The Plan - Part 5

The sun was starting to drop below the tree line when they left the store. Right now they were heading to the grocers, and while there were likely to be more places to go after, it was likely that this would be the last stop for the day.

Heading over, Milly still with them, they entered and had a look around.

They got the same response as they did in the apothecary and general store, but with it being only a few people, none of them paid any attention to it.

It was nice to see all of the vegetables and fruit they had amassed from their farmland and the vibrant different colours they all showed, but it wasn't really appealing for a group that would be travelling soon. You couldn't easily prepare and use vegetables to make a hearty meal on the road. Sometimes there just wasn't time, or it was a matter of space in your bags. Either way, it wasn't something they would be buying.

They did grab a few smaller fruits though, similar to what Olivia had gathered before. When asking the shopkeeper, they learnt that they kept well, so decided to get a few for their provisions.

The only thing left was for Olivia to see if her slingshot idea could come true.

As she moved around the store, she found what was essentially an exotic food section. There were a good number of fruit and vegetables, as well as herbs and spices from the different regions.

Browsing through them all, she eventually came across the plant she was looking for. It was pretty simple, just being a green vine, so it didn't look like much. But once she grabbed a piece and pulled, she knew it was the thing for the job.

Like elastic, it stretched and grew taught as she pulled, getting harder and harder to continue pulling the more she did it. There were no tears or damage as she pulled which also bode well. Releasing it, it snapped back to how it was before, pinging across and hitting her other hand as it did so.

"Ouch!"

The girls got a good laugh from that.

Doing it a few more times but holding it and retracting the vine rather than letting go, it remained intact.

"I think this should do nicely."

The girls showed signs of confusion, not really knowing what purpose the vine would have, them seeing it as food over anything else. So, after quickly paying for it, and not finding anything else of interest, they headed out.

"With the hard part out of the way, now I just need to find a branch the right shape and get a small piece of leather."

But if anything, that would have to be left till tomorrow. It was starting to get dark and shops were closing up. There was also no way they could go searching for a specifically shaped stick with the light levels being this low. That and the tannery was completely shut as well, so the leather would also have to wait.

Oil lanterns along the paths were being lit by several different people. These though hardly gave off enough light to do anything. It seemed it was just done so you could just about see people around you and the path you were walking on.

The day was over, and they all needed to get some grub in them. So, the only place left to go was the Inn that Teagan had spoken of, the one closest to his residence.

As they walked, Milly quickly moved ahead and stood in front of them.

"Well, I think that's it for me today. I had a lot of fun with you lot and I hope you'll come see me tomorrow. I can also take you to see the Umbrea galloping about in their field as well. If you come just after lunch you should have plenty of time to see them."

Lyrika was very excited about that, so it was definitely in the plan for tomorrow. Hopefully, they could get the branch and the leather tomorrow morning and be done with it. Then it was just a case of heading over to the road Ameril would be travelling on and setting up camp.

Milly then walked over to Olivia and spoke so only she could hear.

"It was a lot of fun travelling with you. I hope you succeed in the "kidnapping"," she said while air quoting the word kidnapping, "and that it all goes ok. Also, let me know if the vine works like the elastic from your world and you can make your slingshot. You might be able to make some good money selling them in the future."

Once she had spoken, she turned around and waved goodbye to everyone, heading off towards the stable. At that, the girls turned and headed towards the recommended Inn and started to walk.

But then Olivia froze as she realised what Milly had said.

'Did she just say "elastic from your world". No, I must have misheard… or did she actually say that. How-'

Confusion flooded Olivia's brain as she tried to understand how Milly would know she came from another world. She turned back to where they just were, but like before when she tried looking for her, the girl was already gone.

'Does she know I'm from another world? Or did I hear her wrong? Did she use some sort of magic to find out? Who is she?'

Lyrika and Philly, both asked her what was wrong, but she passed it off that she was just thinking about something. Neither of them knew she was from another world, and it wasn't something she was going to just casually bring up now. She will probably tell them one day, but for now, they needed to get something to eat and get some sleep. Questions on how Milly knew she was from another world would have to wait till tomorrow. Who knows where the girl could be now?

…

After a good long walk through the village, they finally made it to the Inn that Teagan had spoken of. It was, as he stated and like many of the other places, made up of a few houses, rather than being just a large one. It was made of three houses to be exact, where the doors on the houses on either side of the middle one were blocked off. So, heading to the only way in, they then entered the building.

The first thing they were greeted with was the hustle and bustle of what looked to be the dining area. All around the room there were tables and chairs, almost all of them being occupied by someone. The majority were bull-kin but every now and then she saw some other species of beast-kin.

All of them were heartily eating their meal, and enjoying the evening, chatting with their friends, and gossiping about events of the day. A few were even playing some rudimentary dice game, consisting of several dice and a couple of cups.

She could also see, towards the left what was in effect a bar, along with a couple of barmen. Every now and then a waiter or waitress would enter and exit the room behind the bar, bringing out some lovely-smelling dishes or drinks, and taking away the empty ones.

It was a lovely scene and atmosphere. It truly was what she imagined an Inn looked like in a fantasy setting.

It's just a shame that her arrival put a sudden damper on the atmosphere as she gave one of the waitresses carrying several pints of alcohol a scare, causing her to drop the whole lot. The cups hit the floor, shattering into pieces, sending the alcohol spewing along the ground. The woman backed away, having had the scare of her life, and the commotion caused all the revelry to stop, which was followed by several dozen heads turning her way.

Olivia expected some form of response when she entered the building. This wasn't her first rodeo, and given all the previous arrivals into shops, she knew what to expect. This time though it was different. There was a large number of people staring at her, many of whom were drunk and not entirely in control of their emotions and faculties. A lot of them also have quite angry looks on their faces, possibly thinking she had scared the waitress or done something to her. It was quite a frightening sight and actually caused her to freeze up as she didn't know what to do.

Lyrika and Philly were obviously not oblivious to this, but most of the looks were towards Olivia. They could see a few looks from very drunk men that were aimed at themselves, but they just ignored them. As Lyrika looked up at Olivia, she could see the impact that it all had on her. No one would want to be the centre of attention for a massive number of drunk and angry men.

Just standing in the doorway wasn't going to help with anything, so they slowly walked into the Inn and headed towards the bar, Lyrika taking Olivia's hand as she did to pull her along as she was still frozen as she was trying to deal with it all. Once they reached the bar, one of the barmen, walked over and spoke to them.

"Yes, what can I do for you?"

"We would like a couple of rooms for the night as well as dinner." Lyrika quickly said, as Olivia wasn't completely with it yet.

"I take it that…that thing is joining you as well." the man said pointing at Olivia.

"I think you mean, her, rather than, that. And yes she will," Lyirka said with a frown.

"Ah, sorry. I couldn't tell whether it was male or female just from looking at it." he said chuckling to himself. A few others around the room laughed a little as well. This all just deepened the frown on Lyrika face and cause one to appear on Philly as even she got a little annoyed at someone insulting her research subject.

"Just a bit of bad humour to lighten the mood. Now I'm sure you can see the looks she's getting and don't get me wrong, we all heard about the commotion and the Orc in our village, it's just seeing one is very different to hearing about one. Everyone knows what Orcs are like, so it's a little hard to believe you have a tamed one. Besides, even tamed beasts can fight back against their owner, which is why everyone's weary," the man said as he nonchalantly cleaned the cup he was holding.

Anger flared up on Lyrika's face at how insulting this man was. But before she could explode, his words managed to break Olivia out of her stupor.