Obtaining the Seed
It had already been an incredibly long day, and, Matthew noted irately, it wasn’t even lunch time yet. He’d had a large group of chattering teens in here earlier looking over the various piercing locations and the tattoos he had designed that others in the shop applied.
They had taken up a good half hour of his time, acting very interested, until finally one of them called out “Hey, none of us can afford anything!” and suddenly that group of potential customers disappeared. Matthew excused himself to the back room to down a cup of black coffee to get his mind off the teens least he accidentally pierce someone incorrectly and make half their face go numb.
He was mulling over some things when he heard a ding sound from the entrance. He sighed wearily and slowly made his way to the front, calling out “Hold on a sec!” before he downed the rest of his coffee. Matt grabbed the booklet of tattoos and piercings off a desk and as about to hand it to the person who had walked in, but when he saw the customer, his step faltered.
The man had elf ears, and from the looks of them, they weren’t cheap tip add ons, either. Sure, working in a place like this was sure to drag in various interesting people, but this was the first person to come in with elf ears. “Hey man,” Matt greeted, pointing to the customers ears. “You into body mods, or what? Cuz that s**t right there is the real deal. Where’d you get it done?”
The man in question merely tilted his head and scoffed. “You seem to be confused. I was born with these.” He said with an air of confidence and snobbishness as he moved a gloved hand up to push some of his long golden bangs out of his face. “I came here on business.” He added after a moment of having Matt give him an incredulous look.
Matt shook his head and handed the booklet to the man, muttering an apology while he did so. “If you see somethin’ ya like in there, we can work out payment. If you’re here for a custom, I’ve got some guys in the back that’ll help you t’figure out the details. If you wanna piercing, I’m your man.”
He leaned on the counter as the man flipped through the book slowly, showing no interest in what he was seeing in front of him. In his hand that wasn’t flipping pages, Matt noticed he held a small brown sack of some sort. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was in there.
“I would like to discuss a custom.” The man said after a few more minutes with the booklet. Matt nodded politely and pointed to one of the rooms with their head tattoo artist. Brannon was on break at the moment, but he’d take a custom order in a heartbeat, so Matt didn’t worry about sending him someone while he chilled out.
When Matt turned back to move the booklet of the main counter, he saw the man had left his little brown bag there. He sighed loudly and snatched the thing up, moving swiftly into the back room. “Hey! Buddy, you left-“
Brannon swiveled around in his chair curiously, quirking a brow at Matt. “What is it?” He asked curiously.
Matt shook his head, looking around the room. “Didn’t a guy with some freaky ears come in here a second ago?”
“Uh, no?”
Matt furrowed his brows. “Huh,” He muttered, backing out of the room and searching the rest of the shop. The elf guy was nowhere to be found. Matt plopped into his chair and stared at the brown sack on his desk for a few minutes before deciding to snoop around and see what was inside. He fished through the bag, finding nothing and then, suddenly, he felt something smooth against his fingertips. It had a bit if warmth to it as well. He pulled it out and held it closer to his face.
“A seed?” He asked of it, turning it around and inspecting it from all angles. It was obviously a seed, but it had a strange bright red coloring. Even stranger was the heat coming from it. The longer he held the seed, Matt realized, the warmer it got. Eventually he had to put it down as it was starting to hurt. He frowned.
“The hell am I supposed to do with a ********’ seed?”
Brannon poked his head out and snuck a peek of the seed on Matt’s desk. “Plant it? See what it grows. Could be pretty.”
Matthew laughed, as if the idea was ridiculous. “Right. Watch me grow something illegal.” He looked back down at the seed and poked at it, staring at it quietly.
For some reason he couldn’t explain, he was powerfully drawn to it, and the mysteries it promised to hold. A few moments later, he placed the seed in his pocket, all the while thinking of which pot he could use to home this little seed, as fascinating as it was.
