AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sophie
I woke up on my dayoff and practically jumped out of bed before I remembered that I didn’t work today. I tried to ignore the deflated-balloon feeling of disappointment at that, reminding myself that there was a whole crazy Christmas station to explore today and tomorrow. With that in mind, I dressed quickly in a simple green Terratribe 1 wool sweater and a black skirt. A quick laser cleaning of my teeth and a brush of my hair and I was good to go.
Time to find something for breakfast.
My stomach grumbled as I left my room and headed out into the aisle. I grabbed an empty hover-vater and said a floor at random, enticed by the prospect of exploring a new place without any plan. The hover-vator opened onto floor 1813, and I stepped out. What I really wanted was one of the specialties that Shelly baked at Hallowed be thy Bean - a doucefeuille. A thick, chewy pastry filled with Terratribe 2 yellowberry jam. My mouth watered just thinking about it, but something about turning up at my workplace as soon as I wasn’t scheduled to be there felt just a little pathetic. It probably wouldn’t feel so pathetic if I didn’t have a raging crush on the guy working there, but there it fucking was. I really liked X. I liked his alien face and muscled frame. I liked the deep grumble of his voice and the serious tone it usually had. I liked when that serious tone slipped away to give way to his rare teasing. And I liked the way he had started looking at me – like he was hungry and in pain all at once.
But last night he’d gotten... awkward. It seemed like he was going to say something else, after he’d called my smile goofy. I’d practically held my breath in anticipation, but in the end he’d closed himself off and stepped away. As I wandered the bustling level I’d ended up on, I chewed my lip, wondering just what it would take to get him to open up a little bit more. But maybe I was getting ahead of myself. I was only here for a few weeks, after all. But that thought suddenly felt way too sad. And it wasn’t just because I didn’t want to go back to the grey skies of New Toronto.
I sighed, getting distracted from my thoughts by a glorious smell wafting through the air. Following it, I found myself at a little kiosk in the middle of the aisle. By the time I made it to the front of the line, I saw what smelled so great – handmade squiggly dough loops that I knew were human in origin. The name totally escaped me, though, until the human behind the counter smiled and said, “What kind of pretzel can I get for you?”
Pretzel! Right.
“I’ve never had one! Whatever you suggest.”
“The most popular is the plain dough dusted with Terratribe 2 honey beads.”
“Perfect.”
I paid, and a moment later I had my soft pretzel, dotted with little golden pearls of hard honey that created an explosive sweet crunch with each bite. I wandered around while I ate, then made my way back to the hover-vators. This time, I actually had a destination in mind.
“Level 1114, please!”
It didn’t take me long to find Feathers and Salt, the store Novara-Lei owned with her husband. The bright lights shone on massive pyramids differently-coloured pyramids of salt and spices in the window, and I made a beeline for it, gasping as I stepped inside.
It felt less like I was in a spice shop and more like I was in a gem dispensary. At the front window and in a long line against one wall were more of the huge pyramids, glittering in shades of scarlet, cerulean blue, opalescent white, and even a vivid, glowing green. At the back of the store was a small counter where a Navaret man worked, his beak opening and closing rapidly as he spoke to the customer in front of him. Probably Novara-Lei’s husband...
I turned, surveying the rest of the space, admiring the other smaller displays – clear tubs of flowering herbs and leaves that glinted in the shop’s lights.
“Finding everything you are looking for?” a familiar voice said from behind me. I spun to find Novara-Lei standing there and I smiled.
“I don’t even know what I’m looking for. This place is amazing!” I said. A ripple of what I hoped was happiness went through her shining feathers.
“Thank you. This store is our pride.”
“I can see why,” I said, looking around again. “Those pyramids alone are a feat of physics!” In fact, they made me a little nervous. One wrong move from a clumsy customer, aka me, could send all those shining granules raining down to the ground.
“I will tell you a small secret of our trade. There are invisible force-fields holding all the grains of the pyramids in place.”
“OK, good!” I laughed. “Now I know I won’t knock one down the way I did to you when we first met!”
A little chirpy yip of a laugh came from her beak.
“No, you won’t. All is well. Is all well with you?”
Her bird-like face seemed to get more serious as she asked that. I remembered her intense worry about my coworker, the death-bringer.
“Yes, everything is great with me,” I said honestly. The only way it could be better would be if I could somehow get a little closer to X, and soon. “My job is amazing. Everybody is really nice.”
“Everybody?” she pressed, leaning forward slightly.
I nodded firmly.
“Yeah, everybody. Even my coworker. The Chimera. His name is X. He’s a little grumpy, but he’s actually a very good person to work with.”
Her feathers flared slightly at the mention of him, but settled again quickly.
“If you say it is true, then I am glad to hear it. Now come, I will give you a tour of the store.”
