Excellent, now that that has been sorted out, it’s ti 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 .
Aahhh honey, you know that’s not what I ant.
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 at the mont.
Anyway where were we...
***
So after finally getting over my shock of actually eting an otherworlder, and calming him enough to stop crying about bars, and drinking, and so other unintelligible drivel, we could have a conversation.
"So what’s your na, otherworlder?" I asked.
"Please don’t call that. My na is Daniel."
"I doubt that having a last na would make any difference now anymore, so just call Daniel."
"Hello Daniel, my na is Julia, it’s a pleasure to et you." I said, extending my hand.
After a brief shake, he got up from his previous kneeling position, and looked dead in the eye, with a very unexpected determination.
"Right. So where exactly do I go to find so sort of settlent, or village?" He asked.
I was surprised by his sudden change of behaviour, I an one mont the man was sobbing about sothing I’ve never heard of before, the next he was asking 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 so reason the mont I ntioned 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 soone 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 and imdiately 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.
"Co along!"
I heard the rushed footsteps of him trying to catch up to before he was even close to .
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 sohow I forgot he was an otherworlder, and that maybe there were so 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 an by beasts I guess," he answered, as he kept pace with , I noticed that his steps seed to beco 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 co and go as they want." He answered, it seed like he was lost in thought, and yet everything he did beca 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 so 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 . He seed saddened by the thought of never seeing his ho again.
I couldn’t bla him though. I couldn’t imagine being ripped from my ho, 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 mont.
"But the absolute best thing about it was... the bars. Sniff, sniff" And imdiately 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 so kind of religious monunt.
"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 so 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 so company."
"Where lonely n can hope to et so won."
"And then have their hopes crushed, when the won are clearly not interested."
"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 beca. And the louder his voice beca. I was starting to really get worried about him luring so very bad, very an beasts in our direction.
Yet, for so reason or the other, I couldn’t bring myself to stop him.
Most people would probably think that this was an idiot ranting about sothing that really wasn’t as important as he made it out to be.
But to it was a man that was talking about sothing 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 ti 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 excitent 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 , finally breaking 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, rember 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 won who have clearly forgotten their place.
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