Goals and Desires

Chapter 4 - We're in Elvindom... now what?

After we managed to get in, it took us a whole week to figure out how things worked around there. You know, the currency, the language and stuff. I mean, our spoken language was the same, it was just the alphabet that was different. It still took quite a lot of effort to learn it but we managed to do it eventually. Though Miya learnt it a lot faster than me. Elves sure are pretty good at magic. But we (or at least, me) learned a lot more stuff about elves throughout that week, too. For example, the "Elf Kingdom" is called Elvindom. I also learned other important things. Things like how the 'Elf language' isn't actually a whole new language; it's basically just English, except it's a different dialect called "Elfish". And they use Silver as their currency! I don't even know why I was expecting them to use a fiat currency, to be honest. But hey, I'm not from these parts! Don't judge me for not knowing stuff. 

Believe it or not, with our combined efforts, we found somewhere to stay that wasn't an abandoned place. But even though it wasn't really expensive, the money we earned from selling that old woman's stuff wasn't enough to keep living there. We stayed there for a week before we almost ran out of money due to other expenses like food and water. Yeah well, the old woman's food was so delicious that we finished all of it in three days... oops. Anyway, we decided to go back to that abandoned stable we originally stayed at so we can at least afford food. Although, something unexpected happened while we were leaving the hotel. The receptionist asked us why we were leaving. When we asked why he said that he's required to ask us because his higher-ups are using this information to "improve the services" of the hotel. After we explained everything, he just straight up said,
"Well, it must suck to be stuck in a whole new nation with barely any money at all. I doubt you two found any jobs either." Though, he must've realized how that sounds, so he quickly added, "I'm not judging you or anything, it's just most elves hate humans so that's why I assumed you two are unemployed..."
"Well, you aren't wrong so there's that," Miya replied. "But can you cut to the chase, please?"
"Right, sorry," the man quickly said, "what I mean is that as long as you're willing to keep it a secret, I can help you with this one."
Miya and I just looked at each other. We were both speechless because of how happy we were. The man must've realized that because he said,
"Look you two, if my higher-ups find out about this I'll probably get fired, but I do want to help out since I can understand the trouble you two must be going through," he said, before pausing to breathe for a few seconds.
He later added, "plus, didn't you two say you came here to learn magic? You two probably have a lot of troubles already so at least getting this one off your mind would help, would it not?"
"Yes, it would. Thank you, sir," I quickly answered. "I can't explain how big of a help this is for us."
"And we will keep it a secret, you mustn't worry about that," Miya added.
And that's how we found a place to stay that's not a fucking barn that hasn't been used since who knows when.

Even though we learned so much throughout the last week we spent there, we still haven't come anywhere close to our goal: to learn magic. In fact, we spent another week trying to find a teacher because most of the ones we found refused to teach us "pathetic humans" anything. Even Miya said she wanted to punch those guys in the face, and so did I... even though we knew that wouldn't solve anything. And just like that one guy said, we haven't been able to find a job either, for the -somewhat- same reason. At that point, we were both getting pissed off. Up until...

"We've been here for two god damn weeks and we haven't even found a teacher, let alone a job to sustain ourselves while we're here! At this rate, we'll have to dig up trash in some back alley," Miya complained.
"I completely agree with you," I said while making my bed, "but complaining won't get us anywhere."
"I know, I know. It's just that the fact these Elves don't even let us work anywhere just because we're human pisses me off so much. Why even be so racist for no reason?"
"Well, they are Elves. They are pretty good with magic so they get too cocky with humans, probably." 
"Yeah possible," she said after rolling her eyes.
None of us spoke for a bit because we were both trying to sleep, but then, she suddenly jumped out of the bed and screamed, 
"Wait! I have an idea!"
Because she screamed like that, I got scared and fell from my bed.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" said Miya while running towards me to check if I'm okay.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I just hit my head that's all," I said after getting up, "whatever this idea is, it better be worth it."
"How about we go ask Henry for a teacher? He should be pretty familiar with this place."
I was confused. "Who's Henry again?" I asked.
At first, she looked at me like "girl, are you serious right now?", but then she burst out laughing. "You don't remember him? You know that big buff guy from the camp?"
"That guy's called Henry?"
"Yeah, duh! I don't know how you haven't heard his name," she stopped for a second before continuing, "I guess you've only been with us for three days, so I shouldn't be that surprised."
"How long have you been with them, again?"
"Around two weeks. We started the journey from UKH, which usually takes 3 weeks to get to Elvindom from there, but we went quite faster than planned so we were able to make it in 2 weeks, somehow."
"Sorry, what's UKH again?"
"Wait... you're telling me you've never been there?"
"I mean, yeah. It's been, what, a month since I came here. And three out of those four weeks I've spent here, in Elvindom."
"Where did you go when you first arrived here, then?"
"Believe it or not, the portal I went through opened somewhere above the clouds, and I fell all the way down there, so I had quite a lot of injuries..."
She cut me off, "Did you use a slow-falling spell or something?"
"Back then, I didn't know magic was a thing here."
"How did you survive a fall that big, then?" she asked with wide-open eyes.
"I landed on my legs."
"Huh? But wouldn't that—"
"Yeah, it hurts a lot. So much that your body falls into a coma. In normal conditions, you probably won't be able to use your legs again after such a fall."
"But with magic..."
"Exactly."
"You never told me you were that powerful!"
"I'm not. A woman took care of me for a whole week."
"Who was she?"
"No clue. She never told me anything about herself, just took care of me. She brought me food, water and conducted 'rituals'", I put a lot of emphases there for some reason, "every once in a while to speed up my healing process."
"Damn. Didn't know such people existed in a world like this."
"Me neither. After I was fully healed, she told me I can either decide to stay there or go somewhere to train. She recommended I go to Elvindom to learn magic, so I took her up on that offer, and you know what happened on my way there."
"Yeah, I remember."
"So, are you going to tell me what UKH is and how's Henry supposed to help us?"
"Right. UKH stands for "United Kingdom of Humanity", and Henry can probably help us because he is the leader of that group we travelled with. They are kind of like mercenaries; you pay them and they keep you safe when travelling. This sort of protection is especially important because it's even more dangerous when you are in the middle of nowhere. There are lots of animals, monsters, bandits,  and worst of all, mercenaries. It's even worse if the last two are cooperating."
"Though, they let me in without making me pay?"
"Yeah well, they were going to make you pay, since they first thought you were one of those people who were trying to sneak into the group without paying, but after realizing you were genuine, they decided to let you in. To be honest, you made the right choice by joining. It was free for you, too!"
"How much does it cost, anyway?"
"25 gold per person. It's kind of cheap but kind of expensive at the same time."
"I'm assuming gold is the currency of UKH."
"Yeah."
"Well, do you have any gold with you, then?"
"I do, why?"
"Can't we exchange that for Silver?"
"I don't know if there's an exchange system in this world, but we'll ask around tomorrow while trying to find Henry. Does it sound good to you?"
"Yeah, let's do that. Not like I have a better plan."
"Okay then, good night."
"Good night."