I listen absentmindedly as Tanny and Lorry tell me about the evening ahead. Tanny is an Eriane in her prime. You can tell by her graying hair and wings. Lorry is a bit younger and has light brown tones, with symmetrical dark spots on her wings. They were kind enough to bring me something to change into after I tore and stained my Proud suit.
For tonight, I chose a loose and comfortable pair of pants that could be found without difficulty on Earth. On top, I wear a garment that covers my chest up to my neck but reveals my shoulders. The clothes are woven in a kind of cotton and dyed with natural pigments as far as I could see. As for my back, it is bare below the shoulder blades, which must be the space for their wings.
Tanny and Lorry stared at my bra for a long time, a completely unnecessary item for them. Most importantly, they insisted on touching and brushing my hair, even refusing to let me tie it up for the evening. In this world, no one has hair this color.
“Are you ready? The dinner is about to start. Come with us!” Tanny suggests.
“Where is Nixx? I have to go with him.”
“Don't worry, he's with Azarr. It was he who just asked me to show you the way.”
I follow them and leave this room, looking around curiously. I was a little stunned when Nixx carried me here, but I can see now that the whole structure of their Complex is integrated into the mountain.
The rock is blue, but the rooms as well as the corridors are carefully carved. There don't seem to be any doors per se, but staggered openings and movable wooden screen systems. I didn't see any windows either, but openings to the canyon. Since the temperatures are pretty high, I guess it doesn't particularly bother me.
From what little I have seen so far; this world has not evolved in terms of technology but has nevertheless been able to progress with its environment.
We arrive in a large room open on one side of the canyon and adorned with long tables set with trays of fruits and other dishes, all unknown to me. I'm going to have a lot of things to taste! The gourmet and cook in me feels the potential for new culinary explorations.
I see my dark angel at the back of the room, talking with Azarr and two other Erians I don't know. He meets my eyes but immediately turns away, looking indifferent.
Well, my girl, it seems that you have taken your dreams for reality. He doesn't care about you!
I just see an enticing Eriane approaching their group and smiling unequivocally at him. And I see Nixx smiling back at her and starting to chat with her. Well, like that, it's even clearer.
No, but what else was I thinking? That a guy as handsome as a fallen angel, with a charisma of fire and as hot as an ember, was going to be interested in a little human like me? With my curves all over the place, while Erianes are slender and athletic as anything? And then, they have wings. I must look like a cripple, next to them.
Come on, girl, enough dreaming, forget about your blue-sky part and become again the self-confident woman, official doctor on board the Proud, known for her methodical sense of analysis in any situation.
I see this bitch gently caressing his shoulder. Ah well, this kind of woman is a common sub-genre in all worlds.
“I see you've spotted Sally,” Lokk says in my ear.
I jumped, but I did not see him approach.
“I don't know what you're talking about.” I'm answering with proven bad faith.
“Don't worry, nothing will happen with her. I've known Nixx since we were kids, I know what I'm talking about. I've already recognized the signs of the Link. He just needs to get used to the idea.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Right now, I'm just looking at everything on the tables because I don't recognize any of the dishes. Could you enlighten me?”
“Oh, you're in denial too? Well, it's not going to work out so well then. Come on, I'll show you what to taste and answer your questions.”
Lokk leads me to a buffet table where many dishes are laid out. He makes me taste very small quantities each time and I try to dissociate image and taste so that my translator implant can associate the names he gives me with taste rather than color.
He makes me take a sip of an opaque and bluish liquid. Its taste is that of a kind of milk. I memorize it as ‘milk‘. It is in fact a juice from the purple "coconut" that we found when we arrived.
He then makes me taste various fruits, which I associate with citrus fruits and bananas (large and pink). Preparations based on cereals, including a kind of "rice pudding," a dish prepared with cereals cooked in "vegetable milk" and flavored with "sugar cane" (the blue plant that we had also found during our exploration).
So far, I only see sweet dishes. I don't see any meaty preparations or anything salty.
“Do all your meals look like this? How many times a day do you eat a meal?”
“We take the first meal at sunrise. It is more consistent and there are boiled vegetables and eggs. We can eat one or two fruits during the day. And in the evening, yes, this is the kind of dish that we find at the last meal.”
Well, no meat then. I know some people who will be unhappy. David in particular is a notorious carnivore. But in Rome, do as the Romans do, they say.
“I don't recognize your cereal. But in my world, I used to cook. Do you think it would be possible to let me see your kitchens and maybe even help make meals? In my world, I'm a doctor, which means a healer. But I love to cook.”
