Chapter 9: 

Shrums and Hashish

Fuck a girl once, and she won’t shut up. 

I thought Albana was a shy girl, but now she was open and comfortable when we were alone and wouldn’t stop talking.

I woke up the morning after with her head still on my chest. 

She looked up and gave me a huge smile with her eyes squinted. She was so girly and cute, I had never seen her like this. 

“Hey zemra jem,” I said. 

“Hey zemra,” she said and gave me a quick kiss. 

“What do you want for breakfast?“ she said. 

“I dunno, some gjevrek maybe?” 

“Okay! You just stay here and I’ll be back in a minute.”

She quickly put on clothes and dashed out the door.

After only 2 minutes she was back with the food. 

We sat on the bed and ate, while she snuggled up to me. From the moment she stepped her foot into the room she was talking.

“You know it was my first time, it really felt great. Once this guy from the company tried to hit on me, but I just found him so unattractive. I even cut my hair short hoping guys would stop hitting on me all the time… But Arben last night was so amazing!… I should grow my hair out again, right? Yeah, I’m gonna do it. Maybe I should change my clothing style too? I feel like this robe covers me up too much, you know. It was fine before when I was trying to hide my body, but now I have to be sexy for you, you know there’s so many girls out there who will try to take you from me, also… I might be pregnant now, who knows?… I miss my mom and dad… when we were in the village I remember getting bullied… it was a hybrid village actually, a place where interracial couples would go to escape judgment from their villages, it is really taboo in The Great Forest for elves and beastfolk and humans to mix, but my parents loved each other, which reminds me of…” and so on. 

I liked it more before when she was shy, but it was good that she was feeling more confident and open. Though I didn’t like her idea that she now had possession of me.

“Also, there was once this other guy at the company who—”

“Albana, I really need to go out and train now. I haven’t trained for I don’t know how long now. 7 days, 8 days? Also, if you have time while I’m out, could you fix our clothes, maybe head to a tailor or somewhere?”

“Of course,” Albana said, “I can just sew them myself. You go out and have fun. When will you be back and where are you going?”

“I don’t know,” I said. 

While Albana started talking again, I got up and put my clothes and gear on. I kissed her on the mouth, said “Tung tung,” and headed out.

I was now outside. 

I also realized that I hadn’t explored the city yet, so I wanted to do that as well. 

Today was just going to be a chill day, with no stress and no fighting. And I was finally going to get time to practise that wind flying stuff I kept dreaming about.

I thought to first head to a park, but I didn’t know where the nearest one was. 

In front of me there was a guy holding a package with his back turned.

“Hey shoki, where is the nearest park?”

While turning around he said, “Oh bir, don’t speak Gheg in public, you want the Isk to beat us up.” 

Shit. I forgot to speak Tosk. 

When he turned around I knew exactly why I automatically spoke Gheg: This guy looked like the prototype of a Dukagjinian man. 

He was exactly the short and stout body type like the rest of my brothers. If Mehmet were here, this guy would look more closely related to my brother than myself.

The guy turned around fully and looked at my face. 

The first expression on his face was surprise. 

He looked me up and down.

“Ehm, yeah sure I can show you where the park is bir, it’s nearby, I’m headed in the same direction,” he said. 

So we started walking.

“My name is Butrint Meha. I’m from a village near the Llap border by Peja. They captured me when I was about 10.” 

Captured was a weird word to use. I guess he must have been a slave, though he was dressed in pretty fancy clothes.

“I’m Arben Krasniqi, from the Krasniqi clan. Or was. Before Slobden the Evil killed everyone.”

“Oh qyche, I’m sorry for your loss… I heard there was a war going on down south and about some new king called Slobden, though I didn’t know it was this serious. So you must be new to city life. Lemme teach you a few things. First: Never speak Gheg down here. The pigs already harass us for just looking Gheg, so don’t’ speak it as well.”

“Yeah I know, I guess I just automatically spoke Gheg because you looked so familiar.”

“Haha po bre, I look like the stereotype of a fucking Dukagjinian! I get stopped by the fucking Isk three times a day just walking down the street. It’s fucking annoying. But you bir, you look almost nothing like a Gheg.”

“Yeah I know, I got that a lot back in the village.”    

“Also with those expensive ass blades and armour bir. Do you fight in the colosseum? I wouldn’t know if you were some famous gladiator, I never go watch fights, I really hate violence.”

“Colosseum? I heard that word before. What’s it mean?”

“Oh yeah you’re fresh off the mountain, we didn’t have this back at home. A colosseum is that really big circle shaped building in the center of town, you might have passed by it before?”

“Yeah I have.”

“So in there, warriors fight to the death for money or freedom. Mostly it is just slaves or criminals who fight, but the famous big dogs at the top get paid millions of euros! It’s fucking crazy shoki! So anyway what do you do then?”

“I guess I’m what they call a dungeon-diver,” I said.

“Oh qyche! You must know magic then. That’s really rare for a Dukagjinia, they don’t teach that shit up in the mountains.”

“Yeah, I had to teach myself. I’ve been training alone since I was a baby, it feels like. By the way, how did you get to Prishtina?”

“Long story. So after getting captured, I was sold from Drenica to Mitrovica to become a labourer. But I was really good at math and business, so they promoted me to merchant, and sent me here. I kept getting promoted because I’m so good at making money, so now I have my own office.”

“Oh shit, they gave you your own office bir?”

“Yeah bir, I make so much money for them that they’re afraid I’ll run away and just join another company, so they have to give me nice shit and pay me a lot to make me stay. By the way, you must be a really good dungeon-diver because I keep looking at those swords and they look expensive as fuck!”

“Oh no bir I’m shit at dungeon-diving, I just started. I got these swords from two beastmen who tried to kill me.”

“Oh shit bir, you’re hardcore!”

We had walked for a few minutes now. Butrint stopped me.

“Hey shoki, you see this building here with a heart painted on the side?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well I’m about to teach you something: The heart means that this is a brothel. Brothels have all kinds of useful stuff bir! You can get drugs, contacts, but most importantly, kurve! The price is 20 euro, but you need to pay at least 40 euros if you don’t want an ugly witch. This brothel is the best in the city though so you have to pay at least 50 euros for any girl here. Quality over quantity shoki, never fuck an ugly kurve, speaking from expertise here. Anyways, I have to drop this package off and pick something up. Let’s go inside.”

“Yeah sure.”

We went inside the brothel. It smelled like perfume. 

We were immediately greeted by 5 beautiful women. 

“Hey Butrint shief, who’s this handsome man? You brought us a new toy?” one of them said.

“No no, not right now we’re busy. But he’s a good friend of mine so make sure to give him a discount the first time he comes.”

“Of course, a friend of Butrint is our friend.”  

It seems he was a regular customer. 

Also, when he called me a good friend of his, it made me feel good. Besides Albana, I really didn’t know anyone and it made me feel lonely.

Butrint dropped off the package and received a bag.

“Bir, look inside,” he said and showed me the bag. It was filled with mushrooms and some other black stuff.

“This right here, bir, this is the source of happiness,” he said, “the highest quality shrums and hashish in Dardania! Here, eat this,” he said and gave me this black thing. 

He also took a piece out of the bag and ate one. I ate it too.

“Let’s head to the park, it’s close to my office,” he said and out we went.

“Goodbye boys! Make sure to come back.”

“Of course we will, tung tung!” Butrint said.

***