Chapter 12: Shopping List

Two girly screams echoed around the dark cave. They both felt around the walls of the cave, hoping not to lose their sense of direction.

"Aw man," Nikki said, "I knew I should have charged my phone before we left."

"I actually did charge my phone before we left and it still dies on me," Nights said. "I swear Zorra, if it's you trying to put us in the dark again, I WILL find a way to kill you!"

The two stood there for a moment, completely surrounded by walls of darkness before Nights finally came up with an idea. "Before we left, Zorra called you forward and said something about repeating some kind of password when we reach the entrance of the shop. She told it to you specifically, so maybe now's the time to repeat it."

"Uhmm… yeah…. You see, I kinda wrote the password in the notes of my phone, and you know how that turned out."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!" Nights couldn't believe that Zorra had entrusted Nikki specifically with such a vital piece of information. It's a good thing Nights had been eavesdropping when Zorra had called Nikki forward and she had a flawless memory. *Sigh.* "Okay. If I remember correctly, it went something like…. 'Profana nomine virtutes, dona nobis ad inferos.'"

After a few seconds, the cave was still dark, but they now felt that the area around them was much more open. They both stepped forward before a blinding light revealed itself in front of them. When the blinding effects wore off on their darkness accustomed eyes, they opened them to see that lit in front of them was a torch. Two other torches, one on each side of the first, lit themselves simultaneously as well, and this continued as the torches surrounding them began to light up as well.

Nikki and Nights looked at different sides from each other before their gazes fell upon the "front desk." The desk was lit up by an ornate lantern that resembled a demon's head, with it's mouth being where the fire was lit. Apart from the large desk and lantern, there seemed to be nothing else within the room. That is until a hooded figure emerged from the shadows behind the desk.

The figure was tall, it's face hidden in the shadow of his hood despite the lantern in front of him and the rest of his body covered in a black robe with ornate jewelry hanging from it's shoulders and neck. He stretched his arm out in front of him, revealing from his sleeve a bony, black claw pointing at them. "State your business," he said in a strong yet gentle voice. As it spoke, Nikki and Nights noticed two glowing yellow eyes from within the shadow of his hood.

"W-we're here to purchase some ingredients for a potion," Nikki answered.

When the hooded man heard this , his glowing yellow eyes seemed to squint in delight. "Wonderful! Lucky for you two, this shop is still open for business." He clapped his long claws together and even more torches lit up behind him, revealing a large shelf filled with jars. "Feel free to point to anything you might like." He gestured toward the shelf behind him while Nights and Nikki walked up to the desk.

They looked up at the shelf and had trouble comprehending what kind of spells these "magic items" would be used for. The hooded man looked down at the two girls. "So, are you two supposed to be modern witches?"

"No," Nikki answered cautiously. "We're getting this stuff for a friend who needs to get her body back."

The man nodded in understanding. He's heard of witches and warlocks performing spells like this in order to prolong their life once their physical form needed to be replenished, but turning back to their physical form would be difficult without a trusted friend who could help change them back. "It's good to know that there are still some of us old ones out there, even if the one you speak of no longer lives in the physical plane of existence."

"Do you by any chance know a witch by the name of Zorra?" Nikki asked curiously.

"I'm afraid I don't recall that name. There used to be so many of us back then." His eyes drooped in a melancholy look, as if he were reminiscing about something."I haven't had a customer here in a long time, but that doesn't stop me from providing services whenever someone is willing to pay.

I suppose it's a good thing this Zorra found you two to assist with her body recovery spell." Looking back at the two young girls, he raised a nonexistent eyebrow at them. "You do know what ingredients you would need for such a spell, right?"

"Not really. I wrote everything down on my phone, but I lost reception back when we entered the cave."

Not really knowing what a "phone" is or what "reception" meant, the hooded man simply shook his head and looked at the two girls with wide eyes from above the table. "If you're referring to some new fangled 'electro' magic, then I apologize. My cave is enchanted so that no form of magic would work here besides my own. That and the whole exit and enter chant. I suppose it's a good thing I know a thing or two about these types of body retrieval spells."

He turned around to the shelf and started reaching for some of the jars, some with concerning labels like frog's tongue, demonic wishing eye, and of course insect legs.

Nikki turned over to Nights, who was completely silent the whole time. Her eyes were rather wide and she looked around the room uncomfortably. "You feeling alright?" Nikki whispered. "You didn't ask annoying questions once since we got here. It's kinda freaking me out."

Nights turned to Nikki and whispered back. "I don't trust this place. Whatever it is, as soon as we're done here, we leave just like Zorra told us to do. Don't do anything else."

"Hold on. I think that this guy can help us out somehow." Nikki said thoughtfully.

"Are you girls discussing something important?" The man had turned back to the desk and laid down a number of small jars.

"Not really," Nikki responded in her usual conversationalist tone. Nights simply stared at the two, not really sure what Nikki was going to propose but figuring it wouldn't do much harm.

"Well, I've found all the necessary ingredients you would need to start up this spell. Unfortunately, the rarest ingredient I have for such a spell is the American Ghost Orchid, so I'm afraid you'll have to find the other rare ingredients on your own."

"That's alright with us," Nikki said with a smile. Nights walked up to the desk and reached into her purse. She finally spoke to the man for the first time during this whole conversation.

"Zorra said that this should be more than enough to cover the cost." From her purse she pulled out a handful of gold coated coins. The coins were fished out from the shore of the lake where Zorra was at. Nights dropped the coins onto the desk while the man picked one up and inspected it with a speculative eye.

"This is JUST enough to cover the price," he said as he pocketed the rest of the coins in his robe. The shopkeeper then placed some twigs around the jars and snapped his fingers. The twigs then moved together on their own accord and formed a basket that held the jars together in a safe package.

Nikki reached for the basket with a look in her eye that said that she was clearly amused with the shopkeeper's display of magic. She then looked up at him and asked him for the favor that she had hinted at Nights.

"You may have already noticed, but my friend and I aren't really used to the whole magic thing," she said casually. "Zorra is actually having some problems with her magic and you seem to be a skilled wizard or warlock... or whatever. I was wondering if maybe a skilled person like you would be able to help us with our situation." Nights had listened to Nikki's suggestion to the shopkeeper, and quite frankly, she thought it was a good idea.

The shopkeeper squinted his glowing yellow eyes in consideration. "Well... I would love too, but as I've said before, I keep my shop open to provide services to paying customers and it seems you have payed for those ingredients with all of your money." His voice seemed a bit more devious than it had before.

"Well, if that's a problem, we can just pay you with more coins that we find at the lake once we get there," Nikki continued.

Once again, the shopkeeper seemed to squint his eyes in thought. "I don't know. Providing materials is one thing, but we're talking about performing a body retrieval spell here. I think the trade of a powerful magical item in return for my services would be a more suitable payment."

Night's eyes widened as she heard this and she thought back to the chaos emerald hidden in her purse. 'Can he sense that I'm holding onto it?' she thought worriedly.

Nikki seemed to miss the hinting tone in the shopkeeper's voice. "I don't think we can make a trade like that," she said slightly downcast. "Thanks for everything else though."

She began to turn back to Nights when she heard the shopkeeper's voice again, speaking rather quickly this time. "What do you mean you can't make such a trade? I can clearly sense that you have a powerful magical item in your possession. It should be more than enough to cover the costs if it's that important to you."

As Nikki caught on to what he was suggesting, Nights stepped to her side and made sure that Nikki had the basket secure while she kept her purse close to her side. Feeling that this conversation was going sour, she spoke up once again to the wizard before them. "The item your suggesting isn't up for trade. I'm sorry, but we no longer need your services."

His eyes now seemed furious. 'They suggest that I take up a job for them and they have the audacity to not even leave that gem for trade. What kind of business fool do they take me for?!'

"If there's any one thing I hate, it's being conned." He spoke with a much harsher voice that seemed to boom as it echoed around the walls of the cave. "From what my senses tell me, you seem to carry a magic imbued gem with you yet you walk here unwilling to bargain it? I suppose you take me for a mere jester."

Around the room, the torches began to dim as he glided back into the shadows. "You really shouldn't underestimate a warlock." As he said this the rest of his body became hidden in shadows while his eyes continued to glow through the piercing darkness.

When his eyes grew brighter it seemed as if the dark itself began to reach for the two hedgehogs with a slew of black tentacles.

"Run!" Nights exclaimed. No later after she said this, the two hedgehogs ran full speed through the tunnels of the cave with a never ending wall of torches lighting their way.

The shopkeeper had not expected them to run as fast as they did. Often times the darkness was fast enough to capture a swindler before they even had a chance to blink. These girls were not only able to run from it, but they were able to make it incredibly hard for for the shadows to catch up. 'I suppose it's to late to negotiate further,' he thought to himself. 'No matter. I'll still get that gem regardless of how fast they run.'

Both girls were still running down the never ending tunnel, torches lighting up the walls at their side but no light at the end of the tunnel to suggest an exit.

"Nikki! Shout out the exit chant!" Nights yelled.

Nikki slowed herself down so she could hear Nights more clearly. "What did you say about pants?" She askd frantically.

"I said exit chant! Didn't Zorra tell you a phrase to say goodbye when you left the store?"

"Didn't I already tell you that I can't remember this kind of stuff?" Nikki responded. "How about you chaos control us out of here?!"

"You don't think I've already tried that?!" Nights yelled back. "This cave supposedly blocks out any outside magic energy. Our only chance is to say that exit chant!"

Since the two girls had slowed their pace to talk to each other about how to escape, the darkness seemed to be getting much closer, seemingly because the wind from their speed was blowing out the torch lights.

'The phrases were in Latin,' Nights thought. 'Maybe I can remember some random Latin phrases I read and use them to get out.' With the darkness closing in she didn't really have any other plans. She began doing so, sacrificing some of her breath from skating away to shouting the phrases. "Valete! Postea videbo! Huc mihi ex inferno!" None of these phrases seemed to work and the darkness was still catching up to them. 'Damn it! I have such a perfect memory. Why couldn't I have used it to learn more about dead languages?'

Nikki ran alongside her, still holding the basket filled with magic ingredients, making sure that nothing spilled out of the well crafted cargo. 'This is all because we didn't have anymore money that the stupid shopkeeper would be happy with. What keeps happening to all those gold rings I find?'

She thought like this until Nights began to yell out gibberish to seemingly no one. 'Oh no, she's losing it!' Nikki thought, believing that all of Nights' stress had finally caught up with her and made her panick. With Nights shouting out nonsense next to her, it reminded Nikki of the words that Zorra had told her and what she wrote down on her phone. She began to shout in woefully broken Latin, trying to remember how Zorra pronounced the exit chant.

"Echi... Ecce tibi in... terra..." As she struggled to remember the last word, the shadows were beginning to enclose them, almost about to surround them as it began to close up the sight in front of them. She closed her eyes and raced her mind to remember the last word. "... Viva... Viventium!'

When she opened her eyes, she saw a light that was so blinding that she had to cover them for a moment. While her eyes were closed she felt a force pull back on her collar before she could run any further. After a few seconds, she finally opened her eyes and looked down to see that someone had pulled on her collar to stop her from running over the ledge that was in front of the cave. Looking back, she found that the one who had pulled her back was none other than Nights herself, an exhausted grin on her face.

"You actually did it," Nights said, panting from the adrenaline and shouting. "You actually remembered something you were told."

Still facing forward toward the ledge, Nikki fell on her back next to Nights' rocket-heel feet. Amazingly, she still held the seemingly feeble basket in her right hand and placed it next to her as she lay down. She looked up at the blue sky and admired the sun rays that were bouncing off the trees and rock formations of the mountain. Being so high up the mountain meant that they had a perfect view of the forest below as they were close to the cloud filled sky of the day. And boy did she enjoy the view.

"I told you already," she said, panting as well. "I have more than just air in my pretty little head." She then stood up leaving the basket on the ground for a moment to admire the view in front of her while Nights stood behind her. Remembering something important that she needed to check on, Nikki pulled out her phone from her shorts. "Cool! I actually get some reception up here!"

...….…...

Zorra was surprised when Nikki and Nights had teleported to her lake using chaos control. They were apperantly already familiar with it's location. She noticed the basket that Nikki was holding and looked up at them with delighted eyes. "so, i TRUST that the shopping went WELL?"

"We kinda pissed off the owner of the shop," Nights said. "So I don't think we'll be welcome back anytime soon.

Nikki walked up to the pink mist that hovered above the lake shore and placed the basket in front of Zorra. Between the jars and bottles Nikki noticed a rolled up piece of paper in the center of the large basket. Curious, she pulled out the piece of paper and unrolled it. On the front there was a written statement with big, bold cursive letters in black ink.

'Thank you for shopping. Your patronage is greatly appreciated and we hope you appreciated our services. Please come again soon!'

AN: So you might have guessed that Shadow and Sonic are simply getting Zorra her magic starter pack so she can start up her potion, which they went through a lot of trouble to get. Don't worry, the next few tasks ahead of them will be much more dangerous.

If there are any people reading this that can read and speak Latin fluently, I'm sorry if I butchered such a sophisticated language.