Tapoka| the elf in the human world.|

Chapter 13

The two wandered into the small shop but it looked promising inside. It had medicine, clothes, a food aisle and a toy shelf along with an aisle filled with pencils, pens and notebooks.

"That you Elyk? It's nice to see ya again bud," a man from behind the counter shouted. The man's left eye was blue and the right eye was green. He had pasty white skin, black hair with light blue tips, and freckles dotting his face. He looked eighteen or nineteen and was wearing an orange sweat shirt and black yoga pants.

"Oh great to see you Lee!" Elyk replied waving to the man who Akooza assumed was Lee. Akooza lowered his head anxiously, glancing around the store, he could smell the scent of vanilla. The store smelled decent at least. Akooza gulped as he saw Lee tap his chin and point to Akooza.

"Elyk you have a buddy today?" Lee asked. Elyk shrugged and Akooza walked behind a shelf to make sure Lee didn't get a close look at his ears.

"Oh, yeah this is Akooza here to buy him things actually," Elyk added. Akooza's eyes wandered and looked at things, Lee nodded and tilted his head.

"Alright then! Also Elyk, what happened you and Akooza are both covered in ash and kinda look like you have been through things" Lee questioned. He had a curious gaze and Elyk let out a small chuckle.

"Well, we got in a fight and pushed each other in the chimney, luckily it wasn't on," Elyk excused and Lee nodded.

"Ah- Alright." Lee responded. He then went behind the counter to sort the money. Elyk gave him a nod and walked to the back of the store with Akooza. They went to the clothes section Akoozas eyes wandering around observing the human clothes.

"Alright what clothes do you want?" Elyk asked, looking Akooza in the eye. Akooza glanced off to the side thinking. He walked over to a clothes rack and shuffled through the clothes coming back with a mint green sweatshirt in his hand.

"Can I have this? It reminds me of leaves," Akooza muttered to Elyk, a soft gleam in his eye. Elyk nods his head and grabs the sweatshirt tossing it over his shoulder. Akooza smiled, letting out a giggle and hurried off to look at more stuff returning again with a light yellow rabbit plush. No bigger than his head. "Can I get this thingy?" Akooza questioned. He had a sparkle in his eye wanting Elyk to respond.

"Akooza, you're basically an adult- wait how old are you anyway?" Elyk asked, confused. He also took the rabbit plush in his hand and inspected it before handing it back to him.

"I'm seventeen! I turn eighteen in one month!" Akooza exclaimed. He then narrowed his eyes suspectingly at Elyk. "How old are you anyways?" He raised a brow.

"Im eighteen i turned 2 months ago in march," Elyk clarified, "go ahead you can have that, go pick out a few other things." Akooza smiled and walked down a few aisles before coming prancing back to Elyk with black shorts and a baseball cap with a leaf symbol on it. He figured he would use the cap to cover his ears.

"Look at this hat!" Akooza cheered. Elyk smiled back and took the shorts, throwing them over his shoulder with the sweatshirt.

"Good idea with the hat there, lets go to the art aisle before checking out," ELyk proposed. Akooza nodded excitedly and then hurriedly followed Elyk to the art area in the store. The art shelves had mechanical pencils and crayons spread along the shelf. One section had a few sketchbooks. "Here I'll get you a sketchbook and crayons. I have pencils at home," Elyk directed and Akooza nodded his head. He was fine with pretty much anything he was happy to just be getting stuff.

"Alright!" Akooza yelled happily. He snatched the crayons and sketchbook off the shelf and ran to the front of the store holding the sketchbook in one hand and the plushy and crayons in the other. Elyk sighed and caught up. The two placed their objects on the counter.