We entered the bathroom and I held up the hammock, so the others could pass under it. Velariah threw the pillows out of it onto the floor next to the tub. We created a nice ring to play the game in. For some reason, Velariah brought her new spider pet over and placed it in the center.
Gray also joined in and seemed intrigued by the spider but too scared to get any closer.
What a wise wolf.
I collected the dice, paper, and pencils and sat down on a pillow. Velariah, bold as she was, decided to sit in front of me, for lack of a lap to sit on.
Oh well. The others already knew, I guessed. As long as she wasn’t going to kiss me in front of them, what harm could this bring?
“I’m starting to think you have ulterior motives for moving to this room,” Seralyn grinned when Velariah guided two of my hands around her belly.
“You jealous?” Velariah fired back.
Ouch. I could feel that.
Seralyn went quiet.
Nira lay down on her belly on a couple of pillows across from where I was seated and Gray took that as an invitation to hide under her wings. The harpy seemed to be flattered by the pup’s attention and petted it affectionately.
Draco was simply silent. I had the feeling he was secretly preparing to beat everyone at this game and didn’t want to give it away.
He started his rolls. The spider in the middle kept staring at me throughout the rolls that the others made. When it was my turn and I threw the dice, it actually decided to jump after one.
It caught the die in mid-air, too. I was impressed by its coordination.
Hold on a second.
Did that spider have eyes at the sides of its head?
I looked closer and confirmed that it did.
“Why can’t I have that?” I mumbled softly, but not soft enough.
“Have what?” Velariah asked as I took three of the dice.
I couldn’t bother to take the one that the spider was holding. I’d prefer a weaker opening and just build around that than getting my hands so close and quite possibly, getting bitten.
“Huh? Oh, I was thinking about the eyes on the side of its head. I can hardly see what’s going on behind me. On second thought, I’m not sure if I want to have that. I imagine more eyes would be quite… I don’t even know…”
“Disorientating?” Draco suggested.
“I imagine that would be an understatement,” I said.
“I’m sure you’d be able to deal with it,” Velariah spoke. “You’ve come quite far already.”
“Please don’t put ideas in the head of whatever god put me in this world. I’ve had changes made to my body before. I’m not sure if I want more.”
“Nothing negative, as far as I can see,” The elf spoke again.
“Stop the flirting, I’m trying to concentrate,” Seralyn said as she rolled the dice.
We played for a while. Every time I rolled, I had Velariah’s new pet going after one of the dice, which caused me to sacrifice the best possible rolls. This spider was totally ruining my score. It was doing it on purpose. I knew it.
“Seralyn, did you teach this spider to screw me over or what?” I asked.
“Maybe.” She grinned.
I had to admit that its speed and dexterity were far beyond mine. It made me jealous, but I also hoped it meant there was still a lot of room for growth for my own abilities.
An hour or two, and many rounds of the game with the usual banter coming from Seralyn and Velariah, later, I heard knocking on the door. Velariah stood up to open it and found Elly on the other side holding the checkers board, complete with white and black wooden pieces.
“Neat,” Velariah said. She then dragged Elly by her wrist and had her sit down with the rest of us.
The white-haired elf then sat down and forced my hands back on her belly, joined by my pedipalps.
“You really have a thing for spiders, don’t ya?” Seralyn teased her.
“I don’t mind them.” She said with a shrug.
“That’s an understatement, too.” I smiled.
“Well, look at you, El. I told you you’d get there.” She said.
Seralyn just giggled. Draco and Nira smiled.
We finished our current round and I went on to explain the basic rules of the next game. Unfortunately, it was a one versus one game, so the majority would have to watch.
I tried to explain it while using the pieces and board in a tutorial-like game, but Velariah’s pet spider kept jumping on any piece that I touched. I had to resort to using my pedipalps to move the pieces. I could still feel the jumping spider hit them, but I’d much rather have those touched by freaky things over my human hands.
“I honestly can’t believe you’re so scared of spiders,” Seralyn commented. “I mean, look at its eyes. It’s quite cute.” She said with a teasing voice.
While I had to admit it didn’t look as terrifying as most other spiders, calling it cute went way too far.
“I just hate spiders, okay? They have far too many eyes, far too many legs, they bite, they jump. They just creep me out.”
“Okay, but half of those properties can be attributed to you, too.” She said with her normal voice.
“But this is me. I know what my legs do, I control them. I…I…”
I was at a loss for words. I had no reason to fear such a creature, I knew it. My mind screamed entirely different things, though.
“It’s okay, El. We’ll work on it. You will get over it one day. You just watch.” Velariah tried to comfort me.
I hugged her tight and held my face in her hair. I didn’t care what the others would think at this moment. Even if I didn’t agree with the elf’s methods, deep down, I knew she was right. I was glad she was here to help me through this…
Draco and Nira started the first game of checkers. The rest of us watched with great interest, even Gray followed Nira’s movements closely.
“Is anyone interested in a drink?” Elly asked when the game was about halfway done.
“Yes! Let’s bring out the booze!” Seralyn called enthusiastically.
Elly then looked at Velariah, who nodded.
“Just make sure she doesn’t get too much. She gets… hard to deal with when drunk.”
“That was just once!” Seralyn almost shouted. “I wasn’t intending on repeating that…” She then added softly.
“Anyone else got a preference for something?” The maid then asked.
After she observed everyone shake their heads, she exited the room.
“So, Elania.” Draco started after Elly left the room. “How does adventuring work in your world? You seem to have a decent amount of knowledge about it.”
“Uhhh. How do I explain this?” I started. “It doesn’t exist. The only knowledge I have about it comes from something called video games and fiction. You see, in our world, people like to write about what others would be like. The fun part is that each of your races is mentioned in said fiction. The information that I knew turned out to be mostly false, but some things turned out to be true.”
“What about your own… race? Is it not described?”
I shook my head. “I haven’t read anything about half-human, half-spider. To be fair, I haven’t read much fiction about other worlds yet. It was a genre I recently started reading about.”
“We are considered a genre, now?” Seralyn said in disbelief. “Preposterous!”
“Heh,” Velariah chuckled. “Yeah, I had to teach her a thing or two about elves, too. Her information was all fucked up.”
“Spare me the details.” Seralyn laughed.
“Interesting…” Draco stated.
“Guess what. People getting teleported or dying and reincarnating in another world is a genre as well.”
“That’s so messed up.” The brunette replied.
I shrugged. “I guess…”
“Adventuring is not a thing in their world, Elania told me. She said there is no magic of any kind.”
“What?” Nira asked softly, while making a move in the game.
“We don’t have magic, that’s correct. Our lives appear to be significantly more mundane than yours because of science.”
“Science?” Seralyn asked.
“It’s basically what Draco explained earlier. Hypotheses, research, observation, evaluation. Humanity in our world has been doing it for hundreds if not thousands of years and made its life quite easy. We didn’t need to hunt for food at all. One more thing, almost everything was available all year round. I doubt that’s the case here.”
“Hell no, it ain’t.” The archer replied. “When winter comes, it’s pretty hard to get some good fruit or vegetables.”
“Ah shit,” I cursed.
“What’s up?” Velariah asked.
“I’m going to miss those strawberry smoothies…”
Nira cocked her head and I knew what that meant.
“That’s our world’s name for Kingberry… I still have trouble adjusting…”
“You’re in luck,” Draco smiled. “Those can be frozen pretty well. I can’t say as much about most other fruits.”
I sighed in relief.
That was some good news…
The door opened again, and Elly appeared with a platter with drinks. She seemed lost in thought on how to pass the hammock unscathed, so I decided to stand up and lift it over her head. She thanked me and placed the tray on the edge of the bathtub before handing everyone their drinks.
I sat down and put my arms and pedipalps around my favorite elf again.
“What’s with the hammock, anyway?” Seralyn asked.
“Awfully interested in our life, aren’t you?” Velariah asked with a hint of mischief.
“Just curious.” Seralyn feigned innocence.
“If you’re so eager to know, there are two reasons for it. First, Elania was pretty uncomfortable sleeping on pillows on the ground. She had no place to put her… excess limbs. The second reason was practice. You should have seen her, climbing walls and shit.”
“Damn,” Seralyn answered.
“You can actually climb walls?” Nira asked.
I nodded.
“Care to demonstrate?” Draco asked with a smile.
What?
That was unlike Draco to ask.
“Uhhh.” I stammered.
“Go for it. Take your drink with you, see if you can keep it stable while climbing.” Velariah encouraged me.
“That sounds like a horrible idea…”
“Look at it as practice.” She said.
I sighed and took some sips from my drink, reducing the contents of the glass by half. I’d have a better chance not spilling that way.
Nira and Draco moved aside to make space for me to climb the wall. I held the glass in my hand and carefully put my front legs on the wall.
I breathed deeply before I continued.
Here we go.
I stared at the glass in front of me as more legs hooked into the wall.
Knowing I was able to do this helped out quite a bit. I moved significantly faster than last time and soon had all my legs on the wall. My human torso was still in an upward position. I was almost hugging the wall with it.
“Holy shit, you’re flexible too,” Seralyn called out.
I ignored the remark and focused my attention on the glass in front of me, and the sensations of the claws at the ends of my legs. Slowly, I started climbing the wall. I was about a meter out from the floor when something moved in the corner of my eye.
I turned to my right to see what was going on and found Velariah’s spider looking at me with its large eyes.
The sudden appearance of a monstrous spider next to me caused me to panic, and I lost focus and grip on the wall.
I screamed as I fell and hit the floor. I partly broke the fall with some of the joints of my legs, but the impact still came after crashing into the floor. To make things worse, I spilled the drink all over my shirt and hair.
“Fuck.” I let out as I ‘landed’ on my back.
My legs curled up from the pain that shot through my spider abdomen and human back.
“El, are you alright?” Velariah ran up to me and looked at me from above.
Nira ran out of the room in a hurry and returned seconds later with her scepter.
Dizziness hit me. I couldn’t tell what was going on around me. I felt a hand on my forehead and saw Nira’s face. Soon, I felt her magic flow through me.
“She’s fine,” I could hear the harpy’s voice speak to the others.
“El, I’m sorry I made you do that.” Velariah looked at me.
“What just happened?” I asked.
“I think Lucas spooked you,” Draco said. “I think it would be wise to put it into some kind of enclosure.”
I couldn’t make out half of what was being said but that sounded like they’d put that spider somewhere where it couldn’t harm me. I was all in on that idea.
I put two hands over my eyes and two more on my forehead and started rubbing as I moaned from the pain and dizziness.
“Elania, talk to me,” Velariah said, obviously worried.
“Hi?” I spoke.
“Are you alright?” She asked again.
“I don’t know?” I questioned.
Velariah looked at Nira who nodded once more.
“Just relax for a bit, El. We’ll clean up later. Are you in pain?”
“I am, but it’s getting better. I’m just… dizzy.”
Velariah turned around. “You guys can just continue. I’ll stay with Elania until she feels better.”
She was right. I hated for the others’ evening to be ruined because of this. I should be okay in a few minutes.
I might need a bath again, though. My hair and shirt were starting to get sticky because of the sugar in the drink.
What a mess…
“Elly, could you perhaps start cleaning the floor?” Velariah called out to the maid.
I didn’t hear her, but she walked out of the room a few seconds after. I assumed she let Velariah know with a nod or something.
The white-haired elf knelt behind me and laid my head in her lap. She moved the sticky hair out of my face and smiled.
I smiled back. It was the only thing I could do when she smiled at me like that.
I wanted to be angry, but I couldn’t.
I closed my eyes and relaxed. The pain and dizziness soon started to fade. There seemed to be some pain in the joints that I used to impact the floor first to break most of my fall, but I could live with it. I imagined that my supposed ‘special blood’ would help out in healing whatever was damaged.
According to Nira, I was fine, so it couldn’t be that bad.
Elly had cleaned up the floor around me in the meantime. She had even acquired a large crate in which she put Velariah’s pet spider. Instead of a wooden lid, she used a glass panel to cover it. It was far from ideal, but it would work for now.
She had then brought the crate with the spider over to the dining area, far away from me, which made me happy.
I turned myself around and stood up with the necessary hardships.
I was feeling a lot better already. The only thing that really annoyed me was my sticky clothes and hair.
I quickly grabbed a clean shirt and changed mine outside the bathroom.
I reentered to observe Seralyn playing checkers against Elly. Seralyn was laughing as she captured two of Elly’s pieces, but Elly smirked and responded by capturing five of Seralyn’s in one turn, quickly wiping the grin off the brunette’s face.
It seemed Elly had planned that move far ahead.
This maid was on fire.
Seralyn quickly lost the game from that point onward and turned her attention to a glass of liquor.
I couldn’t help but grin.
I’d positioned myself in my old spot again, with Velariah sitting in front of me.
It was now Velariah’s turn to play against Draco. In the meantime, Elly exited the room and returned moments later announcing that dinner was ready.
Had we been playing for that long already?
I’d lost track of time once more.
The elf and lizardman left their game, a few moves were made and they would continue after dinner.
Dinner itself was… lively. Elly managed to come up with something that could feed many people on short notice. It couldn’t be regarded as something completely out of the ordinary back on Earth, but baked potatoes with chicken fillets here were so much fuller of flavor.
After dinner, I took a quick glance in the glass-paneled crate at the far end of the table and noticed the spider stare at me immediately after I’d made my presence known.
I quickly skittered over to the bathroom.
Why did I even peek?
Velariah and Nira joined Draco, Seralyn, and me after a few minutes.
“He didn’t touch the board, did he?” Velariah smiled as she sat down in front of me once more.
“Nope. You didn’t expect Draco would do such a thing, did you?” I said.
“I would.” She grinned.
Elly was doing the dishes, so our conversation topics quickly changed to my old world.
“What are some interesting inventions from your world?” Draco asked.
“Oof.” I let out. “I don’t even know where to start. You see, one invention quickly leads to another. Some processes need to be discovered and optimized. These new processes allow for the creation of new tools that lead to new discoveries and processes.”
I thought for a few moments. “Let me see if I can come up with an example that already exists in this world.”
I think I had a good example.
“Take weapons for example. I assume weapons used to be made of something other than steel a long time ago. Iron requires a hot flame in order to melt. In order to get that hot flame, one uses another invention that adds more oxygen to the fire, causing it to burn hotter. These are the bellows that you can see at Coldanus’s workplace, for example. This ‘new’ material makes for tougher, stronger weapons that can then be used to defeat tougher opponents, or… it can be used to make smaller tools that don’t break as often as softer metals. These new tools can then be used to advance different fields of science, such as alchemy, etcetera. Once alchemy advances enough, one can create certain liquids that allow for further refining of the process, or for the creation of new things entirely.”
That was quite a mouthful, but I think my companions got the gist of it.
“Now, I know how to make a couple of things that don’t exist in this world… yet. The thing is, I don’t have anywhere close to the tools one would need to create some of those things, and I don’t possess the knowledge to make them, either. I guess the best thing that I could theoretically come up with that would be of use, if it doesn’t exist yet, would be a microscope.”
“The process seems quite similar to what the humans have come to know about the flow of mana, indeed,” Draco commented. “A lot of experimentation and recording of findings.”
“And, most of all, communication between other people,” I added. “When knowledge spreads, it multiplies.”
“What is this microscope you speak of?” Seralyn asked. “And how would it improve our lives?”
I chuckled. “I believe the microscope stands at the forefront of new inventions, especially in the medical world. Do you have lenses?”
Velariah nodded. “We do, I think? My father once mentioned them. They improve eyesight, right?”
“Well, I wouldn’t call it improving. It more or less ‘fixes’ it.”
“Interesting...” Draco spoke again.
“Anyway...” I continued. “Some lenses magnify things if you look through them. The basic idea is that you place multiple of those in a tube. They each magnify what you are looking at, and if you place multiple of those on top of each other, you can see things that you cannot see with your bare eyes. Many of the inventions back in my world use parts that are so small that one has to use the microscope to properly create the parts.”
“Sounds like a hassle,” Seralyn commented with a grin.
“It’s quite the hassle, indeed. As I said, I can’t replicate even a fraction of the technology in my world, so don’t expect miracles from me. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve, though, coffee being one of them.”
“Coffee is a wonderful invention in itself,” Draco commented.
“Come to think of it, I don’t know if I know many inventions that will actually help in combat. That’s quite the letdown.”
There was always the crossbow that I could possibly use for myself. I don’t think Seralyn would benefit from it, at all.
I wasn’t going to mention black powder to anyone else, yet. Velariah wisely kept quiet about it, too.
Elly entered the room when I was playing against Nira. The black-haired maid had a proper, leather leash in her hands and called Gray’s name. I was surprised to see him respond to it and walk up to Elly. She’d made quite some progress already, it seemed.
I used my pedipalps again to move the pieces around on the board as I quickly petted the wolf when he walked past me.
Elly then took him for a walk.
“Doesn’t she creep you out at times, Velariah?” Seralyn asked in a seemingly serious manner.
“Not at all.” The elf in my arms replied. “Elania has a heart of gold. That’s all that I care about,” She added softly.
I blushed slightly at her statement about us.
“I’m happy you found somebody to feel that way about, Lady Velariah,” Draco said. “I’ve known you for a while and never seen you this happy.”
“You’ve known me for a while, yes. But we never spent as much time together as the past few weeks.” Velariah replied.
“More than enough to notice the change in your demeanor.” The lizardman concluded.
This conversation made me feel slightly awkward, but I seemed to be getting better at coping with it.
I simply smiled as I placed my head on her shoulder and continued to move the pieces around with my spidery limbs.
“Damnit, El. You’re getting my hair all sticky too.”
“Oops,” I said before I laughed.
I moved as much of my hair to my back as I could. It didn’t have any issues staying there. I imagine my hair must have smelled wonderful too; strawberry-scented shampoo wasn’t uncommon in my old world.
That shampoo didn’t have the added effects of making it all sticky, though…
“What about transport?” Nira asked.
“Now that’s a funny one.” I chuckled. “We have giant metal birds that fly through the sky. They can carry hundreds of people and transport them to the other side of the world within a day.”
“What the fuck?” Seralyn exclaimed.
“Well, it’s not really a bird, but it’s the easiest comparison there is. They fly extremely fast. There are some laws of nature that allow them to stay in the air when they fly at such high speeds.”
“Sounds dangerous…” Draco said.
“As much as you’d think so, if you look at statistics, it’s actually fairly safe.”
“Have you ever been in one?” Velariah asked.
“Not as far as I can remember. Then again, I don’t exactly know what memories I lost. It’s hard to tell what’s missing, you know?”
“And land vehicles?” Draco asked.
“Uh, we have bikes that one can operate. It’s a two-wheeled vehicle powered by a person’s legs. One can move much faster with it than on foot, about five to six times as fast. I could possibly fabricate one of those with the help of some artisans. I’m not sure if you guys have rubber, though. It’s kind of a necessity, especially when I look at the quality of your roads.”
I paused for a moment.
“As for most land vehicles you will see and be amazed by, it would probably be automobiles, or cars. They are basically metal cans with glass windows and four wheels. They don’t run on a human’s strength, they merely control how fast and what direction they go. They are fueled by gasoline, which is created from oil, a black sticky substance found deep in the ground.”
I shook my head. “Once again, that is not something I could replicate, a bike would already test all of my memories and skill. They would be pretty useless too as they can’t really travel through grasslands.”
“That is… unfortunate.” Draco finished.
“I’d love to show you some things later on for sure. It’s just a bit early. There’s also the coffee business that’s going to start rolling soon and then there’s the fact that I showed up in this village, and actually live here now. I can’t help but feel anxious about having everything pinpointed back to me and cause me to run into trouble because of some jealous nobles or something.”
Seralyn shook her head. “You’re probably right in that regard. You don’t really have the look of innocence about you either. I don’t mean that as an offense. I don’t think everyone will be able to look past your lower body as easily as us, or Velariah in that regard,” She smirked at the end of her sentence.
I sighed. “It’s not until I came here that I realized just how easy my world was.”
“Sounds like quite the shock,” Nira said softly.
“Girl, you have no idea,” I replied.
We talked some more about what cars looked like and the basics of how they worked. That also brought up the concept of buses and trucks and other vehicles that were based on car designs.
Elly entered the room about an hour later with Gray looking the most exhausted I’d seen him so far. He simply walked up to his bed next to Nira, lay down on it, and started snoring within seconds.
“Well, seems like someone is tired,” Velariah remarked. She then turned to Elly who sat down with us. “What did you do to him?”
“Just got rid of some excess energy,” Elly smiled.
Seems she got rid of more than just excess energy…
After some more rounds of checkers, Elly brought in another round of drinks and freshly-baked cookies. This night was turning into an excellent game and snack night. My only regrets were not having chocolate chips in the cookies and the lack of more games…
I needed to check if chocolate was a thing here. Did I ask that before?
Could I create chocolate from cocoa beans?
I knew what a cocoa pod looked like, but I was completely clueless about the process of turning it into chocolate. Then again, coffee worked out just fine, right?
I would ask Velariah about that later tonight.
We talked and played for hours. Velariah took great pride in telling of our adventures to Elly. The maid seemed intrigued by most of what she said, but also showed shock on her face when Velariah told me about the mess I’d made in the goblin cave after showering them with my venom.
I, in turn, told Elly exactly how we got to meet Gray. Elly was almost in tears when she found out how the cute wolf pup lost its parents. It may have been a not-so-pleasant story, but I felt Elly deserved to know the full story. She was going to spend more time than any of us with the canine.
Our adventures in the dungeon also came up as a topic. Elly commented on how well our teamwork seemed to be planned out.
“It’s like that because we try to keep everyone safe during combat,” I commented.
“And that seems to be going well, so far,” Draco continued.
“As long as we stay focused.” Seralyn finished.
“Yeah, no shit,” Velariah said after that. “At least it was a wise lesson.”
That reminded me of the wound that Velariah had suffered. Her injuries had completely disappeared in no time whereas the puncture wounds from the half-living wolf seemed to remain in place for a while.
I checked my arm to see them completely disappeared now.
“What are you thinking about?” Velariah asked, she saw me observing my arm.
“I was wondering how the wound from that wolf remained for a while, at least traces of it, when the wound on my head was completely gone within hours.”
“Possibly the venom,” Nira said.
“Yeah, but we all know I am hella resistant against venom and poison. I would have thought the same if it wasn’t for that.” I replied.
Nira briefly raised her wings while she was lying down. It seemed to indicate some kind of shrug. I guess that meant she wasn’t sure either.
“I’m just going to assume it has to deal with the nature of the magic that was fueling the wolf. I believe Pylanor confirmed it had something to do with necromantic magic, yes?” Draco asked.
I nodded. “That would be the easiest explanation, I guess.”
“Well, whatever. You’re fine now.” Velariah said.
“Seems to be that way,” I said.
We played and talked some more before Nira seemed to have trouble keeping her eyes open.
Draco noticed it and suggested we’d call it a day.
“Let me check the weather,” Elly said as she stood up. “It started raining the moment I returned home.”
“So what if it does rain?” I asked, confused as to why it would matter.
“She will prepare the guest rooms,” Velariah said.
I totally forgot guest rooms were a thing. I should have expected Velariah to have one. ‘Rooms’ even. Just how expensive was this mansion?
The maid walked back into the room.
“It’s storming outside. Shall I prepare the guest rooms?”
Velariah looked at the others. “If you guys are okay with staying here for the night?”
“Not a problem here,” Draco said.
Nira simply nodded.
Seralyn looked tipsy from whatever alcohol she had been slowly drinking over the evening.
Velariah looked at her and decided to speak for her. “Yeah, Seralyn should probably stay here too.”
“Neat, that means I can drink more!” The brunette replied.
“How about no. You’ve had enough,” Velariah said.
“Awwww,” Seralyn moaned.
Elly exited the room and we rounded up the final game. By the end of it, Elly returned and informed us that the guest rooms and beds were prepared.
Everyone stood up, and I held up the hammock so the others could easily pass it. Velariah collected the pillows in the meantime.
“Good night,” I said when the three of my companions passed under the hammock.
“Goodnight, Miss Elania,” Draco said as he passed.
Nira repeated Draco’s words.
“Goodnight,” Seralyn said with an overly sweet voice. “Don’t go breaking that lovely hammock tonight.”
I blushed madly from her remark. I closed the door and locked it once everyone had exited.
Velariah rearranged the pillows in our bed. “That was fun,” She said.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “I had a great time.”
I was helping the elf with the last pillows when I remembered the question I had from before.
“Vel, do you have chocolate in this world?”
“Choco…late?”
This wasn’t looking good.
“Candy bars made from cocoa beans, brown, sweet, heavenly.”
She shook her head. “Never heard of it.”
Fuck.
There go my hopes and dreams…
“Hold on a sec.”
I cleaned up the materials we used for our Yahtzee game and took a piece of paper and a pencil and drew a cocoa pod as best as I could.
“These are pods, they contain a bunch of seeds. They are orange to brown in color when ripe. Do you recognize this?”
“Nope,” The elf replied. “But maybe the Lore keeper does. She has an extensive library of all kinds of fruits and herbs, complete with drawings and all. Maybe she can help you further?”
“What about your own library?” I asked. “I saw your father looking at tomes with drawings too.”
“Heh,” She chuckled. “I doubt it. Most of those books are on warfare, history, and a more recent topic; village and city administration. There are a few on plants, though. I could take a look if you want.”
“Yeah, that would be great, thank you. You won’t believe how good chocolate tastes…”
“Hmmm, as good as you?”
I blushed again. “What’s with the sudden flirting?”
“We should get you a bath… I’d like to not get your hair stuck to my face when we’re sleeping. There’s also that icky insect blood on your legs, still.”
I sighed. “You’re probably right. Aren’t you tired, though?”
She shook her head. “Not at all.”
“Well, you know how long it takes for me to clean myself. I hope you won’t fall asleep while I’m in the tub.”
“Who said you were going in alone?” She winked.
We entered the bathroom and I held up the hammock, so the others could pass under it. Velariah threw the pillows out of it onto the floor next to the tub. We created a nice ring to play the game in. For some reason, Velariah brought her new spider pet over and placed it in the center.
Gray also joined in and seemed intrigued by the spider but too scared to get any closer.
What a wise wolf.
I collected the dice, paper, and pencils and sat down on a pillow. Velariah, bold as she was, decided to sit in front of me, for lack of a lap to sit on.
Oh well. The others already knew, I guessed. As long as she wasn’t going to kiss me in front of them, what harm could this bring?
“I’m starting to think you have ulterior motives for moving to this room,” Seralyn grinned when Velariah guided two of my hands around her belly.
“You jealous?” Velariah fired back.
Ouch. I could feel that.
Seralyn went quiet.
Nira lay down on her belly on a couple of pillows across from where I was seated and Gray took that as an invitation to hide under her wings. The harpy seemed to be flattered by the pup’s attention and petted it affectionately.
Draco was simply silent. I had the feeling he was secretly preparing to beat everyone at this game and didn’t want to give it away.
He started his rolls. The spider in the middle kept staring at me throughout the rolls that the others made. When it was my turn and I threw the dice, it actually decided to jump after one.
It caught the die in mid-air, too. I was impressed by its coordination.
Hold on a second.
Did that spider have eyes at the sides of its head?
I looked closer and confirmed that it did.
“Why can’t I have that?” I mumbled softly, but not soft enough.
“Have what?” Velariah asked as I took three of the dice.
I couldn’t bother to take the one that the spider was holding. I’d prefer a weaker opening and just build around that than getting my hands so close and quite possibly, getting bitten.
“Huh? Oh, I was thinking about the eyes on the side of its head. I can hardly see what’s going on behind me. On second thought, I’m not sure if I want to have that. I imagine more eyes would be quite… I don’t even know…”
“Disorientating?” Draco suggested.
“I imagine that would be an understatement,” I said.
“I’m sure you’d be able to deal with it,” Velariah spoke. “You’ve come quite far already.”
“Please don’t put ideas in the head of whatever god put me in this world. I’ve had changes made to my body before. I’m not sure if I want more.”
“Nothing negative, as far as I can see,” The elf spoke again.
“Stop the flirting, I’m trying to concentrate,” Seralyn said as she rolled the dice.
We played for a while. Every time I rolled, I had Velariah’s new pet going after one of the dice, which caused me to sacrifice the best possible rolls. This spider was totally ruining my score. It was doing it on purpose. I knew it.
“Seralyn, did you teach this spider to screw me over or what?” I asked.
“Maybe.” She grinned.
I had to admit that its speed and dexterity were far beyond mine. It made me jealous, but I also hoped it meant there was still a lot of room for growth for my own abilities.
An hour or two, and many rounds of the game with the usual banter coming from Seralyn and Velariah, later, I heard knocking on the door. Velariah stood up to open it and found Elly on the other side holding the checkers board, complete with white and black wooden pieces.
“Neat,” Velariah said. She then dragged Elly by her wrist and had her sit down with the rest of us.
The white-haired elf then sat down and forced my hands back on her belly, joined by my pedipalps.
“You really have a thing for spiders, don’t ya?” Seralyn teased her.
“I don’t mind them.” She said with a shrug.
“That’s an understatement, too.” I smiled.
“Well, look at you, El. I told you you’d get there.” She said.
Seralyn just giggled. Draco and Nira smiled.
We finished our current round and I went on to explain the basic rules of the next game. Unfortunately, it was a one versus one game, so the majority would have to watch.
I tried to explain it while using the pieces and board in a tutorial-like game, but Velariah’s pet spider kept jumping on any piece that I touched. I had to resort to using my pedipalps to move the pieces. I could still feel the jumping spider hit them, but I’d much rather have those touched by freaky things over my human hands.
“I honestly can’t believe you’re so scared of spiders,” Seralyn commented. “I mean, look at its eyes. It’s quite cute.” She said with a teasing voice.
While I had to admit it didn’t look as terrifying as most other spiders, calling it cute went way too far.
“I just hate spiders, okay? They have far too many eyes, far too many legs, they bite, they jump. They just creep me out.”
“Okay, but half of those properties can be attributed to you, too.” She said with her normal voice.
“But this is me. I know what my legs do, I control them. I…I…”
I was at a loss for words. I had no reason to fear such a creature, I knew it. My mind screamed entirely different things, though.
“It’s okay, El. We’ll work on it. You will get over it one day. You just watch.” Velariah tried to comfort me.
I hugged her tight and held my face in her hair. I didn’t care what the others would think at this moment. Even if I didn’t agree with the elf’s methods, deep down, I knew she was right. I was glad she was here to help me through this…
Draco and Nira started the first game of checkers. The rest of us watched with great interest, even Gray followed Nira’s movements closely.
“Is anyone interested in a drink?” Elly asked when the game was about halfway done.
“Yes! Let’s bring out the booze!” Seralyn called enthusiastically.
Elly then looked at Velariah, who nodded.
“Just make sure she doesn’t get too much. She gets… hard to deal with when drunk.”
“That was just once!” Seralyn almost shouted. “I wasn’t intending on repeating that…” She then added softly.
“Anyone else got a preference for something?” The maid then asked.
After she observed everyone shake their heads, she exited the room.
“So, Elania.” Draco started after Elly left the room. “How does adventuring work in your world? You seem to have a decent amount of knowledge about it.”
“Uhhh. How do I explain this?” I started. “It doesn’t exist. The only knowledge I have about it comes from something called video games and fiction. You see, in our world, people like to write about what others would be like. The fun part is that each of your races is mentioned in said fiction. The information that I knew turned out to be mostly false, but some things turned out to be true.”
“What about your own… race? Is it not described?”
I shook my head. “I haven’t read anything about half-human, half-spider. To be fair, I haven’t read much fiction about other worlds yet. It was a genre I recently started reading about.”
“We are considered a genre, now?” Seralyn said in disbelief. “Preposterous!”
“Heh,” Velariah chuckled. “Yeah, I had to teach her a thing or two about elves, too. Her information was all fucked up.”
“Spare me the details.” Seralyn laughed.
“Interesting…” Draco stated.
“Guess what. People getting teleported or dying and reincarnating in another world is a genre as well.”
“That’s so messed up.” The brunette replied.
I shrugged. “I guess…”
“Adventuring is not a thing in their world, Elania told me. She said there is no magic of any kind.”
“What?” Nira asked softly, while making a move in the game.
“We don’t have magic, that’s correct. Our lives appear to be significantly more mundane than yours because of science.”
“Science?” Seralyn asked.
“It’s basically what Draco explained earlier. Hypotheses, research, observation, evaluation. Humanity in our world has been doing it for hundreds if not thousands of years and made its life quite easy. We didn’t need to hunt for food at all. One more thing, almost everything was available all year round. I doubt that’s the case here.”
“Hell no, it ain’t.” The archer replied. “When winter comes, it’s pretty hard to get some good fruit or vegetables.”
“Ah shit,” I cursed.
“What’s up?” Velariah asked.
“I’m going to miss those strawberry smoothies…”
Nira cocked her head and I knew what that meant.
“That’s our world’s name for Kingberry… I still have trouble adjusting…”
“You’re in luck,” Draco smiled. “Those can be frozen pretty well. I can’t say as much about most other fruits.”
I sighed in relief.
That was some good news…
The door opened again, and Elly appeared with a platter with drinks. She seemed lost in thought on how to pass the hammock unscathed, so I decided to stand up and lift it over her head. She thanked me and placed the tray on the edge of the bathtub before handing everyone their drinks.
I sat down and put my arms and pedipalps around my favorite elf again.
“What’s with the hammock, anyway?” Seralyn asked.
“Awfully interested in our life, aren’t you?” Velariah asked with a hint of mischief.
“Just curious.” Seralyn feigned innocence.
“If you’re so eager to know, there are two reasons for it. First, Elania was pretty uncomfortable sleeping on pillows on the ground. She had no place to put her… excess limbs. The second reason was practice. You should have seen her, climbing walls and shit.”
“Damn,” Seralyn answered.
“You can actually climb walls?” Nira asked.
I nodded.
“Care to demonstrate?” Draco asked with a smile.
What?
That was unlike Draco to ask.
“Uhhh.” I stammered.
“Go for it. Take your drink with you, see if you can keep it stable while climbing.” Velariah encouraged me.
“That sounds like a horrible idea…”
“Look at it as practice.” She said.
I sighed and took some sips from my drink, reducing the contents of the glass by half. I’d have a better chance not spilling that way.
Nira and Draco moved aside to make space for me to climb the wall. I held the glass in my hand and carefully put my front legs on the wall.
I breathed deeply before I continued.
Here we go.
I stared at the glass in front of me as more legs hooked into the wall.
Knowing I was able to do this helped out quite a bit. I moved significantly faster than last time and soon had all my legs on the wall. My human torso was still in an upward position. I was almost hugging the wall with it.
“Holy shit, you’re flexible too,” Seralyn called out.
I ignored the remark and focused my attention on the glass in front of me, and the sensations of the claws at the ends of my legs. Slowly, I started climbing the wall. I was about a meter out from the floor when something moved in the corner of my eye.
I turned to my right to see what was going on and found Velariah’s spider looking at me with its large eyes.
The sudden appearance of a monstrous spider next to me caused me to panic, and I lost focus and grip on the wall.
I screamed as I fell and hit the floor. I partly broke the fall with some of the joints of my legs, but the impact still came after crashing into the floor. To make things worse, I spilled the drink all over my shirt and hair.
“Fuck.” I let out as I ‘landed’ on my back.
My legs curled up from the pain that shot through my spider abdomen and human back.
“El, are you alright?” Velariah ran up to me and looked at me from above.
Nira ran out of the room in a hurry and returned seconds later with her scepter.
Dizziness hit me. I couldn’t tell what was going on around me. I felt a hand on my forehead and saw Nira’s face. Soon, I felt her magic flow through me.
“She’s fine,” I could hear the harpy’s voice speak to the others.
“El, I’m sorry I made you do that.” Velariah looked at me.
“What just happened?” I asked.
“I think Lucas spooked you,” Draco said. “I think it would be wise to put it into some kind of enclosure.”
I couldn’t make out half of what was being said but that sounded like they’d put that spider somewhere where it couldn’t harm me. I was all in on that idea.
I put two hands over my eyes and two more on my forehead and started rubbing as I moaned from the pain and dizziness.
“Elania, talk to me,” Velariah said, obviously worried.
“Hi?” I spoke.
“Are you alright?” She asked again.
“I don’t know?” I questioned.
Velariah looked at Nira who nodded once more.
“Just relax for a bit, El. We’ll clean up later. Are you in pain?”
“I am, but it’s getting better. I’m just… dizzy.”
Velariah turned around. “You guys can just continue. I’ll stay with Elania until she feels better.”
She was right. I hated for the others’ evening to be ruined because of this. I should be okay in a few minutes.
I might need a bath again, though. My hair and shirt were starting to get sticky because of the sugar in the drink.
What a mess…
“Elly, could you perhaps start cleaning the floor?” Velariah called out to the maid.
I didn’t hear her, but she walked out of the room a few seconds after. I assumed she let Velariah know with a nod or something.
The white-haired elf knelt behind me and laid my head in her lap. She moved the sticky hair out of my face and smiled.
I smiled back. It was the only thing I could do when she smiled at me like that.
I wanted to be angry, but I couldn’t.
I closed my eyes and relaxed. The pain and dizziness soon started to fade. There seemed to be some pain in the joints that I used to impact the floor first to break most of my fall, but I could live with it. I imagined that my supposed ‘special blood’ would help out in healing whatever was damaged.
According to Nira, I was fine, so it couldn’t be that bad.
Elly had cleaned up the floor around me in the meantime. She had even acquired a large crate in which she put Velariah’s pet spider. Instead of a wooden lid, she used a glass panel to cover it. It was far from ideal, but it would work for now.
She had then brought the crate with the spider over to the dining area, far away from me, which made me happy.
I turned myself around and stood up with the necessary hardships.
I was feeling a lot better already. The only thing that really annoyed me was my sticky clothes and hair.
I quickly grabbed a clean shirt and changed mine outside the bathroom.
I reentered to observe Seralyn playing checkers against Elly. Seralyn was laughing as she captured two of Elly’s pieces, but Elly smirked and responded by capturing five of Seralyn’s in one turn, quickly wiping the grin off the brunette’s face.
It seemed Elly had planned that move far ahead.
This maid was on fire.
Seralyn quickly lost the game from that point onward and turned her attention to a glass of liquor.
I couldn’t help but grin.
I’d positioned myself in my old spot again, with Velariah sitting in front of me.
It was now Velariah’s turn to play against Draco. In the meantime, Elly exited the room and returned moments later announcing that dinner was ready.
Had we been playing for that long already?
I’d lost track of time once more.
The elf and lizardman left their game, a few moves were made and they would continue after dinner.
Dinner itself was… lively. Elly managed to come up with something that could feed many people on short notice. It couldn’t be regarded as something completely out of the ordinary back on Earth, but baked potatoes with chicken fillets here were so much fuller of flavor.
After dinner, I took a quick glance in the glass-paneled crate at the far end of the table and noticed the spider stare at me immediately after I’d made my presence known.
I quickly skittered over to the bathroom.
Why did I even peek?
Velariah and Nira joined Draco, Seralyn, and me after a few minutes.
“He didn’t touch the board, did he?” Velariah smiled as she sat down in front of me once more.
“Nope. You didn’t expect Draco would do such a thing, did you?” I said.
“I would.” She grinned.
Elly was doing the dishes, so our conversation topics quickly changed to my old world.
“What are some interesting inventions from your world?” Draco asked.
“Oof.” I let out. “I don’t even know where to start. You see, one invention quickly leads to another. Some processes need to be discovered and optimized. These new processes allow for the creation of new tools that lead to new discoveries and processes.”
I thought for a few moments. “Let me see if I can come up with an example that already exists in this world.”
I think I had a good example.
“Take weapons for example. I assume weapons used to be made of something other than steel a long time ago. Iron requires a hot flame in order to melt. In order to get that hot flame, one uses another invention that adds more oxygen to the fire, causing it to burn hotter. These are the bellows that you can see at Coldanus’s workplace, for example. This ‘new’ material makes for tougher, stronger weapons that can then be used to defeat tougher opponents, or… it can be used to make smaller tools that don’t break as often as softer metals. These new tools can then be used to advance different fields of science, such as alchemy, etcetera. Once alchemy advances enough, one can create certain liquids that allow for further refining of the process, or for the creation of new things entirely.”
That was quite a mouthful, but I think my companions got the gist of it.
“Now, I know how to make a couple of things that don’t exist in this world… yet. The thing is, I don’t have anywhere close to the tools one would need to create some of those things, and I don’t possess the knowledge to make them, either. I guess the best thing that I could theoretically come up with that would be of use, if it doesn’t exist yet, would be a microscope.”
“The process seems quite similar to what the humans have come to know about the flow of mana, indeed,” Draco commented. “A lot of experimentation and recording of findings.”
“And, most of all, communication between other people,” I added. “When knowledge spreads, it multiplies.”
“What is this microscope you speak of?” Seralyn asked. “And how would it improve our lives?”
I chuckled. “I believe the microscope stands at the forefront of new inventions, especially in the medical world. Do you have lenses?”
Velariah nodded. “We do, I think? My father once mentioned them. They improve eyesight, right?”
“Well, I wouldn’t call it improving. It more or less ‘fixes’ it.”
“Interesting...” Draco spoke again.
“Anyway...” I continued. “Some lenses magnify things if you look through them. The basic idea is that you place multiple of those in a tube. They each magnify what you are looking at, and if you place multiple of those on top of each other, you can see things that you cannot see with your bare eyes. Many of the inventions back in my world use parts that are so small that one has to use the microscope to properly create the parts.”
“Sounds like a hassle,” Seralyn commented with a grin.
“It’s quite the hassle, indeed. As I said, I can’t replicate even a fraction of the technology in my world, so don’t expect miracles from me. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve, though, coffee being one of them.”
“Coffee is a wonderful invention in itself,” Draco commented.
“Come to think of it, I don’t know if I know many inventions that will actually help in combat. That’s quite the letdown.”
There was always the crossbow that I could possibly use for myself. I don’t think Seralyn would benefit from it, at all.
I wasn’t going to mention black powder to anyone else, yet. Velariah wisely kept quiet about it, too.
Elly entered the room when I was playing against Nira. The black-haired maid had a proper, leather leash in her hands and called Gray’s name. I was surprised to see him respond to it and walk up to Elly. She’d made quite some progress already, it seemed.
I used my pedipalps again to move the pieces around on the board as I quickly petted the wolf when he walked past me.
Elly then took him for a walk.
“Doesn’t she creep you out at times, Velariah?” Seralyn asked in a seemingly serious manner.
“Not at all.” The elf in my arms replied. “Elania has a heart of gold. That’s all that I care about,” She added softly.
I blushed slightly at her statement about us.
“I’m happy you found somebody to feel that way about, Lady Velariah,” Draco said. “I’ve known you for a while and never seen you this happy.”
“You’ve known me for a while, yes. But we never spent as much time together as the past few weeks.” Velariah replied.
“More than enough to notice the change in your demeanor.” The lizardman concluded.
This conversation made me feel slightly awkward, but I seemed to be getting better at coping with it.
I simply smiled as I placed my head on her shoulder and continued to move the pieces around with my spidery limbs.
“Damnit, El. You’re getting my hair all sticky too.”
“Oops,” I said before I laughed.
I moved as much of my hair to my back as I could. It didn’t have any issues staying there. I imagine my hair must have smelled wonderful too; strawberry-scented shampoo wasn’t uncommon in my old world.
That shampoo didn’t have the added effects of making it all sticky, though…
“What about transport?” Nira asked.
“Now that’s a funny one.” I chuckled. “We have giant metal birds that fly through the sky. They can carry hundreds of people and transport them to the other side of the world within a day.”
“What the fuck?” Seralyn exclaimed.
“Well, it’s not really a bird, but it’s the easiest comparison there is. They fly extremely fast. There are some laws of nature that allow them to stay in the air when they fly at such high speeds.”
“Sounds dangerous…” Draco said.
“As much as you’d think so, if you look at statistics, it’s actually fairly safe.”
“Have you ever been in one?” Velariah asked.
“Not as far as I can remember. Then again, I don’t exactly know what memories I lost. It’s hard to tell what’s missing, you know?”
“And land vehicles?” Draco asked.
“Uh, we have bikes that one can operate. It’s a two-wheeled vehicle powered by a person’s legs. One can move much faster with it than on foot, about five to six times as fast. I could possibly fabricate one of those with the help of some artisans. I’m not sure if you guys have rubber, though. It’s kind of a necessity, especially when I look at the quality of your roads.”
I paused for a moment.
“As for most land vehicles you will see and be amazed by, it would probably be automobiles, or cars. They are basically metal cans with glass windows and four wheels. They don’t run on a human’s strength, they merely control how fast and what direction they go. They are fueled by gasoline, which is created from oil, a black sticky substance found deep in the ground.”
I shook my head. “Once again, that is not something I could replicate, a bike would already test all of my memories and skill. They would be pretty useless too as they can’t really travel through grasslands.”
“That is… unfortunate.” Draco finished.
“I’d love to show you some things later on for sure. It’s just a bit early. There’s also the coffee business that’s going to start rolling soon and then there’s the fact that I showed up in this village, and actually live here now. I can’t help but feel anxious about having everything pinpointed back to me and cause me to run into trouble because of some jealous nobles or something.”
Seralyn shook her head. “You’re probably right in that regard. You don’t really have the look of innocence about you either. I don’t mean that as an offense. I don’t think everyone will be able to look past your lower body as easily as us, or Velariah in that regard,” She smirked at the end of her sentence.
I sighed. “It’s not until I came here that I realized just how easy my world was.”
“Sounds like quite the shock,” Nira said softly.
“Girl, you have no idea,” I replied.
We talked some more about what cars looked like and the basics of how they worked. That also brought up the concept of buses and trucks and other vehicles that were based on car designs.
Elly entered the room about an hour later with Gray looking the most exhausted I’d seen him so far. He simply walked up to his bed next to Nira, lay down on it, and started snoring within seconds.
“Well, seems like someone is tired,” Velariah remarked. She then turned to Elly who sat down with us. “What did you do to him?”
“Just got rid of some excess energy,” Elly smiled.
Seems she got rid of more than just excess energy…
After some more rounds of checkers, Elly brought in another round of drinks and freshly-baked cookies. This night was turning into an excellent game and snack night. My only regrets were not having chocolate chips in the cookies and the lack of more games…
I needed to check if chocolate was a thing here. Did I ask that before?
Could I create chocolate from cocoa beans?
I knew what a cocoa pod looked like, but I was completely clueless about the process of turning it into chocolate. Then again, coffee worked out just fine, right?
I would ask Velariah about that later tonight.
We talked and played for hours. Velariah took great pride in telling of our adventures to Elly. The maid seemed intrigued by most of what she said, but also showed shock on her face when Velariah told me about the mess I’d made in the goblin cave after showering them with my venom.
I, in turn, told Elly exactly how we got to meet Gray. Elly was almost in tears when she found out how the cute wolf pup lost its parents. It may have been a not-so-pleasant story, but I felt Elly deserved to know the full story. She was going to spend more time than any of us with the canine.
Our adventures in the dungeon also came up as a topic. Elly commented on how well our teamwork seemed to be planned out.
“It’s like that because we try to keep everyone safe during combat,” I commented.
“And that seems to be going well, so far,” Draco continued.
“As long as we stay focused.” Seralyn finished.
“Yeah, no shit,” Velariah said after that. “At least it was a wise lesson.”
That reminded me of the wound that Velariah had suffered. Her injuries had completely disappeared in no time whereas the puncture wounds from the half-living wolf seemed to remain in place for a while.
I checked my arm to see them completely disappeared now.
“What are you thinking about?” Velariah asked, she saw me observing my arm.
“I was wondering how the wound from that wolf remained for a while, at least traces of it, when the wound on my head was completely gone within hours.”
“Possibly the venom,” Nira said.
“Yeah, but we all know I am hella resistant against venom and poison. I would have thought the same if it wasn’t for that.” I replied.
Nira briefly raised her wings while she was lying down. It seemed to indicate some kind of shrug. I guess that meant she wasn’t sure either.
“I’m just going to assume it has to deal with the nature of the magic that was fueling the wolf. I believe Pylanor confirmed it had something to do with necromantic magic, yes?” Draco asked.
I nodded. “That would be the easiest explanation, I guess.”
“Well, whatever. You’re fine now.” Velariah said.
“Seems to be that way,” I said.
We played and talked some more before Nira seemed to have trouble keeping her eyes open.
Draco noticed it and suggested we’d call it a day.
“Let me check the weather,” Elly said as she stood up. “It started raining the moment I returned home.”
“So what if it does rain?” I asked, confused as to why it would matter.
“She will prepare the guest rooms,” Velariah said.
I totally forgot guest rooms were a thing. I should have expected Velariah to have one. ‘Rooms’ even. Just how expensive was this mansion?
The maid walked back into the room.
“It’s storming outside. Shall I prepare the guest rooms?”
Velariah looked at the others. “If you guys are okay with staying here for the night?”
“Not a problem here,” Draco said.
Nira simply nodded.
Seralyn looked tipsy from whatever alcohol she had been slowly drinking over the evening.
Velariah looked at her and decided to speak for her. “Yeah, Seralyn should probably stay here too.”
“Neat, that means I can drink more!” The brunette replied.
“How about no. You’ve had enough,” Velariah said.
“Awwww,” Seralyn moaned.
Elly exited the room and we rounded up the final game. By the end of it, Elly returned and informed us that the guest rooms and beds were prepared.
Everyone stood up, and I held up the hammock so the others could easily pass it. Velariah collected the pillows in the meantime.
“Good night,” I said when the three of my companions passed under the hammock.
“Goodnight, Miss Elania,” Draco said as he passed.
Nira repeated Draco’s words.
“Goodnight,” Seralyn said with an overly sweet voice. “Don’t go breaking that lovely hammock tonight.”
I blushed madly from her remark. I closed the door and locked it once everyone had exited.
Velariah rearranged the pillows in our bed. “That was fun,” She said.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “I had a great time.”
I was helping the elf with the last pillows when I remembered the question I had from before.
“Vel, do you have chocolate in this world?”
“Choco…late?”
This wasn’t looking good.
“Candy bars made from cocoa beans, brown, sweet, heavenly.”
She shook her head. “Never heard of it.”
Fuck.
There go my hopes and dreams…
“Hold on a sec.”
I cleaned up the materials we used for our Yahtzee game and took a piece of paper and a pencil and drew a cocoa pod as best as I could.
“These are pods, they contain a bunch of seeds. They are orange to brown in color when ripe. Do you recognize this?”
“Nope,” The elf replied. “But maybe the Lore keeper does. She has an extensive library of all kinds of fruits and herbs, complete with drawings and all. Maybe she can help you further?”
“What about your own library?” I asked. “I saw your father looking at tomes with drawings too.”
“Heh,” She chuckled. “I doubt it. Most of those books are on warfare, history, and a more recent topic; village and city administration. There are a few on plants, though. I could take a look if you want.”
“Yeah, that would be great, thank you. You won’t believe how good chocolate tastes…”
“Hmmm, as good as you?”
I blushed again. “What’s with the sudden flirting?”
“We should get you a bath… I’d like to not get your hair stuck to my face when we’re sleeping. There’s also that icky insect blood on your legs, still.”
I sighed. “You’re probably right. Aren’t you tired, though?”
She shook her head. “Not at all.”
“Well, you know how long it takes for me to clean myself. I hope you won’t fall asleep while I’m in the tub.”
“Who said you were going in alone?” She winked.
