Chapter 110 - Kebabs and Starlight

Apparently, as I soon learned, a kebab was a skewer with the wyvern meat mixed with some vegetables. Apparently it was a Kildjani food that was massively popular there, but had begun spreading. Other Revenstahd natives seemed a bit cautious about it, much as I was, but the folks from other regions of the Mortal Kingdoms were eating them with great enthusiasm.

As no one seemed to be getting sick, I dug in.

If any of the heavens above or below could exist in the form of a meat skewer, it would likely taste exactly like this. I went back for seconds and thirds. Thankfully, the wyverns had been plentiful, from what I gathered from conversations I had eavesdropped on.

At some point, someone had broken out instruments, and folks started to dance. The whole thing felt more like a festival than a travelling caravan, but I wasn't going to complain. Eira and I danced and sang, badly on my part but lovely on hers, until we were sweaty and exhausted in the warm summer night.

As people started heading to the carriages at the end of the night, Eira and I climbed onto ours, making sure to stay on our half of the large conveyance.

We lay there, quietly, just staring up at the stars in a blissful silence, just enjoying each other's company.

"Hells of a first day of vacation, huh?" Eira said, breaking the soft quiet.

"Yeah. Not what I expected, but not that bad, I guess. Interrupted make-outs and monster attacks aside." I laughed.

"You ever seen the stars like this? Without the lights of the town?" She sighed wistfully as she stared at the glowing lights in the heavens above.

"Can't say I have. I didn't really care about the stars when I still lived in Burgotova, and well Revenstahd always has lights on for one reason or another."

"And you had way too much on your mind when we were travelling to that wedding." Eira propped herself up on an elbow and looked at me.

I copied her motion so I could look her in the eyes.

"True enough, I suppose. Besides, I had you to look at, and the stars just can't compete."

"Oh, stop it, you." She giggled and sat up. I could almost see her blush in the dark.

She sat quietly for a bit. Before taking a deep breath. "Thank you for agreeing to come with me. This is kind of important to me, and I wanted you with me for it."

I was confused. "I thought this was just a nice little getaway, that also involved me meeting your parents and family."

"It is. Amongst a few other things." She said, her tone full of hesitation and an uncharacteristic nervousness.

"Ok, Eira, I know I'm not one to talk about communicating, especially after that whole dryad conspiracy ptarm-shit debacle, but please tell me what is going on? I don't want us to get blindsided by something, and have it affect our relationship. Let's just get it out in the open, yeah?"

She stared up into the sky for a long moment, took a deep breath.

"Ok. I can't say everything right now, but my family is very unusual, and there are some traditions tied to the family business that I need to address. Part of the reason I've been travelling is that I haven't wanted to deal with them because I was scared of what would happen." She said in a torrent of words.

"What do you need to do?" I pressed.

"I need to formally ask to be released from the family business and everything that means. I also want my parents' blessing to continue a relationship with you. That part is more of a Hasteran thing, but it means a lot to me." She slumped a bit and looked away from me, as if she was afraid of my reaction.

I was still very confused by all this, but I would be supportive no matter what! I was determined!

"So, what if they say no?" I ask, just cutting straight to the uncomfortable question.

"Well, in Hasteran tradition, we might have to fight my mother to first blood." She winced a bit as she said it.

"Ah. A duel. That...that makes sense, I guess. And by we do you mean, you and I or is this a royal 'we'? I don't mind either way. I want to be with you, even if I have to kick your mom's arse." I asked.

"Well, technically you'd have to fight my mom. I'd have to fight my dad. Originally, the bride fought the mom, the groom fought the dad, but since we're both women it gets weird, so in Hasteran tradition, whoever is older counts as the groom, or whoever is from another country counts as the bride; it's a whole mess." She rattled off.

"Oh, so I'm the bride, am I? And we're getting married, hmm?" I said playfully, cocking an eyebrow at her with a smirk plastered on my face.

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Eira coughed suddenly, and sputtered a bit. "I mean, we're going to be living together, and I don't have any plans on breaking up or anything, so in a weird roundabout way, we kind of are, but kind of aren't, and I'm screwing this up royally, aren't I?" She deflated and buried her face in her hands with a piteous sound.

Gods above and below, still my heart. I was trying to play it off cool, but the idea she thought of me in that way, to that level, had my heart all aflutter.

I took her into my arms, and she buried her face into my chest. I softly petted her silky midnight black hair, and I shushed her softly.

"We can worry about engagements and all that some time. But as far as your family is concerned, we're a pair, and I'll defend that even if they say no. We can worry about the rest when we get to it. Besides, we're still in school. We've both got a year left, and after that we can worry about the rest of our lives." I said, trying to keep myself as calm as possible.

She sniffed a bit and sat up, smiling. "Thanks. I really mean it. I do truly love you, Alta Marchesi."

"And I really truly love you, Eira Medwin." I kissed her under that quiet moonlight, just us, and the sky as our witness.

As our lips parted, a twinkle in the sky caught my eye. That little red star seemed a little brighter tonight. I smiled as I imagined it cheering us on, as our relationship deepened.

We eventually climbed down and got into our carriage, as we definitely didn't want to sleep through breakfast. The two-seat benches in the carriage, it turns out, could fold out and turn into a bed. Of sorts. We lay down, and it was comfortable enough to sleep, but the idea of trying anything more, let's say, athletic seemed absolutely out of the question. So we just decided to sleep.

I dreamed, but they were things of little consequence, which was nice. A night without my own personal terrors, or frightening memories, was a nice change of pace.

I awoke to a sudden pain in my abdomen, like someone had stabbed me from the inside. My groans of pain woke Eira, who bolted straight up in a confused mess of hair.

"Bwuh, who what why when, what's going on?" She mumbled, her words slurring together.

At first I worried that something had been wrong with the wyvern meat, or something, and my body had waited till morning to let me know in the most painful way I could imagine.

It then suddenly occurred to me I had been forgetting something decidedly important. With the chaos of the last few weeks, I had forgotten to take some of 'the female adventurer's best friend.' It had been a while since I had been without it, and I had forgotten how painful that particular body function was.

"I forgot to take the monthly potion. Gods above and below fuck themselves sideways, I forgot how much this hurts." I groaned.

"Don't worry! I'll get it out." Eira said, scrambling free of blankets and sheets, and riffling through her bags.

She eventually pulled out a bottle, marked with pink flowers in the most irritating way to decorate a product I had ever seen. I gratefully took it, and took a very long swig of the foul-tasting medicine.

It tasted like rose flowers mixed with death itself, but it was better than the alternative. I liked being a woman, but there were certain drawbacks.

This was a little curse the male members of the adventuring and dungeoneering community never really had to deal with, and for that I wished them an eternal kick in the scrotum.

Years and years ago, female adventurers discovered that a blood-staunching potion could work at handling the bleeding that all women struggle with at least once a month. Dealing with that deep in a dungeon, or lost in a wilderness full of monsters, was a nightmare, so it was a relief. It had the delightful effect of stopping the accompanying pain as well.

There were two kinds of the potion. A weak dose that would help during the event itself, and a stronger, once-a-month dosage that did its work for a long time. I typically used the monthly dosage, as I obviously am a bit forgetful, and I didn't want to deal with the whole 'oh no, my monthly cycle is happening, better drink the stuff' nonsense.

Sure, it had the side effect of possibly making me sterile, but my siblings could deal with the 'spreading the bloodline' ptarm-shit. Alta Alba Marchesi didn't need any little elves running about.

I sighed as the medicine had begun to work, a wave of relief spreading across my body.

"Remind me to make some kind of note in the calendar to take my potion at the first of the month no matter what." I pleaded with Eira.

"Don't forget to make a note in your calendar to take your potion at the first of the month no matter what," Eira said with a little smirk.

"Oh piss off." I shook my head with a laugh. "Now c'mon, I want to get the taste of that blessed garbage out of my mouth."

"Fix your hair first, my darling one. You look an absolute fright." Eira said, reaching out to smooth my hair.

"You're one to talk!" I giggled, pointing at her own hair.

Soon enough, we were presentable enough, and we made our way outside to get breakfast. In a sad contrast to the meal from the night before, it was warm gruel and bread, which smelled and tasted fine enough, with possibly the most limpid coffee I had ever had.

"What the hells is this?" I scoffed as I drank the stuff.

"Sorry, miss. Our good coffee got hijacked at some point in the night. And some of the other food." A Scarlet Aegis guard said from a nearby seat. He was a scruffy-looking sort, with a patchy beard covering up scars from who knows what.

"Hijacked?" Eira looked confused at the statement. "Someone got past the crystal rods, and all you guards?"

"Aye, though it pisses me right off to admit it. Rods only stop monsters, and even then only the big nasties. And there's only so many guards. We Scarlet Aegis are good, but we ain't gods by any stretch, ya get me?" He grumbled as he tore a chunk out of the bread.

"But who would steal just coffee? And if the coffee is gone, what is this?" I asked, taking another sip and sticking my tongue out at the bitterness. Why did I think a second taste would go better?

"Don't rightly know, miss. This entire trip has been mighty strange. I don't care much for it. Thankfully we'll hit the border today, and be in Porthynys Harbor a few days after that. As for what this is, it's still technically coffee, but it's from the emergency rations.

"Oi! Reinhaft, get off your arse and get back to duty! We don't pay you to chinwag with the passengers, you layabout!" A woman's voice barked at him from atop a Ptarm.

"Have a good rest of your trip, ladies." He said, putting his helm back on and standing from the little table.

I sighed.

"Can't we have just one day where everything goes completely normal? I'm so tired of this!" I groaned and put my head on the table.

"Don't worry, love. We'll survive. What's a few days without decent coffee, anyway?" Eira rubbed my back reassuringly.

"A fate worse than death. No question." I groaned again.

"Now stop that sulking. Now, we've got probably an hour before we set off. Time to start training." Eira's voice was far too bright for such a proclamation.

"Goody." I sighed.