A/N: well hello guys, long time no see.as you might have guessed i have been having the finals lately, so i did not have time to work on my series, but as you can see it is NOT DROPPED! and you may  expect a new chapter every 3 day from now on as well. to all those who waited sorry for the wait. tell me of any plot holes you see, or any parts that confuse you. check out down for my rant.

thoughts

*action*

'' speech''

[hrs]

Chapter 7: first friend and braids.

Hag’s eyes widened a bit and he seemed surprised. ‘’a job?’’

‘’a Job’’ I repeated after him.

‘’well that certainly can be arranged’’ he said slowly while looking over at his daughter Gina with a questioning look. She nodded. ‘’ Well as I have already said we are starting this new inn at the town of Ritzwa, and we are certainly lacking on people right now, so we could do with another tavern maid, and Gina is going to need some help with the kitchen, so how about it?’’

Well it certainly did not sound like a bad proposition and beggars cannot be choosers anyway.

I nodded ‘’ I gratefully accept the job. Thank you’’ I said.

‘’oh!’’ Hag snapped back to me from his daughter. He seemed surprised by my behavior.  

‘’is something the matter?’’ I asked feeling a bit self- conscious.

He shrugged a little and rubbed his hand at his head a bit.‘’ no not at all it is just. Well, how do I say this? Your race are not known for their modesty’’ he said.

‘’well I am not my race Hag’’ I replied with a bright smile. ‘’now shall we finalize our deal?’’

‘’oh sorry I do not have any documents on hand right now’’ Hag replied.

‘’ that is not needed, let us shake on it and that will have to do’’ I said brining my hand forth.

‘’ ah I suppose it will’’ Hag said bringing his hand forth and shaking mine firmly. ‘’now about the payment’’.

I knew this part was coming up, I do not know a single thing about the currency of this world. If I simply accept the first price, he offers I might sound ignorant but if I take the price too high than I come off as a greedy person worsening my working environment.

I have to strike a delicate balance here . I decided.

‘’ well how about one greater silver and eight greater coppers a month? With an advance pay of 1 week’’ he said

‘’that sounds awfully close to two greater silvers’’ I said with my hand on the imaginary hairs under my chin.

Hag crossed his arms  ‘’ it does doesn’t it?’’ he said.

We stared into each other’s eyes, neither of us willing to avert theirs first.

He shook his head with a grin. ‘’ two greater silvers it is’’ he said.

‘’all right then if we are finished here I will be going’’ Ralf who was standing on the sidelines finally spoke up. He started going over to the guards from earlier.

‘’ I guess we should be going too’’ Gina announced and pulled the seemingly unwilling Hal along.

‘’ there are some things I should check up on too.’’ Hag announced and moved on.

I was standing there alone now.

I stared over at the horizon a bit. The sun is starting to set, and I assume we will not set off to Ritzwa before tomorrow

Having nothing else to do, I sat down on a rock a bit further away from all the people.

I crossed my legs and brought my hands on my lap, in the traditional lotus position.

I started focusing on my inner body.

I could feel three different type of energy inside me.

The first being the blood energy that I used to heal myself, which is focused inside of the  blood veins running all over my body. The second was a peculiar energy. It was a cool, slow and steady. It permeated every part of my body. From the nails on my toes, all the way to the hairs on my head. It was not uncomfortable at all; rather it felt like an extension of myself, unlike the strange blood energy.

I made a quite observation on how these two energies seemed at their core the same, but their processes felt completely different.

The sound of crushing of leaves and twigs brought me out of my meditation.

Gina was standing in front of me now with a bowl in her hand, and her eyes on the ground. ‘’ I am sorry I did not mean to disturb you’’ she said.

Gina stretched her hand with bowl out for me. ‘’I was just going to give you some vegetable soup we have made, since you do not seem to have anything to eat’’ she said.

I stood up and took the bowl from her hand, and gave her a smile and nodded. ‘’it is all right I was almost done anyway, thank you for the food’’ I said.

I took the spoon and carefully blew the steam away to cool it down, but I hesitated to eat it, I had no idea what sort of reaction ingestion of anything other than blood can cause in my body.

I will not know unless I try .

I slowly sniffed the soup. It smelled rather weak. I could not determine the taste by the smell, but I knew it would taste good.

I brought the spoon into my mouth and I started tasting the soup.

It tasted very bland, although it could have used a little bit more spice, to bring out some taste.

Gina was inspecting me closely now, her eyes squinted, and her brows knitted.

‘’ is something the matter?’’ I said.

‘’oh!’’ she jumped a little. ‘’sorry I did not mean to do that, it’s just a habit I have when thinking about something, I get absorbed into and I space out.’’ She said, with her cheeks reddening a little.

I leaned forward a bit ‘’so what were you thinking about’’ I said.

She seemed a bit hesitant before she spoke up ‘’I heard a lot about elves, and I got the image of them being arrogant and self-centered people’’ she said.

I brought my hand slowly to my chin, as was my old thinking habit only to find nothing there. I brought my hand down frowning. ‘’ is that so?’’ I said

Her eyes widened a bit, and she shook her head frantically. ‘’ oh no I didn’t mean it like that at all, you are actually nice and very polite’’ she said

oh I think she thought she offended me and made me sad

I could not help but chuckle.

She stopped and blinked a few times, then she  started chuckling as well.

‘’ you have a very beautiful smile ’’ she said smiling.

I felt some heat rising to my cheeks. ‘’thank you’’ I said.

She brought her hand fourth and took a strand on my hair in her hand. ‘’and your hair is very silky and white, just like a spider’s web’’ she then looked down on her own fiery hair. ‘’mine is so curly and weird. Nobody in my entire town has the same hair as me’’ she said frowning.

I looked at her red hair, and I smiled. ‘’I think your hair is very beautiful,’’ I said.

She could not help but let out a huge grin. ‘’I think you and I will get along well Alfis’’ she said bringing her hand around my head and giving me a hug.

I awkwardly patted her on the back. I was no used to getting hugs, or getting compliments. It felt … nice.

*screech*

I jumped up looking behind me in the forest, and my eyes started darting everywhere. ‘’what is it?’’ I said.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Gina suddenly brought her hands to her hips and put on a very stern face‘’ who gave you that awful hair braid?’’ she asked

I could not help but wince. that is what surprised her so much. ‘’ I did it myself.’’ I said looking down.

I was a man in my last life, it is not my fault I do not know a thing about braiding hair

Her eyes widened, and her mouth hanged open. ‘’you did… THAT?’’ she said.

My eyes were looking to the side, I open my mouth slightly and replied ‘’yes’’

Loud laughter start echoing through the forest.

‘’ hahaha’’ Gina started laughing, while holding her stomach and crumpling on the ground.

I had to wait for a few minutes for her to finish.

She finally stood up and straightened out her clothes, and coughed a bit, but I could still her face spasming. ‘’ I am sorry about that, it is just you give off such a dependable and elegant aura I never thought you would have trouble braiding your hair’’ she chuckled a bit. ‘’ I guess elves are not all perfect after all’’ she grinned a bit, and nodded her head as if she made a decision about something.

‘’ come with me.’’ She said, while taking her arm around mine and then she started dragging me into the circle of wagons.

She took us beside a campfire with a cauldron, where she sat down on a box and made me sit on her feet with my back turned.

She started with straightening my hair and getting rid of the braid.

She sat up from the box and sat in front of me. ‘’ ok Alfis, first I am going to show you how to do this.’’ She said. She brought up her own her hair using it an example and showed me how to braid. Then she turned me over, sat on the box again, and started braiding my hair.

We were quiet like that for a while, her braiding a wide portion of my hair from behind and me braiding a few strands across my left shoulder.

‘’hey Alfis’’ Gina said.

I peeked up at her over my left shoulder. ‘’yes Gina’’ I said.

She seemed hesitant about something, opening her mouth and closing it a few times, but then she seemed to have made up her mind and her eyes focused on mine. ‘Thank you for saving Hal today. He told me about you carrying him and Ralf out of the gray land and saving them from a monster’’ She was quite for a time but then she spoke up again. ‘’I told him that this mission was too easy. Nobody would put such a huge reward for a simple bronze quest, but he wouldn’t listen to me, you know how men are, he said that he will be all right if Ralf went with him, but you know how that ended up.’’ Her lips started quivering, and her eyes watered ‘’ if you were not there I don’t- I don’t know what would have happened to him.’’ She started tearing up at the end barely finishing the sentence.

I did not know what to do, to help my new friend, but I just could not sit there and see her cry like this, so I turned to her and I reached my right hand over and enveloped her left hand with it, while I used my left hand to wipe off her tears.

I gazed into her eyes with a gentle look and I cupped her chin with my hand ‘’it is all right, he is safe now’’ I smiled.

She nodded and started wiping her eyes. ‘’ thank you Alfis’’ she nodded and smiled back. ‘’ now turn around and let me finish’’ she said.

I nodded glad to see her back to normal.

what an honest person, it is rare to meet someone like her in a world where everyone suppresses and hides his or her emotions behind a false smile. A small smile crossed my face . Well at least that is how it was in my old world this is a brand new beginning, a completely new world for me to explore and experience. . As this thought crossed my mind, the small smile transformed into a full-blown grin.

The fire started dimming out after a while, and Gina seemed to be just about finished.

Gina clapped her hands together with a wide smile on her face signaling her being finished. ‘’there!’’ she said.

I could not help but sigh in relief by the thick vine like braid that I felt on the blades of my shoulders. Now I was certain that it would not come loose no matter what and it will not get in my way while fighting, but the main reason I was relieved is that now I did not need to cut my beautiful hair. ‘’ thank you very much Gina’’ I said while holding her hands and squeezing them a bit to show my appreciation.

She did not answer back quickly so I looked at her a bit confused. ‘’is something the matter?’’ I said.

‘’hmm?’’ she saw up at me and shook her head. ‘’no, not at all I just got distracted a little.’’ She nodded and smiled’’ you are welcome Alfis, say, do you want to sleep in my tent tonight seeing as how you do not have one with you?’’ she said.

I stopped breathing for a second, and my whole body froze.

Gina tilted her head a little ‘’is something wrong?’’ she said

I shook my head a little. ‘’no not at all’’ I said.

Alright you are a woman now, Kran… no Alfis you have to woman up!.

I gave her a nod ‘’yes I would like that very much Gina’’ I said.

She took my hand and started leading me inside a small tent on the side of the wagon I have seen her with earlier today. She went inside while I stood outside a bit.

She peeked from inside and looked at me ‘’ hmm, come in’’ she side.

It was a small tent with two mattresses beside each other although there really was not any kind of pillow to speak of it sure beat sleeping outside.

I could see clearly, but Gina had some trouble orienting herself in the dark so I help her to her mattress. Then I got into my mattress and laid down on my back, and started planning what to do with the night when Gina spoke up. ‘’ happy dreams Alfis’’ she said. What she said was confusing at first but I decided to go with it anyway.

‘’ happy dreams Gina’’ I replied.

A/N:

well some of you might have noticed this but there is a huge style change this chapter, i changed from the usual 'through the window' perspective into a more immersive style. this came out when i read the Steven king book on how to write better. i found some really good tips and i implemented them.

this chapter really doesn't have much description or narrative but lot of dialogue which i am building myself up in. i have set an average of about 1000 for myself so the average chapter release will be 1 every 3 days! amazing eh?  

but i felt a bit unsatisfied as a reader with this chapter ( i am my first reader guys, remember that) because after such a long while i  would have expected myself to come back with a BOOM (meaning lots of plot development ,intrigue and action) but as a writer i find that i have to build that up so i can't really do that.... FOR NOW! but once i am done with all this world building ( ok i am lying here, my world building will not be over anytime soon, because there won't be any info dumps) and setting up some tension and hype, i will hopefully pull off some pretty cool action.

anyway for now i might seem a bit slow, but thats just me testing out this new style and getting used to it, so please bear with me.

anyway you know what i want... oh you forgot? well ITS COMMENTS! GIVE ME SOME!!