Floryana removes her pattens and places them on a rack outside the two-storey, whitewashed building, she pushes the door open to Bwoukhon’s Beastery [1], crouching through the doorway, making sure not to catch her hat on the lintel.
The store’s walls are covered in a light-blue wallpaper with white horizontal stripes, the tops of which have begun to peel. The storefront is laid out similarly to Walth’s Herbs and Spices and many of the other stores in The Crown Isles [2]: main counter and entrance to the storage room on the right, display shelves on the left, and stairs leading up to the home of the store owner opposite to the door, with the only difference being the smell: a blend of animal musk, wooden shavings, hay, and the familiar odor of paludariums.
A child is tapping on the glass of a display tank against the south wall. He turns to look at Floryana.
Gen Bwoukhon promptly falls over in shock at the sight of the tall, unknown, veiled woman, and crawls backwards, yelling to his father, “A witch!” he gets to the stairs, continuing to cry “Dad! Dad! A witch! A witch!” as he clambers up them; he is terrified that she might snatch him up and grind his bones into a potion—mother always told him witches use meal from the bones of bad children to stay youthful; he gives the witch one last glance before escaping to the living room.
“I am certainly not a witch,” Floryana mutters to herself, “I am an apothecary,” she turns around to look at her reflection in the door, “Well, I do look like a witch—I have the hat and a very dark dress on to-day; a cauldron back home; I am here buying a frog to make what could be considered ‘potions’. But I am allergic to cats, have not tried to curse someone since Gekaryna when I was thirteen, and I generally do good. No, I’m still just an apothecary, but I do have ‘witchy’ aspects about me,” she changes her focus to the glass paludariums that line the shop’s left wall; many contain turtles, newts, or salamanders, but a small selection of anurans is among them, “Too small... Too green... Toad... I can’t say I would expect them to have a Froudh?lyudh Wylbloux [3] just out on display; would be an excellent way to earn the ire of the Shyrshwoudhyd [4],” she continues to mutter to herself; her mind drifts back to the boy: Bwoukhon—like the bear—she snorts at the irony of it.
Gaennax Bwoukhon, a short, round man, descends the stairs with a thud at each step; his son slowly follows behind him.
Pausing on the quarter-turn, Gaennax looks the witch up and down, “I have no black cats, and if you think I’m going to sell you any of my newts—you can walk right back out that door and let it hit you on the way out,” making sure his disdain for all things witchy evident in his voice.
“One: I am allergic to cats; two: I have just concluded that I am not a witch, but an apothecary with witchy-aspects to me—so I do not want any of your newts; three: I cannot understand why you would want anyone to be hit by your door,” Floryana responds.
Gaennax furrows his brow, slightly taken aback by her response, “All right... so... what are you looking for?”
“I would like to purchase: one male Froudh?lyudh Wylbloux—the grandest one you have.”
Gaennax slowly makes his way over to the witch, “I sell pets and some exotic animals—not gibberish; if you want that, go to Grydhor’s [5], tell me what that is in normal words,“ he tries to look up the veil attached to her hat while he speaks.
“A Grand Northern Bullfrog, the big blue frogs that make you hallucinate, hops and goes croak,” the shopkeep is simply to close, Floryana wants to swat at him.
Unsuccessful in finding out who the tall witch before him is, he backs away and whistles at Gen.
Floryana sniffs aggressively at the whistle and her right eye twitches; there is nothing she hates more than whistling.
“Lock the door, son—now,” Gaennax commands in a concerned tone.
Gen hurriedly complies, running to the door, the deadbolt thunks into place.
“Now tell me: who are you, and what would you possibly want with one of those?” He questions, now more disquieted by what than he was at first.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“I am Franheska Blumawar, the apothecary of the Herst royal court, and I need the frog for after to-morrow’s coronation; I have a letter, signed by queen-designate Gekaryna dera’Herst, instructing me to purchase one Grand Northern Bullfrog,” she removes the letter from her bag, passing it to the shopkeeper.
“Oh,” a look of relief floods his face, “I thought you were a Sister [6].”
“I am—”
Gaennax recoils.
“I am a younger sister to two older brothers and an older sister.”
Sighing, Gaennax rolls his eyes and quickly skims the note.
“Follow me, the frog is a full-gold and 4 full-silvers—just get it out now; I want you out and on your way as soon as possible.” He walks to the door behind the counter, opens it, and enters the backroom.
Floryana follows, beginning to dig in her coin-purse.
The backroom is large, dimly lit, and filled with the chirping of insects; the occasional croak of a frog can be heard through the door at the far end of the room. Rickety shelves containing mostly feed and empty tanks extend from the walls, forming a claustrophobic main walkway between them, barely wide enough for the brim of Floryana’s hat to pass unscathed.
Floryana looks down each aisle—she wonders how the shopkeeper could reach the top shelves, let alone squeeze his rotund figure into the aisle in the first place.
Gaennax grabs a wooden crate from the end of a shelf, raises the drop-down gate, and shakes out an assortment of plant fibers onto the floor.
“Is the travel crate included?” Floryana asks.
“Depends on how fast you get out of my store,” he responds through gritted teeth, opening the door at the end of the room.
“I can leave quite fast if need be.”
Floryana is met by a bright room, full of terrariums and paludariums. In a paludarium against the back wall sat the pie-sized frog she is looking for.
Gaennax extends a hand with the palm up, “There’s the frog—you can get him out; you have gloves on already...”
Floryana is already two steps ahead of him; dropping the coins into his hand, she walks towards the tank, removing the glove from her right hand, lifting and blocking the drop-down gate of the wooden crate, and sliding the glass paludarium door open, she then grabs the frog around the waist, dropping him ass-first into his home for the next few hours, and shuts the gate, she sets the crate on the floor for a moment as she re-gloves her hand, takes the crate once more and pushes past the shopkeep, walking briskly to the exit of the backroom; not wanting to have to pay for the crate.
Gaennax watches the crown of her hat disappear around the corner—she is in for a rough afternoon.
After briefly fumbling with the deadbolt, Floryana leaves the store, puts her pattens back on and rushes back through the Merchant District’s agora.
She catches the attention of two pale women with long white hair, wearing white dresses. They begin to approach Floryana from a distance before being stopped and questioned by an armored man.
Catching the encounter from the corner of her eye, she immediately recognizes Osmund Dornytter; she picks up her pace—much to the dislike of Sampson the XV, now croaking in disagreement at the bumpy ride—making a beeline back through the Artisan District and finally to the castle.
## Footnotes
[1] Bwoukhon’s Beastery is an exotic pet shop located in the Merchant’s District. Opening in 0822 EotG by Gewan Bwoukhon (b. 26/11/0794 EotG, d. 18/09/0888 EotG). While they do specialize in exotic animals—legal or not—from outside Ianya, they also sell common household pets.
[2] The Crown Isles are both the capital city of the Kingdom of the Great Moon of Our Lady and an archipelago of islands located in the caldera of The Crown. The Crown Isles sit at 3600 meters above sea level.
[3] The taxonomical name of the Grand Northern Bullfrog. The Grand Northern Bullfrog species of large frog (males grow to ~23cm in length and ~1kg in weight, females grow to ~10cm and ~400grams) which inhabits The Grand Northern Forest. It’s skin secretes a strong hallucinogen which has been used by worshipers of Iany for thousands of years in a variety of rituals.
Possession of a Grand Northern Bullfrog is punished severely by ‘The Sisterhood of the White Orchid’ everywhere except Ianya—(though, they do still try to enforce their laws in the region, much to the chagrin of the Order of the Three Moons). There have been multiple attempts to exterminate the species, but none have yet been successful; they always come back. They have a price of ~1.5 full golds in Ianya, but most other regions they have been seen to fetch around 6-10 full golds due to the difficulty of smuggling to animal in—price can also vary by the age, size, and sex of the frog.
Froudh?lyudh Wylbloux roughly translates to Frog (Froudh?) of Dreams (Lyudh) which is big (Wyl) and blue(Bloux).
[4] The Shyrshwoudhyd (pronounced: SHEER-shvood-heed)—more commonly known as The Sisterhood of the White Orchid outside of Ianya—is a subsect of The School of His Pale Magistrate. Members of ‘Shyrshwoudhyd’ are the only beings capable of using any sort of healing magic—besides select gods—and are easily recognizable due to their albinism.
[5] Grydhor’s or Grydhor and Sons is a “magic” shop that was opened in 0453 EotG in the merchant district in The Crown Isles by Gebahn Grydhor (b. 18/12/0420 EotG, d. 11/09/0500 EotG). Originally titled Gebahn’s Emporium, the name was changed in 0470 EotG when Gebahn’s sons decided to join the family business. They sell a wide selection of household appliances that utilize what remains of the now esoteric art of sigil magic, as well as buying and selling enchanted items.
[6] A common slang term used to refer to members of Shyrshwoudhyd.
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