Crossing the bridge took quite a long time. There wasn't much else to say about it other than that, to be honest. It was just the 3 of us walking across a bridge for a while. At least the bridge looked cool. And it was a pretty nice day, as well. I'd love to walk this bridge at sunset or something. Now that'd be a good time. Oh, or maybe twilight, under the stars, that'd be beyond cool, as well. Assuming I wouldn't get distracted by thinking about how freaking weird this bridge is. Why's it so big? Who maintains it? What's the point? Those will be the first questions I ask once we arrive, this is really bugging me. I swear, I'm totally gonna lose sleep over this. 

So, yeah. Anyways, we eventually made it to the other side. I was surprised at just how small the place really was. In fact, there were only 8 buildings in total, 9 if you count our soon to be home, but that's a little ways away and not quite in the town proper. The town seemed pretty standard, there was a semi large building with a pretty simple sign, the inn, I assume, some smaller building with a sign and a clip art-esque fish logo, maybe a shop, or something , some really large, pointy building which looks like a church, maybe, and a huge farm, complete with various crops and some animal pens. The remaining buildings simply seemed to be peoples homes. The whole place looked really cute, with the quaint small town vibe and all that. Nice aesthetic!

There were only 3 people walking the streets when we arrived, prolly 'cus it's about dinner time, 2 guard-y looking fellows walking shoulder to shoulder (wouldn't they cover more ground if they split up? Odd.), and this slightly hunched fella with a green robe, who walked a little weirdly. It seemed that every third step or so would be faster for seemingly no reason. Another odd fellow. Well, that's hardly my business. 

"Right, think that's the inn, there," S said, pointing to the building that's probably the inn. "We heading there first, right?" Ending his sentence with the same word he started it with once more. 

"Yeah, think so." Purple said. I simply nodded.

"Right." S concluded. 

As we got to the end of the bridge and began making our way towards the inn, I couldn't help but notice that the green robed fella, the guy who was walking funny, began staring at us. I pretended not to notice. 

Unfortunately for me, S also noticed and, instead of doing anything rational, he elected to stare back at the guy. We all stopped, and the two of them stared at each other for a while. It was a little awkward. Eventually I kept looking back and forth at them, waiting for someone to do something. Purple just yawned and stretched. Guess they're getting tired, too.

...

...

Eventually, I the 2 guard fellows from earlier began watching this exchange from a safe distance. One looked at S, the other at the green guy. The anticipation is killing me. At this point, I'm almost excited to see what's gonna happen.

...

...

"How long we gonna stand here? Isn't it about time we take 5?" Purple said, interrupting whatever's going on here, and bringing me back to reality. I guess I kinda got wrapped up in this... thing, as well.

"Y-yeah, we should probably get a move on." I pleaded to S.

"Alright." S said, beginning to walk towards the inn. Sideways. Their stares were unbroken, even as we moved. Miraculously, S didn't trip over anything, and he navigated to the door without missing a beat. What a champ.

Purple chuckled, clearly amused. They leaned over to me, and whispered "Is he always like this?" I just shrugged in response. 

When we made it into the inn proper, S stopped staring, and sanity seemed to return to the world. 

Until we noticed the innkeeper who was standing behind the counter on the west side of the inn, reading a book, or something. That's not what was weird, though. They were a tall figure, cloaked from head to toe in a pitch black robe. They looked like the textbook definition of  'shady cult guy'.

"Nice costume, dude!" Purple said as we came in, looking at the robed figure. 

The figure looked up at us. "Oh, visitors," his voice was jarringly welcoming. Almost made me flinch. "Pay no mind to my robes." He said, chuckling a bit. Pretty hard not to pay attention to that, actually. He continued, "Anyways, we don't get many of y'all 'round these parts. What brings you in today?" 

"Well, we'll be moving in to the dukes old place just outside of town in a few weeks, figured we'd stop by and see what this place is like." S said, thinking it a good idea to tell our story to this obviously suspicious cult lookin' guy we just met. I nodded in confirmation. What? Not like I had any better ideas. 

I think Purple went to say something, but they seemed to get lost in thought for a moment. If I'd had to guess, I'd wager they're trying to figure out why they're here with us. Makes sense, things did get a little weird earlier. 

"Is that a fact? Well, I'll be, we haven't had any new residents since I moved into this place a few years back. The old dukes place, huh... How'd you youngins end up with a place like that?" 

"It's a long story." I said, before looking off to the left for a moment, as if I was lost in thought. It's not actually that long a story, and could be summed up in, like, a sentence or 2, but this makes us look cool, so, y'know.

Purple chuckled, presumably seeing through my charade. Rude.

"I'd imagine." The figure said, nodding. "Well, y'all must be hungry. Take a seat wherever you like, I'll be with you in a moment." He then went down the stairs hidden behind the counter, down to a basement area, I guess. 

The inn itself didn't have any tables or anything like that, like the previous inns I've been in, instead, it was just a bunch of benches all around the perimeter, except in front of doors (obviously) and behind the counter. I presume the doors lead to rentable rooms.

We grabbed a seat close to where we were standing, just to the left of the entrance. I sat down first, S then sat to the left of me, and Purple to my right. 

Y'know, this place is a little small, but it's cute and had a nice atmosphere, much like the town itself. Almost makes you forget that it's run by... that guy. 

Speaking of weird stuff, I guess this could be a good opportunity...

"Hey, uh... you." I said, looking at Purple. "You, like, know magic and all that, right? Can you... teach me?"

Purple looked at me, seeming a little confused. "Huh?"

"Right, this guy's actually pretty new when it comes to magic." S explained for me. That's more embarrassing than I thought. 

"Really?" Purple said. "Oh, I see." Huh? See what? "Sure, if you buy me dinner."

"That works." I said. That's not a bad deal, all things considered.

"Great." 

Eventually, the robed guy from earlier returned, and handed us some pretty small menus. Well, the size is irrelevant to me, cus, y'know. 

"If you're feelin' somethin' off menu, feel free to order it and I'll try my hand at it, assuming we have the ingredients. No guarantees it'll be perfect, though!" They said. Huh. Neat. Crap, I hope purple doesn't take advantage of that and order something horrendously expensive! 

S seemed rather distraught as he looked at the menu, for whatever reason.

Purple ordered first. "I'll just have a salad." Whew.

"Well, there's lot's of kinds of salad, mist- er, miss, er, uh..." The robed figured tried desperately to discern their gender, to no avail. Why didn't he just say, like, 'youngin' or something? Foolish!

Purple chuckled. "Just throw some chicken, lettuce, and cheese together." That's... quite the bland salad, isn't it? I mean, that's fine, probably easier on my wallet, but I kinda assumed they'd order something more... explosive, I guess?

"Alright, certainly." The innkeeper said, then looked over at me.

S perked up. "Ooh! I'll have that! Except without the lettuce, or the cheese... just give me meat, actually." 

"Oh, alright. Now, I should warn the both of you, meat's a little more expensive 'round these parts then you're probably used to." 

Ah! Yikes!

"That's fine!" S said.

Purple just laughed. 

"A-anyways, what'll you have?" The guy said, turning to me again.

"Uh, could I just get a, uh, tomato soup or something?" I don't know why, but I've always liked tomato soup. I mean, that's not weird, per se, but, I mean, it's not like anything else I like, so it feels out of place, right? 

"Ah, certainly. I'll be right out with all that." He then retreated back downstairs. I guess the kitchen's in the basement. Huh.

"So, what do you want to know about magic?" Purple asked me.

"Well," I probably shouldn't say too much. Let's see... "I'm having a hard time figuring out the purpose of some of my spells." 

"Really? That's odd. I mean, you're the one that directs that, right?" 

"Huh?" 

"I mean, when you exert magical energy, you decide the nature it takes, and it'll happen, assuming you have the requisite power, and logic to back it up." 

"Really? Is that how it works?" S said. He didn't know either? I guess I haven't actually seen him use magic very much, now that I'm thinking about it. Other than creating a knife or a whip, he mostly just throws sand in peoples eyes. As simple as it is, it's a crazy effective technique. 

"That's how I do it, at least." Purple said.

Huh. But, then, why does my magic work the way it does? I don't recall intentionally creating these effects, and they are far, far from logical. And what do they mean by 'power'?

"What do you mean by 'power?" I said, at risk of sounding like a broken record.

"Well, just like anything, the more powerful or advanced something is, the more skill, or, in this case 'power' it'll take to pull off. One cannot  play the lead role without practice, after all. I guess 'power', in this case, would be the abstract concept of the combination of talent, practice, and focus."

"That so... hmmm..." S said. A distant look grew upon him, and it seemed like he lost himself deep in thought. It seems like he's getting more mileage out of this lesson than I am.

"Huh." I'm still a little confused, to be honest.

"Well, if you don't know the purpose of your spells, I guess... try thinking back to the first time you casted it. That's what I'd do, at least." 

Hmm... it was in S and I's spot near the forest. S was teaching me the most basics of the basics. At the time I casted my tentacle-noodle thingies initially, I seem to recall the phrase 'magic is a part of you'. Is that why I ended up sprouting more appendages!? But, wait, what about my vine thingies? I was thinking about flow or something back then, right? So why did I create grabby vines? That doesn't make any sense! And why do the limb-tentacles have gravity defying properties!?  

As vexing as it is, I'm at a loss here. I guess I just have to chock that up to dark magic being weird, huh. Ah well. That said, this lesson isn't completely lost upon me. It might have given me some new ideas, some things I'd like to try out. 

"Thanks. That helped a lot." I said. 

"I'm happy to help." They said, and then chuckled. They were kind words, but there was something... sinister about them. It unnerved me a bit. "Plus, you're paying for it."  

Oh yeah, I am, aren't I.