Window Shopping

It was late that night, but Amani was still awake enjoying a hot cup of tea as she continued to read from one of the old volumes of history that she had. The pages were yellowed with age, and the leather binding was cracked, but the writing in it was still readable and she enjoyed the way the old authors interpreted history. This particular book was about sea monsters, which was amusingly correct on most things about what lurked in ocean waters. Funny how history seemed to dismiss them in later years.

Her cat Binx lay on the bed beside her, and she absently scratched his head as she turned another page of the book. This was how she spent most of her evenings in her flat above the shop, because after living as long as she had she needed pleasant ways to spend the time. Reading just happened to be one of her many pleasures. She was just reaching for her teacup when something made her pause. There was something.....off. Something that wasn't quite right. Amani frowned, sitting up straighter in bed just as Binx tensed next to her. A few seconds later a few of her shadow beings slithered into her room, their movements quick and agitated.

Someone was in the shop below.

Amani's frowned deepened and she got out of bed, slipping a robe over her pajamas and following the silent shadows out of her flat and down to the shop, Binx following her closely. Once reaching the shop she looked around, going over to the front door and finding it still locked. Strange, but not necessarily abnormal. There were plenty of magic users who could break in if they wanted to and lock it back. But the strange feeling didn't go away and her shadow creatures only grew more agitated, which meant that someone, or some thing, went to the basement.

She turned her attention towards the basement entrance, the door unlocked and open. Who had the audacity to break into her shop and steal from her collection? Her anger only grew as she followed the stairs down, quickly and quietly, until she was on the basement floor with her hand on the light switch. There were no heat signatures in the room, at least from what she could tell, which meant that whatever was their could either mask their body heat or didn't produce any. "It would please me to know who or what had the gall to rob me," she said after a moment, her voice soft and controlled as she held her anger in check. There was a click as she flipped the light switch and the light flared to perhaps reveal what had entered.

Amani could hear the tinkling of something being dropped before the lights flared on, and when she walked into the room she found several gold coins in the middle of the floor. Well this was unexpected. "A thief who provides payment, quite the gentleman. Or woman," she said in amusement, but didn't move to pick up the coins. Magic could be full of terribly nasty surprises in the simplest of disguises. "I prefer money being put in my hand though."

Her hand came up, darkness pooling in the center of it like a wriggling ball of smoke, and she looked around the room. The small shadow beings were growing increasingly agitated, and Binx hissed unexpectedly. The cat wasn't prone to doing that, even when the strangest of customers came into the shop, but Amani turned to where Binx was looking and found a perfect scarecrow, staring straight at her. It wasn't part of her collection.

"I don't recall picking you up on my last adventure," she said, the ball of darkness trickling from her hand to form three more of the little shadow beings, making six total. "Do you remember finding our scarecrow friend, Binx?" she asked the cat, not taking her eyes from the object. The cat hissed again, fur raised, but he did not run from the room. Animals usually had good instincts when it came to unnatural things. "Now, what would a scarecrow be doing in my basement, of all places."



@King ((that's perfectly fine, I've been very busy as well. I just hope you are enjoying it ^_^))