Diner Talk
The next day, when I wake up again, I’m in my usual cursed form.
“Good morning, Rose. Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah…I had a wonderful dream.”
“Really? What was it about?”
“I dreamt that we did a lot of fun things together and I turned into a little version of you.”
“Pfft. That wasn’t a dream, silly.”
“What?”
“We did all that yesterday.”
“R-really?”
“Yep!”
“Wait so I can…” imagining myself transforming into Scarlet’s flirty prince form I shrink and turn into my small form, “Eh!? It really wasn’t a dream!”
“Told ya. And do you want to know the best part?”
“Yeah?”
“We’re going to keep having fun like yesterday.”
“Really?”
“Really!”
“Why…?
“Because I want to. Sher Aka also came to talk to me yesterday after you fell asleep, she wants to join us after doing some work with the Dragons from yesterday.”
“Really? Sher Aka wants to join us? What about John?”
“He’s still working on improving his magic and looking up Dragon medicine, so he’s busy. He did also say something about preparing your class this evening though, is he teaching you magic?”
“Nope, he’s teaching me how to care for my hair!”
“How nice of him.”
I look around, “Where is Rayla?”
“She wanted to buy some more tourist brochures, she should be back soon. If you want, we can do your exercises until she gets back, that way we have that out of our way.”
“Sure.”
We do some exercises together and shortly after Rayla comes back.
“Oh, you’re already up, perfect. Good morning oko.”
“Good morning.”
“Gosh you look so cute like this!” Rayla says as she picks me up.
“Really? You think so?”
“Yes! Totally! We really need to get you some clothes though. You can’t just run around in a shirt all day.”
“But clothes are expensive. It’s not like I’ll be in this form much.”
“Why not?”
“Huh?”
“Isn’t this form better than your cursed form?”
“Hmm…It’s definitely less useful than my cursed form.”
“But do you prefer this one or your cursed form?”
“Hmm…I think I like this more for when we’re not in danger or working.”
“Then we should get you some clothes! Scarlet you said you were looking for a tailor for shapeshifters right?”
“Yes, I asked some of the people at the organization about it. If we’re just going to enchant her current clothes we can easily do that today but if we want something new tailored we should wait until she’s a little healthier.”
“Then let's get her clothes enchanted today,” ane winks at Scarlet, “Provided you’re paying of course.”
“Of course I will.”
“Kekeke, having connections to a princess sure has its perks.”
“Get used to it. We’re family now after all.”
Scarlet then wraps me up in a blanket and we leave for breakfast, eventually coming onto a place called ‘Jodee's Diner’.
“Did they write ‘dinner’ wrong, ane?”
“Nope it’s pronounced ‘die-ner’. It’s a popular type of restaurant in the NU where they sell dessert for breakfast.”
“Is that healthy?”
“No, but I hear it’s tasty!”
Going inside, we come upon a room with a black and white checkered floor and red furniture. There are multiple booths to sit down in and the servers are all women of different races wearing skimpy clothing and dashing around on roller skates.
Shortly after we enter, one of the servers, a Highelf woman in her early four hundreds, skates towards us, “Hi, welcome to Jodee’s Diner, the most exotic restaurant in the NU with races from all over the world serving you! As part of our ‘Across the world’-promotion we have different themed booths for you! Currently we have the Blaze and Tera Agua table available.”
“We’ll take the Blaze table then,” Rayla says.
“Sure! Follow me.”
Following her lead, we sit down at the booth. It has paper roses as decorations on it and a little information pamphlet about Blaze, it has a red cartoon dragon on it. On it, it says:
‘Blaze, a country shrouded in mystery. Despite it being common knowledge that Dragons are a ferocious race that border on monsters, they are also people able to have their own nation. Dragons, while being extremely strong and sturdy, make up for that strength with their intelligence. Many Dragons possess only a child-like intelligence and their ways of thinking are often incomprehensible to most people. Similar to animals, they are quite territorial and need to fight a lot to get rid of those primal urges, which is why you can often see them power themselves out in the arena.
If you wish to see this for yourself, you can take one of the coupons that come with any meal worth more than five copper pennies for 20% off at any Nicholson exhibition match. Nicholson, fun for the whole family.’
“Hey manya?”
“Hmm?”
“Is it true that most Dragons are stupid?”
“What?”
“It says here that most Dragons only have child-like intelligence.”
“What!? Let me see that!”
Looking through the pamphlet, Scarlet grows quite annoyed, “I’ve got to hand it to you Rayla, I’m rarely offended but you managed to do just that.”
“Why? What does it say?”
“Here, take a look.”
“...”
“Yikes…I swear I had no idea about this. I just heard this is a fun place for children with great food. Should we leave?”
Mayna sighs, “No…It’s already too late. Let’s just eat the food and not return after. As for you Rose, forget everything it said on that pamphlet. It’s lies and slander.”
“Okay.”
As I answer Scarlet, a blue skinned elven woman with long kelp green hair partially covering her gills skates to our table.
While they’re rare, I did meet some Seaelves in Rostock, when working at the docks so I say, “Se Shanti om!”
Which puts a smile on her face as she answers, “Se Shanti mo. You’re quite well informed, aren’t you little one? How do you know that greeting?”
“I used to live at a harbor.”
“I see! Not many know our customs so you’re very well informed!”
She then puts down three menus and says, “Welcome to Jodee’s Diner, the most exotic restaurant in the NU with races from all over the world serving you! My name is Kara Se but you can just call me, Carry. If you need any help or you wish to order, please just raise this little Flag of Blaze and I’ll be right here with you.”
She then skates away as quickly as she came and Rayla asks me, “What does the thing you said to her mean?”
“It means ‘May the sea be kind to you’. I think it’s a saying unique to Seaelves.”
“Huh, interesting.”
Looking at the menu, Scarlet gets a bit of a concerned look as she says, “I don’t think you should have one of those dessert for breakfast dishes, Rose. A lot of them have cinnamon in them and I’m not sure that they take the steps to avoid cinnamon getting into the non cinnamon dishes…But they do have eggs and bacon, do you want to eat those?”
“Sure.”
Scarlet boops my nose and says, “Don’t just say ‘sure’ all the time. Do you want eggs and bacon? Or do you want something else?”
“I’m fine with whatever you give me.”
“Sigh You’re too easy to please, Rose. Are you sure, there is nothing on the menu you want more?”
“Yeah, I’ll go with what you said.”
“Tsk Alright, in the future I’ll ask you before I recommend something.”
Watching the servers skate by, I notice someone weird, they look like a tree in the shape of a person.
“Ane?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s that?”
“What’s wha- Huh…I have no idea. Scarlet?”
“Hmm? That’s a Marygold. They’re the only known people that are plants. They live in the forests of Naturia and come in all shapes and sizes. They’re quite a rare race.”
“Huh…How many races are there, manya?”
She shrugs, “No idea. The world is a big place and I don’t care much about the classifications. According to others, us Dragons aren’t even full people. Officially we count as intelligent beasts.”
“What? Why?”
“Because people are scared of us so they want the right to kill us on sight. Until around a thousand years ago we still counted as monsters in most countries. It’s thanks to our grandma that we’re now ‘intelligent beasts’.”
Rayla looks baffled as she says, “I always thought Dragons are recognized as people.”
“Well, we aren’t. One of the reasons for it is because we’re not ‘humanoid’.”
“Isn’t that an outdated term? I thought human supremacist language like this is no longer used.”
“It is still used on the international stage. The Elven kingdoms actively petition for it to stay that way just to spite us also the White City, and thus by proxy almost all Human countries, oppose our acceptance on religious grounds. If it weren’t for Xin Jin Huang, the Republic of Mondor, Tartarus and our immense military strength and strategic position we would have long been deemed monsters again after the great war.”
Feeling scared, I ask, “Manya, does that mean there is a chance we’re going to be killed if they say we’re monsters?”
“No. I’ll protect you.”
“Are you sure? What if you get hurt too?”
“I won’t,” Scarlet says as she picks me up and gives me a hug, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned this with you here. You don’t have the knowledge to understand how unlikely this is to happen, so please just trust me when I say it won’t happen during our lifetime.”
“A-are you sure? What if the guild says we’re monsters and people hunt us?”
“They won’t.”
“How can you be so sure of that?”
“Well…Have you never wondered why the guild’s symbol is a Dragon?”
“No?”
“It’s because the guild’s main branch is in Blaze. Our great-great-grandfather invented it.”
“Really?”
“Yes really. But it’s a secret so don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Should you really be discussing what is probably a state secret in a diner?”
“No, but if it helps Rose I will.”
“Sigh. At least consider your position a little.”
“I have and I have valued it beneath the well being of my family.”