We arrived at the town, where she pulled the metal contraption to one side and quieted it. She pulled a lever on the side and the door through which she had entered opened once more. Looking to my own side, a saw a similar lever, which I tugged, waiting for something terrible to happen.

      "The car's not going to eat you," Aria told me, rolling her eyes. She got out and closed the door behind her, jogging around to my side. "C'mon, I can't park here all day," Aria reached her hand down to me and pulled me out of the 'car'. She lead the way down the paved lane to a small store that had a myriad of different items in the window. As she opened the door, a  small bell rang out and a mans head popped up from behind the counter. His hair was pale and shaggy, but his brown eyes lit up at the sight of Aria.

          "Heya Aria!" He smiled, standing up. He didn't seem too old, but he certainly wasn't as young as Aria either.

            "Hey Greg. I've got some stuff here I want you to look at," She reached into her bag and pulled out my purse. As she passed it over to him, he looked at her quizically. The purse was made of tanned leather, with painted vines and flowers around the bottom of it, held closed by a draw string made of woven vines. I guess no one had seen any such as this in many a long year. Greg opened the purse and his eyes widened comically.

          "Where did you get these?" He held up one of the coins, a gold dubloon, in one hand, turning it round and round. "What else do you have here.......garnet...onyx.... amethest......diamond??? Holy poop Aria. This is a friggin gold mine!"

            "Whats it worth?" Aria leaned against the counter and looked up at him.

            "This coin alone is worth about.....oh, a thousand dollars. I don't know for sure about the stones though....you should take those over to Smith Jewelers. The guy there's pretty fair. But I do want these coins. I've only got 800 in the store right now though...."

           "Okay, we'll take that for now. We'll be in later with the other coins then. Thanks Greg!" Aria smiled at him as he reached under the counter and produced many pieces of paper of different colour. Aria looked them over before placing them into my purse. "Lily, this is your money, so I want you to keep it with you. Just don't buy anything until you know what they're worth,k?" She put the purse in my hand, then waving, pulled me out of the store after her.  "God I swear that boy loves me. That was totally easy!" Aria laughed, bouncing her hair over her shoulder. "Alright, lets go do some damage!"

                We went to a store that she called a 'boutique'. Aria continuously pulled clothes off of metallic branches and placed them in the arms of a girl who followed us around. Aria seemed to know what she was doing, and the girl seemed to know her well. The pile soon grew large though, and so I was shoved into a wooden cubicle and told to try on the clothes. I would put them on, then walk out of the cubicle and show Aria and Emily, as the girl was called. They would murmur to each other, walk around me, then say next. Goddess only knew how long this proceeded for, though finally the pile of clothes were gone, and Emily was carrying their selections to the counter. A number was read, and Aria asked me for purse. I handed it to her without question. To me, this was a strange way to receive clothing. At home we had weavers, who made outfits for each faerie. The faerie in question would go in, have measurements taken, and then sit down with one of the weavers, who would discuss designs. Questions such as 'is it for a banquet' or 'is this normal wear' would be asked to determine the practicality of the garment. The colour would be chosen, and when it was done, a messenger would come to your door and deliver the garment. It seemed, however, that in the human world, the clothing was premade, and everyone catagorized into certain sizes.

                   "You're really lucky your slim," Aria told me as we left, a bag in each of her hands. "Alright.....um, shoes. You need shoes from this era. So to Wanda's it is," she looked across the lane, and when she saw no cars were coming, jogged acrossed it. I saw, on the other side of the lane, a store front full of shoes, every one of them different. And there, beside it, another clothing store, which two young men were leaving. It seemed that one was trying to explain something to the other, and as we approached, I could hear them rather clearly.

                   "Mekaîle you have to be careful. You start waving all that money around and something bads going to happen. Those bills might not mean anything to you, but to us humans, thats a lot of money!" My ears perked at his speech. That boy saying 'us humans' could only mean one thing. This Mekaîle had to be fey. I stopped dead in my tracks. What was the possiblity of this happening? Two fey arriving at the same time, in the same town? I could not even think of another fey village that was close enough.

                  "Lilyanna! Hey, earth to Lily!" a hand appeared infront of my face. Startled, I jumped, brought back by this human girl. "Hey...whats up? Whats the matter?" Aria rephrased at my blank look.

                  "He is fey," I nodded towards the boys who were getting closer to where we were standing.

                    "Allen? Nah, he's just a regular old human boy.....oh....him. Yah, maybe. I don't recognize him. Cute though," she added, glancing at the boys. "HEY ALLEN!" Aria practically yelled. I winced inwardly, tugging at my ear lobe. The boys turned to look at us, the human seemed scared, the fey curious.

                   "Ri, hey.....um, whats up?" The boy gulped, visibly nervous.

                   "Who's the fey?" She asked him, pointing at Mekaîle with her chin. Allen, I had to remind myself several times of his name, appeared shocked. His jaw dropped, his eyes popped open.

                   "Fey? What fey? What is a fey?" Allen rambled till Mekaîle placed a hand on his shoulder to quiet him.

                    "I am Death Hawk Mekaîle of the house of the black rose, and you dear lady?" His voice was deep, a baritone for definite. Death-head hawk moth, however, was a strange bread. There were none in my village, nor had I ever met one prior to this, indicating that he must have come from quite a ways away.

                   "Aria, and this is Lilyanna. She's the one who knew he was a fey."

                  "Then you must be a fey as well. Of what house are you?" Mekaîle inquired.

                 "I am a Monarch of the house of the blue heart," I replied, nodding my head.

                 "So one got you too, eh?" Aria sighed. "Fun, ain't it?"

                 "Oh yah. Next time a fey comes up to me, remind me to tell them to blow off. This guy is impossible to take shopping. And I'm not really sure what I'm doing. Hey, Ri, want to help?" Allen asked, his face alight.

                "Might as well, mean, I gotta do it anyways for Lily. Sides, at least you won't think I'm crazy." Aria shrugged and started walking towards the shoe store once more. "C'mon, this is the next stop." Allen trudged after her, myself not far behind. Mekaîle brought up the rear, his steps almost matching my own. This would be interesting, but perhaps it was for the best that Mekaîle had come to this town as well. For Aria was correct, at least she would have a comrade experiencing the same tasks as she, and perhaps that would help. Perhaps the lessons would run smoothly, and tests could be conducted upon the two of them, creating a welcome challenge. Though this, to me, truly meant nothing. What it did mean for Aria, however, was perhaps this fellow fey could help me create the wings she sought. I would have to ask him later, for her sake. Now, however, we simply had to survive the ordeal they deemed shopping.