The road made a lot of noise, of course. There were more scuttlers than there had been before, and it was a little nerve wracking, but Bug tried to ignore them. The front of house had two porches, one on top of the other. The upper one was the one he was looking for.
Getting up the stairs proved to be a challenge. Raising his feet that far off the ground while maintaining balance was difficult, and he was already starting to wear out from his walk.
Finally, he rested against the door, breathing heavily. After straightening up, he knocked.
No response at first, but then a muffled 'coming.' floated out through the door.
It opened, and there was the woman from a few nights ago. Freyah. She wore tan footie pajamas, and held a pair of sunglasses.
"Mr. Bug! ... I didn't expect to see you all the way up here yet, what brings you up here?"
"I didn't know where else to, uh, actually, I didn't have that much of a plan. I hope I'm not intruding."
"Oh no! I normally wake up in about 15 minutes anyway, and I love company. Come in!"
He stepped into the odd room. The front half was an inclosed porch, the back half, a finished room. A white loft bed took up a good part of the room, with a desk underneath. All the furniture in the room was white, other than a couple bean bag chairs. A large table at the other end of the room covered with a silver cloth and was covered in all manner of alchemaec paraphernalia. Behind this were two bookshelves filled floor to ceiling with books, vials, glasses, tools, and several whimsy looking silver devices.
He walked over to the table to examine the instruments, but felt his legs begin to give way before he could get there.
"Whoopsie daisy, not all that strong yet!" He said, sitting down on the carpet.
"Well you made it a good 3 acres from the clinic to the house, so I'd say that's a more than marvelous start," Freyah said through a giggle, "are you hungry?"
Bug suddenly became aware of just how hungry he was.
"I suppose I am. Odd to think. I've not been hungry or thirsty in... A long, long time."
"Well we'll just have to fix that, then. Since you've had saline solution already, food won't shock your system, but just incase, I'll bring up something soft."
She stood up from the beanbag chair she had sat down on, and headed for the door, which was partially hidden by the bed.
"I'll be back shortly."
And Bug was alone in the beautiful room. Dusk light shone through the screen onto the many silver and glass surfaces, making them gleam. Soft gold light turned the white carpet and furniture to cheery yellow. Other than one patch, hiding under a dresser. A more orangy, dingy yellow that giggled.
Bug gasped. A grub? He hadn't seen a grub in forever! Had they changed at all?
"Come here, little bro or sis. What's up?"
The grub scuttled out from under the dresser, before collapsing in a pile in front of Bug. Medium sized and duel colored eyes. A baby psiionic. A little magic buddy.
The grub righted himself, and cautiously sniffed at Bug's foot, and began lifting him into the air.
"Oh no, kiddo, not now. Maybe sometime, see?"
The grub did not see, and kept trying to lift Bug.
"How do you like it yourself, you little stinker?" Bug picked up the grub and deposited him on his lap. The grub didn't object, and grabbed Bug's beard with tiny claws.
Bug laughed. "Yep, it's pretty funny, isn't it?"
The two continued messing around until Freyah poked her head in the door again. She had gotten dressed, and now wore black pants, a pale green sweater over a grey button up, and a lab coat.
"Aww!" She squeeked, pushing the door open and bringing in a tray of toast, a pitcher of milk, and some applesauce.
She set the items on the floor in front of Bug, and then went to her table.
" It's all yours."
She turned on a coffee machine, and turned her attention to tidying.
Bug ate a small bite of toast. The flavor hit hard, the crispy, buttery toast easily topping ever other food in existence. He ate the rest in only a few bites. After eating all of the sweet applesauce, he began to feel rounded out, like he had found something he had been missing, and it felt great. The whole tray was cleaned when Freyah finished making her coffee. She poured herself a mug and sat on one of the bean bag chairs, sipping it. The grub, bored, scuttled out of the room, leaving the two in silence.
"So... You do alchemy?" Bug asked presently.
"Indeed. Really a rather boring field, to be honest. Combining and recombining various ingredients and recording the results into an ever-growing online compendium, where they will be checked and rechecked by other alchemists, worked on and used by the public, and..." She trailed off.
Bug sat up, interested.
"Well, the last part might seem a might foolish if you haven't read the scientific backing."
"I won't laugh or anything, I promise."
She chuckled, then continued.
"Well, very, very far out in space, there is a mysterious bubble that even our most brilliant minds cannot decipher. It simply exists, taking nothing and giving nothing. Myself and a few others have recently realized that it seems to match the description of an item from our history books known as the Sengiu Laritie. In fact, it is very likely the Sengiu Laritie itself, which, after thousands of centuries, had burn itself out, and accidentally built a bubble of sorts around it.
"Now, the next part of the theory is half supported by legend," she quickly searched over her bookshelves, landing on an older, midsized book titled, "The Medium"
She knelt beside the beanbag chair, flipped through the book, until she found a drawing of a spirographical pattern. She handed him the book, "this is a gate. They supposedly let the Old Worlders travel quickly between their clusters of inhabited planets without having to use ships. We think that the Sengiu Laritie is one of these."
Bug stroke his chin, thinking.
"And this is work for an alchemist? No judgement, like what you like, but it seems sorta... Unconnected to your other work."
She laughed, 'very true. It would normally be the work of an anomalist, and there are quite a few working on the project, but it was the alchemists who made the first big breakthrough, and who are majorly backing the project. I believe it was... Yes, Dr. Bert Bérnova who first began looking at the ancient science, building the cruxite web."
"The... What? Who?"
"Oh, um... Oh dear. A ver famous alchemist who figured out how to make basically a teleportation device by weaving fine strands of cruxite into a huge orb. Someone within the orb could control where the subject was transported to. After a little experimentation, it began sending people to a place no one has yet been able to find, so the project was officially shut down. Unofficially, he continued work, eventually manipulating the web into devolving..."
Bug was lost in the terminology.
"... Turning into a tiny black hole, and sucking him into it before calming down and eventually burning out, turning a large, crystal bubble that is currently... Fiddlesticks. How long have we been talking? I need to get to work, I'm sorry."
"Aww crap I'm sorry I about made you late." Bug said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Oh don't worry about it. It was worth it for a good chat, and they're not all that picky at the lab!" She hurriedly got up, setting her mug on the table and grabbing a brush.
"Well... Bye! Thanks for listening to my ramble! You are very easy to talk to." She said, trying to put on ballet flats while brushing her pixie cut hair at the same time.
"Good bye... Uh, have a nice night..." He said lamely as she walked out the door, smiling at him one last time before closing it behind her.
The sun was solidly down now, and he heard the bustle downstairs as the rest of the house got ready for their night. He wondered what he should do. This wasn't his house, and this certainly wasn't his family. Could he sit in this room until Freyah came back? Well, yes, but that might be weird.
Well, he could probably sit here until he thought of a better plan, if nothing else. So he got down to business, thinking. He knew nothing about this world other than a couple rudimentary facts, and he certainly couldn't get by here by himself. Perhaps these people would take him on as a hired hand? Not for a good long while. Not til he became strong enough to not almost faint when he walked up stairs.
Just then, the door opened. Another female troll entered, giving him an amused gaze from behind grandma glasses. Her hair was braided into dozens of thin braids, most of which were collected into a bun.
He hadn't realize he'd been staring at it until she smirked and flipped a loose braid behind her ear.
"So Bug, is it? You coming for breakfast?"
"Uhhhhhhhh."
"You are. Have you rested a while? Yes? Alright, come on."