[Soleil POV]
Once me and Velvet were out of the mansion, we started walking around the city.
“If I’m completely honest, this is the most beautiful city I’ve been to yet.” (Soleil)
“I’ll agree to that.” (Velvet)
We looked up at the trees around us and the buildings on the branches.
“I wonder how they built these, and I don’t mean with magic. There has to be something more to it.” (Soleil)
“I can’t really answer that, but since we’ll most likely be here for a while, we can find out. And knowing Luna, she’ll probably want to go and check out Odin Academy at some point, so we could probably tag along with her then.” (Velvet)
“True. But enough about stuff we can do with big sis. Let’s focus on ourselves for today.” (Soleil)
“Hehe. Alright then.” (Velvet)
We continued down the road we were on before finding a large gathering in front of a large fountain. We decided to get closer and we started to hear some music. It sounded like it came from some sort of flute different from the one big sis played. There were also some sort of string instrument being played as well. The two of us joined the crowd just as whatever was being played. The next song that was played had a playful tune. The flute and string paired well and as the song progressed, I felt an urge to get closer to Velvet. I let go of her hand and grabbed her arm. I then leaned my head on her shoulder and closed my eyes. A little time passed with the two of us like that and then the song ended. I moved my head from Velvet’s shoulder and looked at her in the corner of my eye. She had a relaxed, happy smile on her face.
“Shall we move on now? We have a lot to explore after all.” (Soleil)
“Hehe. Alright, but let’s trade places after a bit, ok.” (Velvet)
“Fine by me.” (Soleil)
The place we walked to was a lively little place full of stalls on both sides of the road. The people were calling out to others to get there attention and it was quite noisy. I was about to mess with my sound dampeners when Velvet did it for me.
“Thanks.” (Soleil)
“Mm.” (Velvet)
We took a look at some stalls as we went.
“Hmmm.” (Soleil)
“What’s up, Soleil?” (Velvet)
“Well, don’t some of the people here seem a bit young to be doing something like this? And the things they are selling seem, if I’m completely honest, a bit cheap?” (Soleil)
Velvet looked around for a second.
“Now that you point it out, you’re right. Hmmm. Oh, maybe this has something to do with the Academy? I mean it is close to here and we were told it taught basically anything.” (Velvet)
“Huh, maybe you’re right.” (Soleil)
We came to the end of the road so we turned a corner and came out to a larger road. I then smelled something and turned to look in its direction.
“Smell something?” (Velvet)
“Yeah, it smells like tea?” (Soleil)
“Want to go check it out?” (Velvet)
“Yeah.” (Soleil)
We followed my nose and found a shop hidden behind several others, making it a bit inconspicuous. It had several bundles of leaves hanging from strings and some steaming cups on a table. Behind the table sat an old looking elf woman.
“Oh, some faces I’ve never seen before. Welcome to my humble little shop, is there anything I can help you with?”
“Yes actually, I smelled something from here a little ways away and was wondering what it was. When we followed the smell, it led us here. I would like to know what kind of tea leaves made such a fragrant smell.” (Soleil)
“Kukuku. A beastkin’s nose is hardly ever wrong. Please sit and I’ll show you what I have.”
The two of us sat and the old woman began her explanation.
“What you were smelling was a tea made from some leaves only found in this country. They make a tea that calms nerves and heals headaches.”
She pushed a cup forward and put some leaves next to it.
“Now, this right here is a tea that helps people fall asleep.”
She did the same thing with a second cup.
I nodded my head at her explanation. She then put forward a few more cups and leaves as she explained each one. When she was finished, I looked at her a little strangely.
“These are all quite nice, but you still haven’t showed everything.” (Soleil)
“Kukuku. An astute one. I do have one more, but it’s a bit special. It’s a rare tea that raises a random stat. The thing is, the leaves for this tea are only available every 200 years.”
The old woman moved the cups and leaves aside and placed a few small leaves on the table. They were a slight goldish color.
“May I ask how much for everything you’ve showed us?” (Soleil)
“Oh? For my normal wares, I’ll sell it for the market price, but for the special leaves, I’ll ask something more.”
We both narrowed our eyes.
“Kukuku. Don’t get all suspicious young ones. I won’t ask for much, just some more of your time. You see, I’m an old woman. One of the oldest elves even. One of my favorite things is hearing the stories of young people such as yourselves. In particular, I like hearing stories of romance. Tell me your story and I’ll give you these special tea leaves.”
Velvet and I relaxed when we heard the old elf’s words. We glanced at each other then Velvet spoke up.
“Where would you like us to start?” (Velvet)
“Kukuku. The beginning of course. How did the two of you meet?”
For the next few hours, Velvet and I told the old woman our story. Once we made it the present moment, the old woman smiled.
“Ah, youth, such a time of excitement and adventure. Thank you for telling me your story. As promised, you can have the tea leaves.”
We thanked the old woman and I handed over the money for the other leaves as well. We stood up and were about to leave when the old woman called out to us.
“Kukuku. Enjoy this wonderful city, young ones. If you want a fun place to walk and enjoy the company of each other, go west for a bit and you’ll run into a small park. There, go north and find two trees that look like a gateway, walk through that and you’ll be surprised at what you find.”
“Thank you.” (Soleil)
The old woman waved and we started on our way again. As we turned the corner, the smell of that shop completely vanished. I looked back and the whole alleyway was gone.
“Velvet, where did the alleyway go?” (Soleil)
Velvet looked back as well and was just as confused as I was.
“No idea.” (Velvet)
We stood there looking at where we came from for a second before shrugging our shoulders and making our way to the place the mysterious old elf told us to go. When we reached the park, we looked around for the place we were told about. After a little bit of searching, we found the place and walked between the tree gate. We walked down a corridor of branches, leaves, and vines. Once we exited the corridor, we found ourselves in a beautiful garden. Flowers and other nice smelling plants were everywhere. A small brook flowed through the middle and around a small place in the center. Also in the center was a silver colored tree.
“Oh, a Lunar Sakura tree.” (Velvet)
“It’s a bit small.” (Soleil)
“True, but it’s still beautiful.” (Velvet)
“Want to sit under it for a while?” (Soleil)
“Sounds good to me.” (Velvet)
We walked over and sat under the tree. We leaned back and closed our eyes as a gentle breeze blew through the garden. The sounds of the brook and birds and swaying leaves created a calm atmosphere. I opened my eyes and looked over to Velvet. I smiled and moved closer to her. Once I was close enough for my shoulders to touch hers, she opened her eyes and looked at me. We looked into each other’s eyes in silence for a short time before we brought our lips together. When we broke apart after a few minutes, we both smiled and Velvet spoke.
“Soleil.”
“Velvet.”
I leaned my head on Velvet’s shoulder and then she leaned her head on mine. We descended into a long, comfortable silence.
‘I wonder if this is how big sis felt all the times when she and Goddess Tamamo were together during the full moon?’
A warmth filled my heart as I sat next to Velvet. It made me feel complete in a different way than when I was with everyone else. We sat beneath the tree for several hours before the sky started to change colors.
“Soleil, I think we should start heading back.” (Velvet)
“Mm.” (Soleil)
We stood up and Velvet wrapped her arms around one of mine. I smiled and we exited the garden.
Chaos Realm:
Amtos: Payto, I'm bored. I want to talk to Tamamo.
Well, I can't do anything about that.
Atmos: I know. Anyway, I have stuff to do, so I'm off. You know where to find me if something interesting happens.
*Atmos goes into her isolation room.*
Oh, Order, I got an answer to your question.
Order: How?
Some minor memory reading.
Order: Oh. Anyway, what is the answer?
It was as I thought, she has more fun not suppressing or redirecting her kitsune nature.
Order: I see.
*Order then moves closer*
???
Order: I just want to be close to you.
Alright.
Don't tell me that elf granny is actually a goddess
Nope, just a mysterious old lady.
@Paytoechip well, as mysterious as every old lady. The knowledge they posses can be quite somthing
@Paytoechip Always trust mysterious old ladies who sell tea. Especially when in a fantasy setting
@LucyKitsune indeed
@Paytoechip Or old uncles who know the difference between tea and hot leaf juice. You can always trust them as well.
@miyoga agreed. Always trust Uncle Iroh
@LucyKitsune double agree
@Paytoechip mysterious old ladies with illusory alleys are sus though... even when selling tea.
@LucyKitsune but don't trust mysterious death old ladies that sells apples, those are not to be trusted
@Mestreangel Much like mysterious merchants, selling extremely rare goods JUST BEFORE The demon kings castle... Where do they come from, how did an unarmed merchant GET to the demon kings castle in the first place, and why set up shop in such an inhospitable place with zero customers? But there he is! Stupid JRPG logic...
As for the old ladies selling apples, it depends. IS it an APPLE? or a GOLDEN APPLE? The latter is a damned godess trying to make you immortal.... the former is trying to kill a seven year old girl, but gets thwarted by the kiss of a 32 year old Pedo-Prince... (seriously, original snow white is effed up.)
@Darkakuahebi All fairy tales are.
@Paytoechip Ponyo is probably as close to an "authentic" retelling of "The Little Mermaid" as we'll ever get. As a bonus, we also get to listen to Betty White in that film.
@Darkakuahebi The one selling a golden apple can also be a goddess trying to bring discord to your life, that one started a war be gifting one of those
@Mestreangel Is there some kind of rule or something that I don't know that says all mysterious old ladies HAVE to be either evil or a goddess in disguise? Can't she just be a mysterious old lady selling tea in disappearing alleyways?
@Paytoechip disappearing alleyways don't grow on trees... apples and tea do, but disappearing alleyways are hard to find.
@Darkakuahebi
("Much like mysterious merchants, selling extremely rare goods JUST BEFORE The demon kings castle... Where do they come from, how did an unarmed merchant GET to the demon kings castle in the first place, and why set up shop in such an inhospitable place with zero customers? But there he is! Stupid JRPG logic...")
Well you can trust autistic dwarf boy who appears before final battle with Archdemon surrounded by dead darkspawn and offers enchantment.
"Enchantment? Enchantment!"
@Darkakuahebi It appears that in the original version it was the jostling of her glass coffin that dislodged the apple and she woke up.
Now she was 7 at the start, and the only time any specified amount of time passed was when she was dead in the coffin. She spent several years like that. There are more than one stretch of unspecified time as well. It only clearly mentions she outgrew the queens beauty when she was seven, and she's referred to as a child. But other than that it's at best unclear how old she is when the prince asks her to marry him, at worst she's 9 but looks 7. The prince's age is not mentioned at all so he could be a child or not depending on what the reader assumes.
https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm053.htmlAnother source gives the same version of the story, except for some translation choices, I didn't bother checking when the kiss was added as I was mostly curious how bad the original was.
@Darkakuahebi
Much like mysterious merchants, selling extremely rare goods JUST BEFORE The demon kings castle... Where do they come from, how did an unarmed merchant GET to the demon kings castle in the first place, and why set up shop in such an inhospitable place with zero customers? But there he is! Stupid JRPG logic...
isn’t it obvious where they get it? The demon king sells it to them after they kill the hero who was using it in order to afford food for his people. Then the humans raise a new hero to subjugate the “lesser beings” which then steals all the soldiers, villagers, and farmers money before giving it to the mysterious merchant in exchange for the “legendary weapons of previous heroes” just in time to add theirs to his stock.
@Kristeen *le gasp* I never saw it this way! I humbly thank you for the enlightenment!
@Asatur I’m actually really proud of that one. The humans were probably impressing the monsters forcing them to defend themselves anyways. The humans then used that as justification for a war before summoning some hero from another world in the form of some high schooler in Japan to do it for them because they won’t think to hard about whether they are doing the right thing and it’s not like your losing anyone important. If he dies summon someone else and convince him he was the first or something. And hey if he wins quietly kill him in his sleep and have him pass away from the curse the demon king cast during his dying breaths. You now have a large amount of land that was conquered for you by unpaid children and a large number of slaves to work it. You may have noticed that I dislike humans in fantasy settings because they resemble humans on earth but more united in their discrimination of other races because if they can discriminate other humans based on skin color they can damn sure do it for more noticeable features. I am also a big fan of works by “Haru No Hi” and am playing a character based off of Yurushia Ra Von Verusnia in my current TTRPG campaign.
@Kristeen Yeah, humans in fantasy are scum. I'm reading several stories in which the Humans are the reason for the war while they're unscrupulous enough to abduct children and force them into that uneeded war, slaughtering defenceless villagers, enslaving everyone, who's against them and so forth... Where did the simple times go, when everything was simply black and white?
@Asatur When there were only humans, and then it was about if you were a black human or a white human.
@Kristeen Ouch, as a german, that stings especially hard...
@Asatur I'm going to make the opinion that while most fantasy races have a "defining characteristic", fantasy humans are generic and thus manifest the defining characteristic of life in general: propagate, survive, thrive. That translates to conquering, exploiting, hoarding, and being general scum.