The Cause

2: Up the Darby Stairs

Rana walked to the back of Darby's, towards the bathrooms.  On the way she finished her coffee and set the cup on a nearby table.

The door to the women's room had three artfully placed coconuts.  On the men's room door, two coconuts were arranged not as artfully, though the message was clear.  

Closing her eyes, Rana again stilled her breath as she walked between the two doors and into the wall.  The wall surrounded her in dust, wood and nails all stretching like saran wrap around her physical form until suddenly giving way and placing Rana at the foot of a metal, circular staircase.

Straightening her shirt, which always seemed to get twisted up in transitions, Rana then reached into her bag.  The cloak was a waterfall of navy velvet, dark and thick as a summer night.  As it settled around her shoulders it whispered to the grey stone floor.  Those at the top of the stairs would be offended at  her jeans, button up shirt and pink scarf.  Not only did  the cloak hide her sartorial sins, it provided protection with the delicate silver chain mail woven within the fibers.

Rana began to ascend, her brown  loafers echoing a soft slap with every step.  Her breathing, by practice and discipline remained regular and even, despite the hundreds of steps taken.

The stairs ended suddenly at a large, nondescript wooden door.  The handle and lock were silver and radiated with their own blue light.  Rana reached for the handle and no sooner than her fingers brushed the metal did it swing open.

"Grmph," came the greeting from the creature holding the door open.

"And good day to you to Axal," Rana said and bowed.

Axal's speaking in human tongue was marred by the enormous tusks protruding from his lower lip.  While he was human from the waist down, from the waist up he was a very hairy and very cranky walrus.

"Come in, 'Phrayna," he stepped aside.  He sniffed as she walked past, human women always smelled so good to him.  Saliva dripped from the left side of his mouth, promptly slurped up as he heard what Rana said as she passed.

"Not in this life nor the next."

Rana scanned the round tables spaced evenly across the huge circumference of the large, circular room.  She knew there were exactly 20 and all but two were filled with seated patrons sipping Darwin's various brews.

As she walked towards the center, Rana passed by a table inhabited by 5 dwarfs, all gesturing dramatically with their tankards.  

"Seriously, making our hair so ridiculous.  Swirls and curls, imagine!" one said to his companions.

Rana smiled, it was an old argument.  Dwarves took umberage to their portrayal in a popular movie series.  She stifled a laugh when she saw one of their t-shirts.  It showed a picture of the movie's director with a target on his forehead above his round glasses. The caption: wanted dead or alive.

Like a junior high lunchroom, creatures sat with those most like them or who they most liked.  In one section sat b-women and b-men who were part beast and part human.   The Hynd were the most beatiful of the beamans. They pranced around each other, antlers curling delicately behind ears like prom king and queen crowns.

Faeries were exciteable and had ADD.  They didn't move so much as swoosh, wings beating like hummingbirds on too much caffeine.  They flit from table to table blurring to the natural eye from their speed voices more squeaks than sound.

Elves held court in the back of the room and occupied six tables.  Serious in demeanor, their gaze often roamed the room as if holding court.  However, at Darby's no one species held court-save for one.