ikkarus the skrivener

Seeing

When she was younger, she saw the shop as a magical place. Not only because of the literal magical goods bought and sold there but because something new and exiting was always going on over the counter. Her memory swelled with countless days of lucent seasons spent ooowwing and aaahhing over the store's four shelves and the hours spent on her tippy toes peeking over the counter to marvel at the many intriguing adventurers from far and wide with their seemingly endless stories. The monster hunters' wild armor; the bounty hunters' deadly weapons; the prospectors' rare artifacts; being at the store meant being a part of the adventure. But over the years her eyes became tired of staying wide. The adventurers' stories began to mesh together with similarities as her sense of adventure waned. And despite still sitting under the glow of the floating spark beetle lanterns, the magic of her parents' shop slowly vanished. Now she sat under the shade of the storefront workshop, sweating in the humidity of the lucent heat despite being entirely idle, wondering what may have caused the store's light to dim in her imagery. The robbery and the break-in certainly shook things up. And the subsequent magical security orbs on the walls did change the feel of the cramped interior at first but their constant hum and occasional scans were just background noise now. The years of restocking the same 4 rickety shelves and listening to her parents bicker about what items should go behind the counter (the most dangerous or the most expensive items) numbed the wonder of the colorful potions and the variety of animal skins. Her family eventually decided to invest in a magic crested animal for surveillance and security purposes but Nuo the antlered owl was a better pet than security guard and was more often found visiting the nearby storefronts for free treats than at his post. The adventurers that used to make her day with uncommon wares and engaging conversation now regularly ruined her shift with their horrible attempts to swindle her and, on occasion, their equally detestable advances on her. The only other thing to change was eventually earning the trust of running the store alone during high sun. Maybe it wasn't the evolution of her perception of magical equipment or the more objective opinions she'd made about the nature of the adventuring profession, maybe it was the company of her family and a shared sense of adventure that was lost over the years. But being the eldest and bearing the most responsibility came with its perks. And with the money she's saved after all of these blisteringly monotonous afternoons, she could afford to dream of adventures of her own. And all of them took place away from this village.