Chapter 6

We are currently wandering around the market district trying to find a clothes store, unfortunately it is not very easy to navigate with the amount of people that are here.  After weaving our way through the crowd I was finally able to spot a clothing store, seems pretty high class.  I don’t want to spend our money all in one place, but I also don’t want Robin to be mistaken as a slave again.  Well we can only hope to find some good clothes that won’t bankrupt us.  “In here Robin.”  Upon entering the store I realized that this place is not only a women’s clothing store, but also a women’s underwear store.  I immediately get some strange looks by the people in the store.  I quickly move Robin in front of me, as to show that she is why we are here.  “Hello how may I help you?”  A rather large women with huge breast calls out to us from the counter.  I believe she is a holstaur, a cow person, based on the ears, horns, and rather large breasts.  I directed Robin over towards the counter so that we can speak with the women.  “Hello we are looking for some clothes and possibly underwear for her.”,  I presented Robin.  “Lizard sic, good weight,  around size D, and about five-ten, can do, follow me.”  Sounds like she knows what she is doing, “Let's go Robin, you have to make sure you like the clothes.”  I try to move Robin, but she seems to be firmly rooted in her spot.  “John I didn’t know that some many types of clothes existed.”  I really hope she doesn’t enjoy shopping too much.  “Yes there is a lot of clothes, but for now let's follow the clerk so we can get you the right ones.”  

Pushing Robin along we find the sales women and she has already started to pick out clothes for Robin.  “Races with scales usually go for less clothing, as the scales will rub against the fabric wearing them out quicker.  Dear are you ok with shorts and a vest?”  The lady holds up a pair of black shorts that look a lot like jean shorts and a black vest with a white t shirt on the inside.  “I am sorry I don’t know as I have never worn anything besides this.”  Robin points towards her current clothes.  Man that’s really sad, but it's ok because now that she will get new clothes that should help her feel more free.  “Well that will not do, come over here and try these on.”  The women grabs Robin and moves her towards the dressing area of her store.  “Hand your little pig over to your friend then go into this room and change into the clothes, once you're done come out, oh also here is a pair of underwear they go on first.”  The women shoves the clothes, a set of women’s white underwear, and black leather boots into Robin’s arms as she hands me the stuffed toy pig.  “Take care of meat.”  Really she named the pig after what type of food it is.  “I will.”  Once Robin is assured her pig will be fine she heads into the changing room.  After a couple of seconds Robin opens the door with the bra and panties around her arms,  “John I need help.”  Um, I think I better get the sales women for this.  Looking around I see the holstaur helping out another customer.  Damn it, it's ok this isn’t the first time I have seen her naked, and I just need to get the underwear on her then I can get out.  Moving her back inside I take the underwear off her arms and place the panties by her feet.  I quickly get her to put her feet through the underwear and pull them up.  I then get her arms through the bra and clasped around her back, and with that I leave the changing room and close the door, hoping that no one saw that I was in there.  “Thank you John.”  Robin calls out from inside the room.  “No problem, but remember what I told you at the lake.”  “You are a man and I should be careful.”  “Yes so you shouldn’t come out of the room completely naked like that.”  She is really making this hard on me.  “I understand, but I do not believe that you seeing me naked will cause me harm in anyway.”  It might not cause you harm, but it is killing me.  “Robin just remember that you shouldn’t be showing your naked self to other people, ok.”  “ok”  as Robin said that she steps out of the room, luckily this time fully dressed.  

Wow, that looks really good on her.  “How does the boyfriend like it?”  the saleswomen asks from behind me.  “I am not her boyfriend we are just companions, but Robin you look really good in that.”  “Really you could have fooled me with you hoping into the changing room with her.”  Looks like someone did see me. “Robin has never worn underwear before so she needed help putting them on and you were unfortunately busy.”  “Hm, I will believe you this time, but don’t do anything too bold in my shop or I will have to throw you out.”  From her size I believe she would have no problem doing just that.  “That will not happen ma’am.”  “Good, well then dear, do you like those clothes or do we need to find some others?”  Robin looks down at herself then to me for a second before facing the saleswomen again.  “These are good.”  “Well then, come over to the counter so I can sum up your total.”  Nice job Robin, looks like she isn’t the kind to take forever shopping.  It only took a second for the saleswomen to tell us the total amounted to four silver coins.  Forty dollars for a full women’s outfit not bad.  “My name is Jane, owner of this shop, we have sizes for every race so please come back again.”  Jane gave a little advert as we were leaving the shop.  “Robin you ok with waiting till tomorrow to register at the guild, It's gotten pretty late and I would like to make sure we can get a room.”  It's pretty close to sunset and we haven’t eaten since this morning so I am sure we are both hungry.  With a nod of approval we are heading back towards the adventurer’s guild.

“Welcome to the Gale Hares Inn, are you looking for a room, food, or both?”  As soon as we stepped into the inn a loud and energetic voice was heard.  Looking I see a young woman with white have and large floppy ears on top of her head.  “Hello we are looking for a room and food.”  “Rooms with a single two person bed is two silver, a room with two single beds is two silver and five bronze, and two single rooms will be three silver.  For meals it is one silver and five bronze per person, that will get you a breakfast and a dinner.”  “Robin do you want separate rooms?”  “Same”  Hm seems like Robin is ok with sleeping in the same room, but let's do the two beds.  “Can we get a room with two single beds, and also two meals.  Is there dinner available now?”  “One double bed, two meals, that will be five silver and five bronze please.  Yes dinner is available and there are multiple options to pick from.”  I hand over the appropriate money for two nights and receive a key from the girl.  “Thank you for staying at the Gale Hares my name is Maria, ask me if you need anything.”  We arrive at our room and it's not bad, there's two nicely sized beds, and a dresser to put our stuff in.  There is also another door, I wonder what it connects to?  Walking through the door I am met with a curtain and next to it I can see a bowl shaped object.  I pull aside the curtain to find a square area with metal plate hanging above.  It looks a lot like a shower, and the bowl object definately could be a sink, but I am guessing they don't have running water so I am not sure.  Putting aside the possible bathroom I take off my backpack and slide it under the bed.  I remove the money from it and carefully secure it inside a smaller bag that I can carry around.  “Ok Robin you ready to head down for some food.”  Robin doesn’t have much in the first place, but it looks like she doesn’t want to parting with meat anytime soon.  “You can leave meat here I am sure he will be safe.”  Reluctantly Robin places meat under the sheets of one of the beds and heads for the door.

We make it back to the main entrance, but we have no clue where the dining room is.  “Hello again Maria, could you tell us where the dining room is.”  The energetic bunny gives a look of surprise, “Ah I am sorry I forgot to tell you, it is through that door.”  Maria points at the big door to the left of us  “No problem, also the room connected to our room, is that a bathroom?”  “Yes it is, are you not familiar with a bathroom?”  “Ah no sorry I am a traveller and I just did not expect to see a bathroom with a shower here.”  “A traveller, it's been a couple years since our last traveller, but yes showers were actually created by a traveller.  Apparently they hated our old system of washing which was either by river or scrubbing with a towel.  To work them you just need to stimulate the elemental power inside of it.  If you have the water element you can change the temperature of the water.”  Seems pretty simple, though I will have to have Robin change the water for me.  Why was the last traveller a couple years ago doesn’t one come every year?  “I thought a traveller comes every year?”  “Yes that is true, but unfortunately the traveller last year killed himself when he forcefully moved the air out of his lungs suffocating himself.  A tragic accident really, almost every child is taught early on to start with only elements outside of your body.”  Ouch sounds like a bad way to go, luckily I have earth and can’t really do anything stupid with my body.  “Well thank you for your help, actually one last question, do you have somewhere we can absorb elemental power?”  “My pleasure, and yes in the back of the inn we have a spot for each element.”  Great with another thank you we head towards the dinner.

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Going through the door we find a pretty busy tavern looking place, and it seems to be a seat yourself kind of dinner.  Finding a nice spot, me and Robin take a seat, I see Maria move towards us, but now she is wearing a waitress dress instead of the sun dress she had on earlier.  How did she change that fast?  “Hello again Maria, ah by the way my name is John and this is Robin, though I am surprised you work both as the hostess and a waitress.”  “Huh? Oh you must be new around here, you are thinking of my sister, my name is Saria, my sister is Maria.  We even have a third sister Taria, who works as the chef here.  We all look the same, but you can tell the difference by our ear lengths.”  I guess that is why the name of the inn is plural.  “Well then it's nice to meet you Saria, so how does this work for ordering food, we bought a meal.”  “Here is a menu, we have a variety of dishes, when you're ready just call me back over and I will take your order.”  Oh so pretty basic dining practice also, I guess the travellers really did influence how things work in this world.  “Ok thank you.”  

Hm beef, pork, chicken, rabbit, deer, vegetable, and bugs?”  I guess if you have this many races around you will need a pretty wide selection, but I didn’t think bugs would be on here.  “What are you thinking of getting Robin?”  “Meat”  I wonder if she knows that there is different kinds of meat.  “Robin do you know that there are different types of meat?”  “Pig meat?”  Robin gives me a partially confused look.   “Then you want pork, as that is what kind of meat pigs turn into to.”  “Yes.”  Well looks like she has decided and I think I will go with beef.  I call over Saria, “I will have the beef dish, and a cup of water.”  “And for you miss?”  “Pork and tea.”  “Ok they should be out shortly.”  Saria leaves and I start to think about the next couple of days.  “Robin what do you want to do for the next couple of days?  Tomorrow we will register at the guild, but I am not sure what we should do after that.  Truthfully I want to spend a couple days absorbing and practicing my elemental control.”  As Grant told me I am currently weaker than almost everyone in this city, I would like to practice at least for a couple of days before I try any adventuring.  “I would also like to spend a couple days on my element, but I would also like to get another set of clothes as I don’t want to get these dirty.”  Perfect, “Sounds good we can get you another set, and I will find where we can go to practice.”  Just as we decided our food came out and it was quite delicious.  While it does not have as much seasoning as meat back on ‘Earth’ I actually enjoy it more this way.  After dinner we headed to the backyard of the inn, there is a small pond and a good patch of ground for me.  We spent the next two hours absorbing our elements.  I still get tired really quickly and can only absorb a small portion of the power that I take in.  Once we were done we headed back to the room for some well needed rest.  When we got back to the room Robin started to push the beds together.  “Robin what are you doing?”  “So we can sleep next to eat other and you can hold my tail.”  I guess Robin has become accustomed to me holding her tail at night.  I won’t decline because it truly feels great, but she definitely still needs to learn some decency when it comes to men and women.

The next day we had a great breakfast and set out towards the guild.  It is still pretty early as the sun has only just risen, but there are a lot of other people on the street with us.  Mostly these people are wearing some type of armor, so my guess is they are adventurers.  Going with the flow of people we soon reach the guild.  Walking in I can see a whole wall of counters that are staffed, and in between them is a large staircase to the next level.  On each side of the building there seem to be notice boards, probably for quests.  Taking a guess Robin and I line up in the shortest line, and it doesn’t take long to get to us.  These staff members must be really good.  “Hello how may I help you?”  A tall skinny man with pointed ears, most likely an elf is manning the counter we are at.  “Hello we are looking to register.”  “Very well, please fill out these forms, then once those are complete you will receive your card and an explanation on the basics.”  He hands us two pieces of paper, which ask us our names, current race, and element.  “John, I can’t write.”   Oops probably should have thought about that.  “I’ll fill it out for you, but we should probably teach you to write.”  After filling in my information I started to do Robin’s paper, but I was stopped on the element, “Robin has witch blood, what should I put for the element?”  I ask the elf who is waiting for us.  “Witch blood, just put down all for elements.”  Simple enough.  

“Ok there we go.” I hand over the papers all filled out back to the elf.  “I will get these processing and in the meantime let me tell you the basic rules of the guild.  First every member must complete at least one quest every two weeks, the exception is if your current quest should take longer than two weeks, in that case it will count for all weeks you are working in.  If you do not complete any quests within the two week period your membership will be revoked and will come with a five silver cost to reinstate it.  This cost will increase with each time you reinstate your membership.  Second any fight between guild member must be done so in a duel any fighting outside of duels you can be suspended or your membership revoked.  Third if you are in a family then you must inform the guild as family quest do count towards the guild.  Fourth your rank will be on a letter based system going from E to S, you must complete ten quest of your current rank then one quest of the rank you are going for.  Also not a rule, but there are rooms available to all members that are made to help absorption of their element.  That is all, any questions?”  “When I want to take a quest what do I do?”  I have an idea, but I want to make sure.  “You will come up to a counter and tell the staff member your name or team name and the quest you are taking, if it is a one time quest please bring the notice with you.”  Yep just as I thought, and there seems to be parties.  “How do you make a team?”  “If you wish to make a team just give me the name of the team and the members.”  No reason not to make a team, but I don’t really know a good name.  I guess something that defines both me and Robin would be good.  “The team name will be Witch and Mountain, I, John Breeze, and Robin, will be on the team.”  The elf seems to write something down.  “Here are your cards, you will see your info on it and at the bottom you will see your current team.  WIth this you are registered at the guild.”  Me and Robin both took our cards and as the elf said all the info was there.  I was thinking about paying for one of the rooms, but currently I am barely able to absorb anything so it would be of little use.  With our task completed Robin and I head out, are next goal is to find a nice place to practice and train.