'Good-night? ah! no; the hour is ill, Which severs those it should unite; Let us remain together still, Then it will be good night.' Good-Night, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
Shura and Minnow slowly made their way out of the palace. They headed towards the city square, this time allowed Shura to take a good look at the sights and sounds of Vloria. Though it was nighttime now, the city's streets were lit brightly by oil lamps up and down the street. She saw a few carriages go by and a small handful of people here or there mulling about.
All things considered, it seemed that Vloria had much more of a nightlife than what Shura might have previously expected. Finally exiting the palace gates, Minnow and Shura were once again under the warm pink glow of Haddock's lamp. Looking at the lamp Shura noticed that it was painted a smooth red, unlike the coal-black that the other oil lamps in the city had been painted. Her eyes traced the intricate heart-shaped designs up the lamp's pole until she saw the strange pink flame once more.
She had to admit when she first heard of the lamp burning for three hundred years straight... She didn't really believe it. She had assumed it was probably a gas lamp or something that was much more practical. But now looking at it, she believed it a little more. After all what type of fire burns pink and in the shape of a heart?
It was quite unusual, then again, everything about this was unusual. This whole day had been nearly non-stop for Shura. It was only now she was beginning to process everything that had happened to her. All of this was a very hard pill to swallow if she had to be honest about it. Never in her wildest dreams would she have ever thought that something like this would happen to her.
Mulling over these thoughts and feelings, the memory of what happened in the palace quickly faded into the back of her mind. Other more important thoughts gained precedence over that... Situation. Taking a moment to gather stock of everything, Shura then turned to Minnow to say something only to have the memories come flooding back all at once. She winced feeling a deep sense of cringe fill her very being.
"Are you alright?" Minnow asked her, concerned over the unpleasant look that suddenly appeared on Shura's face. Shura did her best to shake off the feeling and gave Minnow a sheepish grin. "I'm fine." She lied. Minnow frowned at this, she guessed it was pretty obvious that she was lying. "I guess I'm just hungry." She added giving some sort of reason to her reaction.
Minnow brightened up at this, "Oh! Well then I know just the place-!" he started to say before looking up at the sky, "Damn." he cursed surprising Shura. She hadn't expected a boy scout-like Minnow to curse. Maybe her influence was far more corrupting than she expected! Shura paused at that thought, that was a weird one. Made her sound like a demon.
"It closes at sunset." Minnow clarified, "Well shit," Shura responded, "What now then?" She asked. Minnow sighed, "We'll have to go to Mako's favorite place." He said sounding less excited.
"You sound pretty disappointed," Shura remarked, "Yes, well, let's just say it's not my cup of tea." Minnow admitted. "Oh, it can't be that bad!" Shura tried her best to encourage Minnow. She gave him a couple of pats on the back for good measure. But, the look on his face made it clear that her efforts were fruitless.
The restaurant in question wasn't too far away, surprisingly, each step of the way Minnow seemed extremely annoyed at the prospects of going to eat at this place. Stopping in front of what Shura now realized was a tavern, Shura was quickly able to understand why Minnow didn't want to eat here.
Busty women and shirtless men were everywhere, serving drinks and complementing customers. Loud music blasted through the windows and the sounds of shouting and yelling were heard from even outside. Shura and Minnow stood outside of the building together staring at all of this.
"Do you see now?" Minnow snapped at Shura as if she was to blame somehow for this place's existence. Shura shot Minnow an offended look, "Hey don't blame me!" She defended herself, Minnow huffed, "I'm not. I just... Really hate this place." Minnow grumbled before grabbing Shura's hand and leading her to the tavern.
A few of the waitresses and waiters spotted Minnow and greeted him by name. This, of course, embarrassed Minnow completely. Shura, finding it hilarious decided to have some fun and make a few remarks as she walked in with Minnow. "I love your horns! Very pointy!" Shura said pointing over at the devil-man waiter, he gave her a toothy grin "Thanks!" He said clearly pleased. Shura then looked over at a waitress and called out, "Beautiful wings! Very well-groomed!" This earned a bashful smile from a bird lady waitress.
"Shura don't compliment them." Minnow groaned lowly, "I'm just trying to be friendly Minnow." Shura smugly looked at Minnow who rolled his eyes. Despite knowing her for only just a day he was already used to the bullshit she was pulling on him. Grinning innocently at Minnow, he shot Shura a suspicious look.
The two of them found a table in the corner of the restaurant. Though it was a tad hard to get there. The place was packed to the brim, people of all races was there gambling and drinking like there was no tomorrow.
Shura was about to say something to Minnow just as an orb of light flew up to Shura and Minnow's table. "The fuck?" She asked before seeing a small person with wings. Minnow cocked an eyebrow at this reaction. Had she never seen a fairy before?
"Welcome to the smelter." The small woman said, she sounded something akin to a 1960's diner waitress. "My name's Barb, I'll be serving ya tonight." She pulled a little note pad out from her waistband. "What would the kindly knight and his companion have?" She asked with a nice dash of sassy sarcasm shooting an annoyed look at Shura for her reaction.
Shura, felt a tad indignant about this because she had not been aware that Mid-Knight saga ever had any fairies in their world. Minnow, not paying attention to the clear feud between Shura and the fairy spoke up, "We'll have the special with ale."
"Wonderful choice." Barb sarcastically applauded Minnow, "Good to know that all the knights are cheapskates." She grumbled. Minnow didn't respond but clearly heard her. Shura looked over at Minnow unsure of what to do but Barb eventually flew off.
Shura, just then, processed what Minnow had ordered. "Wait, ale?" She asked, Minnow looking a tad bored gave Shura questioning look. "Yeah, it's not like they have wine on the tap."
She had no idea that Minnow was such a prude about food. But never mind all that, there was a bigger problem afoot. "I... Don't drink." Shura said slowly, this caught Minnow's interest. "What do you drink then?" he asked incredulously.
"Water," Shura spoke with no ounce of humor or irony in her voice. But despite this Minnow snorted, "Yeah good joke." He clearly thought Shura was kidding. Staring at her for a moment Minnow looked at her concerned. "You really drink water?" he asked, "Yeah. It's good for you." Shura shrugged not seeing the big deal.
"The last person I knew who drank water died from dysentery." Minnow spoke with concern in his voice. Water, as he knew it, was brown and hardly good for anything other than washing things in. "What is water like cleaner in America or something?" He added remembering that Shura was not from here. A fact that had almost been lost to him. It almost seemed as though this day was dragging on and on without end.
However, Shura reaction was not one he was expecting. "Uh..." Shura looked a bit like a deer in headlights. "For some places..." She spoke carefully. "Huh..." Minnow mumbled in astonishment. "Well here in Blenheim water isn't exactly the cleanest." Minnow explained.
"Where's Blenheim?" Shura asked clueless, "Here..." Minnow responded pointing down at the table. "I thought the city was called Vloria." Shura replied confused. "It is." Minnow clarified, "Blenheim is here." Minnow repeated himself. "But that fairy lady called this place The Smelter."
Minnow smacked his forehead feeling frustrated, "This country is called Blenheim." He hissed feeling his anger raise just a tad. A look of realization flashed across Shura's face. "Oh shit! Is that what this country's called?" She sounded weirdly excited.
"You came to this country not knowing what it was called?" Minnow asked exasperated. "Well, it's not like I had much of a choice Minnow," Shura grumbled scratching her cheek. She wouldn't lie about her embarrassment for her ignorance. Shura had always thought herself to be a knowledgable person. But being a new world like this showed her otherwise.
Just then Minnow and Shura heard Mako's booming voice, "DELTA!" Mako's voice boomed loudly over the crowd's chatter. Minnow let out a soft groan at the sound of his mentor. Shura turned around in her chair to see Mako waltzing over towards what looked like a fish person.
"Mako, glad to see you made it home safe," Delta said with a cool smile. Delta had mostly greyish-blue skin with scales and red hair that was long and braided far past his backside. Mako grinned stupidly at Delta, who was sitting behind the bar cleaning a glass. "Glad to be back." Mako's eyes were half-lidded and there was a clear look of attraction on their face.
Shura seeing this had to let out a laugh at the clueless look on Delta's face. "Look at him, he's completely clueless that Mako's interested in him! What an idiot." She joked, from behind her Minnow shot her an exasperated look. "Really?" he asked with a sharp cutting tone of frustration and sarcasm.
Shura with a grin on her face turned back around to see the sour look on Minnow's face still present. "What?" She asked cluelessly, Minnow rolled his eyes just as Barb came back with their food.
Shura looked over seeing the fairy woman floating over carrying two human-sized trays with very little struggle. Clearly impressed, Shura couldn't help but gawk as Barb sat down the trays in front of them. Barb shot Shura an irratated look noticing her gawk at her. She then decided ot ignore Shura and look over at Minnow. "The special today was barley bread and beef stew." She announced to Minnow.
"Thank you, Barb. It looks... great." Minnow said staring at the bubbling bowl of what looked to be mostly grease. "You're very welcome." Barb sardonically replied. "What about our drinks?" Shura asked noticing the lack of ale among the food. Barb snarled at this, "Ya got a pair of feet don't ya!" She exclaimed before flying off.
"What's her problem?" Shura asked watching the orb of light fly away, "Maybe it was some foreigner gawking at her." Minnow joked, Shura looked over at him with a confused look on her face. "I'm going to go get the ale..." She said unsure what Minnow meant, "You sure?" Minnow asked already poking at the food in the bowl with a fork. He jerked his hand back when it seemed to hiss at him.
"Yeah..." Shura said seeing this happen, getting up Shura briefly wondered how in the hell was she supposed to eat this medieval-style food. She was at least eighty percent sure that stew carried typhoid in it. As Shura headed over to the bar she couldn't help but mumble to herself about how she was going to starve to death in this world.
Walking up to the bar next to Mako, actually forgetting they were there. Shura looked to Delta, "May I help you?" Delta's smooth deep voice sounded similar to the low rumbles of a babbling river. "Two acholic drinks please!" Shura said holding up two of her fingers. She appeared to be confident despite her clear cluelessness on what to pick out. Afterall she didn't drink.
Secretly Shura hoped that this wouldn't awaken any certain habits in herself. Her mother had always advised her against ever drinking due to her mother's mother being a bit of a drunk back in the day. Of course, Granny only ever drank cough medicine. After they stopped 'putting the good stuff in' her grandmother quit cold turkey.
Delta gave Shura a humorous look. "What kind?" He asked clearly amused by Shura's unfounded confidence. Shura gave Delta a clueless smile before cheerfully saying, "I have no fucking idea." Delta chuckled, "Don't drink much do ya?" he asked, "Not at all actually." Shura leaned onto the bar with a sigh. "What do you usually drink?" Delta asked, "Water."
Mako then spoke up, finally realizing Shura was standing next to them. "How have you not died yet?" Mako asked in amazement. Shura gave Mako a sheepish look, "Water's cleaner back where I'm from." She quickly explained. "I didn't know Olisvine had clean water," Mako remarked.
"She's obviously not from Olisvine Mako," Delta said motioning over to Shura. As soon as Delta spoke to Mako directly, Mako got that same love-struck look as before on their face. Delta let out a soft sigh at this reaction before turning to Shura. "I'll just get you two ales." He said before turning around to get her the drinks in question.
Once Delta was occupied with something else, Mako leaned over the bar just a bit to stare at Delta's butt as he was bent over. Shura seeing this decided to ignore it. Even though she felt like Mako shouldn't be doing something like that. She also knew that Mako could crush her head between their thighs like a watermelon so she kept quiet.
Delta turned around just as Mako sat back down looking as if they weren't doing anything. Delta shot Shura inquisitive look and Shura gave Delta an awkward shrug seeing Mako's sidelong look at her.
"Two ales." Delta said handing them over to Shura. "Thank you." Shura said with a smile. Seeing Delta's expecting look, Shura then realized that Delta was expecting payment for the drinks. Seeing Shura's deer in headlights look, Mako spoke up for her and gave Delta the money.
"That's quite generous of you Mako." Delta said smoothly, "Well I know what it's like to be in a new land like this." Mako said with a stupid grin on their face. They obviously were enjoying Delta's attention being on them once again. Shura shifted a bit seeing the two of them looking like they were going to go at each other any second. She let out a quick thank you and then hurried back to the table with Minnow.
Doing her best to make her way through the maze of tables and moving people crowding the way between the bar and the table. Shura twisted and turned narrowly dodging multiple bar patrons. One guy stood up to accuse another of cheating at a card game that they were playing. Thankfully Shura spotted them and moved out of the way.
Shura impressed herself by managing to not spill anything yet. But just as Shura was celebrating herself Barb flew by yelling something about getting out of her way while carrying a tray of food. This distracted Shura just enough to make her spill ale down the back of a large harry man.
"Oh shit sorry!" Shura apologized to the large man. He growled in response cracking his knuckles.
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