The Mysterious Delivery Service of J.L. McGregory

Once in a town, whose original name had long been forgotten by its residents, a small milk-skinned orphan appeared one day on the doorstep of Missy Adam's Young Ladies' Finishing School. Though it was no longer a high class boarding school but an orphanage, and nor was it Missy Adams', in fact, no one had any ides who Missy Adams had been, or who she is assuming she's still living, which is unlikely considering that it has been Helga Hellenson's orphanage for an awfully long stretch of time now. Regardless, now it is home to both young ladies and young gentlemen, no longer exclusively the former. Well, to be curt, the term to be used would not be gentlemen, the term Madame Helga usually chooses to use is something more like rascals or troublemakers or on several occasions theiving scoundrels or something else along those lines.

But before the story of the paled, honey-color-haired, scrawny orphan girl can be understood, the town must be understood, along with its seculed-if-somewhat-delusional residents, which all in all is a daunting task itself. I'll start with the name, or at least the name that is remembered by its occupants, Gray. Yes, Gray is a strange name for a town, but as you will begin to see, everything in this town is strange, you'll get used to it. You see, Gray was not always called just that, at first it had a normal, lovely name (though I am not always inclined towards normal), Gracetown. There may or may not have been a reason for changing it, maybe the citizens were just too lazy and then ignorant, because eventually Gracetown was forgotten and it became know as Graytown. After that, as you may have guessed, it was shortenend to just plain Gray, and so it is still known, to the best of my knowledge.

Onto the next matter to be addressed, the town itself and its celebrations & common practices. Along the streets of Gray, houses are squeezed together like they are being ever-compressed by the hands of a giant. Luckily, though, this creates an almost ridiculously friendly atmosphere and attitude, neighbors being so familiar and close together, where istances of hostility or theft are very rare. The town is situated directly in the middle of nowhere, and by this I am being literal. Though a few almost never traveled dirst roads trickle through the mountains of nowhere, Gray is almost completely isolated from the rest of the world/kingdom, or whatever they assume to be happening on the outside. The business of the town begins compact around the town square that is often busting with festivites, and from there it fades slowly, until eventually becoming rolling grassy hills dotted sparingly with country houses and farms until being cut off at the mountains that encircle the town. Like Missy Adam's Young Ladies Finishing school, several businesses exist that are no longer the same as what they began as, such as The Country Pet Shop (now Dellie's Barber shop), Jim Tournquet's Trinkets (now The Gray Lady Bar) and The King's Fine Furniture (recently adapted to become a farm market). This seems to imply that the town did not turn out as it was initially intended to.

Now for the final, yes I am almost finished, and most important matter of all; the people. You see, it is the people that make this town, with their festivals, my favorite the Festival of the Sun, with their strange and occasionally delicous delicacies, and most importantly and most specific to this seculed town, its pets. Yes, I did say pets. And if you remember, which you probably do, that a pet shop was among the businesses that had been raplaced. This is because they no longer purchase their furry, scaly feathered, and slimy companions from within the town. This is because the locals cannot provide their preferred pets anymore, for these pets are monsters. Yes, monsters. Winged toads and water serpents, red-eyed albino octopi and mangy griffins, ferocious gremlins and dough-headed chibis and so many more beautiful beasts.

And if you are curious, wondering where do they buy such strange yet fantastical creatures? you will receive your answer. They purchase them from me.