Chapter 28: Who's Your Friend?

Talori very much liked the toaster strudel she had been given. She didn't recognize any of the flavors but it was much sweeter than anything she had back home.

"This is good!" she exclaimed.

Brennan let out a small laugh. "I thought you might like it. The flavors you're tasting are brown sugar, cinnamon, and cream cheese. I told you there are a lot of food options up here. You'll be able to see that for yourself when we go grocery shopping. I don't want to leave you alone just yet in case something happens like in the middle of the night."

That was fine by her. She would love to see as much of the surface as she could. She didn't know what grocery shopping was but it had to have something to do with food based on what he said.

They both activated their glamours before leaving the apartment. He said it was a good thing he lived on the ground floor because they didn't have elevators here and then had to explain what elevators were because Talori was confused.

There were so many words she didn't know but she was confident she would be able to get them down and be a proper surface-dweller by the time she went home. Then she would have a lot to tell Zale.

"I need to get Harmony to make me a handicapped placard later," Brennan sighed when he got stuck between two cars in the parking lot and had a hard time getting Talori out and into her wheelchair.

"What is that?"

"It allows me to park over there where there's more space for unloading wheelchairs and is closer to the entrance so I don't have to push you as far. Never thought I would need one of those."

"Fascinating!"

There was so much Talori didn't know about how the human world worked. Part of her wanted to talk to a human about it directly but she knew that wasn't safe. It was better for her to talk about it with other fae since they pretended to be humans and wouldn't do anything bad because she was a mermaid.

Her eyes widened and she gasped when they went inside the grocery store. She had never seen so much food in one place in her life! They were packaged strangely but she had seen similar boxes at Brennan's apartment this morning in the room he called the kitchen.

She squealed in delight. "What is this? What about that? Or this?"

"Carrots, cilantro, and bell peppers."

"What about those?"

"Those are grapes. They're pretty different from sea grapes though," Brennan said with a shrug. "Do you want me to get some so you can compare?"

Talori grinned at him and clapped her hands together. "Yes!"

He grabbed a bag of grapes—they didn't look like sea grapes at all because they were purple and much bigger—and put it in the basket that was on her lap. They weren't here for much. He said all he really needed was some more snacks and salt now that she was here.

The snack aisle was like nothing she had ever seen before. She wanted to try some of everything but he reminded her that they had time. They could work their way through things rather than trying it all at once.

That was a sobering thought. Talori probably would be here long enough to try all of the foods she was curious about.

It didn't dampen her enthusiasm for long though. She was too fascinated by everything she was seeing. She had a million questions as they moved throughout the store and on the drive home, which Brennan answered patiently.

They kept talking up until lunchtime, when he made her something called a sandwich with some of the grapes on the side. The sandwich had something with a texture somewhat similar to kelp in it though it was less slimy. She liked it but there was so much in there that she was only able to eat half.

Talori did love the grapes though. They were far superior to sea grapes in her opinion. She ate too many of them before even starting her sandwich, which was probably why she couldn't finish it.

Brennan shook his head with a smile. "Portion sizes are a lot different here, aren't they? I'll have to remember that and keep it smaller for you."

"I would appreciate that, thank you."

"We should probably get going. Harmony said she would be expecting us after lunch. I already texted her about providing some water for you so we'll have to see what she came up with."

They went to another store that had different items than the grocery store did. Brennan pushed her wheelchair through the front door with some difficulty and looked around briefly before approaching the human (or was it witch?) behind the counter.

"Hey, Brennan!" she greeted cheerfully. "You here to see Harmony?"

"Yep."

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"Who's your friend? I've never seen her before and I know all the fae around here."

"This is Talori. Talori, this Arietta," Brennan introduced. "She isn't from around here but she'll be staying with me for a while. Harmony wanted to talk to her."

Arietta smiled at her. "Always nice to see a new face! Go right on back. Harmony's in her office."

"Thanks!"

Brennan wheeled Talori through the door leading into the back and she recognized this hallway from last night. It seemed that the witches were using a human store as a front for their coven. How interesting!

When they arrived at Harmony's office she was wearing a pair of welding goggles (Talori knew what those were because she had a pair in her treasure cave back home) and lighting something on fire with her wand. She looked up when Brennan called her name and grinned at them.

"Great to see you guys! Come on in."

Brennan wheeled Talori all the way in the room and shut the door behind him. Harmony locked it with magic and set a long, skinny glass container on the ground in an empty corner of the room. She tapped it with her wand and it grew large enough to fit a fae inside.

She was willing to bet this was the solution the witch had come up with so she wouldn't dry out while she was visiting. Being completely submerged would be a step up from what she had last night.

"Brennan, I don't have a ladder. Can you hoist me up?"

"Sure."

He picked Harmony up by her armpits and flew over to the top of the container. A jet of water poured out of her wand and slowly began filling it up. Once it was full and a large container of salt had been dumped in and mixed around she had him set her down and pick Talori up instead to drop her into the container.

She sighed with contentment once she was fully submerged. She had been drinking plenty of water back at the apartment but it was different than being all the way in.

There was barely enough room to turn around in but that didn't matter. She was too happy about being back in water.

"Sorry it's cramped," Harmony said. "I don't have much room in here. You can take off your glamour, by the way. We only use those when humans are around. Out here it's considered polite to take them off when you're solely in the company of other fae."

Talori belatedly realized that Brennan had taken his off sometime between the front of the store and the office. She took hers off too and appraised the witch, who was doing the same thing back.

It seemed they both had so many questions they were unsure where to begin. Harmony ended up breaking the silence first. "So. Why don't you tell me as much as you can about merfolk? Once that's done we can switch off and I can tell you about witches."

"That works," Talori said before launching into the same sort of information she had given Brennan.

He was sitting leisurely in mid-air, listening intently in case there was anything he had missed before. He let the two of them talk for hours without speaking up once but didn't seem to mind.

He was a very easy-going fae, wasn't he? The only times Talori had ever seen him appear bothered were when he was talking about humans.

After a while he went to a smaller version of a device he had in his kitchen and pulled out three cans. He tossed one to Harmony, who caught it one-handed without even looking up from what she was working on, and brought the other over to the top of Talori's container.

"This is soda. It's something humans like to drink. If you don't like it, you don't have to finish it. Harmony can do it for you."

Talori floated up to the top and took it from him. He had popped the top to open it and a bit of the soda fizzed out. It looked very bubbly. She took a sip and jolted when it was even more bubbly than she anticipated.

"What are these bubbles? They…I do not have the words to describe them."

Harmony laughed. "That's carbonation, my friend. Humans love it. They even carbonate their water sometimes to make things more interesting."

"I am unsure how to feel about this…carbonation," Talori admitted before taking another tiny, hesitant sip.

"Eh, it's an acquired thing. A lot of fae don't like them but we witches thrive on caffeine. Like he said, don't worry about finishing it if you don't like it. I go through soda like water so I'll gladly take it off your hands."

Which was exactly what ended up happening less than three test sips later. Talori didn't like carbonation but she had tried it.. That was enough for her.

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