“And what, pray tell, is a grit?” Allant grimaced at the menu, shifting in the booth for a dozenth time to try and get more comfortable on the thin padding.
“Gravy… for breakfast… People do that?” Victori was equally bewildered. She was having her own problems in the booth. Her dress was so poofy that it kept getting caught on everything.
Drim was more surprised that they had any appetite at all. Most people experienced extreme nausea after being subjected to Phon’s teleportation for the first time, but they took it well, only stumbling a bit. It had been several teleports too, given how far away their home was from anything, so their resolve was genuinely impressive.
Victori had asked to ride on Drim’s hoverbike, but both Phon and Allant were envious of that idea, and it certainly wasn’t big enough to carry all of them. Drim wasn’t about to let the incapable nobles drive the bike on their own, either.
Because of last night’s fiasco with dinner, their clients had demanded that they get to pick their own food for breakfast. After getting them dressed, which had been its own ordeal, they set out for a restaurant. Phon had demanded, no, volunteered to help Victori after hearing of yesterday’s incident. Allant had managed to dress himself, but Drim regretted not helping him afterwards. How could such expensive clothing clash so horribly when not paired properly?
“Not to be rude,” Victori was about to be rude, but at least hushed her voice. “But are you sure that this establishment is fit for dining in? I’m not convinced it is sanitary.”
Drim glanced around, “Yeah, this is pretty standard for this kind of place.” He wasn’t bothered by the condition in the slightest.
“Eh, it may be on the lower end of quality,” Phon added. “But the food will taste good, and it was the closest restaurant by several lages. People eat at places like this every day.” Their father had wanted them to be subjected to the workings of the normal world, and there was a no more ‘human’ experience than eating at a local diner.
“Pancakes with fresh fruit. I’ve had those before. That should be safe right?” Allant was combing through the menu for a lifeline at this point.
“I think I’ll be a little adventurous and go with the waffle sandwich,” Victori looked proud of herself for being so brave and daring.
The waiter came and took their orders, and then the two noble siblings continued to criticize the restaurant endlessly while they waited for their food. Nothing was actually said about their drinks, but their looks were telling enough. Allant had ordered a coffee while Victori had gotten juice and water, but it looked like they’d just drank spoiled milk the way their faces twisted and scrunched.
“Why are my pancakes smiling at me? Are they mocking me?! I will have this place shutdown immediately!” The novelty of arranging the fruit on the pancake to look like a face was clearly lost on Allant. Maybe the whipped-cream hair made it look too clownlike for his tastes.
“I have been woefully uninformed about how sticky this would be,” Victori held out her fingers in peril after a few bites of her sandwich. “It will take so much scrubbing for my hands to be cleansed of this monstrosity.”
“Okay, but how does it taste?” Drim looked up from his own food, unsympathetic to her suffering.
“Decent,” she admitted and powered through the rest before trotting off to the bathroom. Upon her return, she decreed that the soap and water provided had just left her feeling even more unclean.
The Drazahs made sure to escort the Darquees siblings out of the restaurant before they could crush the employees’ spirits with their trifle quibbles, giving an egregiously generous tip when they went to pay.
◆◆◆
Drim mostly ignored his client as he stabbed at the water for the hundredth time with his hand carved spear. Fishing in this manner was certainly inefficient, but still a decent challenge for a skilled hunter such as himself. In the time since they’d arrived at the small lake, he’d caught about a dozen fish already—most of them small and disappointing. He was only in his rolled-up pants, shirtless and without shoes, to try and have something dry to slip into when they decided to leave.
Victori was nearby, drifting around in a crude wooden boat of Drim’s making. She was hardly visible, though, her swimsuit going unappreciated since she was almost completely blocked from view by the sheer magnitude of the sunhat she was wearing. It was still winter, so she was wrapped in a coat around her shoulders and didn’t really have a need for shade, but she sure did commit to aesthetics.
She also had simple fishing gear that was basically just a stick with a vine for a fishing line and thorns for the hook. For bait, she was using one of the small fish Drim had already caught. A good showing for her first time fishing, Victori had already caught three decently sized fish all on her own.
Allant was along the shore of the water. He’d originally tried spearfishing like Drim, but got frustrated that he wasn’t immediately successful and gave up. In another bout of competitiveness between men, Allant had taken his shirt off too, but quickly put it back on when his paler than pale skin reflected the sun more than the water did.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Now, he seemed to have convinced himself that he could run on water if he ran fast enough. So far, all of his attempts had proven fruitless, not for trying. But he still persisted, though his enjoyment may come from the base idea that he could run around and get his feet dirty, which was wholly excluded from his everyday life.
“Oh, I think the fire’s almost out,” Phon observed from a tree she was resting underneath, having made no attempts to enter the water at any point. She’d mostly just been watching Victori, making sure that the girl wasn’t staring too long at Drim’s shirtless figure. The fire she was referring to was on the other side of the lake, as far away from them as they could get.
The Darquees siblings had made the request to come to the lake. Their primary reasoning was to get fish for the rest of their meals, preferring having something handmade from their caretakers than try their luck with further ‘peasant food’ as they called it. Not for one second did they consider the idea that they could just be escorted to a grocery store for food. Perhaps the Drazah’s efforts since their arrival had just twisted these spoiled nobles' perceptions even further.
Upon their arrival, it was clear that at least Allant’s actual desire for coming here stemmed from wanting to try out his speed boat that Phon was kind enough to teleport for him. It became obvious within mere moments that he had never operated it before, nor did he even have a basic understanding.
Instead, Allant set it to full speed and lost control immediately. Literally seconds later, the boat careened onto land, crashing into a tree where it caught fire and then subsequently exploded. Phon had teleported them to safety moments before their imminent demise. Well, some of them would have died, anyways.
That brought them to their current situation. They’d actually come equipped with previously untouched, top-of-the-line fishing gear, but it had burned up with the boat. Though, even if they had better gear, they probably wouldn’t have had better results with this group’s patience and attention span.
“That’s it!” Victori pelted her fishing pole into the water. “Fishing is so boring! You say people do this for a living?! And the smell! Fish is supposed to be delicious, so why does it smell like father’s dirty socks after a long day?!”
“Come now, Victori,” her brother tried to be the more reasonable one for once. “I understand your displeasure with this tedious task, but if we do not catch enough fish, then we shall starve tonight.”
“I’d rather force down another greasy burger than stay here a moment longer!”
“Well, if getting a bunch of fish means we can leave, then…” Phon covered her eyes. A moment later, countless fish piled into the boat were Victori was sitting. It startled her so much that she stood up and surprise, losing her balance and then plummeting into the frigid water.
Allant couldn’t help but laugh uproariously at his sister's pitiful state when she resubmerged. Not taking his abuse lightly, she waded over and pulled him down into the water with her. The two wrestled for a while, soaking themselves to the bone until they lost all energy and were risking hypothermia.
Back at the mansion the Drazahs went to the kitchen and worked together to prepare a delectable fish fry while the Darquees siblings went and took long hot baths to warm up. The rest of the day was pretty quiet, the ruckus at the lake leaving little energy for anything else, and the day ended without incident.
“It’s about to start storming outside, will you be alright?” Drim asked as he tucked Victori into bed again.
“Yes, I’ll be fine. I actually find the noise quite soothing,” Victori didn’t seem to have it in her to try and make excuses this night to keep Drim around.
“Well, alright then,” Drim prepared to leave. “It sounds like you have a long day on the road tomorrow, so I hope you sleep well. Goodnight, Victori.”
◆◆◆
Victori awoke in a panic to the crash of thunder. Her window was open, boosting the noise, but that hadn’t been what had woken her. There was a hand covering her mouth so that she couldn’t scream.
Lightning flashed once more, lighting up the room and revealing her assailant, but there wasn’t much to reveal. They were covered from head to toe in dark clothing and were covering their face. What was important for her situation, though, was the knife in their hand that she saw briefly brandished in the air.
No way to cry out, and they had pinned her legs with their own. Their free arm was doing their best to restrain hers, but she still had enough freedom of movement where it mattered. Victori grabbed the rose that had been sitting next to her pillow and squeezed it with all of her might.
The room lit up again as the thunder crashed from the previous bolt of light. Victori saw the knife plunging towards her, but it didn’t get very far. The next second a figure swooped in from the window. The lightning had completely silhouetted them from behind, but she could see their green eyes burning in the darkness. That was all she needed to know she was safe.
Boot met face, and the attacker was sent spinning across the room. Drim never broke stride, landing on the other side of the bed that he had just soared above. He ran over to get the lights, and Victori saw that he had already wrapped the assailant in a swaddle of vines. “Stay here, Victori. I’ll be right back.”
Before she could say anything, Drim had bolted out of the room. Victori didn’t know what else to do, so she just sat curled up in her bed. Every so often she would glance over at her would-have-been assassin and jumped slightly when they started to stir. Stir was all they could do, though, barely able to wiggle their body and could only let out muffled groans.
At some point, the assailant vanished entirely. Victori had to guess it was Phon’s doing, but didn’t have to dwell on it long. Drim returned shortly after with a cup in hand. “Drink this. It’ll make you feel better.”
Victori didn’t even think twice and took a few good gulps. Maybe she’d become too trusting of Drim over the past few days, because her vision suddenly blurred and her head was rife with unbearable exhaustion.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d take it or not if I told you. That wasn’t anything bad, just a sleep aid. Very few would be able to just fall back asleep after something like that, so I didn’t want you to have to deal with it right now. We can talk about it more in the morning. Goodnight Victori.”