I had never been on an actual date before. Hooking up with a coworker really didn’t count. I wasn’t sure this was a date though. Just catching up over some breakfast pastries. I did find her interesting though. And I found paracrests attractive with their long faces and tails.

  The bakery was pretty easy to find even if it was in a part of town I hadn’t had time to explore. A large brick building with what looked like several chimneys, all spreading the odor of wonderfully cooked breads. I could see customers of all races heading inside, even chelkren who I know couldn’t process grain any more than I could have roots of any kind. When I got through the door I spotted Raven waiting at a table.

  My ears buzzed with all the noise that filled this place. My nose twitched from each new and tantalizing smell that met it. I passed by the crowds of people, each clambering at the counter for what the bakery could offer, but all that seemed to be drowned out as I got to her table.

  “I wasn’t sure what you might like here but I bough a few of their buns to try.” She told me, gesturing to the bench across from her.

  I smiled as I took the seat, feeling my stomach give a happy gurgle from the shells coming off the buns in front of me. “Meat buns?” I asked, though my nose already confirmed it as I picked one up.

  “The proprietors swear by them. Sweet pork buns baked fresh this morning.” She held up her own bun, “And a lovely bean-paste bun for me though I have several if you want to try it.”

  I bit in, my eyes closing in delight from the flavor of the lightly charred meat slathered in some kind of sweet sauce wrapped in warm cooked dough. How had I not been here before? The cafe down the street from me was fine, with yummy mostly sweet pastries, but nothing as substantial as this!

  Several minutes passed as we enjoyed our buns. Raven had also gotten us a pot of strong tea to share. Not as good as the buns but it kept me from getting thirsty from all carbs I was enjoying.

  “How’d you find this place?” I asked, finishing the bean-paste bun she’d offered me.

  “On my first trip down here from Terath to get that scroll looked at I shared a carriage with the mother of one of the owners. She kept gushing about the place so I had to come try it for myself. Became one of the many reasons I did not want to live in a desert city any more. There are so few bakeries up that way. Not ones with such a selection at least.”

  “Only city I’ve been to here has been Dacathus, so what’s Terath like?”

  “Hmm, well, most of the buildings are stone or terracotta. Not wood, and the stone is mostly lighter in color than it is down here. The people are not too much different though there are a lot more terrisians and hillsec there. Oh and kethi of course. I doubt I’d see a kethi this far south given the frequency of rain this place gets.”

  “I heard there are also gnark up there. I have yet to see one.”

  “Well, not too many. We used to have one in the guild but he left for mercenary work. He’d rather get paid by protecting the assets of a shipping guild associate than search ruins or handle pest control.”

  “What about selvaryns?”

  She tilted her head at me curiously for a moment then said, “I think I’ve only seen one before. I’ve run into their tiny feathered cousins though. Those little raptors live near the Bush Desert mountains in flocks.” She took a sip of tea, settling her eyes on mine, “So tell me Ram, how do you know them again?”

  I sipped my own tea, pushing my ears back a little as I thought of what to say. “So, we talked about me being from elsewhere, about where I came from having no magic or classes and such?”

  “Yes. We talked about how strange it is that some people have no stories and others do. In fact, the farmers I talked to yesterday had a set of grandparents come from elsewhere.”

  “Well, where I come from there are many worlds. Each star in the sky is like our own sun and there are usually worlds there. Lots of people come from many different worlds. Mine started with just zagarieans but after we learned to travel between the stars and visit other worlds other people came to live on our world too. We call the kind of life that can do that compatibles. Everyone here fits that description.” I gestured with what was left of a bun, “See, I can eat this and you can eat this and it won’t make either of us sick. It is actually good for us to eat. It is extremely rare to find other life on other worlds that can do that but on a long enough timescale and many worlds you find a few.”

  Raven set down her tea, her sail raising a bit as she pondered my words. “And if that wasn’t the case?”

  “Well, if I came here and this world was as it was but I wasn’t fully compatible then I would have starved to death at best or died from poisoning myself on incompatible food at worst.”

  “And what would cause you to explode if you had arrived here suddenly?”

  That was an odd question. I thought back to my xeno-incompatibilty lessons. “Well, that might happen if the air, gravity, or air pressure… some combination of same… were very different than home. I got lucky I didn’t end up on such a world.”

  “I see.” She was quiet for another minute as we finished our food and tea. “I think that happened the other day.” She finally said, gazing at me once more, “Outside the west gate several creatures appeared at the edges of the farms and just exploded. I was there on cleanup, along with my adventuring partner Mazen. The remains were strange, some kind of goo. And the stench was horrible, but not in a way bodies tend to smell. I’m not sure I’ve ever run into it before but one of the farmer’s said it was sinus clearing.”

  I felt a shiver go through my body at the description. What happened to me had happened to whatever those farmers had been seen. Those beings had not been lucky, though truthfully if I had a choice between a quick pressure or bad air death and one of toxic food I think the first would be kinder. “Raven, is there a chance I can visit these farms?”

  We both rose from our seats but she smiled, nodding her head, “In fact, the farmer said you were welcome to drop by for a visit since you’re the first of your kind on this world. He said his granddad would have wanted him to be welcoming to such newcomers.”

  —————————————

  Raven stood at the counter with Ramjack, buying a few of the grain free pastries for Mazen to try. Ramjack bought a few more as well, some for himself and others for his roommates. She smiled at how considerate he was.

  She had agreed to escort him to the farm, but first they were stopping by the adventurers guild. He didn’t mind at all, greeting Mazen warmly when they were first introduced. Her chelkren friend opted to sit this one out, gathering gossip from the guild while staying close to the fire. He seemed happy to meet Ramjack though, and to taste the buns she had hyped up.

  After they set off on the road through the west gate of the city. She chatted to him about her life as an adventurer. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as most fictional accounts made it out to be. A lot of travel, of fighting bandits or pests. It was pretty rare to score a find like they had at the bunker. Of course some groups found magic weapons and armor instead and went on more epic quests than she ever had.

  Ramjack responding in kind, talking about his home. Of living in a giant city with lots of towers. Mostly fellow zagarieans but a few other beings too. Talloni, selvaryn and some other races she was not familiar with. He claimed there was no magic in his world but the sort of things that engineers could make there seemed pretty fantastical to her.

  Before long they had arrived at the farm. Several children that Raven had seen but not spoken to the day before were playing outside their farmhouse as one of the older ladies sat in a chair with knitting needles keeping an eye on them. One of them, a little girl by the look of it, waved at Raven as they approached.

  “Ms Adventurer! Ms Adventurer! Have you come back to talk to grandpa again?” She seemed pretty excited to see her again. The paracrest didn’t even known her name but she nodded her head politely.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “My friend Ramjack asked to come see your lovely farm. Your grandpa did say to invite him.”

  The girl cheered excitedly, running around the both of them in circles as the lady on the porch rose from her chair. Raven was briefly introduced the day before as Bart’s wife, Anteril. The older woman approached with her hand outstretched. “Welcome back. Is there news about the remains you found yesterday?” Her hand was callused and strong, with a grip that made Raven think she wasn’t always a farmer.

  “Nothing of that nature. This is Ramjack, the zagariean I spoke of yesterday.”

  The man in question also smiled but Raven saw his ears push back a bit, what she’d come to recognize as a bit of fluster or embarrassment. “Thank you for the invitation of a visit ma’am.”

  “You speak well and so politely for someone who is from elsewhere.” She smiled, shaking his hand in turn.

  “I’ve had a few months to practice.” His tail swished a bit as Raven took his arm.

  “Well, if you want to speak to my husband again he’s working in the back field along with my son and daughter. I’m on kid duty, making sure the young-ens aren’t getting themselves hurt so I have to stay here.”

  Even as the older lady said that the little girl tugged on Raven’s sleeve. “Ms Adventurer! When I grow up I want to join the guild too. Can you teach me?”

  Raven couldn’t help but laugh at the earnest request. She spared one glance at Anteril for guidance before crouching down to the girl’s level. “It’s not like it is in the stories you know. Dangerous but sometimes exciting work. One day you might be helping out the city by fighting monsters in a sewer, or pests from a warehouse. You could spend weeks trekking through a forest. But sometimes you do find cool treasure. Tell you what, if when you are an adult you still want to join the guild I’ll help you see what it’s like ok?”

  The girl’s smile widened and she hugged the paracrest around the neck. “You hear that grandma? I can be an adventurer some day!!” She let go then ran after the other children to go back to her play.

  ———————————————

  I had never been to a farm before. I had read of them, seen pictures, even visited them in simulations. They did not prepare me for the mix of smells. The growing plants that would later become food, the manure used to strengthen the fields, and the animals themselves in their pens. All this mixed with the sweet of the humans working the fields. And then a new, but faint, smell reached my attention. It was very faint but it was alien to this world. Like a chemical cleaning agent. Something with chlorine in it.

  My nose was held in the air as I heard voices. I hadn’t even noticed the human coming towards us as I worked to understand the smell. “And this is Ramjack, the one I told you of.” Hearing Raven’s voice say my name snapped me back to attention and I looked down.

  The human was rugged with deeply tanned skin and a few folds to mark its age. He gazed up at me and offered a hand. “Taller than I thought ya might be. Bart Hillcock.”

  I took his hand, shaking with both of mine. “Aness Ramjack Tellathu. Please call me Ramjack. Raven was telling me you had family from Earth?”

  “They was from America. I seem to recall that was a place on Earth. If you say then yes they did.” He took back his hand but continued to look up at me, his straw hat perched precariously on his head.

  “I know of Earth, home to your species. It is the latest world to join the Alliance in fact. I had thought of maybe visiting in a few years when I could afford to travel to other worlds. Didn’t expect to end up here.”

  “Well I’ll be. Grandpappy always said that they hadn’t met any other peoples back home. That he and grandma got lucky to meet so many fine folk here.”

  I looked him over as we spoke. I wasn’t a good gauge of human ages but considering he had grandkids of his own I imagine this grandpappy he was talking about was long dead by this time, having come here long ago. “Sorry I could not meet your grandfather. Could have told him what I knew of the world he came from.”

  “Well son, you can tell me all about it. I might not be understanding all of it but I’m sure it will make the memory I keep in my head of my old grandpappy pretty happy.”

  I filed away what I smelled out there as the man lead us back to the large farm house. I was pretty sure a chlorine based life form had been out there, exploding from the contact with the oxygen rich environment. I suppressed a shutter. Could have been me if the circumstances had been reversed.

  The living room was a nice place with well cared for furniture likely there from the days when his grandparents owned the place. There was even some seating which favored paracrests, which suited my own legs just fine. The man poured us both glasses of a juice he called ‘lemon’ which tasted extremely sour on my tongue with a kick of sweetness from added honey.

  “Grandma swore by that recipe. Said if she had to be a farm wife instead of a big city gal that she had to make lemonade. Everyone around these parts loves it. Haven’t met a person yet who doesn’t enjoy it.” The farmer explained as he sat down with his own glass.

  I wasn’t about to be the first to spit it out but the puckering effect of the fruit was pretty new to me. My small whiskers stood at attention as my ears flexed back. Out of politeness I forced myself to take another small sip and focus on the sweetness of the honey mixed with it. Keeping the glass in my hand I told the man what I knew about Earth. It’s ups and downs. How the Alliance had kept an eye on it for thousands of years, with a close eye and a ready diplomatic team as soon as they invented rockets. That while there were times when it looked like the world might implode, taking the human race off the top of it, that the world had finally come together in a way that let the Alliance open a dialog with them.

  Honestly, it was a common story for many worlds out there. That included my own, and a big reason why, in addition to the compatibility factor, we were expecting tourist trading. We were a lot alike socially. Such things mattered.

  The longer we sat there and chatted the more I got used to the flavor of lemon. Raven was almost done with her second glass and an accepted fruit bar treat before I finished the glass.

  “So you’re pretty well settled then?” The farmer asked me after I finished telling him about what I knew of his world and a bit of my own world.

  “Yes sir. I work at the library and rent a room from a professor at the college.”

  “Aww hell son, just call me Bart. All yea are just so polite.”

  I laughed, “But thank you for asking, Bart. I got lucky myself. A nice lizardfolk couple found me lost in the woods and helped me till I could be on my own. Dacathus seems like a really good place, and seems like It has been for some time.”

  “Yep. Was good to my grandparents. Grandma was screaming the first time she got to town, seeing so many different peoples. They was nice about it, found her some other humans to help get her settled. She helped granddad when he got here. He was scared too but more of a stand in one spot kind if you get me.”

  ———————————————

  We talked for a while, hearing stories about Bart’s grandparents mostly. While it didn’t help that I was the only one of my kind around here it reassure me that I could live a good life in this world regardless.

  It was later in the afternoon by the time Raven and I left the farm. She had shared some of her own stories too, about the grandmother who raised her. Stories she’d heard about her parents and their adventures before they didn’t come back. I shared a little of growing up with my siblings. We’re all the same age since multiple birth is the norm for my species. I decided not to bog them down with too much technology talk.

  We were quiet as we walked back. Another comfortable silence as we got through the gate into the city. “Thank you.” I told her at last as we got close to the townhouse, “It has been a while since I got to do something social. Been spending my off days hunting lately.”

  She smiled too. “Believe it or not I haven’t had enough social time myself. I didn’t have anyone to talk to on my way up to Terath and on the way back I just had Mazen, who slept when I wasn’t telling him about what he’d missed down here.”

  “Would you want to do this again on my next day off?” My ears went down a little as I waited for her response.

  She took one of my hands, squeezing it a before saying “I think that would be nice. Same bakery? I’m sure I’ll see you tomorrow or the next day so we can work out details then. The repositories still need to be looked over and they might need a [Chronicler] to help with it.”

  “I’ll look forward to it.” She let go and pressed her forehead against me before walking back down the street.

  Feeling giddy from the nice day I headed inside.

  It was a few hours before professor Thanolin woke up. I was sitting in the common room, reading a fiction novel for a change. Too much history would feel like work if I did it on my day off so this was more something pleasant.

  “Ah good day to you my boy.” The aulterun greeted. “Oh, what’s this?” I had left a wrapped bun on the counter for him to keep it fresh as I could.

  “Picked it up this morning from a bakery. The aulteruns in line said they were good. Sorry it’s not hot any more though.”

  “Ooo.. Thank you.” He took out the dark bun and started pecking at it with his curved beak. “How was your date?” He asked around bites.

  “It was nice, thank you. Probably going again on my next day off.” I was hopeful but I always knew that adventurers sometimes had things come up if they took on a new quest.

  “Excellent. You are so work focused these days it is good to see you get out there.”

  “Didn’t you tell me to study more when I first moved in here?”

  The aulterun hooted, “Study is not everything my boy. And I am more used to slackers.” He said the last bit just as Bibbel strolled in.

  The paracrest frowned, seeing his own wrapped bun where he usually sat at the table. “I study when I need to.” He grumbled, unwrapping the bun and looking at it with surprise. “Bean buns?” He only hesitated a moment before gobbling it with gusto.

  “Raven seemed to like them so I figured it would be a safe bet for a fellow paracrest.”

  “Raven? Who is that?”

  “Ramjack’s new girlfriend.” The professor cut in, getting to work on a pot of rice.

  I felt my ears heat as they lowered. “It was one date. She’s an adventurer. She likes to read. I think we like each other.”

  Bibbel eyed me up and down, still chewing on the bun I had brought him. “Huh… and here I didn’t think you went for those of us in the lightly feathered set.”

  My ears went completely flat as I tried to think of a way to respond to that. Thankfully Thanolin beat me to it, “Bibbel, if someone said they were turning you down because of your scale-feathers they were just using it as an excuse. I’m certain it was your attitude they did not go for.”

  I couldn’t help the chuckle as my paracrest roommate spluttered, letting loose a few crumbs onto the table. “That’s just…” He wiped at his mouth.

  “I’m sure you’ll find someone.” I reassured him.