It was nearing 2Af when I found myself sitting on a stone carved bench in a modest, middle-class restaurant district in Leoren. To a visitor, there was nothing particularly special or interesting about the street. It had bars, pubs, restaurants and cafes. None of them were of any note or considered a must-visit high culinary eatery. To me, it meant the world.
I was staring at a pub called The Gnashing Teeth. It was grown from a tree with a trunk roughly 20 meters wide and 8 meters deep. The trunk had doors and windows carved into it indicating the structure had three floors: the main floor and the two residence floors above. The canopy above was rich and thick and was budding with green flowers drooping from the branches on long stems. Soon, the flowers would fully open and transform into leaves that reminded me of North American maple leaves.
My heart was pounding as I looked at the pub. My eyes drifted down to a crack in the cobblestone street and the shadow cast by the building behind me. I knew I had until the time the shadow touched the crack to make my way into the pub.
“What are we doing here?” Lia asked. “We should just go in. Besides, I’m getting hungry.”
My mind wandered back to the first time I laid eyes on The Gnashing Teeth. It was roughly my 20th time through the loop and I was in a bad way mentally. I was aimlessly wandering around town trying to figure out what I was trying to do when I realized I hadn’t eaten. I was still illiterate at the time and one of the gawking locals pointed me to the pub. Now that I think about it, he only suggested it because it was literally right behind me. It was also by fortuitous chance it was Willem’s favorite pub. The castle mage I met on my first day lived in the area.
That’s also where I first saw her. The vision of glory like a breath of fresh air. The food was incredible, which as far as I’m concerned was just a bonus. They could have sold elementary school cardboard pizza and I’d still come back.
“Void is in there,” I muttered. “Other than yesterday, I haven’t spoken with her since my 110th or so time around.”
“How many is this one now?” Lia asked.
“A few thousand,” I replied. “I lost count.”
Lia’s eyes went wide while Tizek was sitting next to me, lost. The poor lizard man had no idea what we were talking about since I hadn’t read him into the situation yet.
Lia’s eyes turned up to the sky as she thought. She was trying to run the math in her head and it wasn’t working well. The girl wasn’t stupid, she never had an education to properly calculate how long it had been since I last spoke with Void.
“A century. Or two,” I offered.
Lia’s head slowly turned to me. She had a look of incredulity. “You’ve been alive that long? I bet you’ve seen some crazy things.”
I nodded. “A lot. The city is huge and I probably haven’t seen it all and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the surrounding wilderness. I’ve also died in just about every way imaginable. I don’t even care about pain anymore considering what I’ve experienced.”
“Yet you’re afraid to go in to a bar and talk to a girl,” Lia deadpanned.
I closed my eyes as a wave of memories slammed into me. The last time I saw Void, prior to the most recent reset, I was holding her in my arms as both of us had our skin and hair eaten away by caustic green gas. I endeavored to never have to lay eyes on that again, hence why I taunted old squid face into crushing us with a tentacle. I forgot to buy poisoned daggers on that run, too.
Tizek whacked me on the back with a hearty slap. “You are powerful! You can do this!”
“Thanks, buddy,” I replied. I wasn’t prepared for the hit because, to my surprise, I was actually in a novel situation. This is the first time I sat here with Lia and Tizek waffling over whether or not to see Void.
Tizek didn’t know what to do with the thanks. Where he was from, he was a pariah and was constantly insulted. The only reason he was even in Leoren was he was exiled from his clan.
I took one more look at the shadow on the ground. It was almost touching the crack. I slapped my thighs and stood. “Guess it’s time to head on in.”
The three of us strolled across the street toward The Gnashing Teeth. The locals had stopped paying attention to me. Despite being a summoned hero, they had lost interest in gawking since all I did for the last 30 minutes was sit on a bench and stare at a pub. Marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all.
Before entering, I peered up at the sign above the door. It was written using a pyrography technique where magically heated tools etched burns into the surface of wood. The image was a wolf’s mouth chomping down on a cartoon bone-in-meat haunch. Beneath it, the pub’s name was written.
I pulled open the door on the well-oiled wooden hinges and entered the space. I was immediately hit with the aroma of stew and living wood. It was pleasantly cool inside to match the beautiful spring outdoors.
The room had 8 tables arranged on an open floor and some booths along the walls. Like many restaurants back home, there was a host stand out front and a bar along the back wall. The host stand was currently empty. There was even an indoor flushing toilet bathroom on the rear wall to the right. Behind the bar was a hallway which led to the basement storage area and a kitchen. To the left next to the bar was a doorway leading to the proprietors’ residences above.
The room was illuminated with magical lighting set into carvings in the ceiling. The lighting worked by absorbing ambient magic in the air and cast a glow over the center of each table and along the bar area.
“I was wondering when you’d come in,” a gruff voice called out. From the hallway leading to the kitchen, a badger-clan man appeared.
The man was Doun, Void’s father and co-owner of the restaurant with his wife Mira. He stood around 168cm in height and had burly arms. He was wearing a fine bartender’s tuxedo.
“How did you know?” I asked, relishing in the fact I was in mild uncharted territory at the moment.
“You were sitting outside for a while staring at the place,” Doun replied as he arranged glass wine glasses behind the bar. The uneven shape of the glasses showed they were handmade mundane glass and proved why my cheap bar mug from Earth was so valuable.
“We were trying to figure out if it was worth coming in. I heard this place has great food from a castle mage,” I said.
Doun looked at us closely. Lia, Tizek and I were quite the sight. The two of them clearly looked homeless, and were, while I was standing here looking like, well, me. A summoned hero had, within a day of arriving, managed to get two hobo attendants and was standing in a random pub in a sleepy corner of the city.
Doun gestured to the seats along the bar. “Come on, have a seat. Knowing the royal bastard, the Grand Creator save his soul, he kicked you out of the castle with nothing to your name. I’ll get you some food to get you on your feet.”
I smiled. Doun, underneath the sour badger demeanor, was a great guy. “Thanks. I’m Oliver, by the way. This is Lia and Tizek.”
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“I’m Doun,” Doun said. “Pleased to meet you.”
I looked up over the back of the bar at a black slate with magical glowing words. Written on it were the daily specials. One caught my eye. “Doun? Do you mind getting us three orders of the roast in red wine and rosemary sauce?”
Doun raised an eyebrow. “You have a pair of hard ones on you. That’s a premium meal. I can offer you some stew. And I didn’t know you could read. Is it some summon magic trickery?”
Crap, I forgot to hide my literacy. “The mage wrote out a bunch of characters and had me memorize it. He said if I saw it, ask for the roast.” I reached into my pouch and pulled out a gold coin. “I can pay. Sorry, I don’t have smaller coins on me.”
Doun picked up the small gold coin and ran a claw at the end of his finger over the reeding and the coin glowed. Doun growled. “How did you get this? You only arrived yesterday.”
I put a hand on my chest dramatically. “I was forced to sell a family heirloom. You see, I was given Lia’s slave contract as a parting gift from the king.”
Doun spit and snarled when he heard the word slave. The man was adamantly anti-slavery, which was a rarity in this world. His mood stabilized when he looked at Lia and noticed the collar was gone.
“As you can see, I abhor slavery and freed her. The king intended me to sell her for starting funds,” I explained. “That’s how I ended up selling my heirloom.”
“Then you’re definitely welcome here.” Doun gave an approving nod before turning toward the open door back to the kitchen. “Mira? Three specials!”
“On it!” a feminine voice shouted back.
Lia and Tizek sat on the stools along the bar. I sat to Lia’s left closest to the door leading upstairs.
Doun turned back to us. “Would you like any drinks?”
Tizek raised a claw and I interrupted him. “Three fruit juices, please.”
“But my lord,” Tizek protested. “Can I have a beer?”
I frowned back at Tizek. Part of it was because he was calling me a lord when I asked him not to. It would take a while to break him of the habit. The other part was something else. “Tizek? What were you doing when I found you?”
Tizek looked down sheepishly at the bar top. “I was drunk.”
“Right,” I said. “Drunk in the morning. You’re an addict. No alcohol for you.”
Tizek nodded his head silently. He was only 19 years old and needed guidance. Normally, an alcoholic needed to be separated from his addiction. The problem is, in this world, alcohol was everywhere. I would need to keep a close eye on him to keep him from falling off the wagon.
Doun provided us three glass mugs of juice. “I’ll need to see if we have enough coins to make change. We’re not used to accepting coinage this large.”
“Say,” I said. “Do you have any rooms to let?” I knew he did.
Doun looked at us closely. “I’m not sure I feel comfortable with your two friends.”
“They’re not that bad,” I replied. “They just don’t look the part. We’re going shopping a bit later to get their clothing sorted.”
“Oh, don’t be like that,” another voice chastised Doun from the hall. From the kitchen, Mira appeared. She was a wolf-clan woman standing around 172cm tall. She had an apron on to match her friendly smile. “He’s alone out in the world and I’m worried he’ll get taken advantage of.”
That was a reasonable assumption. The first few times I went through the loop, I ended up getting screwed out of my money at questionable inns or finding a knife between my ribs when I slept in an alley. I learned my lesson the hard way.
Doun snorted. “If you say so, dear. How long do you intend to stay?”
“We’d like three months,” I said. Didn’t make sense to prepay for more than that since, odds as they stood, we were going to fail this run and I needed to maximize my funds.
“With food I take it? I’d need another gold for that,” Doun said.
“Doun!” Mira startled. “Can we give them a discount?”
I pull out another gold coin and slip it along the surface of the bar. “I believe that’s a fair price. I am asking you to house three people with meals for three months after all. You still need to make a profit.”
Doun gave me another nod of approval. “Then I accept. Your rooms will be through the left door by the bar and on the top floor. Avoid the second door on the left, that’s a storage closet. Toilets are the first door on the right on your floor. You’ll need to use the public baths.”
“Don’t let his sour demeanor make you feel unwelcome.” Mira slapped Doun with a towel she picked up from behind the bar playfully. “He’s really a good man. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
Doun growled at the hit, but I noticed him subtly smile before it vanished from his face. He had to keep up that famous badger-clan stoicism.
“Is that rosemary wine roast I smell?” I heard a voice come from my left from up the stairs.
My heart quickened and my throat suddenly decided to expel all of its moisture. I felt my leg tapping rapidly up and down along the wooden footrest along the side of the bar. My clammy hands gripped my mug to take a sip of the juice within. Yes, I was the picture of a suave, cool and collected man.
Then there she was, the picture of beauty. Void descended the stairs barefoot, her digitigrade feet slightly stumbling as they hit the last step wrong. She was wearing her linen sleep garments: grey capris pants and a buttoned short sleeve shirt. The bottom button was undone and showing her grey furry belly and navel.
Her face was radiant. She was wiping away gunk from the corners of her bleary eyes and the fur on the right side of her head was matted where she slept in her own drool. She yawned wide, reached down and scratched her ass before flopping onto the bar stool right next to me. She was completely oblivious to my companions’ and my presence.
Mira looked aghast to see her daughter out in public in her state. Doun had a mischievous glint in his eye as he attempted to hold back a laugh. For her part, Void picked a piece of gunk from her eye and deposited it on the bar top. Doun quickly whipped a cloth over to remove the offending detritus.
“What’s the special occasion?” Void continued speaking with a dry croak in her voice. “You usually don’t make my favorite for breakfast.”
“Void dear?” Mira chastised. “What did we say about coming down in your sleepwear?”
Void dismissively waved a hand. “Please. No one is ever in here this time of day. Everyone’s at work and we don’t start getting customers until around 5Af.”
“Void? Listen to me,” Mira said with a harder edge to her voice. She wasn’t big on being ignored and had a disciplinarian streak under her kind exterior. Doun’s chest was pulsing as he struggled to keep his laughter contained.
“Dad? Mind getting me a juice?” Void asked as she reached down and scratched at her bare belly. I could now hear the uncomfortable shifting of Lia and Tizek on their seats next to me.
“Void!” Mira snapped as she bared her fangs with a low growl.
“What!?” Void snapped back, coming out of her stupor. “I just woke up from the night shift. You know the Guard have been keeping me on paperwork duty in the middle of the night. Why are you yelling?”
Mira angrily jabbed a finger in our direction. Void turned to see me, Lia and Tizek staring back at her. I had a goofy grin on my face as I looked her in the eyes. It took her a few moments to register we were in the room before her eyes widened in surprise. She startled and fell backwards from her chair.
I was prepared for that. This was a common event whenever I first met Void. I deftly left my seat and wrapped my arm around her waist to keep her from slamming onto the floor. Our eyes met and I caught a whiff of her funky morning breath. I missed that.
I held onto Void for a few moments, reveling in the touch. I hadn’t felt her warmth in a very long time. Then I realized I was being creepy and hefted her back up. “Afternoon, miss. My name’s Oliver. My companions are Lia and Tizek. Pleased to meet you.”
“I’m Void,” Void replied. She looked down at my chest and lingered on my bare skin for a moment. Then she realized her belly was still exposed and quickly buttoned it up.
Doun was wheezing from his mirth as he filled another mug of juice and set it before Void. Mira was glaring. “I’ll get another roast started,” Mira said as she stared daggers at Void. “Behave yourself in front of the hero.” Mira hustled back into the kitchen, grumbling about her not-so-dainty daughter’s behavior.
“I can’t believe a hero showed up here. What are you doing in our pub at 2Af? And why are you staring at me like that?” Void asked as she worked to untangle the matted fur on her face with her hand.
I realized I still had a happy smile plastered on my face. “Because I think you’re cute.” Void looked at me like I just said the stupidest thing in all of history.
“You do have a pair of polished mahogany ones down below,” Doun commented. “You just said that in front of a girl’s father.”
Void blinked in confusion. “Yea, we just met. And look at me.”
“That said,” Doun continued, “I knew there was someone out there who’d find my girl appealing. I never knew it would take someone summoned from another reality to be the one. Makes sense now that I think about it more.”
“Dad!” Void exclaimed in shock at what he was saying. “I’m not that unappealing. I’ve had suitors before.”
“One,” Doun countered. “And he was a weird homeless otter-clan man.” He turned to Lia and Tizek. “No offense to the homeless. You two look normal.”
“None taken,” Lia responded as she sipped her juice. She seemed to be enjoying the show I was putting on. Tizek, for his part, was happy to just be a part of the group.
“Seriously?” Void protested. “Why aren’t you being more reverent to the summoned hero? You know what the king’s proclamation said, Grand Creator save that rotten shit. The hero he sent from the castle is to be treated with respect.”
Doun waved his rag in the air at Void. “Please, the king just kicked him out of the castle with nothing to his name. Besides, he’s just a normal man. Weird looking, no offense, but perfectly normal.”
“Not that normal,” I responded. “People from my neck of the woods are considered affably weird.”
“Come on,” Doun said as he walked around the bar. “The other two are being left. The bar isn’t the best place for group conversation. Let’s move you to a booth so you kids can talk.”
“We aren’t that different in age,” I told Doun.
“How old are you? I confess, I don’t know how your people age,” Doun asked.
“32 and relatively gently aged at that,” I said.
“I’m 45. I know we had our sweet little bundle of dainty joy over there when Mira and I were 19, but I’m still your elder,” Doun said as he picked up Void’s drink.
“I must say, you definitely don’t come off as older than me,” I responded. “You’re still quite fit.”
Doun smacked me in the back with one of his meaty hands. “You know how to butter up a man. Void, I like this one. See if you two can get along.”
“Dad,” Void tried to protest but was cut off when Doun shoved her toward one of the booths along the wall. Void yelped as she tried to fight back, but her bare feet failed to find purchase on the waxed floor as Doun pushed her into the booth. He then guided Tizek and Lia in to the other side of the booth and gestured for me to sit next to Void. Doun was trying to keep Void from escaping back upstairs.
“There,” Doun said with a satisfied nod. “Maybe this will light a fire under your tail. You’ve languished too long as a paper pusher for the Guard. On the night shift, no less.”
“What is he going to do?” Void gestured at me.
“He’s a summoned hero,” Doun replied.
Void huffed. “Didn’t you just say he’s a regular guy?”
“Who is also a hero. I doubt even that idiot king, may the Grand Creator save him, would have used a top secret spell to summon heroes on a lark,” Doun snorted. I held my tongue on how correct his statement was. “Maybe he needs some help and I can’t think of any better than my little girl.”
Doun didn’t wait for a response before he hustled off and left us there. We were definitely a matching party. Lia in her rags, Tizek with his tattered pants, Void with her nightwear and me in my weekend finery. There was a no more fashionable bunch this side of the slums.
“This is strange,” Void said as she stared at me. “And why do you keep smiling?”
I didn’t realize I was still smiling at her. “Sorry, you really are just too cute.”
I couldn’t tell if people from this world could blush since they had fur. But I could tell when Void was blushing and she was now. “You didn’t come here to ask me on a date. I never met you until just a few minutes ago.”
“I would like a date,” I said. Then I changed my expression and became serious. What I had to say next was too important to mess around with. “But the bigger reason is the world is ending in three months and I’m here to ask for your help.”
