Chapter 11: The Americans in Scarlaria

Rose found herself still in bed with Ivan the following morning. She didn’t see any reason to return to her room and be lonely after being so intimate with him. Based on his slow, deep breathing, Rose assumed the boy was still fast asleep. She got up and was able to put clothes on again, thankfully. Next, she checked her dossier, which now said her contract with Ivan was complete. Or, more specifically:

Rose completed the obligations of this contract by inducing Ivan with an orgasm via the use of her hand.

Rose held the parchment in her hand, wondering what kind of magic allowed the paper to update itself so accurately. She turned it around and around in her hands, looking over every inch. Curiously, she sat her dossier down and picked up Ivan’s. Apparently, he had been staying at the Inn for almost two months. She tapped the paper, and it returned to the main page, where she read his name and age again.

Name: Ivan Karns
Age: 16, male
Birthplace: Los Angeles
Hair: Short, shaggy, blond
Eyes: Green
Skin: white, tan
Height: five feet, ten inches
Virgin: Yes
Last Orgasm: Last night
Arousal: None

Rose eyed Ivan’s dossier suspiciously. Some of the information she knew, but a lot of it didn’t make any sense at all. For one, unless Scarlaria had a place called Los Angeles, did that mean Ivan was from her world, too? Second, the boy she spent all evening with was pale, just like her, not tan, and he had dirty brown hair and brown eyes. Just then, Rose looked at her arms. Somehow, she hadn’t noticed how dark her skin had become. In place of her usual pale appearance, her skin was now shimmering cocoa from head to toe. She ran to the nearby mirror to find her eyes were no longer green but were now hazel. And her red hair had become golden brown.

Ivan was now light-skinned with sunny yellow hair and electric-blue eyes. “What’s wrong?” he said as he sat up in bed.

Somewhere in between Rose’s panicked rambling, Ivan managed to explain the culture of Hue town. Every day, the magic of the town randomly switched the colors of everyone’s bodies. It only selected colors from living creatures within the town’s limits. This meant that someone else was currently in possession of Rose’s red hair. The magic of the town was dispelled at dawn if the person was no longer in town.

“You’re still pretty,” he said.

“Thanks,” Rose smiled, taking a breath, then sighed. There seemed to be a never-ending number of things to learn about Scarlaria. “Are you from California?” Rose asked.

“I was born there, but I lived in Colorado most of my life,” he answered, then his expression came to life. “You know about the U.S.?”

“I’m from New York,” Rose answered, then sat down to tell him her story.

“I’ve been in Scarlaria for two years,” Ivan said when Rose finished.

“Two years?” Rose repeated, feeling an icy coldness in her veins.

“Yeah,” he said sadly. “No matter where I go, no one can tell me how to get home.”

“I’m going to the capital to find a way,” Rose said.

“I’ve never been there,” Ivan said. “It’s really far and dangerous to get to.”

“You can come with me,” she offered, figuring it would be better to have company.

As Ivan weighed his options, Rose saw a notification on her parchment that said a guest wanted to see her by the name of Elm. With Ivan remaining undecided, the two parted while Rose went down to see Elm. Of course, Rose appeared to be a completely different person today, and she finally understood why her dossier kept her natural information. She used this to prove her identity to Elm.

“What happened to Hickory? Why isn’t he here with you?” Elm asked.

Rose frowned and told Elm all about what happened, except that she altered the story. She made no mention of how Hickory raped her or how she stood by and watched the Siren take him. In this version, Rose had simply gotten there too late. She didn’t want to retell how Hickory stole her virginity or how she got revenge by allowing the Siren to have him.

“Oh, and I marked the map where our camp was if you want to find his belongings. The only thing I brought was this,” she said, handing Elm Hickory’s magic weapon.

Elm departed again soon after, and Rose decided to walk around the town. Although she planned to remain in Hue town for a few days at least, she wanted to find where to get a wagon toward the capital. The town was a considerable size with long intersecting streets, much like Manhattan, except that the roads were made of dirt and there were no skyscrapers. Instead, there were houses and shops, some selling products and others offering various services, like healing.

Rose found the place late in the morning near the far side of the town from where she originally entered. There was an empty horse stable there, and the attendant explained that the wagon going in her direction left once a week. Since it had just left the previous day, Rose was going to have to remain in town longer than she wanted. After that, she wandered aimlessly, thinking about how Ivan had been living in Scarlaria for two years. What if there was no way home? Was she going to have to endure a world of depravity for the rest of her life?