Hoping that things go a little better than last time we were just trying to have fun and explore town, we set off to explore town, and, possibly, have fun. 

As we left the inn, it seemed that there wasn't anyone new on the street, just the guards wandering around, still side by side. Still seems inefficient, but who am I to tell the guards how to do their jobs. 

"Right, where to next?" S said. Huh. That's a good question. There's really not all that much to do in a small town like this, is there? I mean, I think there's a church and a general store, as well as the inn, obviously, but other than that it's just peoples homes. Not much to do in terms of just killing time. 

"Maybe we should check out the duke's old place." Though, I guess it's technically our place now. 

"Right, good plan." 

"Oooh, I'm curious about that, too." Catface said.

"Just make sure you don't break through any walls, please." S said to them as we set off. Predictably, they just laughed.

I pulled out the map as we walked down the road. Alright, we're here, and the place is a little ways sou-

"Whazzat?"

"'Heck's that thing?"

Catface and S said at the same time, interrupting my thoughts. We've taken, what, 6 steps? How is there already something noteworthy? 

I turned to see what they were looking at. It was a large red box that looked kinda like a vending machine. It was right next to the inn, but a little further back so we couldn't see it earlier. Actually, this thing almost suspiciously like a vending machine, just without any of the buttons or the glass part. Okay, I guess those are kinda the defining parts of a vending machine, but just take my word for it, it was vending machine-esque, with the size, the little slits, one for paper bills and one for coins, and a slot on the bottom where one would presumably grab something. There were also these big white words across the whole thing. Can't read 'em, though. But what really caught my attention was the paper cash slot. See, as far as I'm aware, they don't have paper money in this world, only coins.  So what's the deal? 2 coin slots, maybe? Why?

Looking closer, there seemed to be some text above the cash slots, but that's of no use to me. 

"What's it say?" I whispered to S.

"'Blacksmith...' uh... 'Cola'? I think? The heck is 'cola?'"

In an instant, I was in front of the machine, and put a gold coin in to the coin slot. 

Nothing happened. Darn. 

"Think you need to write somethin' down." Catface said, pointing to the words on top paper money looking slit. Could that be what that slit is for? You gotta write down what you want? Explains the lack of buttons.

"Anyone got paper?" I said, quickly.

"Nah."

"Nope."

Dangit. I'll be back, weird, comically out of place fantasy vending machine! And next time, I'll bring paper! Oh, and something to write with, naturally. I'm not gonna be a fool twice!

"We should head to a shop." I said, in a serious way, because this is a serious situation.

"Right, you could probably get some there. Think there's a shop next door." Conveniently placed shop! Love it!

It's the smaller building with a clip-art fish lookin' logo. There's also some text, but, again, illiterate.

"The Net' huh? That's a pretty lame name, isn't it?" Catface said.

"Right, it does seem a little weird, 'specially since their logo doesn't include a net." S said. 

Who cares!? We got paper to buy!

We entered the shop. It was a bit small, but it made a very efficient use of space. All the walls were lined with goods, except places the doors could hit, naturally. There was a counter on the north end of the shop, with shelf space for more stuff, a door on the north ball, naturally behind the counter, and also a lady, once again, behind the counter. She seemed rather tough, had fairly short dark brown hair, and brown eyes. She wore a simple red shirt, and over that a black apron with the same logo that was outside the shop. I presume she was also wearing pants, but I couldn't see them behind the counter. She looked kinda like a blacksmith. She also had a pretty scary look on her face, and, in general, seemed like someone one wouldn't want to mess with.

"Haven't seen you lot around here before. What are you, some exceptionally young band of fishermen?" She said as we entered. 

The goods in the shop mostly seemed to be fishing stuff, y'know, rods, bait and other fishing-y stuff. Not really sure what most of it is, though. There were still plenty of normal general store goods, though. 

"Yeah, that's why we walked in here without any fishing gear." Catface said, sarcastically. Seemed a bit uncalled for, to be honest. 

"Speak for yourself." S said, creating a pole out of sand. The heck? He can do that? Also, what is this, a comedy routine? We need to buy paper, dangit! 

The shopkeeper looked confused for a moment, but quickly regained composure. "Couple 'a smartmouths, are you? Just buy somethin' and get outa here, already." Part of me wants to make a quip about customer service, but I think I'll let this one slide. She looked over at me, and then back at catface. "The 2 of you got the looks of thieves. Don't try anything funny." Rude!

Catface laughed. "You've got a good eye, sister." 

"Better than you know." The shopkeeper said.

"D-do you sell paper? And stuff to write with?" I said, desperately trying to change the flow of this conversation. 

"Ah, trying to use that freaky red thing? Yeah, I've got some parchment, and you can use that to write." She pointed over a little ink bottle with a feather sticking out of it. Neat. She handed me a piece of parchment, and I headed over the the ink thingy.

Now, one might be concerned that, since I'm illiterate, I can't write anything. FOOLISH! The word I'm looking for is on the vending machine thingy, so all I gotta do is create a small hole here, and a small hole in front of the machine, and then I can just look through and write what I see. 

"Alright, that'll be 5 silver." The shopkeeper lady said, after I finished writing. Man, that seems like a-

"For one piece of parchment!?" S exclaimed. 

"He also used the ink." They said. I think I heard a cash register's 'Cha-ching!' off in the distance, somewhere. 

I paid up without complaint. Not like I'm hurting for cash. 

"Man, and you called us thieves!" Catface said, laughing. 

"Alrightwe'releavingthanksbye" I said, quickly ushering our group out of the shop before things get weird.

And immediately headed for the vending machine thingy. As fast as my hands could go, I tore off the piece where I wrote the word, and put it into the slot. 

Immediately, I heard a satisfying and familiar sound of aluminum coming face to face with gravity. I rushed over to the grabbing thing at the bottom, and, sure enough, the holy nectar of my desire was there. 2 cans of it, even. Lucky! 

Finally, after all these, uh, days. I haven't actually been in this world all that long, have I? Man, stuffs been happening fast. Yet, at the same time, really slow. The passage of time is weird. Regardless, this is a great moment of triumph.

"The heck is that?" S asked as I grabbed my spoils. 

"Cola." 

And I drank.