Untamed Spirits - KOTLC - (DISCONTINUED)

Seven

The next day Noreh and Keefe were tasked with going to Slurps and Burps to get some medicine Elwin had prescribed for Noreh. They took a few detours along the way, making it late afternoon when they finally arrived.

The door of the brightly colored shop burped as they entered, and purple and blue smoke wafted from the front of the shop. Noreh gave Keefe a surprised look and walked through the smoke, coughing and sputtering.

"Be with you in a minute!" A voice called. "Dex! What happened?"

"I don't know!" A second voice said from somewhere in the smoke. "I looked away for a second and it blew up!"

Noreh could barely see as she waded through the smoke, so she wasn't very surprised when she bumped into someone. At first she thought it was Keefe, but the boy had strawberry blonde hair and periwinkle eyes. He looked surprised to see her, but quickly got up and offered his hand.

She grabbed it and he helped her up. "Is it, um, always like this?" She asked.

He shrugged, keeping his expression neutral. "It depends on who's asking."

"Um. . . Noreh?"

"Uh, Noreh?" Keefe called. "Where'd ya go?"

"Uh. . ." She looked at the new boy. "Hi?"

He cocked his head. "Hi?"

"Dex!" The first voice yelled.

The boy jumped, remembering the smoke. "Gotta go. Coming, dad!"

Noreh watched him run away for three seconds before the smoke made him disappear. Then she started searching for Keefe. He was a lot further away than she thought, but soon she ran into him and made both of them fall on the ground harder than her and Dex had.

"You have a hard head," Keefe commented.

"Right back at you," Noreh said, rubbing her temples.

She stood up and tried looking around. She couldn't see Keefe, but when she reached out a hand she hit his chest. She decided to mess around and pretend she wasn't sure who he was and smacked his face a couple of times. His payback was not fun.

A few banging sounds later and the smoke started to get drawn into an invisible vacuum that nearly sucked Noreh up, too, but thankfully Keefe was there to catch her. About a minute later all the smoke was gone, and Noreh spotted a counter with two identical elves behind it, arguing with each other.

"Um, hello?" Noreh asked, stepping forward.

The older man straightened. "Sorry for the smoke. My name is Kesler—ah, Keefe, nice to see you again. I assume you're here to pick up more prank supplies?"

Keefe smirked. "I wish. We came to get Noreh some stuff Elwin prescribed for her." He handed the list to Kesler.

Kesler read the list and glanced up. "This is exactly like. . . just a curious thought, but do you know Sophie Foster? She's new—"

"Sophie's my sister," Noreh told him.

"I see," Kesler murmured, looking her up and down. "I'll go gather the stuff you need. Dex, keep them company. And don't let that smoke up again."

Dex grinned at Noreh. "Sophie's your sister? Cool. Did you grow up with humans, too? That had to be really cool."

Noreh felt the two boy's eyes on her. Keefe didn't hear about the whole growing up with human's backstory, but apparently Dex had. "Uh, yeah."

Dex was practically beaming. "Cool. What level are you in? Level one or level three?"

"Um, I think level two," she told him.

"Same! So are you and Sophie twins?"

"Yeah. . . why?"

"Oh, nothing. Usually that kind of thing is frowned upon, but it's cool. My siblings are triplets. What classes do you have?"

"I don't know. I haven't looked yet," she said, twirling a piece of white hair around her finger.

"Well, as long as you don't get Lady Galvin for Alchemy, you'll be fine," Dex assured her.

Keefe snorted. "Lady Galvin tried to fail me so hard, but I was too good."

"I'm pretty sure every teacher fears you," Dex told him.

Keefe smirked. "Nah, they just know I'm so amazing I can't fail."

Kesler came back with his hands full of elixirs and vials, organizing them and putting them in a bag. He handed the bag to Noreh and frowned at a vial on the table before looking at Dex accusingly. Smoke started pouring out.

"I told you to keep an eye on it!" Kesler said, scrambling to get the invisible vacuum.

Dex went to help him. "It's not my fault!"

Noreh and Keefe slowly backed up, afraid of the smoke. "Uh, see you at Foxfire?"

Dex held a thumbs up that quickly disappeared in the smoke.