Mandy had always been a bit of a "punk" girl. She usual dress had spiked collars, torn jeans, leather, you name it. Her long, spiked red hair accentuated the look, not to mention she had the attitude to match. She was 26, 5' 10" with a thin, athletic body.
To get this story rolling, one day she was out for a stroll when she came across an unusual store. An old looking, wooden sign simply reading "The Magic Shop" hung over the doorway to the small, rundown store.
"The heck? Never saw this place here, what's the deal?" Mandy took a few steps closer to investigate. Through the windows she could see there was a light on, so someone had to be home, right? "Pretty good chance this is some sorta weird place, but whatever, I need to see it".
She opened the door and walked right in, thinking she'd do a quick browse and head out. To her surprise though, the store had all sorts of items lined up for sale. Hats, jewelry, toys, perfumes and food. All of which looked 40-50 years out of style. "Wow. A freaky old thrift store, how magical." She rolled her eyes, but was still curious about the goods. Then, something caught her eye, a small silver ring on top of a odd looking bronze ball. She leaned in closer, the ball itself had an arrow engraved at the top, pointing down. Around the whole ball were rotating rings, each sectioned off with a different picture, spelling out a code or puzzle of some sort. The first ring had a simple picture of a woman on it, the ring below had a large '+' sign, and the third had an hourglass. There were two more rings below, but the current pictures were blank. She grabbed the orb, deciding to see if she could solve the puzzle, and rotated the rings around. Now, the pictures under the arrow were "Man, minus, ruler".
"Still doesn't make any sense, must be some old puzzle. Or maybe something to tell the weather or predict the future." She spun the rings around one last time for good measure, moving all five this time. Mouse, plus, Up+Down arrow, the number 15, "1 Hour". "Whatever". Mandy turned to leave, but was suddenly face to face with a bubbly, blonde haired woman wearing the frilliest dress she'd ever seen.
"Looking to buy, miss?" She smiled wide, looking expectantly at Mandy.
"Huh? Well, no, I was just-" Mandy gestured over at the ball, "Trying to figure out this thing."
"Oh! That's a wonderful little item! You see, it only works when one person is wearing the ring! Then, you have to move the rings, and press the button on top!" She moved past Mandy, grabbing the ring from the orb to reveal a small button where it was resting. She pushed down on it, and with a loud click all the rings spun back to their original location. "See? Since no one is wearing it, nothing happens!"
"Great." Mandy, once again, rolled her eyes. "So what's it supposed to do?"
"Well THAT'S for you to decide! You see, you can move these rings-"
"I know that," Mandy interrupts, "But does it open or something?"
The shopkeeper looked visibly annoyed for but a second, before returning to her bubbly self "Well, how about you figure it out? I'll cut you a deal, you can have the ring and the orb for free! But on one condition!"
"Huh? Okay, I'm listening" Mandy wasn't too keen on rings, but free was a price she couldn't pass up. The shopkeeper put her hands on her hips, brimming with confidence.
"If you come back here and need me to fix things, you have to agree to work for me for one week!"
"Fix things? Like, if it breaks? Heh, sure okay. You have a deal." Mandy had no idea how she'd 'break' a ring, the deal sounded pretty generous.
The two shook hands, and minutes later Mandy left the magic store with a new ring and a weird, metal ball to go with it. She returned home shortly after, ready to figure out what the deal with this ring was. She slipped the ring on her finger and set the ball on the end table beside her bed. She tapped it a few times, just in case she missed something, before taking on seat on the mattress.
"Okay, so the ring is on. So I guess I have to move these in some pattern and press the button, seems easy enough."
Spinning the rings, she settles on the following pattern...