Kingdom of Tulips

Chapter 10

~Arlys~

"Great. It will tops take 30 minutes, then I'll sadly have to send you away again" Mrs. Beric smiled at Tulip. "Let's go into my workplace, I work best there," she started moving towards what I assumed would be her workplace down the small hallway that was placed beside the counter. "You can go someplace else or wait out here in the front. Perhaps even keep Nikolas company if he comes back," she told me, keeping her back to me.

I for sure was not going to spend about 30 minutes with that little shit. Maybe I would go around town. Kill time for a solid 30 minutes, while Mrs. Beric did whatever to Tulip. I trusted Tulips' instinct for once and put my faith in, that she would be safe here. If it turned out I was wrong, I would burn this shit place down to the ground.

"Here," I heard Tulip say, as she walked over to me and took my jacket off. "I'll see you in 30 minutes, Arlys," She said and I took the jacket from her hand. I saw her turn to follow Mrs. Beric down the small hallway and through the door.

"What the fuck did she mean by the Aries thing?" I asked them, but I don't think they heard me before the door closed.

The shop became quiet when I stood here, alone. I put my jacket on again and a hint of flowers, more like a rose smell, hit me. I knew that smell all too well, I clearly remember it from yesterday when I hugged Tulip. Her scent had worn off on my jacket, but only faintly.

There were no chairs here, nowhere I could sit down and wait. I heard the door open behind me.

"Ew... you're still here?" I heard the little shit's voice appear again. I smirked and looked at him walk over to the counter again.

"Yeah, I am. Why are you back then? Did your friends not want to play with you?" I asked him.

"I have lots of friends and girlfriends for that matter. I would just rather want to be here. You don't have to though. Are you waiting for your girlfriend to finish the session with my mom?" The kid asked me.

"Yeah, I am," I answered, crossing my arms.

"Hmm, her eyes looked weird. Why were her eyes weird?" The kid asked me.

I scoffed at his question. "Her eyes are not weird, she just has a unique power that makes them special." I tried to explain so the kid could understand. "So, how about all those girlfriends you have?" I changed the subject. "How many you got?"

"7, but I'm going to break up with some of them in the future, so I can marry Aridea." The kid explained.

"7? That's quite a lot. What's so special about Aridea?" I asked him, smiling to myself about the kids' newfound love life.

"Everything. What's so special about the pink-eyed girl?" Nikolas asked, resting his head on the counter.

I grinned again, "piss off, kid." I replied, as a joke. Annoyed that the kid put me on the spot. "I'm gonna head out. I'll be back in 30 minutes then" I turned around and opened the shop's door.

"Where are you going?" the kid asked me.

"I'm going out for a piss." I lied and walked out of the shop.

I exited the shop and all the noise and commotion from the street returned. I put my faith in that Tulip would be safe and decided this would be the best time to hand Randall the book.

Yesterday, while Tulip had her back to me, just before I left her room, I grabbed the book from her drawer and smuggled it out of her room, and to the guards' common room. Nobody there knew what book it was, of course, therefore I didn't have to look over my shoulder every 2 seconds to see if anyone would steal the book away from me. I hid the book under my bed and this morning, I hid the book in the horse's saddlebag. Hopefully, it was still there.