Lapis and Pentelpen

Today Erika and her mother had decided to visit the mall! It was Erika's first time going far away from her household and so far it was going smoothly.

Her mother had opted to eat out today as they didn't have time to do so earlier and while Erika was already growing teeth, she wasn't ready for the grown up foods yet for another few months. At least that's what her mother reasoned with her before gobbling up a delicious looking chicken coated in some sort of second skin. Erika honestly thinks her mother just doesn't want to share whatever it was she's eating at the moment, but she'll go with whatever makes her mother the happiest.

After the quick lunch, they walked around the mall to observe. There were a bunch of lights hung up in the ceilings and a dozen of... fat men in a red suit carrying a large bag was walking around greeting kids. Erika included. To say she was terrified was an understatement, she almost spent and used her magic on the man before her mother pulled them apart once she saw her discomfort.

"I'm sorry, can you back up a little bit?" Mom said, her eyes a bit wary of the man as she tried to crane her daughter's face away from the weird looking man.

He looked surprised to be rejected and while a bit late, he still took a step back. "Oh! Um, yeah sure, sorry." He left soon after that.

Her mother looked back at her, caressing her cheeks and checking up on her. She cooed and doted for a few seconds, trying to make her feel better after the experience. It worked wonders for Erika.

"How about we finally get that toy I promised you about hmm? All this walking around must be boring you, my sweet!"

To be honest, Erika has learned a lot while they were walking around. While the people here don't use magic, there was still something similar that simmered underneath the layer. It was a curious thing how the magic constantly moved around their bodies without consequence or much thought, reminding her of the specific magical traits that noble families are born with. There was very little magic in the air that wasn't life force, and when there is a huge spike, it would be linked to a person that walked by.

Whenever she gets a grasp of how magic works in this world, she's slapped by another thing to take account for. She's sure she's overthinking it at this point but at the end of the day she really doesn't know what she's working with. For all she knew, there will be people out there looking to kill her mother for something she did in the past.

Although the idea seemed a bit farfetched because of the fact that her mother doesn't have an ounce of magic in her.

"We're here!" Her mother exclaimed, snapping Erika out of her thoughts.

They stood in front of a wide entrance with a large sign at the top of the archway saying "Toy Kingdom".

You would think that it was a simple name but it got Erika excited. With toy in its name, are the employees here some sort of variation of a toy? Puppets in her old world would insistent on being a real person and would often do things normal people does like working jobs, maybe this facility has something similar to them? OH! What if they meet the ruler inside? Wait no, she hopes they're not in there. She's not adequately prepared for someone of that kind status to meet her in this state. Maybe next time.

"Just make sure to use your words when you really want a toy okay?" Erika's mother gave her a short kiss on her daughter's temple, "Mama will do everything in her power to buy it for you."

Erika giggled. While she really didn't need another toy to add to her already massive collection, she would never say no to spending more time with her lovely mother. "Tenks you!"

"Alright! Let's sta-"

"WELCOOOOOME, LAPIS AND PENTELPEN1!"

The mother-daughter duo immediately turn to the source of the voice and saw a funny looking man at the balcony of the second floor holding a microphone. While Erika's mom looked on with curiosity, the loud noise really startled and made the little baby extra cautious of their surroundings for any surprise attack.

A large crowd consisting of mostly children started gather in the middle of the room facing the man on the balcony. Curiosity got the best of her mother and she joined by the sidelines. "I didn't know there would be an event today!" Her mother exclaimed, eyes lighting up with excitement.

Erika was also curious. Unfortunately for the man, she wasn't curios about whatever it was he was to say. There was... something behind him.  A red mist, large and extremely intimidating. She confirmed when she glanced at her mother that she couldn't see the mist, if she did she wouldn't be looking so happy participating in the event right now.

The man continued to talk into the microphone, "Right, we have such a large crowd today! Is everyone excited for more rewards?!"

The children let out a loud shriek that surprised Erika who was busy staring down at the red mist that surrounded the man. The loud volume brought out a squeal from her and she hid in her mother's shoulder when hearing the surprising sound.

"Oh! Dear-" Erika's mother immediately noticed her surprise and was already walking away from the crowd as soon as she noticed. "I'm sorry, love, Let's focus on getting you your toy alright?"

Erika nodded, her eyes still fixed at the man on the balcony. More specifically on the red mist that continued to circle around the man and watching the children.

The event was still present at the back of her mind as they went deeper into the store, getting away from all the noise. It was unavoidable, the speakers around here were incredibly loud and the only way to truly escape the noise was to leave the store. It was because of this that Erika's mother was speeding through their options.

Erika didn't mind however, she was more than happy to look and feel for so many different toys. The choice to pick one however was extremely hard for her to do. There were so many to choose from and as much as she wanted to buy most of them, she remembered the sheer amount of number of toys she already had at home and settled for two simple toys. A rotating cube with six faces and a toy keyboard.

Her mother secured Erika in the little stroller she brought before presenting the two toys in front of Erika while making a funny face. "Are these your final choices?"

She started doing a little dance with the toys while humming a song for added effect.

The sight brought a giggle out of Erika. "Ma!" She said while nodding.

Her mother put the toys aside before grabbing her from the stroller and started throwing her in the air and tickling her cheeks with her nose. "Was that your final choices, huh?! You adorable little monkey?!"

Erika laughed and squealed in her mother's arms, "Ma! Ma!"

"Alright alright. Let's get this checked out then we can continue walking around the mall before going back home."

Erika nodded diligently.

"Oh you understood that? My baby's such a genius!" She started raining Erika's cheeks with kisses as she made her way to the counter.

On the way however, her mother suddenly quirked up and halted all movement of the stroller before grabbing her daughter and running to the other side-

BOOM!

A large explosion occurred in the direction of the counter and in there was a man hovering over the employee that was at the balcony earlier.

"A Villain attack?!" Her mother suddenly screamed.

'VILLAIN ATTACK?!' Erika echoed in her head, starting to panic as she tried to look around for an escape route for her and her mother. 'THERE ARE VILLAINS IN THIS WORLD?!'