Tales From Crashdown: Beowulf

Chapter 11: What All Punks Deserve

     As Beo was venturing to the clothing store, Freydís had to do the same. However, she first went back to the castle and put the sword Bek had gifted next to the bedroom door. She didn't want to have a weapon on her, not even hidden or absorbed into her body.
     Once she was properly disarmed, she ventured through the city.
     It was a strange place, mixing together grand, marble buildings with smaller concrete buildings throughout. There were many beautiful pieces of art around every corner. Statues depicting champions of humanity, some using complicated machinery to move and wave, some even singing songs.
     She saw a banner, hanging above a fountain that swung from the middle of 2 buildings. It read “Center Of Humanity.” She would normally struggle to see such things, but this place made her feel tiny. It was a massive shopping mall with hundreds of stores. These statues and banners dwarfed even her.
     “This place…..” She grew uneasy, standing out like a pale thumb.
     She kept to the wall, hiding beneath the second floor where the escalators led to.
     It took no time before someone cried out, “Dear God, what is that‽”
     She turned to where the voice was, and she could make out people, bright, vibrant coloured clothing making them stick out.
     She tried to speak, “Wait! I-”
     A loud ringing sound echoed throughout the sanctum. A propelled fire extinguisher launched and crashed into the side of Frey's face.
     Freydís fell back, falling to the floor in a sitting position. She held her arms up, absorbing a random assortment of items being hurled at her.
     Suddenly, a voice cried throughout the crowd, “What the hell are you youngsters doing‽”
     The people from the crowd stopped their blasting and turned to the source of the voice.
     It was a small, brittle looking, old woman. She wore a pair of large sunglasses, and an ornate floral dress. Her hair was white, styled in a perm.
     The man launched the extinguisher spoke up, “Granny Ella! This monster walked in here and-”
     “And nothing!” She yelled. “All you lot did was start shooting without a moment of thought. You all disgust me!”
     A woman from the crowd stepped forward, “Do you not see that thing‽ It's unnatural!”
     Granny Ella swiftly answered, “My mistake, I forgot your breast implants are all natural.” She turned to the man who first started shooting, “And I completely forgot that your earrings. Your poor momma must have struggled with them.”
     The crowd went silent for a moment and mang began to walk away, silent.
     “Oh no! You kids aren't going ANYWHERE yet!” She yelled as she dropped her cane and raised her hands to the air.
     They began to run in every direction, scattering like roaches.
     From the elders arms flew 2 long, leather belts, as long as Freydís was tall.
     “Dober! Dalma! Give them something to cry about!” Shouted Granny Ella.
     Immediately, the belts began to spin around at a rapid speed, almost creating a vacuum that pulled the people back.
     Once the crowd was back, the belts flew down and from the air and began to dance from person to person, each one lashing themselves across the glutes of the assailants.
     The assailants were all thrown forward from wherever they stood.
     Freydís finally put her arms down after she heard the next set of scattering noises dispersed.
     The old woman's belts wrapped back around her arms and she picked her cane back up before approaching Freydís. She shook her head, “Kids these days have no damn sense of right or wrong. All they do is hate what they don't understand and how to isolate the difference.”
     Frey laid forward, getting a good look at her hero. She asked, “Why did you help me?”
     The woman laughed, “This whole place is a massive store! What good would it do me if I let those punks chase off a potential client?”
     Freydís shook her head, “You do realize I'm a troll, yes?”
     “No, I thought the 610 cm tall, shaggy, pale woman in front of me was a dainty lil girl.” Ella answered.
     Freydís let out a half-laugh exhale, “I suppose it was a bit of a dumb question.”
    Ella asked,  “So, whatcha here for? Food? Equipment? Weapons? Party favors? Board games? Sexy magazines? Sexy magazines with cartoons? Sexy magazines with musks? Sexy maga-”
     “Clothes!” Freydís screamed, trying to stop her.
     “Clothes? Why didn't you say so‽ I own a shop you want on the 5th floor! Follow me!” Ella commanded as she walked up to the escalators, riding it to the second floor.
     When she got to the second floor, she yelled, “C'mon! You can climb up with those chimp arms!”
     Freydís ignored that final comment and lifted her arms up and just barely reached the second floor.
     They did this all the way to the 5th floor, meanwhile Freydís tried not to die on the inside, knowing she was being gawked at by potentially hundreds of people.
     “Here we are! Welcome to Ella's!” The elderly woman proudly announced.
     Frey sat criss cross in front of what was clearly not a clothing store. “Are those…..blankets?” Questioned Frey.
     “Not like you're gonna fit into anything regular sized.” Ella layed her cane on the front of the shop. “Wait here.” She ordered, going off to the back room.
     Freydís poked her head into the small shop. There was a variety of blankets, hardly anything that would be considered modern. Blankets with frills, some with light patterns, she even spotted a plaid cloth one.
     A moment later Ella came back, dragging a box behind her in a wagon, “Here, take a peep at this!”
     Freydís opened the box, and held up a large, white, flowing dress with a floral pattern near the bottom that resembled a flower bed with a rotating set of fake roses and sunflowers that budded out.
     “This is amazing!” Freydís yelled.
     “Planks! Toosh me few bweeks.” The woman answered.
     Freydís turned her head and realized the woman was now slipping over a large bucket of barbeque chicken wings, tossing the ones to the trash.
     “Isn't it rude to speak with your mouth full?” Freydís timidly asked.
     “Shit if I care! I put up with that ‘No elbows on the table’ crap for 78 years!” Ella responded, followed by a rumbling belch.
     Freydís packed away the dress in the box, “Why did you do this? You're not disgusted by me?”
     Ella let out another burp, “Ooo- that was a juicy one. Anyway, I did it BECAUSE you're disgusting.”
     Freydís tucked the box under her arm, “You are a DREADFUL woman!”
     Ella laughed, “And scary too! Get an eye-full!” She flipped up her sunglasses, revealing nothing. Her eyes were non-existent, not even sockets where eyes should be.
     Freydís leaned in, “How? How do you know my size? How did you know I was pale? How did you know the state of my form?”
    Ella explained,  “Witch Wall, that's what I call it. My spirit arts let me see hundreds of feet around me. In front, behind, above, below, I can even see through the walls! The guy above us running the pretzel shop is in his back room, watching TV. The guy below us is flirting with the woman at the counter, and below him is his wife's model kit shop!”
     Freydís said, “Thank you for the dress…..and, Mrs. Ella? Can…..can I come back?”
     Ella folded up the box the chicken was in, “Sure! I'm always willing to give away these things. I made that dress outta old blankets nobody wanted.”
     Frey added, “And…..could you teach me how to do that? To ‘see’ like you do?”
     Ella nodded, pulling out a honey bun from behind the counter.
     Frey crawled down from the 5th floor to ground level, only briefly stopping at the 3rd level to inform the model shop owner of what she'd just learned. Then, she raced herself to the castle, almost skipping her way there.
     She dashed to the bedroom and threw it on over her raggedy cloth clothing that covered her.
     She stood in front of the massive mirror that Beo had previously stolen from a cult leader. She just stood, staring at herself in the mirror.
     Part of herself stared at the dress, admiring the simplicity and its beauty. It made her feel pretty, like she was someone. She felt welcomed, like she was looking at someone she was supposed to be. She was stood up for by someone who didn't even know her, and she was given a gift by someone who saw herself as similar, although in not so flattering terms. For the first time in her life, she felt like a person.
     The other part of her could only focus on her physical being. The scars of her body, the frail, skeletal figure. Her hair was shagging, with skin like ivory. Her teeth were gnarly, and eyes of a shade that would cause some to vomit. She felt disgusted by it, she felt like she didn't deserve the kindness she had received, like she should have just been left in the wastes to rot. She felt like a freak of nature from how she had become, even though she knew she had no choice in what she was now.
     The parts of her met in the middle, and she smiled. “I am not finished, not yet. I will be, one day. Even if I hate what is in front of me, others don't care. If they love me as I am, then they will be ecstatic to see what I will be.”
     So, she went to the front door to wait for Beo, fully expecting to return home different than she left.