“Just the two of you?” the woman finally asked, looking from Breena to me. We both nodded our heads, and the woman directed us to a small table near the third window.
She pulled a padded chair out for Breena, but I waved her away before she could do the same for me. I tugged the long, lacy skirt wrapped around my legs to the side before I sat. I’d stolen the thing out of the chest of drawers at my dad’s old place after I’d bathed the blood and salt off my skin. I’d tied my damp hair back with a ribbon I’d found on the bathing chamber vanity and scoured the owner’s clothes for something that would fit my long body. Breena had managed to find a pretty red dress that fit her perfectly, but I, on the other hand, had to make do with what I could find. The women’s clothing was yet another reason the place had felt so much less like home, almost all familiarity stripped from it.
“Kylan will come over shortly to take your order. Enjoy your tea. I highly recommend the Enchanted Elderberry herbal tea!” the human woman said before setting off to her counter.
“That was rude,” Breena mumbled as she adjusted herself in the blue chair.
“What was rude?”
“Never mind,” she said, dismissing me with a wave of her hand. Her gaze settled on something in the horizon, and I shrugged her off, staring up at a slate board on the stone wall.
It read:
Specials:
Enchanted Elderberry Herbal Tea
Henri’s Bourbon Black Tea
Vanilla Honey White Tea
Strawberry Shortcake
Shortbread Cookies
I decided to stick with the human’s suggestion of the first tea on the list and then unfolded a leather booklet on the table. Inside it was a list of dozens of flavors of tea, along with a variety of food for various times of the day.
My eyes took in the foods listed under the “Breakfast” section. Upon realizing I didn’t know what any of it meant, I settled on the first item, which happened to be the most simple: happy eggs and buttered brambleberry loaf.
Breena began itching her arm mindlessly, creating a reddish-brown patch on her skin, lined with ashen scratch marks.
“Stop that,” I demanded. While her nails were dull, they still managed to damage her tender skin.
“Oh.” Breena noticed the patch on her arm, as if she’d been too distracted by something outside and hadn’t realized she was harming herself.
“I feel like I could crawl out of my skin, and this skin isn’t supposed to shed, unlike yours,” she sighed.
“I do too. We need to remember to drink water, and a lot of it. We have to keep our skin moist.”
“Drinking water is so odd. Does the food on land not contain it? I don’t understand why we must consume it. Water is not for drinking.”
“Here it is. I hear the humans struggle to drink it too, so it’s not just us. I think that’s why they have this tea stuff. Flavored water to make it more palatable.”
“I suppose,” Breena said, distractedly thrumming her nails on the table.
“Hiya, I’m Kylan!” a chipper human chimed, making both Breena and me jump. “What can I get you today?”
“Oh, I haven’t decided ye–”
“We’ll take two elderberry teas and two of those happy eggs dishes,” I said, cutting Breena off. Her head swung to me as her eyes squinted, but the Kylan human didn’t seem to notice.
“Great choice. I’ll have those out for you as soon as they're ready. The kitchen is usually pretty fast despite all the folks we get in here,” they said with a too-big smile. “Can I get you anything else?”
“No,” I said, looking them over. They wore an outfit made of loose canvas, and their hair was in an intricate knot atop their head. Kylan wore tiny tan shoes with a matching apron that had the words “Henri’s Herb House” written across it in scrolling font.
“Well, I’ll be at the front if you change your mind,” Kylan said, their too-large smile wobbling. As soon as they made it across the tea house, Breena’s eyes sharpened on me.
“Can you stop being so rude to that poor human?”
