Igor didn't need to show the massive creature, Sonson, to the candy aisle any more than a beekeeper would need to show the bees where to find flowers. The piebald giant handed Igor the money and practically bounced as he walked to the desired aisle. It took only moments for the hulking fairy to return with ten of the store's largest bags of chocolate clutched in his arms.
Sonson must have also dug into the gory remains of the monster rat that tried to attack Phoebe, because his arms were smeared with the dark blood, and he carried a new putrid corn-chip-like odor.
Igor looked between the wad of bills in his hands, Sonson, who had begun loading his items onto a checkout counter, and then Angie and Phoebe.
"I'm still on break," Angie said, arm in arm with Phoebe, whose break was arguably over. But then, arguments never really settle anything anyway, after all, it could also be argued that Phoebe hadn't gone on break in two years.
Igor shrugged. It wasn't like he was nervous around Sonson; if anything, Igor wanted to find out if they should go with him to... wherever he was going. Sonson didn't seem especially bright, but that didn't mean there weren't other fairies who knew more.
"Did you find everything ok?" Igor asked automatically when stepping up to the register.
"Found best chocolate, fairies have chocolate feast!" Sonson said as Igor scanned the various bags of candy, which had somehow remained gore-free.
"Are there a lot of fairies?" Igor asked, trying to gather information before deciding if it would be a good idea to follow the creature.
"Many!" Igor said, nodding before Igor even got the question out.
"Are fairies all nice like you?" Igor asked. However much his heart told him he could trust Sonson's group, he'd be stupid to follow those feelings without question.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Sonson huffed out his amusement. "Always say 'nice Sonson,' ‘good Sonson,' Sonson big strong fast! Some fairies bigger sometimes, some fairies mad sometimes, mean sometimes. Chocolate make all fairies happy fairies!"
The total for the chocolate was suspiciously close to the amount Sonson had handed Igor. Then again, maybe Sonson got to keep his memories when time looped. Igor didn't know why time was looping or where the monsters had come from. The fairies made an obvious suspect for the cause of the apocalypse; Igor's heart, however, disagreed.
"Would my friends and I be safe if we went with you? Things got dangerous really quick, and we don't know where it's safe." Even if the fairies did break the world, Igor wouldn't stand on principle when there was potential security and stability available.
Sonson was already shaking his head sadly. "Queenie say only fairies allowed. People memory too short, people too stupid. Sorry, Iggy." Then he gathered up his bagged candy and waved at the staring essential workers. "Keep change. Bye friends, see soon! Get fast fire head!"
"Huh, I guess the prophecy was right," Angie said. "I knew we should have just sent Igor out."
"We are the cashiers," Phoebe rebutted. "Technically, one of us should have rung him up."
"I'm basically just a trainee."
"You've been here for weeks,"
"No, just three—oh, you meant the other for— anyway, still, I've never rung up a troll. That's a job for management, or at least senior experience. Is Sonson the new contact, too? Also, uncertainty was the price we paid. But does that mean we gave up uncertainty or agreed to be uncertain?"
"What?" Leo asked in exasperation, speaking for the first time since Sonson had offered money for chocolate.
"Phoebe's Madlib asked for a noun and described it as a price paid, and then we thought we'd be clever and offered the price of uncertainty. But then we got the prophecy that 'an uncertain power, when trusted, is born out.' How is that a price? Makes me wonder if we accidentally accepted uncertainty instead of giving up our uncertainty."