No more dragons

Chapter twelve

We had been running for a good while. Brooke didn't want to run by the road so we had to run through the forest. My legs were hurting, but I barely noticed. A pain in my chest was way worse. But I hadn't even known her for that long and most of the time I had spent with her I was afraid of dying. So why did it hurt so much when she didn't even look at me. She only spoke to me when she was giving me orders.  It was starting to get lighter, which ment we had ran all night. I wasn't having anymore of this. I grabbed her arms and spun her against me. "Brooke, stop this." I said. Her eyes widened and I think I could guess what she was thinking; Did he just do that?

I felt her starting to pull away. "Keep running, Alaric." she said and did just that herself. I sighed and ran after her, but after a while we started walking. "We are close to a city. The capital in fact. Now, in there you cannot wear that" she said and pointed at my clothes. I had changed into my own instead of the ones from the Institute when we were leaving. I could see the road again. "There is a small place right by where we are getting new clothes. I've got something for the owner." she said as we got to the road.  She refused to look at me. Was what I did really that bad?

Before we had time to knock on the door, someone swung the door open. A man was standing there with a huge smile on his face. He was wearing a old fashion suit with a fire red bow, and a outworn hat. His hair was nearly the same colour as the bow. He reminded me a bit of the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland. "Brooklyn Evelyn North!"  he yelled and opened his arms for a hug. Brooklyn Evelyn?  She rushed up to him and into his arms. "And who is this?" he asked and looked at me as he let her go. "My little pet dragon, Alaric." she said.

Ouch.

"Alaric?" he asked. "Alaric Moore." I said. His smile grew wider. "Moore! I love it! More, more, more! Come in!" he said and went inside. Yup, definitely the mad hatter. I gave Brooke a look before I followed her inside. The house made me even more convinced. It was full of all kind of stuff and reminded me a little bit about the first time I met Brooke. Speaking of Brooke, she pulled up something wrapped in paper and handed it to the mad hatter.  He squinted like a little girl and tore the paper off. "Hey, you told me it was for the institute!" I said to Brooke when I saw the book. She rolled her eyes at me. "Did you really think that the Institute would buy something that was stolen?" she asked and I immediately knew that she had a point. Why didn't I think about that?

The mad hatter smelled the book and breathed heavily out. "Wonderful!" he said and put it away in a bookshelf. "I'll read it later." he said. Brooke smiled at him. "Griffin, we need some clothes, is it possible-" he cut her right off. "You most surtently do! Horrific, love! Your clothes are just horrific!" he said. Honestly, she didn't dress very bad. Sure, she wears that one leather jacket to everything and I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a boy wear those kind of clothes (except for the weapons that I just recently found out she carried). "Him as well. I'm despised." the mad hatter named Griffin said.

He started walking and motioned for us to follow. The house was... I don't know, special. It was mainly a long corridor with many doors. It was shelves, frames, pictures and much more hanging on the walls. He opened one door and held his hand out. "For Miss Brooklyn Evelyn North." he said and bowed as she walked past him inside the room. "I'll be with you in a second." he said and closed the door. "You will be coming with me." he said and gave me one of his creepy smiles. He opened the next door for me. I walked in. The room made it clear that he was a tailor. Not too far away from a hatter. "I hope you don't mind if I help My lady first?"he asked. "Of course." I said and watched him leave the room.

I started looking around in the room. It hang drawings on the walls of different kinds of clothing. They were amazing actually. Mostly dresses, but men's wear too. Oh, and there was woman's wear that wasn't dresses, I see that now. The floor was mostly covered by a carpet with the same colour as the curtains. There was a big wooden desk there, where I assume he did the drawing. It was an old lamp on it.