Chapter 3: Chapter 3 - We Travel Through Booksfield

Excellent, now that that has been sorted out, it’s time for us to get back into our story.

It’s still Julia talking to you guys... if you hadn’t noticed. I doubt you couldn’t, but just to make sure you did.

Daniel was nagging about him wanting a chance to keep going with the story again, but honestly I think for now you’re better off with me.

Aahhh honey, you know that’s not what I meant.

Fine, I promise you can keep going again in the next session.

Yes, I know you like telling the story, but I just think this part is best served by me at the moment.

Anyway where were we...

***

So after finally getting over my shock of actually meeting an otherworlder, and calming him enough to stop crying about bars, and drinking, and some other unintelligible drivel, we could have a conversation.

"So what’s your name, otherworlder?" I asked.

"Please don’t call me that. My name is Daniel."

"I doubt that having a last name would make any difference now anymore, so just call me Daniel."

"Hello Daniel, my name is Julia, it’s a pleasure to meet you." I said, extending my hand.

After a brief shake, he got up from his previous kneeling position, and looked me dead in the eye, with a very unexpected determination.

"Right. So where exactly do I go to find some sort of settlement, or village?" He asked.

I was surprised by his sudden change of behaviour, I mean one moment the man was sobbing about something I’ve never heard of before, the next he was asking me directions, completely serious.

"The largest city in this kingdom of the human territory is about a three day walk North from here." I answered, but for some reason the moment I mentioned a large city he paled.

"No, no, I don’t want to go to a large city, just a rural village would be perfect." He said, waving his hands around quite frantically.

Why someone wouldn’t want to go to a large city, I couldn’t possibly understand. But the more I talked to this otherworlder, the more interesting I found him.

"Okay, if you’re looking for the closest rural village, you’ll find one about an hour’s walk South from here—"

"Perfect!" Daniel interrupted me and immediately started walking away.

"Hey! I’m not done talking, you’re walking in the wrong direction anyway!" I yelled after him, the last words making him finally pause in his steps.

"I know that... I was just exploring the region." He answered, the sudden redness in his face gave away the lies clearly though.

I do have to give it to him though, his expressions might have given him away, but his tone of voice definitely didn’t. He was clearly an experienced liar.

And clearly he was hopeless with any directions given.

Luckily for him, I didn’t have anything better to do, and I needed to get away from the current territory anyway, so I decided that I would escort him.

"Fine, I’ll take you to the village, or else you might explore the region forever." I said, not giving him a chance to respond, or refuse my generous offer.

"Come along!"

I heard the rushed footsteps of him trying to catch up to me before he was even close to me.

Twigs snapped, grass crunched, I even heard a couple of stumbles along the way. This man was clearly not well versed in traveling through nature. And even less so in doing it quietly.

"Are you trying to lure every beast in the territory toward us?" I asked, finally pausing just long enough for him to catch up.

"Beasts?" he asked, his face once again becoming as pale as a sheet of paper.

How it happened I didn’t know, but somehow I forgot he was an otherworlder, and that maybe there were some things that were different in his world.

"Don’t you have beasts in your world?" I asked, as I started moving again.

"Well that depends on what you mean by beasts I guess," he answered, as he kept pace with me, I noticed that his steps seemed to become more assured. He made less sound the farther we traveled.

"We have animals, you know predators and such, but most of them are in reserves. Not in the wild where people live."

"Reserves?" I asked.

"Nature reserves. Basically dedicated fenced spaces where the animals wander around, and people can’t just come and go as they want." He answered, it seemed like he was lost in thought, and yet everything he did became more... precise.

"Okay, that’s kind of amazing, your world seems pretty wonderful." I said, I couldn’t imagine a world where all of the dangerous beasts are herded into dedicated spaces.

"There are some things that are good about it, but it still has its flaws. Or had, I guess I should start thinking of it in the past tense."

I looked over at him, he was actually quite tall, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it before, but I had to look up quite a bit to see his face when he was walking next to me. He seemed saddened by the thought of never seeing his home again.

I couldn’t blame him though. I couldn’t imagine being ripped from my home, and then just thrown into a new and unfamiliar world.

Obviously this was before I knew his entire story, or the lack of loved ones he had in his world. I sympathised with him quite a bit in that moment.

"But the absolute best thing about it was... the bars. Sniff, sniff" And immediately all of my sympathies vanished, this man really couldn’t get over the loss of these so called bars. If I couldn’t determine generally what they were, I would have thought they were some kind of religious monument.

"You really can’t get over that, can you?"

A shocked, very overdramatic, and clearly fake gasp left his lips when I asked this.

"Of course not. Do you have any idea how important they are to society?" He asked, I had only known this man for less than an hour, but I already knew that this was definitely a lead up to a new rant, and that this was definitely a rhetorical question.

"They’re not just places where you can buy some alcohol."

"They’re not just places where you can get sloshed with your friends."

"They are sacred spots."

"They are temples of joy."

"Places where lonely people can have some company."

"Where lonely men can hope to meet some women."

"And then have their hopes crushed, when the women are clearly not interested." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"They are filled with laughter, and cheers, and the occasional fight."

The more he ranted on about these bars, and the so called joy they brought, the more passionate he became. And the louder his voice became. I was starting to really get worried about him luring some very bad, very mean beasts in our direction.

Yet, for some reason or the other, I couldn’t bring myself to stop him.

Most people would probably think that this was an idiot ranting about something that really wasn’t as important as he made it out to be.

But to me it was a man that was talking about something he was clearly very passionate about.

"And that’s why I’m going to open a bar of my own when we reach that village." he finally finished.

"You want to open... a bar?" I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

Weren’t otherworlders supposed to be these all powerful beings who changed kingdoms, laws, and people every time they appeared. Weren’t they supposed to be ambitious, and determined to either cause chaos, or restore order.

And yet this man wanted to... open a bar.

"Yes!" he answered, a mixture of determination and excitement shining in his eyes as we finally stepped past the last trees. In front of us the village appeared. Villagers walked around the small square.

In the distance people bustled around the only inn in the village.

But I hadn’t really noticed any of this, my thoughts were still on the all powerful otherworlder, who simply wanted to open a bar in a small village.

"Are those... elves?" Daniel asked from next to me, finally breaking me out of the trance I had been caught up in.

***

Yes, yes honey, fine you can take over again.

I did not make you sound like a moping child.

You did sound like that.

Hey! You guys should shut up, remember I’m the first wife.

Anyway, for the next session I’m going to hand over the reins of the story to Daniel again.

But for now, I have to go and deal with a couple of women who have clearly forgotten their place.