Permafrost

17: Flake

⭐️Chapter 17: Flake

The group at least thought it was a house.

That is, until they got closer.

Upon examining it more thoroughly, they realized that it was a tavern of some sort. It seemed to be in very good condition, too.

Their faces lit up upon realizing so.

OH GOODIE!

Food, warmth, fun!

They slowly and carefully made their way down the hill. They did their best not to slip. Once they got down to the bottom, they carefully scanned the area for any danger. They saw no ice, no places enemies could jump out, nothing. Well, except for some trees and bushes off to the sides. But that wasn't important.

They made their way over to the place. Didn't seem too bad, everything was intact and barely anything was broken. The design was mostly wooden without detail carved into it, but the smells from inside seemed even better. The group gently opened the door, and when they walked inside, they were met with warmth, bright lights, conversations, and music. Oh, and the smell of food. That was there too.

The seats and tables were chock-full of a variety of species, from cephalopods to fish to birds and more. The group of four couldn't find a place to sit, unfortunately. They also realized they didn't have enough money to pay for anything. They sat down by a group of chairs in the corner of the place, but they were only sitting chairs, without a table. They scanned the crowd for anyone familiar, anyone from their area.

They unfortunately saw nobody, but someone noticed them. A crane waitress walked over to them, narrowly avoiding the other customers. She was about as tall as Silvia, and wore a blue denim vest. She looked around, checking to make sure nobody else was doing anything note-worthy before turning to the group. She pulled out a notebook and pen.

"Hello, are you all here to eat?" she asked gently and politely.

"Well...we would be, but...we don't have enough cash on us to buy anything" Jack replied, shrugging.

"Ah, I see. Just like the others, then..."

"Wait, what?!" Ryn exclaimed, "They don't have money either?!"

"Nope. All of them have come here from fleeing from some kind of disaster. I don't know what it was, you'd have to ask them, but we thought we'd at least help them out a little and give them SOMETHING to eat while they rested" The crane explained.

"Interesting..." Silvia mumbled, wondering if they too, were fleeing from the Frost Army.

"Anyway, would you all like something, or...?"

"Ah, um...what do you have?" Cosmo asked.

"Oh, all sorts of things! We have cooked meat, hot cocoa, some breads and pastries obtained from other parts of town...not too diverse of a selection though."

Ryn immediately went for a hot chocolate, and Silvia went for a cup of tea. It took the other two a while, but Cosmo eventually went for some hot chocolate as well with bread while Jack went for a coffee and something along the lines of cooked meat but in small, bite size cube pieces. The crane wrote it all down and flew back to the kitchen. Ryn and the others decided to scan the crowd again, this time to see what was going on. So many species...she was surprised that there had been no trouble regarding species eating other species (as there were a few fishlings here, and Ryn had spotted several cooked fish dishes on the other tables).

Nearby, a sharkling and a big rayling were arm wrestling each other. There was a crowd around them, watching and cheering their side on. There were a few species playing card games, some with food, some without. Some species were simply chatting with one another. Others were still eating.