The soft jingle of a bell at the door alerted her to other entering her shop. She looked up where she knew the door was and smiled. “Welcome to Words and Wisdom.” She heard two sets of steps on the wooden floors. One quickly moved past her. Perhaps they gave her a smile or nod, she clearly couldn’t tell having no sight to call her own. The second gave her a greeting which she appreciated. 
“Greetings. Apologies for my cousin’s standoffishness. I’m not certain he can even read to be honest with you.” In truth Cobalt wasn’t the least bit bothered by Crimson disappearing as soon as they entered the store. The further the distance from one another the happier they both were. Still they did walk and attend events together in public for the sake of their house’s honor. It was a foolish thing in his mind but he was going to be d**ned if he was going to fold before his cousin did. Looking at the shop keeper he was a bit surprised but was schooled enough to not give away his reaction. Not only was this a dragon unicorn but she was blind. A blind shopkeeper? It was an irony that was palpable. “A pity he has found himself in a bookstore then, Still we have a number of picture books if needed.” She knew the joke for what it was and kept her voice pleasant enough to show she appreciated the humor. It was always better then the inevitable questions. There was a small rustle from the basket at her hooves. It would seem Aacutenieuml was shifting. He stopped soon though so he must not have fully woken up. There was a curious creek at the counter as she could hear the breathing of the stranger come closer to peer at what had made the noise.
A child in the book shop? Did the unicorn dragon not worry about noise or damage to her merchandise? “Your basket or are you foal sitting?” He of course was more being polite then anything else. He really didn’t care but still being polite was as much a part of him as his horn was. Foals were cute but messy and to be honest he wasn’t all that sure he was good with little ones. They seemed to like him alright but he always wanted to explain to them how things worked or why they shouldn’t do something he felt he might be a burdensome in that way as he remembered his own tutors doing that to him and him hating it as a child. He nodded to her claim over the foal. “Well I’m sure they will grow up with a love of books in a place like this. It looks quite nice. As a foal it took a while before I found my love of books with magic training. Perhaps they will as well.”
Well this was interesting. Unlikely to be a parent but someone who knew a number of kids perhaps? They seemed to be trying to give her hope. It was unneeded as it didn’t matter what interests Aacutenieuml had she would support him. That was simply what she had decided so long ago when she had been blessed with the sweet child. She was certain that the child would be amazing as he was her and Minos’s child. While Minos was gone she was still her and she would love their child enough for both of them. “Thank you. I will keep that in mind. Was there a book that you were looking for specifically? While I love to talk about my sweet Aacutenieuml I am sure you have other things you would rather do as we are in a place full of wisdom if you only take the time to look beyond the covers.”
“Well I’m certain I’ll be in and out quite a lot while here with my cousin so perhaps I’ll hear about your little one in time. In the present though I am looking for books on magic. Defending and buffering able.” He wasn’t sure what to expect next to be honest. He just assumed she would tell him the general location in the shop but to his surprise she stepped out from behind the counter after listening for something based on how she swiveled her ears. Following he noticed she had no trouble and didn’t bump into things. He noticed a few small stones floating around her. Ahhh… so that was her trick. She used stones to avoid bumping into things. Clever. Still how that would work with a child about would be hard he supposed. He hoped there was another in the picture to help her. He trotted past a stack where his cousin was reading something. He noticed it looked like a cook book but he couldn’t be sure. He didn’t linger on it as the shop keep turned and then stopped looking up.
“The second shelf and third self from the top are what you want. There is a ladder that way.” She turned and ‘looked’ further down the book rows. She knew it was there as she had put it there this morning. She was going to need to hire help when the next shipment of books came to put them away. It was hard to do when she had get help to read the titles to her. perhaps working in a library would have been better but she loved her shop. “Please take your time and I hope you find what you need.” With that she moved away from the patron and to his cousin who was in the cooking section.
Crimson chuckled at his own surprise. He had been so engrossed in the recipes in the book he had managed to lose track of his surroundings. His old training instructor would have beaten some sense into him for that. How could one who was defend, be so careless?
Time passed in the shop. The unicorn found she might need to hire some help as it was getting harder to keep up with demand as well as restocking and keeping of course the shop clean while she had a little one running around terrorizing the place. Annie had knocked over the entire stack of books by trying to jump from the counter onto the stack that had just come in from shipments gotten in of course causing them and him to cascade all over the floor. In the middle of the mess there was her horrible, adorable little troublemaker; he was clinging close to her and he was crying because somehow gotten a scratch on his leg during the entire incident and she was trying to soothe him when she heard about the chime of the bell alerting her the customer had arrived. 
The gentle chime alerted Dea to the patron. Smiling in their direction she gave the usual greeting.
The twilight hours of the store were coming very slow ticking one moment after the next. Dea yawned and her ear flicked back. She could just make out the voice of the story teller back in the children’s section reading a story to a foal. The mother had brought him in while picking up an order she had placed that had finally come in. There were a few others mesmerized by the story and Dea had to admit she loved listening as well. She could smell and hear the sounds of the story being told and even feel the surrounding if she stopped to listen. There were places she could see in her mind when she story as well. But it was only in her mind’s eye. She had been told the alicorn could make others see the story play out before them but as she was blind she could see it in her mind but it wasn’t the same as actually seeing it. It could have easily just have been her own imagination rather than some alicorn’s powers. Hearing hooves coming forward she smiled in their direction. “
