Oh my... wonderness of wonderful! Finally, another chapter! This time, I have an actual excuse!
1) Yep, I was lazy again... for two days only though! I promise!
2) My days were FULL, like, I couldn't get on the computer for a minute, for three days strait!
3) And finally, I had to get this proofed. That ended up being a mess. So that took a few days, too!
Also, I decided to change my pen name! It's Sand Ninja Yexis Metallium, but if doing reviewers responses, then Sand Ninja Yexis, Yexis Metallium, or anything else is fine. I don't really care.
Oh, and the fun disclaimer! goes and sits in a corner, sulking: Judge pounds a mallet on the desk I plead this innocent person GUILTY of not owning Slayers!
Bound Souls: Curses and Charms
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After waking up, Firia stretched, then dressed into her normal attire. She was just about to go down to open shop, but then noticed that the sun wasn't even up yet. So, since she hadn't done so for a long while, Firia took up her mace and went downstairs to practice.
Firia did various stances, starting very slow, then sped up gradually. When she stopped after half an hour of doing speedy stances and poses, she was surprised to find that she wasn't breaking a sweat, nor was she breathing heavily. So, after a minute's rest, she did another round. This time she went even faster, and did more complex and graceful poses. Her flexablity had also heightened, for she was able to do poses that she had knew before, but could never accomplish due to her inability to stretch. She kept this up for another half an hour, and could have kept on going if the sun hadn't caught her attention.
"Eek! I'm late opening!" Firia shrieked, momentarily forgetting her newfound abilities. She ran upstairs, quickly dropped her mace on her bed-- she would put it away later-- then scrambled back down the stairs and opened up the shop just in time for the first customer.
Firia watched as a boy gazed at all the maces with a sack of money in his hand. He took down several maces, surprised at how heavy they were in contrast to his young muscles, but put them all back, obviously dissatisfied.
"Do you need help?" Firia asked politely.
"Yeah! My big brother's birthday is coming up tomorrow, and I forgot to get him a present," the boy replied, "but I don't know which mace to get him!"
"How skilled is he? And how strong?" Firia questioned.
"He's 16 and has been practicing almost his whole life, and he's really strong!"
Having all this come from the mouth of an 6-year old was cute, but a bit unbelievable. So Firia picked out a mace that was not the best quality-- the hammer accidentally slipped while she was making it-- but was average in weight. This would be perfect for a teenager with a few years of practice to wield.
"Would this be a good present?" Firia charmingly asked.
The little boy took the mace from her hands and gaped as his arms sagged from the weight. "This is heavy!" he exclaimed. Firia giggled, unable to resist the cuteness.
She took the mace from him and set it on the counter. "How much money do you have?"
"My mommy and daddy gave me 100 gold coins! Isn't that a lot?" the boy bragged.
"Oh, yes! It is!" Firia over-exageratingly replied, "That's a lot of money!" Then, curious, she asked, "What's your name?"
The boy grinned proudly, liking that an adult was being so entertaining. "My name's Kurai!" he said.
"Well Kurai, how about I give you a ten-gold discount? That's a special thing, because you're the ONLY one I've done it to!" Firia said, being over-exageratingly happy again. She really liked this boy. He was very polite, and not to mention really cute!
Kurai beamed, and asked, "So how much would it be?"
"Hmmm... how about 30 gold and 5 silver? Do you have silver?"
"Yeah! Bronze and copper too!"
"OK then, do you know how to count money?"
That stumped Kurai. "Ummm... no, I never learned that."
Firia walked out from behind the counter and bent down, taking the pouch. Kurai started to complain, but decided against it, knowing she would give it back.
Firia pointed to the gold coins. "These are gold, and are worth the most. How far can you count?"
"To 100, but I don't know more than that," Kurai replied.
"Good! Now, these are silver... bronze... and copper. Now all you have to do when I say 30 gold is to count 30 of the little gold pieces... good. Now five silver... perfect! That's all you need to do!"
Kurai laughed. It was fun to learn something new that was fun, like money! "Oh, and what's your name?"
"My name's Firia," she replied.
"Firia... that's a nice name!"
After a pause, Firia thought that Kurai would be impressed by her being a dragon. "Hey Kurai... do you like dragons?"
It took him not even a second to answer. "Yeah! It's my favorite animal!" Then he thought for a second. "... Why?"
"Because guess what?" she paused, building suspense, "I'm a dragon."
A huge grin formed on Kurai's face. "REALLY! Do you have a tail!" he yelled, spinning on his heel and going behind Firia. He yelped in surprise when she suddenly let her dragon tail appear.
"You're a GOLD dragon! That's my favorite kind of dragon! They're really strong!" Kurai wrung his hands, being excited, but a little nervous. Golden dragons WERE powerful after all.
"Do you just have a tail, or are you all dragon? Can you transform? What kind of magic do you do? How powerful of spells can you cast?" The questions were never-ending.
"Oh, I'm really powerful," then she whispered in his ear, "I've even captured a Mazoku." She giggled again by the awestruck face that the boy had.
"I'm gonna tell Mommy that I saw a REAL dragon! Won't she be surprised!" Kurai squealed in delight. He hurried up to the counter to pay for the mace, wiggling in excitment all the while. He took out 30 gold coins and 5 silver from his bag, took the mace, then ran out the door.
Firia laughed. "I wonder what Kurai's parents will think when they see he has come home from shopping with a curse on him!"
While frequently giggling, Firia made her way up to the counter and waited for the next customer.
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Xelloss smiled, and continued listening to Firia. Her, setting a curse on a 6 year old boy? Who would have thought? He snickered, knowing that was the exact thing that he would do. He quickly went back to listening; now that there was another customer. What would she do next?
"I am shopping for a vase for myself, and I heard you had the only mace and vase shop in town, but you're expencive," the teenage-looking girl said to Firia, not bothering to turn around from looking at the variety of vases. She frequently picked up interesting looking vases, but every time she picked one up, she would eventually set it back down, being careful not to scratch or crack the vase.
"And what sort of things do you like?" Firia asked, wondering what to do with this customer. Another eye, or mutating her in some other way, making her totally embarrassed later today with some kind of spell... lots of choices.
The girl shrugged, and continued looking at the vases. Then Firia grinned. She knew EXACTLY what to do.
"Your hair is beautiful! I would love to have that kind of copper hair!" Firia exclaimed.
The girl beamed. "Isn't it? It's a natural color too!"
"Really? Well, you're very lucky. Anyways, is there anything you would like to buy?" When the girl shook her head, Firia sighed heavily. "Oh well, not EVERYONE finds what they're looking for... Well, see you!" the girl frowned, obviously confused, then left the shop, but not before Firia put a small charm on her.
"Having fun?" Xelloss asked suddenly, emerging from the beads into the shop. Firia blushed.
"Yeah..." she mumbled, being rather embarrassed from enjoying all this.
"Don't be ashamed! I know what you mean!" Xelloss said, leaning a little closer to Firia.
With a flick of her hand a mumbling of words, Firia made a small spell. Xelloss yelped right after her casting it.
"What was that for!" Xelloss yelled. He was just trying to get Firia annoyed!
"For annoying me." Well, he succeeded in that.
"You didn't have to burn me," Xelloss sulked, turning around and trotting back behind the safety of the beads.
"Wow, this is fun," Firia smirked. She was going to enjoy this.
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Wow! Another week. Or two. I don't know, I lost track! That 'probly means I took a long time...
Hm. Not much to say at all, so why don't I just go to
The awsome-possum-wossum-pokasum-bodasum reviewers' responses!
Hitteh Pitteh: Well, I guess this chapter answers you question about Firia! And you don't have to beg me to write more. I'm going to finish this story, but it's just going to take some time to actually write the things. Yeah.
Encyser: The Mace and Vase machine... I should make that one day o.o;;; Another person whose questions are answered in this chapter! Am I good or what!
Lady Dark Angel: Well... yeah. Bored. That's probably my most famous excuse for these types of things with Xelloss. He was bored.
Cyberimp6: Wow... more critiques writes down the quibble on her notepad But like I said, I'm a poor 13 year old. Things like "She spent the whole entire day" sounds just fine to me! But I see what you're saying. Also, I'm really bad at having effects like this take place in the same chapter. This is my first extremely big story. So... that explains a lot.
Laharl The Overlord: O.O Wha--- ahem Well, thanks! I think. I don't quite know what that thing at the beginning means...
I like the idea of the boy getting hurt and Xelloss healing him! I had something else planned, but... that will just go along with the story better. Yeah. So I'll use it. I'm too lazy to look at the reviews, so... thanks to the one that gave that idea! o.o;;;