Cultural Exchange Ch. 02

"Thank you Merita, but I can take over from here." I started to scrub myself with the towel while waiting for Merita to leave me finally alone. I looked at my left wrist to see the "y" shaped scar I had there for years now. This bath had taken me back to the time I was in the hospital and my mother had to do for me the same as Merita. Note for you guys: never lose focus when you're working with sharp and/or pointy tools.

After rinsing myself with another bucket of water I proceeded to enter the tub and sat in one of the banks. The water was hot but not scalding, so I was comfortable enough to spend some minutes soaking in it until I noticed my eyes were closing and I was nodding my head.

So that's how we get back to the present moment. After drying myself I noticed that Merita had taken my travel clothes to wash and repair the shirt Elam had ripped, so I had to walk around covered by nothing but a towel until we reached my room. I was left alone to rest for an hour or so before I had to start getting dressed to wait for the carriage.

I moved the sheet to cover at least my middle section as I was not comfortable sleeping completely naked and exposed. I was drifting off to sleep when I heard a flutter of wings.

"Caw!" I heard the caw of a crow while the shining black bird landed at the edge of the open window and started staring at me. I had a bad feeling in my gut and started to move slowly to my knife that was on the table in front of the window, two meters away from it. I went for the knife first because I am by no means an expert in birds, but this crow seemed like a variant from this world, much bigger than the ones on earth.

When I was a meter away from the knife, the crow cawed again and I moved my arm by instinct trying to scare it away. That was one of the worst mistakes I had made in this world up to now. Instead of getting scared and turning away, the crow lowered its head emitting a long and menacing sound at the same time it spread its wings. I was instantly awestruck when I saw electric bolts jumping between the black feathers of the animal.

I had just a moment to jump aside when the creature threw itself at me like some kind of electric projectile. The move saved me, but got me away from my only weapon again, and I was sure I was going to need something to take that thing down considering it had left a burnt mark where it had crashed against the wall

The crow-like creature stood on top of my sheathed knife on the table, and let out a streak of short caws, as if it was laughing at me. I threw a boot at it and it evaded the attack and flew again at me covered in electric sparks. This time my jump made it crash against the wardrobe, and I had to jump away immediately because it was closer than ever. But my jump over the bed was badly calculated because my foot got tangled in the sheet and I fell to the floor dragging it with me.

The sheet! It made me remember what I had done when a bat had entered my apartment and I had to take it out without killing it because it was a protected species. In my next jump I took the sheet with me and the crow got tangled in it. I twirled my arm over and over until the creature was trapped inside the ball I had made with the fabric, unable to flap its wings or even move.

I smashed the ball with the crow inside twice against the ground before hearing, "Stop! Don't kill it, Master." Merita had come to the sounds of the fight. "It is just a lost Stormcrow. The rainy season has already passed, so it must have been separated from its flock because of an injury or something like that."

I unwrapped the sheet so Merita could see if it was still alive. The bastard was a tough one, because it had no broken bones, just the commotion from the impacts and even that wasn't serious because the sheet itself had protected it partially.

A Stormcrow. It reminded me of a book vaguely based in the Norse mythology where the king of Gods used Stormcrows as messengers because of their traits and the fact that storms didn't stop them, but made them stronger. I knelt to touch the unconscious creature on the chest. I remembered the crow boss, the only one who had the right to perch on the God's shoulder. "Turak..." I had said it aloud without thinking. The crow twitched once.

Merita looked at me, but I could not hear what she said because I suddenly felt weak and dizzy and fainted. Maybe I was overcome by how close to dying I had been once again.

An hour later I was getting dressed for the party while thinking about the episode with the Stormcrow, a little pissed off at Merita for saying that it had been my fault that the damn thing attacked me. She had left it on the backyard table to fly away when it came back to itself.

My formal attire consisted of a long sleeved white shirt with a cord instead of buttons, black trousers and tall boots. I was about to put on the open black vest that went over the shirt when I noticed I had to put on the other piece first: a sash of a creamy light green color. I had never put on something like this, so I was fighting with the garment wondering why I had to use it if I already had my belt tightened. In the end, I had to call for Merita, who taught me that I only needed to wrap it around my waist counter-clockwise over the belt and use the cords from the sheath of my hunting knife to tie it.

The carriage was already waiting when I got out of the house. A page boy opened the door for me and got in to give me conversation along the way. He kept up running commentary as the carriage took me without incidents to the east gate of the city, so I had a view of a different part of it because I had entered through the southern one. To the north there was no entrance because that's where the Hall of Shields and the fortress were, and the western gate there was a wide open space for loading and unloading vehicles, and for receiving guests and traders from other cities or even other countries. As I noticed the day before, for defensive purposes there was an outer wall that only had two gates but none of them was directly in front of the ones of the inner wall to make the enemy fight all the way until he could find an entrance into the city. The page boy informed me that as I was the guest of honor for the celebration it was my place to arrive the last, so we had plenty of time to look around.

To the east of the city there was a wood and stone structure known as the Arena. It was made a little rough and without ornaments given that it was outside of the city walls and it would be a waste of resources to rebuild it very richly every time it was brought down during an attack. The carriage took me to the back side of the Arena where Errom and his family were waiting for me.

Errom was wearing the same clothes as that morning, only that he was now wearing a skin-collared cape. By his side was Oner, wearing a set of clothes not very different from mine but his sash was bi-colored with pink and green lines, and he was there standing like a Sir with Nera and Melfa each clinging to one of his arms. Now that I noticed, Nera's dress was green and Melfa's was pink, so that made me think that maybe it was in the protocol to use the sash as some kind of color code to identify those who were together at the party. I imagined Ralya for a moment and I thought the clear green color of my sash would go very well with her tanned skin.

Then I noticed a pair of people that I had never seen before, people that obviously were not Mountain Elves. The male had unruly black hair down to his shoulders, had yellow eyes and his ears were on top of his head. They were triangular and covered with black fur except for the tip, which was white. I have had enough pets to know those were the ears of a canine creature, as also was the fluffy tail that could be seen swishing calmly behind him. Just like his ears, the tail was also black with white tip.

When he offered me his hand with a cold smile I had a fraction of second to notice his fangs and when I took his hand in mine I was able to see his black and slightly pointy nails. "Well met, cub. I am Yalgir, and just so you know, at first I only came here to bring my wife to meet you. I did not think I would respect an unproven young one. But after Oner and my little sister told me how you took out two Orcs alone, I have found that I do... have an interest in you. I hope we can spar one of these days before little sister puts the shackles on you, he he."

Even though his words seemed friendly, the smile didn't reach his eyes. That made me feel as if I was being coldly evaluated, and the grip of his hand on mine was a little stronger than needed. His tail stopped its swishing, and his ears stood up a bit. His cold yellow eyes bored into mine until he was interrupted by the lady

"Husband, don't scare the boy, it's the first time he's seen one of your kind. For all I know, it's also the first time he has seen anyone of any kind but for Humans and Mountain Elves." The silky voice that came from behind Yalgir belonged to a woman... damn, I had to look twice at the sky to make sure the sun was still out. The woman clad in a blood red dress in front of me had pointy ears like those of the Elven kinds, but her skin was almost milk white, with long and straight dark blue hair and red eyes. Was I really looking at a vampire married to a werewolf? This was the first time I really feared for my sanity.

"Allow me to welcome you into the family, little brother. I am sorry for not being able to welcome you in person this morning, but we had to fight a group of bandits while crossing the Ownerless lands. I am Zirilla, Ralya's older sister."

I was so overwhelmed at this instant that I could just mumble a "Thank you." So Ralya's older sister had been turned into a vampire and was now married to a werewolf? I was struggling to make any sense out of this when I saw Ralya and any coherent thought flew out of the window.

She was really wearing a dress of the same color as my sash, and it really did suit her skin tone. But instead of something medieval as I had expected, she was wearing something more similar to a party gown from earth. It was tight at the waist to show the forms of her toned body, with a slit to the left that opened and closed with the sway of her hips to show her shapely leg up to her thigh. It had a scoop cleavage that displayed her round, beautiful breasts and at the upper right it had a white lace sleeve leaving the left shoulder and arm naked save for a white ribbon threaded from the wrist to the elbow. A similar white ribbon, tied to the neck, acted as a choker with the remnant of tissue prancing in the wind. She hadn't changed her hair style, but instead of the metallic diadem, she was wearing one made of what seemed to be jade carved to look like two dragons facing each other on top of her head.

When I could snap out of it, I noticed that everyone had been staring at me while I was looking at Ralya dumbfounded. I could feel the heat in my face as it turned red and lowering my head I pointed at her and just blurted out without thinking, "Well, she's so beautiful she could make a goddess cry in envy."

Ralya's eyes widened and turned her back to us, lowering her ears while Oner laughed even harder. "Good one, little brother, it's the first time I have seen my little sister blushing to her ears."

He kept laughing until he was cut by a frowning Nera who stepped on his foot. "Why do you laugh at him?" she said with her whispering voice.

"Yes, you never say those kinds of things to us." This time it was Melfa who protested, but their discussion was abruptly cut by Errom's voice.

"Children." Even though he said just one word, the strength it carried made all of us stop to regain our composure. "Everyone is waiting for us. As guests of honor, Bran will sit to my right and Ralya to my left. Oner's family will sit by Bran's side and Yalgir's family will do the same by Ralya's side." He lowered his head a second before looking at me directly. "Ralya has told me how in your world it is common to let close people use a simplified version of your name. She heard that when you had lunch together when you arrived and took that liberty by herself after you saved her from being raped. I also have taken the same liberty as your soon-to-be father in law, is that proper?"

If you had seen Errom and heard his voice you would understand why it was impossible for me to answer another way. "No, it is very proper, Yuan'Errom. I wouldn't..."

"Boy," the word fell like a hammer cutting my stutter, "it is about time you start getting accustomed to calling me 'Father' when we aren't in official business... Son"

Feeling small under his gaze, I just answered, "I'll keep it in mind... Father."

We got into something like a formation with Errom in front. Ralya and I stood side by side and behind us came Oner's family and Yalgir's family in the final line. Maybe the norm was that Ralya and I would go in the back and that way we would be forming by the age of Errom's children, but Ralya and I came to the front because we were the guests of honor.

Standing by her side I had a moment to notice that the one who had chosen our clothes had been a little clever. While my boots had a thick sole with a little heel, Ralya was wearing white sandals with flat soles. Like in her left wrist, the sandals had white ribbons threaded almost to her knees. Our shoes had been chosen for the optic effect of reducing the height gap between us.

Errom nodded in agreement and we all moved behind him to the stairs leading to the box for honored guests in the Arena. I had noticed that Ralya hadn't approached me in any way or responded to my compliment in any manner, she just kept her distance from me. That revived my fear that she could hate me for provoking a situation where she had to marry someone she didn't love.

I tried to break the ice getting a little closer to her to whisper, "I don't understand it. Your sister is a vampire and her husband is a were... uf!" She had hit my ribs with her elbow to make me shut up.

"My sister is not a vampire, her mother is a Cave Elf. And her husband is a Wolven A'Jin. Maybe you don't understand the distinction right now, but they would feel deeply offended to the point of attacking without warning. And don't speak to me."

Well, that left many things clear. Not only the nature of the relationship that had made me flip out, but the nature of our own relationship. It seemed that she really hated me for what was happening around us, for what her father had decided to do with us. Unexpectedly, that made me sadden more than I had anticipated, and that also confused me.

After our night encounter the day I arrived and her promise of giving herself to me willingly I started to feel hopeful for finding the kind of relationship I had always dreamed with, and that also brought fears of the possibility of being deceived by a woman again, that she had lied to me at some point or that she had no intention of fulfilling her promise. Three days ago I didn't know anything about her, but now I really liked her. She was tough, but she also knew how to be soft. She was strong, but for the love others showed towards her, I knew she was also kind. As far as I knew about her, she was my type, and the prospect of knowing that once I made her mine she wouldn't be able to betray me or leave me was a plus no one could ignore.

But that last bit was also a double-edged sword. Was it really right to tie her feelings to me against her will? What if forcing her love didn't stop her other feelings and she became forced to love me and hate me at the same time for the rest of her life? Could I be happy knowing that her love for me wasn't real, but something forged by the magic of her first time? It was getting more saddening with each second I thought about it.

Maybe something showed up on my face because Ralya leaned to whisper, "It is part of the protocol, dear. We can't contact directly each other until my father makes it official that we are engaged."

That lifted my spirit a bit, but not much. When you have been rejected as many times as I have, you end up learning that the longer you stay in uncertainty the worse is the pain when your hopes get crushed.

Our seats at the Arena were the only ones that had a real roof built with wood. The rest of the building was protected by cloth awnings. The area reserved for us was slightly more luxurious than the other with its carpet, the set of table and chairs made of carved wood and the two servants at the back corners waiting to serve us. Honoring its name, the building was centered around a wide rectangle of dark sand, but contrary to what anyone could think by looking from outside, the inner side of the building was almost all of it made of wood. When I asked Oner about this, he said, "Yes, it has another special use this way. When the need has arisen, we have lit it on fire purposefully to use it as a giant torch when the city has suffered a night raid."

We stood in front of our respective seats waiting for Errom's opening speech, when the crowd started to scream and cheer. It felt like that time when I was ten years old and I got up on a stage to tell jokes. When I felt all those people looking at me at the same time I blanked out completely to the point I wasn't even able to stutter. Maybe I have managed to overcome my lack of ability to socialize in small groups, but crowds were still too much for me. I felt a bad shiver going down my back when I thought what would happen in case I would be forced to take part in a real battle, one of those with hundreds or maybe even thousands of warriors for each side.

My frantic thoughts were stopped when Errom lifted his hands to bring the crowd to silence. "My City, my Brethren, my Family. This fine evening we gather ourselves to welcome between our walls and our arms a new member of the Family. I know he comes from a strange land, but he behaves himself with Honor and Courage..."

While Errom's powerful voice echoed through the Arena, Oner by my side patted my shoulder and whispered into my ear, "Start thinking what you're going to tell them, little brother."

I panicked instantly and stuttered, "W-what!? I-I have to give a speech too!?"

He snickered and said, "Of course, you are the guest of honor today. All of them have come to greet you. It's your duty to address them directly and thank them for coming. Better start getting used to these things, little brother. You are going to be part, not only of the Nobility, but the ruling family of one of the five Kinds of Elves."

My mind was working at full speed when I suddenly noticed the silence and Oner's hand gently pushing my back for me to step forward and speak. I inhaled deeply, raised my voice... and several seconds later I stepped back again while people applauded.

"Not bad, Son. Are you used to speaking in public?" was the first thing Errom said when we finally sat down to watch the first of the shows in the program.

"Yeah, you seemed to be out of yourself when I told you that you had to step out there, but you've been pretty eloquent." That was Oner chuckling with a grin on his face.

Now that I felt a little more relaxed, I confessed, "Really? You tell me what I've just said. I was panicking so much that I don't remember a word." Then I looked at the sky because of a sudden noise similar to the rumbling thunders in a storm. Finally I looked to my left and realized that it was Errom laughing. I had to cover my red face with my hands when I could hear everyone's laughter behind the noise Errom was making.

When everyone calmed down Oner looked me and said, "Your almost literal words were 'I humbly thank all of you for taking the trouble to come meet me. I am still new to this land and there's much I need to learn, so please be patient with me. You have my word, on my name and rank, that I'll always try to behave to your standards of Honor, Courage and Loyalty' Don't worry. We were not laughing at what you said, but at the fact that you were chickening out so much that you don't even remember it."