I had gone out because I was bored. Meandering here was just a fluke. I could've been anywhere but I'd already been everywhere else, though I hadn't been overly impressed by this place at first. While the thick musk of the air and the music moving the air like a surging stream was strange but enjoyable I found it not lifting. 'Humans', as these strange creatures were called, was said to have an abundance of cultures, tastes, beliefs and entertainment but the so-far most interesting 'club' they'd established left me unsatisfied.
They had come here from another place, 'not from this, but in another this' as I had been explained when informed of this 'alternate reality'. I didn't really understand it but the fairy had seemed very impressed by the things these new beings had shown her. After they came some were scared and others curios but none more so than the humans themselves, telling us stories of ourselves in their own place. Little had made sense of it. After establishing themselves more had come and as a 'symbolic act of friendly relations' they settled in the outskirts of Adolo, creating their own part of town, most coming to learn about all beings of this world. A strange aspiration I always thought but many elves, fairies and others were as interested in them. I figured it because they were so similar and left it that, never meddling in it since I had little interest. Tonight however I had little else to do and so I explored their living.
Very small creatures, most of them not reaching my neck I thought them familiar to myself the same way elves were. Standing on two legs their semblance to elves was striking, as their only difference from elves was their strange blunt ears. Also some had a round body build while others were thin and some were muscular in comparison to others. Hairs of differing colors and lengths were as varied as their appearance, their clothes even more so and I couldn't picture what kind of life they lived as a whole.
When I had come into their region I thought that maybe the rumors of their openness were untrue because they all stared at me with an unease that was more than annoying. My first idea of it was while I felt no need to cover myself in any way it seemed natural for the humans to leave little but their head and hands devoid of clothes. With that in mind I had visited a clothes market and the elven seller explained it was more what I was than what I wore. It seemed many humans had grown up in fear of what they called "dragons" from stories, and me being a traike sprout I was reminiscent of these fears. "That said" she had hurriedly said, "some clothes would not harm in their presence". And so I had donned clothes she thought appropriate.
I had seen a garment made from three strings and two pieces of cloth which reminded of the coverings I had worn in the presence of elves a long time ago, not counting its lack of a flowing piece in what I took to be the back. The elf girl eyed them over and then showed me a pair of pants of a to me unknown make and covered in straps for unimaginable purpose. I thought I would rather wear the smaller garment, the one the elf girl called a 'g-string' but she explained I should wear both. While I thought it unnecessary the girl made a point of how it would look good with the straps of the g-string following the top of my thighs above the rim of the pants. Picturing it I leaned to agree with her, the purple material accenting well against my red scales. Before I donned the pants she gave me a strange piece that she had to show me how to put on. The nether of it seemed made like a much wider version of the g-string, embracing my thighs and rump in a soft, stretchy material. The back of it split into two parts and followed my sides up to a cloth that seemed shaped for my chest. In the middle of my chest was what I presumed to be writing which the elf girl said meant "Marilyn Manson" – the name of a human musician. The girl called it a "one-piece". It was a very strange piece of clothing but the only thing I could wear without putting strain on the membrane of my wings running from the top of my thighs to the top of my back.
Having donned the three pieces I looked at myself in a mirror. The indefinable garment hugged my neck and covered my breasts and connected to the bottom in two wide pieces running along my back and sides, showing my strong stomach up front and my spine from behind. It had been a single piece if not for the large slit in the back that let my wings and tail through. The arched sides of the g-string followed the top of my hips before disappearing under the sides of the one-piece. They arched from the black pants and the elf-girl was right, it did look good. The pants themselves hung loosely from my hips, but not loose enough to fall off and the straps scraped and rattled as I moved. It didn't in any way look bad, I liked it in an exotic way but still, my mood hadn't improved.
Making my way in the street I took notice of the places and characters, starting to feel the edges of a pattern developing. Some places had lots of flashing bright lights and strange music played on instruments I don't know. In them humans dressed in somewhat repetitive angular and revealing clothes stood in long lines. They reminded me of the general aristocrats doing what they can to over-do one another in a spin of vanity and acting. In other places music from some kind of string instrument played and they seemed by far more calm than the flash-taverns, or 'clubs' as I'd learned they're called, with more relaxed clothes and atmosphere. If the flash-tavern hosted the aristocrats this appeared to be where the commoners went to relax after their work, enjoy a good conversation and a piece of food. In a third place what felt like a controlled thunder storm played, thudding in irregular rhythms and people that seemed to have fallen asleep dressing themselves swarmed the place. I took this is where the peasants herded themselves. On I went, seeing more of these exotic 'clubs' in little variation. None really interested me and I thought about making wind back home to my room in the Gängir when it caught my eye. All humans there were dressed in dark colors or entirely in black in a variation that seemed like a forbidden version of the other places and my clothes were by far the most similar to them than any of the other places. From it thunderous music on strange instruments as bizarre as in the flash-tavern surged but to match its general dark atmosphere. If the aristocrats gathered in the flash-tavern, the commoners in the string-bar, and the peasants in the thunder-house, then this is where the criminals came.
The inside was thick with a musk of sweat, leather and a form of dark euphoria matching the night-handle tribute to the color black, giving me the same radiating feeling of joy and confidence like after a man has satisfied me, after I had vengeance on someone who wronged me, or when I enjoyed prey I had brought down. It was the same glorious feeling. But still it was only part of me that enjoyed it. I felt like I was enjoying it but I was kept from realizing it. A very annoying feeling. I did try to force myself fully enjoy it but with poor result.
I still got the strange and annoying looks in here but I thought it was still less than outside because I wasn't the only 'unhuman' in here and perhaps because in a way they were all so used to the strange that I didn't stick out. Walking through a hall where humans danced in moves that made them look like possessed puppets and alternately roaming and flashing lights roamed the walls and ceiling I tried to make out the words of the song. Little to my surprise it was dark but it still had beauty in its dark phrasing and rhythm.
"Continue to run
From your past
Chasing after you
Just like the last...
Time
You, tried
To, hide
In-side
Memories and demons...
Chasing after you
Chasing after you
Chasing after you
I will cut you a new hole to crawl inside
I will build you a new place to run and hide
I will cut you a new hole to crawl inside
I will build you a new place...
For sanctuary..."
I couldn't see a band of any kind and I idly wondered how the music was made without one. As I made my way to the bar at the side of the dance room I drew more of the stares and tried to pick up some of their whispers but couldn't because of the loud music. The man in the bar looked up with surprised eyes as he saw me. In comparison to the other humans he looked what I thought passed for more normal. A tight sleeveless shirt and dark pants of the same make as mine, and with short black hair. His shoulders had strange tattoos flowing along his arms down to his elbows. He had a powerful chin and brown eyes from what I could see in the changing light and looked stronger than many of the other humans in the club. His muscles were not as big as mine but mostly just because of his stature. Had I been as small his arms might've been bigger.
"Well, aint this a sight?"
He yelled but over the music it still seemed like he just politely spoke to me.
"A sprout in a human club?"
He didn't seem as confused by the question as I'd imagined.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day a dragon sprout walked in here! Or do you prefer traike?"
He had me surprised at that. While I rarely met humans I met sprouts who did often and they all complained over having to explain again and again what a sprout was or correcting what they were called.
"What of the day a "dragon" sprout wanted a drink?"
"I'd say to her "Whatever you want, first one's on the house"."
This man had an attitude I really didn't expect from listening to that elf girl talking about human's nervousness around sprouts. She said they all felt very insecure and a bit afraid around them, feeling like they're in the face of a rabid animal. This man was nothing like that. He'd seemed surprised and he was clearly excited about meeting me but he wasn't afraid.
"What you would recommend."
I'm not familiar with Human drinks and couldn't read their language. The man looks me up and down and with a funny look he averts his eyes for a moment to turn around and get a few bottles from the shelf behind him. As he moves along the shelves behind the bar I look around the bar and notice the patrons nearest me have moved at least one spot further away and none of the other bartenders seem willing to come near me and I wonder why he seems so calm. He turns and put the bottles down on the bar and from underneath the disk he takes out a strangely shaped spoon, a tiny cube of sugar and a small something, I didn't know what.
With interest I watch as he pours a green liquid in the glass and then place the cube of sugar on the spoon and balance it over the glass rim. He continues to soak the cube in more of the liquid and pick up the small thing and to my quiet surprise a flame bursts from it and he uses it to light up the cube on the spoon. He drops the flaming cube into the liquid, igniting it as well, and finally he pours another liquid into the glass, snuffing the flames.
I eye it suspiciously as he reaches it to me.
"There are other ways of making it, but I thought you would want something stronger."
Well, he could judge character. Some liquor might loosen me up more than this exotic night had failed to. So I took the glass from his fingers and downed it.
I can only imagine his face as my throat burned from the sordid oil and I accidentally sent a small puff of blaze toward the floor as I stood and coughed from the strange drink. When I calmed I looked up and saw him with something of an apologetic look on his face but underneath it I could tell he had trouble keeping his laughter back.
When I stood tall again I saw another glass on the table.
"That's the original mix. Not as strong but alot more taste."
I wasn't put off by what I'd just experienced but if anything I was encouraged. This guy was fun! The drink was alot better than the first and I swallowed it without a problem. To say it was good would be like saying bitter was sweet, but it was better.
"What's the poison?"
