“So, the inn is like Doctor Who?”

  Declan looked at Adrian when he asked that and gave a shrug. “I couldn’t tell ya for sure. That show is something I obviously know nothing about. I just know what I’ve heard, but from what I’ve heard, it about sums it up. The Inn just kinda goes wherever whenever it wants. Whenever it senses someone who needs some shelter, it goes there.”

  “Then what was… what was out there? It didn’t look like space, there weren’t any stars or.. Or…” Adrian stumbled. “Well, there wasn’t anything.”

  Declan nodded his head. “Aye. We’re just out in the aether until the Lily decides where it wants to go. Though, it rarely hangs out in the middle of nowhere this long…” Declan’s voice got louder towards the end, like he was yelling at the inn.

  “It usually just plants itself somewhere,” he continued to yell in a scolding tone.

  Declan had brought Adrian back inside the inn and he once more sat at the bar counter now with a fresh mug of the ale the bartender apparently brewed himself.

  “Did ya not see the poem?” Declan asked and pointed up at a polished wooden plaque with words engraved in it.

  Adrian squinted and read.

  The Lying Lily

  Beneath two moons, beyond lost seas,

  Where whispers ride the timeless breeze,

  There blooms a tavern, sly and shy,

  That drifts through worlds no map can spy.

  The Lying Lily, stained with gold,

  Its secrets deep, its ale ice-cold,

  It shifts through ages, slips through lands,

  Uncaught by mortal minds or hands.

  Only the mighty, sharp and wise,

  Who bargain blood and bend the skies,

  May glimpse its lantern’s laughing glow,

  And tread the paths few souls could know.

  Within, old kings trade songs for spells,

  And fallen gods weave ghostly tales;

  While trickster queens and mages grim

  Share toasts on fates both dark and dim.

  A single night may cost a crown,

  A whispered truth may burn a town.

  Yet still they seek the Lily’s door,

  The greatest souls, and fools, and more.

  “And that’s the motif for the inn?” Adrian asked with a raised brow when he looked back at Declan.

  “Aye, it’s sort of like our mission statement. It is possible for the inn to be called, but the person who does that has to be very powerful. If they are powerful enough, the inn will come and plant itself. Other than that, like I said, it just goes when it is needed to help the lost souls,” Declan nodded.

  Adrian snapped his fingers and pointed at Declan. “Wait, shouldn’t you be wearing a ghillie suit?”

  Declan gave a loud bark of a laugh and clapped his hand on the bar counter. “Now you’re getting it. I am, in fact, a ghillie dhu, but who said I wasn’t wearing one?”

  Adrian blinked and took in the man’s leather and dress vest. He almost fell back when right in front of Adrian’s very eyes the well put together bartender seemed to shift. The clothing turned into moss and wood and Declan seemed to grow short antlers from the top of his head. His form took on a very unhuman look. He was still humanoid, but if the phrase “one of the forest” was going to fit anyone, it’d fit him.

  Adrian was pushing himself away from the bar counter as this new being looked at him. One thing stayed the same as the Declan he had met, the knowing smile. Adrian sat there wide mouthed in awe of the transformation and when Adrian opened his eyes after another blink, Declan was standing there once more in his jeans and deep green vest and brown leather jacket.

  “Except, it’s not really a ghillie suit, it’s more just what I look like,” Declan explained.

  Adrian stared at him with open eyes and mouth. “Uh, yeah…”

  “Ah relax lad, drink your pint. All is well as long as you’re in the Lily. We’ll take care of ya,” Declan said with a firm nod of his head.

  “You can live and stay here until we wind up back on Earth, then you can go home and that’ll be that,” Declan continued and explained with a shrug.

  Adrian looked down at the bar counter, not believing what was going on. Brian was going to kill him whenever he ended back up in London and went back to work. This prompted him to ask a question, and he looked back up at Declan. “Is time the same? Like, now it’s the next day for me here. Does that mean it’s the next day back home, too?”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Declan furrowed his brow and then shrugged. “No idea. Like I said, the Lily just kinda does what it wants. We could end up back at your home before you actually came here.”

  Declan gave a bit of a whistle and scowled as he thought. “That wouldn’t be good, though. That would mess with stuff, I think. You won’t be able to go back if that’s the case.”

  Adrian nodded his head. He had seen enough movies and tv shows to know that if he met himself, the universe would explode and everything would cease to exist. “So what was out there, past the driveway?”

  Declan shrugged. “The aether, the universe, whatever you want to call it. It’s just the void. The nothingness that is between time and space. It’s where Lily hangs out when she isn’t somewhere, where she waits to be called.”

  Adrian nodded his head.

  “Oi, just so you know, you can stay, but you’ll have to work. Earn your keep,” Declan said and pointed at the chef.

  The chef looked up and smirked and nodded his head. “Yeah, that isn’t a problem. I’m used to working. I’ll be your chef.”

  “Good then, you might as well go ahead and check out your new digs. I’ve done everything up to this point, but with you here, I won’t worry about the kitchen stuff anymore. Everything in there is now your responsibility. Though me and Wallace will help out cleaning up at the end of the work nights.” Declan said this with a firm, assuring nod of his head.

  Resigned, Adrian knocked on the bar counter with a knuckle and picked up his mug. He stood and went where Declan pointed to with his thumb, exploring the inn and looking for the kitchen. Declan let him go and went about resuming his own duties. He had to do some restocking himself, and he brewed all of his own ales and spirits for the bar. That made it easy to stay stocked. Though he did go into places to find speciality liquor when he was able, or he sent Wallace.

  Adrian found the kitchen easily. He had walked behind the bar counter on the other end of it and then walked back until he was in the medieval kitchen the Lily had. It was medieval, but also still somehow up to date with what Adrian knew. It had a stove and an oven, there was even a griddle. His new kitchen appeared fully equipped for his craft, although everything looked quite old-fashioned. There were also various runes carved into a lot of the equipment.

  He wasn’t sure how, but the chef somehow felt the power in the room. It was a feeling in his gut, or next to his gut. He knew it was magic, but he didn’t know how or why he knew that, but that’s how everything was so state-of-the art and still looked like it belonged in a castle’s kitchen. He furrowed his brow and looked around a little before he walked over to a door that he figured must be a pantry.

  He wasn’t expecting for the door to crash open when he grabbed the door handle and opened it. Before Adrian realized it, he was on his back with his chest feeling like it was going to be caved in by a massive white lion standing on top of him.

  Adrian yelled for help, and the white tiger let out a roar as he looked down at the chef. Adrian saw the hunger in his eyes and knew that instead of being the one to cook up food for the restaurant, he was going to end up dinner for the inn’s tiger. What did this inn do, keep this thing as a house cat?!

  “Oi, fuckin hell, you didn’t tell me you brought a fuckin’ tiger with ya?!” Declan shouted when he came to the kitchen. He had heard the yell and roar all the way while he was down in the basement and ran up. He now stood at the doorway with a palm out towards the creature.

  “It’s not fucking mine. Why didn’t you tell me this place had a lion!” Adrian yelled up, still watching the tiger threatening to cave in his chest with his front paws.

  The tiger looked down and tilted its head at Adrian. The white creature with stripes opened its mammoth jowls and leaned down towards the chef. Before Adrian could yell, a big tongue escaped the creature’s mouth and licked Adrian from chin to forehead.

  The yell caught in Adrian’s throat, and he stared at the tiger.

  “You sure you don’t know ‘em? He seems to know you,” Declan said and then leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen, relaxed since the crisis seemed to be averted.

  Adrian blinked. “Uh…”

  “Oh, fuckin’ hell. I know what this is,” Declan said.

  Adrian grabbed one of the massive paws that pinned him down under the tiger’s weight. “Alright, care to tell me after you help me out of this?”

  “Well, he’s your fuckin’ lion. Tell him to move. I have a feeling he’ll obey your command,” Declan said. The fact he found this entertaining was clear in his voice.

  Before Adrian said anything, he thought of how to give the command in a tone that the tiger would not only obey but also respect. Adrian didn’t want to end up being a tiger’s lunch. Before he could say anything, though, the tiger raised his paws and then stood next to the chef. Adrian once more climbed to his feet, and he inspected his shirt and looked in his shirt at his chest. He inspected for any sort of cuts or tears on himself or his shirt.

  That’s when he realized he was feeling something from the animal. Not that the animal said or did anything other than stand there next to him. He felt happiness emanating from the beast. His very spirit sensed this, and he felt it in his mind. The tiger was happy to see him. Adrian stared at the beast.

  “He’s your familiar,” Declan finally offered.

  He said it as fact and Adrian turned to look at the bartender. “Huh?”

  “It’s your familiar. You share power with this tiger. They call it something else on Taria, or at least they do in the Sasuke Empire, uh…” Declan paused and closed his eyes, trying to think.

  “Your spirit beast,” he said after a minute of thought. “You guys share a link and he’s part of your power on Taria, and everywhere he is, I guess.”

  “I’m a wizard?” Adrian asked incredulously. He didn’t turn away from the tiger, even though he felt happiness from the beast. He wasn’t an idiot. Turning your back on a white tiger had to be a bad idea.

  “Mage, I think would be more the term, or cultivator is the term some use depending on where you live,” Declan explained and chuckled.

  “Were you holding anything when the lightning hit you? Or next to anything that meant a great deal?” Declan asked.

  Adrian’s mind raced, and he started to shrug before he realized. “My chef’s knife. It was a Chinese chef’s knife, so it was bigger than usual, more powerful and versatile.”

  Declan nodded his head. “That tiger looks pretty powerful and versatile, and I’m gonna guess that his claws are sharper than any knife you ever owned.”

  Adrian looked at the tiger and he wasn’t sure why or how his mind came to this conclusion, but he asked the tiger, feeling like he already knew the answer. “Opal?”

  Declan scoffed at the name.

  The tiger raised its front legs and put them on Adrian’s shoulders. The tiger didn’t seem to put all of its weight on Adrian. Either that or Adrian was no way stronger than he ever had been before. Again, the tiger’s tongue came out and gave Adrian a long lick on his face..

  “I’m pretty sure that’s its name,” Adrian said with certainty.

  Declan scoffed again but ultimately shrugged and walked off back towards the bar. “Whatever, just don’t let him eat the food.”

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