Alain Watanabe is a Key Keeper-a transient guardian with knowledge of other worlds. The time to act has finally come. The time to liberate his siblings is now. To do this, he needs to find seven keys to undo the spell that seals the palace of Engrad...
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Alain ruffled his hair. Natalie had run off, but he should've at least paid more attention to which way Marshall went. It was a small town, but the marketplace was crowded, making it harder for him to detect Marshall.
Lee said something about delivering mail, so there must be a post office in town. Could he wait for them there?
He ruffled his hair again. Why hadn't he asked more questions before he split away from Marshall? To think he thought it would be easy.
Alain just went left since he had no better plan.
The young man walked uneasily to the mass of people. A couple of them bumped into him, brushing past his shoulders. His breathing picked up. Why was he nervous? He went Christmas shopping with Ellen and Ivy's family at the mall once. That was pretty insane. Though, back then it felt like there was more space.
There were several birds on display. Most were canaries. Though there was an odd one that stood out. A green bird with a red stripe on its belly.
It reminded Alain of Kaze and Eni. Kaze had a thing for green birds, while Eni loved the color green. The red also reminded him of the kid's hair.
How much money did he have? He couldn't even approach that stall if he didn't have any. Alain thumbed through the wallet. Two thousand. Two thousand Tiscia. How much was that?
"Hello, young man. Interested in me birds aren't cha?" a man said, grinning.
Alain stiffened as he stared at the green bird. "How much is this one?"
"One-twenty-five."
"Alright," Alain said.
That was when Marshall approached them with a bag in his hand. "Hold it, Settle-duster! You're going to burn through your money doing that!"
"I need money to care for me birds properly," the man said.
"What was your price again?" Marshall asked.
"One-twenty-five."
"You can have seventy-five Tisca."
"i'll take one-ten."
"Eighty."
"One hundred. Final offer."
"Ninety."
The man held his hand out. "Deal."
Alain blinked. How the heck did that happen?
The man gave Alain the bird cage. "Treat the bird well now."
They moved off to the side before Alain opened the door to the cage. "You're free now, buddy."
The bird perched himself on Alain's shoulder.
"You can go. Why didn't you fly away?" Alain asked.
The bird rubbed himself on Alain before saying, "Max hungry! Max hungry!"
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