33. City Living

Brooke and Meredith enjoy the spoils of Eros: A hotel, a handsome stranger, and room service!

            Brooke, Ellis, and Meredith rode Athena across the long, empty valley and over a large hill. Night had fallen when they reached the urban community of Eros. The sound of crickets and wolves faded to vibrating neon signs and cars booming with loud music.

A bright display of city landscape stretched before the travelers. Smells of fast food places and fancy restaurants overtook the humid smells of air. Athena approached the sidewalks that led into the urban community. Anymalis and humans flooded the sidewalks. Brooke blinked twice, wondering if she was hallucinating. She also saw dwarves and fauns and satyrs! Her mother told her stories about these kinds of creatures, but she never imagined that one day she would encounter them. Humans and anymalis stared at Athena as she walked through the urban community. Brooke felt that Athena was uncomfortable with all the eyes. She patted her neck.

 “Look, a casino!” Meredith pointed and awed at it. King Victor never allowed casinos in Alagracia. He viewed them as a waste of funding. There, a large building stood with a large neon sign spelling out KASHCA. She wondered what that meant. She heard the sound of machines and screaming shouts of ecstasy over big amounts of money won.

Athena moved on. Meredith sighed. “An inn, finally.” Brooke felt relieved as she looked at the building. It was extravagant with fine brick walls shaped in fancy rectangles and squares. A round topped window sat above the long strip of cursive written words that spelled TRAVELERS EXPENSE. Brooke wondered if they will have enough to afford this kind of thing. Also, where will Athena stay? She certainly couldn’t fit inside.

“Go on, Miss Brooklyn; I will rest out here in case you need me,” said Athena.

“But…”

“I am a creature that isn’t of human being. Anymore.” Athena lowered her eyes to the ground and Brooke knew not to press it. 

Ellis and Meredith got down and waited for Brooke. She hopped down and patted Athena’s neck. They met eyes, and Brooke said, “You be safe then, okay?” Athena nodded and found her a place beside the building.

Brooke, Ellis, and Meredith entered the inn. The room was a semicircle with a desk in the middle of two doors. A pretty dwarf sat in the black chair, cupping the phone to her ear and twirling her stubby finger in the cord. She snorted and laughed as she mashed her lips together, flipping her black hair to the side. Meredith cleared her throat and the dwarf gasped. She hung the phone up and flashed a pearly smile. “Good evening, Travelers.” She turned to a computer and clicked the mouse. 

“We wish to accommodate a room,” Meredith answered.

The dwarf nodded and clicked her mouse again. “I will need your names and an ID.” Brooke’s face flustered. She didn’t have any form of ID on her. She looked at Ellis, but she shrugged.

“I am Meredith Ana Danielson, Princess of Alagracia.”

The dwarf faked a gasp. “And I am Susan Reef of the dwarves; I need some form of ID, Lady.”

“We have none,” Brooke admitted.

“Then, I cannot serve you.”

The dwarf reached for the phone and picked it up, continuing her conversation. Meredith and Brooke gave each other a face that expressed a helpless situation. Neither one had a solution. A man walked through the slide doors of the inn. He strolled up to the desk, taking slow strides, his hands in the pockets of black skinny jeans. He approached the desk, leaning on the marble counter. He flipped his long blue dyed hair and Brooke saw that he had elfin blood in him. His ears were pointed and his eyes a deep scarlet. The dwarf’s mouth stopped and she gazed at him. Her eyes turned from flippant to hearts. She slowly hung the phone up in the middle of her conversation. The man smirked. “How are you doing, Susie?”

“Ga-ga-ga-good, good, Ross sir.” Brooke arched a brow. “A-a-nd you?”

“Fantastic,” he said with a slickness to his tone of voice. “Now, go ahead and allow them a room.”

The dwarf shook her head. “I can’t do that, boss will have my a*s.”

“Use my ID.” Ross gave the dwarf a confident smile. “I think your boss will be pleased to see my face on that card.”

The dwarf bit her lip, glancing from Meredith to Ross. “Aw okay, fine.” She typed stuff into the computer.

Ross took the key, threw it in the air, and caught it. He turned to Meredith and winked. “Here you go, Beautiful.” Meredith blushed and he tossed the keys to her. He approached her and whispered in her ear. “You owe me.” He walked away before Meredith could protest. She owed no one anything if she assumed the kind of person he appeared to be.  

“Whoa, what was that?” Brooke laughed.

Meredith shook her head. “I have no idea, but let’s go.” Meredith glanced at the dwarf and she pointed to the right door.

Brooke and Ellis followed Meredith into the right door and went through a bar. Brooke’s nose itched from the smoke lingering in the air like winter frost. Ellis coughed and Meredith clamped her nose shut. A jazzy tune played. All creatures mingled and danced drunkenly on the floor. Brooke felt the heat of a glare on the back of her head. A chill intruded up her spine. She ignored the feeling and urged her companions to walk faster by leading the way.

Meredith, Ellis, and Brooke passed the bar and found a door that led to a room of four elevators. They entered one and the buttons shifted in rainbow colors. Meredith red the number on the key and realized she forgot to ask what floor they were supposed to be on. “Any body feel like making a trip?” she asked.

Brooke thought about the horrible smells in the bar and replied, “Nah, we can find our way.”

The door to the elevator room opened and Brooke automatically pressed a random button. The elevator doors shut before whoever could get a good look at them.

After a few wrong floors, Ellis whined, “I think we should have gone back and asked,” said Ellis.

“Who asked you?” Brooke snapped. Ellis backed onto Meredith, clinging to her blouse. 

“Don’t be rude,” scorned Meredith as she frowned. It took a few floors for Brooke, Ellis, and Meredith to find the right one. Meredith and Brooke argued about it during the ride. Ellis felt sick and Brooke was irritated. “All we had to do was ask, geeze,” Meredith grumbled.

“I told you I could find it,” Brooke said rubbing her aching forehead. “We found it didn’t we?” 

“Yeah, after a million floors and I finally asked someone how to read the key on the card,” Meredith argued.  

Brooke rolled her eyes and they went down the corridor to their room. She turned the key and entered the dark room. Meredith reached for the switch and flipped it on. An end table with a fire decorated, square lamp separated two beds in the middle of the room.

Brooke’s stomach complained and she realized she was hungry. “Somebody order room service!” Brooke laid her sword under her bed, slipped off her shoes, and hopped in the bed. Her body relaxed in the cloths. A mouse scurried across the room and Meredith squeaked. Ellis pounced after it, but it escaped into a tiny hole in the wall.

“Gross, Ellis.” Ellis blushed and found a spot on the floor. “I guess I’ll order the room service then.” Meredith wondered how to do that. She spotted a phone, and she picked it up. The dwarf answered and Meredith told her she wanted room service. She promised it would be up there soon.

Brooke found the remote and turned on the television. She flipped it to cartoons. Meredith frowned. “Find a reality show!”

Brooke grimaced. “Why would I want to watch a bunch of pointless drama?” She turned the TV to a cartoon station.

“So immature, change it!”
            “Never!” Meredith and Brooke wrestled over the remote until someone knocked on the door. Brooke abandoned the fight for the food and opened the door to a centaur wearing a butler outfit. He wheeled in a tray full of food. Brooke’s eyes widened and she salivated like a starving dog. The centaur bowed and left.

Meredith changed the channel and Brooke occupied herself with food to ignore the horrible reality show.

Two weeks passed. Brooke enjoyed the room service and Meredith fawned over her horrible show. Ellis, however, had started to disappear from the room at around eight. She didn’t return until the early morning for breakfast. Some of the days, she seemed loopy. Meredith and Brooke finally had enough with their searing curiosity.

It was the start of the new week, and Ellis tried to sneak inside the room without waking Meredith or Brooke. She closed the door and turned around to see Meredith and Brooke glaring at her. She shivered and a sweat drop fell down her face. “Ellis, where are you running off to?” Meredith asked.

“Yeah, you ain’t hiding nothing are you?”

Ellis waved her hands and said quickly, “No, no!” She walked to her spot. “I’m hungry, where’s breakfast?”

Brooke opened the door to reveal breakfast on the wheeled tray. She stopped the centaur from wheeling it in. “No breakfast until you tell us where you run off to.” Brooke picked up Ellis’s favorite can of tuna. She dangled it in front of the anymalis’s face and she looked distressed.

“No fair, Brooke!” she exclaimed as she reached for it. Brooke pulled it away. Ellis groaned. “How about I just show you, huh?”

“Show what?”

Ellis grinned. “Who wants to visit a rave?”

 

Author's Note

Dear Reader,

I wanted the setting to almost resemble Las Vegas. I also wanted you the reader to get a feel of the relaxed mood.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely JazzSoulKeke,

God bless