Chapter 8: The Wandering Pub.

"How are you doing my boy, it's been a long time since we had a good conversation, isn't that right?"

"It's just been a month since the last assembly." replied Laurence to the old man's question.

"A month may not be much to you, but to me it is, everything is relative in life, now, are you absolutely sure that we should trust the outsiders? You know as much as I do about what they were like years ago, their rulers are awful and oppressive."

"I want to believe in my old friend, but only him, we need to meet this king to be sure of his intentions."

Sigmund was the only merchant other than Laurence that had left the Wild Lands and he was also the one that pushed him to leave in pursuit of magical and personal growth.

Even after all these years Laurence believed that the old man had done a lot for him, leaving permitted him to meet many people he wouldn't have otherwise, like Sikra, just to name one.

Sigmund talked with a slow and fruity voice, making people who heard it want to listen to it more, he average in height, a bit smaller than Laurence because of his hunched back caused by age, he had a long white beard and short hair of the same color, but his eyes were what really set him apart from other, average, mages.

His eyes radiated power, their normal color was stone gray, but whenever he used his magic they glowed of a pale blue light that made people feel as if they were in front of a predator.

But below the fierce merchant who fought for ages, there was a kind old man that everyone loved and one that loved everyone back as if they were his own grandchildren, but unfortunately, he had no biological ones.

He never had any descendant, so he really did think of everyone else as his children and grandchildren.

"It was awful when I went there uncle Sig, slavery was rampant, the rulers looked down on their people and on the other races even more, they constantly fought amongst each other in order to keep the little power they had."

"Exactly, but now you say that they've changed, I can't help but be skeptical," continued the wise old man, "But if you believed in them, I'll believe in you."

"Thank you uncle, back in the days, Sikra hated his kingdom, seeing him this happy to be in service means a lot, believe me."

"I believe in you, I've seen you grow up since you were just a child, but let's change the subject, how is my cute granddaughter?" the mild concern about the future got blown away from the joy his ten year old granddaughter brought to him.

After all, the girl was cute, fiercely intelligent and greedy for magical knowledge, what better granddaughter could an old man desire?

"Oh god, don't remind me," sighed the exasperated father, "yesterday she cut her hair because she burnt them off while practicing lightning magic from the book you gave me."

"Oh my, she's already learnt how to cast lightning spells? That's mighty impressive."commented the man with a big smile and slight astonishment in his eyes.

"If it only were just that, she has learnt how to zap people without harming them and even how to do it stealthily enough that I won't realize it until it's too late, she's been torturing me with it all day yesterday."

The old man rumbled in a fit of laugher that ended in a fit of coughs from laughing too much, as usual, his granddaughter was the best to bring him amusement.

"Would you mind if I visit for dinner tonight? I have many more things I'd like to discuss with you and with little Avys, I also haven't seen your wife since your marriage, how is she?"

"She's great and you're always welcome at our house, Avys will be delighted to have her magical grandpa visiting."

"I'll bring a good wine then, one a child can enjoy too."

"That would be great."

After a few more words, the two parted ways.

Meanwhile, a certain steel gray haired ten years old girl known among the common people of Icerock as 'The Prodigy' was walking amid the streets of the city.

The young children had a different name for her though, 'Ice Queen Avys', she was the person every little guy wanted as their little girlfriend and the one that the girls her age envied because of her popularity even though she never interacted with anyone and her beautiful exotic features different from anyone else's.

But unless they managed to arouse her interest she wouldn't ever bother talking with anyone her age, unfortunately, nobody ever manage to do so, so she's always been alone.

During my strolls I went mostly through the same paths I always used, the city was small, but still big enough that I could lose myself in it.

But not everything was as usual on the road I passed through at least a hundred times, I stopped in front of a very weird door, one different from all the others around it, and looked at the sign, 'Ufine's Wandering Pub'.

'I'm pretty sure this wasn't here the last few times I passed through here.' I thought to myself, and by pretty sure I meant absolutely sure, the door felt magical in nature and didn't look like any other door I had ever seen.

It was made of a red wood with gray runes that looked unlike anything I had ever seen engraved upon it, I knocked on the door lightly and felt that it was harder than any other wood I knew, it didn't even feel like wood.

What I did understand though, was that whoever made this door was a mage with capabilities far, incredibly far above mine.

So far above that I couldn't even conceive how far I actually was.

And the thought of meeting whoever made it exited me, it was enough to ignite in me enough curiosity to ignore the little voice at the back of my head that told me it could be a trap.

And so, without a second thought I opened the door, and the inside looked surprisingly normal, it looked like any other pub around, just much fancier and more spacious.

It was made of a wood I didn't recognize, the same one as the door, but it felt very cozy and a nice smell wafted through the air, it made me want to eat whatever food was spreading it.

But I had no doubt that this wasn't an ordinary pub at all, I was absolutely sure that was the case, after all, the people in it looked very weird to my eyes.

There were normal people, tall and long eared people, small, wide and very muscly people with a weird skin tone, and there were even some people with wings in all kind of shapes and forms.

Other than that there were people who didn't even have a single part which looked humanlike at all, there was a group of people that seemed to be made out of plants and tree bark with small flowers growing out of them, a guy whose body was completely covered in scales, and even a rock guy.

A literal rock guy, he was square shaped, but managed to somehow do some incredibly agile movements, he was drinking together with one of the small and wide ones.

"Hello! Welcome to the Ufine's wandering tavern! I'll be with you in a second." said the woman manning at the bar without turning to look at me.

I was confused, this place looked awesome, if not for the fact that there was so much magic floating and tempesting around that I felt my senses go into overload, but I managed to hold my breakfast in, somehow.

After a few seconds of doing something I couldn't see the woman at the bar turned to look at me, "Sorry for the wait, how can I… A child?"

"I'm not a child, I'm ten already." I forcefully repressed the nausea from all the magic and replied, how could this rude, incredibly beautiful woman mistake me for a child?

She had slightly greenish skin, which I didn't mind, I saw a rock guy earlier, I won't be surprised by anything anymore, she had long and slightly curly wine red hair which made a great contrast with her skin.

Her eyes were enchanting, they were an extremely deep shade of green which almost mad me lose myself in them, they perfectly completed her cool looking face.

The more I looked at her the weirder I felt, my heartbeat increased and I felt something weird surge within me.

What I did understand though, was that I wanted to know more about the woman in front of me.

"H-hello, I'm Avys Winterridge, w-what's your name?" I stuttered, it took me a second to realize this fact.

'I… stuttered? How could this happen?

I made fun of that guy at father's wedding for doing the exact same thing I'm doing right now!

I am Avys Winterridge, damn me, I don't stutter and I don't get nervous, get a grip, me!'

I slapped my cheeks metaphorically, I didn't want to weird out the woman in front of me after all.

"Greetings, beautiful lady, what a fine day we're having." I really hated myself after that, how could I save that?

How does one flirt in the first place? What does it mean to flirt anyway, father did it with Sophia and it made her happy, so if it made women happy I decided to do it too, but who knew it was this difficult?

While I was rapidly going down a rabbit hole in my own head I heard the beautiful woman emit a peal of laugher which melted me, almost literally.

"Well young Avys, my name is Ufine and I own this tavern, mind telling me how a young lady like you managed to find this tavern?"

"I opened the door, by the way, the runes on the door felt magical, what do they do?" I replied, trying not to die after hearing her say my name.

Seriously, what was happening to me?

I'll ask father later.

"You see, those runes stop anyone that doesn't have a high enough magical sensing ability from seeing it, something that normally comes with age, if you could sense it at that age without being a divine beast, it must mean that you have some good talent for a human."

"I just saw the door and walked through it, nothing special." I said trying to act cool, while I barely understood anything she was talking about, how could runes have such an effect?

I wanted to know more, my focus shifted from the woman to what the others in the pub were doing, and what I saw with my eyes made me change perspective on magic completely.

The rock guy started floating around, like a bubble, but the wide guy he was drinking with stopped him with what looked like air magic.

They then shouted at another guy who looked like a human, just with horns on his head, who started laughing, then floated away from the duo in the same manner the rock guy was doing a few seconds before.

This place was really weird, but I liked it, just that floating magic the horned guy was doing made me want to understand how to use it, I wanted to float too!

The pretty lady passed me a cup filled with a liquid that looked like juice, I looked at her and she said, "It's on the house." Seemingly understanding my plight.

I didn't have anything to exchange the drink for after all.

I sipped once and instantly had a new favorite drink, not only because it was the pretty lady who chose it for me, but also because it was cold and refreshing bringing a great fruity flavor to my mouth.

"I've never seen people like you, with colored skin, horns, wings or anything different from me, where do you guys come from?" I asked while sitting on a stool too tall for me, I had to create a temporary foothold with air and water magic to reach successfully.

I made this spell when I tried to fly long ago, but it was a failure for that causing me to plant my face to the ground.

"Impressive spell you got there,

"Impressive spell you got there, as for your question, the people here are from everywhere around the continent."