8 First Shopping Trip (2/2)
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While there were several other items that caught his eye, the majority of them were too expensive for Kal. In the end, he found himself at a stall that sold wares for needlework. He ended up buying several spools of decorative chord, a couple large swatches of different cloths, and a large needle for 7 pints. The only other thing he ended up buying was a set of small, second-hand stone carving tools, the kind used to carve fine details or small sculptures for an additional 5 pints, leaving him with 12 remaining.
After looking around one more time, he headed over to the meeting point to wait for his sister. As she was still busy, he leaned on the wall surrounding the guild building as he started playing with the white stone he had purchased earlier. The stone was ellipsoidal and completely white, except for faint, absinthe-colored, vein-like lines running along the entirety of the stone. The stone was a little warm to the touch and gave a soothing feeling to Kal as he held it.
”What's that you're holding?” He heard a familiar voice next to him.
Kal turned toward the source of the voice, only to find himself lifted off the ground, as a pair of arms hugged around his head, squeezing it into an abyssal crevasse between a pair of soft, pillowy mountains.
Fighting for air, Kal managed to break free from the depths of Tartarus for long enough to say ”Mei… can't… breathe.”
Mei giggled as she placed Kalin back onto the ground before spinning him and hugging him from behind. She asked him, ”Is that better?” After he nodded in response she continued, ”You never told me what you're holding.”
Kal showed her the stone before saying, ”I don't know what it is, but I felt like it wanted me to buy it, so I did.”
Mei examined the stone before concluding, ”I'm not sure what it is. It doesn't seem to be any kind of stone I know of.”
The two of them continued to talk and get to know a little bit about each other. They had just gotten through discussing Kalin's hobbies before they saw Liliana exit the store with a small frown on her face.
”Damn merchants,” she grumbled, ”always thinking they're so clever, trying to steal my money.”
”Yep. Mmm hmm.” Sighed Mei, as she skillfully brushed Lili off, demonstrating her familiarity with her antics.
Lili looked at the stone that Kal was holding and said, ”Let me see it.”
Knowing better than to argue with his sister, Kal handed the stone to her. After looking at it for a while, she seemed to be contemplating something as she asked, ”Where did you find this?”
”I saw it in a box of shiny rocks that were being sold in one of the stalls. I felt like it wanted me to buy it, so I bought the whole box for 5 pints.” Kal recounted the story to his sister.
”Do you know what it is?” Asked Mei. ”I've never seen any stone like it before.”
”Let's continue this discussion elsewhere,” Lili said as she looked around, ”too many merchants around to feel safe.”
The other two didn't have any objections so they started to head back toward East Market Eatery. On their way back, they ended up stopping by a bakery and bought a couple pastries that were filled with an unidentified jam. Kal couldn't stop smiling as the three of them entered the eatery.
Unlike earlier, all the tables were filled. Many rough and loud people filled the room. There were a couple waitresses bringing plates to tables. One unfortunate man was brave enough to touch one of the waitress's butts, before he found himself on the ground sleeping, after a couple teeth flew out of his mouth when her fist impacted his face. The surrounding people hooted and hollered at the commotion and did a cheer for the deceptively strong young lady. They all knew that the idiot must have not been from around here because all the workers here were retired adventurers and could kill most regular laborers with a slap. Lucky for the unconscious man, she decided to go easy on him.
Ignoring the man on the floor, the rest of the people present returned to eating and making merry.