The Nature Emporium

Prologue
There are some places where people empty their pockets and leave with crying purses and wallets. Places that shout their famous, catchy slogans in magazines and disperse like seeds by word of mouth. There are many places like that. But the Nature Emporium is nothing like that. It is a quiet, hushed corner shop enclosed in wall-crawling ivy and faded verdant bricks, nestled in between shopping malls and a bakery.

Even though, throughout the year, club-shaped ivy swings at the passers by beckoning them in, they don’t accept the kind offer of the optimistic plant. Even though, the pink and yellow peonies let off their sweet, honey-like smell, customers, like butterflies, ignoring the scent of nectar. Even though, no-one lifted their eyes from the phones, if anyone dared to look, all they would do is bat their eyelids like bewildered pigeons. But no one ever pondered the fact of investigating this mysterious emporium. No- one. Until *****.

Chapter 1 A surprise arrival
***** had always been analytical. It was her personality and she couldn’t control it. One evening when the sky was lined with a yellow horizon, ***** was very bored. Without thinking about it, she opened the heavy, oaken door, like those imaginary fairy doors in hidden corners, and stepped inside.

Anywhere and everywhere she looked, it amazed her. ***** blinked as she heard the continuous tick-ticking of the antique metronome. ***** looked at the scarlet ink, or so she thought, dribbled across the mahogany shelves dripping rhythmically on the bottom shelf​. ***** looked down at the ashen pages of the leather-bound novel and bent over to pick it up. As if the wind was telling her not to, the powerful breeze pushed away the ugly curtains, which wafted the brown dust into her nose. She sneezed.​ Now someone was approaching. She looked to her right and saw a beckoning bowl of lemon sherbets. In the bottom, was something unusual; a key. She quickly shovelled a few into her pocket and took the key. She looked back at the primordial book. ***** saw the silver lock engraved with a trowel and garden fork. To one side, was a desk, with a china bowl of water sleeping calmly under the protection of the desk. When ***** finally unlocked the lock, she opened the book. Letters arranged themselves like children in a school playground after the fire alarm has gone off.

She heard the padding of paws on the wooden floor and sandals slapping the ground. “I see you’ve found my Book Of Mother Nature!” whispered a woman’s voice. The voice was coming from behind *****. She reluctantly turned her head. She squinted at the floor. She was a middle-aged woman with ginger locks and ivy wrapped into her French braids. The woman’s eyes were like sapphires and glinted in the dim light of the Emporium. By her side was a small dog, the size of a toddler. It led on the ground and lapped up the water from the bowl.