Guided by Fate (Fiz-Bun Fluff)

Chapter 15

The city had a strange layout. It reminded me of those towns you'd see built in a river - wooden platforms sticking out of the water. This one, however, had swaths of houses and buildings carved into the sides of cliffs and balanced on large stone supports. The city curled around the mountains, rather than attempting to sprawl out our even stack up. Just inside the gate was a large round stone area, like a town square, but circular. There were three streets coming off, one of which led to some sort of regal building. Likely a church or a town hall or something of the sort.

"This is fascinating. I've never seen anything like it my world."

Fiz nodded, her ears flopping as she scanned the horizon. "I don't see any signs for inns..." She said, furrowing her brow.

"Why don't we wonder around while we look? Maybe try the local cuisine?"

Fiz opened her mouth, but her stomach's growl interrupted her.

"...I think that's a yes," She blushed gently, rubbing her neck.

I smiled playfully and led her down one of the three streets that branched off from the town center.

"Hey Fiz," I began as we walked past a sculpture shop. "How do the different cities interact? Is it more like different nations? Or just neighbors."

"Well, there's several nations here, but in ours, cities are mostly independent. As a stark difference, however, Ocaonia is a chain of islands. Their cities are very tightly-knit and help each other quite often. Here?" Fiz sighed. "The only reason our cities help each other would be for personal gain. Kaeol isn't going to help Qwuith without good incentive, like a mercenary."

"You sound upset by that," I noted.

"That's because I am!" She huffed. "I think it's really dumb that they won't put aside their differences and personal greed and just help keep each other safe!"

"Ugh, my world could be like that, too," I said, stepping over a blue chicken-lizard as it ran down the street. "What was that thing?"

"Cheo. They're common farm animals in areas with limited space and food, like Chulain," She said. "Maybe everyone has their own food sources, and that's why we can't find any restaurants."

"Yer lookin fer a rest'runt?" A short, muscular man said, walking up to us. I would guess he was a dwarf? That's based on the mining town and his size, though. He, oddly enough, had a sort of southern drawl to his voice.

"Y-yeah! And an Inn to stay the night," I noded.

The dwarf nodded and sighed. "I tol' Caison thut inn needed tuh b'closer t'th'gate... didn' lis'in t'muh." He mumbled, waving us along.

"Caison's th'owner o' th'inn. Wan'ed th'view t'be best in town. Guess where 'e put it?" He asked.

"Did he put it at the top of the city?" I asked.

The man nodded, sighing. "W'rarely git people who wanna stay here no mo' 'cause none o'em can find th'inn."

"Is there somewhere to eat nearby?" Fiz asked, looking up toward the inn - likely twenty minutes of walking away, maybe thirty.

"Uhm-hum. Few joints near th'inn, mostly run by Caison's buds," He explained. "Anythin' else?"

"No, nothing at all, sir. Thank you very much!" I smiled, gently taking Fiz's arm. After about seven minutes, I leaned over to Fiz and whispered near her ear, "I didn't know there were dwarfs here."

She giggled and winked at me. "I didn't tell you, 'cause I figured you'd have a cute reaction about it~"

I blushed gently. Man, I wish I could show her some of the stuff from my world.

We walked for a long while before reaching the inn, making slightly awkward small talk and various remarks about the town. The building itself was thin, but looked to be three stories tall, plus whatever was below. The ground floor inside was small and looked somewhat like a hotel lobby, if only the reception desk were there. The Inn I stayed at with Fiz in Kaeol had a full restaurant in the ground floor - though I guess that one was just fancy.

We reserved a room for the night, looked inside to make sure we'd fit in the bed together, then left for the building next door so we could eat dinner.

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As a heads-up, the next chapter,  Chapter 16, will most likely contain straight-up smut. I'll be releasing chapters 16 and 17 at roughly the same time, and chapter 16 will contain basically nothing important to the plot.

If you're not 18 years or older, (or whatever the legal age is whereever you live) please don't read chapter 16 when it releases.

Anyway, I'm going to bed, because I keep writing this at 2am and I don't know why.