Welcome to Aria's Quest! If this is your first time here this is what you need to know. Aria is a young woodland fairy on a quest in the big city to find a human she can help. If she's successful she can return to her tribe as a full adult. Aria's chosen to look for a true believer (one who already believes in magic and fairies) because she thinks that will make her quest easier...but finding a true believer may be harder than she thought! Read the rest of the story here.
Section 2
Searching
Part 9
Pub Hopping
Robyn and Aria stayed to have dinner with Darryl and Gina before they went out for the evening. Darryl approved of their plan to hit some of the more Irish-style pubs, and Gina just shook the spaghetti spoon at Robyn and said, “Don’t you be getting the lassie drunk! She’s a nice girl and you’re a nice boy! Don’t forget it!”
“Yes ma’am Mom!” Robyn said with a mock salute. Gina sighed and went back to serving them dinner.
The two young fairies visited three different pubs that night. The first, O’Malley’s, was the most traditional of the three. It was full of old timers and they both thought it would be the most likely place to find a true believer. Sadly, though they heard haunting songs played about fairies, everyone was too deep in their Guinness to notice the fairies sitting on the edges of their cups. Robyn was a good host and made sure that Aria got her first drink of Guinness before they left. She’d had ale before, and while she liked the Guinness, she’s wasn’t overly impressed. Something that Robyn had to tease her mercilessly about.
The next pub, O’Shannon’s, had more of a mixed crowd. There were some older clients sitting in a cluster in the back, a crowd of business men off to one side, and on and near the dance floor a younger crowd had gathered. Aria and Robyn spent time in each of the crowds, doing their best to be noticed, but once again failed miserably.
It was getting pretty late by the time they got to the last pub on their list, The Irish Lassie, and Aria wanted to go home, but Robyn convinced her it was worth one more shot. This was the youngest and hippest of the crowds that they had seen that night, and Aria fell in love with the music that was playing.
“You like it do you?”
“Yes!”
“It’s a punk band called ‘Flogging Molly.’ They’re quite popular.”
“I can see why!”
“Oh hey, there’s another drink you have to try before the nights out, and it looks like someone just ordered it. Follow me.” Robyn flew over to the bar where the bar tender was smoothly pouring order after order. Aria’s eyes lit up when she smelled coffee and she followed him enthusiastically over to where the bar tender had just gotten done messing with a mug.
“What is it?”
“It’s called Irish coffee, quick, take a drink before they take it to the customer!” Aria perched on the edge of the cup and started to take a cautious sip - that turned into a long drink. She just barely left the cup in time to avoid getting knocked off balance by the server who was taking it to its rightful drinker.
“That was good! What makes it different from normal coffee?”
“Whisky my dear girl, whisky!”
“Hmmm…I think I like whisky, and I definitely like Irish coffee!”
“I thought you would!”
The two of them managed to sample a couple more Irish coffee’s before they finally gave up on The Irish Lassie. Yet again, no one had noticed them, but neither of them really minded. They’d had a lot of fun, and they decided that was more than worth it.
Aria also decided she was going to sleep in the next day.
