Story

Emi stood in the dusty shop she occasionally worked in for some unknown supervisor.  Passer-bys rarely entered the shop, and when they did they wanted some sort of healing magic that was never available in a Water Elf’s store.  Water Elf in name only, really, they didn’t swim around in the ocean like mermaids, they just derived their magic from the Water Element.

 Emi rested her hand on her cheek and pouted, waiting for the next person to walk in to her shop.  The sky darkened outside and she hurried to the window to look out.  The next solar eclipse wasn’t due for another ten years; the Alchemist teacher taught her that.  She felt a soft pang of cold magic inflict her bones, and she shivered.  “Dammit, what was that magic, again?” she swore to herself, picking the water bowl off the shelf, and peering inside.  She dipped her fingers in the water, and sealed the door.

 “Oh, damn,” Emi swore, and looked at the glowing marks on the door that betrayed the protective seal she put on it.  The marks were rudimentary at best, and wouldn’t hold the lowest form of cold magic out.

Emi rummaged through the shop's shelves for a different bowl, this one was much longer then the her other bowl. She filled the bowl with water that came from a large green vile. Emi mumbled a few words and the waters surface revealed a small flying creature struggling in the air as it flew toward her little shop. A loud 'THUMP' came from behind the door.

Emi is frightened but wonders what is outside her shop and curiosity overcomes her. As she reached toward door handle, and surprisingly nothing happened. She unlatched the door's lock and opened it to find a little boy that seemed to be sleeping on her shop's doorstep."Dammit," she said under her breath.

"Why is this kid sleeping right outside my shop? He's scaring away all my customers!" The flying animal that Emi saw moments before in her magical bowl slipped her mind as she carried the boy in, not knowing what else to do.

She sighed, wondering if he was sick. He looked a little pale, but with the lack of light, she really had no idea...

The sun had set a few hours ago and the little boy showed no signs of waking up. There were no beds in Emi's small shop, so she cleared all the contents of her tiny counter and laid the boy on top of it and put a "Closed" sign outside the door. Lately Emi was trying to mix a potion her grandmother had murmured on her deathbed. Emi had only been six at the time, and could only half-remember it at certain times, if at all.

She added herbs and different concoctions to her mix, wondering why she had chosen this time to start the potion, after years of not remembering. She was confused, really, that now a sleeping boy had literally been dropped on her doorstep. She loves to make different magical things to help other people, which is partly why she opened her little store in the first place. When Emi begins to improvise on mixing different plants and other substances together she is preoccupied by her project. Every so often she would have the little boy swallow a few drops, but she did not get any reactions for her efforts. Outside the dark clouds over the small shop were swirling and forming more clouds blocking out the moons and stars until it was almost pitch black. At the moment Emi wasn't in the position to notice this, so the figure that walked up to the shop wasn't seen.

Emi searched her shelves for the various concoctions that she sold in her tiny store. A particular red colored one she was looking for was on a shelf too high for Emi to reach. Grumbling she got a stool and stood on it, but was still just barely out of reach. The water elf stretched upward. Just a few more inches she thought.

Suddenly someone hit the door so hard Emi's shop shook. Emi, in the middle of trying to retrieve a bottle on a high shelf, fell forward with the bottle of red fluid in her hand while the rest of the contents of the shelves crashed towards the ground.

In the middle of all the broken glass, spilled potions, and other rubble with the bottle still in her hand Emi shouted," Go away! The shop is closed!"

BOOM! The door fell off its hinges and made another loud crash as the door hit the floor.

Emi let out a small, strangled yelp, barely able to scream. The red bottle lay in her hand, unscathed.

Emi looked to see who had broken down the door. All she could see was a dark silhouette of a person standing in the doorway. The person began to walk towards her slowly. Emi continued to move back to the wall staying there in fear. As the person got closer Emi could see that he was not looking at her or walking towards her. Instead he was going towards the little boy on the counter.

“Leave him alone!” Emi shouted out of fear and surprise.

“I don’t mean you two any harm” said the strange boy.

Emi walked to the side and flick on the lights. To her surprise the person was a boy about her age. “Who are you?” asked Emi.

“My name is Shoyruko Akmen, and I….” He stopped suddenly and looked toward the boy on her counter again. “Dak!” he shouted.

“Dak?” Emi asked in surprise.

“Yes, this is my friend Dak. I could senses a person’s spirit starting to emerge in this shop so I came here. I’ll tell you more later but we have to get him some blood quick. He is really weak and unless we get him it now he will die.”

“Ok” said Emi. “I can make a liquid that is something like blood, which could sustain him for a little while until we get him real blood.

“Ok, you make it and I’ll call Vampire, Inc to deliver some blood,” he replied.