THE KEEPERS RISE

Chapter 5 - Falling into Place - Part 3

*Remember to click the play button to listen to the soundtrack as you read!*

Velda and Mortimer walked outside and were greeted with a sunny late morning. It was nearly noon, and the clamor of the marketplace was loud enough to be heard even from the Council building. Alesteir took a deep breath and smiled. "Rhea keeps this place as lively as always."

"What should we be doing while she's busy?" Mortimer asked him.

Alesteir thought a moment, then reached into his sash pocket and pulled out two stacks of coins. "Go have some fun," he said with a sly smile. As they whooped and ran down the steps, he called after them, "Be back by 1400 hours! And, Velda?" Velda turned back around to face him, and he whipped out a stream of magic that touched her fur streak, turning it orange. "Try to stay incognito, if you can," he told them.

Mortimer followed her, not knowing where else to go, and he asked, "Why is it so important that your stone is only one color?"

Velda considered the question and thought back to her book of magic. "There are eight different colors of magic, but they can be mixed depending on the stone you get. I suppose that would mean your stone's power is split between the different colors. With only one color, I have a bigger advantage with it."

Exactly, Keeper. Well done.

Velda smiled. "Cha agrees with me. Anyway, that means that your stone is rare too. It only has two colors. Right?"

Mortimer shrugged. "If there's anything besides red and orange, I can't see it." He focused on the path ahead.

Velda already knew exactly where she was going. Retracing the path of the hovercraft, she headed back to the square where they had first seen Alpha, the shay statue. She wanted to get a closer look at it, and also had thought she'd seen some interesting merchants in the plaza.

Together, Velda and Mortimer weaved through the crowds near the plaza, until finally, Alpha was visible again. Then, to her astonishment, the statue's head moved towards them and its wings flapped once! A few of the shopping meps looked up at it and smiled knowingly. It took her a moment to realize that the statue was likely enchanted to do those sorts of things every now and then. It had certainly been awesome to see.

Exchanging a look with Mortimer, she ventured into the square. All around the edges, meps cried out their wares and prices. One had a full pen of adio with newly sharpened horns, another boasted of the freshest fruit east of the Nirva, and quite a few sold dried sugarcane stalks, a common treat for young meps. There wasn't much they could afford with the little money they had been given, but Velda still resolved to take a look around, after she and Mortimer got plenty of dried sugarcane, of course.

As she chewed and wandered, a pet tent caught her eye, and she walked towards it just as a very young mep was coming to the front with a young kikiring in a cage. The animals were suspected to be descendants of shay based on their shape, which included pointy ears, feathers on the tips of their tails, and big wing-like shoulder blades, though nobody could say for certain. As the child returned to his mother, Velda heard him say, "Mama, I want this one!" Velda smiled and stepped under the shop's roof.

The tent was fairly spacious. The shopkeeper idled at a table in the front, and there were shelves of cages and a few tamer pets on leashes for the shoppers to see behind her. One of them was another kikiring that was playfully rolling around on its back for the young meps to pet. Velda gave it a few light scratches before examining the rest of the shop.

There were about equal numbers of kikiring and marrut, canine creatures descended from the wild lika that they had eaten for dinner a couple of nights before. A few tropical birds fluttered in a hanging cage on the ceiling. Velda did recognize one foreign animal: a pony, one of many imported for lighter farm work.