Pizza delivery, part XX

Over the next two days, Mistress Orla made good on her promise of supplies.

And just an hour before we were supposed to leave the city, I finally saw the chance I'd been waiting for.

"Be right back." I said, motioning toward an odd looking shop. Lorcan shrugged, and picked up a shiny piece of fruit. Leaving the fruit stand, I opened the shop's smooth door.

The inside was well lit, and chock full of oddities. Walking the narrow path between piles, I scanned the wares. There was a stuffed sabre-muskrat, sticking out beneath the boot of a rusty suit of armor. I had to step over a dented metal crate, then wait while a bright blue snake slithered out of a pile onto the path. It lifted its head and looked at me, then slithered into a different pile and out of sight.

Finally in the back corner, I found what I was looking for.

Cloaks.

Sorting through the garments, I studied the clasps.

"How about this one?" I whispered, holding a clasp in my right hand.

Smoky shifted in my sleeve, and his reedy voice filled my mind.

"No."

He rejected the next seven clasps, and three brooches before one caught his attention.

"That one."

It was a silver cloak pin, shaped like a coiled dragon.

"You really like dragons, don't you?" I asked softly, gathering the pin and its cloak.

"They're a rare challenge. So few enter the forest." Smoky answered as I made my way back to the front of the shop.

Near the door, I found a grisly bear of a man waiting behind a counter. How'd I miss him on the way in?

"All purchases are final." He grumbled as I set the cloak and pin down. "Thirteen silver."

I didn't know much about this world's economics, but that seemed like a lot for one tattered cloak and a tarnished pin. But I plucked out the coins from the purse I'd gotten from Mistress Orla, and watched him scoop them off the table.

As I headed toward the door, I fastened on the cloak.

"Ready?" I whispered as we slipped outside and I slipped into the ally between shops. Smoky shifted beneath my shirt, spilling out the back of my collar. When I glanced down, the black fabric of the cloak rippled with smoky tendrils.

I wasn't sure if disguising the wraith as a magic cloak would work, but I had to try. "What do you think?"

"It is acceptable."

"Then let's finish shopping." I said, before leaving the ally to find Lorcan.