Elrich Saga Yellow Springs Book Two

Chapter 49 Attack on the Temples

Chapter 49 Attack on the Temples

Thankfully the rest of my shopping went without meeting any sort of oddballs. Of course the clothes were more expensive, but I found that I appreciated the attention to detail on the tailoring. After only trying to get me into a dress once the woman listened to my requests and assured me that she'd have the extra clothes finished shortly.

Crue left me part way through my fittings since he wanted to go check in at the temple. This left me at loose ends. What did I do with extra time on my own? I grabbed tea from a street stand.

Merchants really did like Yellow Springs. It seemed to me there was an abundance of the same types of stores. Most of them catering to hot spring tourists. The ones designed for locals tended to be more out of the way.

I walked slowly along the road and glanced into the windows. Something caught my eye. I'd almost dismissed it, but there was a bit of light that shined off the top.

It was staff made of some sort of light colored wood. What had caught my eye was the yellow looking stone embedded at the top. It looked like the same sort of thing that Illia carried around, but this one had some intricate metal fittings in the shapes of flowers holding the stone in place.

The store looked like a pawn shop or store. There was a stand with a bunch of gloves piled high right near the staff and beside that was a chest with an open jewelry box with a display of accessories.

Gazing past the display at the window, I was a little amused to find a small child of about eight looking back at me. She was wearing a simple dress and had long straight black hair. She stuck her tongue out at me when she noticed me staring. I stuck my tongue back out at her. She looked a little surprised then smiled.

I opened the door to the shop, and the bell went off above my head.

The girl had disappeared. I glanced around and finding no one in sight I went over to the staff. It certainly had the same looking stone as Illia's. I picked it up and tested its weight. Other than that I didn't know how to really pick a staff. It was surprisingly light.

"We don't get many lightning staffs. This one was sort of pretty so I put it in the window." A woman of about thirty said walking up from behind the store. She had really long black hair that seemed to stick up in a lot of places with static. Her face was small, but nearly everything about her seemed dainty.

"It's really light," I commented.

"That's tankre wood," she nodded with a smile.

What the heck was tankre wood?

*Tankre Trees are found in the far north. They are known for their incredibly sturdy properties. The wood is also very light. This is why many sailing vessels are at least partly created with tankre. ~

"Tankre," I copied the woman.

"That's right. I'm not certain what sort of metal that is, but it does seem strong enough," she smiled a little self deprecatingly.

I tried to look as if I knew what I was doing when I began haggling with the women. I finally got the staff, but I had no idea if I'd gotten a good deal on it or not.

I returned to the temple and paid one of the children there to deliver it to Illia. Hopefully, I'd done well. The staff had looked better than her current one, but I knew looks could be deceiving. It was a second hand item too. So it wasn't as if I had the craftsman to question about the item.

It seemed too early to sleep, but I laid in my bed anyway. Amisi buzzed over to say goodnight and settled into her plant. I drifted off to the ambient sounds of people walking up and down the hall.