The next few days were so overwhelmingly busy that Alice barely got to see the sights in Prague. Most of the time was spent explaining to tourists what everything did, and trying to prevent anything from being blown up. A few non-magical people came in – Alice still couldn’t quite make herself call them “regs” – and she was kept busy making sure they didn’t walk into things, since the vacuum store spell sent them into a kind of stupor.

            “Hey!” Gabriel’s voice made her look up from the dazed man she was guiding out the door. The elf was chasing after a skinny young man who’d tried on a pair of magically propelled roller skates, in spite of the “please do not try on the magical roller skates” sign that hung above them.

His skinny arms were pin-wheeling as the skates sent him shooting forward, “I can’t stop!”

            “Stop!” yelled Gabriel.

            “I can’t stop!”

Alice winced as the boy barreled into a nearby stand of potions, sending the shelf crashing down. Azura moved with lightening speed, weaving a tight net of threads and casting it under the shelf. Several bottles broke under the sharp edges of the wood, but most of them were cushioned, clinking together musically as they rolled around. The boy had no such net to cushion his fall, and he came down hard on his backside and sat there moaning in pain.

Alice clenched her fists at her sides, trying not to lose her cool. There were other customers in the shop, and they were all staring at her and the moaning boy on the ground. Azura grunted with the effort of holding the net aloft. She slowly began to lower it, and one of the bottles tipped off, a spray can labeled “Bottled Emotion”. It hit the floor and started spraying sharp burst of mist into the air. Maya ran over to pick it up, and then she stopped, hand hovering in the air above the tin bottle. A look of extreme misery crossed her face, and she burst out, “Oh what’s the point in all this! You might as well just drop the potions! Let them all break.” To Alice’s astonishment she proceeded to sit down on the floor and wail at the ceiling about the pointlessness of it all. Gabriel ran over to her, looking dismayed, and then he too stopped and slumped down onto the floor, putting his head into his hands with a groan, “She’s right. What’s the point in all this ridiculous traveling? Why are we even here? It’s not like we live here.”

“What the hell is that fruit cake on about?” Altair cocked his head to one side, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. Then he inhaled deeply and frowned, “Awe, he’s right. Why the hell am I even here? What’s the point?”

Alice made a dart for the bottle on the ground, which was spinning in crazy circles as it let out its compressed potion. She tried to keep her hand clasped firmly over her nose, but some of the spray must have slipped through her fingers, because when she grabbed it and held it away from herself she felt a little depressed about it.

Customers were lolling about in the aisles, moaning about why they’d come shopping, and what was the point of spending any money. Alice ran to the back and stuck the Bottled Emotion in the desk drawer, shutting it with a bang. This was not good for business! She ran back into the shop and opened the door, propping it open with the door stop, hand still pressed over her mouth.

Shakra, who was watching all this from the fireplace, was rumbling with laughter, and Alice turned and snapped, “I’m glad you find this all so amusing!” but her voice was muffled and it came out sounding like, “Gad flies are also musing” and Shakra just blinked at her and said, “What?”

Azura had a silk handkerchief pressed to her nose and mouth. She helped Alice open the windows and they both waited until the customers started to stand up, looking confused. Maya blinked and said, “Goodness, what am I doing sitting on the floor?” and Gabriel shook his head like he had water in his ears, “I felt so depressed a second ago.”

“Sorry everyone,” Alice lowered her hand from her mouth to address the customers, “Someone knocked over a bottle of compressed hopelessness.” She eyed the boy on the ground, who ducked his head and started tugging at the laces on the roller skates.

“Say,” said a lady with large round glasses and lipstick that was much too orange for her, “Do you happen to have any bottled happiness?”

“We have all the emotions,” It was a relief that a sale might actually come out of this catastrophe, and she guided the woman over to Azura, who was reorganizing the shelf. “Right here. There’s joy, happiness, sadness, anger, delight, depression, confusion. Nearly any emotion you can think of. We even have Mixed Emotion, down at the bottom.”

Azura started helping the woman, and Alice stepped away and dropped into the chair behind the desk with a relieved smile. Some of the customers were filing out, muttering, but most of them stayed, milling about, shooting interested looks over at Azura while she explained about the Bottled Emotion.

“Maybe we should drug the customers more often,” Altair chuckled, “apparently it’s good for business. Is there a “buy everything” emotion bottled up over there?”

“Pretty sure that’s dishonest,” Alice said sternly, and then squirmed away when Altair poked her in the ribs, “Awe, come on, baby. Quit being so saintly.”

Alice snorted and smacked at his hand. Beside them Gabriel pretended to gag, “Do we have to listen to your verbal copulating? It’s nauseating.” Maya nudged him in the ribs, “Be nice.”

Gabriel pouted, “Why don’t we verbally copulate?”

“If you say that one more time I’ll verbally smack you,” Maya joked.

“How would you do that?” Gabriel reached around and tickled her ribs lightly and Maya giggled and pulled away, “I dunno, I’ll smack you with my mind.”

“Oh!” Gabriel pretended to gasp in awe, “why didn’t you tell me you’re secretly a mind-ninja?” He backed away, holding his hands up as if to ward her off, “stay back! Keep your mind away from me!”

Maya laughed and squeezed her eyes shut, “I’m kicking your butt right now.”

“Ow!” Gabriel put one hand to his temple, “Oh please, stop it, mighty mind ninja!”

Altair was shaking his head, “You two weirdos are made for one another.” He turned back to the shop and sighed with relief, “looks like the last of the crowd is clearing out. I know I could use some lunch. Think you guys can part with the shop owner long enough for us to bring you all some lunch?” He grabbed Alice’s hand, “I’m starving.”

Shakra spoke up from the fireplace, “Bring some raw meat, if you can.”

“Right,” Altair wrinkled his nose, “Will do, Shere Khan.”

“He’s a very funny man,” Shakra rumbled to Azura, “Do you think he would taste funny too?”

Azura grinned, “There’s only one way to find out, right?”

Altair grabbed Alice’s hand and dragged her toward the door, shooting back over his shoulder, “I taste terrible. Comes from rarely bathing.”

“I believe it,” Gabriel called after them just before the door shut.

Once they were out in the square Alice punched him in the arm, “You’re such a charmer.” He leaned down and brushed a quick kiss across her cheek, “Owch,” she swatted at him lightly, “you’re whiskers are scratchy.”

“Part of my charm,” he smirked, heading for the stalls that were set up in the middle of the square, “I smell cooking meat.”

They ended up waiting in line at one of the brightly colored canvas-roofed stalls on the edge of the square, and Alice inhaled the scent of cooking garlic and sausages, mouth watering. She craned over the shoulder of the man in front of her, noting that there were a number of delicious looking kabobs roasting over a tiny open flame. The crank was being turned by a cleverly woven spell, in fact, the closer they got, the more obviously magic the stall was. The grill was woven with threads, and the little metal prongs turned the hotdogs with no help from the cheerful salesman. They finally reached the front of the line, and Altair requested a basket of kabobs and another two full of sausages,

“And can one basket be raw?” Alice added, and the salesman quirked an eyebrow at her.“Werewolf?” He glanced over at Altair, who scowled at him.

“Tiger,” Alice said, nudging Altair in the ribs, “Thank you so much.”

They took the baskets and walked back to the shop, Alice trailing along behind, enjoying the sights and sounds. Cheerful music was being played in one corner of the market by a tall, pale man with a violin. When they got closer to him she could see the faint shimmer of a pair of wings on his back. A couple of children were dancing in front of him, doing a jig to his rollicking tunes. One of them, a little blonde boy with bright blue eyes swept his head back to laugh and his hair fell away, revealing pointed ears. Another crowd was forming in front of the clock tower, pointing and clicking, cameras flashing. People jostled one another and one man stepped on a woman’s toes. Alice’s eyes widened as the woman turned around and snarled at the clumsy man, and a fine line of dark hair seemed to grow on her brow in an instant.

            Altair noticed where she was looking and seemed amused, “Werewolf chick, hot temper.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, “Don’t tell me you’ve dated a Werewolf?”

            “Not personally,” Altair snagged a kabob from one of the baskets with his teeth, since his hands were full, and tried to chew a piece of beef off the stick, “I’ve heard stories.”

            Alice reached over and yanked the kabob out of his mouth, ignoring his protests she nibbled at a piece of chicken, “Hm, glad to see you haven’t dated the entire species chart.”

            “Only a Harpy, an Elf and a Mermaid.”

Alice nearly choked, “A mermaid?”

            “Just kidding,” Altair chuckled, and Alice smacked his arm, realized he couldn’t defend himself with his hands full and smacked him a second time. It was rather satisfying.

            “Seriously woman, you’re very violent,” he informed her.

            “You’ll be okay,” Alice grinned and held the door of the shop open for him, calling out to the others, “Lunch is here!”

            The day went by at lightening speed, mostly because the shop was busy without pause, crowds of curious tourists coming in clumps all day with only brief breaks in between. Everyone wanted a spell- checking pen or a head-warming hat, or they wanted to know how much the painting on the wall was (most people left without actually offering to buy it once he screamed “thief!” at them a couple times). At the end of the day Alice locked the front door, peering out at the light of Old Town Square. It was just as beautiful at night, with hundreds of sparkling lights glimmering off the smooth cobble stone street and lighting up the buildings so they looked like fairy tale castles. There were still tourists milling around outside, and a few looked curiously at the shop even after she flipped the sign over to “closed”. She sighed and locked the door. This was obviously going to be a very busy week.