As soon as we’re outside, Anya stops.

I slow to a halt and turn my attention towards her. I wonder if something is wrong. Our mission is over, so there shouldn’t be anything else to worry about.

Maybe her injury is worse than we originally thought?

She flips her adventurer’s pack onto the front of her torso and begins to ruffle through the bag. Eventually, she finds the object she was looking for.

It’s a cute, pink pillow with a derpy brown bear embroidered into the center. The pillow looks fairly worn, so she has definitely had it for quite some time.

Pillows aren’t known for their medicinal properties, so I’m going to have to assume that she’s doing fine in terms of her physical welfare.

Anya takes a deep breath.

“Sun, you’re going to have to excuse me for a moment.” She doesn’t look at me when she says this. Instead, she turns around, back towards me.

What is she doing? Is this some sort of after-mission ritual that she does for good luck or thanks? I continue my observation.

Anya stuffs her face into the pillow and screams as loud as she possibly can. The pillow does an excellent job of muffling the sound, so it’s really not very noisy at all.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

Anya lifts her face up from the pillow and draws in another deep breath. She repeats her process once more. Her voice is slightly louder this time, so the first scream must have not been satisfactory.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

I shift my weight back and forth, not really sure what to do in this situation other than wait.

Anya finishes, and the bear’s face is creased after the fact.

She looks up from her pillow and her eyes are red, tears coating the edges of her eyes. Her cheeks are rosy and puffed. She looks at me expectantly. I back up a bit, not knowing what to expect at all after this display.

“Can you come with me to get tea?”, she asks, putting on her best puppy-dog eyes. Out of all the things she could’ve said in this situation, this was not one of the things I was expecting. I take my time to think about it. I bring my hand to my chin in thought.

Yes, I would be spending a lot of time with this human if I needed to stay alive in this town. However- wait what are you doing.

She doesn’t let me think for more than half a second before dragging me by my arm to the nearest tea shop.

“Forget I asked, just come with me.”

Her grip is strong and it doesn’t seem like I have a choice in the matter anymore, so I just play along. Perhaps I’ll do my thinking in a tea shop then.

We start to get strange looks as people walk by, not because the two of us together looked strange, but because Anya still hasn’t changed out of her blood-soaked clothing. Her white robes were completely ruined, and you could still see her scar on bare skin beneath the hole in her clothes. It certainly was eye-catching, and the people indeed caught it.

“I wonder what happened to her, is she ok?”

“She looks like she’s been to hell and back.”

Anya is having none of it. She hasn’t returned a single gaze since we started walking, and was fully intent on reaching her destination before acknowledging anyone’s existence, other than mine.

Fortunately for me, the tea shop isn’t too far. It’s only a couple streets up the main road, right off the path to the right. It’s a dainty little building with a cutesy look to it and light-colored wood framework. Carvings line anything made of wood, adding a refined look to the tables, seats, and interior of the building. Most of them were flowing line designs that I wasn’t yet familiar with. There’s an outside area with people sipping tea beneath sunshades, the buzz of chatter amongst friends sounding throughout the air.

It looks like a very comfortable place to relax in, and before I know it, I’m sitting at a two-person table, waiting for someone to take my order. The waitress rolls around, hands us a menu, and takes a quick glance at Anya before asking, “What would you like to order, ma’am?”

It seems as though she was no stranger to dealing with either Anya or other bloodied strangers. Poor thing.

Anya has already made an executive decision on the contents of her order.

“I’d like a jasmine tea with extra honey please... and a bread pudding.”

The waitress writes down her order obediently.

I have been blankly staring at this menu the whole time. I’ve never seen so many different ways to brew tea in my life, and I’ve never even bothered trying pastries before. I look up at Anya, and she notices my gaze. I try to make it as clear as possible with my eyes that I have no idea what anything on this menu meant. She understands, thankfully.

“He’ll have the same thing.”

The waitress nods and walks off.

Surprisingly, when she does, Anya’s smile has slightly returned to her face. Amused by my constant helplessness in terms of human food, she can’t hold her poor mood for long. I’m sure that for her, it was like an alien had come down from someplace even more foreign than another world. The summoned probably knew more than me in terms of tea.

Anya has laced her fingers over the table again in her signature position. She twiddles her thumbs on the table, pretending to look for the waitress. It’s not been a couple of minutes since she left, so I wouldn’t expect her to be back by now, but Anya is preoccupied with her.

“I hope she brings our tea soon”, she says weakly.

I don’t respond, and we sit in complete silence until the waitress returns with our food and drink.