Fuck if I know, but seems you'll find out

John and Lani's Room:

John walks into the room, filled with confusion, worry and even more worry. He's felt those two feelings more in the past twenty-four hours than the past twenty years.

John quietly places the bowls down on the table next to his side of the bed as he takes a seat, pondering on what Kyuala could have possibly meant. She seemed... very weird. He could sum up her earlier behaviour to simply being an orc stereotype, but those last few moments were weird even by this worlds standards, or at least, his perception of their standards anyway.

He has left hand draped over his right fist, both sitting in front of his mouth as he thinks, but that's when he hears that small voice from behind him.

"John, are you okay?".

John looks around and sees the small fairy has awoken from her slumber. He looks at her and sees her half closed sluggish eyes and what appears to be some sort of dried sparkling mess across her mouth, almost like she was eating a cake coated in icing.

He eventually looks up to her eyes and says, "Yeah, yeah, i'm fine, uhh, I even got you soup" John then turns around and grabs one of the bowls which has steam flying off of the contents.

Lani's eyes then almost light up as she inhales the food, saying, "Oh my! Grickhen soup! My favourite! How did you know?!".

Lani ducks her head down and begins to almost devour the soup as John chuckles and says, "Uhh, lucky guess".

John then gets his bowl and brings it up to his mouth and takes a taste. The soup passes his lips and flows down to his gullet. He immediately gets the taste of what appears to be this worlds version of chicken which has a much stronger taste, but he doesn't mind it as he begins drinking the soup from the bowl.

Meanwhile, Lani has almost finished and as John takes a breath, he's amazed at how far the tiny Lani has managed to consume, even remarking, "Wow. I had no idea fairies had such big stomachs".

"Oh, yeah, it's funny... our stomachs are like bags sometimes, we can even go weeks without eating if we have enough beforehand".

"Huh, almost like a snake then?" John responds with Lani then adding "Kind of, its really cool".

The two then chuckle as they continue slurping their breakfasts, eventually emptying both bowls and letting out collective burps which make both laugh once again.

Eventually John grabs both bowls and puts them back on his bedside table as Lani asks, "Wait, how did you pay for the soup?".

John's mind goes blank, "How was I gonna pay for those?".

He thought but after a few moments he explains, "Kyuala, the uhh, bar-woman? Bar-orc? What's the correct term?".

"For a woman, it is a barmaiden" Lani explains.

"Ahh, well, the barmaiden, gave me them for free, must've been out of pity for being a drop-in" John replies.

"Wow, seems like there are some good people, usually folk try to take advantage of people like you, use them to steal, take them as slaves, or... worse".

John almost gulps in fear at that last part, but manages not to. He manages composes himself again as he says "Yeah, she's a little, weird. Not in a bad way, in like a friendly way, super strong too".

Lani looks at John with a confused look, "Oh, I saw her lift these two huge ale barrels with no problem. I've seen guys with twice her muscles struggle to do that".

"Ahh well, that's the advantage of being an orc, they're naturally stronger than most other races. They even have their own competition to see who's the strongest".

"Oh, so like a Worlds Strongest Man?".

Lani looks at John with a confused face once again as John explains, "It's a contest to see who's the strongest basically".

"Ahh, well then its exactly like that. Out of curiosity, what does the winner of your competition get on Earth?".

"Uhh, money, and the title of Worlds Strongest Man I guess? What about the orc one?".

"Oh, the winner gets a great feast in their honour. People from all over re invited to join as he's gifted with gold and a prize of their choice whether it be gold, armour, a weapon, you name it".

"Oh wow, sounds amazing" John exclaims.

"They also get to bed all the losers partners for a month as a show of dominance. That part really makes sure to get the best out of everyone. It's a barbaric but interesting competition" Lani explains.

John's eyes open in shock, not expecting to hear at all, eventually he simply jokes, "Sounds even better".

He lets out a nervous chuckle but Lani seems a little more conservative with her chuckle after his comment, which John notices. He then tries to steer away from the current topic as he says, "Uhh, so, what'd you think we'll do today?".

Lani perks back to her old self as she says, "I was thinking that we could try and find your calling, so we'll go to the Crystal Seer!".

"The Crystal Seer?".

Lani then says, "Yeah, she's like a fortune-teller except she can actually tell something from your fortune instead of you just finding a coin on the ground".

"Wait, so this Seer... she can actually see into the future?".

"Yep! There hasn't been a wrong prediction in hundreds of years, maybe even a thousand! The stories differ on when the Seers started arriving to the world, some say millennia, others say centuries, doesn't really matter. People go to them about everything, but they can't tell you about love, their crystals don't show anything about love since The Great Incident".

Those final words pique John's interest as he asks, "The Great Incident?".

Lani then signals for John to turn around, and he obliges so as she changes, she explains, "The Great Incident was the only time in history a Seer had been wrong. See, Seers are naturally unable to lie, the crystals they use are a sort of physical truth charm, making the user unable to lie via ancient magic that not even us fairies understands, and we're the eldest race around. The point is, Seers cannot lie... however one managed to get their hands on a dark crystal said to be have been manipulated by dark spirits from beyond, anyway, that Seer then offered his services to Great King Hivajk, a man loved by every one and every race, he had no reason not to trust him, so he agreed. The Seer then showed him that his wife would sneak away from the castle and, pleasure, hordes of centaurs, orcs, goblins, any war race, in exchange for peace in the kingdom. Obviously, the King was furious and heartbroken, but the Seer then showed him that she would give birth to his successor, a demon, born of all races. The King then took it upon himself to kill his beloved, sliced her head off. Grief struck after he did however as the Seer was found out to be lying since there was no baby in her womb, so the senseless killing angered the Queens family who ruled two the other great kingdoms. A war took place for nearly two decades, filled with brutality, destruction, even the... raping, of many rulers, men and women, rulers and peasants alike. Finally, it all ended after all kingdoms agreed to become unruled, leaving towns and cities to elect a person to be in charge, that was nearly eight hundred years ago, hasn't been a king, queen or prince since".

John's jaw almost hits the floor, but one question still resides in his mind, "What happened to the Seer?".

Lani slightly chuckles, "He was given the greatest punishment of all. He was dangled down the biggest sewage pipe in the Kings city, tied up by only his groin and condemned to literally eat faeces to his last day".

"So he died from eating shit?" John asks, making Lani chuckle again.

"No, he was brought back up before being gelded and then-" Lani stifles a laugh, "He was humped to death by a hundred horses!" Lani lets out a loud laugh, almost scaring John at first, but he eventually joins in on the fairies sick chuckle.

After about a minute, Lani finally cools down, wiping away the tears of laughter from her eyes, she turns to John and says, "I'm sorry, its just... that story gets me every time".

John still internally worried says, "It's fine. It is pretty funny".

"I know right?! Imagine his face!" The fairy lets out another laugh but this time as she begins to stop, there's a knock at the door.

John then walks up and asks, "Who is it?".

Just then a muffled voice comes from outside which says, "It's Kyuala!".

John then opens the door and stood there is indeed Kyuala, she has a smile on her face that seems that shows that she's almost happy to see John.

Just then John says, "Uhh hi, do you want to come in?".

"No, no, no, it's fine, just here to collect the bowls".

"Oh right!" John then turns around and grabs the bowls before handing them to Kyuala, "Thank you for the soup by the way, Lani loved it".

"Ooh, is that so little fairy?".

"Absolutely! Grickhen is my favourite!" Kyuala lets out a little chuckle, "Well, I'll be sure to keep that in mind".

Kyuala then goes to take a step away but interrupts herself by saying, "Uhh, John, you don't have any work currently do you?".

"Uhh nope, going to see the Seer today, how come?".

"Oh well, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to earn a little coin? Just a little manual labour, I would have Radvar do it but that idiot thinks his hand is food sometimes".

The two give a little chuckle, "So, would you be able to help?" John then turns around to look at Lani who doesn't seem to have a terribly confident expression.

John, however couldn't pass down the coin, so he says, "Sure, I would be happy to help out".

Kyuala's expression then lights up, "Great! I'll explain when I come back up, I'll be a minute".

Kyuala then walks to the stairs as John shuts the door before heading over to his side of the bed and sitting down. Lani then quickly flies in front of his gaze and asks, "What are you doing?".

John is confused, "What? Should I have said no?".

"Yes! Didn't you hear what I said?! People use drop-ins like slaves sometimes! For all we know, she could chain you up in the basement and sell your... body!".

"C'mon Lani, that's a bit of a reach isn't it?" John replies, unconvinced by Lani's point.

"No! Its happened before! And I won't let it happen to you!".

Lani begins to almost hyperventilate, causing John to say, "Okay, okay, Lani, calm down, breathe okay? Just, breathe".

Lani quickly stops flying around, resting on John's leg as she begins controlling her breaths once again as John continues, "Listen, Kyuala isn't going to chain me up and sell me? Okay? She's not like that".

"How would you know?" Lani quickly asks.

"I dunno, call it a gut feeling".

Lani takes a moment, thinking on John's words before saying, "Yeah, you're probably right. It's just... I've heard stories about what happens if a fairy loses their drop-ins. It's scary. Only reason I didn't freak out when I left you with Tally is because I was just so excited to have a companion y'know?".

"Yeah, I get that, but if we're gonna be companions, we're gonna have to learn to trust each other".

"Yeah, I guess you're right... again... but, just make sure to keep safe okay?".

John then looks at Lani's little face and honestly says, "I promise".

John then extends and holds out his right pinky which earns a confused face from Lani, "Uhh, what are you doing?".

"It's a pinky promise... do, they not have this here?".

"Oh no. Here, it's a part promise" John is now the confused one so Lani explains, "Pretty much, to make a serious promise, you offer your part to someone. For example, an elf gives an ear, an orc a tusk, lovers give their private parts, you get the point".

"Yeah, okay. So, what happens if the person breaks the promise?".

"Oh easy! It gets cut off!".

John's eyes open wide, "You're joking, right?".

"Nope! So if you ever see a tuskless orc or earless elf, you know not to trust them, kinda like a world rule".

John then simply chuckles, "Wow, guess things aren't too different from Earth. See, a pinky promise is kinda the same except we don't cut off the pinky, anymore".

Just then Lani puts her whole arm around John pinky and then the two make their promise to one another.