Chapter 34

Earth
Adventurer’s Guild HQ, Ottawa
August 16, 2019
18:40 EDT

There were many black SUVs in the parking lot so I was glad the headlights turned on when I hit the unlock button on the key fob. Escorting Tessa over to it, I opened the passenger door for her before walking around to the other side. After starting it up I got my first surprise of the evening; there weren’t any gauges above the steering wheel, instead, a holographic display was projected against the windshield. The display didn’t obstruct my vision whatsoever, but it did display everything I needed to know.

The next surprise came when I put the SUV in reverse; I was about to turn in my seat to look behind me to see where I was going when I saw the holographic display change out of the corner of my eye. Looking back at the front windshield, I could see what was behind us as if it was in front of us.

“Huh. This is new,” I said while backing out of the parking spot.

“What’s that?” Tessa asked.

“This vehicle is the first I’ve seen with this sort of thing,” I replied, gesturing to the display as I put it back in drive. As I pulled forward I saw another identical SUV begin to follow us. Tessa saw what I was looking at and she looked back.

“A bit lighter than I’m used to, but that’s our security for tonight. Back on Veria we had a lead car and a follow car, though ours actually flew. As for the display, it’s standard on all vehicles everywhere I’ve been. Well, besides here, of course. My dad wasn’t satisfied with the transportation we had when we got here, so he had this built, along with a few others.”

“It’s not that light,” I chuckled. “Abi is a couple of kilometers above us right now, so she’ll make sure we aren’t disturbed.”

“Good. So where are we going? You didn’t give me any clues, so I had a couple of outfits ready.”

“A restaurant called Lone Star. They’re a steakhouse well known for their fajitas. We’ve been eating there somewhat regularly since I was a kid, so I figured you would enjoy it. It may not be what you’re used to, but I think you’ll like it. Getting all dressed up would be a little out of place, and a dress or skirt isn’t conducive to what I have planned afterwards.”

“And what might that be?”

“It’s a surprise!”

“Alright, keep me in suspense,” she laughed. “What are fajitas, anyways? I’ve heard the term but don’t think I’ve had any. I don’t even know what they look like.”

“Ah, they’re something that originated from Mexico or Texas, I’m not exactly sure which, though. Basically, it’s a type of thin flatbread, called a tortilla, which you fill with steak or other types of meat, along with vegetables and a number of other toppings. It’s always served on a hot iron skillet.”

“I think I had something like that from the cafeteria. It was a thin bread shaped in a U and had beef on the bottom with cheese and vegetables stacked on top.”

“A taco,” I answered when she described it. “It’s something similar that also originates from Mexico, though is a bit different. You’ll see what I mean, soon.”

We continued chatting for another fifteen minutes or so, when we finally made it to the restaurant. As we pulled into the parking lot, I could see that the place was as busy as ever, people coming from and heading into the restaurant regularly. After parking, we got out and headed inside.

There were a number of parties waiting to be seated, but luckily I had planned ahead.

“Good evening. We have a 19:00 reservation for tonight. You should find it under the name Jonathan Stevens,” I told the hostess when she got back to her station.

“Good evening! One moment please,” she said typing on her keyboard before looking back up soon after. “There is a reservation for a Jonathan Stevens. Can I see your ID please?”

I nodded, quickly taking my phone out of my inventory and handing it over to her. She plugged it into a socket and then nodded a few seconds later, handing it back.

“Welcome, Jonathan! A party of two, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, follow me, please,” she said, grabbing a few menus and leading us through the restaurant. She led us all the way to the back wall before gesturing to the booth. “Here you are! Make sure to plug your phone into the socket against the wall, which will alert Elisa. She’ll be taking care of the two of you tonight.”

“Thank you,” Tessa and I said, sliding into the booth opposite of one another.

“You’re welcome! Have a wonderful evening!” the hostess said, leaving us alone.

“So this is Lone Star, huh? It definitely smells very good in here.”

“Yup. I’ve always loved this place. Well, except on my birthdays when I was a kid,” I chuckled plugging my phone into the socket that was installed at every table or booth. “If your waitress knows its your birthday, she’ll go tell all the other waiters or waitresses, and then they’ll wheel over this thing that is supposed to look like a bull, along with a cowboy hat. They get you to sit on the makeshift bull with the hat on, and then proceed to sing happy birthday. I thought it was incredibly embarrassing.”

“I can imagine,” she giggled before her face became serious. “That’s not going to happen tonight, is it?”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “Not to us, though it could happen with another group. They got tired of people claiming it was someone’s birthday when it actually wasn’t, so they require ID to be shown.”

“Good--” she began to replied when the waitress, Elisa, arrived.

“Good evening! How are the two of you doing tonight?”

“Very good, thanks for asking,” Tessa said. “And you?”

“I’m doing awesome! Now how about we get your drinks sorted, do keep in mind that alcohol is off limits as you are underage,” she said after a glance at the tablet she was carrying.

“Pepsi for me, without any ice, please.”

“Certainly. And for you, miss?”

“Umm ... iced tea, if you have it, I guess?” Tessa replied.

“We do,” Elisa nodded, tapping on her tablet. “Alright, I’ll be back in a few minutes with your drinks, and then I’ll take your order.”

“Thank you,” I nodded.

After Elisa left, I looked back to Tessa. “Next time she’s back, she’ll probably ask if we want a starter. Look through the menu and let me know if you want any of the starters. I’ll probably order some onion rings, myself.”

Nodding she grabbed the menus that we had ignored at this point and began reading all of the starters. After a minute or so, she looked back up shaking her head. “There isn’t really anything I would like to try, though I’ll probably steal some of your onion rings,” she smiled.

“Fine with me, they’re meant to be shared, anyways. How about looking at the desserts, see if there is something there you might like.”

She flipped over the menu and began looking over the things there, her eyebrow raising when she came across one of them. “Texas-Fried Ice Cream? Is that ice cream that is dropped in oil?”

“Yup, I’ve had it a few times when I managed to still be a little hungry after dinner. The ice cream is kept very, very cold, so it doesn’t melt while the coating of corn flakes hardens.”

“Sounds interesting, maybe I’ll try it.”

As she put the menu back down, Elisa returned with our drinks, and a complimentary dish filled with tortilla chips and salsa.

“Pepsi with no ice for you, and here is your iced tea,” she said, placing our drinks in front of us, followed by the dish being placed between us. “Are you ready to order?”

“Yes,” I answered. “We’ll be going with fajitas, but I’d like to get onion rings as a starter as well.”

“Sure,” she said tapping on her tablet once more before looking back up. “So what type of meat would you like for your fajitas?”

“I think we’ll go with a half-pound of grilled steak and a half-pound of grilled chicken.”

“Perfect, and sides to go along with the fajitas? You get two.”

I nodded, “Can we get guacamole and then the tomatillo salsa?”

“Certainly. Alright, I’ll be back shortly with your starter, and everything else in twenty minutes or so. If you need me for any reason, tap the button on your phone and I’ll be here as soon as possible.”

“Thank you.”

“So what’s this?” Tessa asked, pointing at the dish in the middle of the table.

“Ah, salsa and chips. Try it,” I said, grabbing one of the tortilla chips and dipping it in the salsa before popping it into my mouth.

Tessa did the same, but smelled the salsa before taking a little bite. After tasting it, she took a bigger bite. We proceeded to demolish the small dish of tortilla chips just before Elisa got back with the onion rings.

“Here you are. Do you need anything else?”

“I think we’re good for now, thank you.”

“Perfect! I’ll be back with your meal shortly.”

Elisa had barely left when Tessa reached over and snatched an onion ring and quickly took a bit out of it. “So good...” she said between bites.

I laughed, grabbing an onion ring of my own and then sliding the plate to the middle of the table so we could both snack on them.

“I think I like finger foods more than I do the usual stuff my parents and I usually eat,” Tessa said while reaching for another onion ring. “Before we came here it was always a personal chef doing the cooking, or a multi-course meal when having dinner at an event, or when we had company over. Pizza is an absolute revelation.”

“Finger foods are very good, I agree. Though if not for football and my increased metabolism, I’d probably be pretty fat with how much of that stuff I eat. Luckily dungeon delving is a good alternative to football, otherwise I would have to dedicate some time to actually working out.”

“Football? What’s that?”

“A very popular sport, especially in America. Simply, it involves two teams alternating playing offense and defense to try to earn the most points. To earn points, you have to bring an egg-shaped ball to the opposing team’s end zone and score a touchdown. There are a few other ways you can earn points, but usually the team that scores the most touchdowns will be the team that wins. Mason and I were both on our high school team.”

“There isn’t anything like that back home. The main source of entertainment is gladiatorial combat. There wasn’t a day where no fights were going on.”

“Oh really? Perhaps I’ll have to start a few leagues when we go back. Gladiatorial matches seems like it would be fun, but also seems like it would get boring after a while.”

“It can be,” she nodded. “They’re always bringing new talent in, and the leaderboard matches are always a big draw. Everyone tunes in when one of the top one hundred are facing off against each other. I think it’s been three years since the last time anyone challenged the champion.”

“Now that sounds interesting. Enough about that, though. I know your dad was working, but what were you doing ‘back home’?”

“Mom was always home, but a lot of my time was spent at the academy. Schooling there is intense, and there isn’t as much time off as there is here. The academy runs year round, so the time you have off really depends on what courses you’re taking. I think I had somewhere around six months of time off in the fourteen years I went to school there.”

“That is intense. Six months off in fourteen years? I can’t imagine that. We always had July and August off, along with a number of shorter breaks throughout the year. What were you studying, by the way?”

“Oh, a number of things. There was the required stuff like math and physics, but also electives like engineering and theoretical physics. I spent my last two years there studying nothing but business. While my dad won’t be retiring anytime soon, he does want me to help out with the business.”

“Business, huh? No interest in adventuring?”

“I have some interest in it, but none of my friends back home were. All of them were daughters of politicians or rich businessmen, so except in a few cases, all of them were set for life. I couldn’t find a team, and didn’t want to go solo, so I haven’t really attempted it yet. I do have a number of abilities I have been leveling up, like various shield spells and Teleport. My dad wanted me to be able to escape if I needed to.”

“You should talk to my sisters. Perhaps they’d be interested in forming a team with you.”

“I’ll think about it. They’ve been pretty busy the last few days, so I’m not sure they’ll have time for it, though.”

“I think that’ll die down soon. They’ve been working with Abi and Selalea the last few days getting everything ready. As soon as we get back they’ll probably have a bunch of spare time, at least until we head back.”

She nodded and I saw movement in the corner of my eye, looking over I saw Elisa balancing the large tray, the contents of which were still steaming. She set up a little stand beside our table and placed the tray on it. So she would have room to place everything, I slide the now-empty plate closer to the wall, and moved my drink over to that side as well.

“Thank you,” she said, placing the steaming iron skillet in the middle of the table before unloading everything else onto the table, picking up the tray, and folding up the stand she was using. “Can I get the two of you anything else?”

I looked over at Tessa’s drink to see that she still had more than half before looking back up to Elisa. “Can I get a refill, please?” I asked, lifting my cup up, which had about a fourth remaining.

“Sure, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Thank you.”

“So how do we eat this?” Tessa asked when Elisa had left.

“I’ll show you,” I replied reaching over to the container the tortilla shells were in. Grabbing one, I bid her to do the same. “Alright, so there are a bunch of things you can put in a fajita, before you load it with meat and vegetables from the skillet. There is cheese, sour cream, guacamole, beans, lettice, tomatillo salsa, rice, and regular salsa, I believe,” I listed, pointing each of them out and I said their name. I would suggest taking your fork and trying a tiny bit of each before you put it in a fajita and realize you don’t like it.”

She nodded and did exactly that, while I started putting together my first fajita. I had long since become a pro at putting them together, and in just over a minute I was taking my first bite. Elisa had come with my drink and gone with that time, and Tessa had finished trying everything by the time I finished my first one.

“I like it all,” she said as I reached for my second tortilla shell.

“Alright, I like to spread out any of the things that can be spread out on the bottom, and then place stuff like cheese, rice and beans on top of that, followed by the meat and vegetables last. There is steak and chicken, along with onion, green peppers and red bell peppers,” I said pointing to each. “When you’re done with your first one, let me know and I’ll tell you how to close it.

She nodded once again, and got started on her first fajita while I started loading up my second. When I was done, I looked over and it seemed like she had put literally everything on her first one. Fortunately the tortilla shell looked big enough, so she would be able to close it. She looked up when she was done, and I nodded.

“Alright, watch me.” I folded up the bottom of my fajita, followed by one side and then the other, waiting at each step until she had done the same. “That’s it. Just make sure to hold it securely, and you may want to hold it at the bottom just to make sure nothing falls out.”

“Okay.” Picking up her fajita, she looked at it before taking her first bite. I could have sworn I heard a little moan and when I looked up her eyes were closed while she slowly chewed. “It’s so good!” she said when she opened her eyes, immediately taking another bite.

There wasn’t a lot of talking involved while we ate, as both of us were thoroughly enjoying the meal. Elisa did come back a few times to check on us, one of those times coming back with a refill for Tessa, while also bringing another container filled with tortilla shells, and a couple of refills for the sides we had already gone through. By the time we were done, there wasn’t a crumb left on the skillet, and there was very little of the sides remaining.

“Thanks for bringing me here, this food was amazing. I might have to get my dad’s personal chef to come here and see if he can’t replicate it.”

“It’s not too difficult, though these guys are very good at making it. The tortilla shells were freshly made too, there is a machine that churns them out. Any room left for dessert?”

“Unfortunately not, but I do want to try that ice cream. Do you think we could get one to go?”

“We can ask. They sell these little containers with the Preservation enchantment to keep food fresh and hot or cold, for those who want take out, rather than eating in.”

“Awesome, thank you.”

I nodded. “You may not have noticed, but there are fajitas already put together in the cafeteria. I actually had some a few days ago. They weren’t as good as these ones, but they were pretty good nonetheless.”

“You’re right, I didn’t notice. I did have something for breakfast a few days ago that looked similar to a fajita. It had eggs and cheese, along with some other stuff inside, and it was quite a bit bigger. I ate one and I was full.”

“Ah, a breakfast burrito, another favorite of mine.”

Elisa returned to the table before we could continue our conversation and began stacking the plates and other dishes on top of each other to be brought to the kitchen. “Will that be all?” she asked while she was gathering everything.

“We’re both full, but she wanted to try the Texas-Fried Ice Cream. Is it possible that we get that to go?”

“Sure!” she said with a nod. “I will need to add another 3 credits to your order for a take out box if you want it to stay cold, however.”

“That’s fine,” I nodded.

“Okay, I’ll be back with it in a few minutes, and then we’ll take care of your bill.”

“Thank you,” I said as she turned to walk away.

“Where are the bathrooms?” Tessa asked.

“Right there,” I said, pointing at the doors behind her.

“Thanks. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I nodded as she got up. I don’t know if it was my imagination or what, but it seemed like there was more of a sway in her steps than I had seen previously.

Elisa came back with the box containing dessert, and began finalizing the bill for dinner. When she was done, she handed me her tablet and I looked over everything before giving her a generous tip and hitting the confirm button. A chime came from my phone, and I reached over and pressed my thumb on the screen. A confirmation chime came from Elisa’s tablet, so I handed it back to her.

“Thank you for visiting Lone Star tonight, and thank you for the tip,” she said after she had glanced at the tablet for a second.

“You’re welcome. Thank you for the excellent service,” I replied, reaching over and unplugging my phone from the socket it was plugged into.

“Not a problem,” she said cheerily, turning and walking away, just as Tessa came out of the bathroom.

I got up and handed her the box with dessert in it.

“I’d better go to the bathroom before we leave as well. Be back in a minute or two.”

She nodded and I walked past her to the men’s bathroom. After relieving myself and washing my hands, I met back up with her and we left the restaurant. As we walked towards the SUV, I saw two men and a woman walking back to the SUV that had followed us here. They piled in and then the driver of the SUV backed up, waiting for us.

I hit the button to unlock the SUV and we both got in, Tessa putting the dessert on the floor between her legs where it wouldn’t slide all over the place. Starting it up, I backed out of our parking spot and began driving to our next stop.

“So are you going to tell me where we’re going now, or is it still a secret?”

“A secret,” I said, glancing over to her with a smile. “We’ll be there in fifteen minutes or so.”

We got to know each other a little better on the way, both of us taking turns asking each other questions. Before we knew it, I was pulling into the arena next to one of my old schools. It was a pretty unassuming building, and as a new arrival, I knew she wouldn’t have a clue what the building housed. The parking lot was pretty empty, there only being a few cars parked, that being understandable as I had rented the arena for two hours. I parked as close as I could and shut off the SUV.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“You’ll see in a few minutes, let’s go. You can leave the ice cream in here, it should be fine for a few hours in that box,” I said, opening my door and stepping out. When she closed her door I hit the button to lock the SUV and we headed inside the building.

“Ooh, that’s cold,” she said crossing her arms in front of her.

“Oh, right. Did you bring the sweater like I asked? You’ll probably want to wear it in here.”

Nodding, a sweater appeared in her hands. It was one that zipped up, so she quickly put it on and zipped it all the way up. A moment or so after she put on her sweater, she noticed the rink in the middle of the large building, though the boards and the glass were between us and the ice.

“Is that--”

“Ice, yup,” I said, interrupting her.

“Why is there ice inside of a building?

“Ah, you see, while football is very popular in America, it isn’t as popular here. Instead, we have another sport that happens on rinks that look exactly like this. It’s the off-season, otherwise I would’ve taken you to see a game, but alas, this will have to do. Come, I need to go talk to someone and then we can go out on it.”