Tattooed

And In She Walked

Everyone is born with something special, and in our case, we're born knowing something about our soulmate.

At the age of thirteen, a set of words will appear on your body. Those words are the first words your soulmate says to you. However in my case, no words ever graced my skin to at least give me a hint about my soulmate. My parents assured me that maybe I was a late bloomer and that they'd come later, but that day never came.

I have heard of some people going their whole lives without meeting their soulmates, but none have ever had the embarrassment of not ever seeing those first words practically tattooed into their skin. As optimistic as I am that they'd show up, I'm slowly starting to lose that hope

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"You're staring at your wrist again." Gren looks up in alarm to find Crowmaster giving him a worried look. "You've been doing that a lot lately."

"That's... because I am trying to...count the freckles on my wrist." Gren responds quickly, but even that excuse sounds lame. "Hey whatever happens to the markings when you meet your soulmate? I've heard of cases where the words change or disappear."

"Eh, guess it depends?" His friend says, lifting his arm to show a set of words on his forearm in a dark blue ink. "I've heard of cases where the words turn into something else, so it looks like something pretty. Why do you ask?"

"Because Corvus ran in here the other day out of breath because he thought he found his soulmate in a plant shop." Gren chuckles, recalling how earlier in the week his friend ran into the bookstore his family ran to show how his words changed into what looked like a bunch of flowers."

"Oh really? That's great!"

"Yeah, he's heading back to the shop to see her this afternoon."

Crowmaster chuckles. "Best of luck to him then."

"Guess what!" A familiar voice yelled as the door to the bookshop swung open.

"Hi Corvus!" Both men called out from the registers as their friend walked into the shop, an excited look on his face.

"I decided to actually go see the girl I suspected was my soulmate earlier than planned, and it turns out she was the one who ran the shop herself! Both our words to each other were turned into matching flowers!" Corvus said as he ran up to the registers. "So I immediately asked her out on the spot and we've got a date next week!"

"So when's the wedding?" Gren asks jokingly. "Next month? Next week?"

"Ha ha, very funny." Corvus responds rolling his eyes. "Never expected you to be the type to use sarcasm Gren."

"You can blame Runaan for that."

Both men laugh as they heard the bells of the door jingle, alerting Gren that another customer had came in.

"Welcome!" Gren called out to the customers, two dark haired women with two young boys who had entered.

"Do you have any fantasy books?" One of the women asked, the more older looking one with dark hair. "My boys are going on a trip later this month and they wanted something to read to entertain themselves with."

"Oh of course! I think I have just the thing." Gren said stepping out from behind the register to hurry over to the women. "Follow me, I'll show you our fantasy section filled with plenty of books your boys will like."

"Can we get some sign language books too mom? So Rayla can understand what aunt Amaya is saying?" One of the boys asked, the younger one with fluffy hair. "In case we can't be around to translate?"

"Oh of course! We have plenty of sign language books for first time learners." Gren said pointing to a shelf a few feet away. "We have some for kids, some for adults, I even managed to have some that's in different languages so you could learn to sign in Spanish, Japanese, even German!"

"Mom can we get one of those too?" The boy gasped as he turns to his mother. "It'll be fun to learn it in a new language! And I'll pay for it myself too!"

"We do have a buy one get thirty percent off discount today." Gren adds. "If you're interested."

"Okay fine, you boys can get two books today." The woman laughs as the other gives her a smile before she suddenly signed something with her hands.

[Nice to see we finally found a bookstore with some sign language books, huh?] The woman had signed. [Good for your boys, sister.]

"I do have a few deaf or mute customers, so having these books for them to teach their family and friends really helps." Gren chuckles and the older woman looks at him in surprise.

"Oh you know sign language?" She asks and Gren nods.

"Took plenty of courses when I was in college to be an interpreter, but unfortunately when my dad passed away recently I had to quit to take over the store." Gren said as he signed what he was saying.

"I'm sure you would have been a wonderful interpreter." The older woman said and nods to the younger one. "My sister Amaya is deaf, and it's kind of hard for her to be able to tell anyone anything without having to whip out a pen and writing pad to tell anyone anything."

[I don't always need a pen and paper.] The woman, Amaya, signed with a small smirk. [That's why I always bring your boys with me to be my personal interpreters.]

"Callum let's go get our books!" The younger boy said, grabbing his brother's arm and tugging him to the shelves.

"Wait for mom!" The older boy yelped as his brother yanked him to the shelves and their mother followed, leaving Gren and Amaya alone.