After about ten minutes of walking, we finally arrived at the merchant’s quarter. The bustling street had four rows of stalls, and on either side of the street behind the stalls were regular businesses that had their stalls selling their products. Some stalls sold trinkets, some sold clothes, and some sold food, the aroma of which drew me in. As I began to sniff the air and walk toward the smell of delicious stall food, Haze grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.

“Everyone listen up,” Haze said, pulling me back to the group and turning to address all of us. “There’s a lot of people here, and I don’t want any of you to get lost. So we’re splitting up into teams of two. Scarlet, you’re with the twins. Cami, Zeana, you two are with me,” Haze commanded.

“Yes, master,” we all answered with a bow.

“But most importantly,” Haze added, raising a finger, “Have fun, kiddos.”

With that, Scarlet, Leila, and Shersha went down the left side of the stalls, while Haze, Cami, and I went down the right side. I stayed close to Cami, who locked her arm with mine as we walked. She occasionally stopped short and pointed out handmade jewelry, asking if I wanted any. I always said no. Jewelry was never an interest to me.

Though I did say I liked a wooden bead bracelet at one of the stalls. The dark wood of the beads was flawlessly carved and smooth and easily had a meter-long circumference. I only know that it was a bracelet because I asked. It was an enchanted bracelet, but the seller wouldn’t tell us about it. I didn’t buy it. It wasn’t practical or needed. Unlike the food stalls that always teased me with their smells, neither Haze nor Cami would let me stop at them, much to my disappointment.

Eventually, the number of people on the street thinned as we walked, and I turned to see a store full of cages holding animals within them. I stopped, much to Cami’s surprise. “Is that a pet store?” I asked, pointing.

“I think so,” Cami answered.

“I’m going to go look,” I said and slipped my arm free of Cami, entering the store.

“No, wait! Zeana!” Haze hollered, finally taking notice of the conversation and seeing me walk off. But she was too late. I opened the door to the store, and a cacophony of noises came pouring out of the store.

“Quiet!” a man bellowed, walking around a corner and banging on one of the cages. The animals fell deadly silent afterward as if they knew who was in charge. The man towered over two meters tall and had a massive beer belly and grizzled hair on his chin and neck.

I hesitantly walked in and looked in one of the cages. I immediately jumped back as I saw a light stalker staring back at me. “Th-that’s a light stalker,” I stated, pointing out the obvious.

“Yeah,” the man said, spitting out a glob of phlegm, “Dis is an exotic pet store. We sell monsters. Wha’ else wud ye expect.”

I shrugged and said, “Just didn’t know, is all.” Then walked further into the store and browsed the pets. I didn’t recognize many of them, and most of them tried lashing out at me through the cages.

“Where’s yer parents, kid?” the man said as he walked behind the counter and sat on a chair, giving me an uninterested look.

“I don’t—”

“She doesn’t have any, but she does have me,” Haze said, walking into the store and interrupting me, followed by Cami.

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The man looked Haze up and down and smiled, revealing crooked yellow teeth, “Well, so long as she has a guardian such as yerself, I’m sure de li’le miss cud find some pet she likes.”

I ignored the rest of the conversation as I looked at the optional monsters. One looked like a massive scorpion with green and red scales and a snake for a tail. Another had blue skin, massive black eyes, and leathery wings, chewing on a bone with razor-sharp teeth. And another looked like a white and blue cloud.

I went up to that cage and crouched to get a closer look. I tapped on the cage door, and the monster flinched, un-curling itself. The creature looked like a little fox kit, with snow-white fur and ice-blue fur that spotted its body. The kit had two dark blue lines of fur that went down its body to its tail ending in swirling patterns. Two dark blue stripes crossed its eyes, like scratches on either side of its face. The kit opened its eyes, revealing reddish-pink rubellite eyes.

Once its eyes met mine, it began to tremble and moved as far back in the cage as possible. Then I saw the problems with the little kit. It looked abused. Its white fur was matted with mud and scabs. Little insects were attached to its right paw, and its left paw … was completely missing.

My heart began to ache as I looked at the tiny creature. I needed to do something. I stood and pointed to the kit, saying, “I want this one.”

“Look, we are— wh-what?” Haze asked, interrupting her argument with the shopkeeper.

“I want this one. The little white fox kit,” I said, pointing at the poor animal.

I then looked at Haze to gauge her expression. She looked a little pissed and embarrassed at the same time. In contrast, the shopkeeper asshole that doesn’t take care of his merchandise looked smug. Haze shook her head, “No, you can’t buy it.”

“The pet yer talking about, li’le missy, is five-thousand Lucre,” The shopkeeper said, then added, “but since ye’re so sweet and lovely, I’ll let ye buy it for twenty-five-hundred Lucre.”

I didn’t have that much. So I asked Haze again, “Please, master. Will you buy it for me?”

“No,” Haze said, trying to end the conversation immediately. All right, I’ll bring out the big guns then. I clasped my hands together and looked up at her with big puppy dog eyes, Haze’s one weakness. She flinched as I looked up at her and turned her head to not look at me, “I said no.”

I doubled down on the puppy dog eyes, and small tears began forming at my eyes’ corners. “P-please,” I sobbed lightly, but not too much.

Haze flinched and glanced quickly over her shoulder, then turned back around, crossing her arms, “No!”

Cami also looked up at her with puppy dog eyes, mimicking my stance, “Please,” she begged.

“Ah- wha- not you too!”

I pouted, my lower lip trembling, and Cami and I begged in perfect harmony, “Please.”

Haze crossed her arms and looked at the ceiling, ignoring us as she yelled, “NO!”

Then Cami and I walked up next to each other, clasping our hands together, and stared at Haze with our combined puppy dog eyes and pouting, quivering lower lips, “Please!”

Grimising and looking out the door across the way to a tattoo shop, she gritted her teeth angrily and yelled, “FINE! I’LL BUY TO THE STUPID FUCKING ANIMAL!!” she pulled out her money and slammed down twenty-five platinum coins.

I whooped and jumped onto Haze, giving her a big hug, “BEST MASTER EVER!!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m the greatest, whatever,” Haze grumbled, not returning the hug.

The shopkeep smiled, swept the coins off the table into a bag, then pulled a key out from under the counter, handing it to me, “Go on, li’le miss, take yer pet.”

I eagerly grabbed the key and raced to the cage, unlocking it. I opened the door and looked into the cage. The little kit was frightened and shaking. I waved a hand and spoke in a soft voice, “Come here. I won’t hurt you.” The kit stayed at the back of the cage, trembling. I reached in with my hand and let the kit sniff it. The kit took a few tentative sniffs and eventually brushed against my hand. I gently rubbed its head and behind its ears, slowly pulling my hand away and letting it come to me.

Soon my hand was out of the cage, and the shakey kit couldn’t reach me. I waved my hand for it to jump, and the kit looked down and took a step back. I waved for it to come out again and whispered, “It’s okay. I’ll catch you. I’ll keep you safe.”

I don’t know if it understood me or not, but the kit crouched a little as if to jump. And after a moment, it jumped just far enough to get out of its cage. I lunged forward, caught the little kit out of the air, and hugged it close to my chest. I channeled my healing chakra into the hug and the little kit. I could feel it stop trembling and let out a weak squick as it leaned into me.

I turned to Haze, tears of joy welling up in my eyes as I said, “Thank you, m-master. Do you know if there’s an animal doctor near here?” Haze nodded and gestured for me to follow her as we walked out the door toward the nearest vet.

***