Akelarre Apothecary unfinished hauntings

outfit is just a sweatshirt and biking shorts

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The sun had set a while ago.

Winter had wrapped up an evening yoga class, the turnout for those seemed rather well. A healthy mix of night-owls and workers who couldn't do things until after the usual rush hours. She had just been happy to have a content, albeit a bit sleepy, crowd for the evening.

There was no denying her own want to go home and curl up now. Relaxed, warm. Yet there were a few things she wanted to grab first before she departed into the cool night. Hovering over a selection of candles. Some labeled for love, for healing. She wondered if there was one labeled for ghosts, for unfinished hauntings. It had been a few months since the familiar wolf had come to see her, but she wondered if sometimes he was still there.

Tall shadows, yellow glimpses. Imaginary? She couldn't be sure.

Maybe this was maybe more of a crystal or tea problem though. A thought set briefly aside as she held a candle in her hands still, eyes raised away from it to glance towards a familiar presence.

"Hilargi," A warm smile crept onto her face.

Look

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Hilargi loved "spooky season". She loved the fall colours, the sudden influx of business as people took more interest in the shop around this time of year, the outfits and costumes, and the traditions. All of it. She had picked up two pumpkin spice lattes on her way to the shop to meet Winter before she left for the night, not really realizing coffee was more of a morning thing than an evening thing. She just wanted to see what the fuss was about.

She found Winter looking at candles and offered a warm smile back in return.

"Hello Winter, dear." She wondered if the young woman was reorganizing or shopping for herself. Curious! Hilargi didn't ask. It wasn't her business unless Winter made it so.

"I brought you a pumpkin spice latte. Thought I'd try it as well." She chuckled.

She had grown used to the stale, less kind, scent of vampiric presences.

It was easier to focus on the new scent of a warm pumpkin spice latte filling the air. Had she been animal now, her ears would have stood tall and tail wagging. Instead she only grinned a bit wider, nearly ear to ear now.

The only thing that might have tempered her excitement was the fact that Hilargi wanted to try it!

"Oh!" For a multitude of reasons. She bet that Hilargi had never had anything close to this when she had been human, she also wondered if Hilargi could even drink this. What if she couldn't and hated it and it wasn't worth whatever followed? Winter tried her best to not frown at the very thought.

"Thank you!" Her cheeks warmed up as she set the candle down. Prepared to help handle the drinks. "Are you excited? If you like it, this is the season for pumpkin spice everything!"

Handing the drink over, Hilargi looked down at her own and took a sniff. It certainly smelled nice. She had asked for extra cinnamon on both, wondering if that might help with the flavour. Hilargi was fairly certain she'd never eaten anything pumpkin before.

"So I've heard!" She replied with a chuckle. "I don't think I've even tasted a pumpkin before now. I've tried coffee though. Awful stuff." Hilargi smirked and extended her own cup to knock it gently off Winter's in celebration.

Never!

She wanted to blurt it but she managed to hold it in. Only gently buzzing with excitement as she carefully knocked her cup off of Hilargi's.

"Cheers!" Quick to sip her own, enjoying it easily as she would every year she imagined. Her eyes were firmly fixed upon her company's face. Eager to see what reaction may be conjured from the spiced beverage!

"Cheers!" Hilargi replied and took a sip.

It was certainly an improvement on coffee. Spiced and sweet. Maybe a little too sweet but that was probably better for a vampire who didn’t really find satisfaction in most food and drink.

"It would be better without the coffee," She laughed, deciding she likely wouldn’t finish hers. Wasteful but it was all going to be wasted anyway.

It was not the most glowing review, but it was honest! Most certainly not the most negative either.

"Mmmaybe we need to find some pumpkin spice food for you! Like a pumpkin roll or muffin, things without coffee but still full of the flavor." She beamed still and rocked a bit on her heels, cupping her own coffee and realizing that it might certainly wreck her sleep schedule. Oops.

"I didn't even know you could eat!"

Oh, now there was an idea! Hilargi brightened at the thought, then laughed at the realization Winter had.

"We can but it's typically not very pleasant. We can't keep it down." No need to get into specifics.

"How was your class?"

She felt terrible now! But she covered it up with a tiny laugh and little nod. She understood, no need to be graphic!

"It was good! I think I should do more evening sessions, we seem to get a lot of traction there." Then of course came the thought of vampires doing yoga, night shift and all. Maybe they'd feel more comfortable with a class just for them...? She hardly wanted to give the wrong message.

Thankfully she had a vampire right in front of her who she could safely ask that.

"Do you think...maybe there should be a vampire specific class? Like late at night, safely them."

It was a very good question. Hilargi considered it for a moment. A vampires-only night was great in theory. It wasn’t something they could advertise. A sort of underground yoga class for vampires.

She hummed thoughtfully and smiled at her dear friend.

"I think that might be a very fine idea. We couldn’t advertise it openly, of course. But I could reach out to a few vampires. See if they might be interested in a private class?"

"I think that would be very nice, if they're interested of course!"

Her cheeks warm and rosy, even in the comfortable temperature of the apothecary.

"Do you think they would be okay with it being ran by a...werewolf?" Her voice pitched softly. It was hardly a secret thing. Especially here in the space meant for those of otherworldly and supernatural things. Still she worried that someone, for some reason, might raise a stink over it.

Hmmmm. Some vampires were more bitchy about shifters. Hilargi wasn't interested in anyone who was prejudiced in any capacity.

"If they aren't, it will be known that they aren't welcome in the class." She shrugged easily. "Your comfort comes first."

"Oh!"

She hadn't wanted to start some sort of boundary thing. Drawing lines in the sand and all that.

"I just...well, I'm not deeply familiar with the atmosphere of vampire feelings on us, I guess." She hardly had a right to be privy to it anyway but...!

Oh? Well, Hilargi didn't know much about vampire sentiments on shfiters around here either.

"To be honest," She leaned in a little, quirking a smile. "I don't really know much about that either. At least not for folks in Ridgefield."

In general though, people who didn't care for werewolves could stay out.

Winter smiled, delighted and filled with glee as if she had been let in on some kind of secret.

"Really? You just seem so...well connected, I guess! Maybe it's your personality." Her cheeks squeezed higher and made flush from her grinning.

"Or the way the Apothecary seems to kind of just always swell to life."

The perks of being a safe haven perhaps.

Hilargi took it as a compliment because it felt like one. She smiled warmly back at the young woman and laughed.

"I'm just confident. But I know as much as the next person about-" She waved a hand, gesturing at nothing in particular. "-all this."

Confidence was likely why Winter was drawn to Hilargi in the first place.

Confident yet comforting. She seemed to be drawn to those types like a moth.

"Same," A little nod. "I mean I have my group but I don't really get too...mixed in with the relation stuff. But I think that makes it more special when we learn new stuff together!"

All grins and a little bouncy. Could shifters still be caffeine sensitive? Winter had never given it much thought.

Hilargi smiled. It was always nice befriending someone supernatural who got it. Winter was bright and filled with hope that made Hilargi hopeful for a better future. It was easy to believe it could happen with people like Winter Blake.

"I couldn’t agree more, Winter." Warmed, genuinely, by every interaction with the werewolf, she decided to continue. "Have you been with your group long?" Pack, right?

For a moment she chewed her lip, counting the moons and time passed.

"Two years...? Yeah." It felt longer and shorter all at once. The last year had been especially rugged though and, well, the first year had been a lot of not remembering.

"I'm not sure how that compares to others, though. And I'm sure that's hardly a drop in a bucket for a vampire!"

Oops was that like...taboo to joke about?!

Two years was a long time. Hilargi smiled, nodding, chuckling softly at the joke made about vampires.

"You'd be surprised. I imagine most of us get sick of each other after a few years." Vampires could be very egocentric. It was easy for very old vampires to clash. "Two years is a respectable amount of time," She reassured Winter.