Desolation [manxman] DRAFT

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

I had spent the last couple of days hanging out with my new-found friends. They were humans and once they were done with their day jobs we'd meet up at a bar and get drunk. Then I'd crash at one of their houses and sleep it off. I had changed my eye color to grey for now to get them to recognize me. It had taken a huge chunk out of my magic and now all I could produce was tiny sparks. According to my calculations I should be down to forty to forty-five percent by now and if I wanted to keep my energy regeneration up I needed to be constantly eating.

Just a few more days and I would be able to escape this hell hole. I felt a bit bad for leaving my plants behind with no one to care for them but maybe someone had a heart and adopted them. I hoped so. I had taken good care of them, especially my orchids and it would be a waste of potential if they didn't receive further care. I wasn't very worried about the tentacle ones, though. They'd just catch their food and be fine otherwise.

I grunted and picked up my clothes from the floor before giving myself a rinse with magic. Because showering was just too much for my lazy ass right now. I had spent the night on the floor and that asshole of a friend had forgotten to give me a blanket, making me freeze my ass off. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well. Now I was just cold, hungry and stiff.

Giannis had already gone to work in the morning but I didn't have to, considering I was on the run from everyone and everything so I slept in and left his home around noon. The streets were already buzzing with people and shops had opened up. The spicy, alluring aroma of food was drafting through the air and made my stomach growl like a blue whale trying to find its mate.

I had agreed to meet Maya, Giannis and Nikolaos at our usual bar around eight in the evening which left me with enough time to snoop around the city. I hadn't changed city because I figured they would assume this was the first thing I'd do. Currently this was the safest one. I also hadn't bothered going back to the traitors and there was only so many times you could wash and reuse an item before it went from weird to disgusting. So, the plan was to buy myself new clothes for now, something to eat and get Aminta that shiny, gold battle axe.

I was going to look for the gift first and I soon found a blacksmith at the outer part of the city that was able to forge an axe to my description. I knew absolutely nothing about old-fashioned weapons and he did a really good job explaining everything to me. In the end I left with a bronze double-bladed axe that looked like it could chop off peoples' head in no time. I was pretty sure that was most important for Aminta anyway.

Since I couldn't run around in public with a weapon I sidestepped into a more secluded alley and used my magic to tie a little bow and a card onto it before sending it off with a last burst of magic. I went back onto the main road in order to get away from that place, considering someone might be looking for me, registered my magic and be up my ass again.

Now entirely spent, I decided to postpone shopping for clothes and first get my hands on some food. I decided on two souvlaki pitas because that shit was food porn at its best, three pieces of kadaifi and loukoumades which are basically honey puffs to satisfy my sugar cravings. The only drawback was that they made your fingers sticky. I licked my fingers off, smiling. Tasty.

I strolled through the streets, looking at the goods that were laid out in the display windows until I found a shop that seemed to be offer clothes that suited my sense of fashion. Not that I had many requirements anyway. Black or dark grey, covering a suitable amount of skin and not too much glitter. Maybe not too elegant and fancy, more like something that you can wear to bed and to hang out with people.

I spent a good chunk of time looking through the clothes before I settled on black skinny jeans with leather patches sewn in above ripped knees, socks with a fry print on them as well as matching underwear and dark grey shirt that had holes on one side. I paid for my things before throwing my old clothes in the trash and setting it on fire before I made my way over to my appointment.