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Eight hours earlier
The sun was rising in the sky and while the laughter had died down; the happiness radiating from within the little tea shop flourished with the flowers Earl and Jared had been cultivating.
"Ugghhhhhh. Mannnnn. Don't you have anything stronger?" Rodney groaned into a cup of bitter coffee.
"Rod, that already tastes like tree bark, if I put anymore espresso in that thing you won't be able to function." Jared sighed.
"Maybe that would be a good thing." Rodney mumbled as he knocked the mug back, downing the coffee in one gulp.
"Is he always like this?" Alysa gestured to the energy lacking Rodney.
"Yup." Jared said, popping the p as he dried the mugs they'd used the night before.
"Wait, but he was like bouncing off the walls last night when -" Alysa asked Jared, perplexed by Rodney's shift in demeanor.
"Uh - huh." Jared simply answered.
"Hey, night time Rodney and day time Rodney are two very different people, Sweetheart." Rodney gestured bluntly.
At that point Jared looked like he was about to break the mug he was currently holding.
"She's not your -" He began.
"Hey!" Alysa said, getting Jared's attention.
He turned to her with wide eyes feeling guilty for getting possessive but also innocent in his reaction to the general mannerisms of the charismatic Rodney.
"Thank you Jar, I can handle this." She said sweetly, before turning to Rodney and narrowing her eyes.
"Rodney." She said, clasping her hands together in her lap and deeply inhaling.
"You have a god damn town to run, now get your sorry bum off of Earl's stool and stop hiding behind ferns!" She half shouted, gesturing at the door and Rodney and Earl who briefly stopped sweeping across the shop.
After which Jared actually did drop the mug he had previously been holding; and yet it didn't shatter.
Both Rodney and Jared blinked in shock.
At Alysa's words or the mugs display no one knew.
Especially since the mug didn't shatter.
Rodney and Jared's eyes shifted slowly to the mug.
YOU ARE READING
The Visitor
FantasyMagic exists everywhere in the world, in the distant town of Zil, people have forgotten about the magic that once freely flowed through their lands. That is until a traveler stops to visit and changes everything they thought they knew.
