Her boots crunched the snow as she walked away from the transport gate. She’d finally broken down and bought herself some winter clothing.

I was right. I don’t feel any warmer wearing this, but at least everyone isn’t staring at me now.

Her normal clothing had been fine until the first snow, and then everyone looked at her oddly.

I can’t believe how excited Lyreen and Elaine are, but at least they were just happy. The dressmaker squealed when I told her it was her choice on what she made for me.

The woman had gone the extra mile and gotten her a matching set of boots, mittens, a hat, and a cloak to go along with the dress. The accessories were lined with thick white fur which was soft, and she enjoyed the feel of it.

Another benefit was that she was able to stuff her hair under the hat. This meant that the only thing that was out of the ordinary about her that was still visible were her eyes, and most people didn’t seem to notice that they were oddly colored.

I kind of like not being the center of attention everywhere sometimes.

It had been an odd few weeks for her. All her friends had found things to do or work on over the winter. Thokri had decided that Rose wasn’t progressing as fast as he’d like her to, so she was receiving ‘extra training’ as he put it.

Poor Rose.

The woman was so exhausted that she slunk off to bed as soon as she ate every night.

Lyreen spent most of her time reading, so Voekeer had found a retired sword master to give him some lessons. Elaine was doing things that shouldn’t be done at the necromancer’s guild during the day and even stranger things with the whores in the redlight district at night.

Anna had tagged along with her friend once, and she finally got to see everything she’d been curious about, and a few things she wasn’t. She hadn’t gone back.

Barika went to the temple most days and would heal the sick or feed the poor or stuff like that. She’d asked Anna if she wanted to come with her once, but Anna reminded the priestess of what happened the last time she went to a temple district, and Barika told her to avoid the place.

Left to her own devices, she decided to talk with the other adventurers that spent their days drinking in the main room of the guild hall. They mostly bragged about themselves or tried to talk her into bed with them, but today, one of them had mentioned a strange place he’d visited.

I hope he was telling the truth.

He had told her about a place in the part of the city where the people that weren’t from the kingdom congregated. This place was supposably filled with foods from these people’s homelands. After hearing this, she had to go.

Too bad the others were too busy to come with me though. I think Rose wanted to come.

The man had been drunk and kept trying to put his hand on her thigh when he was telling her about the food place, but she’d managed to get directions from him. She’d drunk him and his buddies under the table so she could escape without hearing him whine about her being a cock tease.

I still don’t get why men call me that. I’ve never teased a single man about their cocks, at least in front of them that is.

She’d also paid for their drinks because she didn’t want anyone to think she took advantage of them.

She looked around as she walked. The buildings and streets weren’t all that different than other parts of the city. The people out walking around were, however. She hadn’t seen most of the races that were living here.

Even the humans are different. There are even a few that look like Barika. Maybe I can find some food from her homeland!

She smelled her destination long before she saw it. A pungent mix of woodsmoke, cooking meat, and spices filled the cold winter air. She found the source quickly. It was a large building without doors. She could feel the heat from the cooking fires pouring from the inside as she walked in.

She was overwhelmed by the sights and smells for a moment. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people crowding around stalls that sold both prepared food and raw ingredients. She pushed her way into the crowd and started to follow her nose.

It’s never been wrong about food before!

She made her way to a stall that was surrounded by dog like beast men. Being a tiny woman, she was able to squeeze her way right up to the front. A woman that looked like she was the same race as the men crowding around her stall was dipping bowls of a meaty soup out and passing them to the beast men. They tossed a copper in a clay jar when they took the bowl.

She snatched a bowl from the woman and tossed a copper into the jar. One of the dog men looked over at her. She couldn’t read his face but assumed he was first annoyed, then surprised by the way he cocked his head to the side. She took a spoon from another jar.

“You won’t like it, human,” the dog woman said.

She ignored the woman’s warning and dipped her spoon into the soup. There were multiple kinds of meat, but most of it was thin and ribbon like.

Is that entrails?

She’d gutted plenty of animals before but never eaten any of the stuff she took out, other than the liver, which she liked. Her friends had told her that the guts weren’t good to eat, so she hadn’t tried before.

She took a bite. The meat was springy and had what her friends had told her was a gamey taste, though she wasn’t sure if that was quite right.

They use the same word for different tastes, so who knows.

The broth was a strong bone stock that was filled with fat that made her mouth feel a little greasy. It was also salty and left a slight metallic taste in her mouth.

Blood. They must have put blood in the soup.

She took a few more bites, enjoying the new textures and flavors. This was the sort of thing that she loved. The soup itself was good, not great, but good, and she could understand why men who obviously labors would love it. She’d noticed that people, normal people that is, ate more and seemed to want more fat and meat in their food when they worked hard or were cold.

She finished the soup quickly and looked up to find all the dog men looking at her. The dog woman was looking at her as well. She cocked her head to the side when Anna smiled at her.

“That was good. Thanks,” Anna said as she put the bowl and spoon in the pile of dirty ones.

The woman whined some. The men made yelping sounds, and the woman snarled at them which caused the men to make more yelping sounds. Anna started to leave. There were a lot more food stalls to visit, and she didn’t want to fill up at this one after all.

“Wait?” the dog woman asked.

Anna turned back around. She couldn’t tell what the woman was thinking. These people were more dog than human, and she’d never really been around dogs before.

They like to bark at me for some reason.

"Yes?” Anna replied.

“You really liked it?” the woman asked.

Anna nodded yes, and the woman made a yelping sound that was different from the sound the men had made.

I think they were laughing at her.

One of the men started to sniff. She pushed his head away. “Don’t be weird,” she said.

The dog people started to yelp and snarl at each other. At first it sounded like animals she’d heard in the forest, but after a moment, she realized they were talking to each other in a language she’d never heard before.

“What are you talking about?” Anna asked.

“He said you don’t smell right,” the dog woman replied.

Anna sniffed herself. She didn’t smell weird, so she just shrugged. More of the dog men started to sniff her. She kept pushing them away. The dog woman started to growl, and then she said something to them. The men backed off and started to say things back to the woman.

The woman gestured for her to walk closer to the stall, and she did. Then the woman sniffed at her. She cocked her head to the side for a moment, but then looked back at the dog men and said something. They whined at her, but she insisted.

“What is it?” Anna asked.

“You don’t smell like a human or anything else. You don’t really smell like anything actually. They were wondering why, and I told them it wasn’t their business,” the woman replied.

“Oh, well, I’m not human or anything else, so they are right. But they really shouldn’t sniff humans like that. It’s not polite,” Anna said.

“They know that. That’s why I told them they are acting like a bunch of wild pups,” the woman replied. Anna grinned.

Thokri calls Lyreen and Voekeer wee ones when they do something dumb.

"Can they speak common?” Anna asked.

“No. It is too different from our language for most of my kind to learn. It took me many years to speak it,” the women replied.

“How do they work if they can’t speak common?” Anna asked.

“They work for the merchants that run the warehouses. Don’t need to know the language to carry boxes,” the dog woman replied.

“Fair enough,” Anna said.

The dog men were getting restless, wanting food she guessed. She tossed a large silver coin in the woman’s jar. The woman looked at the gleaming coin in surprise. It alone was worth more than all the other coins combined by far.

“Thanks for talking to me. I know you’re busy,” Anna said.

“Come back later. I’ll give you the best I can cook, and we can talk more,” the woman replied.

“Okay,” Anna said. She slipped away as the dog men crowded around the stall once more.

She decided to look around some before getting more food, not wanting to fill herself up without exploring first.

She spotted several reptilian people sitting at a table. One plucked a live lizard out of a bowl and popped it in its mouth, swallowing the thing whole. She thought about joining them for a moment but decided she would rather have cooked for today.

Maybe later.

One of the reptiles took a drink of a frothing liquid from a stone cup. This interested her, so she walked over to them. They started hissing at her as soon as she walked over.

“Oh, uh, I just wanted to know what you’re drinking,” Anna said. They kept hissing, though it sounded different.

I bet they’re talking just like the dog people.

Another one walked over.

“They want you to leave,” it said in a hissing voice.

“I just wanted to know what they were drinking,” Anna replied.

“It is a drink made from fruits from the swamps in the south,” it replied.

“Can I have some?” Anna asked.

“No, I do not sell to other races, especially humans,” it replied.

“Well, why not?” Anna asked.

“Because I do not have enough to waste it on a soft skin, now go,” it replied.

The reptiles got up from their seats and walked over.

Oh, they think they can scare me?

Anna looked into its cold reptilian eyes with her own unblinking eyes for a few moments.

“Whatever,” she said and walked away from the stall not wanting a fight to cut trip short.

The reptiles kept hissing at her as she walked away, no doubt insulting her.

What a bunch of weirdos. I mean, I bet they are soft too.

Though to her, everything was soft, so she wasn’t sure that counted.

She found a stall that was selling meat on a stick. She walked over to get a stick and noticed three humans that were just as dark as Barika sitting at a table eating meat wrapped in flatbread.

“Can I have what they’re eating?” Anna asked the man behind the stall who was cooking food.

He nodded, took a piece of flat bread from a pile, and threw it on a large hot iron. After a moment, he flipped it, took it in his hand, and held it next to a spit that had layers of meat rotating over a bed of coals. He took a knife and sliced off a few chucks, catching them in the bread. Once he finished, he tossed some chopped vegetables and spooned a white sauce on it. Then he handed it to her.

She tossed a copper into a bowl that sat on the stall and took the food from him. She walked over to the people that looked like Barika and smiled when they looked up at her.

“Mind if I sit?” she asked, speaking the language Barika had told her was her own.

“How do you know our language?” a large man asked.

There were three of them at the table, two men and a woman. The men were both large and well built. The woman was large as well and muscular, though not as much as Barika.

“A friend of mine taught me,” Anna replied.

“Please, sit with us, and tell us about yourself and your friend,” the woman said.

Anna sat down. The woman was smiling at her, and the men looked a little confused.

“I’m Anna, and my friend’s name is Barika. We’re adventurers,” Anna replied.

“I am Opponíoba, this is Kodãó and he is Dwotim,” the woman replied, gesturing to her companions.

Anna took a bite of her food. The bread was chewy and soft, and the meat was tender and well spiced. The vegetables were raw, and their strong flavors and crunch were nice. The sauce was creamy and had a slight tang to it that reminded her of cheese for some reason.

She made a happy sound at the new flavors causing the three people seated with her to smile. She chewed and swallowed.

“Sorry. I’ve never had one of these before, and I wanted to try it before it got cold,” Anna said. Kodãó laughed.

“It’s no trouble, girl. We understand,” he replied.

“I’d like to know how you can speak our language so well,” Dwotim asked. She paused for a moment, not knowing how much about herself she should tell them.

“I’ve spent most of my life with Barika,” Anna replied. This answer seemed to satisfy the three of them.

It’s true too.

"What is she like?” Kodãó asked.

“She’s taller than Opponíoba with more muscle, and I think she’s older as well. Oh, and her boobs are bigger too,” Anna replied.

Dwotim snickered, earning himself a look from Opponíoba.

“What is she like?” Opponíoba asked.

“She’s kind and friendly, always helping people. She’s a priestess as well. She’s our party’s healer,” Anna replied.

“What is she doing in this kingdom?” Dwotim asked.

“Living her life,” Anna replied.

“I understand that, but why all the way out here?” Dwotim asked.

“Why are you here?” Anna asked. Dwotim looked surprised by her question.

“It’s none of our business,” Opponíoba said. Dwotim nodded.

“What about you?” Opponíoba asked.

“I’m just a girl from a fishing village far to the east. My friends found me when I was very young and took me with them,” Anna replied.

“What about your parents?” Kodãó asked.

“I don’t have a mother, and my father doesn’t care,” Anna replied.

I don’t think he can care to be honest.

Kodãó looked like he wished he’d never asked.

“Can you tell me about your homeland? Barika doesn’t talk about it often,” Anna said.

“What would you like to know about?” Opponíoba asked. Anna thought about it for a moment.

“Tell me about the food,” Anna said. Dwotim laughed.

“A woman after my own heart,” he said.

“It’s best to start with food, isn’t it?” Opponíoba asked.

“It’s something we all have in common,” Anna replied.

They started to tell her about the foods in that far away land they called home. She could tell all three of them missed it dearly.

I wonder if Barika misses the food?

She finished her meal and listened to them for a while.

“What kind of treats do they have?” Anna asked. Sweet things were her favorite after all.

“There are many treats, but I think the best is Goco fruit,” Opponíoba replied. By the looks on their faces, the men seemed to agree.

“What’s it taste like?” Anna asked. This question seemed to puzzle them.

It must unique like the mushroom puff I ate in the cave.

She’d never tasted anything quite like that again and had been tempted to go back and collect a few.

“It’s sweet,” Opponíoba replied.

“It’s fine. I’m sure I’ll find one to eat one day,” Anna said.

“I saw a man selling dried ones, but he wanted too much for them,” Dwotim replied sadly.

“Show me,” Anna said. She stood up and gestured for them to do so as well.

They looked at each other for a moment then stood up.

“If you insist, but they are really expensive,” Dwotim replied.

She followed the three of them through the crowd deep into the heart of the food market. That’s what she decided to call this place.

They stopped in front of a huge stall filled with bushels of fruits and vegetables. She walked up to the stall and looked at the produce.

I’ve never seen most of these!

She looked around for a moment before Dwotim pointed at the Goco fruit. It was dried, though seeing as it took the better part of two years to travel from one side of the empire to the other, that made sense. It was sooth and wrinkled but still brightly colored. She added up the price in her head.

It is pretty pricey.

She motioned to the merchant who walked over.

“Yes, miss?” he asked. She took out a small handful of silver coins and handed them to the merchant.

“I’ll take all of the Goco fruit,” she said.

The merchant snatched the basket the fruit was in, dumped it into a small cloth sack, and handed it over to her. She took the sack, thanked the man, and then turned to her new friends. They were just gawking at her. She fished out three of the palm sized fruits and handed each of them one.

“Thanks for showing me these,” she said as she took a bite from one.

It was sweet, and well, she’d never really had anything like it before, so she understood why they couldn’t describe it. The three of them looked at the fruit in their hands. She ate hers in a few bites then tied the bag up, not wanting to risk any of the expensive fruit falling out. She started to walk away.

“Hold on, where are you going?” Opponíoba asked.

“I want to eat at a few more places before I head back to the guild hall,” Anna replied.

“What guild?” Dwotim asked.

“I’m an adventurer,” Anna replied. They all nodded.

“Thank you for the gift,” Kodãó said before taking a bite. The others followed.

Wow they must really like these.

She smiled at them. “Maybe we’ll see each other again sometime,” she said.

“That would be nice,” Dwotim replied. The other two agreed, and she walked away.

It wasn’t too late, so she walked around the food market more, looking for something else to try.

There was a large crowd of beast men standing around one of the stalls. Most of them were reptiles, like the ones that had been rude to her early in the day, but there were also other kinds, so she assumed it was probably okay to go and see what was being sold.

She squeezed up to the front of the crowd.

Are those bugs?! They are bugs! Hey, that lizard man is frying them up in a pan! Oh, I have to try that!

The lizard man cook would grab a handful of fat wiggling grubs from a basket and toss them into a pan with some oil on the bottom. He’d move them around with two long sticks until they were crispy and then put them on a leaf and sprinkle seasoning on them before handing it to whoever snatched it first. People would toss a copper in his jar once they took the leaf.

She was faster than anyone else, so she got the next one. Much hissing could be heard when she did, so she scooted out of the crowd, not trusting the reptiles. There were a few of the other kinds of beast people standing off to one side. She walked over to them to eat. She leaned up against the wall and took a bite out of one of the huge grubs.

The outside was crisp as expected, but the inside was gooey. It tasted woody and nutty. She’d eaten a stick before out of curiosity and had collected wild nuts. This reminded her of both.

She squeezed the bug insides into her mouth before popping the rest of the crisp outside in and chewed it up.

Wow, that’s pretty good. Oh, I need to take some of these back to the guild to eat in front of Lyreen. I bet she’d throw up!

She ate another one, debating on if she should bring one back and decided not to.

The lizard men were all glaring at her and speaking in their strange hissing language. The other beast men didn’t seem bothered by her presence. If anything, they were curious.

“What’s with them?” Anna asked a woman that looked like an otter that walked on its hind legs.

“They don’t like you,” the woman replied.

“Why not?” Anna asked.

“They say you take food that belongs to us,” she replied.

“But I paid for it,” Anna said.

“Yes, yes, we saw, but they think humans take everything,” she replied.

“If they don’t like being around humans, why do they live in a human city?” Anna asked.

“Lizards say that all of this used to belong to them before the humans came,” the otter woman replied.

“Wait, this city is more than ten thousand years old, and it was built by humans. How long ago was that?” Anna asked. The lizardmen stopped hissing for a moment, and they seemed to puff up some.

“You make them angry,” the otter woman said. She backed away.

“I was just asking a question!” Anna added.

The lizard men started to hiss angrily at her. She started to walk away from the food stall, not wanting to get into a fight.

I’d never hear the end of it if I killed a bunch of people the first time I went out alone in the capital.

One of the lizardmen grabbed her arm as she walked by and yanked her over to them.

“LET ME GO YOU SCALY SHIT!” she shouted in dwarven.

The lizardman seemed confused by her shouting in dwarven and let her go. She slipped away into the crowd before he could change his mind. She didn’t know if they were men or women, so she decided to think of them all as men until she could figure out how to tell them apart. After she got a good distance away, she ate the rest of the bugs then went looking for more things to eat.

She found a group of human men eating large round chunks of meat that were covered in bread.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Fried balls,” one of the men replied.

“Balls as in balls?” she asked, gesturing to her crotch.

“You got it. Err, well, you don’t, and neither do the pigs anymore,” he replied.

The other men chuckled, and she grinned. She walked over to the cook who was cutting what looked like skin and other cords of a large testicle before setting in into a bowl with other cleaned ones.

So that’s what they look like outside of a sack.

She had been curious, but the only way to know was to rip another pair off and look, and that was just mean.

“Got another batch about to go in. You want some, miss?” he asked.

“Yes, please,” Anna replied.

She watched as the cook dipped them into a bowl of batter and then dropped them into a deep pan filled with oil. The oil crackled as the water was driven out of the batter, each one turning to a golden brown in a few minutes. The cook pushed them around a few times with a long handled flat basket like implement. Once he deemed them done, he used the basket thing to take them out of the oil, letting each one drip before putting them into bowls that were lined up on the stall.

She took a bowl. It had three of the large testicles in it. She tossed a copper into the bowl that was filled with coins. The man nodded, and she joined the other men who were still eating their meal. She picked one of them up and blew it off. She didn’t need to, but it saved her from getting weird looks. She took a bite.

All the men were watching her. The meat was juicy and tender with an odd texture to it, and the breading was a little sweet. It was also oily having soaked up a lot of the cooking oil. She chewed it and swallowed.

“Best tasting ball I’ve ever had in my mouth,” she said.

The men all roared with laughter. Even the cook chuckled. She took another bite, making sure to lean over the bowl so none of the grease or juices would drip on her clothing. The men didn’t look like men from the kingdom or the empire. They had lighter skin and straight hair. They spoke with an odd accent as well.

“Where you boys from anyway?” she asked.

“Up north in the foothills of the great mountains. How about you?” one of the men replied.

“Fishing village out on the edge of the frontier near the great inland sea,” she replied.

“Don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t look like any of the women I’ve seen around here,” another said.

“I’m not like any of the women you’ve seen,” she replied.

They didn’t pry when it was obvious she wasn’t telling anything else about herself. They chattered about different things to eat they had found, and when she finished, she left the stall.

She was getting full, so she decided to see what that dog woman had for her, hoping it was finished. The dog woman’s stall was crowded, so she decided to come back the next day, not really wanting to pester a busy merchant.

She doesn’t owe me or anything.

She left the food market and walked back out into the freezing cold.

How the fuck did lizards rule this place? They can’t even go out in the cold, can they?

She wasn’t sure if lizard men were like normal lizards, but those things stopped moving if they got too cold. So unless it used to be warmer, she doubted their story.

She had put her mittens back on as soon as she left and checked to make sure the bag of fruit was still tucked into her belt. She walked off into the night, heading back to the guild hall.

What a fun day! I’ll have to come back tomorrow.