~~~Valerie~~~
The food at The Grove restaurant wasn’t too different from anything I’d eaten on Earth. The menu reminded me of a meat-and-three restaurant back home. You had a choice between two soups and three different entrees. The food was much better, though. I had a steak, salad, grilled asparagus, and fried squash.
Most of the restaurant’s seating was outside in a large courtyard behind the building, but there was also some seating inside. I chose to eat outside in the mild weather mostly because there weren’t many people in the courtyard, meaning we were able to get a table where we could speak privately. I didn’t necessarily need privacy. I just didn’t want the people of Greenleaf hearing me ask what they would feel were obvious or stupid questions.
While we ate, I asked Stephanie and Scott why things were so similar between my world and theirs. I had only half-heartedly taken in everything Stephanie told me about herself on our drive into town; therefore, if she’d told me any of it I hadn’t retained the information. The most important facts that I had absorbed were that she was a fox shifter from this world and that Scott was her mate. I wanted to be mad at her for not telling me that information sooner, as in when we first met, instead of leading me to believe she was from Earth, but I understood her reasons for secrecy.
As to why the two worlds were alike, she said thousands of years ago, a powerful seer predicted that our two worlds would eventually join and that it would be prudent for us to have as many similarities as possible. Since there was no way our world could be like theirs, they could try to become as similar to ours as possible.
“We started out with similar beginnings, though we’ve avoided most of the wars and diverseness your world has faced. We became one people long ago,” Scott said, surprising me by answering one of my questions. He hadn’t said more than a handful of words to me all afternoon.
“The witch that predicted the meeting of our worlds saw a lot of what was and would happen in your world, and our leaders set out to prevent as much of it as possible from happening.” He continued.
“We also got lucky in the fact that your biggest wars came about due to racial and religious discrimination. We didn’t have that problem, as our racial differences are the differences between giants, pixies, elves, fairies, and the like, and none of those groups have ever had a problem with each other. There have been small skirmishes and the like between groups amongst each species, but nothing world changing. Also each species has its own gods and goddesses, and no group has ever tried to force theirs on another group,” Stephanie added.
“You’ve built a utopia here,” I said in awe.
“I wouldn’t call it that. We’ve avoided some of the issues your world did, but we still have our problems,” Stephanie said.
Seeing that she wasn’t inclined to go into details about their world’s problems, and I already knew about their largest, the plague, I asked about language similarities.
“Our reigning language for generations was Greek, and you will still find some scattered Greek and other dead languages in our vocabulary. We didn’t have as many different languages as your world does, mostly again due to our division into species. Aside from a few species that had their own forms of communication or didn’t speak at all, we all had the same basic language. When we discovered that English, a language only spoken by our witches and wizards and their familiars…”
“Familiars? You mean animals can talk here?”
Laughing, she shook her head.
“No, a familiar is a person born amongst the witches and wizards without magical powers. They usually assist with prepping spells and the like, but they can’t cast. A witch or wizard can also draw on their energy to aid in their spells,” she said, when she’d composed herself.
“I see.” I felt sheepish, but how was I supposed to know.
“As I was saying, since English was dominant in your world, we voted to switch. Mind you, it wasn’t an easy change, but most saw the need and slowly acquiesced. We don’t have all of the slang sayings you do, but with as much interaction as we’ve had these last ten years, we’ve acquired some.”
“Did this seer foresee the sickness?” I asked in a quiet whisper.
“No. The seer knew something was coming that would drastically change our world so much that it would require the need for us to speak your prominent language, but she couldn’t see what it was. She said every time she tried to focus on that all she saw were humans coming here to help us. She couldn’t see in what way. Maybe she did know and just didn’t tell anyone, or maybe the gods didn’t want her to know.”
The three of us talked for a bit more of nothing of importance. A part of me wanted to ask about Jackson Nichols. I knew he lived in this general area, and that his pack was the closest to Greenleaf and that he was the town’s Achron, but I didn’t know how much time he spent in the area or if I’d see him on any kind of regular basis.
I didn’t ask any of the questions I wanted to ask about Jackson because I didn’t want anyone suspecting that I found him attractive. The second they did, they would start trying to push us together, and I didn’t want to feel forced on anyone.
Apparently, sensing what I wanted to know, Stephanie deftly switched subjects to tell me about Jackson. I pretended everything that she told me wasn’t information that I’d been dying to know since I arrived, but absorbed all the information she gave me about him.
I was a bit shocked to find out that Jackson was also her boss, and the man predominantly fitting the bill for my transition from Earth to Valeterra. The Valeterrian government was paying for some of it, but not the largest part of it, which was the bookstore.
I was even more surprised to find out that he’d been the one to buy my strip mall and serve me an eviction notice. For a full minute, I was so pissed about that fact that I wanted to demand Stephanie take me home, but I cooled down and decided I wouldn’t react to the information right then. I’d hold onto it for later if things didn’t work out here. I could use it as leverage to force Jackson to reopen my shop back home. I knew I should be angrier than I was about the news, but a part of me had subconsciously wanted to come and was thankful for the reason to do so.