Between boxes

“Hey there, my name is Avelaine, but my friends call me Avee, I’ve been living in Nie my whole life but a few years ago I took one of the very firsts trips to Earth that were available.
I fell in love with their primitive technology, the over complicated mechanisms they built, just to be able to tell time are my favorites. They are called Watches, by the way, as you ‘Watch’ Time, and they make them big as a wall, and even as a building! but also small for your wrist or you pocket, as small as you can imagine them!
Anyway... I’ve been gathering this trinkets and learning how to fix them and make them work, among other primitive Earth tech, my dream is to have a shop of this devices here on Nie! But I have a little problem... I don’t really know how to manage a shop...”

Avee stopped writing... why was she writing this in the first place? Oh right, someone told her to make a journal about the new adventure to come, the shop, everything was ready, all the watches sorted and organized... in boxes... not glamour or shine at all... Avee knew she was gonna need help if she wanted her shop to be a success. Suddenly a light colored small Kat with stripes enters running through the door without any warning and jumped on her back.

“Aaaaaveeeeeeee” - She squished her little arms around the neck of Avee - “are you ready? Are you, are you!?”

Avee turns around to pick her up and put her on the floor - “Hi Irina, yes, you can come in, why are you strangling me again?” - Avee closed her journal and stared confused at the tiger-ish Kat.

“Avee you told me you would take me to the store today! Did you really forgot? I came here all by myself since you never picked me up!” - Irina stood on her back legs to look tall

“You should not come here alone, even if it’s a couple of blocks!” - Avee shook her head - “Sorry, I guess I lost track of time... wanna go right away?”

“Yeeeees, I can’t wait for you to meet Pedlen, he is so nice, and I love the shop and I wanna get more seeds for my garden!” Irina started skipping and hopping while talking, moving towards the door.

Suddenly Avee realized this is maybe exactly what she needs, visit a well established shop that sells all kind of things, she got excited by just thinking about it and grabbed Irina by the tail with her own tail, as she always do, having an extra “hand” is quite useful sometimes, opened the door and got on their way.

The Store was farther away than what Irina is allowed to walk by herself, so Avee suggested she could take her next time, she actually didn’t realized what she had promised that time, but now she was looking forward to seeing the so famous store Irina talked so much about. Once they got closer Irina ran towards the front door to slam it open but she just found a closed door. 

“You really got me here when the store is closed?” - Avee was a little confused and disappointed.

“Nooo, I know the schedule!” - Irina planted her face on the window, trying to look inside, she saw a Kat head between a tall pile of boxes - “Seeeeee, Pedlen is inside!”

Avee saw a Kat figure inside and decided to knock gently on the front door, a very subtle “Coming!” could be here from inside. When the door opened Irina rushed inside between the frame and the Kat, who stepped back a little in surprise.

“Woooow, someone is in a hurry?” - Irina’s tail was almost not visible between the boxes but enough to be recognized - “Oh hey little one, you are back again” - Pedlen turned around to greet the Kat that was still outside - “Hello there, I haven’t seen you before around!”

“I’m so sorry for my cousin intruding in your shop like that, I know it was closed but she was sure it should be open and I just... “ - Avee was a little ashamed of the situation.

“Oh yes! I should have opened hours ago! Guess time flies sometimes, I’m so sorry, please come in, excuse the mess” Pedlen chuckled while opening the door wider letting the dark brown Kat inside.

Avee entered the shop, which was mostly piles of boxes all around and empty shelves, looked exactly as her own place right now, which give her a weird familiar sensation. The shop owner shrouded between the boxes, luckily his green color gave a nice contrast, not like Irina who her skin camouflaged against the brown boxes.

“Aaam so is this normal... in your store or.. Irina, where are you?” - Avee was struggling to not knock over the high boxes 

“I wanna look for my seeds cus!” - Irina’s voice sounded like she was inside a box

Pedlen appeared from behind a box he was picking up - “We just got a new load of boxes as you can see and I also stored all the old items so I could figure out the best arrangement for the store shelves, that is what took me some extra time I guess” 

“So you need to figure out how to arrange your shop once again?” - Avee tilted her head, her horns stopped when she almost hit a box - “Why don’t just arrange the new things instead?”

“Well everything needs a nice place to shine, old and new, everything has to have a nice place so they can catch the eye of the customer” - Pedlen was sorting some boxes on the floor

“Ooooh that makes a lot of sense...” - Avee suddenly realized this was perfect for her - “Say... would you mind telling me more about your shop? You see, I wanna open one for my Earth trinkets, it will also be a workshop, so I’m kinda confused on how to... well do it” Avee looked at the floor 

“What!?! You are opening a shop? That is amazing! Oh I can teach you all I know! This is very exciting! But... I really need to sort all of this before” - Pedlen was scratching the back of his head

“We can help!” - Irina jumped from behind Avee and hang from her shoulders - “Avee loves boxes, right?” 

“I don’t lo-... but yes! We can help you out! “ - Avee picked a box from a pile - “What do you say? I could also learn a lot from just helping you!” 

“Oh yes, that would be amazing, let’s make some space so we can actually see the shelves haha” - Pedlen moved gracefully towards one of the walls.

“I help toooooo~” - Irina was trying to push a box that was clearly too heavy for her, Avee helped her and everyone started sorting the boxes as Pedlen was telling 

“So we got a variety of items, some of them are small so you need to put those at eye level.. and then the big ones can go either on top or down, this way...” - Pedlen was getting things sorted extremely quickly, he clearly had a lot of experience, Avee was lost between trying to not loose track of what he was saying and handing the proper items as he was requesting them, Irina was just playing with the empty boxes, builded herself a little castle.

“So how do you.. “ - Avee was trying to ask questions but Pedlen was really into was he was doing and was not listening a lot, Avee decided it was better to actually listen to the shop owner and ask her questions later.

After a couple hours sorting things, Pedlen was finally satisfied with the new store layout, everything was clean and the boxes were out of the way, Avee had to admit the store looked marvelous.

“Pedlen! This place looks amazing! I see now why Irina likes to come here” - Avee made a little spin looking for Irina - “What did you wanted to buy anyway, little one?” 

Irina once again appeared from behind Avee - “Dalberry seeds! And Sichi seeds, and maybe some Ay seeds, I wanna make my garden bigger!” - Irina was looking at all the newly sorted jars with excitement in her eyes.

“Well you can see them all now and don’t they look nice on the jars? It was a nice idea Avee, thanks!” - Pedlen was cleaning up the last few dust spots on the front desk - “It was lovely that you girls helped me out, what can I do in return? OH! You wanted to learn about the shop, right Avee? I was so focused on sorting things out I totally spaced out”

“Actually, I learned a lot from helping you! I think I finally know how to make things work in my store, can’t wait to go there and get started” - Avee made a few small claps of excitment. - “I can’t thank you enough, really!” 

“My pleasure then! Glad I could help you as much as you helped me then!” - Pedlen took a handful of Dalberry seeds from the jar and put them on a little pouch and handed it to Irina - “And here you go little one, on the house!”

“Oh thank you Mr Shopper! I will bring back something for you next time I visit!” - Irina took the pouch and nodded happily. - “See you soon!” - Avee and Irina waved goodbye to Pedlen as they walked away from the store - “So when are you opening your store Avee?”

“Wanna go play with more boxes?”