Walking through the building during the day was vastly different from earlier, in the middle of the night. The somewhat creepy, foreboding atmosphere was gone, replaced by the quiet din of a busy office and there were people walking around, dressed in something I wanted to call business-casual. A few gave me curious glances, but none of them engaged me, while I was walking next to Joyce, Lady Bee following behind us.

The mess, located on the ground-floor, was mostly empty, though given that it was mid-morning, that shouldn’t have surprised me. Regardless, there was an attendant manning the counter, giving us a polite smile as we approached.

“What would you like for breakfast?” Joyce quietly asked me, causing me to glance at the menu. Some of the things on it sounded normal enough, but there were symbols under each item that I hadn’t ever seen before. Not quite sure of their meaning, I simply shrugged, deciding to get what she took.

“I’m not particular. I’ll just take what you’ll get.” I told her, before remembering that I was carrying the ball with Prince Charming with me and that my partner needed food, too. According to the lesson, he didn’t need much, far less than I would have thought for a creature of his size, though size apparently didn’t matter in their case, as the small charmander had similar requirements in regards to volume as a charizard, who’d easily mass ten times as much.

Taking out the ball, I quietly called out my partner, who stretched for a moment, before quickly stepping up next to me, looking at our surroundings with an air of curiosity.

Looking at another part of the menu, I closed my eyes for a second, pulling the earlier lesson back into the foreground of my mind and reciting the dietary needs of my partner, before looking at the menu again, quickly putting together the fruit-and-meat mix for my prince charming.

“Does that fit what he needs?” I asked Joyce, just to make sure none of the information had gotten mixed up. There was so much she had crammed into my mind, I wasn’t willing to make a mistake here.

“Mhm, what do you think?” she simply asked, an eyebrow raised.

“I think that it is what he needs, but I’m not willing to make a mistake, not if clarification is only a question away.” I replied, frowning at the teasing tone in her voice.

Instead of replying, she simply nodded, an approving smile on her face.

She stepped up to the counter, with me following along, and ordered for both of us and our partners. Her order sounded normal enough, some sort of porridge with berries and a weird yoghurt, alongside the same tea I had been given before. It didn’t take long and soon, two bowls of porridge and two bowls of assorted berries, one with meat, the other without, were set on a tray.

“Let me.” I offered, taking the tray when Joyce nodded, while she told the guy at the counter to put it on her tab, making payment simple.

“Let’s sit at the window. I doubt we’ll be here long enough to encounter the lunch-rush, but it’s more comfortable over there.” Joyce directed and I simply followed her directions, carrying our tray to one of the smaller tables, near the large windows.

Looking out, I paused for a moment, taking in the view. It was impressive, a pristine mountain-side, with some snow on the ground and in the trees but again, no sign of human civilization. I thought I noticed movement in the distance, but it was too far away and down the mountain to even try guessing what I was seeing. Shaking my head, I wasn’t about to let something as mundane as the view stun me, not with the events of the last day. Instead, I set out the bowls, making sure that the bowl with berries and meat was set in a way to make it easy for Prince Charming to get at it.

“Thank you.” Joyce said, as she took off her white coat and sat down, inhaling the scent of her tea letting out a content sigh afterwards.

Mirroring her, I took off the coat I had been wearing the whole time, suddenly cold. Sitting next to the window in shorts and a sleeveless-top, while there was snow on the other side, sent a shiver down my spine, regardless of the insulation. As if feeling my discomfort, Prince Charming moved as close to me as he could, without falling off the seat he had hopped on to get at his food, and the flame on his tail flared, heat radiating into my direction.

“Thank you, Charm.” I smiled, pushing my own chair right up to his, almost but not quite cuddling up to him.

Taking the first spoon, I realised just how hungry I really was and stopped thinking about anything, but the food in my bowl as I mechanically spooned the porridge and berries into my mouth, chewing and swallowing as quickly as I could. Yet, despite my attempt to speed-eat, I noticed the flavour, the tartness of the berries, some crunch in the porridge and the rich flavour of the yoghurt, it somewhat surprised me but it was a welcome surprise. A part of me wanted to slow down my eating, so I could savour the flavour, but decided against it. If anything, I might be able to get a second helping, so I continued to shovel, only taking the occasional moment to take a sip of the hot tea. If there was a heaven, I was in a good approximation of it.

My shangri-la was invaded by the scraping of a chair and when I looked up, a pair of dark, almost black, eyes stared at me, capturing my own eyes and I simply froze, like a frog before the snake. Seconds stretched like hours, as I sat there, paralysed by the judging gaze that seemed to invade my very being, weighing and measuring me in ways I couldn’t even begin to understand, until finally, it was over in the blink of an eye.

Freed from my paralysis, I looked at the person behind those dark eyes and, other than those eyes, she was a perfectly normal, elderly woman, grey hair, dark, formal clothes but nothing too extraordinary. Other than the eyes.

After a minute or two, during which she simply looked me up and down, she stood back up, walking away, all without saying a single word.

“What was that?” I asked Joyce, somewhat confused by the person’s behaviour and discombobulated by the weight of her gaze.

“That was Renata….” Joyce replied, pausing for a moment, the look on her face making me think she was searching for words. “I’d love to explain, but really, that’s just how Renata is.”

I let out a snort, not quite sure how to take that, when our breakfast was interrupted by another, this one a middle-aged man. His clothes were more suited for the rugged outdoors and the snow on his boots made me think that it was where he had come from. Instead of simply sitting down and staring, he stepped up to the table and introduced himself.

“Good morning, Joyce. Why don’t you introduce me to your companion?” he asked, his gaze staying on me the whole time.

“Certainly.” Joyce nodded, before looking at me, “Dani, this is Robert, one of the…” she was interrupted by him, as he pulled up a chair.

“Ah, no need to go into the details, I just want to ask our guest a few questions.” he stopped her, before starting to talk to me. His questions were somewhat similar to what Cynthia had asked me, just a few hours earlier, though he was more interested in the practical aspects of my journey, as little as I could remember of it.

Compared to Cynthia’s earlier questioning, his was a lot shorter and after maybe five minutes of different iterations of ‘“I don’t remember”, he stood and excused himself, leaving the room, a middle-aged woman that had sat at a nearby table following along after giving me a weird glance.

“Is there a theme here?” I asked, the two interruptions to our breakfast weirding me out just a little, especially given the almost entirely empty mess-hall.

“A bit of one, yes. Why don’t we go for a walk, it might help you clear your head. I’ll explain as we walk.” Joyce replied, pushing herself up to stand. For a moment, I wanted to ask her if she was insane, walking out into the snow if I had little more than a coat to keep me warm, but the look on her face stopped me.

Instead, I decided that if I had to grit my teeth to keep them from clattering, so be it, but I was in desperate need of answers. Not to the entirety of my situation, I somehow doubted the people around me had those answers, but the least I wanted to know was what was going on with their treatment of me.

Walking after Joyce, I stepped out of the glass-doors, taking a deep breath of the cold mountain-air, a shiver running down my spine from the cold. A soft growl next to me was accompanied by a surge of warmth, but from my earlier lessons, I remembered that my partner would tire himself out, if he kept the warmth up for too long.

“It’s alright, Charm. I’ll be alright.” I promised him, or maybe I promised myself. Either way, I needed it to be true.