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WC - 837


To say she was confused was an understatement. Akel could remember passing by this same alley multiple times and never could she recall there being any type of shop in it. Or.. whatever it was she was staring at now. The thing looked like someone just threw together some boards on top of a few broken barrels and tossed a sheet over it to make it look like a table. Akel could admit that she was astonished that it managed to hold up under the weight of the bottles on top. However, she was almost waiting for the inevitable crash when the barrels gave up on life.

Still, there was a certain amount of curiosity as she looked at the thing as a whole. What was in the bottles? What did they do? Why had such a shop sprung up over night? Was it an earthling thing or was this some wild, hair-brained Aishan? Each question begged to be answered and it brought her a step closer to the weird set up until finally she was right in front of the main ‘table’ of items. Her green eyes cast down to look at it.

Front and center was a bottle of a bright blue liquid. At first one might think they simply put some dye into a bottle of water but the more she looked at it the more it appeared to be too thick to be water. Her head tilted to the side as she noticed a label going down the back of the bottle, barely visible through the blue color. Curious, Akel reached out to turn the bottle around so that the label was more readily seen. There, in common writing, was the words ‘Water Breathing.’ To her knowledge the only ones that could freely breathe underwater were the weird beings found in Kahikina. Apparently there were a few different tribes much how there were more than one type of earthling or Aishan.

“I’ll give you a deal on that as the first customer of the day.” A voice piped up from behind the make shift table.

Akel lifted her gaze from the bottle to the person and was met with yet another shady looking thing. Well, person. Very much an earthling though. So that answered one question.

“How do I even know it works?” She questioned. It wasn’t like she was going to be stupid enough to test it out. She’d have to willingly ingest a suspicious liquid, which could be poison, then also be dumb enough to trust that it would let her breathe in water. Which could result in her drowning.

“I can show you.” The man said with a crooked smile.

“No thank you.” She wasn’t about to stick around for some parlor trick to be swindled out of her money.

Though she didn’t walk away just yet. Instead she was curious as to what claims the other bottles had. So she busied herself with turning each one around so she could read the labels. The bottles differed in size and shape. Some small while others were tall. One was square and another cylindrical. One was even a circle with a cork in the top. The liquid inside varied in color. Though there were quite a few that boasted some shade of green. One Akel was fairly certain was just swamp water.

“This one looks like a rip off.” She frowned at the man. “Did you take the water from Heerie Pond?” She pointed at the swampy looking liquid.

“Ah, no. That there was traded. I’ve not had the pleasure of testing it out.” He chuckled as he moved closer to pick up the bottle and turn it on its side. “The guy told me it could make the user’s hair as green as the algae in a stagnant pond.”

“It could likely make the user green in the face and sick to their stomach too.” The Elarian scoffed a bit as she shook her head. “And why would someone want to drink a suspicious liquid for that when they can go buy hair dye at the market?” She pointed out.

The man frowned and set the bottle back down. “If ye don’t want it then don’t buy it.”

“I don’t want any of it.” She firmly told the man. “You shouldn’t be selling any of these.”

Half of what she’d read was either impossible or someone could get the same effects from a common item in the market. Such as hair dye, a simple hair cut, the root that encouraged hair growth, heck.. Even the tattoo kit. There were healing salves that she’d trust more than some swirling liquid in a bottle.

“Then be on your way. You’re bad for business.” The man turned into a grump.

“Gladly.” Akel shook her head once more, a very obvious frown in place, then turned to head out of the alley. She didn’t want to waste more time there. Pruu would likely ask her what took so long since she’d gotten side tracked.