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Douxie thumbed through the pages of yet another of Merlin’s old books, waiting for closing time. Around this hour, he knew that nobody would be coming in to browse, and as soon as this was done, his shift over at the restaurant would kick in until nightfall.
He’d read this particular book before, dozens of times in fact, but it gave him something to do to pass the time. He was sure Merlin wouldn’t approve of him selling copies of his books. Copies. Nearly half of the books in this store were copies of the books and tomes Merlin used back in Camelot, most of which Douxie spent weeks transcribing himself.
After Merlin went into his eternal slumber, and after Hisirdoux had finished doing a list of prophetic chores— preparing his master's cave, casting magical enchantments, artistic predicted timelines, traps, and so forth within it— he needed SOMETHING to do to pass the time for the next few centuries, and after adventuring got old or slowed in the more recent centuries, reading books seemed to be the next best thing.
Notes turned to whole copies and after he figured out people would be willing to buy them, it became the means to a decent living. It wasn’t like the mortals could do anything with such books anyway, so where was the harm in sharing the knowledge? Most people just thought their arcane existence was whimsical at best, and these days the mysteries of magic were more of a fad if anything else.
Of course he had his share of devoted customers. That high school history teacher who often frequented, Walter, now he always seemed to know what he was looking for. He and Douxie could get into some pretty interesting conversations at the checkout over historic events or the contents of whatever book the man was purchasing that day. Medieval Torture, Cryptology and Ancient Runes, etcetera.
He once asked what was so interesting about the arcane to a history teacher, and Walter had told him that they were merely a hobby, although there was always a bit more worth to these types of old books than people gave them credit for.
The answer had made him happy. At least SOME people had an appreciation for his books!
There was also that short kid with the glasses... Eli maybe? He didn’t often buy many books, more like he would come in every so often with a low quality photo on his phone, or scribbles in a journal, asking Douxie if he could identify any sort of supernatural creature he claimed to have seen that week. Now, knowing what he knew, Hisirdoux had no doubt in his mind that this kid had actually seen what he was asking about, and planned to investigate it himself later on in the day, but for the mortal’s sake, Douxie often had to feign ignorance and send him on his way with a few unhelpful book recommendations to keep him out of harm's way. After a while of doing this, the kid stopped asking, and he didn't come in as much after that.
Douxie yawned and stretched out his arms atop the counter before sliding the old book back into the shelf where it belonged.
“Arch!” he called softy. “Wake up, it’s quitting time.”
The cat uncurled himself from his seat and stretched before treading down the stairs to his side.
“Right. See you after your night shift then?”
“Yeah, I’ll probably bring back some leftovers from the restaurant today, so don’t worry too much about dinner.”
“Alright, well I’ll be sure to—” Archie’s ear twitched. “To— Do— Douxie do you hear something odd?”
Hisirdoux cocked his ear skywards, but things were about as peaceful and quiet as always. Meanwhile, Archie padded towards the front and looked out the glass at the rest of the Arcadia Square.
“What is is?”
“I’m not sure… but it was almost like a—”
The lights started to flicker and suddenly the world had a very sideways feeling to it before one large *KA-BOOM!* lit up the sky from a few blocks over, fire and smoke spreading with a speed that looked anything but natural.
“Oh fuzzbuckets…”
They stepped outside slowly, the hot evening air reeking of danger and death even from over here by the shop.
“What’s going on!?”
“I don’t know?” Douxie breathed. “Merlin’s prophecies never mentioned this!”
Screams were heard in the distance, all growing closer as the sounds of cars screeching and crashing echoed the multiple explosions to follow as if in a symphony of destruction.
“Hisirdoux!” Zoe called, rushing over to him from the record store next door. “The radio is going nuts! There’s changelings and trolls attacking the entire town.”
A hand came up to his forehead as he parted his hair and stared wide eyed out at the town, taking it all in with too many thoughts to register, and a creeping fear chilling up his spine.
“They must have an army!” He thought aloud, his breath still managing to catch as he said it. “I have to do something.”
“Whoa there!” She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. “What are you going to do? Take on the entire horde by yourself?”
His eyes grew stern and he offered her a nod.
“If I have to.”
“Well not without me, you’re not,” Archie said, dropping his guise as a cat for that of a dragon instead. Given everything going on at the moment, the way he looked didn’t really seem to matter anymore.
“You can count me in too.” Zoe added. “We’ve got your back.”
He smiled at the two of them, but it was short lived as roars and thunderous footsteps started rushing down their block, gumm-gumm soldiers taking out the pagoda at the middle of the park in one fell swoop as the horde charged inward towards anything that moved.
Douxie’s hands lit up blue as shots of magical energy came firing down around them, the people running past them screaming, not even stopping to gawk at the strange sight as they fled for their lives.
Falling in step behind him, pink zaps of electrical energy and the concentrated blasts of dragon fire laid cover all around as the three took the fight in their favor, leaving stone soldiers dead in their path until the last of the citizens could flee to another block.
“Archie, fly up past the smoke and see if you can't find a source for all these soldiers! A tunnel, a portal... anything!”
“Right!” He nodded and disappeared quickly into the sky which was already clouded to its entirety with smoke.
“How are you holding up, Zoe?” Hisirdoux asked, feeling her back brush up against his as they continued closing the tread of their pursuers.
“Piece of cake,” she said with a breath, blowing a strand of pink hair out of her face as she let loose a few more attacks. “What about you?”
“This? This is nothing!” He joked, one gumm-gumm getting too close for comfort as the two dodged out of the way before Douxie could land the finishing blow. “Man!” He took another breath. “I’ve always hated those twits.”
“At the moment, I wouldn’t disagree with you there!”
“Douxie!” Archie called, darting out of the fog and over to their side. “I’ve found the source! The army seems to be originating from the museum. The town is in shambles, but I found the back alleys down Delancey Street are just narrow enough to get you around the brunt of the chaos.”
“Good work, Arch! Let’s get over there then and see if we can’t close off whatever relic they’re using to portal to Arcadia.”
One more zap and with a firm nod, the three rushed off to try and save the town.
By the time they made it downtown, there was almost nothing left that even resembled the strange yet peaceful place they once knew. A blockade of red and blue lights flashed as police vehicles lay abandoned in front of the museum, a few bodies still lingering along the ground, though whether they were injured or dead was anyone’s guess. Cars were toppled, some dangling through holes made in buildings, and the streets were crumbled, littered with debris from anything and everything that possibly stood in the warpath of the savage beasts.
The theater across the way was torn apart, and Benoit’s was entirely destroyed. He could only hope that everyone made it out okay as the faces of all those he worked with at the restaurant started flashing through his mind. Who was on shift today before him? He wished he’d paid better attention to the schedule, wished he could remember who was there. They were so close to ground zero. Did they get away? Did they need help? He desperately tried to shove the thought to the back of his mind, but it managed to linger.
“I’ll check the area for injured,” Archie offered. “Just give the word!”
Zoe looked at Hisirdoux, the visible thoughts forming all over his face as they continued to run.
“The restaurant?” She asked knowingly, hoping it might jumpstart some sort of response out of him.
He nodded, lightly, barely visible to anyone, but he nodded.
She understood, and it seems Archie did too because he shot over to the rubble in a flash, calling out, “I’ll be fast! Be careful!”
“You too.”
She tapped him on the arm as they slowed their pace and took shelter behind one of the many flipped trucks, opting now for stealth over speed until Archie could get back.
“Hey!” she whispered. “It’s going to be okay. I’m sure they’re fine.”
“Maybe…” He replied, unsure as to whether he sounded more pessimistic or hopeful. “I can’t believe I allowed things to get this bad on my watch. I should’ve been there! I should have—”
“Hey! Hey… There’s no way you could’ve known about this. It was never in any of your instructions.”
Despite himself, he couldn’t help but let a small chuckle slip out.
“Still not sure whether or not I should’ve let you read those.”
Nudging him with her elbow, she returned the smirk and then stuck out her tongue at him.
The moment passed quickly as both returned to the situation at hand, turning to peer around at the area. It was swarming with soldiers of course, and there were a couple of goblins mucking about around the entrance to the museum as well.
“How do you suppose we get in there?” he wondered.
“Doesn’t look like a lot of options for sneaking in. I suppose we could fight our way through, but they’ll have us outnumbered.”
“Maybe Arch will know another way in.” He let the moment linger for a time and then shook his head. “He should be back by now…”
She grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze before both looked back towards the restaurant.
*SCREECH!*
*CRASH!*
They flinched as the sound of impact sent a car flying near to where they hid, two people crawling out as two much larger figures closed in around them.
Zoe gasped. “Is that Gunmar?”
“And Bular…” he nodded. “This is worse than I thought.”
“They want me not you!” The man shouted. In an instant, Douxie caught the unique accent of Walter, the history teacher, and he watched with a bit of shock as he shifted into a tall green changeling and shouted back at the boy from his car. “Get to the museum!” Before luring Bular and Gunmar away, the two shoving cars out of their wake as they took off around the corner after him.
“Who’s that?” Zoe asked, the both of them watching confused as the boy in the blue jacket now ran towards the museum.
Douxie shook his head.
“No idea… but he looks like a kid that knows what he's doing. And, that changeling seems to be on our side too. I think he might also be one of the regulars at my store? A lot of past purchases are starting to make much more sense to me now.”
“Well, should we help him or go after the kid?”
“No, he’s distracting them for him. We’ll only blow his cover. We should wait for Archie.”
“Douxie, they’re heading towards the restaurant!”
His eyes shot wide.
“Oh no! Archie! Come on, we have to get to him before they do.”
“Right behind you!”
They hurried over, managing not to be seen as they slipped past the cracked walls and into whatever was left of Benoit’s. Once inside, Douxie let out a soft exclamation as they took it all in, thankfully not seeing any bodies, but barely able to tell the floor from rubble. To think he was supposed to be here working right about now. The eerie sensation sent shivers up his arms and neck as he tried to look around for his familiar.
There were fresh scorch marks on some of the rocks, as well as foot prints, a lone sneaker, and discarded scraps of apron material that were trailing beside it as Douxie rubbed the grime between his thumb and forefinger. It was still warm. Arch must have found someone in here after all and helped them out. The question remained though, where was he now, and was there anything else that got in his way of coming back?
“Arch?” Douxie called quietly.
“Archie?” Zoe repeated in the other direction.
There was a rustle in the kitchen and the two wizards shared a commutative look before lights started glowing from each of their palms. Douxie mouthed the countdown as his free hand held out the numbers.
“3… 2… 1…”
They charged in, not seeing anything through the darkness before a lone green goblin shot out from behind a barrel and through the order window in a frantic haste, paying the two wizards zero attention as it fled howling.
Zoe and Douxie shared a confused look, once again cut short by the sound of heavy footfall approaching from the other side of the wall.
*thud*
*thud*
*thud*
Until finally the pace quickened and suddenly it was like a rocking earthquake and Douxie called back.
“Move!”
*SMASH*
The bricks exploded into the kitchen, as a massive, gruesome figure walked slowly into the debris. Douxie felt something in his heart sting and looked down to make sure he wasn’t impaled by debris before turning his gaze back skyward to see the brute responsible. He let out a gasp at the sight of him up close. This troll needed no introduction. He was as unmistaken as he was terrifying, and both wizards knew his name all too well.
“Bular…”
He seemed to revel in the twinge of fear coming from Douxie’s voice, as he chuckled darkly down at the two, his glowering stance daunting as he continued into the building. It would appear something had caught his attention and drawn him over to Benoit's because in the distance Gunmar and Walter were still locked in a heated battle, though it was obvious that the changeling was becoming quickly overwhelmed every second.
Douxie glanced downward. In the massive troll's hand was something black, the fur coated in a blend of concrete dust and blood, and Hisirdoux felt his heart drop, that stinging pain becoming a pit of fear and worry as his eyes caught the glare of something in the fire outside. Just behind Bular, lying forgotten on the ground outside, was a pair of cracked spectacles next to a crater in the concrete, and next to where a trail of footprints lead up to the wall in streaks of red.
“Archie!” He called, firing off his strongest attack as Zoe’s pink beam of lightning accompanied him from the other side. Together they managed to shoot the troll back out the way he came and through the walls of the neighboring building as Archie fell out of his grasp and onto the kitchen floor.
Hisirdoux shot over to him, but saw that his friend didn’t move, he saw no breath or the rise and fall of his chest. Even his wings lay limp against the floor as the wizard slowly reached out to touch him.
Tears welled in his eyes upon contact, the body unresponsive and stiff as he turned and cradled it into his arms.
Nothing.
"N-no... no, no, no, no, no please! Archie? Arch!"
Sobs from Zoe were masked behind her hand as she watched Hisirdoux in shock and horror.
He choked and held the dragon close to his face, feeling the hot tears soaking his fur as he could only sit there and cry into his embrace.
“Archie…” He tried to take a breath but no air could reach his lungs. His shock and panic were too great to hold back. “I’m so— I— I’m sorry!”
He sobbed out a few more times, hyperventilating as he stood with his friend and ran a thumb over his face. It was peaceful, almost like he was asleep, but the harsh reality of it all was too much for him to ever lie to himself that this might be true. His familiar, his friend, his family… Archie… He was gone.
“Bular...” Zoe warned, her voice calm though she appeared to have trouble getting her words out as well. Her finger pointed outside as the rubble began to sift and the large body started to come to with a growl. She took a step forward, attempting to reach out for his shoulder. “We need to—”
“Bular…" he muttered, teeth clenching as he looked up towards the gaping hole in the wall. "BULAR!” he screamed now, his voice rising, echoing even, as his eyes lit up blue and a circle of wind and magic dropped the pressure of the room and kicked up all the loose debris into the air. Zoe held her arms up to shield her face as Douxie approached and held Archie out to her. She took him without hesitation, her breath catching when she touched him, and she watched, wide eyed as Douxie turned without expression and bounded out of the restaurant and over to where Bular had just started to stand back up.
She waited there a moment until she regained the feeling in her legs and looked down at Archie, rubbing his fur a few times, as tears were still streaking down her cheeks. She walked over and set him down on top of the only flat structure left in the kitchen, knocking all obstacles off with her arm as she did. She waited there for a moment, unsure of what else to do and her mind drawing a blank whenever she tried.
“I’ll watch over him for you.” she said softly, leaning over and kissing the side of his head. “For as long as we last. So... don’t worry about him. You can just rest now.”
She held out her hand, unsure of what else to say, as a dark rose formed beside him. Anything else she could have done or said just sounded wrong or out of place, but after hearing a yelp from Douxie outside, followed by a loud clash of energy, she shook her head and turned to go out and rejoin the fight. The shock and grief could wait until after, but right now, the thing responsible was going to pay, and if it was the last thing either of them ever did, they would make sure of at least that much.
“BULAR!”
The dark prince had only a second of response time before a flash of blue struck him three blocks further down the road.
“What!?” Gunmar roared. “A wizard!? How!?”
After skidding against the pavement, Bular rose with a snarl and slammed his fists against the ground before charging viciously back towards the target who'd struck him.
“Tenebrius Exellium!”
Hisirdoux didn't wait, and he scorched the streets in a massive wave of blue light, striking both Bular and Gunmar in the rays of his mightiest blast.
Gunmar managed to take cover after only a short time in the heat of it, but Bular was another story entirely. The dark prince screamed in the distance as he was shoved backwards, trying his hardest to step forward and rush back into the fight. The might of the wizard’s attack was quickly becoming too much for him to bear, and the butcher began to slow, and then, when he was only a mere few feet from his desired destination, he started to crumble. He took one final look over at Gunmar as the last of his intact stone began to crack away, a fear in his eyes that he never thought he could feel, much less show as his unavoidable fate became all too clear to him.
“Father?”
And with that last word, he reached out and shattered apart, collapsing into the magical rays as nothing but rocks.
A vicious howl escaped Gunmar’s throat as he threw a car towards Douxie in response, and broke the tail end of his spell's concentration just in time for the boy to dodge out of the way.
Breathing heavily, Douxie tumbled onto the road and tried to catch his breath as the king of the gumm-gumms closed in on him, a new, stronger sense of bloodlust in his eyes as he drew his sword and wailed out a snarling battle cry.
There wasn’t much else he could do at this point... Douxie knew that. He’d exhausted most of his magic in that last attack, and the adrenalin was starting to wear down, making it harder to pretend the exhaustion wasn't setting in. Still, he wouldn’t go down without a fight, and grabbed for the nearest thing he could use to land a blow.
With a growl, Gunmar lifted his arm to strike, but was interrupted by another voice that echoed like thunder from out of the alley behind them.
“Fluctus Tempestas!”
“GAH!”
A pink surge of energy sent the monster back to his cover, small bits of stone and horn cracking apart as Zoe stepped over to Douxie, her middle and index fingers pointed to direct her blasts cleanly towards her target.
“Zoe!” Douxie said, still out of breath, but happy to see her anyway.
“I’ve got you!” She shouted, face contorted in the midst of her own concentration.
Douxie smiled at her, and then he took in a breath as he felt a rumbling in the street beneath his hands. He looked back and then over to the end of the road ahead of them, seeing the soldiers closing in from each direction. Apparently, hearing the prince fall and the king under attack had lured the gumm-gumm soldiers right to their positions, and within moments they would be completely surrounded. On top of that, once Zoe’s attack was done, the both of them would be out of energy and also out of magic to fight back with.
“We’ve got company, Zo.”
She allowed a glance as sweat dripped down her brow.
“I don’t suppose you have a plan?”
“Not a one.”
She chuckled through gritted teeth.
“Me... either.”
He stood wobbly and started for the runes on his bracelet.
“Well, we had a good run, right? 900 years, not too bad.” He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed once before coming to stand at her side. “Together?”
“Always!” She nodded, and with a final grunt, broke her spell and dropped down to one knee.
Finally free and angrier than ever, Gunmar rushed for them and the two stood their ground, prepared to go out fighting, only for a massive arm to swing back and strike Zoe out of the way.
*FWAM!*
Her ears rang as the might of a speeding boulder sent her crashing down the road into the pavement, tasting blood in her mouth as her view of the world blurred and shook back into focus.
“Zoe!” Hisirdoux called out, his voice already mouthing another spell his body couldn’t cash as Gunmar grabbed him by the face, raised him high off his footing, and then slammed him back-first into the road.
*SLAM!*
He groaned and felt the bones snapping upon impact, before the shallow voice came back through ringing eardrums.
“You killed my son!" Gunmar snarled. "But, it was all for nothing, Wizard! There will be no victory for you because now, all that awaits you is a slow and painful death!”
Spitting out what tasted like blood, Douxie smirked up at him and made sure the face he made would annoy the brute for years to come as he grunted out the words. “Yeah? Well, it was worth it. Do your worst... ugly...”
Gunmar growled and sent his sword plunging downward into Douxie’s chest. His sword that was enchanted once upon a time by Morgana, Douxie remembered. This blade was an enchanted weapon and one that would do a lot more than just hurt him. This was a weapon that could kill him, and he felt as much as the blade retracted from his skin, dripping his own blood back down on him like warm drops of red rain.
“NOO!” A scream sounded, Zoe’s voice, but all Douxie could see of her from this distance was the blurry and disheveled bright-pink color of her hair.
“Argh!” Another voice growled, this one closer as a figure of green, coated in open wounds leapt onto Gunmar and sent him turning sideways. Knives shot out from the cowl on his back and in a moment, Douxie coughed and recognized him as the changeling form of Walter Strickler.
“Walter…” He greeted weakly.
“Wizard.” He greeted back, his own voice tired as he shot a look back at Zoe who was limping as fast as she could over to them. He held his side and then turned back to watch as Gunmar regained his footing, annoyed even more so with Strickler than he had been a few minutes before when he thought he'd killed him.
“Your reading preferences…" Douxie coughed with a smirk. "Make a lot more sense now...”
He let out a breath of a laugh and offered him a half shrug in return before turning back to face Gunmar and lowering his stance for one more attack. “I can buy you a moment! Use it wisely!”
“I appreciate your patronage.” He smiled, thinking he was nodding, but not actually sure if he did or not.
Walter did nod back, but he didn’t stick around, instead charging forth with a yell just as Zoe’s knees hit the road next to Douxie’s face.
“Hisirdoux!” She shouted, body shaking as she helped him onto her lap and into a sitting position. Her trembling hands shook above the open wound in his chest, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. She only stared at it, her blue eyes larger and brighter than ever amidst the scratches and stains surrounding the rest of her face.
“Zoe…” He started softly. “Y-you should get out of here. Run. Run as far away as y-you can.”
Her breathing slowed and eyes softened, brows coming down resolutely before smoothing over with a resolve that was only comforted marginally by his presence when their eyes met.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, and held out her hand which began to light up in a soft glow of pink electricity.
Douxie read her expression and heard her words, understanding both in an instant as the sounds of Strickler falling drowned into silence in the background. Weakly, he lifted his arm, fingers uncurling as much as he was able as his hand also began to glow in round waves of blue. They closed the distance between their two hands, locking them together and then squeezing tighter, as much as they could muster, even past the point where it started to hurt. The two lights between them merged and what formed after was a ball of energy twice as large and twice as bright as a surge of purple encapsulated both of their arms.
Zoe clenched her eyes shut and set her head down to rest on top of Douxie’s. In return he tilted his sideways, as close to her as he could get, as every inch of him started to go cold from the legs up. He felt the warmth in her touch and the breath in his hair, but after a moment, that too began to fade, and he took one last look out at the street and enemies before everything faded into white.
Gunmar and his horde of approaching soldiers saw this new magic, this final attempt at an attack, and he charged for them, ordering all within earshot to do the same.
As they drew closer, the light had already overtaken the road, and then the sidewalks, then the buildings, and within another moment, the dome of purple-tinted-white sent a blinding shockwave shooting across half of Arcadia, expanding like a nuclear explosion down every pathway before all went silent, all went white, and then it retracted back into itself and flashed out of existence entirely.
When it was gone, there was only the distant sounds of faint car alarms and wind. The street and everything within it was unfazed, but there were over a hundred gumm-gumm statues now strewn in a circle of attack, their arms outstretched, weapons drawn, and faces forever frozen in that last moment shock thanks to the two wizards' final attack. And in the center of this army, where all arms reached longingly to a focal point in the center of the cracked roadway, there was only a pile of black ashes, the flakes of soot drifting through the lifeless air as it mixed into the lingering smoke and stillness of time. A final breeze carried the brunt of the ashes away and as it left, revealed two intricate grimoires, alone in the street, one lying on top of the other as the last of the ash pattern dispersed.
A gentle cracking began to break the soft stillness of the silence, growing louder as a muffled voice struggled to break loose.
"YAAAARGH!"
With a roar, Gunmar broke loose, breathing heavily as stone fell around him. He was injured, but through the shielding sacrifice of his gumm-gumm pawns, he had managed to escape the blast with his life.
“Wizards…” he scowled, spitting once at the ground as he shook the rubble of his soldiers off of his skin.
With that, he headed back towards the museum where a lone human boy with a determined stare and a sword twice his size rushed forth to charge at him. The last hope of those who dared stand against him, and it was almost comedic that this was the end of their defenses. Just one fragile, human child, with a sense of bravery that was too much for his body. Gunmar growled and prepared to meet him head on as the boy yelled out a battle cry and the world vanished in a blink of white.
"Yo! Douxie! Your breaks over! You feel like re-opening the shop sometime this year!?"
He blinked awake and saw the flash of pink hair signaling to him from outside the window.
"Douxie, old boy, can you get that?" Archie yawned, stretching and moving off of his chest to another equally comfortable napping location before curling back up into a fluffy, tired ball.
He looked at the time and then let himself hop up before he was entirely awake as he walked to the front, flipped the sign back to open, and unlocked the bookstore lobby to step outside into the sidewalk, blinking away the bright sun.
"Thanks for the reminder. I nearly missed my shift."
"Don't mention it. I just so happened to be out front when I saw you still slacking off."
"Easy…" He teased. "I had a long night, and we don't all get as many customers as you do." He rubbed his mouth. "Mostly just elders and teachers honestly. Why does nobody buy books these days?"
“You’re telling this to someone selling records in the era of digital music.” She shot him a look and lifted a brow.
“Yeah, but people still buy records! They’re retro!”
"Whatever." She grinned at him, reaching up and redirecting a few strands of hair from his bangs to their proper places. "But real talk. You look a little rough, man. You have a bad dream back there?"
"You know, I— I can’t really remember. I think maybe you were there, and Archie? I remember something about Merlin's prophecies, and his voice… I think? It was a few weeks ago, before Battle of the Bands— almost like everything was delayed and— yeah! Yeah, nope! You know what, it’s gone. I don’t remember any of it.”
“Well you’re all sweaty.” She made a face that wrinkled her nose. “Maybe you should clean up a little and then open up shop?”
“Really?” He looked himself over. “You think it’s that bad?”
She rolled her eyes. "Do whatever you want Doux, but we've got rent to pay and you need to get people into your store. I can only do so much to send the tourists next door without your stink sending them running back out for their lives."
“Cheeky…” He warned.
She chuckled.
“Yeah, no but seriously, you need to come up with a way to get people into your store.”
"Right, right! New sales pitch... " He nodded tiredly, clapping and rubbing his hands together as if the friction would help generate some sort of idea. "Maybe I should start offering up palm readings or something?"
She snorted.
"Pft! Yeah, D, let me know how that one works out for you."
She turned to go inside and he started to mess with the potted plant that was outside the window, muttering to himself as he did.
"Oh, I'll show you! I have good ideas... sometimes!"
"Luug! Luug?"
Here comes a promising trial customer right now.