Night Walking

The moon hangs high but the city is mostly lit by streetlights and buildings. There are still lots of businesses open at this time of night, which I'm thankful for. It would be a little annoying if coming down here was for nothing.

Now that I think about it, I've never been in a city at night before let alone walked through one without an escort. I'm not a little kid anymore so I guess it's not that big of a deal, despite how surreal it feels.

I don't pass many people, and the ones I do seem preoccupied and don't pay attention to me. It feels really nice. Maybe I should do this more often.

Now I just need to locate a general store or some kind of market. I think I remember passing a grocery store earlier in the day, but I don't recall where it is. Maybe I'll find it if I retrace my steps.

Staring at the glowing skyline has me feeling more introspective than usual.

As much as this place is already tiring, I think I like it more than life back home. Even if I end up coming back to my dorm room exhausted every day, at least things are happening. I never quite felt like my life was going anywhere before.

Wow Morgan, that's a really heavy thought to have out of nowhere.

Thinking even further back, I was extremely sheltered wasn't I. I hardly ever did anything risky or even exciting. I don't think it was even intentional, it just somehow ended up that way. Mom always did her best to keep me entertained, but everything got boring after a while.

Living outside a rural town at the edge of the country definitely didn't help either. I'm glad that I get this opportunity to live somewhere truly exciting, at least by my standards. I can't let my time here go to waste.

And here it is. I was right, there was a grocery store around here, and it's actually closer to the dorms than I thought. I can see a faint light inside and the sign says it's open so I guess I'll just go in.

Pushing through the door, a bell rings faintly above my head. Moments later a person pops out from behind a shelf. I can't quite make out their features since they're blocking the light, but I can at least tell that they're short.

"Welcome! You're sure coming in late, the store closes in 15 minutes."

"Yes sorry, I didn't have anything to eat for dinner and I'm hungry."

"Well then feel free to browse, I'll get the lights back on." With that, the person who I assume is the shopkeeper disappears back behind the shelves and I'm alone again.

"Thank you." I grab a small basket from nearby, and check the nearby shelves for anything that seems good.

I can pretty easily recognize most of the items on display, but every now and then I spot something that I don't even slightly understand. Things like 'Golem Fuel', 'Jeweled Plarichet' and 'Vanilla Extract'. What in the world is 'Plarichet'?

While I slowly pick through the store, everything lights up around me.

"There we go! Now it should be a lot easier to see." I hear the shopkeeper speaking from somewhere across the room.

With my newfound sight, I realize that there are a lot more strange things on the shelves than I realized. What makes me even more confused is that despite their strange names, the products themselves seem perfectly ordinary.

For example 'Golem Fuel' is just a small bottle full of what look like little medicine balls. Are these all just exotic candies or something? For now I'll just ignore them and figure it out later, I'm really hungry.

Making my way through the aisles, I gradually fill my basket with food items to keep me fed for at least the next few days. I can always come back another time, maybe on another late night walk.

I finally come to the counter and the shopkeeper is standing behind it waiting. I finally get a good view of them, and am surprised at what I see. The shopkeeper appears to be a very young girl, probably around 9 or 10. Blonde hair down to her waist and cute childish features.

Now that I think about it her voice seemed young earlier, but I just thought she was a smaller adult. I've been proven wrong unless somehow this isn't just a little kid.

"Hello again! I'm Latevia and this is my shop. I have a wide selection of goods that you won't find anywhere else in Shancross, though I'm sure you could already tell." She introduces herself as I approach.

"Normally I would be saying all this right when a customer enters, but since you've already looked around it feels kind of pointless."

"Sorry, it has been a long day."

"No worries! I'm glad to have visitors, especially if they pay well!." She winks.

Despite how she looks, Latevia speaks more eloquently than half of my professors. Her mannerisms also make me think she's older than she appears, or at least far more mature. No point in dwelling on it though, I can just mark her down as another weirdo at the academy.

"Well I'd like to buy all this." I bring the basket up onto the counter.

"Oh wow that's a lot! Do you even have enough points for all of it?"

"Uh... probably?" I didn't think of that. Money has never really been an issue for me.

"Well pull out your ID and we can check." Latevia motions toward my pocket.

Pulling out the card and checking it, it already has my point details displayed.

'14700pts'

'700pts from weekly Allowance'

'7000pts from History Rank'

'7000pts from Combat Theory Rank'

Well that's good to know, seems like having the top rank in a subject gets you 10 times more points than the weekly allowance. Though, how low did I have to place in the other subjects to not be getting any points from them...

I show my card to Latevia and she smiles brightly.

"Wow! That's plenty enough, I'll run it now if you don't mind!" She holds out her hand.

"Ah okay." I hand over my card.

She pulls a slab made of a similar material out from below the counter and places the card on it for a few seconds, before taking it off and handing it back to me.

"All done! The total fee was 14000 points! You're free to go! You can keep the basket as long as you use it whenever you come by!"

That's a lot of points down the drain. But I guess it's fine, I don't really know what I would have used them for anyway. I also got a free basket so it's not that big a deal.

"Thank you. Next time I'll come by earlier." I take the basket off the counter and turn to leave.

"Ah! Wait a moment!" Latevia calls out to me before shuffling over.

"If you're going to shop here regularly, you should keep this." She hands me a token that has a cartoony drawing of her winking and grinning on it.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"It helps me keep track of my regular customers, trust me it will be good to have." She smiles again and pushes me towards the door.

"Now hurry back to your dorm, I need to close the store."

"Ah!" Startled by her sudden forcefulness, I get helplessly ejected from the shop and she stops in the doorway.

"See you next time Morgan!" She waves to me before shutting the door and flipping the sign to closed.

I stand outside the building moment and stare blankly at the door in bewilderment, then down at the token in my hand before pocketing it and walking in the direction of the dorm building.

That was a strange encounter, but not weirder than the rest of the day has been.

When I get back I'm gonna make some nice warm food then get straight to bed. It has been a very long day.