An Owl's Beacon

Chapter 7

Ruby, Luz, and Zwei have been strutting about the market for a while now, each carrying one half-full bag while Zwei specifically has a smaller one tied around his neck and mounted to his back filled with the lighter stuff like paper and stationery. This is the second time Ruby's been here, and while she still finds the scenery eye-catching, the alluring effect is diminished with her focus on finding her teammates.

However...

Ruby asks a store clerk, "Excuse me, have you seen a big girl with long yellow hair and leather boots?"
"Nope!"

"How much for the griffins eggs?"
"That'll be fifteen snails with how much you're carrying."
Luz hands over the payment to the seller, "here!"
"By the way, did a girl wearing a white and pale-blue dress with a rapier pass by yesterday? She's a friend of mine," Ruby tries again to another witch.
"Nuh-uh. Sorry."

"Did anything weird happen last night? Like, new people just suddenly popping up and gaining attention?" Luz tries asking this time to a third person as Ruby deposits a box of empty potion bottles.
"Only the girl with the red hood beside you right now, other than that, nobody."

Yikes...

Ruby starts scratching her head, garnering a concerned look from Luz. She notices it and reassures Luz by taking a deep breath and straightening her back, "we're not yet done with our list, right? Lead the way, witch-in-training!"

Luz likes her spirit and struts forward. Heading into Grimgrub's Pub (As Ruby noticed with the sign mounted onto the building's wall) with its dirty white and cream walls, Luz swings the saloon doors confidently and walks straight in with Ruby and Zwei casually close by. The candle-lit chandeliers and wall lamps being the primary lighting to this surprisingly dim place aside from the shut front windows.

Heading towards the counter, Ruby sees the person manning it looking like a regular human person with pale-brown sleeves under his yellow-brownish vest, almost like leather. Though she can't see his pointy ears, she can tell they're there from the light brown hood framing his golden brown hair.

That's a lot of brown...

"Excuse me, Kevin!" Luz calls out, "have you seen anything weird or unusual lately?"

Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes! Ruby mentally wished.

"Nope!"

Dangit!

"But, I have heard that the master librarian had an encounter with a ghost last night. Some folks are making it a bigger deal than usual, as unusual as that sounds..."

Luz turns to Ruby, who looks with slight intrigue and hope in her silver eyes. Luz shrugs but answers, "hey, maybe it could be something worth looking into."

"Anyway... Just here to ask a question or...?" Kevin cuts in.

"One order of apple blood for Eda, her usual size," Luz recites. And as if on cue or by sheer preparedness, Kevin pulls out an entire green glass jug of bright red liquid. Luz hands it to Ruby as she pulls out a bunch of coins, most likely the snails they mention.

Apple blood? Is this what they call apple juice here? Ruby asks herself as she leans into the whiff of the jug containing the chili-red juice in front of her.

Fragrant but... Sharper? Almost like the weirdly brewed juice Yang orders from time to time. Strawberry Sunrise, right?

Luz glances at Ruby inspecting the item on their list and informs her, "uh... That's Eda's favorite drink. She usually doesn't share it."

Ruby stares back to Luz rather curiously, almost surprised, "wait, really?"

"Yeah, she says it's too strong for me, which is weird since I see students at Hexside drink it in juice boxes..." Luz shrugs before leaning closer with a smug smirk on her face, "... Or maybe Eda doesn't want anyone hogging it. Try it for both of us, maybe you can handle it, you're a huntress, right?"