by Pirateaba
“But he is. I mean, he also eats meat. Isn’t that weird?”
“Why? He’s not like an animal rabbit, and don’t Drakes eat lizards?”
Val and Erin glanced over at Olesm. The Drake was trying to teach Ceria how to play chess, but when he heard that he looked around, an uncharacteristic scowl on his face.
“We’re not lizards!”
“Sorry!”
Val raised a hand and turned back to his conversation with Erin.
“In truth, I’m surprised I was needed at all. This place has two people with a Courier’s speed. One’s Hawk, the other I know of only by reputation. You haven’t heard of him, have you? He’s known as the Gecko by some of the Couriers who’ve met him.”
“Gecko? Like a lizard?”
Olesm’s shoulders hunched. Erin threw a rolled up cloth napkin at his head and it bounced off.
“I’m not talking about Drakes!”
She looked at Val and Ryoka and shook her head.
“I’ve never heard of someone named Gecko either. Weird. There’s all these famous people in Liscor that I don’t know about.”
“Well, perhaps he—or she—is only famous to Runners. I suppose other people wouldn’t care as much.”
“Hm. Well, you know, Ryoka’s a really fast Runner. I bet you she could be a Courier too!”
Ryoka and Val looked at Erin, and Ryoka felt her cheeks heating up. She opened her mouth, but Val cut in.
“A Courier needs a lot of experience. Maybe someday, but right now I’d still call her one of the fastest City Runners I’ve ever met. Which is even more impressive since she doesn’t have any levels.”
“Well—I guess. But Ryoka’s good! Can you give her a hand? Like, I dunno, talk to people about giving her a test or something?”
Val rubbed at his chin thoughtfully and nodded.
“If you’d like to try becoming a Courier, I could try and get some Runners’s Guilds to give her some long-distance requests. Ryoka, what do you think?”
Val looked at Ryoka. She blinked at the table, slowly.
“Mm.”
Both Val and Erin looked at Ryoka and realized the girl was falling asleep right on top of her food. Ryoka’s head was so full of static she barely heard the two changing seats. The stamina potion had worn off, and all she wanted to do…was…sleep…
Ryoka’s head came down. Her face smushed into the burger and she sat up quick. What time was it?
The sun was still out, and Val was still in the inn. But he was standing by the door, talking to Erin.
“This is a nice place, and your food is unique. I’ll do some shopping around the city and come back here tonight. Unless you’re expecting a crowd?”
Erin made a face.
“I was, but it turns out everyone in the city’s making hamburgers but me. Come on over and I’ll have tons of good food, okay?”
“I wouldn’t mind more of those fried potato things. Even if you’re only serving hamburgers, I’ll be back.”
“I’m going to make Philly cheese steaks!”
“Why does everything you make have the word ‘cheese’ in it? Cheeseburgers, cheese steaks…I mean, cheese isn’t the main part of it, so why…?”
Olesm scratched at his spines. He looked around for support and found none.
Val opened the door as he gave Erin a salute with two fingers, and then recoiled. Several Frost Faeries were hanging outside the door, laughing. Val eyed them warily.
“I hate those things. They plague me on runs and I can’t lose them no matter how fast I go.”
“Hah! The slow manling thinks he can lose us? What a joke!”
Val ducked as a snowball sailed through the inn’s doorway and knocked all of the chess pieces off the board Olesm and Ceria were using. Amid the Drake’s anguished cry, he ducked out of the inn, running fast towards Liscor with the faeries in hot pursuit.
Erin propped her hands on her hips and shook her head as she stared out the window.
“We’ve got to do something about those faeries. They’re really mean. You won’t believe what they did to me earlier, Ryoka. Ryoka?”
Ryoka’s head was lolling, but she jerked upright and looked at Erin.
“What?”
“…Nevermind. You know, I’ve got a lot of beds upstairs if you want to sleep. We can talk later.”
“—No. No, I’ll stay awake until tonight.”
If she slept now, Ryoka would never get to sleep tonight, and she didn’t fancy staying up for 24 hours in a row just to fix the problem. She scowled, and pinched herself hard.
“I’ll be fine. What are you going to do?”
Erin shrugged and stared at the position of the sun in the sky.
“I was planning on opening the inn all day, but since no one’s coming…I guess I’ll buy more food for tonight. I want to stock up, and Selys wants to go to the bathhouse together. Want to come? You can meet Krshia and wash…everything…off.”
That sounded good to Ryoka. Not the going to Liscor or meeting the Gnoll part, but a hot bath would be bliss. She nodded.
“Okay.”
She was still exhausted as she and Erin walked into the city, leaving Olesm, Ceria, and Pisces to mind the inn. Erin said she had faith in Ceria to keep the other two out of trouble, and it looked like they were all going to play chess instead. It turned out that [Mages] liked the game almost as much as [Tacticians].
Stamina potions. Ryoka knew it was only that which had allowed her to reach Liscor so fast, but she was determined never to overuse one again. She felt like her body was lead, and every few seconds her eyes would start crossing and go blurry unless she concentrated.
Talking was even harder, but Ryoka was curious why Val had come to Erin from so far away.
“You sent out a chess puzzle?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t a super hard one, but pretty hard. I guess it interested whoever sent the puzzle in the first place, because they sent me this expensive chess board. Why? Is that a bad idea?”
Erin looked at Ryoka as the other girl walked along, frowning at her feet.
“It could be. Not a good idea to give away secrets. Could be a…bad thing.”
Ryoka was having trouble thinking. She’d tried to explain to Erin before the values of indiscretion, but Erin just wasn’t as leery of giving away secrets as Ryoka was. Probably a personality thing.
“If you’re too good…it might be a problem.”
“Really? Being good at chess is bad thing?”
It might be, if the person sending the chess board ever came looking for Erin and uncovered secrets about her. That was Ryoka’s paranoia speaking, but it was still a possibility.
Then again, given the thousands of other things that could go wrong, maybe she shouldn’t worry.
Ryoka followed Erin mechanically into the city, ignoring the route they took until Erin paused. Ryoka sniffed. A familiar scent was in the air—that of roasting meat. She looked around.
Market Street was full of shopkeepers and pedestrians. But in the winter chill, a third group of seller had appeared, and that was the food vendor. But unlike days previous, they weren’t selling a variety of dishes to the cold and hungry public, but one, very familiar food product.
Hamburgers.
Every Gnoll and Drake on the street was selling them as they cooked the meat over braziers, exactly as Erin had done on the first day. They were all in competition, but it seemed the people on the street were still hungry enough to give everyone some business.
Each vendor had a queue, and a unique lure. Some had added different varieties of cheese to their cheeseburger; others had their own blend of spices, or different kinds of meat. One enterprising Drake had even created a quadruple-patty hamburger that Ryoka would dearly have loved to try.
The Gnolls and Drakes paused as they spotted Erin down the street. They didn’t quite meet Erin’s eyes, but neither did they stop flipping and selling burgers. Ryoka stared around and inhaled the scents of grilled meat. Damn it. She wa
s getting hungry again.
“Well, now I know where all of my customers went.”
Erin scowled and kicked at some snow on the ground.
“Let’s go find Krshia.”
As Ryoka stumbled after Erin down the street, Erin glared at the food vendors.
“Hey, is there anything I can do to them for stealing my stuff? Can I claim copyright or plagiarism or something?”
“Enforce copyright? Not unless you’ve got an army. Or a really big hammer.”
Ryoka scowled at the spinning ground. She saw Erin was opening her mouth – probably to ask what kind of hammer – when the girl turned and smiled.
“Krshia!”
The large Gnoll smiled as she came out of her stall to greet Erin. She sniffed at Ryoka, and the girl tried not to scowl directly at her.
“It is good to see you this day, Erin Solstice. And I notice you have brought your friend.”
“Yeah! Ryoka just came in yesterday. Oh, and you’ll never guess what happened this morning, Krshia! I met this Runner named Blah and he blah blah blah…”
Ryoka tuned out Erin’s voice as she tried to stay upright. Coming here had been a mistake. All she wanted to do was bathe fast and fall asleep. But Erin would talk to her friend, and then Ryoka would probably have to sit in the bathhouse for hours, talking…
God. She couldn’t deal with this right now. Ryoka just wanted Erin to finish whatever she was doing, so she could go back and sleep.
Music. Music would help.
Ryoka felt at her pocket. Her iPhone was still there, nice and safe in its case. She pulled it out and turned it on. She needed music. Something to keep her awake. Something with a beat.
She scrolled down the list of songs, frowning at the small latters. Ryoka had over ten thousand songs on her iPhone, and that was no joke. She had a 32 GB model, and since she’d also uninstalled almost every app besides a few essentials, her iPhone was just a glorified music player that could do magical conference calls.
Mind you, not all the songs were good, or even acceptable. Ryoka had far too many songs she’d downloaded in the indiscretions of youth and never bothered to delete. But finally she found one she liked. This one was by a classic.
A heavy bass thumped in Ryoka’s ears with a steady drum beat. She waited, tapping one toe for Freddie Mercury. She grinned as the music swept her away.
“Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet, machine guns ready to go.”
Another One Bites the Dust by Queen thundered in Ryoka’s ears as she turned the volume up to maximum and left it that way. She had no fear of annoying Erin as she talked with Krshia—one of the things Ryoka spent lots of money on was good headphones.
Freddie Mercury had a voice that spoke to Ryoka’s heart. She opened her eyes, smiling, and noticed something odd across the street. One of the Gnoll shoppers had stopped, and he was doing something odd. Ryoka frowned.
Was that Gnoll…bobbing his head? Yes. He was.
And over there. Krshia had stopped talking to Erin and she was tapping her foot. To the beat.
“Are you happy are you satisfied? How long can you stand the heat?”
Ryoka looked around. Every Gnoll in the street had suddenly stopped, to the bewilderment of the other Drakes and few humans. Yes. They were all nodding to the sound of the music.
Shit.
Ryoka stopped the song. Instantly, the other Gnolls looked around at her reproachfully.
Son of a…they could hear the music even from across the street. Of course. Ryoka wanted to slap herself. They were like dogs. Their hearing was far better than a human’s.
Krshia nudged Erin and pointed to Ryoka’s iPhone.
“Mm. Your friend, she has something very interesting, yes?”
Ryoka scowled, tucked the iPhone back in her pocket, and crossed her arms. She glared. Erin winced, and whispered to Krshia.
“She’s sort of grumpy because she’s tired.”
Ryoka heard that, and it only made her mood worse. Especially because it was true. She looked at Erin pointedly.
“Time to go?”
She said it like a question, but it wasn’t. Erin hesitated, but Krshia had already gathered her order. Apologizing, Erin left.
“Hey. What was wrong with that? Did they hear your music? Why’s that a bad thing?”
“Because they could realize that I have technology not from this world. And—and—”
Ryoka shook her head. Something about conspiracy theories and uncovering the truth? She needed to lie down.
“Let’s just go. You said there was a bathhouse?”
“This way. But uh, your iPhone—”
“I’ll leave it. With my clothes.”
“Right.”
—-
The bath did do wonders for Ryoka, enough so that she managed to apologize and even add a little to Erin and Selys’ gossip. Not much though; Ryoka just lay back in the warm waters and enjoyed being.
Unfortunately, due to some cosmic fate, it seemed that Erin’s mood was inversely proportional to Ryoka’s own. The instant they got back to her inn and found that no new guests had come by the entire day, the normally upbeat innkeeper lost her good cheer.
Erin stared around her empty inn and threw up her hands in disgust.
“Is every inn, pub, and tavern selling hamburgers tonight?”
Selys nodded as she shook snow off of a travelling cloak.
“Pretty much. Even Peslas is selling them in his inn.”
Erin slumped against a table and put her head down on the smooth wood surface. Ryoka exchanged glances with Selys. She felt she should say something encouraging, as a friend. Something helpful.
But what?
‘Shit happens. Get over it?’
‘At least it’s not raining?’
‘We all die some day, every one of us?’
…No. Ryoka decided not to say anything. Selys patted Erin on the shoulder, and looked arouind the inn for help.
Pisces just blinked at her, but Olesm pipe dup. With dreadful forced cheerfulness, he held up a chessboard.
“How about we all play some chess? I’m sure that will make us all feel much better. Ceria and Pisces really like the game as well!”
Ryoka volunteered to play, and Selys was stuck cheering people on since she had no real interest or skill at chess. As it transpired, she and Olesm were better players than the two mages, so both Ryoka and Olesm took on Erin.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be a mistake. Good as they were, even they weren’t close to a match for Erin. She beat them in brutal one-sided matches and then sulked at a table.
Ryoka gave up. She didn’t know how to cheer people up—she barely managed to stay happy herself most of the time. She pulled out her iPhone and stared at it. Then she threw caution to the wind and showed it to Pisces again.
“Can you cast [Repair] on this?”
The mage’s eyes flicked over Ryoka’s iPhone with unconcealed interest and avarice.
“I do know the spell. May I ask what’s wrong with this, ah, device?”
“It’s running out of…it needs mana, I guess you could say. Look, can you fix it?”
“If I do…would you permit me to inspect this object for a few minutes?”
“No. That won’t be possible.”
“Well, if that’s the case…”
Pisces shrugged as if there was nothing he could do. Ryoka ground her teeth, but then Erin spoke up.
“Do it. Or I’ll throw this at you.”
Erin didn’t raise her head, but she was holding a fork. Pisces hesitated. He was clearly thinking of Erin’s uncanny skill at throwing objects. He sniffed.
“Very well. [Repair].”
This time her iPhone didn’t change noticeably, but the screen flickered for just a second. When Ryoka looked again, the battery was at 100%. Perfect.
Ryoka flicked to her songs, but then she noticed Erin was staring at her phone. Right. Erin had told her that she’d left her phone back in her hom
e when she was teleported here.
The look in Erin’s eyes was pure longing. She pointed hesitantly at the iPhone in Ryoka’s hands.
“Can I see it?”
Ryoka hesitated. Normally, her response to anyone touching her iPhone was to lay hands on them in an unfriendly way. She never lent it to anyone. But Erin—Erin was different.
Reluctantly, Ryoka handed the iPhone over.
“Here.”
She couldn’t even say ‘be careful with it’, because it could be repaired with a single spell. But it made Ryoka’s insides twist with embarrassment as she realized Erin was going through her songs.
“Oh my god. You’ve got Pokémon on here? That’s awesome!”
Her cheeks lit up. Ryoka was tempted to snatch the iPhone back, but it was too late. She gritted her teeth.
“It was a phase. I put lot of songs on there as a kid and a teen. I don’t listen to them anymore.”
That was a flat-out lie, but Ryoka would be dead and rotting before she admitted to listening to some of the songs she had on her iPhone. She’d gone through a lot of phases she wasn’t proud of.
“Oh man. This is just—”
At least Erin was happy. Ryoka sat her face light up, and realized she should have given Erin the iPhone a long time ago. She’d taken it for granted and listened to the music sometimes before she slept or as she ran, but Erin had nothing form their world. Ryoka took a seat as Erin closed her eyes and smiled.
Ceria eyed the earbuds in Erin’s ears with interest. They were sports gear, which menat they could stick in the ears even when Ryoka was running over rough terrain. They didn’t leak much sound, but Ryoka saw the half-Elf’s head tilt and her ears twitch ever so slightly.
“That’s so odd.”
Pisces was listening too. He had one finger touching his earlobe, and Ryoka saw a glowing blue aura around the tip of his finger and ear. She scowled, but both mages seemed to be having trouble listening to the faint audio that was making Erin smile.
Olesm and Selys looked at the mages and at Erin with clear interest, but they could hear nothing. Olesm prodded Erin gently.
“What is it? Can I hear?”