The meal before my eyes smelt amazing, and once I tasted it, the chef knew what he was doing. I even remarked out loud, "This is a terrific meal excellent choice, Reena." With each bite I took, the better it tasted. So good. After the fight I got into with the locals, I was just trying to mind my own business and eat. However, I could not help but notice this soup did have a few similarities and textures to the noodles I would buy at the dollar store. However, the noodles I was currently eating were fresher and were homemade and had so much more taste and flavour than what I was used to. Also, when I bought the noodles from the store, I would like to add that they did not come with fresh pork on the side or any pork.

‘To be fair, they were only a dollar.’

Glancing over at Reena and Jacosta, who were thoroughly enjoying their meal, everything felt right between the noises of eating and the music. Very slowly, I could begin to relax again while seated at the table. At this time, Reena noticed I had finished eating already and said, “Well, you eat very fast, Azurith. You must have been starving.”

I was, I told her earlier that day...Now replying, I told Reena her trying not to be sarcastic, "I still was," After I said that, Jacosta poked her head up from her meal with food all over her cheeks; she looked over at me and told me, “Why not order another one or something else?”

I always was used to skipping a meal or two since I was used to living independently. So this thought of ordering another plate never crossed my mind, and I could barely afford anything in my previous life.

Thinking now to myself, “To order another meal? Or not to?”

I was beginning to think, ‘how it would be nice.’

However, I now remembered that we might have overstayed our welcome after that fight. So now, responding to Jacosta's question, and in a casual voice, I said, “Hey, that is not a bad idea, Jacosta. However, looking at the barkeeper over there...Staying any longer may not be a smart idea.”

I saw Jacosta poke her head up to see what I was pointing to; she looked briefly over at the man staring at us menacingly, and once she saw who it was, she turned away and ate everything; she began talking to Reena once again whisper and started to ignore me completely. With the music in the background and people talking away, I did not really hear what they said. But soon after they both finished talking, they stood up and looked over at me.

Now both of them began grabbing me by the arms and started pulling me up out of my chair. As both of them pulled me up and out of my seat, I knocked over the plates; they were holding my hands as Reena looked back and said to me,

“Let us go to the markets now, as you asked earlier. They got all sorts of cool stuff there that you could buy. There was Magical equipment, weapons, armour, scrolls and potions, not to mention the food stands!”

As a party, we left our table and started to leave Shauntys brewpub, But I saw that Maria looked over at us from the back kitchen when we were by the door. Poking her head up over the counter. Once she saw us leaving, I saw she started running over. When Maria got over to us all before we had a chance to leave, she started saying while pausing a moment to catch her breath, “Will. Have to meet up. In a few hours when my shift ends, and hang out.” Leaning over, she had her hands on her apron as she stood there breathless.

Now only looking at me, she said, “You’ll come to find me right later?” I saw her wink; while It was nice, she was clearly ignoring her friends. I noticed Reena was getting mad at her with a red aura flowing from her feet, consumed by shadows; she stood there. When Maria started walking over and began brushing up against me again, I could feel this time it was different, though; she started running her hair under my chin. I could not help but catch the smell of her hair as she did it. It smelt like lavender and strawberries, which I always thought smelt very good and her skin of cookies and vanilla. Maria then looked up while her back was against mine, giving me a daft look. Then with the cutest look on her face with her head pressed up against my shoulder, she said, “It was very nice to meet you, and maybe later we could get together alone for a drink?”

Once Maria finished saying that, before I could respond, Reena went into an instant rage mode as the red aura flames shot forth when she saw my face get a little red in excitement. Reena, I could see with lightning speed, run over to where I was, grabbing me by the shoulder with both her hands, clearly looking jealous while she quickly began pulling me away from her friend Maria. Then Reena began putting on a telling fake smile for Maria. I could tell that much was going on by her tone. Reena then told her friend in that weird tone of voice,

“We were swamped and were going to the markets now, but later perhaps we could meet up and would swing by when you were off.”

Now pushing me away from the silver wolf babe named Maria. Reena started forcing me through the door as I fell outside.

‘: The strange man behind the bar then walked over to a magical device and made a call.:’

Everyone was outside now of the pub; as I laid on my back and looked up at them, I could see the day was now beginning to fade away before my eyes as the sun was starting to set in the distance. I could tell it was getting late in the afternoon; the streets were starting to get dark. It was starting to get late, but the sun was still up, and the day was still young. Reena turning in the setting sun as the wind blew she said to me. “Well, we should really get going to the markets. They will be closing in an hour or two, give or take from this time. We aren’t very far. It's a quick walk away.”

Reena then took me by my arm, helping me off the road, then she started leading me down the unfamiliar streets. As the sun was setting in the sky, she started to speak to me in her usual tone of voice. Which was a very humble tone as she said while Jacosta was up ahead of us enjoying herself, “Thank you for the food earlier. My sister and I are really thankful.”

I was surprised that Reena said something like that. That was the first time anyone ever thanked me for anything outside a video game. I was awe-struck at how well manured the young lady was, and I tried my best to respond as gentlemanly as possible as I said, “You two look like you don’t get to go out enough. It was my pleasure.”

Reena’s face lit up with a blissful glow, and I could see the star’s in her eyes as she quickly looked away once we locked eyes. Looking at the road when Reena finally looked back towards me. I saw a happy look in her eyes as she smiled. While looking into my eyes, I wrapped my arm around her waist and held her.

‘I felt oddly felt at peace wherever I was with her.’

I could tell Jacosta was even beginning to noticing her sister's strange behaviour. I knew Reena was just happy, which was the reason for abnormal behaviour. Jacosta walking over to Reena, began making fun of her sister, saying to her in a playful tone as sisters do, “Reena has a crush. And it is with a strange man.”

I felt Reena turn to look at Jacosta, who was making fun of her. Now freeing herself from my arms, she ran over and hit her sister upside the head. Wow!

Everyone paused, and I almost laughed, but just as I could not hold it in any longer, then the ladies laughed. We all laughed and started to walk down the path leading towards the open markets. We began walking past the various Humans and Elves who were patrolling the streets with their family’s. Nothing changed from earlier but the time and people's clothes they would wear as they continued to look down on all of us. We did our best to walk by; that much was obvious from the odd glance I would catch; they did not appreciate me being there.

I began to think, ‘just how this world was a lot like the one I came from. There were few differences but, one thing was for sure. Social groups thought they were better than everyone around them, like how the rich despised the poor. Belittling everyone below them, putting them down with insults. It reminded me of the elite in the society where I came from, except Azurith in this place was one of them, which was a funny twist of fate.’

"This world is strange.“I thought to myself and as we walked down the street. There was still Reena around my arm and Jacosta running ahead yelling, “Look at this so cool!” While she continued looking at the street's side merchants' wares. In my eyes, they both seemed like two ordinary girls besides the obvious features like the ears and tails. If the people around only got to know the people they thought so little of, maybe their opinions would change, and their situation could improve.

Now arriving at the markets, it was a huge open market shopping district, with stalls and other vendors' tents everywhere the eye could see. It smelt like metal and leather. This reminded me of another place I’ve been. I compared this environment instantly to a flea market though it did have a kind of vibe I could dig. Looking down over at an item in a tent that caught my attention. It was an around and purple eggplant device with two balls and was 6 inches long, and it looked rather extremely questionable; I thought, Is that a dildo? I could not help but begin laughing aloud while holding my side as my mind went right to the gutter. Reena asking me, “What's so funny?”

Our group continued walking around the various stalls while looking in the odd tent to see inside. We started to find some armour and weapons merchant tents and stalls in the corner area; we approached it as a group, finding one that caught all of our attention. We decided to stop inside the booth and check one of them out. When we got inside the booth, a Dwarf was sitting behind a table sitting on a desk with goggles on his head, and beside him was various races armour which was lied out, out in the open on racks and other stands for any customer to view. The Dwarf must have been barely 4ft tall when sitting on the high chair he used.

He looked more like a child behind the desk more than a merchant or vendor. With a deep low voice, he started to speak towards us,

“Well, hello there, It has been a while since I’ve seen a Demon in the city of Geroleo. So what brings you here, stranger? Are you participating in the tournament perhaps in a few days and require some armour or weapons because you came to the right place!”

Caught off guard at how low his voice was, I slowly responded. “Wow, cool voice...What is this about a tournament, you say? Can you explain it to me?” Laughing now at how nice I must have been for my race. Being I was a Demon, he answered me in a jolly but still low voice, “The tournament, my boy, It's in two days. It is a hard challenge for party's of three to compete in. You must not be from this city.”

Now getting off his high chair, the little Dwarf hopped down, and then he came approached us. Now stumbling over towards me with a shuffle in his walk. The Dwarf had some goggles and brown leather armour with various sashes and belts running across his body.

On the belts were numerous items, with some holding for some blacksmithy tools, each fashioned by himself, I assumed, hanging off the belts they clashed about as he walked, making noise. Now lowering his goggles down from his eyes, he began to inspect my armour. Then, just as Reena and Jacosta had earlier, he started grabbing my arms, lifting them to see under my armour. Next, the Dwarf began to activate some magic.

The goggles began to show signs of magic tampering and formed with magical circles appearing around the lens. They changed several times, making new shapes and sizes with various unique shapes for a new lens. New and other weirdly formed magic circles with patterns appeared on my armour while a beam shot down like a scanner and examined the armour. The two girls I noticed stood off to the side while the Dwarf continued to do whatever it was he was doing to me. I could imagine Reena was thinking to herself at that moment, 'Wait, was that what we looked like while we examined him.’

I slowly got used to this kind of treatment and turned to them while I had the Dwarf now standing on top of a stool looking at my headpiece. All I could do was tell the girls,

“Find something you girls like. It looks like we are competing in this tournament for the prize. The competition will be fun.”

After saying that, I started thinking to myself, “Perhaps this dwarf can give me some answers on where the heck it is I am.”

‘Dwarfs are known for being keepers of knowledge and craftsmen.’

Snapping out of my thought, I noticed Reena was looking at Jacosta. Jacosta, I noticed, was like a kid in a candy shop. She had a certain glow in her eyes seeing all the weapons and armour, like when a bird saw something shiny, and after hearing those words to find something, I saw Jacosta begin to run over and began to inspect some armour for her class and race. As Reena skeptically followed her sister, looking back at me with a confused look. At this time, I was now finally done being fully examined by the Dwarf, who then shouted out loudly towards me, “My god’s where did you get this armour? I’ve never seen anything that looked quite like this in all my time travelling the world. Your armour protection is unparalleled with anything in my store. Yet what you wear looks like cloth. I say this must be magical armour! It’s been so long since I’ve seen gear of this quality. This is fit for a king!”

I saw after he said fit for a king. Reena put down the armour she had in her hands and began eves dropping on us, and closely she began listening as I caught a glance of her ear starting to twitch back and forth. While I noticed Jacosta was too busy gathering up everything that caught her eye, I was concerned with what I was doing, allowing this Dwarf to inspect me. The Dwarf then continued, overcome with joy, he said, “You must allow me to reproduce this ‘King’s set?’ I must examine it further. I'll pay you whatever it is you want. I will give you everything in this store!”

Not realizing he called my set by its name, I said, “Perhaps I will if you can answer my questions.”

The Dwarf, now noticing that I also had weapons on my waist and back, began urging me to pull them out. I pulled out the Betless cutlass first. I could tell this was making the Dwarf very happy as I noticed his limp went away; he was so excited when he ran back and forth gathering stuff. Next, he began examining the sword very closely, the process repeating itself with his goggles.

As I asked myself, ‘Why was I always so quick to agree...What kind of magic did he have that let him know the said name of the gear? What else in this world did I not understand. This is cheating; copying a set duping is a crime, ahaha.’

The Dwarf looked at me with a warm and comforting smile. I had some sweat running down my forehead, figuring out what to ask him. That was when I decided to ask the Dwarf, “Hey, has there ever been in the past people being summoned from another world?”