It was a beautiful afternoon. The joy of early morning and its tentative embrace had passed on, leaving the sun blooming and beaming happiness upon the city of Farfadel. It was not altogether too warm, nor was it too cool. It was a perfect day for cavorting arm in arm with a lover, no matter the amount of corsets or corsages one wore. Though, I do admit it was a tad cloudy, but with all those layers of corsets and cors-what have you, it needed that little freshness to suit the clothing. So, all in all, it truly was perfect weather.
But ah! We return to the streets, my friend, not to the sky, and to Rita.
It seemed there was so much cavorting and frolicking to be done! For the streets of Farfadel’s grand city were full of whirring street-carts tugged around by majestic horses. Steam billowed from trains in the station, sending great clouds of this steamy smoke across the city. Great windows in tiny shops displayed watches and trinkets of all sorts (and handkerchiefs).
Rita’s eyes were large as dinner plates as she darted from one window to another. “Oh look at this!” she would exclaim gleefully. Then, just as quickly as a gust of wind, she would promptly scurry off to look at something else. She was like a child in a toy shop, but a bit taller. Excitement frizzed her hair. Smiles stretched her lips to their happiest.
Just a few steps behind, her highness the princess of Farfadel followed. She was demure, collected, and no one would have guessed anything but the noblest of ventures was taking place. She nodded calmly to all the passerbys who greeted her. Her hands were folded before her and she walked like the most gracious of ladies. Even her hat was perfectly poised. There was something a little smug and excited to her smile, but few noticed it.
Due to this stellar composure of one, and the not so composure of the other, it was quite a shock to everyone present when Rita, the scurrying alley-rat, darted to her majesty’s side and clung to her arm. “What shall we do now?”
“Well,” Aurora chuckled and gave Rita a most tender look. “I would suggest walking into whichever store pleases you most, but you cannot seem to decide.”
“They are all so beautiful!” gushed Rita, looking around as a large cart rumbled past them. “How do you ever shop around here?”
“One gets used to it,” said Aurora gently. To the shock of nearby passer-by's, she entwined her arm with Rita’s. Their gloved fingers wound together warmly. Aurora gave Rita’s a gentle squeeze. “How about we go into the pharmaceuticals? I know something there that might interest you.”
“Pharmaceuticals?” and Rita’s excitement dropped down a notch. There was some pharmaceutical shops in Neverfailia. They were full of colored bottles and ointments that smelt strange but did very little, and not much else. What could her majesty possibly think interesting in one of those shops? Oh! Did she think that Rita smelt terribly? That her breath was awful?
Rita frowned, her brow furrowing as she wondered if, indeed, the scents she’d applied had been fashionable enough. Or perhaps she was too warm? No, the air was cool, so she wasn’t sure what else there could be the matter!
But oh, how does one ask a lovely lady friend ‘do I smell bad? Do I stink? Is my breath awful enough to cause a riot?’. One simply does not ask such a thing, Rita decided.
While all this darted through Rita’s mind, her majesty smiled inscrutably. Eyes fixed straight ahead she tugged the puzzling Rita along the busy street. They wound through passerbys and wanderers and fellow busy shoppers. Bags bumped into Rita, legs almost tripped her, and a gentleman with an ornate eye piece and top hat scoffed at her. But no one scoffed at her majesty. No one dared, and truly, no one thought of it. She was simply too perfect to be scoffed at. In truth, it was quite the opposite that was happening.
For fi! The crowd parted for Aurora, or rather Aurora forced it to part by virtue of navigating it so cleverly. Just when Rita was marveling at this fact and how everyone seemed so polite and manageable for her, Aurora turned sharply into a storefront. Rita nearly toppled over at the abrupt turn, jerked ‘round just out of the way of yet another busy horse cart. The cart rattled on, and the pair now stood before the storefront, hand in hand.
It was a dull storefront when compared to the others that Rita had been in awe of before. This one was a little rickety, with its paneling a tad bit crooked, the nails and screws a little rusted into place, and above all, it was more than a touch grimy in its window. A few young-hearted persons had drawn smiling faces in the grime.
“This place?” Rita asked, unsure and a little underwhelmed. Surely, she thought, this is beneath her majesty’s tastes! Isn’t it a little poor-looking and filthy? Unless her majesty was a cheap penny-thrifter? Or was this some hidden gem?
But there was a twinkle in Aurora’s eye, a mischievous light. “Of course we must go into this place,” she said sweetly. Then she strode forward and pushed the door open. A bell hanging above the doorway jangled a sweet tune as the door rung it.. Rita’s jaw dropped as the store became visible beyond the grimy pane of the window.
Inside was tiny! It was all so small and so confined, barely even large enough to turn around in and sneeze properly, so to speak. Yet the organizer did not seem to have noticed that fact, for it was crammed full on every nitch and notch with something.
There were wind-up clocks, wind-up bird feeders, even wind-up doormats that welcomed guests as they stepped onto them. To the right there were even supposedly magical items, dusted over with fairy dust to ensure sparkling longevity of the item. But best of all, in the center of this tiny space just before the shop’s counter, was a stand of mechanical roses.
Well! In stepped Aurora, and Rose was hauled in tow. They two barely fit into the shop, what with all their skirts and rustlings.
Aurora went straight for the roses and plucked up one, painted a metallic blue. Its petals were closed and the base that it was set into bore false grass that was soft and velvety to the touch. All over, it glimmered with sparkling fairy-esque dust. Tipping it upside down, Aurora flipped open a little switch in the base. There was a knobby handle thing, and she cranked it three times.
A little tune tinkled out, and the petals began to spread. Popping it upright, Aurora offered it to Rita.
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