Chapter 3
Featherkeep
With the rain only recently ended, the roads and buildings were all soaked to darkish hues, and Peggy could still smell the storm's scent as if it was still around.
As she ran down the street with a basket in hand, her feet going splish-splash against the wet pavement, she suddenly heard someone call out to her. Peggy stopped and turned around to see who it was, and spotted a gray-haired old lady waving to her. It was Mrs. Arkans, the owner of the boarding house Peggy was staying at.
Peggy quickly waved back and ran over to greet the old lady whose inhuman nature became clearer the closer Peggy got. Mrs. Arkans was a lamia, a sort of magical creature who was human at the top and snake at the bottom.
"Hey, Mrs. Arkans!" Peggy called out as she ran over to the elderly, gray-haired lamia. "What are you doing out?"
"Oh, hello Peggy dear!" Mrs. Arkans said. She held up a rough-looking tote bag. "As you can see, I'm going shopping. Same as you, it seems."
The landlady's eyes fell on Peggy's basket.
"Oh, yeah," said Peggy. "The coffee shop was running low on supplies. I was just on my way to the marketplace."
"In that case, why don't we go together?" Mrs. Arkans suggested. "I was just thinking I could use some company while running errands."
Seeing no harm in that, Peggy replied, "Sure. Why not?"
Pleased, Mrs. Arkans clapped her hands together and said, "Excellent! Right this way!"
With not a moment spared, she hooked her arm around Peggy's and began dragging her away. Peggy didn't really mind being pulled along, but there was just one problem she quickly noticed.
"Uh . . . Mrs. Arkans?" she said.
"Yes, dear?" Mrs. Arkans said.
"Isn't the marketplace the other way?"
"Oh, certainly," said Mrs. Arkans.
"Then why are you dragging me this way?" Peggy asked. "Didn't you say you had some shopping to do?"
"I never said I was going to shop at the marketplace, did I?" said Mrs. Arkans.
"Well, no," Peggy admitted. "But-!"
"Now, now!" Mrs. Arkans cut in before Peggy could speak more and grabbed her by the arm. "Off we go! Onward to adventure!"
"Wait, what?" Peggy cried out.
Mrs. Arkans pointed to the sky and shouted, "Up! Up! And away!"
Confused, Peggy cried out, "Wait, what!? Whoa!"
Suddenly, she and Mrs. Arkans were lifted to the gray clouds that were halfway parting ways for the blue sky.
Peggy fell on her knees and cried out, "Where the heck did this magic carpet come from!?"
What brought Peggy and Mrs. Arkans high over the roofs of the town's buildings, closer to the clouds in the sky, was a carpet, dark red and stained with age. But it was otherwise dry and clean, as if the mud and water on Peggy's shoes ran away in fright of the magical carpet.
Ignoring Peggy's query, Mrs. Arkans scanned the horizons with her hand cupped over her eyes.
"Now where should we go first?" she wondered aloud while rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Oh! I know! When you think of shopping, you obviously think of the mall! We'll start there!"
"The mall? But what about my errands for the coffee shoOOOOOP!?"
Before Peggy could finish that sentence, Mrs. Arkans willed the magic carpet to zoom towards the castle-like building that sat far, far away from the coffee shop and the markets that Peggy was supposed to go for her supply run. Peggy could not stop screaming as the carpet soared high over the town buildings, fast like a roller coaster going down from its highest point. It only took a few seconds to reach the mall, but those seconds probably took years off Peggy's life. She had never been so happy to be back on solid ground in her whole life.
Mrs. Arkans gave no time for Peggy to recover. The moment the carpet touched down, the lamia pulled the coffee shop worker up from her knees and dragged her inside.
The doorman, a man covered in green scales and had fish fin-like ears, tipped his hat to the ladies. He paid no mind to how sick and groggy Peggy looked as she stumbled in behind Mrs. Arkans.
As the two ladies went inside through the dual glass doors with ornate bronze frames, a long-eared elf boy wearing the same uniform as the fish man went out. He spotted the ladies, noticed something weird about the human one, and then whispered to the fish man, "Is she okay?"
To which, the fish man shrugged and replied, "She's with Mrs. Arkans, so she should be fine. Mrs. Arkans used to be head of the army doctors, after all."
Left dizzy from the brief, but extreme flying carpet ride, Peggy could not really realize just how fancy her surroundings were until she finally had a chance to sit down on a bench and rest a little. By the time the fog around her head cleared, she found herself in a small corner of a really shiny store with really shiny glass cases full of really shiny things, from rings, bracelets and necklaces to mirrors and crystal balls.
"Sorry for the wait!"
Suddenly, Mrs. Arkans showed up hugging a paper bag close to herself.
Peggy looked at her, and then surveyed the store with her eyes.
"Mrs. Arkans," she said.
"Yes, Peggy?" said Mrs. Arkans.
"What are we doing here?"
"Why, to shop, of course," said Mrs. Arkans.
"Shop for what?" Peggy asked. "Sacred treasure to complete some epic adventure?"
Mrs. Arkans giggled.
"Don't be silly, dear," she said. "Even I don't have enough money to buy that."
Peggy blinked.
"I was just joking," she said, "but this store actually has stuff like that?"
"Of course," said Mrs. Arkans. "Stores in your world don't?"
There'd be one kind of store like that, but Peggy thought it'd be better not to say anything about that while a trio of guys in red jackets were close by, talking to the clerk. The red jackets were members of the town guard, this world's version of police.
"Anyway," said Mrs. Arkans, "I'm done here. Off to the next store!"
Before Peggy could say anything, she was once more pulled by Mrs. Arkans and dragged away. They left the store and hurried down the indoor district, passing store after store. Peggy barely had a chance to look around, but pretty much every store was as glitzy and shiny as the last one. The mall was even more blinding than the most high-end ones back on Earth. There were stores that sold clothes, stores that sold books, stores that sold knickknacks and toys, and even a store that sold swords and shields.
Peggy and Mrs. Arkans passed by all of them and went outside the building.
"Hey," said Peggy. "Don't tell me we're flying to another side of town."
"No, of course not," Mrs. Arkans said, much to Peggy's relief. Peggy wasn't sure she could handle any more flying.
But her relief was short-lived when Mrs. Arkans pulled her over to the big, fancy water fountain made of fancy marble stone with a fancy stallion horse statue that spat water out of its nose in a fancy way.
"We're going to DIVE to another part of town," said Mrs. Arkans.
"Wait, what do you mean by-!?"
Before Peggy could finish speaking, she was pushed into the fountain and sank deep into the water. She had expected to hit her cranium against the bottom the next second, but kept going down, down down. Just when she started worrying about drowning, the water current suddenly yanked her up and she flew out of the water with a loud splash.
Once she was out of the water, Peggy made a ghastly gasp for air before dropping over the fountain edge, huffing, puffing and wheezing. Behind her, there was another loud splash and she turned around to see Mrs. Arkans slithering to her.
"What was that?" Peggy asked the lamia with an angry gaze.
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Arkans answered back with a question of her own. She also answered Peggy's angry glare with an innocent, puzzled look. "Don't you know what a Warp Fountain is?"
"No," Peggy snapped.
"Oh, well this is a Warp Fountain," said Mrs. Arkans. She raised her hand to the horse statue.
Warp Fountains, Mrs. Arkans said, were magical water fountains that could be found all over the town of Featherkeep. People used these fountains to get from one place to another in the blink of an eye. All anyone had to do was think where they want to go before dive-bombing into the fountain. The fountain took care of the rest.
"First time using a Warp Fountain?" asked a nearby town guard. He handed Peggy a towel, which she gratefully accepted.
While drying her hair, Peggy nodded, "Yeah. You can tell?"
"Well, you're the first to come out of a fountain sopping wet in like ten years," said the guard. "I didn't think there was anyone still dumb enough to dive into a fountain without using anti-wet magic."
Peggy scowled, but didn't say anything when the guard went away.
"Where are we anyway?" Peggy asked Mrs. Arkans. "And what's with the circus acts? Is there some kind of festival going on?"
Looking around, Peggy could see crowds of people gathered together in their own small groups, surrounding certain smiling people in bright, colorful clothes. Each of these smiling folks had their own performance going on. One lady, a long-eared elf, juggled pieces of fire, each a different color of red, blue and green. A few feet away, a werewolf stood atop a tall, but very narrow pole, on the tip-toe of his right foot while balls of golden light swirled around him like planets circling around the sun. And further down, a blonde human girl could be seen balancing a mini-tornado on the tip of her nose.
"Oh, it's always like that here," said Mrs. Arkans. "A lot of young'uns just can't help but show off what they can do, especially in this corner of town where you get big, important folks coming to scout talent all the time."
"Scout talent?" Peggy said. "For what?"
"For anything magical, of course," said Mrs. Arkans. "This is, after all, Magic Corner, the place where anyone who wants to be a magician will come to."
There are people all over the town of Featherkeep who could use magic. But only Magic Corner could truly be called a place of magic. It is where magicians make their base, set up shop, do research, and take on students who wish to become magicians themselves. Many of the magicians in Magic Corner also do fortune telling, giving Magic Corner the nickname, Diviner Corner.
And it was one of these fortune telling magicians that Mrs. Arkans wanted to see. However, upon reaching the shop where this fortune teller resided, the old lamia was met with disappointment. On the door of the rickety wood shack that looked like it came straight from a horror movie there was a sign that read: "Out saving the world. Be back in a few days." Peggy wasn't sure the message on the sign was a joke or not.
"Well, that's too bad," said Mrs. Arkans. She put her hands to her hips and sharply puffed. "I wanted to ask him what the weather was going to be like next week."
"Is that really something you should ask a fortune teller?" Peggy asked.
"There are lots of fortune tellers who get paid to predict the weather," Mrs. Arkans pointed out. "Pity my friend's not in. Oh well. Off to the next place."
"There's still more?" Peggy checked her watch, worried. "Sorry, Mrs. Arkans, but I really should hurry up and get back to the shop."
But Mrs. Arkans didn't listen and hooked her arm around Peggy's before dragging her away.
Their next stop was a bazaar that took place in an underground tunnel that Peggy and Mrs. Arkans entered after dropping down a giant, iron drain pipe. All sorts of things were being sold by men and women who sat on big old rugs and carpets, like old toys and clothes, homemade arts and crafts, and even magic spell books. The tunnels were so crowded with people on the hunt for hidden treasure, that Peggy and Mrs. Arkans had a tough time squeezing through until they reached a carpet being occupied by a small cat with gray fur and stripes.
The cat wore a tiny Fedora hat on his head and, without a word, handed Mrs. Arkans a paper bag with his paw before she could even say anything. Peggy took a quick look of the things the cat was selling and noted they were all rings, necklaces and bracelets with colorful gems that had electricity crackling around them.
After bidding farewell to the cat, Mrs. Arkans took Peggy back to the surface to a large, castle-like building at the center of town which turned out to be the main library. After Mrs. Arkans returned a book there, she took Peggy to an ice cream shop run by a four-armed blue lady. Mrs. Arkans had vanilla while Peggy had strawberry. They took their ice cream to a park with a massive grass field that stretched across from the shop, taking a break beneath a stone statue of a caped witch girl who stood proudly over the park-goers with broomstick in hand. While sitting on one of many stone benches that surrounded the statue in a circle, Mrs. Arkans began to talk a bit more about the town.
"Featherkeep, you know, was created more than two hundred years ago by an earl," the lamia said. "And in all that time, this town has been through a lot, times both good and bad."
Peggy nodded along while taking bites out of her ice cream cone. In the background, she could hear children laugh and shout while playing several feet away. Birds chirped from the branches of trees above that cast a blanket of shade over the bench that the two ladies now rested on.
Mrs. Arkans continued and pointed to the west. "On the other side of the park, you can find the Guard Academy where new and future guards are trained." And then she pointed to the east, towards the tall, chess rook-shaped tower that Peggy remembered seeing next to the main library. "That is what's called the Admin Tower. It's where all the townsfolk go if they have business with the government, like getting a magic license or complaining about something. And that's about all the important places you should know about. With me so far?"
Again Peggy nodded. After letting some ice cream slide down her throat, she spoke up.
"Mrs. Arkans, could it be that this whole errands thing is just - ?"
She was going to ask the lamia of the whole errands thing was just an excuse to give her a tour of the town. But before Peggy could finish her sentence, Mrs. Arkans suddenly sprang from the bench and cried out, "Oh dear! Look at the time! I'm sorry, dear, but it looks like we'll have to end our little trip."
"No, that's fine," said Peggy. "It's about time I head back to the store any-!"
Peggy froze and broke out in a cold sweat.
"I completely forgot!" she cried out. She forgot about her own errands for the store. "I need to hurry up and buy the stuff for the store or -!"
She turned around and was startled to see that she was no longer in the park, but in a very familiar street. After doing a little twisting and turning, she realized she was right in front of the coffee shop.
"Wasn't I in the park a second ago?" she wondered. "How'd I get here?"
She shook her head furiously.
Never mind that, she thought. I need to hurry up and buy the stuff!
Peggy was about to turn and leave, but was stopped by a voice behind her.
"Uh . . . you okay, miss?" asked the wolfman in the red jacket. He was a town guard on patrol.
"Yeah, peachy," Peggy replied quickly.
The guard smiled warmly and said, "That's good to hear. By the way, you work at this shop, right? Need help carrying your stuff inside?"
"Stuff?" Peggy wondered what stuff the guard was talking about, but then spotted a basket by her feet full of the things she had set off to buy for the store.
When did I get all this? Peggy wondered. Maybe she just happened to buy all this stuff while Mrs. Arkans dragged her around and didn't notice?
"Miss?" The guard spoke up, snapping Peggy out of her thoughts.
"Oh! Uh, no. That's okay. I can handle it! Thanks!"
After thanking the guard, Peggy quickly picked up the basket and put her hand on the door handle. There was a chalkboard sign that read, "DOLL PARTY AFTERNOON!" But she didn't see it.
Peggy pushed the door open and barged inside only to freeze on the spot and raise her eyebrows when she saw that the store was full of dolls. The creepy, old-fashioned, baby-faced dolls all sat on chairs and benches, made to look like they were customers of the store. There was one doll, blue, standing on the counter next to the cash register with a hand reaching for a coffee pot.
SNAP!
Suddenly, the dolls all turned their heads on their own and looked straight at Peggy.
"WHAT THE-!?"
