We walked for about 10 minutes. As we walked I looked at the town I would be living in. The suburbs we were at were very similar to what you would find in Tokyo, smaller houses that had clearly been built long ago, simple apartment buildings were one or two floors only had single apartments, and more modern but still modest apartment buildings.
We didn’t really see anyone walking along the streets but it being the middle of the day it made sense that most would be busy at work or busy with their daily activities.
“Ok froggy, here you go.” She said as she placed the frog into the pond and watched it swim into the flowery shadows.
We had stopped at a small pond about the size of a small house hidden behind a small grocery store that was fed by the small creek that flowed down from the mountain. From here another creek continued down towards downtown hidden away behind small apartment buildings.
She walked back to the road where I was waiting, jumped over the simple wire barrier in one swift jump and turned to face me, still brimming with confidence. “Ok time to head downtown, we’ll take the bus in front of this store and it will drop us off right in the center of the city. From there we can get to everywhere we need to go to get you settled.” She said leading towards the obvious stop a few meters away.
The bus stop was very similar to the one I had been dropped off at only a little bit bigger and with one side used for ads and the other for a compact map of the city that also showed the buses route and where it connected with other routes. On it I could see that all the routes converged in the middle of the city, which I assumed is where we were headed.
"So while we wait for the buss do you have any questions? i'm sure you do because every one always does." Shaina siad as she walk over to the buss stop and sat on the metal bench. I carted my travel bag over and sat next to her as I pondered which of the many questions to start with.
"I guess my first question would be about how both you and Hikari have horns, tail, and scales? I asked her once about it and she said that it was normal back home, which I assume she meant here in this city?"
"Thats usually the first thing normal people ask. Our history book says that back when the city was refounded over 3000 years ago by the Dragon Princess, she invited any and all supernatural creatures that wanted a calm and peaceful life to come and live together with her subjects witch were normal humans. As the years past and the humans and creatures kept interacting relationships started to form until eventually offspring of both human and creature started to appear. Today around half of all the residents of the city posses traits from these supernatural creatures or are creatures themselves" she said as if she had memorized the pasage and retold it countless times "Thats what the book says anyway"
"That...sounds very simple"
"Of course, I wasn't about to memorise everything the book said now was I?"
"I guess not" I said just as we could hear the bus heading in our direction from just up the street. I instinctively reached into my skirt pocket and reached for the bus pass only to realise that it wasn’t there, and even if it was it would not work in this city. “Um, I don’t have a bus pass for this city, how much is it per trip?” I asked as I reached for my wallet from the small pocket of my bag.
“Oh don’t worry about it” she said once again brimming with unnatural confidence. Once more she rummaged inside of her outfit and pulled out a small metal casing that clearly held numerous cards. She popped them out from one side, selected one, and presented it to me in the same way she had her frog friend. “My pass lets me pay for guests as well.”
The pass she was showing me seemed like an aluminum card with a 3d emboss of a symbol that seemed familiar but I just couldn’t pinpoint at the moment. As I pondered on the symbol the bus pulled up to the stop and the doors opened inviting us to board. As the bus lowered itself, Shaina stepped up the stairs and presented her pass to the reader that instead of doing a usual ting or beep it went “ Welcome aboard Lady Shaina” and as it said so the driver turned slightly to face her and tilted his drivers cap before returning to his original position. While not exactly normal behaviour for just getting on a bus i simply assumed it was due to her special pass.
As I followed her onto the bus we headed to the middle seats, I placed my wheeled bag in the railings above, and sat next to her. Once we were seated the bus hummed and began its trek into the city. As we did, I could not avoid looking out of the windows and admiring the city as we drove past it as well as at many of the unique citizens that lived in it. Many appeared mostly human but with small details like horns, tails, or different skins, much like Shaina, but others were very different.
Amongst some of the more unique citizens that we drove past were a lady that instead of legs had a thick and scaly body many meters long trailing behind her, another had skin that was blue in color but also transparent so that you could almost see through her exposed arms, and yet another that had no legs at all and instead was the very image of a ghost floating as she moved. I was so amazed by the immense number of unique appearances of the people living in this town that we quickly arrived at the bus terminal downtown.
The terminal was at ground level with multiple stairs and platforms that lead to the public plaza above which was filled with many people going about their day. Once again I was amazed at the great amount of variety in people's appearance but even more than that was seeing many of them take flight and land in what were clearly designated zones to do so. The plaza was easily the size of a large city block with trees and shaded areas providing places to sit and escape the sun.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
At the center of the plaza was the one thing you could never not notice, a giant blue crystal floating at the center of the plaza right above a small monument. The crystal had a very uneven surface with jagged but not sharp edges, almost like it had been chiseled using another one like it. I realised this was the intermittent flash I had seen when I had first arrived back up at the mountain pass. The monument at its base was a 3d collage of innumerable races all facing outward but extending their hands, or extremities, upwards as if to catch the giant crystal.
I was so lost in my amazement that it wasn’t till we were almost at the bottom of one of the ramps that lead to this plaza that I came back to my senses with Shaina having a smug face that showed that my reaction was exactly what she expected.
“So what did you think?” she asked, still wearing a smug smile.
“Amazing, just...amazing” was all I was able to express my shock and curiosity at this city's denizens. “It's like being placed in a world from a fantasy book.”
“Well this is going to be the new normal for you, but come, we need to get you registered.”
Shaina guided me to a nearby building that oversaw the central plaza with a large but not ostentatious symbol on its front and guided me to it’s lobby.
“Ok so just head to the front desk and tell them you're here visiting and they'll guide you through the process, it should only take about 30 minutes. I’ll be outside on one of the benches.”
I nodded and headed to the front desk which had a clear sign reading Registration. Behind it was a lady who would almost appear normal if not for her shiny grey skin that seemed to reflect its surroundings in a metallic way.
“Hello, I’m here to register.”
“Welcome esteemed guest to our our humble city” she said as she stood up and took a small bow “Will you be registering as a resident or guest?”\
“Um, guest, I'll only be here for about a month.”
“Understood, would you like a particular style of form or will the standard paper one suffice?”
“Um....normal i guess?”
The lady typed something onto the keyboard that was on the other side of the counter that I could clearly hear but not see before gently signaling with her right hand at the end of the counter to my left.
“Please use the computer over there to fill out the form at your leisure and come back to me when you're done.”
I did as I was instructed and walked over to the computer at the end of the counter which was lit up with the message Guest Registration. I touched the screen as it was presented with a pretty normal form, much like you would find when signing up on a website or forum.
“Lets see, Name, Age…..Race? Human I guess…”
I worked my way through the form, filling out everything as properly as I could until I got to Place of Residence During Stay. I brought out the email I had printed out where Hikari had sent this information along with some other minor details. “Let’s see...Dragon Road...#0000…”. After several minutes I finished filling out the digital form and pressed the Submit button at the bottom which then led me back to the front desk.
“Welcome back, allow me to check the information you submitted.” The lady went back to looking at her screen while occasionally typing things herself before turning back to me. “Everything appears to be in order.” As she said so she stood up and brought out what looked like an old paper scroll from the feudal era but just as I was expecting her to unroll it and present something written, instead you grabbed what would have been the edge of the paper and drew out a screen that was clearly rolled up inside the scroll like casing. It was something I was not prepared for, a screen capable of being rolled into a small casing. I had read articles that it was being developed but did not expect it to be used in such a way. “Please place your hand on the screen.” she said as she presented the scroll-like device to me so i could do so.
As I placed my hand on it a clear digital imprint of my fingerprints appeared under where my hand lay. After a few seconds the text Biometric Data Registered appeared and the screen turned off. “We are almost done.” the lady behind the counter said in her calm voice “We just need to take your picture and you’ll be set.” As she said that the sound of a small motor and a small white screen rolled down from the room above me at the same time that the lady brought out a camera and stood to get a good angle of me.
Just as Shaina had said it had only taken around 30 minutes for the registration process. I walked out the same doors I had entered and saw Shaina sitting on a nearby bench dabbling on her phone so I headed in her direction. She turned to my direction as I got close and hopped off the bench.
“So are you all set?” she asked as she hid her phone away within her clothes.
“Seems so, the lady said that i could get a bus pass at the terminal if i wanted one but that was it.”
“OK, we still have at least an hour before Hikari meets up with us so how about some lunch?”
As she mentioned lunch, my stomach, which seemed to have been asleep since I got here, suddenly awoke, making the indistinguishable sound of hunger loud and clear for both Shaina and me to hear. “I guess that's a yes.” Shaina said with a small chuckle and her ever present confidence. “So any preference in food? We can find pretty much anything you want around here.”
“Something light I guess, Hikari said her mom was preparing a welcome home dinner so something like a sandwich or a light soup I guess.”
“Sandwich huh, so more like a cafe than an actual restaurant…..” Shaina went into thought with her arms crossed and her head tilting from side to side clearly pondering from many options till her eyes opened up as if full of inspiration and got a smile on her face. “I think I have the perfect place, I just need to make a call first.” As she said so she once again drew her phone out from within her clothes and started searching for a particular contact. Once she found it she quickly tapped on it and put the phone to her ear. After a couple of seconds someone on the other side answered.
“Hi Eva it’s me...yea i’ve been busy with boring town stuff...she called you too huh...anyway are you busy?...really? Well actually i have a guest with me and we were looking for a place to eat a light lunch...It’s Hikaris friend from out of town...yea the one she tells us about when she comes back from her summer trips...great, so we’ll go in through the back...excellent, see you in a bit…”