A week Later
“Oi, come on, get up. The Lily has finally deemed it worth to make landfall somewhere. Since you’re in charge of the kitchen, you get to go buy supplies.”
Adrian was currently laying on his side, pointing away from the doorway to his little room in the inn. The light that filtered in through the window shade didn’t seem to bother him and Declan, talking to him, was drowned out by the chef’s snores. Something about this bed put him in such a deep sleep he had slept almost twelve hours every night since he had been here.
“OI, ADRIAN!” Declan yelled at the top of his lungs.
This made Adrian jump. “Whoa!” Adrian started and almost fell out of the bed as he was jolted awake from the yelling Scottish sounded man. He whirled around in the bed and the blankets flew off of him in the quick jump.
“What? Yes. I’m up. What is it?” Adrian said quickly, not realizing the covers had left his bed, and he was now lying in bed with all of his modesty showing.
Declan frowned and didn’t look down towards the man’s body. “You sleep in the nude?” he asked incredulously. “What if there was an emergency?”
That was when the white tiger peeked its head up from the other side of the bed. Opal had been laying under the window basking in the warm sunlight.
“Aye, I guess if there was an emergency, your tiger there would take care of you,” Declan conceded and nodded his head.
Adrian just grinned.
“Alright, well, get up. The Lily deemed it needed to make landfall at last. I’m not sure where we are yet, but you and your little buddy there need to go get stock for the kitchen. I’m sure we’ll be busy,” Declan informed him with a nod.
Adrian got an interested look on his face and he perked up. “You think we’re back on Earth?”
“Sorry to break it to ya kid, but no. Judging from the elves that walked by the window, we aren’t on earth. At least I think they were elves,” Declan said and looked to the ground in thought.
“I guess they could have been vulcan? But they didn’t look very technological,” Declan muttered to himself before he looked back up at Adrian. “Nah, probably definitely elves. Anyway, we’re right in town, so you’re sure to find a market.”
Adrian frowned. The last week, he had gone through all the various steps of dealing with the situation he now found himself in. Resentment, anger, denial, yadda, yadda, now he was just resigned to it. A talk one night with Declan over some of his stronger spirits helped him realize there wasn’t any point in trying to fight it or be mad about it. The only thing he could really do wasElves, deal with it and carry on his life as best he could with the hand he was dealt.
“Elves huh?” Adrian smirked and shook his head as he sat up on the bed.
“Aye, think so. Like 99 percent sure. It could be fuck all else, you never know really, but they were elf like,” Declan explained.
“Alright, yeah, me and Opal will go down and check it out. See if we can find a market and get some supplies,” he said as he just now realized he was naked and no longer covered. Adrian looked up and stared at Declan.
“You mind?” He raised his eyebrows at the Scot.
Declan smirked and turned to walk away. “No point in gettin’ bashful now, my boy.”
Adrian grunted and reached to the door to close it before he stood to get ready to see where they wound up. It didn’t take him long to get washed up and dressed before he and Opal were in the main dining room of the tavern, with Declan standing behind the bar and waiting.
“Alright then lad, I have a small list of things for you to get as well if you can find them. Stuff to make our booze and then some things I need to fix some things around the inn. I put the pot of stew you made the other night on the warmer in case someone comes in. You good if I served it?” Declan asked genuinely.
He handed Adrian a small piece of parchment with a list on it and a small sack that Adrian could feel was full of coins. When he looked inside, it was full of various coins of different colors.
“No worries about if it’s the right kind of not. Part of Lily’s power is that it makes sure we mostly fit in no matter where we are,” Declan assured his new friend when Adrian looked at him questioningly.
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Adrian grinned and nodded his head, appreciating the question as he pocketed the list and coin pouch. The ghillie dhu had been good about making sure Adrian felt at home and part of the team since he had been here. Wallace was as well, even though Adrian wasn’t quite sure of the relationship between the two. The younger stable boy rarely appeared outside of mealtimes and usually stayed in the stables by himself. When he had asked, Declan just said he was shy and that the boy would come around eventually.
“Not to worry, my boy, not to worry. Wallace shall come around, and then you’ll be wishing he’d shut up,” Declan had said that night over post dinner drinks.
Adrian looked down and patted Opal on the head before he went to the front door and opened it up. The tiger stood just behind him as they looked out at what appeared to be a very busy street. The street was full of people with pointed ears and fair features, and Adrian figured Declan was right. They were in the middle of a downtown elf city.
The chef looked down at his familiar. “Stay close. I don’t want them to be scared of you or anything.”
Opal gave one firm nod and Adrian winked to the tiger before they both walked out into the city. Over the last week he had also, with Declan’s help, gotten the hang of having a familiar. It seemed like the tiger was an extension of Adrian’s own new magical power, and while Adrian didn’t seem to have an elemental power; he was strong. Opal, however, was a strong fire spirit beast and Adrian supposed that made sense since Opal came from a knife that spent all of its time in a professional working kitchen.
If anyone minded the tiger that walked behind Adrian, no one said anything. Though Adrian didn’t see anyone else with any sort of animal. There were wild animals, mostly birds, who flew around. Then there were fish as they walked along and Adrian realized there was a river that ran through the middle of the village. He stepped on the wooden bridge slowly and paused in the middle with his hands on the railing and looked down into the crystal clear water.
Opal peeked her head through and stared down into the water for a minute before she looked back up at Adrian.
“You probably shouldn’t jump in. I don’t know if that’ll get us in trouble or not,” Adrian said when he felt what the tiger wanted through their connection.
Opal gave a huff through her nose and pulled her head back.
“Yes, I know those fish look good. Declan gave me some money and I’ll buy you a nice big fish and you can have it for dinner,” Adrian assured his tiger.
Opal agreed mentally, but she didn’t seem happy about it. They continued to walk along and Adrian couldn’t help but stare at some of the people as they bustled along. While the town, or city, it seemed more like was medieval, it also had a sort of modern sense to it. The busyness of it all, some buildings that could almost be short skyscrapers. They were definitely in the downtown area of the busy city.
“We just need to find the food shops. Don’t you have a good nose? Can’t you just sniff out the food and lead to the butcher and produce shops?” Adrian asked as they walked.
In order to fit in even more, he wasn’t wearing his normal chef whites. He was in flowing robes that made him feel like a knight of an old republic. They were long and flowing, and the outer robe reminded him of a long, sweeping trench coat. The colors were colors that matched his new employer’s. A deep green inner robe and dark brown outer robe. He mostly fit in clothing wise with all of the elves, although their robes were made of finer fabrics. Silk, Adrian figured.
He got a sense of emotion from his companion and Adrian grinned and looked down at Opal. “Yes, and the fishmonger,” he added with a small chuckle.
It didn’t take them long once he got Opal to help him find the various shops they needed. They were all situated pretty close to each other and the general store even offered a service to pick up all of their groceries and deliver it to them in a cart. Declan was very generous with the amount of money he gave Adrian as well, it seemed. The chef could buy enough produce and food to keep the kitchen stocked for a very busy week. He probably could have fed an army worth of elfs if he had to with what he bought.
It was a few hours later until he realized he wasn’t supposed to spend all of what Declan gave him.
“Fuckin’ hell, you bought all of this?” Declan scowled at Adrian and Opal, who gave a soft growl.
Adrian though, couldn’t pay attention to the scolding. He kept staring at the wagon full of goods that were being pulled by a centaur. An honest to god half man half horse being pulled by the small cart full of everything the chef had ordered from the various shops.
“You going to get this shit off my cart or what? I have other deliveries to make,” the centaur man yelled at Adrian.
The man was tall, though Adrian wasn’t sure if he was tall for a centaur. If he had to guess, the tip of his head was probably around eight feet tall. The centaur had long brown hair and strong features that matched his eight pack of chiseled abs. Adrian couldn’t help but stare and try to take the person in. He didn’t realize the centaur was glaring at him.
It was Declan who once more saved Adrian.
“Aye, sorry lad. My friend here doesn’t get out much. He’s a bit touched in the head, ya see,” the bartender explained to the centaur deliverer as he glared at Adrian and elbowed him in the side.
This seemed to knock Adrian out of his trance, and he nodded his head and cleared his throat. “Yes, sorry, sir. We’ll get you off loaded quickly so you can go about your business.”
It didn’t take the pair and tiger long until the centaur pulled away with his cart. Declan tipped the creature well since Adrian was so… Well, it wasn’t Adrian’s fault. The man had never seen a centaur before. He wasn’t sure if he had seen many movies or television shows that had centaurs in them in recent years.
“You daft fool,” Declan chided and shook his head.
Adrian gave a sheepish grin. “Sorry, and sorry about the money I didn’t realize it wasn’t all to spend. You shouldn’t have given me so much.”
Declan shrugged and looked through all the purchases Adrian made. “We’ll make more. I overrated. Did you get everything from my list as well?”
“Uh….” Adrian reached into his pocket for the piece of parchment he had forgotten about.
Declan glowered and stared at Adrian in anger. “Put this shite away. I’m going to go get what I need.”
If we hit that I'll try and drop a chapter a day which means we can get double chapter days if we hit milestones!
Milestone's we're going for:
- Followers: 124/160
- Ratings: 10/15
- Favorites: 25/40
I'm going to monitor this as good as I can while I'm on the road during my work week.
If we hit our numbers I'll launch a chapter on an off day.
Patreon
Today marks the day when the story starts posting on Patreon again to stay ahead of the story here.
It'll be Chapter 51 that drops and it'll be a m/w/f schedule like here on RR
Discord and start a conversation.
Code is only active till Oct 31.
Kickstarter for the Sci-Fi Lightnovel I've been working on to help pay for costs.
I'm pretty sure I talked about it one of my post author notes? I can't remember but I'm really liking the story.
So… what do you make of Adrian so far?
