It was truly more chilly than usual that morning.

Standing on the marble looking floors, the smell of cooked dough was prominent all around the shop. Powdered flour had probably made its way into the air as his nose felt a bit more dry with every breath. A small amount of chatter accompanied the scene as the customers who were sitting on the tables inside, eating their baked goods chattered. A girl with cat ears and a tail was joyfully telling about her last request while her human looking friend was leaning on the table with her elbow, mixing her teacup as she listened to the cat girls adventure. While the cat girl sat closer to the counter, the other friend was closer to the big giant window of the shop, backside of a wonderfully painted text on the said window could be seen when he turned his head around to look. It was the name of the shop he was in. There were more tables outside and someone had just entered to refill her teacup. It wasn’t a free refill, but it wasn’t really expensive anyway.

He swiftly  shook his shoulders, almost as if the action was cut in the middle and he didn’t complete it. A sharp breath was heard from him as he felt cold air make their way into his lungs and he let out a very small cough.
“Musky,” he said to himself. Nobody looked at him though, maybe because he was silent, or maybe just because it didn’t really matter. He leaned on the wooden counter and started to rhythmically tap his fingers; all five of them in an order. It almost sounded like a miniature horse running among on the table, but that wasn’t possible. No horse was that small. Then again, there could be a spirit like that or maybe just a creature he had never seen before.

To his up-right was the cashier, below her was a thin wooden wall that was covering a part of the kitchen. It was understandable as heavy work was going on there. He could still see the kitchen if he was to stare at his up-left though, and there was a man with a big white hat, running left and right while also something whisking a mixture in a bowl. He gave Locust a stare, a brief one, then one again when he recognized the boy. He turned his gaze back to his bowl and whisked it for a couple more seconds before placing it on the counter and disappearing behind the wooden wall, into the other section of the kitchen.
“Don’t mind him,” the cashier girl spoke. “We’ve been really busy lately, you are the delivery guy right?”

Her front teeth was slight crooked, it wasn’t like this made her ugly or anything. It was a weird crook too, the right front teeth was angled, smoothly towards the left, like a crescent moon. It did not fit in with the rest of her mouth. Her orange hair hanged down softly from her face, beneath her tiny little hat.
“Yes,” Locust answered, his tone neutral. If he had not added a small smile at the end of his word he might have looked cold and stern. The girl spun a pen in her hand and leaned on the counter once more.
“Not really sure why we need a mage to do this, but hey-- you guys do non-magical stuff all the time. It’s like you guys are escorts you know? Like you don’t really do any sensually pleasing stuff, running errands around and all-- ah, I see, perhaps errand boys and girls would be more fitting to this situation, then again I can’t tell if you guys actually do escort stuff, I don’t think I want to ask,” the girl spoke in a run on manner. Locust stood just as he normally would.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he answered, another hastily spoken word.

The man finally came behind the wooden wall carrying ten different packages, all pink and wrapped in different colored ribbons. These were the things he had to deliver to variety of houses.
“Each one has an address card on them,” the man spoke and quickly returned back to the kitchen to do more work. Locust looked at the tower of packages while the cashier girl watched his face. She didn’t seem that interested on what was going on as she was tapping the same crooked teeth with the tip of her pencil constantly.

He didn’t want to do two trips and nudged the door open with her shoulder as he carried the tower with balance. It wasn’t the easiest of feats of course but there wasn’t much to do about it. Finally he squeezed out of the shop and listened to the metallic door piece fit back into its place, making the door not ajar before starting to walk. Sometimes he had to put the packages down in order to see the cards on them since the pile was tall. The first few cupcake deliveries went well, well, as well as deliveries can go well. Would there be any special situation that would make a delivery more than just completed? Like what would make a delivery very good? Wasn’t the delivery being completed its limit? Maybe if someone had opened the door and pulled him into a passionate kiss and then they talked all night, making Locust taste the connection of humans. But then that wouldn’t have anything to do with the act of delivery itself.

He completed the rest of the deliveries in the same manner. Seeing a green haired man on the road made his head hurt a little. When he returned to the shop the same cashier was still here. she perhaps had a long shift. She watched Locust enter the shop and raised her eyebrows as if she remembered something.
“Here you go errand boy,” she said with a tired manner. Locust took the bag of jewels from her and slowly pulled the thread that kept the bag closed. He took out a jewel and looked at it. Red, clear cut and actually kind of beautiful.
“Jewels are pretty, they control us with that said beauty don’t they?” the cashier said with a smile.

Locust didn’t know if he agreed or didn’t at that point in time.

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