I open the door and see Emmelina standing there.
"Oh my!" she says as she glides into the room. "You look magnificent in that. However... For the tea ceremony only let's have you wear something else. Do you mind if I look through your clothing?" she asks.
"You certainly may." I say and indicate my clothing. "May I ask what it is you are looking for?"
"I saw you in a short, cheongsam dress with flowers on it. I was thinking that you could wear something similar to that?"
"Oh, well then, yes I can see how that would be befitting of tea services." I say and open the closet and show her the area that I have my dresses hanging, according to length.
"My dear Amaya, these are simply lovely! And now I am most curious where it is you came from with these dresses." she exclaims.
I am glad that she thinks so. “Someone very dear to me made them for me before I left home." I tell her. "Would you like to try any on?"
"I would love to. But unfortunately, my chest is a bit larger than yours currently. Now then." she says and looks them all over. "These would all work. You may wear any of them during the tea ceremony times. However, I do request that you wear black stockings."
"I can most certainly do so. Any shoes you wish me to wear?"
"Any that you find comfortable as you will be wearing them for a rather long time, and I do not wish your feet to be sore. I know once your stats increase it won't matter nearly as much. But for now, you got to do all you can to protect your feet."
"Thank you. I will make certain that I do so."
"I am sure that you don't need my help, but if it isn't too bothersome do you mind if I do your hair. It just looks so soft and lovely, and I can't help but want to play with it. That is if you are okay with that?" she asks and looks at me with bright eyes.
"Of course, you may, I can’t fathom how anyone could say no to such a visage. I should change my clothing first, should I not?" I ask her.
"Of course. Do you want me to step out for a moment."
"I'm not bothered by changing in front of you. If you are comfortable with it then by all means stay in here." I say. "You can look through my clothes if you wish."
"That sounds wonderful!" she says.
She is so refined. I wonder if I will be such a lovely and refined woman when I get older. Though, I honestly do not believe that she is much older than I am.
"These are so pretty! Oh and this too!" she exclaims every so often as I change.
Slip dress off, put on black silky stockings, slip into dress. And there we go.
"Alright I am dressed. You may do with my hair as you wish style wise. Just please don't cut it!" I ask of her. I know that many female adventurers keep their hair short, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut my hair. I already colored it, but I simply could not cut it.
"Of course I won't cut it! You should definitely keep it long." she says as she combs her fingers through it. "It is as soft and silky as it looks!" she says and presses it against her cheek. "Whoops, got a bit carried away there. I need a comb and ribbons."
I get her the requested items and sit and let her style my hair. She begins a few different styles before scrapping them.
"Ah I know what to do." she thoroughly brushed out my hair then pulls it all over to the left side of my face. She takes the comb and breaks it into three sperate chunks of hair, braids them, making sure to keep my bangs out of the braid. She then spins it and pins it to the side. She takes a few ribbons and works some sort of magic on them, making it look like I have a large flower in my hair.
"Emmelina! This is wonderful! How did you learn to do hair so beautifully?" I inquire of her.
"I have three younger sisters and I style their hair for them often. You may see them come in from time to time. They are the sweetest little serpent-kin you ever did meet." she says. Her voice is bright and cheerful as she talks about her sisters.
"You sound ever so happy when speaking about them." I tell her.
"Haha, do I really? Well they are just the sweetest. Who wouldn't be happy talking about such sweet girls." she says, sounding very much the part of a doting older sister.
I see Emmelina look at a watch that she is wearing then tilt her head and put a finger next to her mouth in thought. "We have time." she says.
"Time for what?" I ask, wondering if I missed a comment that she made.
"To do your make-up obviously. Now then, show me what you have. I have a feeling that you have plenty.”
Well, she wasn't wrong about that. I pull out my make-up kit and set it on the bed.
"Any chance you are willing to let me do your make-up?" she inquires.
"Any time you wish to help pick out my clothes, do my hair or my make-up I will be ever so happy to allow you to do so. I thoroughly enjoy the pampering, and it reminds me of home."
"Yay!" she says, then wraps me up in a hug. It was a warm and tight embrace and made me feel as though I had just gained an older sister.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
She sits me down on the bed after looking through my make-up and making her selections. It feels like no time has passed when she says, "Alright. All done. What do you think?"
I walk over and look in the mirror. She had used smoky colors around my eyes along with some lovely black eye-liner helping to accentuate the exotic shape of my eyes. She had used a dark plumb color on my lips. It all made me look a bit older, and ever so lovely.
"Oh my! Emmelina, you made me look beautiful."
"I didn't make you look any sort of way. You just are beautiful. Now then, hop along downstairs and into the kitchen to gather everything for teatime."
I do as she says and head out of my room. On the stairs I run into, "Kay! Oh my! Your hair looks perfectly lovely that color! Do you like it?"
"I really do! It's so fun! Much better than the color it was before now. Though, I’m sorry who are you? Holy fireballs, Ami? Wow…" Kay is momentarily stunned.
"Hey, I liked your hair that color as well. It seems you are simply able to pull off anything aren't you Kay." I say, trying to keep a blush from my cheeks.
I know that many other women that I have met would be quite envious, but I am not one of them. I am able to be happy for others. Genuinely happy for them. Like I am with how lovely everything looked on Kay. It would make dressing up together such great fun. Someday maybe Nila would be able to join us as well.
"What about you? If you hadn't said my name I might now have been able to recognize you! Okay, that's not true. No one else that I have met has ears and tail shaped like yours. Also, you know, your hair color also stands out. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I’m aware of all sentient species, and. Wait, sorry no prying into Ami’s past, never mind, I said nothing. Nope." he says.
"Very much true I must say. Well then, are you ready to learn how to do a tea ceremony?" I ask Kay.
"You bet I am!"
With much energy we make our way down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Hello George." I say, greeting the cook.
"Hello you two. I already made some cookies to bring out for afternoon tea. You just need to make the tea and serve it. Help yourself to whatever type you feel like." he said and indicated to a cupboard behind him. I open it and am astounded by the selection. There were fruit teas, spiced teas, and floral teas. Along with the already mixed blends there were the separate ingredients to make your own custom blend, most pleasing.
"Would it be alright if I mix some of this to make a new type of tea?" I ask him, hopeful.
"Sure. You can use one of those empty tins to store it in if you want."
"Wonderful. Thank you very much George."
Kay lingers at the cupboard reading over the different teas. “I’m pretty sure some of these are made up, I mean what is a hibiscus lemonade white tea?”
"Yeah yeah," he said shyly. He does seem like a large sweetheart.
I dig through the teas and pull-out jasmine, rosebud and hibiscus. Alright! Next, I am going to mix in some fruit. I find a blend of fruits. Wonderful, I select some dried cranberry and feel satisfied with how the blend turned out.
"Well Mr. George, Kay, what do you think? Does it look and smell alright?" I inquire of them, very much hoping that they would agree that it was a lovely mix.
"Smells good." says George. "And please don't call me Mister. We are all friends here, family almost so it makes me a bit uncomfortable."
"Oh, well alright then. I wish to not make you feel uncomfortable."
“Yes, this smells like tea, I’m pretty sure. Now when was the last time I had or smelled tea… Oh right, never, but this is quite obviously tea, good job!” Kay pipes in.
"Alright then. The customers here for tea are right through here." George says and opens a side door from inside the kitchen.
It led into a lovely little area with large windows up high on the walls to let in the light. The tables and chairs were quant, and the cushions on the seats looked plush.
"Oh my! You look so cute. You must be new. And look at the bunny boy. Oh, my goodness I have never seen a boy so cute before." One of the patrons spoke up.
I look over at Kay, who was holding the tray of cookies, and see that he is debating with himself whether to hide behind me or not.
"He is as nice as he is cute as well. Thanks for carrying that Kay. Will you please set them on this side table as I need space on this main table to place the tea."
Kay moves to do so. While he is setting down the cookie tray I tell the guests about today’s custom blend, I then pour the tea for them.
"I know that there are many types of tea ceremonies. Can you tell me what else we tend to offer during these?"
"Well, they are just tossing you in on your own aren’t they. I am not sure, I know that there have been people that have sang, some have danced, while others still have told stories." The talkative patron kindly responds.
'I feel that there is a reason that Zayne keeps bringing up being a bard.' 'Well that seems to makes sense then, the part of the bard, not the living rock.' I say, and once again realizing how little I know about this world that I had been thrust into. I motion Kay to come over to me. "Kay, can you find me a fan or two?" I softly request. "They don't have to be the weapon kind." "Sure! I am your fan, so now I just have to… oh the type you hold, I’m on it!" he says, clearly happy to be of use. “Hahaha” the patron laughs good naturedly having overheard our exchange. "If that is what is usually done then I shall sing you a song while my colleague goes to retrieve my performance accoutrements" I tell them. "What do you plan on doing with those?" "A fan dance!" I say and give them a bright smile. I do so enjoy bringing happiness to other. “I’m quite certain it isn’t the same fan dance I saw several years ago, but I am quite excited.” A different, male patron, speaks up from the table. I walk over and pick up the lute that was already in the room and tune it. I then open my mouth and sing while I wait for the fans. "Sing me the song of the flowers, sing me the song of the trees, sing me the song of the echoes, sing me the song of the breeze. I'll sing you songs of the night, I'll dance you into the light. Place a flower into my hand, I'll take you into a brave new land. "I wish to sing and dance with you. You love me with all the things that you do. I'll dance with you in the light of the sun, I'll waltz with you in the starry night, I'll sing to you in fading light. "So sing me the song of the flowers, sing me the song of the trees. I'll sing for you in the stillness, I'll dance with you in the sound. I'll sing to you the song of echoes, you'll sing me the song of the breeze." I could probably keep going but I feel relief when I see Kay coming back, a fan in both of his hands. I was much more comfortable with fan dances than I am with singing after all. I gratefully exchange the lute for the fans. “Aww, I missed the song.” Kay mutters quietly to himself. Hmm, it is hard to dance without music. I see Emmelina come in, supposedly checking in on me and Kay. As we are in front of others, I refer to her by her nickname. "Hello Emmie, by any chance are you able to play the lute?" "Oh Ami dear I would love to play for you! Are you going to sing?" she asks, uncertain as to what I had planned. "I just sang a bit and while I can carry a tune there is something that I am much better at." I smile and do a small spin, flicking my fans open at the same time. “Oh yes, please do dance for me.” Emmie says as she takes the lute into her hands. She plays gentle music as I do my fan dance, something it seems that almost no one here had seen before. When teatime was over, I feel a little bit of fatigue. I am not used to being so physically active so many hours in a day before. I wonder how long it will be until I start to feel like an adventurer. Well, no need to fret over things that I cannot increase the speed of. "That was fun. What is next?" I ask Emmelina. "Next you go change into your uniform. You are going to help out with cleaning tables and doing bar dances when requested. Ready to have fun?" "I most assuredly am!" I say and turn to smile at Kay.