The headache that Davin woke with was what he would compare to the time he'd ever tried drinking for real. He felt nauseous, his head felt like he had gotten hit with a bat, and the sensation in his mouth was that of having eaten sand. It was one of the worst hangovers of his adult life, and based on the groaning from the bed opposite his, he wasn't alone in his suffering.

"Hugh? You awake?" Davin croaked out, his vocal cords reminding him of the sand that he had eaten.

"Yeah… And can you stop yelling?" The rough voice was barely above a whisper.

"How much did we have to drink?" Davin asked, lowering his voice to just above a whisper.

"All of it…" The long groan of pain that came out of Hugh was pitiful.

"How? I don’t even remember getting up from our table. When did we get more drinks?" Davin let out a groan of his own.

"Ezeirk…. She knew we both liked it so much and she would keep sending someone to grab our cups…"

"How do you know that?"

"Leaf, they saw everything, and since I had them in their holder, they couldn’t do anything to stop her."

"How though?" Looking around the room for the book in question.

"I seemed to have let them out before we made it to bed… They have been telling me all about the excessive drinking that we have done since I sobered up enough for them to communicate with me…." A ruffle of pages came from the direction of Hugh's voice.

"So much for our early start…" Davin groaned again as he thought about when they had planned on setting out.

"That’s the best part, it's still only five-thirty in the morning." Letting out a long sigh.

"It's only five-thirty?" Groaning as he sat up, his head swimming. "We need some water, bacon, some kind of strong tea or some other stimulants, and a cold bath."

"That all sounds awful."

"Yeah, but that's the best cure for a hangover that I know."

"Why the bacon?" Making a choking sound.

"For the fats and salt, help replenish the electrolytes we've lost as well as start triggering our system to start recovering."

"Electro whats?

"Salts and such in our bloodstream, helps us hold water better."

"How the hell do you know this?" Sitting up and casting a light that started fading into existence.

"The same way you have knowledge of magic and such, just one of those weird things I brought from home with me."

Shrugging in the low light as he stood up. "Cold bath? Let me go first, I need the wake-up." Staggering to the bathroom at the opposite end of the room.

"Sounds good to me, I'll get us some drinking water and find out what there is for the other things on my list from downstairs."

With that, Davin pulled himself to his feet, stretching letting out another long groan as he looked himself over, he'd at least had the forethought to remove his boots, socks on the other hand were half off dangling from his feet. Scoffing at the sight, he pulled them back up, pulled on his boots, and headed to the door. The light in the hall felt like a hammer to the face, sending a spike of pain through his brain that would have left a hole big enough for a basketball if it was real. Reeling in pain as he covered his eyes, holding his free hand to the wall and guiding himself down it. He almost fell down the stairs when he found them, his first steps falling loudly on them. He took each following step carefully, making sure that his footing was solid before moving further down the stairs. The sounds then found him, the conversations, the clanking of glassware, it all sent more pangs of pain through his skull. He worked his way through the bustling common room, still covering his eyes, trying to block as much of the light and sound as he could.

"Well look what the cat dragged in, you look like you'd pick death over a loud noise." The gruff feminine voice rang out.

"Is death on the menu?" Davin asked.

"Not today, but I can get you something for that head if you want."

"Cooked bacon, eggs, cheese, all piled on some toasted and buttered slices of bread, two of them, some fried potatoes, a strong dark tea, and a pitcher of water."

The bartender stopped in the middle of pulling out glasses to pour new drinks. "That’s a lot for a hangover, Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Sharing with my partner, so it won't all be me." Shrugging as his eyes finally adjusted to the amount of light in the room around him.

"Will be a few, but why all between the slices of toasted bread?" The barkeeper asked.

"So they're easier to hold." Davin pantomimed holding a sandwich.

The barkeeper shrugged, jotted the order down, and took it back to the kitchen. "Will be a bit," she yelled back to Davin.

"I'm in no rush, but if I could get that cup of tea and pitcher of water started?"

"Have them right here." Bringing back with them a kettle and a pitcher, setting them both in front of Davin before handing him the pair of glasses and a small jar of tea leaves.

"Any chance there is also some ice on hand?" He asked timidly.

"I can get you a chunk, need anything for the tea?"

"Nah, I'll take it straight, I need the kick."

Davin sat and steeped his tea, making it as strong as he could before the chunk of ice was brought out, pouring his hot tea over the ice made it his and crack, repeating this till he'd filled the bowl and melted the ice. He sipped the tea slowly, the leaves older and a little more on the bitter side, but still had the kick of caffeine that he was hoping for. He drank his tea, the bitter flavors waking up his senses, giving him a small kick to get his addled mind moving. The whole event was nostalgic, reminding him of some of the days when he was younger and had spent the night drinking and gaming with friends, it made him think about some of the pranks that they'd play on one another, and that made him a little more worried than he had been. The first thing Davin did was pull out his token bag, he knew he didn't have a lot to spare, and giving up too many to a night of drinking was going to make any last-minute things a pain. Counting the assorted tokens in his small pouch seemed to balance what he last remembered that there should be in there.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Shit, she must have hit up Hugh for everything." Whispering the statement out loud to no one in particular.

"Who did what?" The barkeep asked as he set down the plates of food in front of Davin.

"Ezeirk, I'm pretty sure she got my friend just drunk enough so that he would keep buying for us.

What felt like a flame sparked in the bartender's eye. "She was charging?"

"Hmmm? Yeah, and you had to bring your own cup." Davin took a bite of the fresh hot sandwich that sat before him.

"That scaly scalper, she'd said that it was a gift for the bride and groom." Thudding his fist on the counter.

Shrugging as he took a few bites of the fried potatoes. "Eh, not really worth getting upset about, she was doing it for a single jade, and she didn’t seem to charge based on glass size, basically covered the tip for service, speaking of… what do I owe you for the food?"

With that, the anger of the barkeeper just about vanished, coming back to his senses. "It's part of your room, heck, if that's all you're going to eat, I'm even saving money, what do you call that thing anyway?"

"This? It's just a breakfast sandwich, figured bread was easier to ask for rather than trying to get a burrito." Davin took another bite of the sandwich letting out a small moan of pleasure as he noticed that his head had stopped hurting.

"Do you mind if I add it to the menu?" He asked timidly.

"Go for it." He put the second half of the potatoes onto the plate with the second sandwich and grabbed the kettle and a glass. "Can I take this to my room?"

"Yup, there is a box by the door in your room that you can put them in."

With that, he dropped a jade on the counter and then made his way back up the stairs. Opening the door was difficult with how full his hands were, the smell of booze hit him, making him wretch slightly as it overwhelmed his nose.

"Hugh? You out of the bath? I brought breakfast." Setting the food down on the small table.

"Yeah, and the water is fresh, so your turn." The mage rolled from the bed, the low light of the room hid him amongst the bedcovers, staggering to the table he sat down with a heavy thump.

"Thanks, so once we pull ourselves together we hit the road? Also, have you checked your tokens?" Davion asked as he headed into the bathroom.

"My tokens? Why would I need… to… Dammit! Did she rob me blind?" The following crash and slew of profanity that filled the room was a clear mark on what befell the token pouch. "Three rhodes that scaly thief!"

"Three rhodes? That’s what? Like thirty jade?" The wave of disgust that Davin had in himself about drinking that much.

"Just about, it was the few tokens that I had on me, makes me glad that I stashed the rest in the trunk, but damn, I really hope we didn’t drink that much."

"Agreed, and will the trunk be safe?" Davin asked thinking about the small stagging room that all of their other belongings were in.

"Yeah, there is a reason that I had you put your stuff in, that’s what's used as the lock's key, can only open it if you put things in it, it's pretty handy."

"That sounds expensive."

"They would be, this one is on loan from the scribes, so let's not break it anytime soon."

"Handy, and that’s fair, I doubt I'd have a reason to break one."

"Let's hope not."

Davin stiped off his clothes and climbed into the cold tub, quickly submerging himself to get it over with, practically jumping out after his head broke the surface. Now shivering, he was likely as awake as he'd ever be, but his head was far clearer than it was before. He brushed his teeth, put on some fresh clothes, and readied himself for the walk ahead of him. When he reopened the door, the lights were all on and Hugh was finishing the last few pieces of fried potato.

"That was amazing, is that how you eat every time you drink?" Hugh chuckled as he licked his fingers clean.

"The breakfast sandwich? Nah, they were one of my favorite go-to breakfasts back home."

Nodding in approval. "I can see why, that was fantastic, I almost wish that I had another one."

"Maybe later, I only packed bacon, didn't think that bread would hold up well on the road."

"I guess that’s a good point, but that kind of has me excited for what you make on the road."

"Me too actually, never really tried to make road food, usually when going camping, we packed it all, so foraging wasn't a need, and we have some rations just in case."

Hugh shrugged. "And we can always make our way to another settlement, they're closer together the closer that you are to the edge."

"For the city?"

"Basically, but that’s also where most of the rivers are."

Davin nodded and shrugged in response.

"Speaking of, which way should we head?"

"Oh, yeah." With that Davin headed over to his backpack and pulled out the log and opened it, looking for any new notes.

First entry:

Oh, this is rather interesting, I got the idea from one of the terms that was floating around your mind, not quite a smartphone, but I did like the idea of texting, so I figured that this would be a helpful way to keep in tou

Second entry:

Hmmm, that could be annoying there seems to be a limit on the amount of information that I can send at one time, good to know.

Back to what we discussed, your plans to head west I think will be in your best interest, where th

Third entry:

Blast it all, I need to figure out what the threshold of this magics limits are, if I have any important information I do not want it to be constantly cut off mid-thought while I have to wait for this spell to come off cool d

Fourth entry:

Head west, where the rivers meet. Start there.

The last entry was the shortest by a long shot, Davin was chuckling to himself and that the character counts that so many used was a thing. He was half tempted to let Compass know the secret to it, but then he figured that the Patron of humanity would be able to figure it all out. Hugh looked confused as Davin chuckled into his logbook.

"What's so funny?"

Davin held up the book so that Hugh could take a look for himself and seemed to only get more confused.

"It's one of those weird things that most didn't think about back home, so to watch someone experience it for the first time and struggle with it is amusing, and he's using magic, I can only imagine if he had to use T9."

"Tee Nine? Do I even want to know what any of that means?"

"Eh, probably not, likely will only lead to more questions that I either can't answer or will make me look absolutely crazy."

"You're not?"

"No idea, I'm sure that I would be by some standards… Joking aside, west is that direction we're headed, to where the rivers meet."

"Rivers? Which ones? The delta here is made up of several, and that is putting it simply."

"Well from what I know, I should know it when I see it."

"That doesn't help me in the least."

Davin shrugged. "Well, the last one I saw gave off a glow of light that looked like a snowstorm on a pitch-black night and then made a sound of static in my head."

"What is 'static'?"

"Uhhhh… have you ever had a limb fall asleep? Like when you sit on it funny?"

"Where it's that mix of tingling pain?"

"Yes? But imagine it as a noise? I'll point it out when I come across it…"

The two finished pulling the last few items that they had staged in their room together, refilled their water skins, and got some sandwiches for the road. The waves of nervous energy ran along Davin's skin, he bounced on his toes to try and burn off some of the energy, but it only seemed to ramp up his energy even more. The floating disc spell that Hugh cast was still exciting to him, hoping that the novelty would never wear on him. They swung open the doors, the road to the west leading off into the distance, seeing the cast shadows leaning that way confirmed that the sun, did in fact, rise in the east. They took their first steps, while alone the steps weren't anything special, but for the briefest moment, they were everything that mattered to Davin.