I know it shouldn’t but my emotions stirs slightly as the prospect of a warm shower is mentioned.
“The one room is fine, thank you Toby.” Levi replies, he must have learnt his name before.
Whilst they sort out things like room keys and food to be brought up I turn to examine the small pub. Anything to keep my mind away from what just happened at least for the moment. Its cosy and not as small as it looks from the outside and extends quite far back. The floor is made of big flagstones and wooden tables fill the middle of the room as cushioned lined booths line the outside and provide a comfier seat. The lighting is dim and a mixture of traditional candle light and magic floating orbs that hang in the air near the beams. The bar stretches the entire length of the room with doors behind it leading to I’m guessing kitchens. My stomach turns uneasily at the thought of food, I’m not sure I could eat after what we’ve just witnessed.
The warmth of the two large fireplaces at either end of the room chases away the cold night air and makes me realise just how cold I actually am. There are a few patrons still propping up the bar either too lost in their own thoughts or too drunk to care about us, either way I’m grateful. The door enters in the middle of the room and by the fireplace on the far left hand wall is a set of wooden stairs.
“Absolutely sir. I’ll bring all of this up to you as soon as its ready.” Toby replies. “Your room is up the stairs the third door on the left. Forgive me for not showing you but it would be a mistake to leave these three alone for even a second. Last time they nearly drank me fucking dry.” He exclaims sounding amused despite the accusations.
“No worries mate.” Kysen replies. His Britishisms throw me every nowand then but I really do love it. “Do you need a hand to bring up the food?”
“No thank you Sir. My brother should be back by then he’ll be happy to help. Besides it’s almost time to turf them out and send them home anyway.”
Kysen grins and Levi thanks him as we all make our way up the small staircase. The size doesn’t bode well for the size of the room and I imagine we all might be a bit squashed tonight but I don’t care I would much rather be in here than out camping somewhere. I know we’re going to have to leave and camp again tomorrow and I will deal with it then but for tonight I just can’t.
“Here it is.” Levi says quietly in the hall as he place the key in the lock and opens the door.
“I sort of expected some sort of magical lock.” Jax says absently.
“Some places use magic but it’s expensive to have the magic imbued technology in order to make it work properly so most place stick to the traditional way.” Kysen explains.
“Whoa, I didn’t expect that.” Kai exclaims as we get a good look at the room, Hunter shutting and locking the door securely behind us.
The room is surprisingly spacious and has three queen beds around the room with enough space that it doesn’t feel cramped. The carpet is plush beneath my feet and I feel bad for wearing my muddy boots on it. Everything is clean and it honestly brings tears to my eyes which I feel utterly ridiculous for. The last few days have been a damn rollercoaster and I think it’s just all caught up to me. I spot our bags by the door and raise my eyebrow.
“Magic.” Kysen mutters tiredly.
“I don’t even have the energy to voice all of the questions swimming around my brain right now.” Mav mutters and I smile.
“Ok, everyone clean up and change. Once everyone is clean and we’ve eaten we can discuss what’s just happened. Everything that Monty said and read the letter from Nyx. Sage gets first shower.” Levi orders. I start to open my mouth to protest but promptly shut it when I get ‘don’t even try it’ looks from all of them including Kysen.
I smile.
“Thank you, guys. I’ll be quick.” I say grabbing my bag.
“Take your time Little Star, we all know how much you want one.” Jax says, kissing my forehead as I get near him.
“Toby said that the food would take a while anyway since there’s so many of us.” Hunter says.
I nod not bothering to argue but silently vowing to make it quick despite how much I want to soak. Just like the room, I’m pleasantly surprised when I open the bathroom door and step in closing it behind me. The room is spacious enough that it feels luxurious but not so big that it feels cold. That’s probably helped by the roaring fire at the opposite end of the room, next to a large bath sunk into the floor. I desperatelywant to soak in there but I will not be selfish when I know the others will be wanting showers as badly as I do. I will be soaking in there before we leave this place though. There’s no way that I will pass up the opportunity to soak in that especially since I have no idea when a similar opportunity will present itself.
Fortunately I am sparred from temptation when I realise that there is also a stone built shower. I don’t know how I missed it it’s that big. I think it’s a shower anyway there doesn’t seem to be any shower heads but Kysen did say that bathing here is different than I’m used to and uses magic. I rummage around in my bag and pull out my pyjamas which I very optimistically packed in our haste back at the Earth realm academy.
That reminds me, the Demon realm academy is called Blood Moon, the Fae realm one called Black Onyx but I have only ever heard the Earth realm one referred to as the Earth realm academy and it makes me wonder why.
I strip down to my underwear and approach the stone block there’s a door on the front and inside the dark veined with silver and gold stone forms a seat at the back. It’s a large space so doesn’t feel like it’s closing in on you but its not so large that it feels cold. I search the stones on the outside for any sort of button but I can’t find one. I step into the shower to search the back wall for any sort of, well anything that can turn the shower on. The longer it takes me sort out how to turn the damn thing on, the less time I actually have in the shower.
I squeak as water suddenly soaks me and stumble back out wiping water from my eyes. As soon as I’m clear of the shower the water stops again.
“Cool.” I mutter excitedly.
I strip off my underwear quickly and step into the spray of the water.
The water falls from the entire space of the stone ceiling and it smells sweet, like lavender and vanilla one of my favourite smells. I wonder if its the magic that makes it smell like that? I’ll ask one of the others what their shower smells like. It feels like heaven after so long bathing in rivers. The only thing that would make it better would be if I had some sort of shampoo so I can wash my hair properly. It wasn’t something I had thought to bring when we packed in a hurry. I sort of assumed that wherever we were going to end up would have some.
At least I’ll know for next time.
A bottle appears on the little bench seat and I’m guessing that the magic somehow heard me and that its shampoo. At least I hope it is. I’m too drained to try and work out exactly how the magic heard me or anything right now. I know that as soon as everyone is done with their showers and eating we are going to be trying to work out what the hell just happened.
