Chapter 44- Mask Potion
Chapter 44- Mask Potion
"Artemis please reconsider. Please I beg of you. I DON'T WANT TO DIE YET" Homura wouldn't stop
complaining in my ear, his non injured little paws waved in the air like a child throwing a tantrum.
Like always, I ignored him while he begged and complained.
"Artemis I w-" his voice was cut off by a loud gruesome growl not far from where we were. Homura shut
his mouth quickly, his body went cold and stiff.
"mummy" was the last thing he said before his head flung back, and he fainted. Again.
"ahhh~ I could just imagine getting a dragon. No more whining coming from Homura" I smiled just the
thought of peace and quietness and not a single complain from the snobby princess fox.
BANG BANG
My thoughts were interrupted by the clangs of metal against metal. I turned my attention to the man
that hammered his giant hammer on giant chains. Those chains are definitely made to contain wild
dragons.
Looking around my surroundings now, the stores were mostly smithies, stores containing dragon
essentials. Nobles walked around with guards with the nose stuck up high revolted by the dirt in this
lower part of society. 'I need to be weary of my identity here. I might bump into a noble that might
recognise me' I avoided eye contact by a noble that walked past me, glancing at me for a second
before looking forward again. If I didn't have this cloak I would have been recognised already by the
amount of nobles and noble woman that walked around these parts.
Even if this place was something an aristocrat would never dare to come it still held the rarest
ingredients for potions, the best quality potions, spell books to magic items and weapons sometimes
mythical creatures that were captured by hunters are sold here.
According to the novels.
Scratch that thought, my biggest problem is to not get caught by the assassin from black spade. They
tend to have a watchful eye around these parts of Argenteum due to the dark users traveling in these
areas because of the amount of valuable items they can get their hands on.
I walked along the streets, scanning my surroundings for any followers or pick pocketers that comes
my way while slowly making my way to where they sold the dragons.
I couldn't help but admire this place, it resembled Diagon alley from Harry potter but a little bit medieval
version of it. There was potions on display, small little creatures that I did not know of and never seen
before in my world were being sold as if they were from a pet shop and rare plants that I read in the
books from the Glacies library were being auctioned.
I wanted to go check out the potion store very badly. I could stumble upon a potion that will change how
I look and then I will be able to roam around freely without having people up my *** every five seconds.
'Should I or should I not?' I pondered over my thoughts 'I wonder if there is a potion for flying? Saves
me the trouble of wasting money on a dragon but I actually do want to see a real-life dragon before I
return to my world.' Just imagining myself riding on top of dragon hyped me up.
'**** it. I'm going in' making up my mind, I marched my to the potion store while looking left and right for
any sign of spade assassin and Glacies Knights.
Standing in front of the shop, I gazed up, reading the cauldron shaped billboard swinging back and
forth slowly due to the low breeze of the wind.
"Jewel's potion and magic" I mumbled.
Looking through the glass window of the store, I could make out potion bottles stacked up in high
shelves and different types of cauldrons with sturdy looking books across the shelves.
"SQUAWK" I was startled by a raven, standing on a high pole. Looking down at me with it's beady
black eyes.
"hehe" I nearly jumped out my skin just by hearing the ravens screechy human voice. I had forgotten I
could understand animals.
"Is that a fox I see." It spoke again this time he jumped to face me. "Oh yes, it is. And it's dead.
AHAHAHAHA stupid fox is dead." I looked at it in disgust, my nose wrinkled and my eye twitched.
"What an unpleasant fox he is. I wonder what this human going to do? Sell it? Skin it? Or it is going to
cook it?" he spoke staring into Homura's soul with it's coal black eyes in mockery.
"The only thing I'm going to cook is you. What a nice roast meal you'll make" I shot an evil grin from
behind my cloak, shooting a deathly glare as I did. The raven flinched in shock.
"Did I hear what I just thought I heard?" he ruffled his head with his wing.
I rolled my eyes. 'Stupid bird brain'.
Ignoring the raven that was squawking, I turned the doorknob and walked in, the bell ringing as I did. I
took a big breath in, smelling the fragrance of fresh grass with a mix of wildflowers. 'It really does smell
like the forest in here' suddenly I inhaled a lungful of dust.
"ACHOO!" my nose with the brown cloak not wanting to spoil my sleeve. 'Does anyone even dust
around here?'
"ACHOO!" I sneezed again but this time was a little bit louder than the first one. "I should probably get
what I need and get out of here before I become into a sn-ACHOO-sneezing mess"
"Hello, is anyone in there?" I called out hoping for a response.
Nothing.
Closing my eyes and calming myself and my surroundings, letting the inner Qi surge through me letting
me feel the energy through the earth. My eyes shot open when I felt another living being in this shop
however he was a little bit far. 'No wonder he couldn't hear me.'
"I guess I better I look around myself and get what I need" I sighed.
My eyes darted around the shop, laying on anything my eyes laid on. There was so many colourful
potions in different types of glass jars, each one having a paper label stuck on them written in the
language symbol of this world.
However, one particular caught my eye. It was a small circular body with a long tube for its neck. It's
liquid was dark shade of pink, only half full.
"That my love, is a love potion" an old gentle woman's voice spoke from beside me. Looking to my right
where the old lady was, she was rather small and hunched over. Her grey hair was cut to the length of
her chin, a long-jiggered nose and beady black eyes like a raven.
I sensed her presence ages ago, yet I was confused how fast she walked beside me.
"Do you want it?" she asked, her voice showing a little excitement. The original Diana would have
wanted to use it on her lover the crown prince but me, yeah nah I'm good. Thinking about it now a love
potion would have been a great idea for Diana to use but I have seen a lot of tv shows, movies and
manga's where using a love potion never ended with the result the caster wanted.
"No" I answered bluntly.
"ahhh, then you came here for a potion for beauty" she smiled revealing her wonky crooked teeth. "No"
"Then what are you looking for today? Young lady?" I looked her at her hesitantly. Should I get a
potion?
Making up my mind I asked, "Do you reckon you have a potion to change one features?" I asked.
Her mouth widened in a grin reaching to her ears. "So, it is for beauty"
I stared at her puzzled. 'This lady. Does she even understand my intentions?'
"No. You misunderstood. I want a potion to change what I look like. Like a disguise" I clearly explained.
Her mouth changed to shape an o and her eyes widened in realisation.
"I see" she rubbed her chin, a serious expression appearing on her face.
"I'll be back" she wagged her index finger in the air, turning away from and headed to the wooden
shelves lined up against the wall, filled with dozens of potion bottles in different coloured liquids.
As she was scanning through the potions, I got myself to look around her store. Brown hardcover
books rowing form left to right on side covered in dust. 'I wonder if she cleans this place up
often?' different sizes and shapes of dark tinted cauldrons made from pewter, swords adjusted in a
cross bolted on the walls for decoration and animal masks hanged down, yet the place looked really old
and needed dusting.
"Found it" her voice had an energetic lit to it. She reached out her small wrinkly hand out, pointing
those long bony fingers and slowly grabbing the bottle by the neck. She shuffled her towards me with a
slight grin across her face revealing a mischief look in her black eyes.
"Mask potion." She held the jar with a light blue tinted liquid inside it. "One sip and you will look like a
whole different person but only last less than an hour"
"Not a beauty maker?" I asked making sure she doesn't scam me remembering how my idiotic brother
got scammed by a random guy selling a DJI Mavic 2 pro drone to him. He was excited to come home
and test it out but was disappointed when it didn't fly. He opened it up to find out that all the major parts
of the drone that concluded on it's flights was taken out and left with nothing.
That hopeless brother of mines, how many times I told him to not buy things from tacky stores in the
street.
"Nope." That creepy smile really was getting the best of me. I was tempted to tell her to stop smiling at
me like that because it was giving me mixed feelings about trusting you.
"How much?" This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.
"30 copper coins" she put and open palm out waiting for me to place the coins on the centre of her
palm.
I looked behind me, the window revealed a few people in cloaks walking around turning the heads
around as if they were searching for someone. 'They are definitely the black spades'.
"So, what do you say? Take it and hide in plain sight from the assassins or walk away and risk getting
caught" there it was again, those mischief black eyes like a raven waiting for the sneaky fox to take the
bait. This woman was sharp eyed, knowing my circumstances, she's taking advantage of it. 'What a sly
woman. I like how she plays'
I handed her a silver and her eyes lit up. "Keep the change. But quickly, can this also change an
animal?" I asked in a hurry.
She looked down at the still fainted fox in my arms. "Yes, it is a mask potion"
Nodding my head, I bit down the cork keeping the bottle shut and spat it in my hand before taking a sip
of the liquid.
It tasted vile and bitter on my tongue even the after taste was so sickening, I nearly threw up my
breakfast.
I felt my world begin to spin and turn, every inch of my body stretched and pulled together as if I was
clay being moulded into a certain shape. My skin felt like it was melting off my skin and pouring down.
Randomly I knew the exact length of my hair, how many blood cells were rushing through my veins,
how many years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds I lived. The pounding of my heart was
loud in my ears, my organs beating as they worked hard to keep me alive.
I felt all of it, every second and minute of this adrenaline running through my bones and muscles.
Instantly it came to a halt. The after the taste was gone, no more pounding of my heart in my ears, no
more stretching or pulling but silence.
"Want a mirror dear?" the old woman's voice snapped me out of my inner thoughts. I had forgotten
about the old hag in front of me.
She had a mirror in her hand waiting for me to response. Nodding my hand and mumbling a thank you
as I shoved the cork back in the jar and placing it in my bag for future use, I took the mirror from the old
lady.
The mirror reflect a young lady, eyes colour resembling the hue of lavender, hair dark like obsidian cut
to the length of my shoulders. Skin changed to a much darker tone, eyes a little smaller, a button top
nose and smaller but double chin.
I was amazed that I didn't look like the beauty Diana but an average looking girl from a normal village
instead of well-off aristocrat family.
"Remember it will only last less than an hour" she wagged her bony finger at me again. Nodding my
head, I handed the silver mirror back to her.
"Thank you" I said waving off with the little dead looking fox in my arms to the creepy smiling old
woman that waved back.
"Have a wonderful day and thank you for purchasing at Jewels potion and magic" she yelled out.
I didn't say anything in return and closed the door behind me. looking around now I could see less
people especially the nobles. The light had dimmed, and the sun was nearly about to set.
"it's already getting dark. I hope they haven't closed the dragon market yet"