English natives, but I had no idea where to place her. Possibly somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. Also, I thought, why in the hell am I thinking about this whilst lying on the floor?

I sat up and checked the shelves to make sure I hadn't damaged anything. I hadn't. Even the Long thin stand on which the glass vessel

I'd caught had rested hadn't toppled over. I stood and carefully placed it back where it came from before turning to the woman who so far had remained silent. She had a faintly disapproving look on her face as she eyed me and she soon crossed her arms over her chest when I looked at her.

“What were you doing?" She asked in a very lightly accented voice.

The lilt of eastern Europe in her voice combined with her features showed her heritage clearly. She was a gypsy. A real one. Or at least she was doing a damn good job of looking and sounding Like one.

“Sorry, that statue..." I suddenly remembered the statue winking at me and turned to look at it. Aphrodite was leaning forward now on her arms, perfectly still and perfectly serene with a smile settled upon her intricately carved Lips.

“Pfft, that statue, always that statue with the men." The woman walked behind a counter and plucked up a dust rag before walking over and dropping the rag over the goddess's perfection.

“There, it is a party amusement. Makes people think it moves." The woman dismissively said before walking around behind the counter.

“What do you want?"

Well this was customer service at its finest.

“Erm. Wolfsbane? Aconitum?" I elaborated.

“Why you want that?" Her eyes narrowed accusingly.

“It's for my girlfriend,” I dodged.

“I get you roses. She will like you more." The woman turned to walk through the open doorway into the back of the store.

"No, it's got to be wolfsbane. She's turning into a werewolf." I smiled uneasily. If I couldn't sound crazy in a new age store, where could I sound crazy?

Strangely, the woman didn't laugh back at me. She stood still for a moment, then turned to look me in the eyes. Her own eyes blazed with an emerald fire so intense that I had a hard time meeting her gaze. Yet there was something else there too, she was quite obviously trying to discern if I thought I was telling the truth or not. My smile vanished and I offered a small nod.

“How do you know this?" Her tone had shifted. Polite inquisitiveness with a consistent underlying edge of fresh urgency.

“She was bitten out in the woods on a camping trip two days ago. The thing that bit her had really cut into her calf. When her family took her to the hospital, she took a picture. Then, when I saw her this morning, the bite had almost completely healed up. She's also been acting a little strange. I've just been to dinner with her where she ate a full mixed grill for two to herself and she's been very, kind of, amorous?" Amorous? Yeah I said it. What a dork.

The raven haired female looked at me for a long moment and then started to tap her fingers on the countertop.

“Aconitum is very poisonous. I'm not going to let you brew it into a drink for some poor girl." She said.