It was really refreshing to leave the campus grounds. It was reasonably cold out, but the sunlight had washed away all the morning frosts from the pavement. We leave the park and find ourselves amongst 1950’s style semi-detached housing. The only real signs that I had been jettisoned fifteen years into the future were some of the cars which looked completely alien to me. A lot of them have seemed to grow rather more angry looking than before, and a handful of them whirred past near silently. It was kind of spooky to be honest. After ducking and diving down a few long alleyways and down a couple more roads we found ourselves opposite the shopping centre.

Strolling inside, the first thing that catches my nose is a fast food restaurant. My stomach gargled hungrily. Maybe later. We walked further inside, I was on the hunt for a clothes store or a sports gear store or something of that nature. Maybe a trinket place where I could get her a bracelet or a necklace or something. There were lots of different shops inside, ranging from typical things like phone stores and bookstores to weird oddly huge expanses with interactable exhibits. Like a toy store where you could just go in and play with things before you buy them.

“Hey Sylvie I’m going to go fetch a coffee. I haven’t had one of these for about a week and I’m desperate. The college’s stuff is not anywhere near as nice”

“Yeah okay. I’ll wait here” I leaned against a pillar in between a pair of stores as I watched her vanish into this tiny gourmet coffee shop. Most people just kept walking by, not paying any attention to the lone Zombie out of the way. Until one kid, he must have only been 9 or 10 years old, pointed and yelped “Look at her!”. Which caused a few heads to swivel in my direction. I had gotten too used to not being stared at whilst at college. I’d forgotten I was still something to point at and be afraid of. 

“Um, sorry. I’m harmless, just waiting for my friend” The boy’s mother grabbed him and shuffled him on quickly, but it was too late for my self confidence. That had taken a mighty blow. I turned around and pulled my coat up, staring at the reflection. 

I had been in a good mood, and that had reflected in my choice of clothes. A brown and tan coat over my striped white shirt. I also wore a green pleated skirt and knee high socks. A normal pretty feminine winter outfit, it just so happened that I still repulsed strangers. Something that was always going to be the case it seemed. I let out a sigh and lean down tug at a sock that had sunk down.

“Um, Miss?” I look up, its a security guard. “Can I ask you to move on? I’ve received word that someone threatening was loitering about” I froze stiff and looked quickly for Maeve. Who thankfully was just leaving the coffee shop, upon spotting the situation she bolted over to us.

“Sylvie was waiting for me. Sorry Sir” she tugged me gently on the sleeve to follow her and I did. Leaving the guard watching us scarper, rubbing his chin. “You didn’t do anything did you?” she asked with a worried look on my face. I shook my head.

“Just the sight of my face spooked them enough to call the security guard over” I let out a small mewl noise in resigned frustration. “I should have expected it”

“You shouldn’t have to” she lets go and we continue further into the building, eventually finding a bookshop. Maybe I could find her a book set or something, but I’d always enjoyed the different smell that these kinds of shops gave off. The smell of fresh and unopened books, it was very nostalgic. I went straight for the sports section and the biographies, Erina was good at pretty much any sport she set her mind to so I had a lot I could possibly get her. However this also gave me an opportunity to ask Maeve something in relative privacy.

“Maeve?” I had turned the volume down a little bit on the tablet.

“Yes Sylvie?” she says whilst taking out a book from one of the shelves and skimming the blurb.

“Do I scare you?” I look at her intently, studying her face and her eyes for any sort of different emotion.

“I was...cautious, when I first saw you. But I saw you being yourself, having fun, trying to live you know? She places the book back on the shelf and turns to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “I hope something changes, but I fear we’ll just have to keep proving you’re harmless. I’m sorry”

“I understand, I just felt...down, I think I needed that encouragement, thank you” I gave her a unsteady smile and a thumbs up.

“Good, now lets get back on track eh? We’re here for Erina” 

“Right” I took a scan through some of the books on the shelves and nothing really stood out. I did grab a couple of volumes of manga to read for myself though. After purchasing them at the tool we left the store, my worries started to fade away as my quest to find something for Erina was reinvigorated.

***

We shortly reached one of the bigger squares in the shopping centre, much like an American mall you tended to have long wide corridors that all lead to big open glass top squares which the bigger stores tended to centre around. We stepped onto the escalator to go up to a taller level, where we were hoping to find a few different types of stores. Looking around I spotted a shop that might just have something good. We veered left along the indoors balcony and made a beeline right towards it.

“Esmerelda’s Wares and Accessories? Are you dragging me into a magic store?” Maeve giggles.

“I don’t even know myself, lets check it out!” I push the door open, causing a bell to ding. The musty smell hit me first of anything.

“Welcome” A young woman sat on a stool behind the counter. She was pretty cute and didn’t seem to bat an eye at the zombie walking into her shop. “Oh! I overheard my parents watching a thing on TV about a zombie girl attending the college nearby. Its nice to meet the culprit” she looks at me with a sympathetic smile.

“Thank you. I’m actually after a gift”

“For a special boy-?” I shake my head vigorously.

“-girlfriend?” she asks, getting it right on the second go, I nod. “Well what’s she like?” Maeve walks past me and starts looking through the shelves and display cabinets.

“Well she’s fiery and sporty, and she can use a small degree of fire magic. She’s a half-dragon, I’m sorry if this sounds stereotypical but do you like, have anything of that sort of magical nature?”

“Oooh, you picked yourself an interesting partner. As a matter of fact I do have some magical artefacts about the place. Let me take a look for you” She hops down from her stool and pushes her way through the stall door behind the counter. I stay at the front of the store and look through what's there. I think because of the type of store it was a lot of the easy sells were at the front, stuff like shoe-racks, rugs, old DVDs. What was more interesting were all the little wooden statues that were in the display cases right at the shop window. There was a couple of little animal statues, but one in particular catches my eye.

“Maeve! Come over here!” 

“Coming!” she wanders over and a point to a little ceramic creature in the case. “You might be on to one there Sylvie. Its pretty neat” It was a little dragon that shone like a ruby in the light. It had a clawed hand outstretched, as if grasping for something. It’s face wasn’t snarling or baring its fangs like the normal expression you’d see. It was more of a wise face, with whisker-like scales.

“I hope its not expensive, but at the moment thats what I’m going to go with”

“I must admit I’m rather curious what sort of magical things she has” Maeve says, crouching down to look at the little dragon. “Here she comes now” I couldn’t hear anything, how did she know that? A minute later the woman walks down an aisle towards us, a small box in hand. She places it on the counter.

“I figure it’d be best to select something that is more to do with her innate abilities as a dragon, rather than an athlete. Organisations tend to take a foul opinion of enchanted items that affect your physical attributes in that way” She opens the box and takes out a bracelet made out of what looked to be simple light blue fibres. “This is a wind charm, allowing the wearer to deflect or push air slightly in a direction. Your Dragon friend might be able to use it to fly slightly faster using it. The only thing is, wind has to exist in the first place. If she is not flying, and it is a still day, then she will not be able to use it”

“Thats pretty cool. How much?”

“Well ordinarily” she looks down at the box, placing the bracelet back inside. “I would have charged about thirty pounds for it. But I’ll sell it to you for twenty”

“Deal, oh, and how much for the little dragon statue in the case?”

“I’ll check” she takes a key from her lanyard and walks out from behind the counter past me and over to the display case. She unlocks it and gently picks the dragon up by his body, turning it upside down to look at the price sticker on its base.

“£49.99” Ouch, that was quite a bit, good thing Guy had sorted me out with this debit card a few weeks ago, after I had told him about the shopping trip with Erina. I had never used this touch payment thing before, It didn’t exist when I’d been alive.

“Thats fine. I’ll take it too” Erina had spent a lot on clothes for me, I had to pay her back somehow. 

“Awesome!” The lady gently places the dragon on the counter and goes back behind, picking up some tissue foil. She gently wraps the dragon and the box containing the charm in it, then places both in separate bags. Then she enters both items into her register and pushes the card reader forwards. I tap my debit card on it and the contactless system bings a positive sound back at me. “Thank you both, feel free to come back here anytime you like, and tell your friends!” 

“Thank you too!”

“Yeah thanks!” Maeve also chimes in as she opens the door to let me out. “Lets get back to the college and hide them in your room” I squeeze past her and out of the shop, where the relative freshness of the open shopping centre beckoned, although it did feel a little bit on the more manufactured and synthesized nature in comparison to the musk of the wares shop.

“Hey Maeve?” I ask as she closes the door.

“What is it?”

“How did you sense her coming a minute before I could?”

“Oh uh, shit I let that slip. I don’t really like mentioning what makes dullahans special. I’ll tell you when we’re more alone. Not here. Sorry” She looks slightly saddened by my question, as if it struck a little bit of a sadder nerve with her.

“Oh uh, no prob. You don’t have to if its a sore subject”

“Its fine, lets get back shall we?”

“Yeah, lets”