Left to his own devices, Ethan snuggled the pillow for good ten minutes, remembering the good old days back on Earth. Eh, what a time it was. Shame on me for thinking that getting up at 7 AM was a chore and painful thing to do, he reminisced, basking in the softness of the feathered pillow.
His delight was interrupted by a sudden knock on the door. He opened his eyes and jumped out of the clean bed, wincing at the thought of getting his dirty rags back on. Then, quickly equipping them from his storage, he answered, “Yes! Please come in.”
A maid dressed in a simple brown dress and a darkening apron opened the door and introduced herself, bowing slightly, “Hello, my name is Lina. Elaine sent me with your bath, sir.” Then, without waiting for an answer, she dragged a bath made from a solid piece of wood behind her and into the room Ethan was in. Ethan tried to move to offer her a hand, but she was already inside, preparing the thing for him.
The maid put the wooden bath in the middle of the room and pulled out a large water skin from behind the door inscribed with golden symbols. She walked up to the empty container and poured steaming fresh water into the tub. Finally, she looked at Ethan, standing in the middle of the room, his mouth wide, staring at the steaming water pouring out.
“Is that thing going to be enough?” he finally asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.
Surprised at the question, the girl blinked and answered slightly stuttering, “Well, yes, but of course. As you may know, water-aspect storage devices are expensive but useful. Madam Elaine bought these for us a year ago; they have been lifesavers. No more dragging buckets up from the kitchen. Took us forever. Now we just pour out of this thing, and you are ready to go.”
Ethan nodded to the girl as if understanding every word she said and identified the item in her hands.
[Water satchel - heated] (item, unranked, rare]
A dimensional satchel holding vast amounts of heated water.
Oh, a more fancy storage device. I wonder how much water it can actually hold, Ethan thought. Then, pointing at the item in her hands, he asked the girl. “Sorry, but do you know where she got it? Elaine, I mean.”
Lina looked up from the streaming water and answered, “Oh, I do not know, sir. I think from the market street. Visiting merchants always bring the most wondrous things. This one time, they brought us these fluffy, hmm, what did they call them again? Ah, cakes!”
The girl looked up at the ceiling as if remembering a beautiful event and continued, still pouring the water, “They were just wondrous. Sweet as the sweetest honey, and so airy, as if they were ready to float up to the sky.”
Ethan looked at the girl and then back at the tub and called out, “Lina, sorry to interrupt, but the water…” She looked back at the tub and squeaked, seeing that it was getting dangerously close to the top of the bath, and scrambled to find the lid of the water device.
Once the source of the water was contained, she breathed out in relief and said, “Thank you, sir. And sorry for daydreaming. Madam Elaine always yells at me for being such an airhead.”
Ethan raised his hands to apologize and said, “No worries, Lina. I just did not want you to get into trouble. But, say, cakes aside, you know Willow well enough, right?”
She nodded and said, “Yes, sir. Born and raised here, same as my parents.”
“Then you could point me to a place where they make or sell these things here?” he asked, pointing at the pillow on his bed.
“Ah, a pillow. Yes, I know a place that makes the fluffiest of pillows. My father is a good friend of the shop owner, and he would give his left pinky swearing they have the finest pillows you will find in all of north.”
“That would be great if it was true. Does the place has a name?” Ethan asked, hopeful.
“Yes, sorry. It is The Plume and Feather. They are right at the start of the market street.”
“Thank you, Lina,” Ethan said, noting the place's name at the back of his mind. He saw why Elaine would be unhappy with the girl as she was an airhead, daydreaming even when someone talked with her.
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“Say, Lina,” Ethan continued, “do you know a place that would sell me some clothes? Elaine mentioned some tailor willing to do a rush job, so I thought, maybe you…?”
“Yes, sorry, sir, I remembered! Madam Elaine said to give the name of the place as well. It is called the Arcane Attire. They are right next to the Plume and Feather. You cannot miss them. They have these nicest dresses, sir. Even the noble ladies from Veer come to our little Willow to buy their dresses at Arcane Attire….”
“Thank you, Lina,” Ethan hurriedly interrupted the young girl, seeing how she could go on about the dresses for the whole day. “I see that the water is getting cold. Would you mind…?” he motioned to the tub awkwardly and looked at the girl.
“Ah, sorry, sir, “ she scrambled to her feet and bowed slightly, scurrying over to the door and looking at Ethan one last time before closing it.
Observing the suddenly vacant room, Ethan sighed tiredly, “Is it just me being awkward with people, or it's them? Well, no matter.” He removed his clothes again and slowly entered the awkward wooden bath, noting that the water was just right. Once inside, he leaned back and breathed one long sigh, closing his eyes and knocking his head back, his arms on the sides of the bath.
“Ehh, how I missed this,” he said after a few moments, luxuriating in the warm water that smelled like the pine forest-themed candles his sometimes mother bought them for Christmas.
“Huh?” he smelled the water again. “Is it scented?” then he looked to his right and noticed a small bathing kit Lina had left behind, containing a towel, a sponge, some soap, and a small bottle of clear liquid.
“Oh, they have something similar to bath salts. I wonder who makes this stuff,” Ethan pondered, looking thing small tray over. “An alchemist, most likely. No way they have mastered the production of cheap cosmetics marketed as environmentally friendly to make feel good about themselves,” he mussed and started scrubbing off the grime he had accumulated.
As much as he tried to keep himself clean throughout the weeks at the Castle of the Gloom, pouring ice-cold water from the well over himself only did so much good. Training with Gloomy for days and getting knocked around in the dusty training room accumulated some dirt that became almost part of Ethan after a while.
Now, in the warm bath, in the middle of an inn straight out of a fantasy novel, Ethan chuckled to himself at the absurdity of the events he had gone through. Most of them happening only in the last couple of days.
“Man, how good it is to be back in civilization. The folks here seem kind enough, given how much stuff I was covered in,” he said to himself, noting that the water had slowly turned somewhat brown from the stuff he scrubbed off.
The whole cleaning ritual took up good ten minutes of Ethan’s time until he finally felt like a man reborn. Then he got out of the bath and dried himself, marveling at the towel's softness. Damn, I need to get some of these as well, he added yet another item to his mental to-do list.
Once dry, Ethan dressed in his dirty clothes and looked around the room, his gaze resting on the pillow. “No, Ethan. We do not steal from the nice innkeeper. Surely there will be more of them on the market street.”
He got his boots on and walked out of the room, through the cozy corridor, and back down the stairs behind the desk where he met Elaine. Seeing she was not around, he continued through the common room and walked through the double doors, finding himself back on the cobbled sidewalk of the loud street around him.
Looking left and right, he decided to continue to the right, as it seemed like the place where most of the sounds came from, and people carrying various packs and pouches were returning with smiles.
Ethan walked past a couple of stone buildings and arrived at an intersection. To his left, he saw exactly what he imagined the market street would look like as the scent of spices, freshly baked bread, and exotic flowers hit his nose.
The buildings lining the street were made of stone, with ornate carvings and intricate details etched into their walls. Colorful awnings stretched across the fronts of the shops, providing shade for the patrons who perused their wares. To his right, a group of musicians played a lively tune on instruments he had never seen before. A crowd had gathered around them, clapping and dancing along.
As he went further down the street, he passed a vendor selling potions and magical elixirs—the bottles filled with swirling colors and glittering powders that seemed to glow in the sunlight.
In front of a large, grand building, a street performer put on a mesmerizing fire-breathing display - the flames dancing and flickering in the breeze. A little further down the street, he noticed a blacksmith at work, pounding a sword on an anvil. The sparks flying off the metal, illuminating the faces of the curious onlookers.
The market street was bustling with activity, with people of all shapes and sizes doing their business. Ethan breathed in the vibrant, magical atmosphere filled with wonders and curiosities.
Wow, it is sure easy to get lost in the hustle of this crowd, he thought, walking along until he saw a large sign hanging from the side of one particularly adorned building. What caught his attention was a beautifully carved white feather, reminding him of the pillows he was searching for.
“The Plume and Feather,” he read, smiling and sizing the shop. “You are not that hard to miss. Let’s see how many pillows I can buy with the stuff I looted from that rich, fat prick.”