Aria's Quest - A Place to Stay

Welcome to Aria's Quest! A fairy tale that's published weekly (usually by Tuesday). I hope you have fun going on Aria's journey with her. To catch up on anything you've missed, go here.

Section 2

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Part 4

A Place to Stay

“Ok, so where should I start?” Aria asked.

“How about we find you a place to stay?” Robyn replied.

“That sounds good.” Aria answered, still a little nervous, but ready to be doing something, anything.

“How particular are you on who stay with?” 

“Um, not very? I just a place to stay, it doesn’t have to be anything special. I can sleep just about any where.”

“No, I meant, do you need me to find you some fairies to stay with, or is it ok if I set you up with a family from a different species?”

Aria was quiet for a moment, mentally reinforcing her self, she had decided that she wanted to stay with a different species so that she could expand her horizons, but she had already been hit with more than she expected! “Sure, no problem, what were you thinking?” She said as bravely as she could.

Robyn’s face lit up, he’d been hoping she’d be open-minded. “Great! I know just the perfect family for you. These guys are like my parents.” He paused for a moment, “My parents died when I was young, and they took me in.” His face brightened up again, “You’ll really like them, and they’ll love you!”

“Do you still live with them?” She liked Robyn so far, but she wasn't sure she wanted to see that much of him! 

“Naw, I have my own place now.”

“Ok. When can I meet them?”

“I’ll take you there now!” 

“So why don’t you tell me about them?”

“Well, they’re dwarves, but don’t picture your typical mountain dwarves.  It takes a special mind-set for a dwarf to live in the city, their very grounded and attached to their mountain homes, so very few ever choose to live here. 

You know the ‘Little People’? Well, most of them are actually descended from dwarves. Real dwarves can pass as Little People as long as they dress right, and behave.”

“Behave?”

“Yeah, dwarves tend to get weird when their around gems, but after they’ve been in the city awhile most dwarves get used to hiding it.”

“So I’m guessing no massive beards then? And don’t talk about gold in public?”

Robyn laughed, “Kinda. No beards for sure, it would never pass on the ladies, and the guys generally don’t even wear a short beard because it leads to too many jokes. As for the gold? Your fine around Gina and Daryl. They’ve been here for a long time; in fact that’s what they do for a living!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, they’re brokers. They bring precious metals and gems in from the dwarves and sell them to humans, hiding where the goods originated from of course.”

“Sounds like a pretty sweet deal!” Aria’s nervousness was staring to fade, these sounded like people she could live with.

 “It is, and here we are!”