A bit more learning

I walked up to the cakes display, glancing over all the pasties, attempting to pick out a good looking one. "Find anything you fancy," the lady working behind the display case said in a cheery tone, smiling as she followed my gaze.

Her accent was something of a blend between British, German, and Scottish, I thought, definitely one I've never heard. In fact, Rose didn't even talk that way either, so is this sort of accent rare.

"Is something wrong," she continued. "You're completely silent. Is it the strawberry sponge bread cake you want," she assumed as I was eyeballing it while in deep thought.

"Oh yeah," I came too. "H-How much will it be," I stumbled over my words, looking at the lettering, shocked when I realized I couldn't read it.

"6 coins," she replied, pulling out a medium-sized slice of the cake from the display case and wrapped in somewhat transparent paper, and then in what seemed to be a thin cardboard box. Although just by looking at it, you could tell it was something other than cardboard.

I gathered up 6 coins in my right hand as I prepared to pay. She handed me the boxed cake with her left hand, holding out her right to receive the payment. I awkwardly handed her the coins from my right hand to hers, then used my right again, receiving the cake while putting on an awkward smile.

She noticed my awkwardness saying, "You're not a Cerdegor are you," her tone changed to a more serious one as her smile dropped to a facial expression that matched her tone.

"Huh," I expressed, shocked by the dramatic change. "What's a Cerdagor," I replied, unintentionally mispronouncing it.

"First, it was your accent, now the way you give and receive things. You're a blasted human, aren't you," she said, now glaring at me.

"What," I said in a confused tone, "yeah, I'm human."

"Get out of my shop," her voice full of anger, looking as though she could lash out at me if I stood around for too long.

"Don't be so hard on him," a familiar voice said behind me, "he's not the same as them."

I turned around to see Rose walking into the shop, "about time I found you," I said, somewhat relieved to see him.

"I'm surprised," he laughed as he examined the situation, "didn't think you would cause trouble with the locals." His expression dropped for a second after he said that and then continued as he was, "I guess that just means you were here for too long," he tried to hide his grin. "Don't worry, I'll take care of this. I'll let you head back, I got what I wanted anyways," he tapped my shoulder as he headed towards the worker. "Back to the land of the living as they say."

When he finished saying that my vision blurred as another unwilling transition set in sending me back just as he said, "to the land of the living," where did he even learn that, I'm sure I never said that.

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I woke up finding myself alone in my room, still in my shorts but entirely dried off. "Another cool transition, I like it, Rose," I sarcastically said, quickly getting out of bed. "Woah," I felt light-headed, getting up too fast as I stumbled to the closet, opening it, picking out some casual clothes. "The library right," I quickly got ready, "I want to figure out what this thing on my back is, and my face still hurts from that punch Blaze gave me at the end."

There was no one in the living room, so I assumed that Jacob was still asleep and the girls were out doing something else. On my way to the library, I got to thinking about the battle we had with Blaze and the almost two trades we had. How was he able to react that quickly when I was sure he couldn't see me, I thought, and the second trade, well more like a finisher for him. That speed, it was unreal, almost as if his hand was already there.

Being lost is thought I messed up my footing on one of the steps down, almost stumbling down them right as I caught myself, "that was close," I told myself as I continued on.

Try to remember anything Blaze said that could explain the reaction to being punched, I thought, it could be his luck, actually, does luck affect magic, I could check when I get to the library. I walked past the cafe and the training facilities seeing some staff on their break enjoying food as they sat on the benches around the area.

"Should I get some tea," I asked myself, "no, I'll do that later." I walked past the empty park reading the post signs that gave direction to where things were on this section, taking a left at the game room, which was just right of the park, and continued onward to the center of the island.

The library was big and just outside the shopping district, which was located in the northern center of the island when the southern center was taken up by the area which we all entered and were "tested" in. It looked beautiful from both the outside and inside, the elegant dark brown wood the pillars were made out of, and the flat triangle roof gave it a clean Grecian aesthetic. On the inside, there were two floors with a pattern of alternating oak and dark oak parts on each wall. Each of the bookshelves was alined with others in a row and seemed to be around 10 feet tall. That left some room between them and the floor above.

Directly in front of me, a short walk away was an empty round desk placed dead center of the library with a rolly chair(chair with wheels). "Guess the librarians on break," I walked past it, looking for any computers and a section where I could read up on elves on the first floor. Nothing related to elves or any computers lying about, so I walked to the back of the room and used the spiral staircase to get on too the second floor.

The second floor was similar to the first. Except instead of a round desk, there was a collection of desks that ran parallel to the bookshelves. I looked at the signs again, finding that the elf section was two rows down from the first one. As I turned the corner, I saw Frigg seated on the ground, silently reading a book. "Whatcha' readin'," I whispered as I looked for books about elfen slave contracts.

She snapped out of her concentrated reading, "uh, oh you kind of scared me. I'm reading about the thing on your back," she showed me the cover of the book reading, "Elven contracts." "I recognized the mark," she continued, "and Stella knew something about it, but didn't say much, so I came looking here."

"I'm here for the same reason," I was relieved, "did you find anything about it in that book."

"Yeah," she patted the floor next to her, signaling me to sit down. I followed her queue and sat down close enough to see the letters on the page.

She smells nice, I thought, picking up a pleasant scent of roses with a bit of sweetness to it. "I like your perfume," I mentioned, alluding to the smell in the air.

"Oh, thanks," she smiled, "but I actually don't wear any."

"I mean that's great too," I felt awkward after hearing her response.

"People say I smell like sweet Roses, so I don't use any if I don't really need to. Oh right," she flipped through a couple of pages in the book, "did you know this island was a getaway resort that the rich would travel to on vacation."

I shook my head, "didn't know that."

"There's a poster next to the front door that has the chronological history of this place."

"I must have missed it."

"Here we are," she pointed to a t-shaped mark, "it says here that you have a level 2 connection contract, and that lower-level contracts are intended for indentured servants, but can also be used for more lenient slave masters."

"Is there anything that says how to get rid of one," I asked, hoping to receive an answer.

"Two ways," she said, reading on, "first is the owner must disband the contract, or either the owner or recipient dies." I immediately began thinking of a way I could get Stella to disband the contract, but knowing her, she probably wouldn't do it. "So," she smiled and turned to me, "what's your relationship with Stella, huh," her smile got wider, "and how would she know anything about that mark."

"We're friends," I closed my eyes, gave two thumbs-up, and a small awkward smile.

"Surrrrrrrrre," she expressed, looking off to the side. "Wait," she gasped, coming to a realization. "Don't tell me Stella's the one who put it on you," she tried hiding her giggles by burying her face in the book.

I slowly shook my head.

"So it is her," She couldn't contain her laughter any longer.

"SHHH," I expressed.

"It's fine," she calmed down, "we're the only two people here for some reason."

"Yeah, yeah," I got up feeling bored by the ending of our conversation, "I think this would be a good time to write that report."

"Me too," she said, putting the book back and followed me over to the desks that were in between the 2 bookshelf columns. After about an hour of Frigg laughing and correcting my spelling and grammar, I was finally done with the report.

"Nice, it's complete," I said, getting up, stretching my arms and legs.

"Could you turn mine in too," she handed over her paper with a sweet smile, "y' know as thanks for helping you."

"You remind me of Stella," I mentioned, taking her paper.

"Don't say that," she sounded sarcastically bothered. "We're two different people," she continued, changing her tone to a more gentle and happy one.

There's that sweetness again, I thought as I began to walk away, a sweetness that I could fall for if I'm not careful. Yeah, definitely different from Stella. "Whatever," I sluggish said, walking down the stairs, "Good luck with whatever you're going to do now."

"Goodbye," she finished saying, pulling her cell phone as her phone strap of Karepy, a side character of the popular cartoon "Wonders of my Own World," swang. She opened the notes app and typed, "Struggles with English," under Max's name.