With all of my guests finally inside it became quite apparent to me just how many friends I had made in the short time I've been in this world. While certainly I have made many more acquaintances than represented here this group really does represent everyone I truly love and trust in this world. Well with a few exceptions like the prince and undead anyway. But who knows? In time they too might end up being genuine friends. I certainly could hope so.
In total the head count was eighteen people which actually seemed like a bit much even for my rather large house main room. However no one really seemed to mind so that freed me from worrying about it too much. With so many folks involved it also became awkward for me to introduce everyone myself so I allowed them to all intermingle and get introductions out of the way themselves. In the mean time I helped Miya's parents get some drinks passed around so everyone had sometime.
By the time everyone had introduced themselves and settled down with sometime to sip upon it was time for me to announce exactly what the plan for the night was. No one here was a stranger to gatherings, especially those of higher class, though this was going to be a party unlike any this world had seen before. So without further delay I walked up in front of the fireplace on the west wall and stood upon a stool there.
While standing there I took a moment before speaking to look out over everyone that was gathered here. Miya and mother were sitting on the first of the large couches alongside the Mettlelin wife and son. Both family's fathers were standing somewhat awkwardly together nearby with Timothy's father trying their best to have small talk. The innkeeper couple were sitting on nearby chairs with Turshok clearly fascinated with the chance to speak to one of the royal family. On the other couch sat Timothy somewhat shyly with Maisy beside him and Ferherlyn as well. That was of course also where the two undead were as well. Neske sitting upright and closer to her master as Timothy tried to engage everyone in conversation. Tromly was on the floor at the nearby bookshelf with a very curious fairy fluttering alongside him.
Because standing up here was going to quickly make me feel ever increasingly awkward I cleared my throat and got everyone's attention.
“Everyone can I have your attention please?”
Upon hearing my voice all the various conversations around the living room came to a halt and all eyes turned to focus upon me. It was actually pretty nerve wracking as public speaking was always something I avoided whenever possible.
Miya could see my nervousness and smiled warmly from her seat.
“Of course Jenna! No need to be all nervous. We're all you're friends here right?”
My high priestess's encouragement made me feel better inexplicably. Although not totally everyone here was my friend the few that weren't certainly weren't my enemies. So with my newfound bravery I straightened up my posture and smiled.
“Yes well.” I started looking down for one last moment of hesitation. Then looking up I continued. “As you all know I've invited you here for a house party. Celebrating New Years.” As I spoke I looked around the room. “While you've all certainly been to gatherings with food and drinks I've also hoped to try playing a few fun games from my world called 'board games.' Also hopefully the music I had planned will work.” I momentarily looked at the instruments before looking back at everyone. “I should also mention Flavio. He's the hydra in the castle garden.” I put my hands together. “Please don't go near there as I'm still not sure how he'll be around people. Other than that I hope you have fun tonight!”
There was a collection of light applause following my little speech alongside various people giving me their assurance they would enjoy themselves or thanking me for inviting them. Honestly it made me feel pretty good inside. So with that feeling of butterflies in my stomach I stepped down from the stool. How surprised I was to be suddenly accosted by Miya who stood up and jumped over to give me a big hug, much to the shock of many in the room who were less familiar with me.
“Oh you adorable little goddess you!” Miya said with a big grin as she embraced me. After she released me she looked down at me. “You said something about a small dinner before too didn't you? Did you want some help getting that finished?”
I stepped back and readjusted my clothing trying my best to look dignified after that. It wasn't that I minded at all but more so that it would surely alter my image in the minds of the others. A brief look at Timothy's face told me that he was actually pretty jealous of how Miya got to act around me.
“Right well...” I said recovering my words. “It's not really something we have to prepare much. Its just in the secret hiding place and once I get it out its sort of a self serve dinner. You know. People come and get some when they want to sort of like the snacks.”
Jackson was the next to speak as he picked up one of the mini pretzels from the bowl in front of him.
“I had figured these were for the evening. I have just never seen so called 'snacks' as strange as these before.”
Looking over at him I noticed that not he nor anyone else had really eaten any of the various foods I had put out yet. Well that was besides Tromly and Salferia anyway who were staring at me with big eyes as their faces were stuffed full. Something which really wasn't that much of a challenge for someone as small as a fairy.
I huffed and put my hands on my hips as I looked around at everyone. A hint of frustration in my voice.
“Well come on people!” I exclaimed. “I put out all these snacks for a reason! Go on then and eat!” Then I turned and started walking towards the kitchen with Miya following behind. “I'll go get out the more proper stuff now. And I expect you to all have some!”
Even though I didn't mean that as a threat it sort of came out that way. Thankfully however almost everyone here was used to my mannerisms and was not afraid or anything. I did overhear the prince asking Jackson about it though with the innkeep reassuring him it was all fine. Neske and likely Barthenor were a bit nervous until Timothy smiled and told them he was sure I didn't mean them.
Leaving everyone in the main room to their conversations I walked into the kitchen with Miya, now only the large counter separating us from them. As much as I wanted to focus in to what they were saying I instead focused on Miya. Of course I could still heard everything said with my goddess hearing but I just didn't pay much attention.
“So what did you make Jenna?” Miya asked standing beside me as I stood at the oven. “This oven from your world still fascinates me even after you explained how it works.”
I let out a small sigh and opened one of the counter's drawers, pulling out a pair of oven mitts and putting them on. They were covered with flowers and bees. With my hands thus protected unnecessarily I opened the oven and reached inside.
“I made a ham and cornbread.” I replied. “Also some chili. Its beans and meat stew sort of.”
As I spoke I pulled out each of these dishes and put them up on the counter, something I had to stand on my tippy toes to do due to my height. Miya at first moved to help me but seeing the steam coming off of them decided not to as she would clearly get burned.
“What do you need me to do?” Miya asked.
I opened up another drawer and got out serving and eating utensils. While doing this I pointed up to a cabinet high above my head.
“I didn't really need your help but thanks. If you want open up that door and get out the plates in there.”
Miya nodded with a smile. “Sure!” She then opened up the door and pulled out a large stack of white plates. “They feel strangely light. What are they made from?”
I reached up and she handed them over to me. Then I put them on the countertop alongside the food.
“It's called plastic.” I answered. “It would be pretty hard to explain now...”
Miya gave me a pat on the head. “That's fine Jenna.”
Trying to hide my blush I patted down my hair and straightened my shoulders. I turned to look into the living room but with my height I couldn't see over the counter. Instead I looked up at Miya and blushed a bit more.
“Why don't you tell everyone the food's ready? Please?”
Miya let out a giggle and nodded with a big smile.
“Of course my mighty goddess!” She then looked out into the main room and picked up a serving ladle. As she smacked it on the countertop she yelled out. “Everyone dinner's ready! Come get it!”
The rather loud announcement caught me off guard when I shouldn't have expected anything different from someone who grew up on a farm. My blush faded as I let out a sigh, a big grin on my own face looking up at her. I really was lucky to have her as a friend.
Miya then looked down at me beside her.
“If you want Jenna I can help dish things out.” She grinned a little. “You are a bit short to reach and I doubt you'll grow to full size in here.”
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I let out a sigh and crossed my arms over my chest as I rolled my eyes.
“Fine fine. You can handle things here.” I then let a small smile on my face. “Thanks ok?”
Miya nodded. “Not a problem.”
With things here being handled by Miya I walked back around the counter and back into the living room. A few people had already stood up and were coming over to see what I had made, the innkeepers first among them.
Illena was first to walk over to the counter and look down at the food in facination.
“This all smells so wonderful goddess.” She said. “What is this yellow bread looking dish?”
I stopped next to her and looked up.
“That's cornbread. It's made from cornmeal.” I brought my left hand up to my chin in thought. “I'm like one-hundred percent sure corn exists in this kingdom.”
Turshok was actually standing with the innkeep couple. Not too surprising considering nobility's itch for all manner of indulgent food.
“Corn is something we have in Celeduun yes.” He said. “Though it is not very widespread as its not native to the continent and is not as easy to grow here as in its homeland.”
I nodded knowingly. The age I came from was filled with all manner of available foods whereas that was not the norm for most of the history of even my world.
“Well I'm sure you'll like it!” I claimed excitedly. “It's actually pretty sweet. Anyway while ya'll get some grub why I don't try turning on that music?”
After saying that I walked across the room past all the seating to where the inanimate animated instruments were waiting. There were various representatives from all the major groups: woodwinds, percussion, strings, and even brass. They were all sitting there on the floor as I stood there wondering exactly how I'd manage to pull this off. Really what this entailed was asking Sub-chan to take over manipulating them like puppets from music in my memory. Knowing this I closed my eyes to double check she was ok with that.
While my eyes were closed I saw Ferherlyn actually stand up and walk over to me. He seemed to be curious to the spell I was making with my hands as there were multicolored magic circles in the air above the instruments.
Sub-chan was on board still thankfully and I opened my eyes just as the old man spoke.
“What manner of spell is that goddess?” Ferherlyn asked. “You mean to animate these I assume?”
As I finished weaving the magic I replied to him without turning around.
“Yeah. Just some simple music I hope.”
Ferherlyn nodded and put his right hand on his chin.
“Animating objects is a complicated magic. Much less instruments which require great dedication to program them with each note.”
A small smirk appeared on my face as I finished my spell not willing to mention my subconscious.
“Yeah well I have cheats.”
Barthenor had been clearly listening in and his hallow voice came over from the couch.
“It does not surprise me that a goddess would have short cuts unavailable to mortals.”
I turned around with a smug look still and looked over to the lich with a shrug of my shoulders. Behind me the instruments came to life and began playing some classical music in a rather quiet volume. It was just enough to be that pleasant background noise that would preside over the otherwise too quiet room. Much to my delight the sound was already helping everyone relax. Music had a way of doing that.
While I was looking over the room again I noticed both Tromly and Salferia looking at a magazine on the floor. They were talking to each other and arguing about something. Curious I walked over to them and saw they had one of the copies of a magazine called National Geographic. All these on my shelf were completely fabricated of course based on whatever I thought might fit in one as I didn't actually have any issues memorized.
Seeing my approach out of the corner of his eye Tromly turned to look up at me standing over him.
“Oh! Goddess!”
I had my hands on my hips.
“Something wrong?”
Tromly sighed and sat up on the floor looking down at the magazine.
“Its just I can't read it.” He said in disappointment. “And this fairy keeps telling me I'm wrong about all the animals in it.”
Salferia had her hands behind her back as she fluttered next to the boy's head and she looked up at me with indignation.
“You sure have weird things in your books.” She said. “Not that this dumb human can appreciate them.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed before dropping my arms to my sides again.
“It's not a book it's a magazine.” I replied. “You can't read it because it's written in English. It's one of the languages from my world.”
Tromly looked down at the magazine with renewed fascination.
“Wow cool!” He explained.
I leaned down over his shoulder with my hands behind my back.
“Oh and if you ever open a book and hear someone asking you to let them out never do what they say. Understand?”
Ferherlyn was still standing nearby and looked down at me with a questioning look.
“That is an oddly specific word of advice goddess. Should we find such people in books here?”
Elentra was halfway listening to the conversation as well as mothers were prone to do when their children were involved. She looked over at me with a more curious than worried look.
“There aren't dangerous books in your home are there goddess dear?”
Before replying I stood back up straight and put my left hand on my hip.
“No there aren't.” I replied. “It's just a general rule to live by. If any of those people's books were in my house they'd be locked up somewhere not out for anyone to get a hold of.”
This was only making everyone more curious and even Salferia flew up into my face demanding answers. The little fairy was getting more comfortable around me which I wasn't sure was a good thing or bad.
“Now that sounds like the sort of thing I expect a goddess to get up to!” She exclaimed. “Now tell about this people with magic books! Come on now!”
Tromly had turned on the floor and was looking up at me with excited eyes.
“Yes please goddess!”
I looked around and noticed everyone else was looking over at me expectantly now. So after letting out a deep sigh I shook my head and gave in. I shrugged my shoulders and stepped back towards the bookshelf.
“Fine. Fine!” I crossed my arms over my stomach. “There was this race of humans living on this version of Earth called the D'ni. They could write books that either created worlds or connected to existing worlds. Anyway it was like a whole web of portals between worlds using linking books that made up an entire civilization.” I sighed and shrugged. “It didn't end well as you can imagine, what with the nature of magic leading to its abuse.” I then looked up thoughtfully. “I'm pretty sure a small amount of them survived so they didn't go extinct at least.”
Everyone was quite amazed by my story and looked at each other like they couldn't believe what they had just heard. It was a pretty unbelievable story after all and at the moment I couldn't even remember if it was a fictional story from my world or had actually happened. The curse of my foggy memories.
Quarely was looking down at the floor and spoke first.
“Absolutely fascinating. I can only imagine what kind of marvels such a civilization would have.”
Ferherlyn had his right hand on his chin again, a sense of almost childlike wonder in his eyes.
“I agree. What I would give to speak to one of their mages.”
Looking over to the couch I could see Barthenor was looking quite interested himself but remained silent in his thoughts. Next to him Neske was fidgeting but was otherwise behaving.
Sudden laughter like crackling leaves arose as Salferia tumbled backwards in the air.
“What dumb asses!” She cried between laughs. “Leave it to humans to mess with reality and pay the price!”
Timothy was just coming back with a small plate of food from the dining area and shot a frown the fairy's way. He then scolded her like the sort of babysitter he had turned into for her.
“Hey! That wasn't very nice Salferia!”
With a devious grin on her face Salferia leaned back enough in the air to look at Timothy. Her look was saying “I don't care.” She was probably going to say it too but before she could I said something.
“Well now that there's some music why don't we try one of those games I mentioned before?”
Much to my relief this did relieve the mounting tension that had been brewing thanks to the mischievous fairy. Everyone was very interested in anything I suggested due to the nature of it coming from not only a goddess, but a goddess from another world entirely. Thus with everyone's permission I got two of the board games I had made off the bookshelf and brought them over to the dinner table.
Due to how many people were here I figured it would be a good idea to set up two groups with a game and sort of bounce back and forth between them teaching them how to play. That way most everyone would get a chance to try playing one. It wasn't necessary for me to play anyway and I was the only one who knew how to. The instructions were printed in English of course.
Thus the evening and night passed by quicker than anyone hoped it would. There was the playing of games, music, eating, drinking, and joyous conversations that would always be remembered. I even tried singing at one point, mainly due to being pressured into it, and I quickly became too embarrassed to continue. Miya had no such reservations however and her singing was loved by everyone.
That was until it got close to midnight. This was a New Year's party after all. Once the hour came near and the night had winded down besides, with everyone beginning to tire from the hours of merriment together, I invited everyone to see fireworks. It was a tradition I would continue to propagate with my magic until science could catch up and make it more widespread. They were also just something I loved completely.
So we all went outside my home without a home and then through a portal in the front yard. Thus we found ourselves out in the real world standing on a ridge overlooking the vast Teforh forest. All around the bitter cold winds of winter were countered by the radiant warmth of my aura which I made large enough to encompass everyone, though they still wore their winter clothing as a precaution.
There we all stood looking up into the deep darkness of the infinite cosmos, the sparkle of the endless sea of stars a brilliant technicolor display greater than any firework could hope to be. However the marvels of science were undeniably beautiful in their own way, even at the lesser scale they were. The fireworks I had set up exploded with fire and thunder, illuminating the night and forest below with flashes of colorful power.
I stood at the back of the group of humans, my hands inside my coat pockets as I perched myself on a large stone. Beside me stood Miya, her body quite close to my own as she looked up at the exploding display in the sky. The colors lighting up her face made me marvel at the human spirit, that this young woman could be so at ease even knowing what I was.
“You know Miya.” I said looking up at the sky. “There's going to be more goddesses now.”
Miya replied to me without turning her gaze from above.
“Yes. But only one I consider my best friend.”
The profoundness of that statement hit me harder than I expected and it caused me to stumble on the rock I was standing on. My balance was quickly recovered however and I turned to look at Miya instead as with my perch we were on the same level. I had to be careful to not allow the bubbling emotions leak into my voice.
“There's only one human I'd consider my best friend.” I replied. “You were the first one I ever met here after all.”
Miya finally turned and looked down at me. There was a warm smile on her face and I could tell there was some amount of emotions swirling around inside her as well. That was clear from the shape of her soul and while I could have looked inside her mind to see exactly what she was thinking it was disrespectful to do such a thing.
“I love you dear Jenna.” Miya said reaching out and taking me into an embrace.
Now buried into Miya's body I simply returned the hug, the tears forming in my eyes now hidden from view and thus finally allowed out. As the last of the fireworks exploded overhead we were left in the starlit darkness of the night. Truly the future was filled with uncertainty and terror. But if my father was really looking out over me it was clear this young woman was the greatest gift I could receive in this world. Even if we were to become separated in the future we could always hold a deeper connection through my goddess powers than any other being. There was excitement and joy in the future as well and sometimes you needed someone there to remind you of that.
“I love you too Miya.”