I should’ve been wearing a leather jacket with a motorcycle helmet held in my hand. At least that’s how I felt when I entered the entertainment room. It was a full blown biker bar. There was a counter with stools that stretched the far length of the room and had bottles upon bottles on shelves behind it. Televisions hung from the ceiling at regular intervals, although none of them were on. On the other walls were biker memorabilia from street signs to license plates as well as different kinds of art depicting highways and canyons and eagles and anything else that might’ve signified freedom. There was also a random pinball machine tucked away in a corner. And of course, just like every biker bar in movies and on tv, there were several pool tables near each other with low lighting. The only thing that the bar didn’t have was people, except for a cloaked figure behind the bar, and a woman at one of the pool tables.

The woman looked mostly human except for the pointed ears which were easy to see from her tied back hair. The lighting in the room made it hard to see what color exactly. She was lining up her next shot when she saw me staring. I expected her to say something, but all she did was nod before hitting the cue ball and sinking one of the other balls into the pocket.

I nodded back and walked over to the bar. As I got closer the cloak turned around and revealed nothing. It was a floating cloak, but there was nothing wearing it. No head, no eyes, no body of any kind.

“What can I get for you?” the cloak asked. The voice was wispy and echoed.

“Um what do you have?”

“Anything. I can make any drink from any realm.”

I looked at some of the bottles. They were all different colors but none of them had anything written on them. Did this place have something against words or did they not know how to read?

“Like alcoholic drinks?”

“If you wish.”

“Do you require an ID?” I smiled as I said it.

“No.”

My mother was strictly against alcohol in the house and if she had ever caught me drinking it, she would’ve slapped me straight to the moon. But I was in high school and some of my friends bragged about how their parents didn’t have a problem with them drinking from time to time. Like all people my age, it was something I wanted to try.

“How about a beer then.”

“What kind?” The cloak asked.

I shrugged and said the first brand I could think of. “Budweiser.”

The cloak bounced once in what I thought was a nod and waved part of itself on the counter. A brown bottle appeared on the bar with the lid already twisted off. Bubbles formed at the top and threatened to spill over.

I grabbed the bottle and gestured to the cloak. “Cheers.”

I gulped the beer as if it was a bottle of water on a hot afternoon and choked as I tried to keep it down. It was so bitter that it made me want to rip out my own tongue from the taste alone. After I managed to swallow it, I slammed the bottle back on the counter and spent the next minute gagging and breathing hard.

“Would you like something else?” the cloak asked after I had regained my composure.

“Sweet tea. Cold.”

“Of course.” The cloak took the beer away and replaced it with a clear glass of amber liquid. A lemon wedge was stuck to the top.

I took a smaller careful sip this time. The sweetness of the drink pushed away the taste of the alcohol. I took a longer sip and gave a satisfied sigh as I put it down.

“Little worm can’t handle the hard stuff.” The woman who had been playing pool took a seat next to me and knocked on the bar. “How about some Saprolin Wine? Fresh from the Berry Oak.” The cloak waved itself across the bar and a strange triangular glass appeared filled with a drink that glowed with different vibrant colors. She took it and drank it down with three long gulps. “Ah, just like home.” The woman then looked at me and clapped me on the back. “Names Venomgrin.”

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“I’m Milo.”

“Milo. Milo.” Venomgrin repeated my name as if it was the first time sounding it out. “Doesn’t sound like a name that would suit you. Now Gloomspire. That’d fit you. I could call you Gloomy for short.”

“Milo’s just fine.”

Venomgrin smiled, showing a row of sharpened teeth. “Alright. You can call me Grinny for short though. I know my full name is a mouthful.”

I nodded and took a sip of my tea. “So where are you from?”

Grinny tilted her head towards me. “An odd first question. Most others skip all that and go straight to asking me if I want to go jump in the bed with them.” I spit out my sip of tea and felt my cheeks go warm. Grinny howled with laughter. “You really are a little worm. I’m only joking with you Milo.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “How about this? You know how to play billiards. I heard it's an Earth game.”

“I’ve played a little.” My friend Eric had a pool table in his basement. Whenever we played the games took forever because he always tried to pull off a trick shot he had no business attempting. Needless to say, I won most of those games thanks to the bold strategy of playing the game normally.

Grinny stood up. “Let’s play, and then you can ask me all the questions you want. Better yet, let’s make a game out of that too. Every time one of us gets a ball in the hole, we can ask the other a question. This is the kind of thing we did back home as well. We loved our games.”

I agreed and stood up as well.

“Here.” The cloak said. He produced a pool stick. It was red and white with a candy cane pattern on it. I took it and thanked him.

Grinny racked up the balls and removed the triangle. “You want to go first?” I shook my head. “Alright.”

Grinny leaned in low and with a practiced grace struck the cue ball. It rocketed towards the rack and broke up the triangle with a loud crack. All the balls spreaded out in a random pattern and clacked into each other. The nine ball went into one of the center pockets almost followed by the eight ball which would’ve been an instant victory for me. Once the balls settled Grinny let out a breath. “That was close. First question. What deal did you make to end up here?”

My cheeks went warm again. “I uh, sold my soul for my driver’s license.”

Grinny took the chalk square and rubbed it on the end of her stick. “What’s a driver’s license?”

“Oh, it’s a document, that gives you permission to drive a car?”

“A car? You mean like the vehicles we’re given to traverse this place?”

“Yeah, exactly. Don’t they have something similar where you’re from?”

Leaning down, Grinny lined up behind the cue ball. “No. We have ways of traveling, but nothing compared to those things.” She struck the ball towards the twelve and missed it by an inch hitting the two ball instead. “As for me I’m here because I wanted to save my sister’s life and they promised me a cure.”

“I thought we were playing for answers.”

Grinny smiled and stood up. “We are, but I figured if we shared answers to the same question, it would save time repeating each other.”

“That makes sense.” I moved around the table and leaned down to hit the cue ball towards the two ball which was moved closer to the hole thanks to Grinny. I didn’t hit it as hard as I wanted, but I managed to sink the ball in. I smiled. “So where are you from?”

“We call my realm Solara-Solarem. It means Day Sun and Night Sun in my language. On the Day Sun side, it is all forests. The Night Sun side has endless desserts. I was born on the Night Sun side.”

I leaned down and aimed for the four ball. “My planet is called Earth. It’s a mix of a lot of things. Forests, deserts, oceans, large cities and lots of people.” I missed and the cue ball ended up in the corner pocket.

Grinny picked the cue ball up and placed it behind the nine. “Sounds like an interesting place. Especially if they have games like this.”

For the next hour we played a mediocre game of pool, missing almost every other shot. But in that time I did learn a fair bit about Venomgrin. She was the second oldest of three brothers and six sisters. The sister she had mentioned earlier was named Pestigrin and she was infected with a disease that hardened her skin. I tried to give her condolences, but she waved them off saying that actions were the only thing her sister needed. And as far as she knew, her sister was already cured thanks to the deal she made. To me that seemed a little unfair since according to Solomon I needed to completely make it through Nova to earn my license, but I didn’t say anything because it sounded petty.

In return I told her about my mother, and how she and my father had divorced shortly after I was born. According to my mother, there was no hate, they just realized they weren’t in love with each other anymore.

Throughout our game, I even tried some of the Saprolin wine at Grinny’s behest. It was thick and sweet like a fruit smoothie. It only took a couple sips from the wine to make me feel light headed so she finished the drink and I went back to the sweet tea. She also ended up winning the game thanks to sinking the thirteen ball followed by the eight ball, all in one lucky stroke.

I was about to ask if she wanted to play another round when Harvey the Mechanitaur entered the bar. He had to enter sideways to get through the door. “There you are Venomgrin. Your vehicle is tip top and ready to go.” He dropped a set of keys on the edge of the pool table.

Grinny picked them up and spun them on her finger. “How much do I owe you?”

“One thirty one.”

“Less than I thought. I may be able to afford that shield upgrade.” She laid her pool stick on the table and turned to me. “Thanks for the game little worm. I hope we see each other again. I’ll get you into some real fun. Oh and don’t worry about cleaning up. Cloaky over there said he’ll get them once we leave the bar.” Grinny then took her index and middle finger and poked me in the forehead.

“What was that for?” I asked.

“It’s a farewell greeting. Stay alive, okay.”

I nodded as she walked out the door.

“Hey kid,” Harvey said. “Get some sleep. We’ll talk about your vehicle in the morning.”