All I write is fantasy.
None of it is real,
none of it will ever be real.
And yet it exists.
This world is full of wonder,
never to be real.
Yet it exists.
Saji wandered through the twilight of the street. The sky was dark, the asphalt of the street wet from the rain earlier this evening. Countless lights of varying colors were reflected in the small puddles. Numerous advertisements filled the night with their alluring brightness.
One sign marked the location of a popular fast food shop.
Another lured bypassing people into a paradise of cheap clothing.
They were like moths attracted by the attractive colors of hundreds of shining advertisement signs.
Saji had no interest in them. She had already bought all the clothes she needed, fulfilled every desire she could fulfill at places like this. No, that wasn’t true. There was one last thing left for her to do. She had to satisfy her desire for a strong drink and a small meal.
She looked around. The fast food shop looked fine, but they had no alcoholic drinks in these kinds of shops. The small grocery store had some inexpensive wine or beer, but it felt cheap drinking on the street and it was pretty cold outside.
In the end her eyes fell onto a more minimalistic shop, hidden between the bight fronts of two shops of major fashion brands. A light blue neon sign that seemed to have come from the 70ties said:
A Dragon’s Dream
She felt like she had heard of this shop. If she remembered correctly it was one of these urban legends produced by drunk teenagers that swore they had seen supernatural things inside.
If her memory served right, there was a rumor that the shop sometimes disappeared or that certain people could not find it again after visiting it once. It would only appear on wet and cool summer evening or something.
Well it was summer, and the evening was wet and humid from the recent rain. So maybe the stories were actually true…
On the other hand, they also said that there were fantastic beasts hidden inside and beautiful nude fairies that would seduce you, so it was more likely to be a coincident.
In truth 90 percent of urban legends could be traced back to the excessive drug consume of certain underaged individuals that felt cool doing illegal activities.
“People really shouldn’t do drugs…”, Saji muttered with a small grin on her lips. Despite not believing in the stories she heard she felt intrigued.
She thought for a moment. It would be fun to visit an urban legend and people said that the drinks and food inside were really good.
There really was no reason not to enter the shop…
Saji made her decision and directly headed towards the black front door of the shop. There were no windows to the outside, only a single black door and a blue sign saying, ‘A Dragon’s Dream’. She hesitated for a moment, then she pulled at the door knob and entered through the doorframe.
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From the inside a faint smell of strong alcohol and food entered her nose, followed by the faint sound of jazz music. The room was dimly lit, but it was enough to clearly see the interior of the pub.
There were about ten or eleven tables of which four were occupied by customers, a bar counter was located somewhat further inside the room. Hundreds of different bottles crammed on the shelves behind the counter.
At first glance Saji could tell that most were high quality brands worth multiple hundreds of euros. Her expression became awkward.
This wasn’t something she could afford with her meager allowance as a student of the local high school…
She was about to turn around and leave the pub when suddenly a voice came from behind the counter. The bartender, an elegant young man with dark brown hair, called out.
“Young lady, please stay! The drinks will be on me!”, his voice travelled through the room.
A few of the guests looked up and spotted Saji’s retreating figure. Muffled sounds of laughter rang out.
Saji lifted her eyebrows. She was slightly embarrassed by the blunt expressage of the bartender’s intention to pick her up and the humorous looks thrown at her by the other guests. On the other hand, how often would she have the chance to drink expensive alcohol on another person’s tab?
She slowly turned around and walked to the counter. A coquettish smile curled on her lips.
The young man smiled back friendly.
“What would the young miss want to drink?”, he asked as she sat down on the barstool.
Saji grinned.
“I will trust your judgment.”, she knew how to make the most profit out of occasions like this.
The young man laughed.
“Fine then!”, he immediately grabbed a glass and turned around to choose a few different brewages from the huge number of bottles that filled the entire wall behind the counter. He chose three different bottles, each of them clearly extremely expensive and quickly mixed them into the glass.
A moment later a light brown liquid with a large ice cube floating inside it was placed in front of Saji. The man reached beneath the counter and pulled out a plate with some snacks on it.
“I guess the lady are hungry?”, he asked gently smiling.
Saji smiled appreciating and nodded.
“Very.”, she honestly was impressed by the young man’s mannerism.
He placed the plate in front of her.
“Sooo… what has lead a young lady like you into this shabby place?”, his voice had a teasing sound to it.
Saji looked amused.
“So, you won’t even hide your intentions?”, her grin was flirtish.
The bartender shrugged his shoulder. “Why should I hide the fact that I am picking up a beautiful girl?”
Saji laughed at the compliment.
“Won’t the owner be angry at you?”, she asked curious.
He grinned. “I doubt so. I AM the owner of this small pub.”
Saji didn’t quite believe him.
“You are?!”, she looked at him doubtfully.
“Sure I am.”
He turned away to make a second drink for himself.
“I guess you heard what they say about this shop?”, he continued to talk even while choosing the drink.
“A pub that appears and disappears in accordance to the weather and is filled with mystical beings?”, Saji answered surprised about the sudden question.
He suddenly turned around. A bright smile on his face.
“EXACTLY!”
Saji was seriously weirded out.
“Em… excuse me?”, she shuddered, clearly feeling uncomfortable.
The young man blinked.
“Ups, sorry I guess I got a little to exited. It’s been some time since I did something like this…”, he suddenly began to mutter.
“When was it again….no that’s to long ago, there must have been another one…. Yeah maybe after that… it should have been in 1768…”, he was talking about things Saji couldn’t quite put a finger on.
“Anyway!”, seemed to have come to a conclusion.
“It’s been quite a while since I since I did this, to be exact it’s been over three hundred years and I was quite young back then, so I’m not quite sure how to do things like this, but I will just be blunt.
I am a god, and everything you heard about this pub is true!”, he theatrically flicked his fingers and a flame appeared on his hand, dancing around it in small circles.
Saji just blankly stared at him. “Uh…This… is a nice trick and all…, but I think I should go now…”, she forced an awkward smile.
He blinked for a moment.
“A trick?”, he stared at her.
“You think this is a trick?!!”, his voice got louder as he asked indignantly.
At this point Saji really wanted to leave this place with it’s extremely weird owner. She honestly wondered if he wasn’t a psychopath. Saji was about to stand up when she suddenly felt someone tap at her shoulder. From behind her an elderly voice rang out.
“Excuse me could you please turn around? I don’t think you have understood Ji’s point…”
Saji slowly turned around.
She looked right at the head of the Asian version of a dragon.
Long white whiskers danced in the air as it’s body coiled in the air. Its red mane fluttered despite the lack of wind. She could see it’s clawed front limbs and the sharp teeth inside its mouth.
A shrill cry emerged from her mouth.
Behind her the bartender called Ji laughed merrily.
“Welcome to a god’s pub!”