John decided to take a break, remembering wanting to spend more time relishing the serenity of space. He teleported himself out to his little corner of space and looked around. Small remnants remaining from when he cast his spell not long ago, space still seeming to settle in around the area.

He looked around, enjoying the glowing stars in the distance, the near absolute silence that surrounded him. It was peaceful, and on days like today he needed some time to process it all. Frustrations welling up inside him. In part thanks to the annoying human he had to deal with, and in part due to the dearth of information he had about the new universe he was so close to visiting.

To think that he would in one day discover the existence of something so important, and then actually find a rift to it, and then be forced to close it off. The stories those people could tell him, of computers and life without magic. Every single person he would meet would be so important to him, so meaningful. With a life so different than anything he thought possible. He could have reached out and touched it.

He drifted through space, trying to keep himself from spiraling into a depression. There were people here who were interesting as well, he reminded himself. Somebody even from that universe, who might come by. Perhaps even people from other universes, just as different as hers.

The thought had never occurred to him. Why had she been brought here, anyway? Was this universe somehow different than the others? Was there a draw in this universe, some kind of force that pulled through the mesh? If there were no magic in her universe, then that might mean that beings had never been brought from other universes.

Perhaps if he lived in her universe, he never would have had the chance to meet her. Maybe it was good after all that he couldn't visit her universe. If only he had some way of knowing he would be able to get back. The risk was too great though, he already knew that.

It was time to return, John decided. He had spent enough time lost in his thoughts, and wanted to meet more people, learn more interesting stories. Perhaps the girl had come back with another tale of her world, or perhaps another traveler had come with a story of theirs. He had no idea of knowing how long had passed, no reference point out here to base it on.

The first thing John noticed when returning was the layer of dust that had built up over everything. It had been a while, he felt. But it was good for him, to have time to process the frustrations. To work through his emotions in a constructive manner. He waved his hand, all the dust whipping through the air towards him before disappearing, and then he sat down at his desk.

The familiar chair greeting him, conforming to his misshapen body. Comfortable, he thought. Of course, John could just float, removing the pressures from his body. But there was something about sitting in a chair that felt right, the cushions conforming to his body, not removing the pressure but providing a pleasant softness.

A customer entered the store, an elf, John noted. Their ears pulled back and covered with their long blonde hair. Tanned skin and brown eyes looking at the rows of bookshelves that greeted them. The elf nodded to John and then went and looked through the books.

Interesting, John thought, the first customer who didn't ask him for something specific as soon as they entered. He watched as the elf wandered through the bookshelves, picking out a book and looking through it before putting it back. The elf took their time, looking through every bookshelf John had before they walked back to the first one and grabbed one, bringing it up to John's desk.

"I would like to buy this book. You take an interesting story, yes?" The elf asked, placing the book on the desk. It was a fictional tale, a human who stumbled onto a powerful class and shook the world at its roots. Creating structure where there was none, building relationships between the different species and saving the world from some powerful threat. John nodded at the elf.

"Well, I'm actually an elf. Don't tell anybody though." The elf said, brushing their hair aside to reveal the ears John had already seen.

'I know.' John wrote.

The elf was taken aback, "How did you know? What gave it away?" The elf asked, frantic.

John wasn't sure how to respond, so he just hoped the elf would have some resistance to telepathy. He remembered the elf walking in to his store, remembered seeing the elf, every separate piece that made up the whole. He pushed the memory through to the elf, satisfied they seemed to have some kind of familiarity with it as they accepted the memory without any visible pain.

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"Holy shit." The elf responded, shocked at seeing themselves in more detail than they ever had before. "That's how you see everybody? That's insane. Alright, well telling you I'm an elf was kind of my plan, honestly. I'm not sure what else I could share that would be interesting. Lets see... Oh! hmm no that wouldn't be interesting enough. I could tell you about that one time I, no that was boring. Ah!" The elf said, raising a finger in excitement as they seemed to remember a story.

"So I was walking down the street one day, hiding my ears as I usually do, when I bumped into this girl. At the time I was still very new to this hiding my ears thing so I just had a hat on, a big hat. Anyway when we fell, my hat fell off in the tumble and she saw my ears. I was terrified at what would happen, the secret was out and I was going to have to find a new town to run off to. A new identity, everything. Then she just leans in closer and pulls her hair back a little bit showing that she was also an elf! I mean what are the chances of that? Two elves bumping into each other in the street like that? Absolutely insane to me. I thought it was over for sure!" the elf said, leaning back and chuckling.

Another customer came in to the store, looking at John. A human girl, a young one.

The elf looked at her then back at John, "Anyway, is that enough for the book?"

John nodded and watched the elf take the book and walk out of the store. The girl approached John's desk, her eyes just able to see over the desk to John.

"Hi mister, mommy said I shouldn't come in here because you're mean and scary but you don't look mean and scary to me. Are you mean and scary?" The girl asked John.

He wondered how to respond to the child, telepathy wasn't an option, there was almost no chance this girl would be able to handle that. Writing however, also didn't seem like an option, the girl likely couldn't read. But he would try anyway. 'Where's mommy?' John wrote into the air in front of her.

The girl giggled and tried to touch it, John quickly making the writing dissolve. "What was that? Can you do it again?"

John shook his head, he supposed the girl couldn't read after all. He was unsure what to do with the child without some means of communicating. Another reason for him to put forth a serious effort to mimicking speech he supposed. Though he hoped very strongly that children wouldn't often find themselves lost in his store.

He extended his awareness outside of the store, the unpleasant smells and sounds reaching him as he did. He looked for somebody who might have lost a child, somebody frantic, maybe calling out a name. He wished he could know the girl's name, he thought, looking at where the girl had been. She was no longer in front of his desk, he noticed, running through the spacial anomaly he created for the bookshelf next to him while she laughed. No matter, John thought. As long as she was in his store she would be safe.

He took a moment to lock his door and block off the windows with a portal, anything entering it would be turned around. Confident the girl would be trapped within his store and nobody else could enter, he continued his search for the parent. It took a few more minutes, but he found two people looking for a daughter, both a few streets away from each other and his store. He watched them both as they asked people passing by if they've seen a young girl matching the description of the girl he had in his store.

Confident he found her parents, he teleported the both of them into his store in front of him. They both screamed as their surroundings changed, and then screamed again as they saw John. And then yet again when they saw the girl, but one of excitement and relief. The parents rushed at the girl, hugging her, neither taking their eyes off John. They picked up the girl and headed to the door, trying to open it, their hands shaking as they fiddled with the doorknob. John teleported them outside, then unlocked the door and removed the portals in the windows.

Not even a thank you, John thought. The girl had been safe, he found the parents, brought them to the girl immediately and the response was fear. He wasn't sure what he could have done differently, to make them not afraid. He could have walked out and found the parents instead of teleporting them in, but that would've meant leaving the girl alone without supervision. And it would've just prolonged the time until they were returned together. He could have brought the girl to the parents but they weren't together anyway. The girl herself at least seemed to be nice, maybe she would grow up and treat others with more respect.

He wondered if there was anything he could do now to reconcile it. Could he chase them down and say he wasn't mean? That would just scare them, he was confident of at least that. A part of him thought about disguising himself as human as the elf did, but it was again pushed aside.

He was John, and he would stay John. People would just have to learn that he wasn't here to hurt them. Perhaps being able to speak would help with these situations, being able to talk to the child may have given him more information that he could have used to calm down the parents. Being able to speak to the parents would have maybe let him show that he didn't mean them harm.

He thought about writing to them, but any movement he made caused them to twitch, let alone if he were to be casting spells so freely. He vowed to take his speech practice more seriously from now on. Even if it didn't matter to him, to the people he was here to meet it mattered a lot.