Chapter 117 - An Ocean View Paradise

We passed through the colorful and vibrant town, eventually finding an inn. Eira and I went inside, and we were excitedly greeted by a young Orcish woman. She had bright greenish hair, swept into a trimmed stripe, with tassels of braided hair hanging to one side, decorated with shining glass beads.

I didn't know a lot about Orcish culture, but it looked pretty!

"Greetings, travelers! Welcome to the Ocean Scryer! Where the views cannot be beat, and the food is always a treat!" She said, grinning at her own rhyme.

"Hello, I have a reservation. Name of Eira Marchesi." Eira said with a huge smile on her face, her eyes turned towards me.

I nearly choked and blushed brightly.

"Ah yes! The honeymoon suite, with the ocean view! Congratulations to you both!" She said, before waving over two attendants who took our bags from us.

She briskly led us up some stairs, handed Eira a set of keys, and bowed. "Please enjoy your stay! If you need anything, please reach out to me; my name is Crilsha, and I'm always ready to help you. And congratulations again!"

She shut the door behind us, and we were all alone once again.

"Eira Marchesi, eh?" I smirked at her with a gentle nudge to her ribs.

"I wanted to splurge a bit, after that reward from the dryad garbage, and the honeymoon suite is the nicest you can get. Best view of the ocean too. You ever seen the ocean?" Eira asked me, words spilling from her mouth in an adorably flustered torrent.

"No, I can't say I really ever had. Maybe?" I said, as Eira guided me to the nearby balcony. She opened the shutter doors with a bit of playful flourish.

"Behold then, my beloved. The Swordwind sea in all its finest glory!"

And behold, I did.

It was an endless expanse of sapphire beauty, twinkling under the sunlight, its waves shimmering like some kind of long-lost fairy tale magic. I couldn't help but gasp at the sight. From the balcony, it felt like I was flying over some kind of azure wonder.

I took a deep breath, as the wind blew the fresh salty air into my face. I felt invigorated, the exhaustion of the last few days floating away on a cleansing breeze.

"Gods above and below, Eira, it's gorgeous!" I turned towards her, threw my arms around her, and gave her a big kiss, which turned more passionate. At some point, Eira had dipped me in her arms, and for that fleeting moment, I felt like one of those princesses in my smut novels, and it was awesome. Really awesome.

We released each other from the lock our lips had on each other.

"Now normally, I would happily strip you here and now and claim you as my 'bride,' but we both stink from drinking and traveling, and that is a bit of a turn off, my beloved." Eira smiled at me.

"Alas, tis true. Does this place have its own bath?" I asked.

"It does. Complete with all the alchemical potions we could want. For sore muscles, headaches, and everything else." She said, lifting me back to my feet.

"Is it big enough for two?" I waggled my eyebrows at her.

"Only one way to find out!" She giggled and dragged me to the attached room.

We probably had soaked for an hour at least, me resting in Eira's lap, letting her massage my scalp and wash my hair. Then we traded places. Despite how nice it felt, the hunger from earlier came back with a vengeance, and the rations we crammed down ourselves during our packing frenzy were no longer enough.

We were out of the bath and toweling off, which happened to involve a few more kisses mixed in there.

"We really should eat before we pass out. Passing out would not be good." I mentioned offhandedly.

"Oooh, yes, we should. Hmm...Have you ever had fried rice?" Eira asked me.

"I understood those words but not in that order." It had been a long time since I had rice, as it was fairly exotic in both Burgotova and Revenstahd. "You have rice in Hastera."

"We do. We don't export it often, as a lot of the other Mortal Kingdoms don't have quite the taste for it. We should get some. It's delicious and filling." She explained as she helped me dry my hair.

"Sounds good to me, as long as I can get a lot of it." I laughed as she tickled my neck with another kiss.

"Oh, you definitely can. I know the perfect place, if it's still there. Oh, I do have a bit of a warning. There are more people here than are considered legally Mortals. Some people get shocked, but I wanted you to be prepared. Hastera has its own protection laws on top of what the Alliance has." She said, looking at me seriously.

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I thought about it for a moment and shrugged.

"Fine by me. Unless they attack us, I don't care if someone is legally Mortal or Monster." I said as I headed into our room, picking an outfit from the clothes I'd brought with me. A white sundress? Yes, I think that would be perfect. I debated wearing underclothes, but decided today was not a day for being daring, even if it was to tantalize Eira even more.

I then looked at the scar on my shoulder. It had healed up well enough, but it still looked awful. A blemish where once was smooth, soft skin. I decided to wear a top under the sundress. Layered looks were fun. It wasn't too warm yet. Probably.

I pushed the thoughts out of my mind, as Eira was continuing our conversation.

"Oh good. I was sure you'd be fine, but I worry. Some folks in Revenstahd were really pieces of work about that." She breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled the dress over myself.

"I totally get it. I think if you had asked me a year or more ago, I probably would've been aghast, but...a lot has happened, and I'm working to get past all that stuff. How do I look?" I said as I twirled, the dress flowing around me.

"Absolutely lovely! I feel like I'm going to be underdressed! I only brought trousers and blouses." She smiled.

"Works for me! You look absolutely ridiculously fetching like that." I reached to pull Eira into an embrace, but she held up her hands with a laugh.

"I'm still a bit damp. Let me get dressed first, my darling!"

"Oh very well!" I pouted and flopped onto the bed. Which was really comfortable. Really, really comfortable. Oh, this was going to be a nightmare to pry myself out of in the morning.

I rolled over and watched as Eira dressed in her cloth trousers and a loose short-sleeved blouse that made her look a bit like a pirate queen, but I kept that thought to myself. No doubt that would be a mistake of a compliment.

Gods above and below, I was smitten with this woman. Pirate family or not, I didn't give a damn. The thought of spending forever with her seemed right.

Thoughts for another day. Let's just pretend to be newlyweds, and see how it went. Before I made the move, my brain was starting to consider more and more seriously.

Eira turned and said authoritatively, "Now, let's get out of here and feed our faces!"

"Thank you! My stomach is about to eat itself! I would be delicious probably, but let's not risk it!" I laughed, popping myself up off the bed.

And then arm in arm, we left our room, locking it behind us.

It was a short walk, a fact my sandaled feet were grateful for. When you wear boots made for hard walking and battle all the time, your feet get used to it, and have no idea what to do when they're finally comfortable.

As we entered the restaurant Eira had told me about, I looked around. It was a small place, very cozy. And the smell was amazing. It was accented by the sizzling behind a counter.

"Welcome! Have a seat, I'll be with you in a moment." The chef said cheerfully, and Eira led us to sit at the bar in front of them. The place was empty, which I was grateful for. I needed a break from people for a bit.

Something caught my eye, and I finally took in the sight of the chef. I looked at the chef for a long moment, trying to comprehend what I was seeing. I blinked. Once. Twice. Rubbed my eyes.

Yep, eyes worked.

Frying the rice was what was vaguely in the shape of a man, but with a pink carapace, multiple hands, dark eyes, and antennae.

It looked like something I had once had at a fancy dinner party, seafood from Tarkota. I was looking at a person-sized shrimp. There was a god-damned shrimp frying rice, right in front of me, all the heavens and hells as my witness.

I know I swore I would be fine, and not be shocked by what I saw, but this was pushing that promise to the limits.

Eira seemed to sense my emotional confusion, turned towards me, and mouthed the words "Don't make it weird." at me.

I closed my eyes, took a breath, and the delicious smell convinced me to completely shelve my concerns.

"What can I get you, ladies?" The tall shrimp man asked us.

"Two vegetable fried rice, please! With the brown sauce on top!" Eira answered for us, enthusiastically. I decided to trust her judgement. Thankfully, I liked vegetables.

"Lucky thing! Just made some up. Heard you'd be in town, Eira, so I got ready once I heard you were heading this way." The shrimp laughed.

"I'm honored you still remember me, Scrawl! Always a gentleman good with faces!" Eira beamed at him.

"Of course! And who is this lovely lady here, hmm?" He turned his head to me, mandibles clicking.

"This, my dear fellow, is a lady I'm bringing to meet the family," Eira said proudly.

"Ah, I see, I see. So you're finally going through with it, huh? Officially leaving the family behind? At least you'll have a lovely companion to do it with." They chuckled in what almost sounded like laughter.

"Yeah. I'm ready to face that I'm never getting into the business." She shrugged nonchalantly. Eira almost seemed like a different person, much more casual and outgoing.

"It's for the best. You never seemed suited for it. Well, here you go. I boxed it up for you, so you can eat it at that inn of yours. Tide has been coming in lately." He said, his tone lowering.

Eira's eyes widened, but she kept her tone even. "Hey, thanks, friend. Means the world and ocean to me."

She took the containers he handed her, little lacquered wooden boxes with lovely decorations on them, of some kind of sea creatures and flowers I had never seen before. I sort of hoped we could keep them.

She scooted me out of the restaurant quickly. I had picked up enough to realize what they were subtly talking about, and it was confirmed by Eira's nervous looking around as we made a direct line back to the inn.

But before we did so, she pulled me off down a side alley.

"Eira, where are we going?" I asked, not particularly enjoying the pace or sudden direction changes.

"Sorry, sweet, but I don't want to take an exact route to the inn, just in case. I didn't see any of the Tide, but I don't want to risk it." She said, looking behind us.

The Tide Inquisitors had her really shaken. I didn't blame her for a moment, but I needed to get her mind off the panic.

"Eira, please..could you....Eira, stop for just a second, gods dammit!" I said, pulling my arm free.

Eira looked shocked at my protest, but then looked embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just rattled. I feel really on edge with the last couple of days, and finding out the Tide is here is not helping anything."

It was hard seeing her so nervous. She was nervous before, of course, but I wondered if she felt trapped so close to the center of all of this. I held her close.

"Let's just go back to the room, eat this delicious food, and just take a nap. We've got a few days; they're not looking for us in particular, or they would've nabbed us in the caravan. Tomorrow, we go shopping! How's that sound." I rubbed her back as I spoke.

"Yeah...Yeah, that sounds good. I can take you swimsuit shopping tomorrow."

"That sounds absolutely lovely. Now let's get going." I got up on my tiptoes and gave her a big smooch right on the lips. She gasped as I released her.

"Um, thank you?" She said, a blush spreading on her face.

"So if anyone sees us coming out of the alley, you look properly flustered. Clearly just a married couple out on the town, right?" I winked at her, took her hand, and took the lead to the inn.