The New Guy in Town

Emerald blinked in surprise. "You might want to be careful with the phone, I have no idea who my dad talks to and who might call."

She opened the door, then walked out and began walking towards the town that the sun never shown on, making it always lit by dim torches attached to the stone buildings. Here and there there were puddles, and other people walking around in cloaks, the light turning them into shadowy figures. Emerald looked at each wooden sign with the name carved on them until she found one that said, "Potions."

She lead the way inside, making the bell on the door jingle. Inside the light was a bit brighter, but still dim. The shopkeeper was tall, and scaly. She looked a bit like a lizard, though she had two scaly wings coming out of her back. Normally Emerald would have pointed out to Jake that she was a dragon, but was worried that the shopkeeper wouldn't find that very polite and might give her a bad burn.

"What can I do for you?" She said in almost a hiss-like voice. As she spoke, it looked like a little bit of fire came out of her mouth, then disappeared.

Jake made a mental note to get a cell phone.

He liked the town. It seemed his style. Well, it was actually as far from his style as possible, but he still liked it.

"Yes ma'am," he said to the scaly-thing-woman(what WAS she?!). "We'd like to buy some unicorn blood, please."

Meanwhile . . .

Nima felt the paper Kiwi had written on. She could feel Kiwi's handwriting, could feel the letters. She figured she should go to all the houses, just to check.

Jessica - no. Nima didn't always listen to what Jake said, but that had nothing to do with it. Jessica was too superficial and vain for Nima to stay in a house with her; Nima had sensed that the minute they'd met.

Cole and Venna - no. Cole was always angry or drunk or both, and Venna seemed too . . . loud, energetic, easily excited for Nima's standards.

Phoebe - no. Dawn seemed nice, and her shy silence was refreshing to Nima, but that didn't make up for Phoebe's constant yelling and screaming, and Phoebe's blunt rudeness.

The next on the list was Emerald, but Jake already found a place to sleep there. Emerald didn't need another person knocking on their door.

Next up was . . . Nima felt the list. A person named No One. She felt the words Kiwi had written:

No One - Around nineteenish, his real name is something I can't remember, has two kids named Somebody and another name, is a cat, has snake for tail, can turn invisible.

Nima could hear the cars zooming by. Her tail flicked with annoyance, and her ears pressed against her head momentarily. With her enhanced hearing, the sounds of the buses and cars of BG world hurt her ears.

She smelled, listened, and felt her way down the block. She knocked on a door that she knew was No One's, and waited.