Rissa was the last one through the portal, as usual, right after Blaze. She wasn’t certain why they’d adopted the order, but it was always the same. Sillon first, then Ita followed by Blaze with Rissa bringing up the rear.
As she’d learned to do, Rissa took a couple of steps forward and one to the side, making sure she was out of the way of anyone else coming through the portal, before she did more than see where her feet were going. Once she did look up, her mouth dropped. She was standing in a glass dome; the floor was yellowish rock. Outside the dome, everything looked oddly sharp.
Above her, filling half the sky, was an enormous moon. The moon was mostly blue and yellow, though there were some places where there was green and even a few white clouds.
On second thought, was that a moon? Where she was standing seemed far more moon-like than the planet above her. “Where are we?”
No one answered the question. Both Sillon and Ita were clearly as dumbstruck as Rissa felt, while Rissa could feel a little bit of joy coming from Blaze, who was clearly enjoying his companions’ reactions. Rissa knew that the stop was named Berinath, but she hadn’t expected anything like this. No one had ever told her she’d be traveling to a moon!
The place was desolate but remarkably beautiful until Rissa turned around.
On the other side of the portal, the glass ceiling stretched into the distance, but what caught the eye was the greenery everywhere. There were buildings, but the buildings were clearly grown in the sides of trees, while other plants clung to the sides of the same trees and created a riot of color. The predominant color was probably still green, but Rissa could see almost any other color she could think of somewhere in the mass of plant life ahead of her.
Oddly, the space between the trees was still rock. Everything seemed to grow on the trees themselves instead of growing out of the ground.
“Is this the first time you’ve been to a true dryad settlement?” A soft woman’s voice pulled Rissa’s attention off the greenery and over closer to the portal. The woman had deep green hair, but other than that she probably could have passed for human. “I’m one of the accredited guides; my rates are quite reasonable.”
“I’ve been here before,” Blaze interjected. “All we need is a guide to Harrow; we need to take the portal there. One Etherium should be enough.”
Travel off Earth was strange; it seemed like portals ought to be able to take you directly to wherever you were going (or at least the closest portal), but they didn’t. They each seemed to go to only a set number of other locations. It seemed dreadfully inconvenient, though Rissa had to admit that the travel so far was interesting.
The speed they’d had to move over the past few months to all the different dungeons and portal locations had turned the travel into drudgery instead of interesting exploration. Rissa wanted to go back someday when they had more time, but there were enough things to see that she might put a trip off planet ahead of a trip to the beauty spots of Earth.
The guide shook her head. “Not even close to enough. Five, but I will also guide you through the market here and at Harrow and show you to the safer inns. Where you will pay for my stay as well as yours.”
“We don’t need to see the markets and we can secure our own lodging. If I have to, I can lead them to Harrow; I’ve been there before,” Blaze countered. “Five is tourist prices.”
Rissa was surprised to feel a surge of joy from Blaze matching the enjoyment the guide felt. They were bargaining, and apparently they both liked it. It was definitely interesting, because Blaze looked like he was annoyed rather than having a good time.
The guide grinned. “Fine, four. If you’ve been here before, you know Harrow is in another dome, so you’ll need to do a dome crossing. There aren’t any direct portals; you’ll need to do a dome crossing or pay more than that in portal fees. No one wants to set up a dome crossing without a guide.”
Blaze shook his head. “That’s not the only option. I was planning to take the root network. If you really can arrange a dome crossing, I’ll go up to two Etherium to you, but you’ll have to do everything you outlined.”
“Three Etherium.” The guide sounded confident, like she expected her counteroffer to be accepted.
Blaze shook his head, still frowning. “Two. But we’ll not only cover your part of the dome crossing and inns, we’ll cover reasonable expenses while you’re with us. You’ll eat the same as we do and sleep at the same places.”
The guide frowned for a moment, then smiled again. “As long as you also cover my return trip. The same price as the trip out there.”
Blaze grinned and held out a hand. “And I’ll be saying if the price is acceptable.”
The guide shook his hand. “I’m Emira, call me Emi. There are four of you?”
Blaze nodded. “I’m Blaze; this is Rissa, Ita, and Sillon. Why don’t you start by talking about where we are?”
Emi chuckled. “As you should all know, you’re in Refuge. Legend says that Refuge is where all of Berinath started; to this day, the true dryads establish new domes and treehomes, expanding the settlements. Unlike other planets, Berinath is safe; the monsters that form in the void beyond the domes do not want to enter. Every five years, we host the Great Void Hunt, where the void monsters are culled and harvested…”
Berinath was simply amazing. The trees reminded Rissa of Serenity Settlement, though she knew it was probably closer to the other way around; the trees were what Serenity Settlement might someday become.
The market was everything a fantasy market should be, without all the things that were probably there in true history, but that no one wanted. It was situated on a set of grown-together branches that spread up where they were needed to form the various tables and booths; the leafy canopy above made the entire place green, with a welcoming feel that Rissa thought might come from the trees themselves rather than the people.
There were all sorts of fantastic artifacts from magic weapons to nifty magical toys as well as delicious-smelling food being sold, but the really amazing part was the people. About a third of the people selling or buying had green hair or other plantlike traits that made Rissa guess they were related to the dryads like their guide, but the remainder were an incredible mix. Most had more or less a human-shaped form, but a fair number of the people wandering the market weren’t; Rissa saw insect-people and some that looked even more like centaurs than the blue ones that invaded Denver. Their group of three humans, a Sterath, and a dryad wasn’t unusual for its variety; instead, the only thing notable about the group was that Rissa didn’t see any other Sterath.
The market itself was loud, with people calling out to the shoppers and people talking all around them, but it only added to the ambiance. Rissa found herself drawn to a small booth with no one else in line, where a woman was reading instead of watching out for customers. A wide range of little trinkets were laid out on the table in front of the woman, but none were labeled so Rissa wasn’t certain if they did anything or were simply pretty.
“Welcome, young woman. What are you looking for?” The salesperson set her book down and looked at Rissa with clear blue eyes that seemed to see a little more than they should. “Something to remind you of your loved ones?”
Suddenly, Rissa knew what she needed. Serenity had proposed to her and given her an engagement ring, but she hadn’t given anything back. “Something to remind him of me. A gift. Something durable.” A ring was traditional, but it didn’t seem like the right gift for Serenity. It wasn’t like she wore her ring on her finger, either; it was still on the cord around her neck.
“Hmm. Something durable, an interesting choice. Not something magical?”
Rissa shrugged slowly. “It doesn’t have to be. Magic isn’t the point, this is for memories. A promise.”
The woman nodded. “Any color preferences? Or style?”
“Uh.” Rissa hadn’t really thought about it. Still, some things were obvious; it would need to work with Serenity in both his human shape and his chimera shape. If it could also work as a dragon, that would be nice, but Rissa wasn’t confident that was possible. It did limit the colors she was willing to look at. “Something silvery for the metal. Gold or copper wouldn’t work. Probably jewelry?”
There were rings, earrings, bracelets, torcs, necklaces, ear cuffs … the list of options went on and on. Rissa suspected that the pouch the woman kept pulling things from was a bag of holding like her Tutorial backpack; there was no other way it would possibly all fit. Rissa didn’t quite understand why there were so many options that weren’t on the table; surely they should be in a store somewhere?
It took a while for Rissa to narrow it down to a very light silver-colored armband, meant to be worn on the upper arm. It was a simple design, a twist of metal with a leaf at either end of the twist. The saleslady said it wouldn’t tarnish; from its appearance and weight, Rissa thought it might be aluminum.
While she was still searching, Blaze stopped to watch. When she was about to pay, Blaze interrupted. “You’re going to take advantage of a poor young woman who misses her betrothed? Shame on you!”
Once again, Rissa could feel the joy in Blaze and the market-seller as they bargained. Blaze didn’t do nearly as well with the jewelry as he’d done with the guide; Rissa ended up paying two-thirds of the original asking price. It was still far less than she’d been willing to pay, so she wasn’t unhappy about it. It simply was a reminder that however much the market resembled ones she’d visited on Earth, it wasn’t quite like what she was used to.
On the other hand, she now had a proper engagement gift for Serenity. She couldn’t wait until she saw the look on his face when she presented him with jewelry to wear every day.
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