work. That is pretty neat.

"That's great!" I tell him. "I am glad that it was really helpful in our project."

"Me too. And I would love to stick around and help with the water proofing potion. Did you want to make that first or begin by adding all of the ingredients aside from the totems that you still working on?" he asks me.

"Let's put together what we have!" I say to him, a feeling of excitement coursing through me. Did I want to go back to my world? If this is what my life will be like once I know I won't be murdered any more than I don't want to return.

"Okay, let me pull out everything I brought and we will combine it with everything else. Then the only thing that will be missing will be the totems. Do you know when you will be done with those?" he asks me.

"I don't. It will go as fast as it can with my knitting."

Alex looks over the knit bird. "How long did this take?" he asks me.

"Alex, I don't even know what time it is." I tell him then laugh. "I lose track of time when I am creating things so I am not sure how long that took." I admit. "It will all be done before my birthday."

At the mention of my birthday his eyes narrow then widen." The librarian called you Princess because you are the princess aren't you!?" Alex exclaims loudly, startling Blizzie. I see the suspicion bar raise, but only by a few granules of sand. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asks.

"I am the princess. You were fast putting that together by me being called Princess and telling you my birthday is coming up. I was planning to tell you about me today and invite you to my party." I tell him. "I was just afraid that you will think differently about me." I admit.

"It's hard not to think differently about you." he admits. It looks like he is feeling a lot of emotions in rapid succession.

"I wasn't born the princess you know." I tell him. "My mother really was a washerwoman before the king married her."

I tell him a little bit about what I had learned from Alias about me and my mother's past. "Can you still think of me how you have been? In my eyes I am more a shop keeper than the Princess."

"I will do my best!" he says cheerfully. "Are you sure you don't mind me going to your party? I have been hearing rumors that it isn't just your birthday but that the king is looking for your husband that night." he tells me.

"That is one of the reasons I want you there." I tell him, cheeks feeling really warm. "But that is days away. Let's keep having fun crafting this together."

I see him begin furiously blushing at my insinuation that I might want him to be my husband. I am glad that he was able to connect the dots. I don't know if he is the true route but it is still possible. And I am not telling him that he is the only person that I am considering. He isn't. Not right now at least. My opinions may change over the next few days. Maybe I will get some sort of confirmation. If he is, we can work not only on small projects like this, but bigger projects as well. Such as saving the kingdom.