Oh Where, Oh Where... is the Cafeteria?

Sighing, Alesha tried to remember more about the dream. Was it people in flamboyant winter outfits trying to play tag with one another? That didn't seem quite right, though.

Her contemplations were interrupted by a rumbling from her stomach. Oh… that's right… she'd been summoned to this world right before dinner, so she hadn't had a chance to eat yet. When she'd first walked outside, it was about midday, but now (from the position of the sun), it was probably midafternoon. She'd forgotten lunch entirely.

Well, Udon's song had been far more soothing than she'd expected. It had put her right to sleep.

She stood and brushed herself off, heading in what she hoped was the direction of the cafeteria. Another hope she had was that they wouldn't expect her to pay for food…

[Pphhh, I don't know how in this world you forgot to eat! You're usually such a foodie,] the System teased.

Alesha ignored its remark.

The System huffed its disapproval with a, [You're so boring,] before quieting itself once more.

As she walked the halls, she noticed it was considerably more crowded than it had been earlier. It must be a break between classes or something, for while there were only a few students around before, now she had to weave between groups of people as they meandered about. It was mostly students. However, she also noticed that a significant portion of the wanderers were demons. 

These demons came in a wide variety of heights, species, and temperaments. Some were so tall they could easily have squashed the students if it weren't for their shuffle-stepped gaits (the ceilings were easily 40 feet tall on average), while others had to fly so that they wouldn't be stepped on themselves. There were fox-like demons, fish demons, various kinds of bird demons, snake demons, monkey demons, and many more. As for temperaments, Alesha caught sight of demons being haughty, humble, rude, excessively polite, aggressive, shy, and gregarious. All while walking for less than 15 minutes in the halls.

"There are seriously quite the variety of demons here," Alesha thought to herself.

[Indeed! I can't believe the first one you met was a Chaos Demon. Talk about lucky!]

"For sure," Alesha replied mentally.

[I wish he weren't such a pacifist though,] the System lamented. [If he'd been a proper Chaos Demon then he would have been part of Toltura's Army and we could have learned more about that. That stupid bird was so useless he didn't even know who our dad was!!]

The System's last remark made Alesha flinch, but it also piqued her curiosity. "Oh? And how do you know that? Maybe even if he'd been part of the Army, Udon wouldn't have heard of or met your dad. Armies are huge, after all, and I bet those of a Goddess are even more so."

[...] 

"I thought so," Alesha said, taking the System's silence as an admission of defeat. No matter how powerful a chaos dragon the beast had been, he was part of an advance attack on an unimportant world. No way would a Goddess send someone important to do grunt work like that.

Alesha was now sure that she was lost. "Darn it, I've never been great at remembering directions the first time," she muttered to herself. 

People streamed around her as she stood in the center of the hall. None of them were saying anything, but standing there like that was starting to make her anxious, so Alesha moved to one side of the hall and tried to decide who to ask for directions. She was on the introverted end of the spectrum and didn't quite have the courage to ask just anyone.

While she stood there deliberating, one student in particular saw her standing there and smiled wickedly.

Alesha was scanning the crowd somewhat nervously, hoping to see someone that looked approachable, when an arm wrapped around her shoulder from her left and a beautiful soprano voice asked cheerfully, "Heyya lil' demoness, ya lost?"

"Eep!" Alesha yelped, startled. This person had come out of nowhere! She thought she'd been doing a good job keeping an eye on the crowd… apparently not.

Looking over, she met eyes with a widely smiling young woman with voluminous, incredibly curly white hair (though one lock of it was orange like a redhead's), green eyes and subtle makeup. The woman's ample chest pressed uncomfortably against Alesha as the woman gripped her shoulder in an overly friendly gesture.

"Uh, a little," Alesha managed to say.

"Look no further! I gotchu, wher'ya nee'to go?" she replied, emphasizing her words with a widely sweeping motion of her left hand.

"The cafeteria, if it's open."

The woman released the side-hug and spun Alesha around, gripping both of her shoulders and adopting a serious look. "Oh? Ya don' mean ta tell me yer Contractor din't feed ya, do ya?"

Alesha paused and looked away. She felt somehow a little embarrassed on Seth's behalf. It wasn't as if he had known she was hungry when she arrived, and he had run off to go research something that she was interested in as well.

"Tsk, tsk, that scoundrel! Who'er he is, Imma wallop 'im good for ya! Cafeteria's closed but I'll give ya a good snack. Whatcha eat, demon girly?" 

Having given up on correcting the people of this world on their misunderstanding, Alesha replied with, "Well, I'm carnivorous, if you have some jerky or something that would be fine."

"Ah! I got just the thing. Let's go bug Flynn!" 

With that, the enthusiastic student released Alesha's shoulders, snatched her left hand, and dragged her off.