Fish Out of Water: The Catgirl Fishing Isekai

 

 

Making A Splash

 

Chapter 11

 

■

 

I, very understandably in my opinion, needed a bit of a break before I felt ready to deal with whatever the heck Elle meant when she said that elves were fruit. I said as much, and Mel suggested we step outside for some fresh air and sunlight. We’d all been cooped up in their living room for quite a while, so Elle and I agreed, and the three of us headed out into the communal courtyard in front of their home.

 

I'd seen part of it on the way in, but stepping into the center of the courtyard, I found myself in a miniaturized version of the park we’d walked through the day before. There were trees to provide shade, and benches molded from the wood itself. Instead of flower bushes filling the space, there were instead rows and rows of various berry bushes, and many of the trees appeared to be fruit trees as well. Elle had brought a basket and a pair of thick gloves with her, and broke off to go tend to some of the plants, while Mel and I continued to a bench. Taking a seat, I was surprised by a yawn that slipped out before I could stop it.

 

“Tired?” Mel asked, sitting down beside me and smirking.

 

“Uuuugh,” I groaned, shaking my head. “I just slept before I came here! No wonder nobody thinks catkin can get anything done, if they all have to sleep this much this often.”

 

Mel chuckled, giving me a conciliatory pat on the head. “Well, you’ve been very busy, haven’t you?” she said with a far too suggestive wink.

 

“U-uhm!” I sputtered out and turned my face away, my cheeks burning. “I don’t know if you can call spending an hour crying and snuggling being busy…”

 

“Heh,” Mel chuckled, shifting her fingers to scratch around behind one of my ears, which had me momentarily spacing out until she spoke again. “Well, Elle is going to be at it for a bit, you could lay down for a few minutes if you want to,” she said, patting at her lap with her other hand. I stared back at her for a moment before heaving out a tired sigh.

 

“The worst part is you’re probably completely right,” I said, scooting sideways along the bench until I could tip myself over and rest my head in Mel’s lap. I felt a little embarrassed at first, doing something like this so brazenly out in public, or in front of Elle and Mel’s neighbors at least, but it was also kind of exciting too. I had a girlfriend now. Two of them even! Take that, Chad! Sure, I didn’t know the first thing about being in a relationship, but I knew I definitely didn’t want to disappoint or embarrass either of them. And didn't people in relationships buy gifts for each other sometimes? I still had to start paying Felda back for taking me in, and now this; I really needed to get better at fishing, and fast.

 

As if she could sense my brain filling up with extra troubling thoughts and worries instead of relaxing, Mel’s fingers once again found the top of my head and she began to scratch in lazy circles. I purred, taking a deep breath and letting it out slow, noting the way Mel’s scent mirrored those of the berry bushes surrounding us. Between the scritching, and how soft her lap was, and how warm the beams of sunlight peeking through the trees were, I was out like a light before I even realized.

 

The only indication that any time had passed at all was that when I blinked my eyes open again, Elle had returned, and her basket was loaded down with fruit and berries.

 

“Aw, look at you two,” Elle cooed as I sat up, setting the basket down on the bench and removing her work gloves. She leaned down to kiss Mel, then moved to me, giving me another quick peck on the cheek before taking her seat beside me, leaving me flustered and once again pinned between the two of them.

 

“How’re they looking?” Mel asked over my head while I just sat, my palm resting against my cheek, trying to figure out if I wasn’t still asleep and dreaming.

 

“Good!” Elle said, beaming, pulling the basket into her lap. “The strawberries are coming in great, they should start to ripen within the next two weeks. The peaches won’t be ready for a while, but we’ve already got plenty of plums now.”

 

As she spoke, she offered the basket towards me and Mel, showing the large pile of juicy looking blueish-purple plums next to a small mountain of mixed berries. Mel reached out and picked up one of the plums, and I picked out a small handful of raspberries and began tossing them into my mouth.

 

“Mmh…” I hummed as I savored the berries, taking a few seconds to recollect my thoughts. “Okay, so,” I said, swallowing and clearing my throat. “Elves are fruit?”

 

“Yup,” Mel said, taking a large bite out of the plum. She locked eyes with me and chewed, slowly, while I stared back.

 

“Well, we're not literally walking, talking fruits,” Elle said with a giggle, holding her arm up and pinching it. “We're still flesh and blood inside, but the original elves were born from fruit trees eons ago, and we're still… maybe thirty percent fruit?”

 

“What exactly does that mean?” I asked, narrowing my eyes in confusion.

 

“Well, it mostly has to do with… uhm, well, Sammie, do you know how human babies are made?” Elle asked hesitantly.

 

“Yes, of course I do!” I said, rolling my eyes, but then paused. “Well, I know how humans on Earth do it, and I'm just assuming it's the same here.” Then, the implication of Elle's specific emphasis on the word “human” hit me and I narrowed my eyes. “Wait, why, does it work differently for elves?”

 

“Vastly,” Mel said, chuckling through another mouthful of plum. “It's actually kinda weird to have to even explain it in the first place, everyone just kinda knows. We don't really shy away from talking about it.”

 

“You're not about to tell me elves literally grow out of the ground from seeds, are you?” I asked, and both Elle and Mel had a good laugh at that.

 

Catching her breath, Mel finally answered, “No, no, that's ridiculous.” But my relief was short lived, as she immediately clarified, “only dwarves and orcs come from the ground, elves come from trees.”

 

As though to demonstrate, Mel motioned towards the many trees surrounding us, their branches laden with various types of fruit.

 

I silently brought a hand up to my forehead and just held it there for a moment.

 

“Are you going to be alright?” Elle asked, concerned.

 

“I think so,” I said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I just… a lot of my expectations are getting upended today... So, there are orcs here too?”

 

“Yeah?” Mel said. “Well, not many here in Rower’s Rest, but you would've seen them among the pirates that showed up last night.”

 

I furrowed my brow, thinking about the many varied races I'd seen spread across the pirate crew, and instantly realized which ones were most likely to be orcs.

 

“You mean the people with mushrooms on them?” I asked, and Mel smiled and nodded.

 

“Yeah, you got it. They're something like cousins to the elves, we both have our homelands to the south.”

 

“Huh,” I said, taking that in and tilting my head. “That's… way different from how everybody thinks of orcs from… from my world.”

 

I was momentarily worried about the prospect of being overheard, but it looked like Elle and Mel’s neighbors were giving our section of the garden a wide berth for the time being.

 

“I thought there were only humans in your world?” Elle asked.

 

“Oh yeah, there are, but I mean we have stories about, well, a lot of things I've seen here, like elves and orcs and dwarves, but none of them fit exactly right. For one thing, orcs are usually just big, angry, green guys,” I said, leaving out that they were usually also always evil. Distance or not, I wasn’t risking being overheard saying something else that might get me in huge trouble. “And elves are usually just all tall and pale and blonde, and a lot of times they’re real haughty assholes who think they’re better than everyone else.”

 

At that, Mel snorted and Elle pursed her lips.

 

“That is not a very flattering image,” Elle said, frowning. “I hope you didn't think of us like that when we first met.”

 

“Oh, no, not at all,” I said, shaking my head. “Like you said, I didn't even know you were elves at first, and besides, I never liked the stories that just went with the ‘classic’ depiction of elves anyway. One of my other friends used to say they’re only like that because everyone was just copying all their ideas from one old guy who wrote some super popular fantasy books a long while ago, and I think the elves in that were supposed to be a metaphor for… something…” I could see Elle and Mel were looking increasingly lost, so I quickly wrapped up that loose thread. “A-anyway, I never got around to reading them, but I did see the movies.”

 

“The what?” Mel asked.

 

“Ah, shit,” I said, shaking my head. “Uh, nevermind, we can go over stuff like movies and computers and… everything else later, I feel like once I get started on those we'll be at it for hours.” I waved my hand, as though clearing smoke from the air, and refocused my eyes on the pair. “So, elves? Trees?”

 

“Ah, alright.” Mel shrugged, finishing the last bite of her plum and tossing the core into the grass behind her. “Well, first off, do you know about pollination?”

 

“Like… with flowers? And bees?” I asked hesitantly, and Mel snickered again.

 

“Sure, though there are lots of other animals that help with pollination, but this isn’t a gardening lesson.” Tilting her head back to rest on the bench and looking up at the tree directly overhead, she continued, “So, when an orchard collectively comes to the decision that they're ready to have a kid, it kinda flips a mental switch and one of the members enters an, uh… Elle, help me out here?”

 

“A heightened magical state,” Elle supplied, patting Mel's shoulder and taking over in a surprisingly scholarly voice. “Their body becomes receptive to the unique mana signatures of their partners, and over the course of the next few days begins to accumulate mana from each of them and meld it together inside their body. This process is also called pollination, and it's customary for the entire orchard to spend as much time together as possible during this period. Once they're… uh, ‘full'”—Mel snorted quietly at that and Elle lightly swatted her shoulder without skipping a beat—“they just have to go to one of their community's elftrees and pass the ‘seed’ into it, where it will sprout from one of the branches and grow over the course of the next eight quarters, give or take, into a healthy baby elf.”

 

I waited to see if there was any more to her explanation, but Elle just smiled patiently and folded her hands in her lap, so I took in a deep breath and blew it out slowly.

 

“Pff… wow, okay,” I said, leaning back on the bench again. “You really weren't kidding. Well, that answers one question and raises a whole bunch more… so, elves don’t have…” I paused, still wary of being overheard, and lowered my voice to a whisper. “Sex?”

 

To my right, Mel burst out laughing, immediately trying and failing to stifle herself while Elle clapped a hand over her mouth, flushing green. Though they were too far away to have heard me, I saw a few of the neighbors on their porches turning their heads curiously in our direction.

 

“S-stop laughing, Mel!” Elle sputtered, reaching over to shake her by the shoulder, which only seemed to amuse her more, while I contemplated seeing how deeply I could burrow into the ground. When Mel did eventually regain her composure, she had to wipe a few tears from her eyes.

 

“Sorry,” Mel said, in between chuckles. “Sorry, sorry, that’s just… such a funny question to ask.” Clearing her throat a few times, she gave me a smirk that had me blushing even harder. “Of course we do, Sam, but sex and reproduction are different things, especially for elves.”

 

“O-oh… I… I see…” I said, glancing from Mel’s smirking face to Elle, whose face was hidden in one of her hands again, but I could see that even the tips of her ears were green now. It was definitely time to change the subject.

 

“Now I’m kind of scared to ask about how it works for orcs or dwarves,” I said, shaking my head and kicking my legs out in front of me. “And, well, I know you offered to help me understand this world more, and I definitely appreciate it, but I don't really want to just sit here and pelt you with questions all afternoon. Maybe it’s because of that nap just now, but I feel too wound up to keep sitting here either.”

 

“Heh, fair enough,” Mel said, chuckling and reaching across to pat at Elle’s back. “We've still got plenty of questions for you too, but we can space them out a bit. Our original plan for today was to show you around more of the village, do you still feel up for that, after everything?”

 

“Totally,” I said, hopping to my feet in an instant. As much as I complained about having to nap so much, it did feel great to be so brimming with energy after just laying my head down for ten minutes or so.

 

Elle, recovered from her embarrassment, stood up with the basket. “Ah, alright, let me just take these inside, and I should feed Clover before we go.”

 

“Who’s Clover?” I asked, following, and Elle visibly perked up, her ears bouncing as she turned to smile at me.

 

“Oh, right, you haven’t met her yet! Come on, I’ll show you!” she said excitedly, grabbing my hand. We stepped back into the house and Elle led me into the room to the left of the entrance, opposite the sitting room. I found it to be evenly split between a cozy little dining area, with a round wooden table surrounded by chairs placed before one of the wide windows, and a shelf containing more plants and a handful of books. Attached to the dining room was a small kitchen, consisting of a short counter beside a large metal stove, a waist-high box made of the same black-and-green material as Bart’s ice chest, and another open doorway into a pantry area, where Elle moved to deposit the basket of fruit.

 

Glancing around, I noticed a wide bowl placed on the floor made of a greenish-tinted wood, with a word carved into the side.

 

“Clover,” I read aloud, realizing it was the name of a pet. I wondered if it was a cat, or a dog, or maybe something else. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel if it turned out Elle and Mel had an actual cat as a pet.

 

“Mmhm, she’s the sweetest, I just need to fix her something to eat real quick,” Elle said, returning from the pantry. I stood back and watched while Elle chopped up two carrots and a large cucumber, then moved to the black box and opened it, revealing the inside to be lined with ice, a cold mist waving out as she dug around inside and pulled out…

 

“Are those bones?” I asked, as Elle collected a small handful of bones about as long as a finger, with bits of meat still stuck to them.

 

“Hmm? Oh, yes, chicken bones,” Elle said, smiling as she carried them over to the pile of chopped vegetables. “They’re her favorite.”

 

I was… pretty certain now that Clover was not a pet cat. Or a dog, even. Elle picked up the cutting board and carried it to the bowl, pushing the small pile into it, then standing up and cupping one hand around her mouth.

 

“Clover, here girl!” she called, then made a strange popping noise with her mouth. I waited, intensely curious, until I began to hear a similar popping sound coming from the hall, except much wetter. It grew steadily louder, until a pile of lime green ooze the size of a basketball sloshed around the corner, burbling as it went.

 

“There she is,” Elle cooed while I stared in a mixture of fascination and horror as the ball of slime glided across the wooden floor towards the bowl. Once it was there, it simply shlorped its way up into the bowl with the pile of vegetables and bones, which began to float around inside the mass like the world’s worst gelatin dessert.

 

“What… the heck is that?” I said dumbly, just watching the now perfectly spherical green orb sit and jiggle in place while its contents slowly swirled inside it.

 

“Oh!” Elle said, giggling. “Right, you wouldn’t have these where you come from, would you? No magic means no magical creatures, huh?” She walked over to stand beside me, smiling and motioning at the ooze. “Well, this is Clover, and she’s a green slime.”

 

“A… slime,” I said, tilting my head slightly and taking a step closer.

 

“Mmhm, slimes are one of the simplest magical creatures in existence,” Elle said, again sounding a bit like she was delivering a lecture. “They come in all sorts of colors, and they make great pets because they’ll eat almost anything. They can also provide ingredients for certain potions; every so often when she gets too big, we drain her excess slime and sell it to one of the alchemists around town.”

 

Huh, kind of like a pet cow. Okay, no, not that much like a cow at all, but I was still reeling from the sight of the slime and the revelation that there were other animals in this world besides just the ones that resembled regular Earth creatures.

 

“Can I… pet her?” I asked, looking back at Elle.

 

“Not while she’s eating,” Elle said, snickering. “She might try to dissolve your hand, but when we get back you can play with her if you want.”

 

I looked again, and sure enough I could see that the bits of meat that had been on the bones were almost entirely gone, and many of the chunks of carrot were smaller and rounder around the edges, as though they’d been melted.

 

I took a step back. And then another. Elle giggled, taking my hand again.

 

“Don’t worry, she’s just a houseslime, she’s harmless,” Elle said, leading me back to the door.

 

“Wait, does that mean there are slimes that aren't harmless?” I asked as Elle and I put our shoes back on.

 

“Oh, absolutely!” Elle said gravely. “Not so dangerous that you'd need to call in a hunter, but wild slimes can be a real threat if they grow too big, or a colony gets too large.”

 

“Oh,” I said, furrowing my brow. That made sense, if one slime was basically a mobile blob of acid, then a bunch of them together could probably be a serious threat to someone unprepared. “Are there wild slimes around here?”

 

“There are wild slimes everywhere,” Elle said as we stepped outside to rejoin Mel. “They’re one of the most common magical creatures, because all they need to form is an environment with enough mana in it.”

 

“Oh boy, you got her talkin’ about slimes,” Mel said, grinning. “She'll be at it for the next hour now, at least.”

 

“Well I'm sorry,” Elle shot back with exaggerated offense, hands on her hips. “I can't help it if I find them so fascinating!” Turning back to me, she said more genuinely, “Ah, but, I won't bore you, Sammie.”

 

“Are you kidding me?” I asked with a laugh, falling in at Elle’s side as we began to head for the gateway. “One of my favorite things to do back on Earth was listen to Morgan go on and on about stuff. Even if I didn't always know what she was talking about, it was just nice to see her so excited, and you're talking about magical creatures. There's no way I could be bored by that.”

 

For some reason, my words had caused Elle’s ears to turn green again, and she stumbled a bit before she managed to continue speaking.

 

“A-ah, well, o-okay!” Elle said, excitedly, and launched right back into her explanation. “So, like I said, there are wild slimes outside of the village, but you shouldn't worry too much about them. You'd have to go pretty deep into the forest to risk encountering enough of them to be in danger, and Bart could easily deal with any that wander up while you're both out there by the river. In fact, you could probably handle them better than him; you've got claws!” Elle reached down, taking one of my hands and holding it up, showing off my claws as if I didn't know they were there. Which, to be fair, I did still sometimes forget. “Most slimes are very susceptible to being slashed or pierced, except metallic slimes, those you want to bash, and then melt them if possible, but there's likely very few, if any, metallic slimes on Torgard.”

 

“Huh, neat,” I said. Even though Elle had finished using my hand as a demonstration aide, she still held onto it as we walked, her fingers seemingly automatically finding the spaces between my own and slipping into them. We were holding hands, and she didn't even seem to realize, but I sure as hell did, and so did Mel. When her eyes met mine over Elle’s shoulder, she just grinned and held a finger to her lips, and I got the feeling she was telling me, “Let’s see how long it takes her to notice.”

 

It wasn't until after we had left the residential district behind and made it all the way to the park, which I was starting to think might be the center of the village, that Elle finally did notice.

 

She was in the middle of explaining the role slimes served inside the ecosystem “—important not only for breaking down dead matter, but also for recycling mana—” when her emphatically gesturing free hand happened to brush against Mel and she missed a step.

 

“Oh, sorry!” she said, patting Mel's shoulder, the motion finally making her realize it was not Mel’s hand she'd been holding the whole time. Her head whipped around to face me so fast her ears flapped, her cheeks green and her eyes wide.

 

“Ah, oh, I am so sorry, Sammie!” she said, disentangling her fingers from mine and holding both hands up, palms out. Mel, of course, burst out laughing, though I tried to stifle my own snickering. Key word being “tried.”

 

“What're you apologizing for?” I asked, after we'd gotten it out of our systems and started walking again. “If anything, I’m the one who should’ve said something, but still, we’re… we’re girlfriends now, so, we’re supposed to hold hands sometimes, right?”

 

“Girl… friends?” Mel said skeptically.

 

“Yeah?” I said. “It’s… what you call it when you’re dating a girl, y’know? Like, when a guy and a girl get together, they’re boyfriend and girlfriend, right?”

 

“Huh,” Mel said, not sounding any more convinced. “I’ve heard some of the old timers use the term ‘lady friend,’ but ‘girlfriend?’ That sounds like it just means a friend who is also a girl.”

 

“You’re… not wrong,” I said, sighing and bringing a hand to my forehead. “Actually, it does also mean that, too, sometimes girls will call other girls their girlfriends but they’re not actually going out, it’s actually really confusing.”

 

“Your world is so weird, Sammie,” Elle said, shaking her head.

 

“Well, what do you call it then?” I said, just a tad defensively. It wasn’t like I was some kind of Earth ambassador or anything.

 

“Oh, there’s lots of things!” Elle said, suddenly grinning and clapping her hands together in front of her. “There’s ‘suitor’ or ‘admirer,’ but that’s for people who want to be in a relationship, Mel’s boring so she usually just sticks with ‘partners’ or ‘companions,’ but my favorite is ‘sweethearts!’”

 

“Euugh,” I said, sticking my tongue out. “That’s so old-fashioned! That’s like what people called each other in the fifties… or, was it the twenties…”

 

“The what?” Mel asked, once again leaning around Elle.

 

“The nineteen fifties,” I said. “Like, the year, one thousand nine hundred and fifty.”

 

They both gaped at that, seemingly stunned, but Elle was the first to recover.

 

“You lived during an era that lasted almost two thousand years?” Elle asked, clearly amazed.

 

“Well, technically, when I left it was over two thousand, but, yeah?” I said, smirking a little. It felt good to actually be the one on the giving end of a mind blowing revelation for once. “That's a good point though, what year is it here? I haven't seen a calendar once since I arrived, and I still haven't even managed to figure out what all the days of the week are called.”

 

The pair exchanged a quick glance at that, with Mel taking the lead this time.

 

“Well, it can depend on who you ask, but as far as most of the world is concerned, it's the year seven twenty-three, in the Era of Magic. The church of Time and Tide and the dwarves both keep their own calendars, but we can get into that later.”

 

“Huh, okay, seven twen— actually, hold on.” I broke off and reached into my satchel, pulling out the blank notebook I'd bought before and the not-quite-pencil thing, and flipped to the back pages. I wrote down the current year, looking up at them again. “You said ‘the Era of Magic?’”

 

“Uh, yeah,” Mel said, watching curiously as I scribbled while we walked. “Some people also like to call it the Age of the Mage, but it's the same thing.”

 

“Why is it called that?” I asked, glancing up. I had never been the most studious, uh, student, and would usually have to beg Morgan for her notes, but this was actually important if I was going to fit in better.

 

“Because the current era is measured from when the Independent Council of Mages was formed and first began spreading magic to the populace,” Elle said, and I had to pause my scribbling.

 

“Wait, magic’s only been a thing here for like seven hundred years?” I asked, and Elle let out a surprised giggle.

 

“I keep forgetting you don’t know anything we take for common knowledge here,” Elle said, shaking her head. “But, no, magic has been a part of this world since before the mortal races were even born, since the very beginning and probably even before, it’s just that before the Council existed, not everyone had access to it.”

 

Oh, I couldn’t wait to hear what that meant, but unfortunately we had arrived at our destination. I was surprised, because I didn’t even know we had a destination when we left, but Elle suddenly turned away mid explanation and looked up, announcing, “Oh, we’re here!”

 

“Here” turned out to be Dani’s tailoring shop from the day before. I recognized the wide windows and well dressed mannequins, and inside I could see Dani herself behind the counter, talking with another customer.

 

“What're we doin’ here?” I asked, tilting my head.

 

“Dani wanted us to bring you by, she's apparently finished one set of your new clothes and wants to see if she got the fit right,” Mel said, reaching out and opening the door for me and Elle. Stepping inside, I caught the tail end of Dani's conversation with the surprisingly large man standing at her counter.

 

“—have those ready well before the festival, don't you worry, Rodrigo.”

 

“I would never dare doubt your skills, Danella, darling,” the large man said with a deep, smoothly accented voice that had the fur on my tail standing on end.

 

“Oh, get out of here, you sweet-talker, you,” Dani said, pressing one hand to her cheek, holding the other out towards the man and making a shooing motion. But the man just caught her hand in his much larger one and leaned down, pressing his lips to the back of it.

 

“As you wish,” the man said, while Dani tittered, then seemed to finally notice the rest of us.

 

“Oh, girls, there you are!” she called, not at all embarrassed to have been caught flirting with a customer, like I’d expected. “Well don’t just stand there in the doorway, come in!”

 

“S-sorry!” I called, since I’d been the first one to enter before freezing at the realization of what I was seeing. I hurried closer to the counter just in time for the large man to turn around and face us, and for a second I thought the world’s wealthiest bear had wandered into Dani’s shop.

 

The man was, like most people were to me now, quite tall, with tanned skin and a swept-back mane of black hair. His eyebrows, beard, and mustache were similarly thick and bushy, but not in an unruly way, and his large forearms were also covered in the same thick black hair. He was dressed in black trousers with suspenders over a honey-yellow silken shirt, with a little half-cape that hung off one shoulder, the outside of which was black but the inside of which was some shiny dark amber material. Finally, perched atop his head was a black hat sporting a huge plume of yellow feathers.

 

I was almost blinded as the sunlight from outside caught the man, and his various bits of jewelry twinkled. He had multiple piercings in his ears of thin gold loops, gold buttons on his shirt and gold buckles on his boots, and, a bit like Dani, multiple bangles jangling on his wrists. The only thing that wasn’t gold was a thin silver chain with a pendant attached, hanging from his neck.

 

“Ah-ha!” the man said, lifting his hat off his head and giving the three of us a sweeping bow. “My apologies if I held you ladies up, I was simply concluding some business with Lady Dewglass.” Behind him, Dani laughed again.

 

“Not at all, Mister De Campo,” Elle said with a polite smile, and the gears in my brain finally started spinning again after I’d been flashbanged by the man’s jewelry.

 

“Did you say De Campo?” I asked, because if his appearance hadn’t been enough to clue me in, the name all but sealed the deal. The man’s dark eyes fixed on me, and he grinned.

 

“Yes, that is I!” he said, pressing his hand to his barrel shaped chest and bowing his head, still all smiles. “Rodrigo De Campo, head of the Rower's Rest Merchant’s Guild, at your service!”

 

“Sam,” I said automatically, then, since I didn’t really want to be too rude to this guy right away, I hastily added, “er, I mean, Samantha Fisher, local… fisher. I’ve, uh, met your son.”

 

“Ah, and I have heard of you!” Rodrigo said, straightening up and looking me over more closely. “From my little Roberto, in fact. Is it true you fear neither work, nor water?”

 

“Uh… yes?” I said, tilting my head slightly.

 

“Fantastic! And most curious, for one of your kind,” Rodrigo said, clapping his hands together and making his bangles jangle. “It is always wonderful to welcome new business to the village, even an independent angler such as yourself. My boy did not give you any trouble, did he?”

 

“Not really…” I said, furrowing my brow in thought as I tried to recall my last encounter with Bentley and his friends. I was still trying to get a read on this guy, but he didn’t seem predisposed against me at least. “I mean, no, he didn’t give me any trouble, but he did have some really shitty things to say about demihumans working with food.”

 

“Ah, yes, that business with the bakery, I have heard,” Rodrigo said with a shake of his head, his smile finally faltering. “I would beg your forgiveness if I felt it was earned, but I have heard some of the things he says for myself. He is… young, and impressionable, and I’m afraid he has spent too much time around the wrong sorts while accompanying me to the capital.”

 

“Oh really?” I asked, crossing my arms. I had been ready to just let the man make whatever excuses he was going to for the sake of his son and then leave, but I was mildly curious about what he had to say.

 

“Indeed,” Rodrigo said, letting out a sigh. “I don’t think I need to tell you what attitudes are like in high society, and try as they might to discourage them, the kingdom cannot officially bar their representatives from visiting the capital without attracting even more trouble, much as I wish they would. And with them they bring their rotten attitudes, their ideas of who is worth more and who is worth less, and pass those ideas off onto those who are all too eager to please them, and in turn onto their children, and, eventually, ours.”

 

Catching himself just as he began to scowl, Rodrigo cleared his throat and nodded his head to me.

 

“My apologies, I’ve gone and slipped into a speech,” he said, once again smiling pleasantly, if not as widely. “I will leave you three to your business. Enjoy the rest of your day, and if my son does give you any more trouble, pay him no heed.”

 

With that, he turned briefly to tip his hat at Dani one final time, then spun around so fast his cape swirled in the air, and strode briskly out of the tailor’s shop.

 

While the little bell hung above the door was still ringing, I rounded on Dani.

 

“Do you seriously like that guy?” I asked, pointing over my shoulder with a thumb. Dani gave a full-throated laugh into her hand, finally coming out from behind the counter to greet us.

 

“He is a very charming man, in fact,” Dani said, sweeping up to Elle and repeating her enthusiastic greeting from the day before; a quick hug and a little kiss on the forehead. Her eyes flicked over to me, then she lowered her voice and switched to elven while pretending to admire part of Elle’s outfit. “So, did you ask her?”

 

“O-oh, actually…” Elle said, also glancing at me. I grinned back at her.

 

“They did, actually,” I said, and Dani actually gasped, her amethyst eyes widening as she dropped all pretense.

 

“Oh, you speak Elvish?” she asked, and I paused for a moment, while out of Dani’s view Elle and Mel exchanged a glance. That was a good question, could I? Mel had said I wasn’t even currently speaking English, I was speaking “Western Trade Common,” even though I didn’t feel like I was doing anything differently, so maybe there was a way to… change the language people heard when I spoke?

 

Well, no time to figure that out while Dani was still waiting for a response.

 

“I’m… fluent enough to understand it, but I’m not as good at speaking it myself,” I hastily explained, and Dani nodded in understanding.

 

“I see, I see,” Dani said, smiling, her cheeks turning a little purple. “Well, I’m sorry for trying to sneak that past you, but I’m just so excited to find out if my favorite orchard has gained a new sapling.”

 

Dani looked expectantly between the three of us, and Elle and Mel looked to me but didn’t volunteer an answer, so I just shrugged and reached out, taking both of their hands in mine and grinning even wider.

 

“Oh, splendid!” Dani said, clapping her hands together then sweeping her arms out wide and enclosing all three of us in a tight embrace that once again left me feeling like a glob of jelly mushed between two slices of bread. “I am so happy for you two, and you as well, Sam!”

 

It took almost a full minute for Dani to finish congratulating us, though Mel and I were able to extricate ourselves from her arms and get a little breathing room while she and Elle chattered excitedly.

 

“She’s really happy for you,” I observed, stretching my back a bit after nearly being crushed.

 

“Us,” Mel said, chuckling and rubbing the back of her neck. “She’s happy for us, and yeah, I figured she would be.”

 

“Right,” I said, smiling down at my feet at her insistence. I’d never been an “us” or a “we” before, and it still made my heart race to think about. But it did bring another question to the forefront of my mind. “Not that I’m not appreciative, but, what is the deal with you and her anyway? Is she like… related to one of you?”

 

“Heh, she might as well be,” Mel said, leaning back against a shelf and rubbing her chin. “It might be hard to explain without getting too deep into elven culture, but think of her as something like… an adoptive aunt? She’s been here in the village a lot longer than us, so when me and Elle arrived, she saw to it that we both landed on our feet, helped us out a lot in the early days and… well, we’re both really grateful to her.”

 

“I think I get it,” I said, looking over to Dani and Elle and tapping my chin. “My… family back home had a guy who we called ‘Uncle Rocko,’ but he wasn’t actually our uncle, like, he wasn’t my dad’s brother, but they’d been friends a loooong time.” Mel chuckled a little at that, and I smiled, recalling some of the family barbeques and camping trips I could remember him coming along on, but the memories were bittersweet now.

 

My ears barely had time to droop before Mel’s hand found its way to the top of my head, and I leaned against her side and purred quietly while I did my best to rebury all those memories until I was in a better place to unearth them. Clearing my throat, I decided to try and steer the conversation in a different direction.

 

“Hey, so,” I began, tilting my head back to look up at Mel. “That guy just now, he said something that I’m confused about; he said I should know what attitudes are like in high society, which I’ve kind of figured out just from what people say about me, that catkin are only found in high society.”

 

“Right,” Mel said, nodding along.

 

“But, then, he talked about it like it was a place, not just another word for the nobility,” I said, and Mel’s nodding stopped, but I continued. “Like, he mentioned they have ‘representatives’ that visit, and that’s not the only time that’s confused me. People keep saying things like they think I come from a specific place, about me being new ‘down here,’ or referring to some place ‘up there,’ and I have no idea what they mean by that, is there some place way up north where the most noble nobles all live, or what?”

 

Mel stared for a moment, her brow slowly furrowing, all but confirming that this was a question I was glad I had waited to ask, because it was clearly not something anyone from this world would ask.

 

“Up… north…” Mel finally said, shaking her head. “No, Sam, that’s not what it means. For starters, high society is a place, or, a bunch of places. High society is the name for all the islands above the surface, and the people that live on them. They’re worse than even the most out-of-touch nobles down here, because they think living in the sky and having more money than anyone anywhere makes them better by default. That’s what people mean when they say ‘up there.’”

 

Mel finished off her explanation by pointing upwards. Straight up, at the sky, like I was certain I’d seen people do before, but just never realized what they actually meant. 

 

Several things rushed back to me all at once, and it finally clicked.

 

“Tweren't no island’s passin’ overhead last night…” Bart had been saying, one of the first things I’d ever heard him say as a matter of fact, while I was still lying groggy and disoriented in Felda’s bed and mistaking their voices for a tv show. 

 

I recalled the painting that had been hanging in the hall in Felda’s tavern. An island in the clouds with a city built on top of it, and what Peter had said when he’d tried to introduce himself to me.

 

“My apologies, did I do it wrong? I haven’t been back to the skies in quite a while, so I’m a bit rusty on greeting catkin.”

 

It finally made sense. All along, people hadn’t been saying “high society.” They were saying High Society.

 

That’s… so dumb!

 

At that moment, while I was still resisting the urge to slap myself in the forehead, Dani and Elle finally wrapped up their conversation and returned to us.

 

“Sorry, sorry, just so much to catch up on,” Dani said as she approached, and I wiped the exasperated look off my face before either of them could notice. So there were islands in the clouds? So the place everyone assumed I was from, and the only place I was guaranteed to ever meet another catkin was some kind of ultra-rich sky society built on top of a bunch of floating islands? So… so what? This world had magic and monsters and pirates and elves that grew on trees like fruit. Was that even the strangest thing I’d heard today? Either way, it wasn’t anything to lose my head over.

 

“So sorry for making you wait so long,” Dani said, smiling down at me. 

 

“It’s totally fine,” I said, smiling right back. “You said you have something ready for me to try on?”

 

“Indeed!” Dani beamed, putting a hand on my shoulder. “If you'll step into the back, we can see if I've got the fit right, and then if you like you could wear them out,” she said, guiding me towards the curtain that separated the front of the store from her work room.

 

“Wow, that was fast,” I said, impressed.

 

“Yeah, Dani is amazing,” Elle said from behind me. “We'll wait out here, but call us when you're ready, I can't wait to see!”

 

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that Elle and Mel had indeed hung back, and I spoke before I could stop myself.

 

“Oh, well, you can come too if you want,” I said, then froze as I realized what I'd just implied. That sounded way too eager, didn't it? I felt my cheeks start to heat up and immediately tried to explain myself. “A-ah, I mean! N-not that I want you to, I just meant it wouldn't be weird if you did, b-because we're girlfriends now! Not that I'm saying I don't want you too either, I just—Nyaach!”

 

I cut myself off with a startled, cat-like yelp as Dani’s hand came down on my shoulder again.

 

“Slow down and breathe, dear.” Dani said with an amused smile, and I tried to do just that. After I'd taken several deep breaths, she patted my shoulder and nodded towards Elle and Mel. “Now, are you comfortable with the girls accompanying us into the back?” Not trusting myself not to start rambling again, I just nodded. Dani turned and smiled at Elle and Mel. “Would you two like to come back as well?”

 

“Yes!” Elle said, immediately, then flinched back, holding up a hand. “I-I-I mean—”

 

“Don't you start now,” Mel cut her off, throwing an arm around her shoulder and giving me a grin and a thumbs up. “Sure, we're right behind you.”

 

“Wonderful,” Dani said, turning back around and resuming her sauntering walk to the back room. “Ah, to be young,” she said with a sigh, then giggled as she lifted the curtain, looking over my shoulder at the pair. “I remember when I had to do the same thing for you two as well.”

 

“Really?” I asked as I stepped into the chaotically organized back room. Mel let out a groan behind me, while Elle snickered.

 

“Oh yes, there was a time when Mel could barely get up the nerve to ask Elle if she wanted to hold hands,” Dani said, sharing a conspiratorial grin with me.

 

“Really?” I asked again, glancing back at Mel, who seemed to have found something particularly interesting in the upper corner of Dani's workshop. “But you're the literal picture of calm, cool, and collected.”

 

“Yeah, well, I wasn't always,” Mel said, scrunching up one side of her face and shrugging. It was hard to tell due to the darker purple hue of her skin, but it looked like her cheeks might have been turning blue.

 

“It was soooo cute, I loved the way you used to only be able to talk to me while staring at your own feet,” Elle said, tilting her head to kiss Mel on the cheek, and, yup, her cheeks were definitely changing color.

 

“Oh, I thought you two came here together,” I said, chuckling a little. It was nice, getting to see yet another new side to Mel.

 

“Oh, we did,” Mel said, looking my way. “But we weren't together-together yet. It's… kind of a long story, but we'll tell you sometime.”

 

“Ah, alright,” I said, hoping I hadn't made them uncomfortable by touching on too private a subject too soon. Turning back to Dani so I couldn't dwell on it, I smiled and tilted my head. “So, uh, clothes?”

 

“Yes, yes, just step up onto the plinth, dear,” Dani said, motioning me to the small circular platform I'd stood on to get my measurements taken. I stepped up while she moved around to the various work tables, collecting several neatly folded bundles of dark colored cloth. “Now, if you'll undress please, and you two try to contain yourselves.”

 

I glanced back over my shoulder again. Mel grinned and gave me another thumbs up, causing Elle to roll her eyes and poke an elbow into her side.

 

Chuckling, I turned around and, after taking a deep, steadying breath, grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it up. Folding it once over my arm, I set it on the corner of a nearby table, then worked on undoing the laces on my pants. I had just stepped out of them when I caught Mel's voice on the edge of my hearing.

 

“Do you think she'd get mad if I whistled?” Mel asked in a whisper.

 

“Shh!” Elle hissed back, lowering her voice even further, but not nearly enough. “She can probably hear you!”

 

“Really?” Mel asked.

 

“I can,” I said, and could actually hear Mel’s boots scrape as she jerked backwards slightly. I smirked and flicked an ear at them, then looked up as Dani returned.

 

“Ah, you'll have to move your arms, dear,” Dani said, and I felt myself flush. I had instinctively crossed my arms over my chest, though I wasn't sure if it was to stop her from seeing, or stop me.

 

“S-sorry,” I muttered, but Dani just smiled, grabbing the first bundle on top of the small stack she'd brought.

 

“You're fine, Sam. Now, stick your arms out please,” she said, holding up… well, there was no other way to say it. It was a bra. More specifically, it looked like a sports bra. The only thing less surprising than how ordinary and modern it looked was how unsurprised I was. If even a day ago you had asked me what I was expecting from a fantasy world’s undergarments, I would have described something that looked like it belonged in a museum, but I had way bigger stuff to freak out about now, like the fact that there were islands in the sky.

 

Was I just focusing on those thoughts to distract myself from what Dani was doing around my chest? Absolutely.

 

“Aaaand… there!” Dani announced, pulling something tight behind my back, and I felt my whole upper torso and shoulders shift ever so slightly, my posture suddenly feeling awkward and new. “I bet that feels much better, huh?”

 

I looked straight down, possibly for the first time in three days, and drew in a breath.

 

Woah… 

 

“Uh… yeah, a lot better,” I said, a little disbelieving as I rolled my shoulders and craned my neck this way and that. I felt like I'd been carrying something around for several days and had finally gotten to set it down.

 

“Not too tight? You mentioned you wanted to be able to run, so I used one of the designs I sell to some of the guardswomen and hunters and refitted it to your size,” Dani said, suddenly leaning in quite close and poking around at my side, right below my armpit.

 

“Nya-ach!” I yelped again, jumping so far to the side I ended up balanced precariously on the edge of the platform, with my arms raised defensively. Dani drew back, startled at first, but eventually breaking out into a smile.

 

“Goodness, I didn't know you were so ticklish,” Dani said, while I coughed and tried to reorient myself in the middle of the platform.

 

“Neither did I,” I heard Mel whisper. I shot a look back at her, but she was once again staring up into the ceiling. 

 

“Y-you're fine,” I said, nodding up at Dani. “And, no, I feel like I could run for miles.”

 

“Excellent!” Dani said, clapping her hands once, then reaching for the next article of clothing from the stack and holding it up. It was the first of the shirts I'd ordered, a sleeveless top with a wide neckline, made of soft-looking black cotton. Rather than being pitch black, it had a subtle hint of lighter gray-blue undertone to it.

 

“Oooouh…” I gasped gently as Dani held the shirt out for me to stick my arms into, marveling at how much more comfortable the fabric was compared to the second-hand shirts I’d been wearing. It was indeed as soft as it looked, and when I tugged it down to my waist, it fit perfectly. I once again twisted myself side to side and stretched my arms over my head, feeling the fit at the sides and around my shoulders, before I grinned up at Dani.

 

“It’s awesome!” I declared, standing with my hands on my hips. “I love it!”

 

“Yeah, you did a great job, Dani!” Elle cheered from behind me.

 

Dani grinned, bending down to inspect her work now that I was actually wearing it. “Aw, thank you girls, but this is nothing, wait until you see the final piece.” Satisfied, Dani grabbed the last bundle and unfurled it, revealing the cargo shorts I’d ordered, just as described. They were black, like the top, but made of the visibly thicker and sturdier blended fabric that Dani had shown me the day before. And, just as I’d asked for, they had pockets for days, with two additional square shaped pouches sewn down the outside of each leg, with a little buttonable flap to cover their openings.

 

The shorts were such a simple thing, but I still felt giddy as I stepped into them and pulled them up my legs. I found not just the expected button and laces in the front, but also a scoop-shaped cutout in the back, perfectly positioned to accommodate my tail, with an extra flap of fabric made to loop over the top and button on the other side. Felda had done a fine job modifying the pants I’d bought, but having something that was custom made from the start to fit my tail felt so much better, and I spent several seconds just swishing it back and forth and testing out my new, much more comfortable range of motion.

 

“How long are you planning to stand there wiggling your butt?” Mel called out, reminding me of exactly where I was. I yelped, standing up straight and covering the seat of my pants with my hands while glaring back at Mel, who was once again doubled over with barely contained laughter. 

 

Dani, who did a much better job hiding her amusement, smiled expectantly when I turned back to her. 

 

“Well, how do they feel?”

 

“Great,” I said, lightly jogging in place on top of the platform, then bending down to feel the fabric with my hands, tugging at the bottom hem of one leg and poking experimentally into the pockets. “You were right, they’re a little more stiff, but I’m sure I’ll break ‘em in in no time. Honestly, they’re perfect, exactly what I was hoping for, and whatever I’m paying you for them is not enough.”

 

“Oh, stop,” Dani said, visibly preening and reaching down to pat the top of my head once. “You are just too precious. And I must say, you cut quite a striking figure. Would you like to see for yourself?” She motioned to a tall standing mirror on wheels in one corner of the workshop, and I nodded enthusiastically. “Thought so, you wait right here.”

 

I remained perched on the platform, fidgeting slightly. I wanted to glance over at Elle and Mel to see what their reactions were, but also wanted to wait until I’d gotten a look for myself. Dani wheeled the mirror over, keeping it sideways so I couldn’t see anything in it until she’d brought it closer, at which point she turned the mirror to face me, and I couldn’t help but gasp.

 

“Wooooah…” I said, staring wide eyed and slack jawed at my own reflection. I’d seen it before, obviously, and taken a few other looks at myself in the mirror since that very first time, but the difference between then and now was night and day. For one thing, between the bra and the much better-fitting shirt, it was now way more obvious that I was a girl, and for another thing…

 

“I look so cool!” I said, grinning now as I turned slightly to either side, then began to strike a few little poses, crossing my arms over my chest or behind my head, trying to take in every possible angle at once. Back on Earth, in addition to taking as few looks in the mirror as possible, I had also never put much thought into my choice of clothes, caring only if they were comfortable and fit right, not sparing a thought for whether I thought they looked good on me. Only now was I realizing that was because I didn't think anything looked good on me. Fashion, like hair, had felt cut off from me, relegated to the realm of “stuff for girls,” but now I knew better, and I felt like I could finally start appreciating everything I’d been missing out on for all those years.

 

And all it took was being magically transformed into a weird half-cat half-girl thing in a fantastical fantasy world.

 

Like aftershocks of an earthquake, I was struck by just how many of my problems seemingly stemmed from one single glaring issue. Ordinarily I would have felt nervous wearing something so distinctive, something that drew the eye way more than the plain and serviceable work clothes I'd come into Dani's shop wearing, but now, I think I was actually kind of excited to be seen in them, to stand out in a crowd instead of fading into the background.

 

The realization of exactly how much time I’d spent feeling uncomfortable and confused and out of place was just starting to sink in when Elle and Mel appeared to either side of me in the mirror, each looking concerned in their own way.

 

“Hey,” Mel said softly, meeting my eyes in the mirror instead of looking at me directly. “What’s up?”

 

“Am I that obvious?” I asked with a slightly bitter chuckle, turning my head and looking away from our reflections. “I was just… thinking about things, y’know, ‘back home.’ Kind of realizing that I… wasted a lot of time on feeling… not so good about myself, and now that I know why, I can’t help but feel a little angry too.”

 

“Mmmh…” Mel hummed, nodding as she listened. She raised one of her hands, holding it in my line of sight and asked, “Can I?” I responded by simply nodding, and she moved her hand to the top of my head. Meanwhile, the back of one of Elle’s hands brushed against one of mine, hesitantly, and when I didn’t pull it away, she once again slipped her fingers in between my own and clasped my hand, gently but firmly.

 

“Let me give you three some space,” Dani said quietly, already halfway to the curtain that led back to the front of her shop. I couldn’t help but smile as she disappeared, then leaned slightly into Mel while she lightly scratched at my scalp. A few moments passed in peaceful silence, broken only by my own purring.

 

“I’d say it’s completely understandable, you feeling that way,” Mel finally said. “We still don’t have the full picture, but, it really sounds like you weren’t having a very okay time back in your world.”

 

“Yeah…” I said, sighing and closing my eyes. “Until a few hours ago I wouldn’t have said it was all that bad, but now…” I paused, swallowing nervously. It felt so wrong, I hadn’t even wanted to think about it, but there was something I felt I needed to say, just to get it out there. “Now, I’m starting to feel like maybe I… don’t want to go home? Is that crazy? Like, shouldn’t I not just be sitting around here, eating fish and making friends and stuff like that when I could be, I don’t know, frantically searching for a way back to my own world?”

 

“That’s not crazy at all,” Elle said firmly, giving my hand a squeeze. I lifted my head from Mel’s shoulder to look at her, and her expression was the most serious I’d ever seen. “Of course you wouldn’t want to go back to a place where you weren’t happy!”

 

“I know, but… it’s not like I was constantly miserable,” I said, squeezing Elle’s hand back. “I still had my brothers, and my friends, mostly Morgan, but she was going off to college, and I… screwed up my own chance to follow her. I don’t know if I’m ready to say it was a good thing that I came here, but… I can say that right here, right now, I am happy…”

 

I trailed off, momentarily marveling at the fact that I could be happy given my situation. Was it selfish of me to be so quick to condemn my entire life on Earth? To not spend every waking moment agonizing over if or when I'd ever go back? I didn't know, and, frankly, I didn't really care at the moment.

 

“And hey,” I said, shaking off those thoughts before they could congeal into dark clouds, smiling up at Elle and Mel in turn. “I got to meet you two.”

 

“Aw!” Elle gasped, and before I knew it I was being crushed into another hug. “Sammie, that's the sweetest thing I've ever heard!”

 

Mel chuckled, using the hand on top of my head to gently muss up my hair before adding herself to the group hug. “I'll say,” she said, smirking down at me. “Sweeter than a maple tree.”

 

I let out a squeak and squirmed until I could free my arms from my sides and wrap one each around each of them, my whole face feeling like it was on fire.

 

“S-shut up, it wasn't that sweet!” I huffed, pressing my cheek against Elle’s arm. She and Mel shared a playful chuckle while I pretended to fume for a few more seconds, but I could only hold out for so long before I was grinning and laughing along with them.

 

“Well, whatever you choose to do with your life here is entirely up to you, and we’ll support you in any way we can,” Mel said after we’d collected ourselves and broke from the impromptu huddle. “That said, we should probably quit hogging Dani’s back room.”

 

“A-ah, right, good idea,” I said, nodding. I turned to take one last look at myself in the mirror again, seeing myself as I now was; short and, I was willing to admit, cute, cat-eared and cat-tailed, and surrounded by people who… loved me? Or, if it was too soon for that, people who just really really liked me a lot!

 

“You really do look great,” Mel remarked, meeting my eyes in the mirror again and smiling.

 

“Yeah, you look so dashing, Sammie!” Elle added, putting both hands on my shoulders. “You look like you mean business.”

 

I was grinning like a fool and walking on air as we headed for the curtain covered doorway.

 

“Heh, yeah, I'd like to see Bentley and his goons try and run their mouths with me now,” I said as I pushed back the curtain. Dani turned and glanced back at my entrance, as did the customer she had at the counter.

 

Ah. It was Bentley, sans goons.

 

“Fuck…” I hissed under my breath.

 

“All finished?” Dani asked without skipping a beat.

 

“Uh huh,” I said, not taking my eyes off Bentley. “He hasn't said anything shitty yet, has he?”

 

“Who, Lord Bentley? Never, he's been a perfect gentleman, as always,” Dani said with an amused chuckle.

 

“Really?”

 

“You seem to have formed a misapprehension that I am some sort of foul-mouthed barbarian, with a personal mission to offend everyone I meet,” Bentley said dryly, half-scowling at me over the countertop.

 

“Yeah, I wonder where I could've gotten that idea,” I shot back, moving to get out from behind the counter.

 

“Listen, you wretch, I—” Bentley started to reply, but halted when I stepped fully into view. Short as I was, he must not have been able to see more than my head and the tops of my shoulders, but now he was visibly taken aback by my new outfit, and I couldn't help but grin smugly.

 

“Well,” he said, recollecting himself and sniffing dismissively. “I see you've finally acquired some clothing that fits you properly, well done. You're much less likely to be mistaken for a small boy now, though no less likely to be mistaken for a thief, dressing like that.”

 

“Thank you,” I said, choosing to take that as a compliment. Much to Bentley's consternation, if the tightening of his expression and redding of his cheeks was any indication.

 

“If you're quite done,” Bentley said through clenched teeth  forcibly averting his eyes. “I would like to return to my business sometime today.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, we were just leaving,” I said,  turning to Dani and quickly dulling the edge on my voice. “I really can't tell you how much I love these,” I said, smiling and tugging lightly on my shirt. “I'll get right back to fishing first thing tomorrow morning, and I'll start paying you the rest of what I owe as soon as I can.”

 

“Oh, don't you even fret over it,” Dani said with a cheerful smile and a shake of her head. “You pay me back at whatever pace is comfortable for you, and don't hesitate to stop by just for a visit.”

 

“So, you have been practicing, hmm?” Bentley said, looking sidelong at me as I passed. “I wondered why I hadn't seen you out on the bay, but I suppose a beginner like you wouldn't have met the requirements to fish the open waters yet.”

 

“Oh, I'll be out there soon enough, just you wait and see!” I shouted back through cupped hands, walking backwards towards the door with Elle and Mel tailing me, the former looking like she was struggling to maintain a straight face while the latter was practically beaming. Once we were out on the street, Mel broke out into full on laughter, and continued as we walked away.

 

“That was so nerve-wracking,” Elle said, pressing a hand to her forehead and looking over at me. “I honestly don’t know how you can stand to antagonize him like that, Sammie. Even if he can be a bit of a…” Elle glanced back over her shoulder, then to either side of the street before continuing, “a thorny prick, he’s still the mayor’s son.”

 

“Eh, I wouldn’t worry, it's not like he’ll risk doing anything to her before the festival,” Mel said, and at my and Elle’s confused looks, she held up a hand. “Think about it, if he tries to force the town guards to hassle her or, tides forbid, tries to get her thrown out of town early, then it'll look like he was scared that she was going to beat him and interfered. He cares way too much about his reputation to let that happen.”

 

“Oooh…” Elle said, raising her eyebrows. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

 

“Well, he should be scared! I can’t wait to beat his ass in that competition!” I said, smacking a fist into my palm and then immediately wincing as I nearly punctured my other palm with my own claws. I still hadn't gotten used to the fact that my claws didn’t retract far enough to allow me to make an actual fist.

 

“Okay, easy there, tiger!” Mel said, chuckling and patting the top of my head. “First of all, it’s a fishing competition, not a tourney duel, so no asses are getting beat. Second of all… well, you're confident you're going to be able to win, right?”

 

“I mean, I haven't really had time to worry about that, with all the other stuff I've been worrying about,” I said, shrugging. “It's not so much that I think I'm going to win, it's that I have to win. When I made the bet and proposed that outcome, I thought Bentley was kind of an idiot for accepting it, because I told myself at the time that I would be just fine up and leaving this place at any time. But, well, look how wrong I turned out to be.” I smiled up at both of them, and Elle suppressed a little squeal. I reached out and took her hand in mine, surprised at how easily I'd gotten used to the motion, and the feelings it caused. Then, since I was walking between them now, I reached over and snagged Mel's hand as well, putting on my fiercest, most determined grin.

 

“So, yeah, for you two, and Felda and Bart too, I have to win, and I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure I do!”

 

My stomach chose that exact moment to let out an audible groan, reminding me that a shared platter of meats, cheese, fruit, and fish, while delicious, was not enough to satisfy me for long.

 

Elle giggled, squeezing my hand and tugging gently. “Here, how about we head to Baker’s Row next? I did promise to treat you to something, if I remember correctly.”

 

“Oh, I was just joking around last night, you don't have to,” I said hastily.

 

“No, but I want to,” Elle countered and, well, I wasn't going to try that hard to dissuade her from spoiling me if she really wanted to.

 

“You two go on ahead, I'm going to make another stop real quick,” Mel said, and I released her hand. She moved closer, once again giving me a swift peck on the forehead and Elle a quick kiss. “Order me my favorite, would you?”

 

“Of course,” Elle said, giggling and waving as Mel headed off, then resuming our trek to Baker’s Row. I continued to watch Mel’s departure until she disappeared around a corner.

 

“I'm still kind of struggling to wrap my head around the idea that I'm actually going out with both of you at the same time,” I said, facing forward and looking up at Elle again.

 

“It can be hard to grasp if you’re from a culture that only has pair bonding, and it sounds like that’s exactly where you’re starting from,” Elle said, gently swinging our clasped hands as she walked. “Let me just get this out of the way first: you don't need to worry about splitting your time perfectly equally with both of us.”

 

“A-ah, right, I guess that would be a hassle to try and manage,” I said, chuckling self-consciously. That had been the exact first thing that popped into my mind now that I was alone with Elle.

 

“Mmhm!” Elle said with a cheerful nod. “Contrary to what you might think, Mel and I aren't always together, and we've both got interests and hobbies of our own, some that we both enjoy and some that only one of us does, and I’m sure you’re the same way. I don't want you thinking you should feel guilty if you do end up spending more time with one of us than the other, or if you’re ever so busy you can't find much time to be with either of us, okay?”

 

“Okay,” I said, letting out a little sigh. “That is actually a load off my mind. Like I said, I never got a chance to even have a relationship, uh, back home, and you two seem like you've got yours pretty well figured out, so I kinda feel a little like an amateur trying to compete with the pros.”

 

At that, Elle let out a snort that turned into a fit of giggles, shaking her head. “W-what? Oh, Sammie, trust me, we’re hardly that much more experienced than you, we’ve just grown up around this stuff. There are some orchards back on Belanore so big they would make your head spin!”

 

“Woah…” I said, trying to picture what exactly she meant by that. Was an orchard of, say, ten people considered “large,” or was that reserved for groups in the dozens? My head was already spinning trying to imagine a relationship that large, but thankfully we reached our next destination before I got too dizzy.

 

“Aaaaand we’re here!” Elle announced as she stepped around the corner and into a more narrow street, wide enough for the small crowd of well dressed people I could see coming and going in both directions, but too narrow for carts. Her outburst had drawn a few glances our way, some of which turned into lingering stares, likely my fault, but for once that realization didn’t make me feel like running or hiding. I even met a few of them head on with a grin of my own, flashing my fangs and flicking my ears as I followed Elle deeper into the street.

 

Looking up towards the building we were approaching, I found a quaint little two-story red-brick structure, out of which the most tantalizing scents of baked goods were wafting. The wooden sign hanging above the door was much more elaborately carved, with swirling patterns etched around the outer edges, and the name written out on it was done up in overly fancy cursive.

 

“‘Sandria’s?’” I read aloud, starting to regain some of my second thoughts about letting Elle treat me here. We were even deeper into the more upper scale seeming area of the village now. “So, this is ‘Baker’s Row?’”

 

“Mmhm!” Elle said, taking a deep breath of the scent of baked bread and pastries. “It’s really just a nickname, but three of the most popular bakeries in town are right here,” she continued, turning and pointing further down the street. “Sandria’s, The Golden Crown, and The Flour Garden.” 

 

I saw the two other bakeries as she named them; the former with its wood and stone exterior painted in shades of blue and white and gold with a little sectioned off outdoor seating area, and the latter across from it being all wood, short and wide with broad square front windows that opened outwards onto a small but expertly manicured garden, enclosed by a tiny little white fence. Like most of the other businesses I could see on this street, they looked more like restaurants than purely bakeries, and I felt my stomach rumble again.

 

“Wow…” I said, turning back to Elle. “But, why this place? Aren't there also a bunch of bakeries in front of Felda’s tavern too?”

 

“Oh, well, yes,” Elle said, reaching out and pulling the door open, holding it for me then stepping in behind me. “But… uh, let’s sit down first,” she said, and took my hand again. I looked around as we moved through the bakery, and the difference between it and Bonnie’s was stark and unmistakable. The walls were a cheerful cherry red color with a row of white trim running along at waist height, and the floors looked like tile, white and black in a checkerboard pattern. The tables, more than a dozen of them, were made of pale, polished wood and covered by cream-colored tablecloths, and the matching chairs had padded seats. Elle led us to an open table and I settled into one, feeling a little dizzy all over again.

 

“Phew,” Elle sighed as she sat adjacent to me. “That’s better… So, yes, there are a few more bakeries down by Felda’s place, but they’re right up against the docks, and, well, you might have noticed that”—she paused suddenly and glanced around surreptitiously, then lowered her voice—“some people have the impression that just being near the docks makes something worse, makes it low-class.”

 

“Ah,” I said, scrunching my face in distaste. “Right, that’s what Bentley and his goons were complaining about the night before too, blegh. Well, they clearly don’t know what they’re talking about, Bonnie’s place is great and Felda's cooking is amazing.”

 

Elle nodded in understanding at my little rant, then turned as a woman approached our table. She was wearing what was clearly a uniform; a short cut red and white check-patterned dress with a matching cap, white tights and shiny red slippers that clicked slightly on the tiled floor. Even her hair was red.

 

“Good afternoon!” she chirped, setting down the pitcher of lemonade she had in one hand, smiling at Elle. “It’s nice to see you again, Elle, and who’s—oh!” She jumped as she tried to turn her smile on me, a look of surprise overtaking her face. “Oh, you’re the catgirl, hi! I’ve been hearing about you for days, it’s nice to finally meet you! I’m Sarah.”

 

“Uh, Sam,” I said, giving her a little nod. Her announcement drew every eye that wasn’t already looking our way, several conversations starting up at once that I pointedly swiveled my ears away from.

 

“Well, Elle’s been here before, but you’re new, so here’s the menu for you,” Sarah said, managing to compose herself and holding out the folded rectangle of stiff paper she had under her other arm. It was a menu alright, hand written and with the same extra level of detail added to it as the sign outside, with elaborate swirly text and a little flourishing border running along the outside of the page. This place really spared no expense.

 

“Hmm… not really in the mood for something sweet,” I muttered, moving past the section of sweet cakes and fruit pies, my interest (and hunger) piqued by a section listed as “savory.” There were meat pies and savory buns, among other things, but one thing ultimately caught my eye and I couldn’t help but blurt out in surprise, “Salmon bagel?!”

 

“Oouh, yeah, I bet you’d love that one,” Sarah said with a smile, leaning over and pointing to the description. “It’s a halved bagel with cream cheese and strips of smoked salmon. It’s not the most popular, but I think it’s great.”

 

“I’ll take it,” I said, nodding and passing the menu back.

 

“And I’ll have a slice of the strawberry cake, and two ham and cheese croissants for Mel when she shows up,” Elle added.

 

“Coming right up,” Sarah said, smiling wider and doing a little bow before turning and sauntering back to the display counter against the back wall, and into the kitchen beyond, where I could see her speaking to two figures in crisp all-white uniforms.

 

“A bagel with salmon and cream cheese, huh?” I mumbled absently, just thinking aloud. It really did seem like this world was never going to run out of things for me to be surprised by the existence of, but when I thought about it, how old was the concept of a bagel anyway? And I had no clue how cream cheese was even made, but I really had no reason anymore to doubt that someone in this world had figured it out a long while ago.

 

Or, I realized, someone from Earth who did know could’ve brought that knowledge with them. That thought caused a tiny shudder to run down my spine. The idea that other people from my world had been here in the past was both fascinating and a little frightening, just because there was no telling what kind of influence they might have had.

 

“Is something wrong, Sammie?”

Elle’s voice snapped me back to the present, and I blinked a few times, turning to find her looking at me, concern evident on her face.

 

“Uh… no,” I said, and Elle’s brow furrowed even further.

 

“Your tail is thrashing,” she pointed out, and I looked back over my shoulder. Sure enough, my tail had risen into the air behind me and was swishing side to side like an agitated furry snake.

 

“Eh, s-sorry,” I said, sighing and reaching back to pull my tail around into my lap, petting it lengthwise to make the fur lay flat again. “It really is nothing, though, I was just thinking about, uh… other visitors from where I’m from.”

 

“Oooh,” Elle said, nodding and visibly relaxing. “I suppose I can’t blame you for having a lot to think about.”

 

“Yeah, but, I can’t really do anything with those thoughts right here, right now, can I?” I said, lifting my tail and inspecting it, flicking the tip back and forth a few times. “So, no point in getting all worked up about it, right?”

 

“Right!” Elle agreed.

 

“Though, something I can worry about right now is having to talk about this stuff in public,” I said, leaning forward and resting my chin in my hand, keeping my voice low. “It’d be pretty useful if I could figure out how to speak Elvish.”

 

“Oh, I’m sure that must be possible,” Elle said, scooting her chair closer to mine so she could match my tone. “You don’t know the language you’re speaking right now, and it’s supposed to be a blessing to speak all tongues, so maybe you just need to… try speaking Elvish?”

 

Huh. There was no way it was that simple right? And how did one even “try” switching languages when they had a magic translation spell they weren’t even aware of until a few hours ago?

 

Ach, no, don’t overthink it! I shook my head, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. I brought my hands up to the sides of my head, pressing my fingers to my temples and gently massaging them in circles, trying to actively perceive what was happening while I spoke.

 

“Eeelvish… speak… Elvish…” I muttered under my breath, ignoring a snicker from Elle and trying to feel the way my mouth and throat moved. “Eeeelf… elf elf elf elf…” There, there was definitely a disconnect between the way my brain told me my lips were moving and the way I felt them move, but it was difficult to focus on, like lying in bed trying to recall the details of a dream while they only got more and more hazy. I took another deep breath, and tried to relax, but the sensation was already completely faded.

 

“I don’t think this is wo—” The very instant I opened my eyes and looked at Elle, I felt something go “ka-thunk!” inside my brain, and felt my throat clench while I was still mid-sentence, “—orking… huh?”

 

“Oh, wow!” Elle said, her eyes wide. She sounded… different, and the same, and I could somehow tell that she wasn’t speaking what I considered normal anymore, until suddenly she was. “You did it!”

 

“I did?” I asked. In the very very back of my mind, I could feel for a single moment the differences in the way I was forming the words I was saying, but quickly lost the ability to perceive it. It just felt like I was talking normally, as I always did.

 

“Yeah, you’re speaking Elvish right now,” Elle said, tilting her head slightly. “Your accent is a little strange, but you’re definitely speaking Mainland Elvish.”

 

“Wooooah…” I said, rubbing the side of my head again. “I can’t believe it… it really was that easy.”

 

“Hehe, this is so exciting,” Elle giggled, smiling and pressing her hands together. “Oh, oh, you’ve got to show Felda when we get back, she’ll be so surprised!”

 

“Huh, yeah, I bet she will,” I said, blinking. I hadn’t thought of that yet, that I was going to have to tell Felda that me and Elle and Mel were… involved now. I didn’t really have any reason to worry how she’d take it, did I?

 

Just then, Sarah returned to our table, carrying three small plates with her, two in her hands and one balanced on her forearm.

 

“Sorry for the wait,” she said, distributing the dishes between the two of us. She set down a plate with a large triangular wedge of white cake with pink frosting and large slices of strawberries in front of Elle, then a second one with two plump, fluffy, flakey croissants that I could see had been stuffed from the inside with a vibrant orange cheese and bits of ham.

 

Finally, she set the last plate down before me, and I felt my eyes widen and my ears stand straight up. It was a bagel alright, split into halves, both sides smeared with pearly-white cream cheese and overlapping strips of what I immediately recognized as more smoked salmon. I could tell from one sniff that it wasn’t the same stuff that Elle had served, but that was fine, since that was supposed to be some kind of delicacy. While I was fine with Elle’s offer to treat me today, I definitely didn’t want her going overboard.

 

“It looks fantastic, thank you,” I said, grinning up at Sarah, who stared back in vague confusion.

 

“O-oh, uh, y-you’re welcome?” she replied hesitantly, chuckling nervously. “Sorry, my Elvish is terrible.”

 

Ah, that was right, I was still speaking Elvish. Now, how the heck was I supposed to swi—

 

“Ah,” I gasped in surprise, feeling the same mental “thunk” a second time as soon as I thought about returning to speaking in Common. “Uh, I mean, that’s fine, I was just… showing off for Elle?”

 

Elle giggled into her hand and nodded, giving me a sly wink. “And Elle is very impressed.”

 

“Aww, that’s adorable!” Sarah said, sharing a laugh before doing her little bow again. “Well, you two enjoy, and let me know if you need anything else.” 

 

I smiled and waved until Sarah was occupied with another table, then sighed, slumping forward in my seat.

 

“That was close, but it answers that question,” I said, turning back to Elle. Now that I knew what to feel for, it took a half a second’s thought to switch to Elvish again. “I can switch back and forth pretty easily, actually.”

 

“Well, it is a blessing after all,” Elle said, picking up her fork. “In fact, maybe we should visit the temple after this.”

 

“The… temple?” I asked, pausing with a bagel halfway to my mouth.

 

“Uh huh, the temple of the gods,” Elle said, slicing off a bit of her cake with the edge of the fork. “Even if we’re not totally sure if they’re the reason you’re here, it couldn’t hurt for you to try to reach out to some of them.”

 

“I… guess it couldn’t hurt, yeah,” I hesitantly agreed, while Elle popped the bite of cake into her mouth, closing her eyes and groaning with delight.

 

Then again, if the gods of this world were real and active participants in what happened in it, it actually could hurt if I messed up. I didn’t feel like getting smited by a lighting bolt or something. Smote? Smitten? Whatever.

 

I shrugged off my worries about vengeful gods and took a bite of my bagel. It tasted as good as it looked; the bagel itself was fresh, the crust on the underside crackling while the inside was soft and tender, the cream cheese was much more tangy than what I was used to on Earth, and the star of the show, the smoked salmon, was once again salty and buttery and had me swaying in my chair and purring as I chewed.

 

I was so caught up in my reverie that I didn’t notice that Mel had entered the bakery and made her way over to our table until I felt her hand on my scalp. I jumped in my seat and yelped, covering my mouth since it was still full, and tilted my head to glare up at her.

 

“Miss me?” she asked, and I let out a huff through my nose before nodding, earning a bright grin in return. “Me too,” Mel said, giving my ear one more scratch before dropping into her own seat.

 

“So, what’d I miss?” Mel asked, picking up one of her croissants between two fingers. I grinned, sensing an opportunity to immediately get her back. I swallowed down my mouthful of bagel and switched over to Elvish again.

 

I waited until just after Mel took her first bite to open my mouth and say, “Not much.”

 

“What the—?” Mel blurted out, though it wound up sounding more like “Whaff fuh?” She grunted and coughed, covering her mouth and furiously chewing, Elle passing her a glass of lemonade while snickering. She took a deep pull to clear her throat, then sat forward in her chair, staring intently at me.

 

“You can speak Elvish now?” Mel asked, grinning along with me now.

 

“I figured it out,” I said, shrugging casually.

 

“Good job!” Mel said, laughing and leaning back in her chair. “That’s amazing, but it’s also definitely going to confuse people about where you’re from even more.”

 

“Really?” I asked, taking another, smaller bite from my bagel and trying to subtly peek around the room. There were definitely still people taking occasional glances in our direction, long after the novelty should have worn off. Turning back around, I smirked. “Good.”

 

“Ugh, you’re going to be such bad influences on each other,” Elle said, shaking her head with a rueful smile, that turned into a genuine one as she speared another bite of her cake, this time holding it up towards me. “Sammie, do you want to try some?”

 

“Mmhm!” I nodded, leaning forward and opening my mouth. Elle beamed and deposited the forkful of cake onto my tongue, and I sat back to savor it. It was delicious. Elle had made sure to give me a bite that had plenty of frosting as well as one of the thick slices of strawberry, and all together it was one of the sweetest things I’d tasted since coming here.

 

For several minutes, we just sat and enjoyed our individual treats. I got to try a bite of one of Mel’s croissants, finding the taste similar to an extra buttery, extra cheesy grilled cheese, and offered some of my bagel to both of them in turn.

 

Once there was less of a chance of someone getting interrupted with their mouth full, I turned to Mel and asked, “So, what’d you need to go do?”

 

“Oh, yeah, I wanted to stop by the bookstore,” Mel said, reaching behind her into her black leather satchel, which she’d slung over the back of her chair. “Here, got this for you.” She handed me a book, tall and thin with a sturdy red binding and an elaborate illustration of a crest on the front cover, consisting of a compass, a telescope, and one of those little triangle shaped tools for drawing circles that I could never remember the name of.

 

Annotated Traveller’s Guide to the Major Islands, Encompassing the Known World of Oceanus, By Captain Archibald Einhardt; Third Edition, the cover read.

 

“...huh, okay,” I said, after spending a moment just taking all of that in. Curious, I opened the front cover to take a peek inside. The first page was taken up almost entirely by a large illustration of a circular map, overlaid with a grid.

 

“Oh, is this a map of the world?” I asked excitedly, sitting up in my chair and placing the book down in front of me.

 

“Just the major islands,” Mel said. I didn't really understand what she meant by that, but assumed it would become clear as I looked over the book. However, as I leaned in and began to peer closer at the map, things only became more confusing.

 

There appeared to be only eight islands, most of them a fairly large distance from each other. I located Torgard first, on the western side of the map, then Eurig, the place Nils had told me about, up in the north, and an island labeled Belanore to the south. I remembered Elle mentioning that name in passing earlier, but there were many more names I didn't recognize; next to Belanore was one called Sotek, then far to the east, almost directly opposite from Torgard, was an island named Fulgar. Slightly above that was what looked like a pair of islands, but with only one name given to them: Yuusha. Just off-center of the very middle of the map, there was one named Karkinos, and I thought that was it, but I noticed one last island, tucked into the far bottom-left corner of the map, with the name Kurma.

 

The names weren't the confusing part though.

 

“Uh, why are all these islands drawn like animals?” I asked, tapping the illustration of Torgard. Instead of some vaguely lumpy landmass, like you’d expect an island to look on a map, it was clearly drawn to resemble a sea turtle, oval shaped with a head and four long flippers for legs. And it wasn't the only one that was like that; Fulgar looked like some kind of snake thing, curved into a crescent shape, Eurig was definitely a snail, and Belanore resembled a frog.

 

Elle and Mel stared back at me blankly, then exchanged glances, and I realized I’d asked another one of those questions, a question that nobody born in this world would ever ask and would give me away to anyone who didn’t already know my situation. I was glad that I’d remembered to stick to speaking Elvish.

 

“Alright,” I sighed, motioning to the pair. “Whatever it is, give it to me, I’ll try not to freak out. It can’t be weirder than floating islands up in the sky.”

 

“Heh,” Mel chuckled, shaking her head. “Sorry, that’s just a really weird question to hear, you’d never expect someone to ask that… anyway, they’re drawn like that because that’s what they are.”

 

“That’s what… they are?” I repeated, slowly, and Mel nodded. I flicked my eyes down to the map, then back up to Mel. There was no way…

 

“You’re not… seriously telling me that… Torgard, the island we’re on right now is… is a turtle?” I asked, leaning forward and tapping the picture again.

 

“Yes we are,” Mel said, also leaning forward, propping her chin up on one hand, smirking at me. “You sound kind of like you’re freaking out.”

 

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose, grumbling to myself.

 

“Sorry,” I said, sighing and opening my eyes again. “Every time I think I’ve heard the most ridiculous thing this world has to offer… so, what, it’s a literal, actual, gigantic turtle with an island on its back?” Elle nodded, still looking completely perplexed, and I rubbed the side of my head. “That doesn’t make any sense though, what does it eat? Wouldn’t something that big have to eat, I don’t know, a million tons of food every day?”

 

“It doesn’t need to eat at all,” Mel said, with maddening calm. “It’s an island, and one of the great leviathans besides.” It was my turn to give her a blank stare, and she nodded. “Yeah, guess I shoulda seen that coming, here.” She sat up and scooted her chair around the edge of the table until she was seated next to me, and leaned over the book. “So, all the major islands, these eight here, are the eight great leviathans; ancient, gigantic, immortal creatures. They don’t need to eat because they’ve been blessed by the gods themselves to live forever and provide life and sanctuary to the mortal races. That’s us, in case it wasn’t clear.” I rolled my eyes theatrically and Mel chuckled, continuing, “So, unlike other islands that have to absorb vast amounts of raw mana directly from the ocean to do the same thing, the eight leviathans are completely self-sustaining, which is what makes living on their backs possible. All the fertile soil and everything that grows in it, the fresh water and the fish you’ve been catching, and the food we just ate, everything around you; it’s because of the mana that Torgard provides making the surface of its back livable. It’s the same for every island in the world, big or small, but only the eight can do it without completely draining the sea around them of mana, and that’s why they’re so important.”

 

I sat quietly and listened while Mel explained. As she did, I started to calm down again, and the full gravity of what she was telling me started to actually sink in. Every island in this world was built up from the back of an unfathomably massive living creature, powered either by magic from the ocean, or just literal thin air?

 

“So, there’s no normal islands here?” I asked, and Mel chuckled, raising an eyebrow.

 

“These are normal islands,” she said, and before I could roll my eyes, she asked, “but what do you mean by ‘a normal island?’”

 

“I mean not growing out of the back of a giant fish or something,” I said, holding up a hand. “Like, where it’s just solid land, you know? On Earth, every island, every continent, everywhere anything lives, it’s all just… earth…” Huh. When you thought about it that way, our planet's name was kind of stupidly obvious. And wrong, since there was more water on it than earth. That was one thing for this new world, Oceanus seemed like a perfectly fitting name. Shaking my head, I continued. “It's just dirt and rocks, and if you dig downward you just hit more dirt and rocks, because the world is just a big ball of rock with water covering it.”

 

“Ooh!” Elle gasped at my other side, making me jump. She’d also moved her chair closer to mine, and unlike before where she was looking confused, now her eyes were practically twinkling with curiosity. “I see what you mean now, yes! Well, to answer your question, no, there’s no ‘solid land’ that’s habitable above the ocean. The most you’ll see are scattered rock formations, but none of them are capable of supporting anything but the smallest amounts of life. Everything else, all the solid foundation that makes up our world, is deep under the ocean.”

 

“All of it?” I asked, my eyes widening. “You mean… like, your whole world is flooded?”

 

“That is the prevailing theory, yes!” Elle said excitedly, grabbing one of my hands. “Scholars have debated for centuries about how our world as we know it came to be, and the temples haven’t been able to provide an answer either, but most sources agree that there had to have been some sort of cataclysmic event at some point in prehistoric times that left the entire surface of the world submerged, due to the discovery of ruins and artifacts found deep on the bottom of the ocean that don’t match any currently living civilization.”

 

“Holy shit…” I muttered, reaching for my glass with a free hand. After taking a long, deep pull of the somehow still cool lemonade, I groaned and leaned back against my chair. “I seriously underestimated just how weird this place was.”

 

“Hey, rude,” Mel said, snorting and placing her hand on my head. “This is just how the world is for us, and who’s to say your world isn’t the weird one? Exactly how many worlds besides yours and this one have you been to?”

 

“That’s… fair, I guess,” I said, sighing and tilting my head into her gentle scratching. I looked down at the book, still open, and flipped through a few of the pages. Beyond the large map at the front, the following pages were split into sections, each one covering one of the “major islands,” with what looked like more in-depth breakdowns of the islands themselves; their history, culture, what sorts of people might be found there. I skimmed through, intending to save the more thorough reading for later, but I paused when I opened onto the section for the island named Fulgar, a single passage jumping out at me.

 

“Birthplace of the Fulminous Empire,” I read aloud, raising an eyebrow and glancing to either side. “Is this the Empire everyone’s always talking about?”

 

“Ugh, yeah, that's them,” Mel said, scoffing and scowling like she’d just bitten a lemon. “It's honestly a toss up between them and High Society on which one is worse. From the news that comes out of there, if you're not a rich or powerful human then things can be pretty bad, but they can get even worse if you're not human at all, and if you're a demi-human, well…” Her eyes drifted over to me, softening with concern, and I nodded.

 

“Got it. I have heard some of this already, but it's good to have a name and place to match with the warnings so I can be absolutely certain I don't ever end up there.” I studied the up close, much more detailed illustration of Fulgar above the text for a few more moments before closing the book, tilting my head to smile at Mel. “Well, thank you very much for this, I'll try to sit down and study it over the next few days. Though now I'm definitely falling behind both of you in the gift-giving department.”

 

“It's not a competition, Sammie,” Elle said with playful reproach, looping an arm around my shoulder. “You're just starting to spread your roots, and we understand there's going to be more important things to spend your money on than us, so please don't feel like you have to repay us for things like this.”

 

“Okay, okay,” I said, giving an exaggerated sigh of resignation and leaning against Elle’s side in return. I tried to take her words to heart, but a part of me still felt I needed to do something. Resolving to worry about that later, I just sat in silence with Elle and Mel for a few more moments, enjoying the ambient sounds of cooking and eating and chatting inside the bakery.

 

Then, in what I was starting to suspect was some kind of plot, the door to the bakery opened, and Laurence and Roberto entered.

 

“Ah, shit,” I muttered, drawing Elle and Mel’s attention to the pair. They appeared to be talking amongst themselves, but I was sure it was only a matter of time before they noticed us.

 

“Ah, about time we get going anyway,” Mel said, rising from her seat first. Elle and I followed, and we moved towards the counter as a group, but I kept one of my ears trained in Laurence and Roberto’s direction, so I caught the exact moment they spotted us.

 

“Oh, gods.” Lawrence's tweedy voice sounded first. “She’s here.”

 

“Hnm?” A questioning grunt from Roberto followed. “Ah, the cat.”

 

“What should we do? It's one thing for her to be skulking around the docks, but this is our part of town!” Laurence said in an aggravated whisper, and I felt some of the fur on my tail start to stand on end. Oh, if they were thinking about starting trouble…

 

“Bentley said t’leave her be,” Roberto said, sounding more bored than anything. “Come on, move, I'm hungry.”

 

“Tsh,” Laurence hissed. “I don't see why, there’s no way she'll win the competition. She's going to be expelled either way, what does it matter if it's now or after the festival.”

 

Before my blood had time to start boiling, Elle and Mel finished the quick conversation they'd started with Sarah while paying for the meal, and turned around to rejoin me. Whether or not they noticed my distress, (and, let's be honest, they noticed) they didn’t comment on it, and by the time we were nearing the door, I was completely calm again, and much less likely to do something that might cause a scene. Even though it did seem that Mel’s assumption about Bentley wanting to preserve his image had been correct, I wasn’t willing to press my luck just to provoke two obnoxious rich kids.

 

But that didn’t mean I was going to do nothing.

 

“Oh, hey, you two!” I called out as we passed by the window table the pair had taken, acting as though I'd only just noticed their presence. I made a show of examining the walls of the bakery around me and said, “You were right, this place is pretty great. I should definitely come here more often! Well, seeya around!”

 

I continued to the door, leading the bemused looking pair of elves behind me. Lawrence's face had gone even paler as he gaped at me, but Roberto actually seemed amused by the exchange, grinning a lopsided grin at his friend's expense. Well, he had spoken against bothering me here, so I didn't want to say anything to rile him up too badly.

 

“Oh, Roberto, I met your dad earlier,” I said as I reached the door ahead of Elle and Mel and reached to pull it open. “He says ‘hi.’”

 

With that, I dashed out the door after Elle and Mel, then hustled them to the end of the street, juuuust in case.

 

“What was that about?” Mel asked after we'd gotten what I deemed an acceptable distance  away from the bakery.

 

“Sorry,” I panted mildly after the short jog. I definitely needed to start working on that stamina problem, and I realized that now that I had, er, “proper support”, I could finally start doing so. “I just wanted to mess with them a little. I heard them talking shit when they noticed me.”

 

“Sammie,” Elle said, sounding only slightly reproachful.

 

“Aah,” Mel said, more understanding in her voice. Then, her brow furrowed. “Wait, you heard them talking? I didn't hear them say anything.”

 

“Well, they were whispering,” I said, shrugging one shoulder.

 

Mel's mouth opened slightly, then closed, then she asked, “You could hear them whispering, clear across the bakery, while standing next to the kitchen and while Elle and I were talking right beside you?”

 

“Uh, I guess so? I didn't even notice any of that other stuff, but I was pretty focused on them,” I said, squirming a little on my feet at the mixed looks of surprise on Elle and Mel's faces. I cleared my throat. “Yeah, my hearing is kinda… crazy good.”

 

“I'll say,” Mel said, finally breaking back into a grin. “We'll have to remember not to plan any surprises for you unless you're in the other room.”

 

“Ah, yeah, about that…” I said, wincing. Well, if there was anyone I could ask for advice about this in particular, it was probably these two. “I might still be able to hear you even then, if I tried. Trust me, I know, I, uh, can still hear people talking in Felda’s kitchen even when I'm sitting at the bar.”

 

“That seems oddly specific,” Elle said, giving me a critical eye, and bit down on my lower lip.

 

“Yeeeeah… I’ve… actually caught a couple of conversations between Felda and Bart when they thought I couldn’t hear them,” I said, rubbing uncomfortably at the back of my neck.

 

“Sammie, that’s eavesdropping,” Elle said, frowning, and I nodded.

 

“I know, I know, and the first time it happened it was an accident, I’d only just woken up and I had no idea where I was, or even what I was,” I said, sighing and walking a few steps further, to one of a row of public benches that sat off to the side of the street.

 

“And after that?” Mel asked, following with her hands in her pockets.

 

“Well, I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t know what was going on, I just knew I needed information, and I didn’t want to get found out as… as an Outsider,” I said, dropping onto the bench and sliding down into it. Since I was trying to develop more of an awareness of my new appendages, I noted when my ears started to droop slightly. “I figured it couldn’t hurt to be able to listen in sometimes, in case I heard something I needed to know, but… I probably should come clean to Felda and Bart, at least.”

 

“Probably?” Mel asked, dropping onto the middle of the bench.

 

“At least?” Elle asked, at the same time, and the pair glanced at each other. Mel snorted and motioned Elle to join her.

 

“Well, first off, I don’t think you should go around telling everyone,” Mel said, and when Elle furrowed her brow she held up a hand. “I know, I know, but think about it. She’s a catkin, so everyone probably assumes she’s got good ears.” With impeccable timing, Mel gave the back of one of my drooping ears a quick scratch. “People already know better than to gossip next to dogkin and wolfkin, so they should assume the same about her. If it gets out that her hearing is even better than that, people will definitely overreact.”

 

“Mmmnnn,” Elle fussed, scrunching her face up in thought as she sat down next to Mel, bringing a hand to her chin. “I don’t like it, but, I see your point…”

 

“As for you, Sam,” Mel said, ceasing her scratching behind my ear, probably to ensure I was listening with my full attention. Which, of course, I already was. “You just promise us you’ll do your best to be responsible about this, and not abuse the trust of the town as a whole.”

 

“I swear I will only use my powers for good, and not for evil,” I said with a little grin, holding up a hand and then pressing it to the center of my chest.

 

Mel snorted and raised an eyebrow at that, then just shook her head. “Well, that’s good enough for me.”

 

“But you should tell Felda and Bart!” Elle said, leaning across Mel to point at me, and I nodded rapidly. “It’ll only get worse the longer you wait!”

 

“I know, I know, I… I’ll try to do it tonight after we get back,” I said, sighing again and letting my head thump against the backrest of the bench. We rested in comfortable quiet for another minute or so, Mel occasionally patting my head, before I kicked my legs out and sat up.

 

“So, temple?”

 

Our trip to the temple of the gods ended up taking us back to the western side of town, nearer to the residential district again. Not “true west,” but “island west,” or “relative west,” which I learned was how directions were conveyed on islands that were alive and technically always moving, even if ever so slightly as was the case with Torgard and the other major islands. True directions were based on the world’s actual compass, while relative directions referred to the island’s “head” as north, and followed suit from there.

 

“Wait, so, that book showed the major islands but nothing else, but there are other islands out there?” I asked as we turned down another much calmer, much emptier street, having left behind the bustling crowds and upscale architecture as we moved closer to the docks again.

 

“Of course,” Mel said, laughing. “Our world would be pretty empty if there were only eight islands. There’s thousands of islands swimming around out there.”

 

“Why weren’t any of them on the map in the book then?” I asked, then, immediately realized the answer and brought a hand to my forehead. “Oh, duh, you just said, because they move around a lot more. Okay, so, in that case how does anyone ever find any of them?”

 

“Well, if an island is big enough and developed enough to be of note, it’ll end up in charts and atlases, with a description of it and a general idea of its territory and usual travel paths,” Mel said, tapping her chin. “Though, if an island is very important, there’s that ritual that can be done, right?”

 

Mel turned to look at Elle, clearly prompting her. Elle sighed good naturedly and nodded, holding up a hand and beginning to gesture with it. “That’s correct. It requires harvesting some of the island’s blood, and using it to enchant a special compass that only points back to the island it was taken from. Here in Torgard, it’s generally not done on anything but medium to large islands, and even then not very frequently. Because of the potential consequences to both the island and its inhabitants, both the permission of them, and the island itself, are required before it can be performed.”

 

“What, like, the island could get sick?” I asked, tilting my head.

 

“Absolutely!” Elle nodded gravely. “The health of an island is a very real and very important thing to consider, because it takes hundreds and hundreds of years for new islands to form. A sea creature has to grow large enough that it's capable of sustaining itself on mana alone before it can even be classified as a newborn island. You’ve seen the druids around, right?” I nodded. “Well, aside from everything they do to keep our villages and towns and cities running smoothly, they also look after the health and growth of islands.”

 

“Wow,” I said, a little stunned. I had thought they just handled simple infrastructure, but it seemed like their scope was much broader than I’d realized, if it was their job to keep entire islands from dying. I made a note to more frequently leave a tip whenever I used the public restrooms. 

 

“Speaking of the druids, do they like, work for the kingdom or something?” I asked another of the questions that had been lingering with me for a while.

 

“Oh, no,” Elle said, shaking her head. “The druids don’t work for any one nation, they serve The Goddess of Reap and Sow herself.”

 

I could practically feel the special emphasis Elle put on the name that told me that wasn’t simply a description, but a name in itself. Before I could ask for clarification, Mel snapped her fingers and pointed up.

 

“Hey, good timing,” she said as I followed her finger. 

 

I’d been watching Elle as she explained, so I missed our approach to the temple, and the building before us was both more and less than I’d been imagining. It didn’t resemble a church at all; it had no tall arched roof or steepled towers, but was instead more wide and boxy, taking up the entire end of the street. It sat on a rise of open, grassy earth dominated by, of course, another sprawling garden, with a set of wooden stairs leading up to the open double doors that looked to be about ten feet tall. The whole building was rectangular, and multi-tiered, like a trio of increasingly smaller shoe boxes stacked on top of one another, with the flat roof of each tier below serving as a wrap-around balcony for the floor above, all but the final floor; instead of having a flat roof, it was topped by what appeared to be a large glass dome.

 

“Holy shit,” I whispered, awestruck, then winced. “Oh sh-uh, shoot. Probably shouldn’t swear here, right?”

 

“No, why?” Mel asked with a snort, raising an eyebrow. “The gods don’t care if you swear. If anything, they’d be more confused on the ‘holy’ part, I’ve never heard someone proclaim the divinity of shit as much as you do.”

 

“Oh,” I said, blinking. “Uh, that’s not… it’s just an expression where I’m from, we don’t actually think shit is literally holy. There’s a lot of them like that, actually: holy shit, holy fuck, holy cow, holy… well, you get the point.”

 

“Huh,” Mel said, clearly nonplussed. Beside her, Elle shook her head.

 

“Just because the gods don’t care doesn’t mean the temple staff won’t,” Elle pointed out, and I looked again, noticing the people in various colored uniforms and robes walking the balconies overhead, or tending the garden around the temple, some of whom were indeed looking our way.

 

“Good point,” I said, flushing slightly.

 

We resumed our approach, reaching and ascending the steps that led up to the entrance. As I got closer, I noticed more things, like the fact that the outer walls were mostly wood covered by masses of creeping vines, or that the garden surrounding the temple also featured a spacious pond over which a willow tree drooped, much like the one at the fishing hole Bart brought me to. I also began to pick out the differences in the outfits worn by the people I saw walking around. The vast majority were simple short-sleeved tunics and loose pants of a green, orange, and brown color schemes, here and there I saw some flowing robes with sleeves and cloaks sewn to resemble leaves, but I also saw outfits in dark blues and sea greens with geometric patterns of waves on them. Lastly, and the type I saw much fewer of, a handful of people in outfits consisting predominantly of different shades of red and white.

 

Just as we crested the top of the final step, a woman appeared inside the doorway to greet us. At first glance I thought she was human, but quickly realized what I’d mistaken for an antlered headdress were actual antlers,  growing out of the sides of her elaborately done-up auburn hair above a pair of brown-furred spade-shaped ears, like a deer’s. Her skin was acorn-colored, and she wore an intricately-sewn leaf-patterned green and gold dress that ended above her knees, allowing me to see that her legs were covered in glossy brown fur and ended in a pair of split-toed black hooves. 

 

“Greetings, and welcome,” she said with a small bow, her voice warm like a cup of tea on a cold day. “I am High Priestess Irvine, pledged in service to She Who Sows, but you may call me Emilia. Is there anything I can help you girls with today?”

 

Ah, right, I had still been speaking Elvish since we left the bakery. I made sure to switch back over to Common while Elle returned the bow and smiled.

 

“Thank you, your verdancy, we’re just showing our friend Sam around; she’s new in town,” Elle said, motioning to me. The woman turned her eyes on me and smiled wider, nodding, making the collection of wooden ornaments dangling from her antlers and hair clatter like a windchime.

 

“Ah, yes, our new visitor,” Emilia said, looking me up and down. “I must admit, I have already heard many things about you, and am eager to learn which of them are truth and which are idle gossip.”

 

“O-oh yeah?” I said, chuckling nervously. “Like what?”

 

“Ouh, hmm, let’s see,” she said, pressing her hands together and steepling them in front of her, her smile growing coy. “Is it true you ran circles around a whole crew of trained pirates determined to catch you?”

 

“Pffha!” Mel burst out laughing, earning her an attempted shush from Elle, but Emilia seemed not to mind. On the contrary, she seemed amused as well as she waited for my answer.

 

“It wasn’t a whole crew,” I said, shaking my head with a smile. “It was just one, and I wouldn’t say I ran circles around him, I just ran away from him.”

 

“Yeah, straight up a ten-foot beam and into the rafters,” Mel added, and flushed a little more.

 

“I see, I see,” Emilia said, nodding slowly, then turning and waving into the wide open space that made up the first floor of the temple. “Well, thank you for indulging me. Feel free to wander as you wish, and don’t be afraid to seek out myself or any of the other acolytes if you need anything.”

 

With that, she turned and stepped gracefully back into the temple, and I noticed as she went that she had a tiny little upturned tail, the underside covered in snow white fur.

 

“You know, you of all people should know it’s rude to stare at someone’s tail,” Mel said slyly in Elvish, and I tore my eyes away to narrow them up at her, which caused her to just snicker and ruffle my hair.

 

We proceeded into the temple and I got a more proper look at the interior of the first floor. The ceiling was high, and I saw that it was mostly to accommodate a large oak tree that stood at the center of the far wall, forming the backdrop of an enormous altar. There were three such altars of similar size, together taking up the entirety of the far wall. To the left of the tree was an impressively elaborate water feature, and the right was a…

 

“What the heck is that?” I asked, pointing to the third altar, which appeared to be set up before a towering statue of a nearly naked woman holding a gigantic sword in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other. It was only after closer inspection that I saw the statue was not entirely naked, its modesty preserved by artistically placed folds of the billowing cape she was wearing.

 

“That’s the altar of The Goddess of Love and War,” Elle said, her tone insistently hushed, like the way someone might talk in a library. Or, I realized, a church, which this was this world’s equivalent of. 

 

Already tired of embarrassing myself, I lowered my voice to match hers before continuing. “Is that why she’s…”

 

“Well, it’s kind of in the name,” Mel said, chuckling and nudging me forward, then walking towards the center altar. “I guess if we’re going to start anywhere it should be these three, c’mon.”

 

I followed her and Elle, passing by several more alcoves set into the walls on either side, the altars inside them smaller than the grand three at the head of the temple. As we approached the center-most one, I began to make out more details, like the fact that there was a statue in front of this one too, but one I’d missed because it was formed from wood the same shade as the tree. It depicted a figure with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a horse or a deer. Her left arm was wrapped around a basket overloaded with fruits and vegetables, and her right arm was holding a sickle, and she was kneeling on all four legs in the grass surrounding the trees, her branch-like antlers mingling with those of the tree.

 

“This,” Elle said solemnly, “is The Goddess of Reap and Sow, and one of the three supreme deities who created our world.”

 

For a moment I didn’t say anything. Something as simple as a “Huh,” or a “Wow,” didn’t seem right, especially with how reverently Elle and even Mel were looking up at the statue.

 

“So, uh, I guess she’s… all about nature and stuff?” I asked, hesitantly, wary of offending either of them or the other members of the temple around us.

 

“Ah, oh, yes, we’re supposed to be teaching you,” Elle said, giggling into her palm then clearing her throat. “That’s right, The Goddess of Reap and Sow or, depending on the situation, She Who Sows or She Who Reaps, is the goddess of all things to do with life and death, birth and growth and decay and renewal. If you need help with anything to do with plants or animals or health or anything like that, she’s who you’d pray to first.”

 

Looking from the statue to the space in front of it, I saw a low, wide table, littered with bowls containing various fruits and nuts, as well as several lit candles.

 

“I guess that’s for offerings?” I asked, motioning down, and Elle nodded, smiling brightly.

 

“Yup!” She then knelt in front of the table on one of the many pillows that was layered in front of it, reached into one of the bowls for a handful of nuts, and tossed them into her mouth before closing her eyes and bowing her head.

 

I stared, blankly, while Elle chewed and… prayed? Eventually, I turned to Mel and whispered as quietly as I could, “Are you… allowed to eat those?”

 

“What? Yeah,” Mel said, smirking and also moving to rest on one knee, grabbing what looked like an overlarge raisin from the bowls, chewing it while explaining, “She’s the goddess of life and pretty much everything food is and comes from, seeing people enjoy the products of the land is one of the best ways to praise her.”

 

“Oh,” I said simply, and then, because I felt it would be unspeakably rude not to, I knelt down onto an empty pillow and, after scanning over the selection, grabbed a few dark red grapes and tossed them into my mouth.

 

I closed my eyes and chewed, slowly, wondering just what the hel— heck I was supposed to do now. I’d been avoiding bringing up the subject of religion on Earth because it seemed like such a massive can of worms to open, even without getting into my own thoughts and feelings. My family had been the archetypal American “just go on holidays and Christmas,” type, and whatever it was they got out of our infrequent church outings, I didn’t.

 

Still, it seemed like things were… different in this world, and like I’d said, there probably wasn’t any harm in trying, right?

 

Elle and Mel had just been sitting with their heads closed and their eyes bowed, but for me, it didn’t feel like I was doing it right if I wasn’t doing something with my hands. I didn’t want to press them together flat so, instead, I clasped them in front of me.

 

Uh… hey there… Goddess…

 

I winced inwardly. I was so getting smited. 

 

It’s me, uh, Sam. Well, I’m called Sam now, I don’t know if you’re supposed to be omniscient or what, but, a lot of stuff has happened since I came to, uh, your world. I don’t know if that was you or what, and I still don’t really know how I feel about it, or the cat girl thing. Well, the girl part is good, but the cat part…

 

I shook my head. I was getting sidetracked, and the grapes in my mouth were mush. Was I supposed to wait until I finished praying to swallow? Damnit, why was this so unintuitive!

 

Anyway, uhm, if it was you then, uh, thank you for dropping me here in Rower’s Rest. I’ve met a lot of really really nice people here, and I’m happier than I think I’ve been in a long time. So, uh, Ame—oop, wait, no, that’s probably not right. Uh, bye!

 

I swallowed, and opened my eyes, looking up. The eyes of the statue, I realized, were downcast at just such an angle that now that I was kneeling, I could look directly into them. The expression on the statue’s face was warm and comforting, and the longer I looked, the more I realized I was actually beginning to warm from the outside in, like I was sitting directly in the path of sunbeam. I looked around, but none of the high windows were pointed in my direction. Elle and Mel were looking at me curiously, obviously finished before I was.

 

“Something wrong?” Mel asked, and I shook my head.

 

“No, uh, I just… feel really warm all of a sudden, I thought the sun was—”

 

“Oh!” Elle gasped, cutting me off and placing her hands on my cheeks. “Really? You feel a warmth?” Too confused to answer in words, I just nodded, and she beamed, jumping to her feet. “Sammie, that’s another blessing!”

 

“I… What?” I asked, moving to follow her, and finding that my body felt lighter, refreshed like after one of my cat-naps. I blinked, hopping on the balls of my feet and holding up my hands, wiggling my fingers in front of me. The warmth had faded, but not entirely dissipated, and I no longer felt the fatigue that had started to build up in my legs from all the walking around.

 

“A blessing from the goddess,” Elle repeated. “A sign that the goddess heard your prayer! Tell me, what are you feeling?”

 

“I, uh, I feel… like I just woke up from a nap?” I said, rolling my shoulders and rubbing at my neck, finding not a trace of stiffness to be found. Realization of what exactly just happened dawned on me, and hurriedly asked, “Does that happen every time?”

 

“Of course,” Elle said, then, seeming to remember we weren’t exactly alone, lowered her voice and switched over to Elven to explain. “All of the gods have their own blessings to bestow, and specific prayers to ask for specific ones, but it doesn’t usually happen if you’re not a follower of theirs. For her to give you a blessing even though you’ve not pledged yourself to her has to mean something!”

 

“...huh,” I said, letting my arms drop to my sides. Slowly, and a little fearfully, I turned to look up towards the statue again. At my height, even without kneeling, I could see into its eyes. “Uh… t-thanks.”

 

Whatever else I expected to happen, nothing did, except Elle and Mel both chuckling behind me. Cheeks reddening again, I turned and looked to either side, at the other two altars.

 

“So, uh, should we check out the other two?”

 

“Yeah, might as well,” Mel said, patting me on the back as she turned to the left, leading us over to the quietly burbling water feature.

 

Just like with the first altar, I noticed more about this one as I got a closer look. The fountain wasn’t simply a single stream of water, flowing from top to bottom, but an elaborately carved work of art, made to resemble a massive scaled creature, a snake or a fish or something else I couldn’t recognize. The head, from which the water poured, was long and triangular, like some kind of lizard, and had three eyes, two on the sides and one in the center of its forehead, all made of deep blue sapphires. Water poured out of its mouth and cascaded down its body, and I saw that it split and forked down many different paths carved between the scales, all of them eventually emptying out into the shallow pool at the bottom. I was shocked to see movement inside the fountain, as several tiny silver-bodied minnows darted about while larger, copper-scaled fish swam in more sedate circles.

 

“We’re not allowed to eat those too, are we?” I asked, pointing at the fish. Elle bit down on her lip, and Mel pressed a fist to her mouth, snickering and snorting into it in an attempt not to burst out laughing inside the quiet temple. 

 

“I’ll take that as a ‘no,’” I said, hunching my shoulders while Mel let out more muffled snickers into her clenched fist. Turning to Elle, I asked, “So, uh, this is…?”

 

“The God of Time and Tide,” Elle said, more matter-of-factly than she’d introduced the previous deity. “I don’t know as much about him because Mel and I aren’t regular followers of his, but he’s the god of everything to do with the ocean, traveling in it or on it, the passage of time, as well as things like plans and fate, and so on. You’re supposed to pray to him when you want to get something done on time and for your plans to succeed, but lots of times people just pray for their enemies' plans to fail instead.”

 

I nodded along, taking in the explanation, then moved towards the row of pillows in front of the shallow pond and knelt down again.

 

“Oh, you’re going to pray to him too?” Elle asked, and I realized neither of them had followed.

 

“Well, I don’t want to be rude,” I said sheepishly, motioning at the pool. “And, I know you said the other one was in charge of all the animals, and that includes fish, but the ocean is where most of the fish live, so I figure I should say something to this guy too.”

 

“Heh,” Mel chuckled again, shrugging. “Fair enough. Well, you have to have a part of you in or at least touching the water, but some people say the only way is to have it be your face, and others say you have to be totally underwater. Then again, most of his followers are seadwellers.”

 

“I… don’t know what that means,” I said, shaking my head. Well, I could ask later. Sitting up on my knees, I leaned down over the pool, gripping the sides and peering at my wobbly reflection past the constant ripples. Better make this one quick.

 

“Uh, Sammie?” Elle asked behind me. “What are you doing?”

 

I thought that was fairly obvious, so, instead of answering, I just sucked in a deep breath and plunged my face into the fountain.

 

Hey there, I began, no longer that worried about receiving some kind of retribution for a lack of decorum in my prayers.

 

I’m Sam, and I gotta make this quick. I don’t really have anything for you but you seem pretty important so I just wanted to say ‘hi,’ and, uh…. Oh, I have a really important fishing competition coming up in the middle of summer, I guess if you could maybe help make sure that works out for me, I’d really appreciate it, okaythankyoubye!

 

Just as I felt myself starting to reach the limits of how long I could comfortably hold my breath, I pulled myself back out of the water, gasping for air. Before I could reach up and start trying to wipe my eyes clear, a fluffy towel was pressed into my hands.

 

“Mmf… thanks,” I mumbled through the thick material as I wiped my face dry.

 

“The Lord of Time thanks you, as well,” a cheerful voice that belonged to neither Elle or Mel replied, and I felt my ears perk. Pulling my face out of the towel, I looked up and was greeted by a figure I initially took to be another elf, because his skin was blue, but upon closer inspection I realized it was also covered in very fine scales.

 

The… fish man? standing before me had mostly blue scales, but there was a stripe of black across his eyes like a mask, as well as down his arms and legs, which were bared by the short robes he wore, and two bright streaks of yellow that ran from the corners of his eyes and down his face, disappearing below his collar. What I took for the pointed ears of an elf were actually a pair of two pronged fins, and they weren’t the only pair on his body; there were another two running along his forearms, and two more flanking his calves. His feet, clad in sandals like mine, were webbed, as was the hand he held out to help me up. His robes, I noticed, almost as an afterthought, were blue.

 

Oh. So that’s probably what a “seadweller” is.

 

Realizing I’d spent far too long just staring wide-eyed up at the man, I took his hand and scrambled up to my feet. It was, as I expected, cold or clammy.

 

“Uh, s-sorry, I mean, thanks!” I said frantically, handing back the damp towel, which the man took and folded while smiling, showing off an impressive set of fully pointed teeth.

 

“Oh no, you’re fine,” he said, chortling and draping the folded towel over his shoulder. “If they realized you were planning to deliver your prayers the old fashioned way, they would’ve sent me over sooner. I’m Junior Tide Minder Fynn, but just call me Fynn.”

 

“F-Fynn?” I asked, unable to help myself.

 

“Yeah,” Fynn said with a good natured chuckle. “Trust me, I know, but despite how silly it is, it’s still a crazy popular name for seafolk. There’s a even saying down here: For every human named ‘John’ there’s a seadweller named ‘Fynn.’”

 

Beside me, Mel snorted. I couldn’t help but snicker a little as well, which caused Fynn to smile again.

 

“Oh, I’m Sam,” I said, realizing I’d still not returned his introduction, then tilting my head to either side. “And these are my, uh, my girlfriends, Elle and Mel.”

 

“Hey Fynn,” Mel said, grinning.

 

“Nice to see you,” Elle said, bowing her head slightly.

 

“Hey again,” he said, giving a little wave, then to me he explained, “Well, they’ve been coming to this temple for years, we have met. It’s great to meet you, though, I hear you’ve been making quite a splash around town.”

 

For some reason, I suddenly felt like groaning.

 

“Eheh, yeah…” I chuckled, shrugged, and scratched at the back of my neck. “I guess I have. Not intentionally or anything, but, I do kind of stick out down here.”

 

Now that I had a bit more context on what people who met me would assume about my backstory, I figured it was a good idea to play along a bit.

 

“Nothin’ wrong with that,” Fynn said, moving past me and approaching the fountain, reaching into a pouch that was dangling off one of his hips by his belt. “As the God of Time and Tide says, a still pond is one lacking in life, and I think it’s safe to say Rower’s Rest has been still for a while.” Drawing his hand from the pouch, he tossed out a mix handful of thin, dried flakes of something green, as well as several red lumpy orbs the size of pebbles, both of which bobbed on the surface of the water. Whatever they were, the fish in the pool apparently loved them, as soon a tiny feeding frenzy was taking place, the commotion causing the surface of the water to churn and bubble.

 

“Huh,” I said, tearing my eyes away from the swarming fish before I could get any ideas. “Well, happy to help make things more exciting, I guess.”

 

“You’re planning to make a prayer to The Goddess of Love and War too, right?” Fynn asked, jerking his head towards the final large altar.

 

“Uh, yeah, that’s the plan,” I said, since there was no way I was risking offending a goddess who was depicted as a nearly-naked woman carrying a gigantic sword. “Why, are there other special preparations we need to take care of first?”

 

“That depends,” Fynn said, grinning again. “Are you planning to do that one in the old style too? Because if so, we’ll need to get a few more towels ready.”

 

“Of course not!” Elle gasped, suddenly blushing furiously.

 

“We’re not,” Mel said, rolling her eyes. Before I could blurt something out that might give away that I had no idea what he was talking about, Mel dropped one of her hands onto my head and gave it a quick scratch.

 

“You should be fine then,” Fynn said, chuckling and looking from side to side. “Well, if there’s nothing else I can do for you, I’ll leave you to it, yeah?”

 

“Yeah, we’re all set,” Mel said, returning his smile and waving with her free hand.

 

“No, but thank you again,” Elle said, shaking her head, cheeks still faintly green.

 

With that, Fynn departed, and we turned to cross the room, but before he'd gone three steps he turned around and called out, “Oh! One more thing!

 

Curious, I looked back, and he once again flashed me a grin. “Put in a good word with Sera for me, would you?”

 

“Pff, shut up, Fynn,” Mel said with a mix of a scoff and a laugh. Fynn picked up the pace of his departure and quickly became absorbed with helping someone waiting by one of the smaller altars.

 

“I don't get it,” I said, turning to Elle, who also had a hand pressed to her mouth, failing to hide a smile.

 

“It's a dumb joke,” Mel said, shaking her head. “I'll explain it in a minute. Looks like they're waiting for us over there.”

 

As we turned back to the third altar, I saw she was right. Someone else must have correctly guessed our intentions, because this time there were already two people in red robes waiting for us. An older, taller, human woman with blonde hair in darker red robes, and a younger, mousier-looking girl with brown hair and a paler red and white uniform.

 

“The Lady of Love smiles on you, my children,” the blonde woman announced as we came within comfortable speaking distance, pressing one hand to her chest and holding the other out to the side. “I am Elder Sister Senna, this is Sister Juniper. It is my understanding you will be entreating the goddess today?”

 

“Uh, yeah,” I said, nodding, a little thrown off by the sudden shift back to a formal atmosphere after Fynn's casual tone.

 

“Then will you be needing to avail yourselves of the complimentary healing ointments?” she asked, at the same time motioning to Sister Juniper again, or rather, at the circular silver tray she carried with several tiny glass vials of a viscous, dark rest liquid resting on it. They were about the same size as those little sample bottles of alcohol they sold at gas station counters.

 

“No, thank you,” said Elle, politely.

 

“Yeah!” I said at the same time, excitedly plucking up one of the vials from the tray and holding it up to the light. Mel eyed me and Elle outright boggled, so I took a split second to switch to Elvish and explain, “Hey, if I'm gonna do it, I wanna do it right. Plus, free potion!”

 

“My, my,” Elder Sister Senna said, giving me a slight smile. “It has been a while since I've seen someone express such… enthusiasm to worship my lady, especially here in Torgard.” She looked expectantly at Elle and Mel, who exchanged glances. Shrugging, Mel reached out and accepted a vial as well.

 

“Sure, why not,” Mel said, then she and I both looked to Elle, who brought a hand to one of her cheeks and sighed.

 

“Very well. I suppose it has been a while,” Elle said, delicately lifting one more vial from the tray, giving Sister Juniper a smile and a “Thank you.”

 

“Oh, yeah, thanks,” I added, nodding my head at the suddenly uncomfortable-looking girl, who squeaked out something that might have been a reply and might have just been a noise.

 

“Well, we will let you have some privacy now,” Elder Sister Senna said with another smile, settling a hand on Sister Juniper's shoulder and nudging her to move. I waved after them, then turned and grinned sheepishly at Elle and Mel.

 

“Come on, I wasn't going to pass up a free potion,” I said, mostly to Elle’s mildly exasperated look. “I haven't explained what video games are yet, but trust me, this is a big deal for me.”

 

“First of all, it's not a potion,” Elle said, turning and moving towards the altar. “It's an ointment, which means it goes on the wound, please don't drink it.”

 

“Aw, what?” I asked, deflating slightly as I followed Elle, kneeling onto one of the plush red pillows before a low slung wooden table. “Well, still, magic liquid.” Tilting my head up to finally take in the full effect of the final altar, I asked, “So, what's the deal here?”

 

Staring down at me was the statue I'd seen already, a woman wearing a cloak and a smile and nothing else, standing with one hand resting on the hilt—or is that the pommel?—of a sword that was taller than she was, the tip disappearing into the base around her feet. In her other arm she held an impossibly large bouquet of flowers, her back slightly bent and her arm slightly extended, as though to offer them to the people kneeling before her. Long hair that had a slight curl to it fell down her back and framed the sides of her face, and both the pose and the smile she wore somehow managed to make her look kind and compassionate, rather than imposing.

 

Huh… she looks kinda familiar too…

 

Now that we were closer, I could also see that the area around and behind the statue was decorated with a mix of both actual flowers, and actual weapons. Swords and axes and spears were hung on racks, next to decorative pots overflowing with beautiful, fragrant flowers.

 

“Well,” Mel grunted lightly as she settled down on my opposite side. “Like I said, this is The Goddess of Love and War. Anything to do with courting, relationships, or romance falls under her domain, but she's also the patron of other kinds of love too, like the bonds between family members, or lifelong friends. She's also who you pray to in all matters of conflict, but though people like to focus on just the exciting, blood kind, she also presides over like, contests of skill and friendly competitions too.”

 

“Oh, wow, that's kind of a lot for one Goddess,” I said, glancing at the statue again and muttering, “Hmm, maybe I should ask her for help in the fishing contest too then… is that allowed? Double dipping on prayers?”

 

“Double what?” Mel asked, furrowing her brow.

 

“Yes, Sammie,” Elle said, resting a hand on my shoulder. “You could visit every altar in this building if you wanted to and offer the same prayer, that is why the temple is here. Though whether you'd get a response is up to the gods themselves.”

 

“Ah, alright,” I said, smiling back at her, then holding up the vial of healing ointment. “So, what was that ‘old way’ to pray Fynn was talking about, and does it have anything to do with these?”

 

Elle's hand disappeared from my shoulder and when I looked, she had turned away, but the tips of her ears were green. Beside me, Mel chuckled and lowered her voice.

 

“He was joking, people haven't done that in thousands of years.”

 

“Well I figured the part, but still, what was it?” I asked, intensely curious.

 

“Are you sure you want me to tell you? I'm kind of afraid if I do you'll just turn into a tomato,” Mel said, which obviously didn't make me any less curious.

 

“Well now I have to know!” I said, sitting up on my knees and staring intently at Mel.

 

“Okay, okay, but don't say I didn't warn you,” Mel said, putting a hand on my shoulder to nudge me back onto the cushion. With that last warning ignored, Mel sighed, scooted closer, and lowered her head to whisper into one of my ears. “Well, first, we'd have to fight each other.” 

 

“What, like, physically?”

 

“Mmhm. Obviously not seriously or to the death or anything, but more as a show of strength, for the goddess. Depending on the occasion we'd either be armed or unarmed, but we wouldn't stop until we were all at least a bit bloodied.” 

 

I felt my eyebrows slowly creeping higher and higher the longer she went on, surprised, but not at all embarrassed.

 

“That's it?” I asked, tilting my head, and heard Elle groan behind me. Mel, savoring the chance to be dramatic for once, lowered her voice even further and brought a hand up to cup the side of her mouth, leaning closer to one ear.

 

“Of course not. After the show of strength, we'd have to put on the show of love...”

 

Mel then proceeded to elaborate on what exactly that meant, and it took every ounce of strength in my small body to not let the words “Blood orgy?!” burst from my lips at full volume. By the time she was finished, my cheeks felt like they were on fire, and I couldn't stop staring up at the statue, expecting it to come to life at any second and try to explain itself.

 

“So… the potions?” I asked distantly, turning back to Mel, who was looking far too pleased with herself.

 

“Ointment,” she said, and pointed to the low table in front of the altar, which featured only a single decoration in the form of an oval shaped copper bowl. “And, it's for after. Thankfully, these days we know you can get by with just a few drops of blood spilled and a quick kiss and still get the goddess's attention. There's a lot of debate over whether that was always the case, or if the goddess herself has just changed over time.”

 

“Huh,” I said, eyeing the bowl. For something that apparently strangers dribbled blood into on a semi-regular basis, it was remarkably clean. “Okay, that's still kind of metal. I wonder what my friends would say if they could see me now, about to perform a blood ritual.”

 

“Oh, it's hardly a ritual.” Elle scoffed. It was the first thing she'd said since Mel’s history lesson, and she seemed to have gotten ahold of herself. “For one thing, it doesn't take hours to set up, and only has one component instead of two dozen.”

 

Before I could ask, Mel leaned over and explained, “She’s had to sit through a lot of boring rituals.”

 

“Gah, stop telling me about cool magic stuff when I can't take notes!” I grumbled, jokingly, and refocused on the bowl. As soon as we were done here, I was getting back to questioning what they'd said about the availability of magic. I held up one hand, staring at my palm, and asked, “So, how are we supposed to do this?”

 

“With something sharp, hopefully,” Mel stated, like it was the simplest thing in the world. Once again preempting my question, Mel reached into her satchel and drew a wood-handled knife in a leather sheath. I blinked as she drew it out, revealing a short, slightly curved blade patterned with moons and stars, and continued staring as she leaned past me, over the bowl, and pricked the pad of her index finger with the very tip of her knife.

 

Turning my head to ask Elle… something, I found she'd already done similar, holding a tiny leaf-shaped knife with a handle carved like a coiling vine in her hand. She winced, but still resolutely squeezed the tip of her finger, forcing out several thick drops of—

 

“Your blood is green?!” I asked in a frantic whisper as I watched the disturbingly-bright forest-green droplets splash against the bottom of the bowl next to Mel’s blood, which was a rich navy blue instead. The scent of berries and lemon had increased significantly, and I realized it was coming from the blood.

 

“Did you think Elle was joking when she said thirty percent?” Mel asked, smirking and lifting the vial in her other hand. Pulling out the tiny cork with her teeth, she held the opening over her finger and tilted it slowly until the syrupy red liquid inside oozed out onto her fingertip, adding the smell of cherries mixed with a doctor’s office into the mix.

 

“Apparently,” I said, sighing. There’d be time for more questions later. 

 

While Elle and Mel rubbed the healing goop into their fingertips, I sat up on my knees again and leaned over the bowl. I didn’t have a knife of my own, but, in a way, I had ten perfectly good substitutes growing out of the ends of my fingers. Bracing myself, I held up my left hand and, with a moment of confused flexing, extended just the claw on my left index finger. The tips of my fingers seemed a bit too small, so instead I pressed the tip of my claw to the pad of my right thumb, taking one more deep breath before forcefully stabbing it in. I hissed through my teeth and quickly pinched the sides of the wound between my thumb and forefinger, squeezing out several drops of blood that I was actually relieved to see was just the normal, default red, and didn’t glow or smell like anything except a handful of pennies.

 

Sitting back on the cushion, I popped the top off my own bottle and dribbled the healing ointment onto my thumb, shivering slightly at the immediate cooling sensation. Using my other fingers to rub it into the wound, I watch in fascination as the tiny opening closed right up before my eyes, leaving smooth skin with not a single trace of injury.

 

“Wow…” I whispered to myself, tilting my thumb this way and that, inspecting it. It wasn’t even sore, and the remaining red goop was either evaporating or being absorbed into my skin, so that within seconds my hands were completely clean without so much as a sticky residue left behind.

 

“You’re so fascinated by the simplest things,” Mel said, lifting my attention back to her and Elle. “It’s really adorable.”

 

“W-well to me it’s not simple at all,” I protested weakly, feeling myself flush again and lowering my eyes to the bowl. I’d joked about it earlier, but it really was hard to believe I was sitting here, offering up blood to a goddess in exchange for… what was I even going to ask for? 

 

“So what happens now?” I asked, and Mel gave me a meaningful grin. I realized with a start that she’d already said what comes next.

 

“...a few drops of blood spilled and a quick kiss…”

 

“O-oh, right,” I said, then glanced side to side. I was, in what was rapidly becoming a pattern, once again sat between the two of them. “W-well, there’s three of us, so m-maybe you two should go first, or…”

 

I trailed off as the pair collectively came to the decision to reject my suggestion and, in a repeat of the move they’d pulled when we were seated on their couch together not too long ago, leaned down together and pressed a kiss each onto either of my cheeks. I saw it coming, but that didn’t make it any less flustering, and I almost missed both times as I turned my head to return the favor.

 

“I hope you’re happy up there,” I said, casting a glance up at the statue looming over us and its kind, benevolent smile.

 

With the preparations apparently complete, Elle and Mel bowed their heads, and I did the same, once again clasping my hands together and closing my eyes. I sat that way for several moments, not actually sure where to even start. Even though Elle said it was okay, I didn’t want to lead off with just asking for more help with the competition.

 

Hey th— uh, I mean… greetings, goddess, my name is Sam and… and basically, two really nice, really amazing elf girls who honestly should be out of my league just asked me to go out with them today, and I really don’t know if I should be thanking you or begging for help or what, but…

 

I frowned, losing my train of thought. This was a terrible prayer. Shaking my head slightly, I started over.

 

Sorry, sorry, what I mean is, I… I’m glad they asked me out, but I’m scared of disappointing them, or letting them down. I… don’t know if I’ve ever been in love, or how it’s supposed to feel, and they obviously love each other, so I guess I’m worried I won’t be able to… catch up? I mean, I like them both, a lot, and they apparently like me too, but you’re the Goddess of Love, not the Goddess of Like, so… shit, shit, this is so not helpful…

 

Scrunching my face up in concentration, I took a long, deep breath and let it out slowly.

 

What I’m trying to say is, if it’s meant to work out between me and Elle and Mel, then… Thank you. I’m not just asking you to make sure we all fall in love and live happily ever after, I don’t think it works that way and I wouldn’t want it to either, but… maybe a little help? I’m not asking for the world’s most exciting love life or anything, but just like, make sure our dates go okay, and that we don’t end up in some bizarre love triangle or something stupid like that… and, uh, I guess that’s it. Bye.

 

I really had to learn a better way to close out prayers if I was going to do this again. And, well, since I was already here…

 

Oh, and if you could maybe help me with the fishing contest too, please. Okay, bye now for reel… I mean for real.

 

Lifting my head and blinking my eyes open, I glanced furtively to either side. Elle and Mel were there, both of them smiling gently at me in their own ways, obviously having finished their own prayers ahead of me. Before I could say anything, a flash of light in the corner of my eye drew my attention to the bowl, and I watched, wide-eyed, as the tiny quarter-sized puddle of blood in the center of it caught fire. The flame was tiny and narrow, like a candle’s, and an odd reddish-purple color instead of orange. In the time it took me to blink twice, the puddle of blood had burned away, the flame winking out and leaving behind a fragrant wisp of smoke that dissipated into the air.

 

“Huh,” Mel said, and I tilted my head to stare at her. 

 

“W-what?” I asked nervously, gesturing at the now empty, spotless bowl. “That was supposed to happen, right?”

 

“Oh, yeah, don’t worry, that’s normal,” Mel said, chuckling. “But, usually the fire is more of a blueish-green, since mine and Elle’s blood is, you know, blue and green.” She motioned between herself and Elle, then grinned. “I guess adding yours into the mix made it a different color.”

 

“Huh,” I said, echoing Mel’s remark. “Neat…”

 

After that, we sat for a few more moments in pleasant silence, enjoying each other’s presence and the scents of flowers that clung to the air around the altar.

 

“So, why did she, uh, Sister Senna seem so surprised that I was excited back there?” I asked after a moment. It hadn’t stood out as strange at the time, but now I couldn’t help but wonder what she meant.

 

“Oh, that,” Mel said, throwing a quick glance over her shoulder before taking a deep breath. “Yeah, you should probably know before the next time it comes up…” She trailed off, visibly collecting her thoughts while tilting her head back to look up at the statue. “So, you asked about the Empire earlier, and we told you the basic gist of it, but left this part out. The reason that things have gotten so bad, the reason people have become less enthusiastic to show devotion to the Goddess of Love and War, is because the Empire has been claiming for over a thousand years now that everything they’re doing is in service to her. Somewhere along the line, their royal family got it into their heads that they’re descendents of the goddess herself, and now their churches worship a version of her that is completely at odds with the rest of the world. They claim that humans are her favorite, and that anyone who doesn’t believe them or follow their ways are wrong.”

 

“Oh…” I said, my brow slowly furrowing as I took in the story. That was… that was some serious shit, and for perhaps the first time since I’d come to this world, I felt real, actual fear at the thought of such a threat existing out there, across the ocean. Elle, quick to pick up on my distress, leaned over to loop one of her arms around my shoulder and pull me to her side.

 

“Mmhm.” Mel hummed in agreement, nodding and reaching over to rest a hand on my head as well. “Listen, don’t worry, we’re still safe here in Torgard. They’d never make it to us, and even if they did, we’d know well before we were in any danger.” She scratched at my head gently, almost absently, then let out a resigned sigh. “But, they’ve still all but declared war on the whole world, and, well, they’re powerful enough that no one kingdom has the resources to stop them alone, and nobody is willing to risk provoking them into going all out. Except the pirates, of course, and they’re doing everything they can, but they’re still fighting an uphill battle. Even with how far away it’s happening, it’s still not great to think about.”

 

“No kidding,” I said, giving Elle a squeeze and leaning my head into Mel’s fingers. My eyes were drawn to the goddess’s statue as well, and I frowned. A part of me wanted to ask, if the gods of this world were as real as they seemed, and they had the power to affect and influence it like I’d seen and felt, why hadn’t one of them stepped in and done something about this Empire. Were there limits to their powers that I just didn’t understand? There was no way the Empire was just getting away with it because they were actually right, was there? 

 

A shiver ran down my spine. Now that didn’t bear thinking about.

 

“We should probably… get moving now. Don’t wanna hog the altar, right?” I asked, looking back and forth from Elle to Mel.

 

“Yeah,” Mel agreed with a dry smile, giving my head one more scratch then pushing herself to her feet. Elle nodded and stood, helping me up as well. She seemed somewhat clingy after the somber moment, as she kept at least one arm around me even as we walked away from the altar. There wasn’t anyone waiting to take our place, and as we passed by I caught sight of Elder Sister Senna and Sister Juniper, standing and talking against the far wall. The former caught my eye and gave me a smile that seemed much sadder than it had before, and gave her a little wave in return.

 

Stepping down from the raised rear of the main hall, Mel stopped and motioned to the sides of the room, which were lined with many recessed alcoves containing smaller altars, the ones we’d passed on the way in in favor of visiting the largest three first.

 

“Guess we should go over some of these before we leave, huh?” she asked, and I brightened up a little, nodding and fishing my journal out of my bag.

 

“Yeah, I’d like that,” I said, looking to Elle and giving her a smile. She seemed alright, if a little withdrawn, but she smiled back and squeezed my shoulders again.

 

“Yes, then after that we should get you back to Felda’s. I’m sure she’ll want to hear that you’re doing much better,” Elle said, keeping pace with me as I followed Mel towards the first of the alcoves.

 

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure it’ll be a load off her mind,” I said, nodding. I would be glad if I could just stop causing disruptions in Felda’s life entirely; between her taking me in and having to defend herself on my behalf, and then having to deal with… all of my baggage, she really deserved to be able to relax a bit.

 

As we made a quick circuit of the temple, Elle and Mel gave me a crash course on the minor deities; gods who served more narrow, specialized roles and had actual names, unlike the big three who covered much broader concepts in comparison. 

 

First I learned the names of possibly the five most important gods, as they were the ones the days of the week were named after. Even though I already knew the goddesses of day and night, Soliel and Seras, we still visited their alcove, since their altars were always built together. I learned that the first and last days of the week were named after them as well, Solday and Serday, respectively. Elle delighted in pointing out that their meeting up together at the end of every week was the same as their meeting at sunrise and sunset from the story I’d read, and I think she took a bit of extra delight in how merely mentioning it almost made me cry again. After that were the three remaining days, Ferday, Kourday, and Colday, named after Ferros, Koura, and Colin.

 

“Okay, slow down,” I said, putting a brief pause on Mel’s explanation. “There’s a god named Colin?”

 

“Yeah?” Mel said, raising an eyebrow. “Why, what’s wrong with Colin?”

 

“Nothing, it’s just… it’s just a very normal name,” I said, shaking my head and raising my journal again. “And you said he’s the god of… jokes?”

 

“Jokesters, pranksters, and trickery,” Mel said, clarifying, and I scribbled it down next to the rest.

 

“And Ferros is like metals and forging and making stuff, and Koura is selling stuff,” I said, wanting to double check I’d gotten both right.

 

“Overly simplified, but yes,” Elle said, still sticking close to me, but now seeming to have regained her spark. “That’s why Solday and Ferday are considered the best days for working hard, Kourday is the best day for taking the results of that work to market, Colday is best for parties and celebrations, and Serday is for resting.”

 

“I still can’t believe your weeks are only five days long,” I said, trying to jot down a condensed version of that explanation.

 

“I still can’t believe your weeks are a whole seven days,” Mel said in response, sounding genuinely confused. “I mean, what did you do with all that extra time?”

 

“Not a whole lot, really,” I said, lifting my head. “I guess, to put it your way, weekends are like two extra Serdays where you don’t have to go to school, but adults still had work on the weekends. Me, I mostly just used them to sleep in, watch cartoons, and generally loaf around and be glad I wasn’t going to school.”

 

“I’m going to start making a list of all the things you still need to explain to us,” Mel said with a playful sigh, turning back to the alcoves. “Right, well, this is Ferron, god of exploration and travel, he’s Ferros’ brother.”

 

“Bet he’s mad he didn’t get a day named after him,” I said, earning a round of snickers and giggles from my companions.

 

We continued on until we got to another altar that was unusually laid out, and Elle once again jumped in to drop another revelation on me.

 

“And this is the altar of the moons,” Elle said cheerfully, ushering me into another alcove and pointing to the mural that took up the entirety of the inner wall. Instead of an image of the god it represented, it was a depiction of the world, with four colored spheres floating at each of the cardinal directions, one green, one pink, one orange, and one blue. The spheres were connected by a golden ring running between them, with a series of many tiny notched increments running the edge of the ring like a ruler that had been bent into a circle.

 

“Did you say… moons?” I asked, narrowing my eyes and flicking them between her and the mural.

 

“That’s right,” Elle said, grinning as she pointed to the four circles and listed off their names in turn. “There’s Abun the Spring Moon, Dala the Summer Moon, Jenn the Autumn Moon, and Fros the Winter Moon.”

 

“But… I’ve only seen the one moon?” I said, motioning towards the pink one.

 

“Well of course, it’s summer right now,” Elle said, and when she saw I clearly still wasn’t getting it, she pointed back the way we’d come. “Okay, you remember how Soliel and Sera learned their lesson about sharing the hours in the day, right?” When I nodded, she again pointed at the mural of the four moons. “Well, when they had their four daughters, that meant they already knew exactly how to split up the time each of them got to have influence over the world. That’s why every season lasts exactly one hundred days.”

 

My pencil, which had barely begun moving again, stilled, and my mouth opened slowly. I wanted to focus on the second, more impactful thing she’d just revealed to me about this world’s calendar, but I also couldn’t ignore the first part.

 

“D-d-daughters?” I spluttered out, eyes wide.

 

“Oh, yeah,” Elle said, grinning even wider and pressing her hands together in front of her. “You must not have gotten to that story yet, but, yes, Soliel and Sera had four daughters, and they became the moons.”

 

Aw, spoilers!

 

Despite myself, I felt my eyes start to water, and bit down on my lip. “T-t-that’s… that’s!”

 

“I knoooow, it’s so sweet, right?” Elle cooed, finishing my sentence and swooning backwards into Mel, who caught her with an awkward cry.

 

“U-uh huh!” I nodded, taking a deep sniff and doing my best to try and suck the unshed tears right back into my eyes, not wanting to be caught getting reduced to tears by a children's fable for the second time.

 

“C’mon, you two,” Mel said in mock exasperation, rolling her eyes then yelping as Elle sat up and gave her a sudden kiss that I could only describe as “vengeful.”

 

Still, while Elle playfully teased Mel out of her usual taciturn state, I couldn’t help but ponder the other half of what she’d revealed.

 

Every season is exactly one hundred days…

 

It made sense with what I’d already heard, really. There weren’t “months” in this world that I could tell, just the four seasons, split up into four quarters each, which, like their names suggested, were twenty five days long with five weeks of five days. Added up, if everything were to be truly equal, that meant the years in this world had to be four hundred days long, a whole thirty five days longer than on Earth. 

 

While not immediately useful, that seemed like incredibly basic everyday information, and I was glad I’d learned it before anyone could catch on to my ignorance. I had just enough time to note it down in my journal before Elle turned back to me and, clearly not satisfied with just reducing Mel to a mess, gave me a quick peck on the forehead that threw my thoughts entirely out of focus for a few moments.

 

“Alright, really, come on, we got one stop left,” Mel said, urging us to our feet, and mumbling a hushed apology to the elderly couple who filed into the alcove after us. “I saved this one for last, because I know you're gonna have questions.”

 

“Oooh?” I said, perking my ears up.

 

The altar Mel brought us to last was, like most of the others, a short table tucked into an alcove, with candles lit at the edges and a space in the center for offerings, and a tile mural of the god it was dedicated to set into the back wall. The figure in this alcove was robed, its eyes obscured by large round lenses, a staff in one hand and a book in the other. My eyes lit up, and I turned excitedly to Elle.

 

“God of wizards?” I asked, hopefully.

 

“Well, actually,” Elle said, hiding a giggle in her hand. “Vidya is the god of scholars, but after the discovery and proliferation of magic as we know it, people began to see him as a god of mages as well.”

 

“Ah, he’s the god of nerds then,” I said, crossing my arms and nodding sagely.

 

“You’re doing it on purpose now, aren’t you?” Mel asked with a grin.

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said innocently, once again lifting my journal and pencil. “So, if you’re finally ready to go back to it, what was that you were saying? Not everybody had magic?”

 

“That’s right,” Elle said, settling down into the cushion across from me and letting her back rest against the wall of the alcove behind her. “I guess I should start from the very beginning. We have records from multiple civilizations that tell us that there was a time when the only beings in the world known to be able to cast magic were magical creatures, though back then they were just called monsters.” Turning her head to the side, Elle grumbled, “Though, some people still call them monsters, which is completely unfair, I mean, would you call Clover a monster…” Catching herself and clearing her throat, she continued, “A-anyway, for a long time that was the norm, until suddenly, and for no reason anyone’s been able to determine, things changed.”

 

I nodded along to Elle’s words with rapt attention, sitting with my back to the opposite wall and taking notes as fast as I could.

 

“At some point, certain mortals, seemingly at random, began to be born with the ability to cast magic the same way magical creatures could, with nothing but their will and the mana inside them.” Elle paused for a moment, catching her breath and, when Mel offered, taking a sip from her canteen before continuing. “You can guess what happened next; those mortals who awoke to these powers used them to establish themselves as rulers, or tyrants. They discovered that these powers could be passed down to their children, and they built entire dynasties on the backs of their ability to overpower just about anyone except another magic user, and for a time, they went completely unopposed. Until, according to the legend, Vidya helped the scholars who would become the world’s first mages make an incredible discovery.”

 

Elle paused again to motion to the mural inside the alcove, and she spent several moments just staring distantly into it.

 

“It was magic, right? Like, ‘new magic?’” I asked, prompting her, too on the edge of my seat to help myself, and she turned back with a smile.

 

“Yes,” Elle said, nodding. “Vidya helped those scholars discover the… source, I suppose, of magic. Or maybe the key to finding it, it’s been a while since I learned this myself and the different stories get a bit muddled. Suffice it to say, they discovered that by dissecting and closely examining the remains of magical creatures, and later plants as well, they could learn what we now know as ‘sigils,’ symbols that make up a language that controls the natural laws of the very world around us and makes magic possible.”

 

“Woah!” I gasped, sitting forward, my eyes going wider than I thought possible, my notes momentarily forgotten. Elle’s smile grew at my excitement.

 

“From there the rest is, well, literally history. The scholars worked in secret to discover as many sigils as they could and compile them into the world's first spells, learning how to cast them and how to imbue them into objects and, when they were ready, revealing to the world at large that magic was now within the grasp of anyone and everyone.”

 

“They did that by blowing the head off of some guy who called himself ‘The Immortal King of Flame’ in front of his whole kingdom,” Mel cut in from my side, momentarily taking over the story.

 

“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard,” I said, turning to Mel. “Were they just way more powerful than him from all that secret practice, or what?”

 

“No, see, that’s the thing,” Mel said, grinning and holding up a finger. “So, alone, one person with a magic bloodline might be able to take on a thousand normal people, and a hundred novice mages, but the thing about those lines is, the magic they granted was powerful, but rigid. Any one bloodline only ever had command over one element, like fire in his case.” Mel held up four fingers on her other hand. “But, with sigil magic, a sufficiently skilled mage can cast spells that do all sorts of shit. Fly, shoot fire or ice or lightning, throw things around with their mind, turn their body to metal, the list goes on.”

 

I was practically drooling by now, and for the first time it wasn’t over a piece of fish.

 

“So, you put four fully-trained mages up against a guy who can only throw fire around, and has never had a real challenge in his life, and he topples like a tower with the base blown out of it.” Mel folded her four fingers over the one, then with a grin twisted her grip to crack one of her knuckles for dramatic effect, then nodded back towards Elle.

 

“And that’s why we’re in the Era of Magic now,” Elle said, opening her hands and holding them out in front of her. “The mages spread the resources to learn magic to the people, and… most of the worst of the kingdoms that were founded on the back of a magic bloodline were overthrown and replaced.”

 

“Wait, but, if everybody had magic now, what was to stop someone else from just doing it all over again?” I asked, in between trying to find out how I was going to fit everything I’d just heard into my notes.

 

“Well, for one thing, like you just said, everybody has magic now, or has the ability to learn it,” Mel answered. “It takes a lot of hard work to get good enough at magic that you could be dangerous, and thankfully most places that teach magic professionally try to instill some of the lessons that the first council stood by in their students. That way, nobody could get it into their head to declare themselves ‘Supreme King Dick of the Bloody Dynasty’ without there being tons of other people ready and willing to step in and stop them, and if they weren’t enough, then the Council of Mages would be. Even today, they do their best to prevent misuse of magic, but…”

 

She trailed off, and I nodded, pointing back to Elle.

 

“You said ‘most,’ right?” I asked, already pretty sure I knew where this was going. “But the Empire is…”

 

“The Empire is one of the last remaining bloodline dynasties, yes,” Elle said with a sad smile. “Most of the other remnants fled the surface and now their descendants exist as part of High Society, and whatever they’re up to, they haven’t returned to try and reclaim their former positions down here, but the Empire and the kingdom of Yuusha are still led by a family that maintains a direct line to the old bloodlines. Thankfully, Yuusha keeps mostly to itself, but, well, you’ve heard what the Empire is getting up to.”

 

“Geez,” I said, slumping backwards against the wall again. “That is… that’s so much, how am I ever going to learn your world’s entire history before someone catches on?”

 

“Hey, to be fair, a lot of this isn’t stuff everybody has on hand,” Mel said, leaning over and bumping my shoulder with one of hers, then nodding at Elle. “I only know all this because she knows, and she only knows this much because she went to the academy to study it.”

 

I was still reeling too much to sit up and gasp, but my eyes still fell on Elle, who flushed green hunched her shoulders up, nodding shyly.

 

“Yes, yes, I went to the royal academy…” Elle said, sitting up and starting to rise from her cushion. “It’s one of the reasons I came to Torgard, but that story seriously can wait until another day. We need to get you back, and we’ll need to start helping Felda set up for the evening.”

 

“Awwww, fine,” I mock-grumbled, snapping my journal closed and stowing it in my satchel before springing to my feet. Smiling up at Elle, I reached out for one of her hands and nodded. “But seriously, thank you. Not just for the story, but for everything today. I had no idea just how much I needed this.”

 

Elle took my hand and beamed, using it to pull me to her side and wrap her other arm around me, hugging me tightly, and after a moment I felt Mel at my back, my vision momentarily going dark as I was smushed between the pair once again.

 

I had to shield my eyes for a moment when we finally emerged back into the sunlight, standing on the edge of the steps that led up to the temple.

 

“Wow, we were in there a while, huh?” I asked, noting just how much further across the sky the sun had drifted since I’d last seen it.

 

“Yep,” Mel said, stretching her arms over her head, twisting her back to either side a few times and grunting. “I’m actually pretty glad we stopped by here, this blessing is going to feel real good by the time we’re closing up.”

 

“Ah, sor—” I began to apologize, but Mel shushed me, her hand appearing in front of me in a flash and pressing a finger to my lips.

 

“Don’t you even think about it,” Mel said, grinning as I flushed and flinched backwards. “We wanted to do this for you, and if it means we both hit the hay a little harder tonight, then so be it. As long as you had a good time and you feel better, that’s what’s important.”

 

“O-okay,” I stammered, lowering my eyes and biting my lip to stop myself from immediately trying to apologize again for the first apology. “Well, then, yes on both counts. I feel so much better than I ever could have hoped, and I had a great time learning all this stuff, and I…” My throat, suddenly dry, seized up with nerves at what I wanted to say. Swallowing, and lifting my gaze from the smooth stones of the temple steps, I met Elle and Mel’s eyes.

 

“And I’m really glad you two asked me out.”

 

A chorus of “Aww”s and another, much quicker group hug followed after that, before we set off down the steps together, finally due to return to Felda’s tavern. Just before we reached the bottom, a stray gust of wind blew across my face, and a glass-like tinkling sound drew my attention to the left. Turning my head, I noticed a figure across the grass, standing in the shadow of one of the large trees that dotted the courtyard. I figured they were one of the temple staff, as they were wearing a hooded robe that gently fluttered in the breeze, but under the shade I couldn't tell what color it was.

 

The figure had their arms raised over their head, doing something to a low hanging branch. When they stepped aside, I saw that there was now a wind chime made of clear glass tubes and colored beads dangling from it, and the figure turned to look at me. As the wind started to play through the newly hung decoration, a smile slowly spread across the lower half of their face, and the sounds of glass chiming grew louder and louder in my ears.

 

“Sam?”

 

Mel’s voice snapped my attention back to the pair, who had stopped a few feet ahead of me and turned around.

 

“Something wrong?”

 

I turned back towards the tree, and saw that the figure was gone, leaving only the gently swaying wind chime.

 

“Uh, no,” I said, scratching my head. “I thought I saw someone doin’ something… weird, but it’s probably nothing.”

 

“Ah, alright.”

 

Elle and Mel waited for me to catch up again, and we resumed our journey back to the tavern. As we went, the sounds of the tinkling wind chime seemed to follow me much further from the temple than should be possible, even with my hearing, and I continued to cast glances over my shoulder until they finally faded.

■

“Welcome back, girls,” Felda said brightly as we filed into the Tavern, leaning over the bar with Bart seated to her right. It appeared we’d arrived after she’d already finished setting out the chairs and lighting the lanterns, and I felt the briefest twinge of guilt that I’d kept Elle and Mel long enough that they weren’t here to help. I quashied those feelings just as quickly, and smiled back at her in return.

 

“Heya,” I said, waving.

 

“Hey,” Mel said, unslinging her satchel.

 

“Hello Felda, sorry we’re a little late,” Elle said, earning a playful scoff.

 

“Nonsense! How was the day out?” Felda asked, coming around from behind the counter to meet us, and I couldn’t help but grin and pick up speed, my sandals slapping against the wooden floor as I hurried to cross the tavern.

 

Startled, Felda held up her arms and braced herself, catching me as I skidded to a halt and all but crashed against her. I threw my arms around as much of her larger frame as I could, and hugged her like I hadn’t just seen her before I left. Overcoming her surprise, Felda leaned down to wrap her arms around me in return, squeezing a quick purr out of me.

 

“It was great,” I said when I finally lifted my head again, smiling up at Felda. “Elle and Mel helped me figure out some… really important stuff about what was bothering me, something I never would have found on my own, and I’m feeling a lot better now.”

 

“Oh? That’s fantastic, Sam,” Felda said, beaming brightly and giving me another tight squeeze. I thought she might press even further than that, maybe actually ask for an explanation, but it seemed she was letting me decide whether I elaborated, something I appreciated greatly. I knew I wanted to tell Felda the whole truth someday soon as well, but there was no way I was going to go through all of that twice in one day.

 

Thankfully, there was something else I could tell her instead.

 

“That’s not all,” I said, releasing Felda and walking backwards to where Elle and Mel were waiting for me, grinning wide. Clearing my throat, I reached up and took one of their hands into each of mine, gripping them firmly and holding Felda’s gaze.

 

“Felda, Elle and Mel have asked me to join their orchard,” I said, smoothly switching from Common to Elvish mid sentence, something I’d been practicing for most of the walk back. I told the pair I thought it would really help the presentation, and they agreed emphatically. 

 

The reaction was immediate, and gratifying. Bart, who had been quietly sipping something from a tall wooden mug, suddenly choked and bent over his stool, coughing and hacking, while Felda’s jaw actually dropped.

 

“O-oh!” Felda stammered, struggling through a clear loss of words, reaching out and putting a hand on the bar beside her. “That… that’s great, Samantha! I… Sorry, I’m just… shocked, to be honest. So, are three of you going to be…?”

 

“Together, yeah,” Mel finished for her, grinning and obviously savoring seeing her boss thrown so far off balance. “Believe me, if we hadn’t both been so nervous wondering how she’d actually react, we would’ve told you too, but we didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up but our own, y’know? Though, now that she’s said ‘yes,’ we wanted you to be the first to know.”

 

“Hey, what?” I asked, scandalized, tilting my head to stare up at her. “You really thought there was a chance I’d say ‘no?’”

 

“We very much didn’t want to assume, Sammie,” Elle said, ruffling up my hair before turning back to Felda. “And, yes, we’re trying it out, and like we told Sammie, it’s at her pace. We’ll be taking things as slow as possible and always double checking that she's comfortable.”

 

“That’s… that’s wonderful!” Felda said when she finally managed to pull herself together enough to finish a whole sentence, and a sense of relief I didn’t realize I’d been waiting on washed over me at seeing how happy she was for me, for us. A part of me had been scared that Felda might disapprove, or have some other reservations, but I sensed none of that as she proceeded to fawn over the three of us.

 

Worming my way out from between Elle, Mel, and Felda and leaving them to talk amongst themselves for a moment, I excused myself to step over to the bar, where Bart had recovered from his coughing fit, and was watching the display with a reserved smile.

 

“I took your advice,” I said, hopping up onto the stool beside him.

 

“Seems you did,” Bart said, turning in his stool to look down at me. The smile remained, but I could see it threatening to slip as Bart’s eyes bored into me, studying me closely. I grinned back at him, flashing a single fang, but otherwise waited for him to get to whatever he was going to say in his own time.

 

“Felda is… perhaps too overcome at the moment to think to ask you this,” Bart began, his tone hesitant and his voice quiet. “She’s known those girls for a long while, and she and I both know they’re trustworthy. You’d be well within your rights if you wanted to tell me I'm stepping way out of line here, but…”

 

“Are you going to ask if I know what I’m doing?” I asked, slowly swinging my legs off the edge of the stool.

 

Bart, looked a little chastened of all things, cleared his throat and nodded. “Aye. I mean no offense, but… well, you can not say it is not a valid concern, considering your… situation.”

 

“Heh,” I chuckled, tilting my head back and staring up at the ceiling for a moment. Not today, I repeated. “No, you’re right, that’s fair, and to answer your question: No, I don’t know shit about what I’m doing, Bart.”

 

Bart’s brow furrowed, clearly not having received the answer he’d been expecting. Resting my chin in my palm and learning on the bar, I glanced sidelong at Felda, Elle and Mel again. At some point their conversation had turned to discussing the upcoming night’s business, with Felda currently going over the menu. Elle noticed me looking their way and broke into a cute little smile, wiggling her fingers at me before returning her attention to Felda.

 

“You said so yourself. My ‘situation’ is that I’m lost, and confused, and far from my home, and I don’t know how just about anything works around here,” I said, sighing and closing my eyes. “But, like I said, those two helped me come to a realization recently of just how much of my life up until now has been wasted on feeling awful for myself for what turned out to be no good reason. And since coming here and meeting them, and you, and Felda, that’s finally starting to change.” Opening my eyes, I turned back to Bart, giving him my most genuine smile. “So, even though I’m scared, and there’s a lot I don’t know, I do know this; those two make me happy, and I want to make them happy back.”

 

Bart sat in silence for several long moments after I wrapped up what wound up becoming something of a speech, eyes boring into me as he studied me, as if searching for something. Eventually, he reached for his mug, and slowly raised it to his lips, taking a long pull of whatever he’d been drinking, continuing until he’d drained it dry. Setting the mug back on the bar with a hollow, wooden thumb, he let out a satisfied sigh and smiled back at me.

 

“Well said, Sam,” Bart said simply, taking a sniff and running his hand across his beard to clear it of non-existent residue. “As long as it doesn’t get in the way of your lessons, then I suppose I’ve nothing else to be concerned about.”

 

I let out a chuckle that quickly grew into a laugh that proved too infectious even for Bart to resist, though he did try to use his empty mug to hide it.

 

“Thanks, Bart,” I said after we’d both settled back into our stools, leaning over the bar and resting on my elbows. “For, well, for actually caring enough about me to ask something like that.”

 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bart shift in his seat, his posture suddenly stiff, and I worried briefly that what I’d said had been just a bit too dour and brought the mood down. But then, Bart moved again, the arm that had frozen awkwardly at his side extending jerkily, and then I blinked in surprise as I felt his large hand come down between my ears.

 

“You’re welcome, Sam,” Bart said quietly, face turned forward as though all the bones in his neck had fused together. Clumsily, he lifted and then dropped his fingers three times in succession, then scratched at my head for a single second before retrieving his hand and crossing his arms, tucking it away into the folds of his coat like he was ashamed of it.

 

I turned my head and stared, eyes narrowed and one eyebrow raised, up at Bart, who was once again looking for all the world like a statue, mouth set in a perfectly neutral line. It wasn’t like I hadn’t noticed that Bart seemed hesitant to follow Felda’s lead in displaying affection for me via pats to the head, and I’d kind of just chalked it up to being against his nature, or that he just didn’t perceive me the same way she did, more like he was just my mentor and I was his student. So, for him to step outside of what I assumed was a pretty narrow comfort zone must have taken some real effort on his part, and I wanted to make sure he knew I appreciate it.

 

But that also didn’t mean I wasn’t going to have some fun first.

 

“Five out of ten,” I said.

 

Bart’s brows twitched and he turned his head fractionally in my direction.

 

“Pardon?”

 

“I give that headpat a five out of ten. It wasn’t the worst, but, it also wasn’t the best either,” I said, crossing my arms and nodding sagely. “Technique needs work.”

 

Bart made a noise between a grunt and a sigh and dipped his head, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and fingers, while I snickered and reached up to pat him on the back.

 

“Anyway, speaking of my lessons,” I said, sitting up on my stool and slapping the surface of the bar. “We should talk about what we’re gonna do tomorrow, to make up for what I missed today.”

■

Sometime in between mine and Bart’s planning for the day ahead, a yawn slipped out of my mouth, and Elle and Mel enjoyed a good bit of fun at my exasperation at the fact that I could even be tired when I still had a literal divine blessing refreshing my body. Bidding a quick and momentary goodbye to the four of them, I slid off to Felda’s room for a nap, and once again woke up to the tavern absolutely bustling, full to bursting with pirates. Duke and Captain Zevrelos were there, and I made sure to pay their table a visit, just to chat.

 

From there, the night progressed as it usually did, with a few notable differences. I sat with Bart in the corner booth, as usual, and enjoyed the dinner that Felda cooked for me, also as usual. Elle and Mel bustled around the tavern, Felda churned out dish after dish, and Viktor the bartender served drinks with his usual unwavering stoicism. The evening wore on, and eventually drew late, and when the patrons and pirates finally filed out into the night, I was on my feet before Elle could finish locking the doors, already helping to carry the last of the dishes from their tables to the kitchen. This time, it was Mel who I helped do the dishes, and we chatted as we worked, and when we were done we joined Elle and talked a bit longer, until Felda reminded me that the two of them needed a full night’s sleep, unlike me. She paid them, and me, and before they departed I once again got a kiss to either cheek.

 

As I settled onto the edge of Felda’s bed and waited for her to finish changing out of her day clothes, I glanced over to the side table, where the brush had been left waiting the night before. It was nowhere to be seen.

 

“Felda,” I said, turning around when I felt her weight settle onto the bed.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Do you… still have the brush?” I asked.

 

“Oh, ah, yes, I have it,” Felda said, her eyes widening for a fraction of a second, concern radiating off of her. “But I put it away, you don’t have to worry…” She trailed off as I shook my head, holding up a placating hand.

 

“I… I want you to try again.” I said, swallowing and attempting to hide my nerves. “Brushing my hair, I mean.”

“Oh, Sam…” Felda said, brow furrowing deeply. “You don’t need to force yourself, just give it time.”

 

“Please,” I said, insistently. “I… I know what it is that set me off last time. It wasn’t the brush, not exactly, and knowing what I know now, I… think I’m capable of handling it.” Felda still seemed unconvinced, and I didn’t blame her. I wasn’t even sure I was convinced myself. “Just, as long as you promise me that you’d never… do anything to my hair that I didn’t ask you to do?”

 

I could see the gears working behind Felda’s eyes, clearly trying to slot some new information into her mental blueprint of me, before she jolted slightly and nodded, reaching forward to rest a hand on my shoulder.

 

“Of course, Samantha,” she said, softly but insistently, firmly holding my gaze. “I would never, ever do anything like that, you have my word.”

 

“Thank you,” I said, resting my hand on top of hers and nodding.

 

With her fears hopefully allayed, Felda stood up again and moved to her wardrobe, opening the wide doors and reaching inside. She withdrew the hair brush, and I did my best to lock my eyes onto it and take in every detail I could make out in the dim candlelight of the bedside lantern. It was such a simple, ordinary thing, and even though looking at it did stir loose the memories that had started this whole mess, I found that in light of recent events, those memories lacked the teeth they once had. The shame, and confusion, of my younger self not being able to comprehend the things I’d been feeling had been replaced with understanding, and support. Elle and Mel knew the truth, and accepted me with wide open arms, and I no longer had any doubts that Felda would too, once I did finally tell her.

 

Felda returned to the bed and once again sat beside me, and the thing held in her hands was a simple hair brush. Nothing more.

 

“Here,” Felda said, indicating the spot on the bed directly in front of her, rather than the short stool I’d perched on the night before. I nodded, and slid into place with my back to her. “I’ll go slowly,” she said, and I nodded again, and one of her arms came down to wrap around my side. “If you want me to stop, if you feel anything is wrong, don’t be afraid to say so, or if you can’t, just squeeze my hand as hard as you can, okay?”

 

“Okay,” I said, taking Felda’s much larger hand in both of mine, holding it softly and just waiting for her to begin.

 

I jumped slightly when she did finally touch the bristles of the brush to the back of my head, and she jerked away just as quickly, but I assured her I was still fine, and she once more brought the brush close. She worked slowly, even slower than she had before, and I could tell we were both holding our breaths like we were waiting for a bomb to go off, for me to make a repeat performance of the breakdown I’d had last night.

 

But it never came. Slowly, I stopped sitting with my back straight and my shoulders hiked up, a position that I hadn’t realized I’d adopted. I relaxed, leaning back against Felda, and actually started to enjoy the slow, deliberate movements of the brush gliding through my hair. The already feather-light grip I had on her other hand eased up until I fully let go, and she tentatively lifted it from my lap, using both hands now to work my hair, softly petting my head and nudging my ears as she went. Felda continued to regularly ask if I was still doing alright, but stopped when I closed my eyes and began to purr.

 

I was asleep before Felda was finished brushing my hair, and that, too, would become the usual in the days and weeks that followed.