I didn't take long getting breakfast. I'm still being impulsive today, so I decided I'd just get whatever the first thing I saw was, and I saw a half eaten banana on the ground as we came in. I decided I'd just get whatever the second thing I saw was. It ended up being grilled corn. Kind of a weird time of day to sell grilled corn, now that I'm thinking about it.

It wasn't that good. Well, it was alright, surprisingly sweet, but certainly not worth the price of admission. Plus, it was kind of a pain to eat while moving. And it kinda got stuck in my teeth, so I was pickin' at that for a while. Not a great breakfast, all things considered. Kinda makes me miss cereal. It's the little things, isn't it?

As I finished that up, we headed over to Maurice's place. Or, tried to, at least, but, admittedly, I did get rather lost on the way there. I've only been there once, after all, and it was rather brief.

As we walked through town, I tried to think of things I should actually say once we get there. Thinking about it, last time we met, he claimed that he didn't know any more about dark magic, anyways, so I'm not sure if he'll even have new information to tell me, and, even if he does, it's not like he's obligated to tell me anything.

And heck, even if there is more information, and he's willing to tell me, I have no way of knowing whether or not it's accurate. I mean, last time he went on and on about how dangerous this stuff is, but, so far, I've been perfectly fine. Actually, it's made me more resilient, if anything. I suppose it's dangerous for whoever's on the business end of it, but you could say that about any magic, right? It's never-

Wait, actually, now that I'm thinking about it, it did cause me to almost fly past the stratosphere that one time. Actually, if I couldn't use the at that point, I easily could've... 

Okay, maybe he was right about that whole 'incredibly dangerous' stuff.

Well, regardless, I'm being impulsive today, so I'm not about to talk myself out of doing this. Plus, even if he doesn't have anything else to tell me, I'm sure that he'll at least have something helpful for me. If not information, well, he does run a magic shop. There's probably something cool there I can buy. And, if absolutely nothing else... I dunno, maybe he'll have something interesting to do. Seems like a pretty kooky-magic shop owner thing to do, right?

Anyways, not much of interest happened on our way to the shop. I did notice a lot more whispering and murmuring amongst the guards, though. If I had to guess, they're probably beginning to wonder what the deal is with all the increased patrols and stuff. Though, actually, thinking about it, there weren't as many guards as there had been on previous days. Maybe they're beginning to lighten the load a bit. 

Oh, and we also walked past what I think is that 'hero statue' that Baldy was talking about the other day. Guess this town has one of those, too. I wonder how I've never seen it before? Anyways, it was tall, and looked to be made of marble, or something, placed atop a wide, granite or something pedestal, with a lengthy looking golden plaque on it.

The statue itself was surprisingly not all that exciting, to be honest. It was just a very generic looking dude 'heroically' posing and pointing a sword towards the sky, with their other hand reaching down, all spread out, as if about to do some magic or something. It looked like something that would appear on the box art of one of those mass produced RPGs. 

Don't get me wrong, I could tell it was well made and everything, but it was just... Boring. There weren't any stand out features, no great expressive qualities, nothing. I guess the dude had a bit of a masculine edge to him, but other than that... Woefully drab. As if they didn't really have much information to go off of, or something.  Y'know, I can almost kinda see where Catface is coming from in wanting to destroy these things. So tasteless.

Regardless, the statue seemed rather popular with children. Young kids, anyways, kids around Amelia's age, I think, so about, like, 5ish? Maybe a little older? I dunno, anyways, I couldn't help but notice a number of kids running and playing around the thing, and a few others just looking at it from a bit away, with stars in their eyes. Now, I'd argue that these kids have terrible taste, but, y'know, who am I to judge, I guess.

But, like, c'mon, like, surely there are better- No, no, I'm done. 

Anyways, while not much in particular happened on our way to the shop, the same thing cannot be said for when we arrived at the shop. 

Because the shop was surrounded and seemingly flooded with a sea of guards.

Sis and I joined a seemingly ever growing wall of confused and curious citizens wondering what the heck is going on. Actually, the crowd was large enough that there were a couple guards who were just keeping everyone back. Which just made everyone even more curious.

There was a lot of chatter and murmuring. There were a lot of differing opinions and theories, but a few things in particular I heard quite a bit was 'Always thought that place was fishy.' and 'Was only a matter of time 'till this happened',  and even a few 'good riddance'-s, which I thought wasn't very nice. 

"Huh." Sis said as we stopped. "Lemme guess, is this the place you were headed to?" 

"Yep. Well, was, at least." I responded, trying to peer over the crowd, see what exactly the guards were doing. Ultimately, my efforts were fruitless.

"What's the plan, then? Should we just come back tomorrow?" Sis asked. "If this place is here tomorrow, that is." 

Well... Ordinarily, that'd be my first choice, obviously. But, as Sis said, we have no way of knowing if this place will be here tomorrow, and, beyond that, I don't know if we'll have the time to come back tomorrow. 

But more, much more than that..

I'm being impulsive today.

I put my hood up.

"Nah. We're doing this today. Let's see what's up." I whispered.