And so you return, good reader, to my humble fanfic.

From now until I finish the story (If there is in fact an ending... though the ninth book in the series is hinting at it. Sorta.) The chapters will get longer, as our hero starts being able to take in more of her surroundings.

But now that our protagonist has survived the first day in Orario, its time to stretch the legs of our story and get into the actual adventure.

Chapter 3, Potato puffs?

Waking up after my first day was very... normal. Mostly normal at least. I woke up at the first thing to bother me. Nature was calling, so I opened my eyes and found that I had absolutely no problem with seeing in the dim light. I chuckled to myself as I stopped hugging my tail and tugged the sheets down. Dressed in nothing as per habit from my old life, I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stood glancing out the window as I did. Not quite morning by the look of it.

The floor felt cool under my feet as I opened my door and padded out into the hallway. Most of the motions were automatic really. Open door, walk, open other door, find toilet, stand... No, not stand. Wouldn't that have been embarrassing...

I stopped in mid yawn as I heard a ripple of water off to my left. In the dark I could see Ryuu, shoulders just below the waterline of the bath. Our eyes met and I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't just imagining things.

Nope, still there.

I frowned, mostly to myself, and looked around the room now that my brain was shocked into alertness. Uniform on a hook near the back. Towel on a chair next to that. What caught my eye the most was the wooden sword resting point down against the linen closet.

Bathing after morning practice?

I finished my business, (cleaning myself was yet another hitch in my usual morning.) Washed my hands and turned back to Ryuu. She was still mostly under the water, so I gave her a quick bow, and left the room. It was only then I noticed the small sign on the door. I hoped she wouldn't hold my illiteracy against me later.

When I returned to my room, the clouds that I could see over what looked like a high city wall were just starting to lighten. I thought back to the wooden sword.

"New body, new life, new routine." I mumbled to myself, raising my arms above my head in a stretch. "Let's hear it for second chances."

I was trying to finish a set of ten pushups when my new ears heard Mia's footsteps outside my door. A half second later she knocked. Still thinking about just how new my body felt, and how pathetic it was at exercise, I opened the door.

Mia gave me a raised eyebrow, and I realized I hadn't put anything on yet. With a sigh she handed me a small bundle of clothing, stepped back and pointed to the bathroom. She then tapped her foot against the floor a couple times as if impatient.

'Clean up, and be quick about it.' Was my interpretation.

It was just after the lunch rush when I found a chance to apologize to Ryuu. I had been thinking most of the day if I should bother, but finally decided that I really should have knocked first. I also didn't want her to have reason to dislike me. I was living here by Mia's grace, and didn't want another resident to make her... Disappointed with me. I was never good with women taller than me.

So while she washed dishes, and I dried and put away I tugged her sleeve to get her attention. When she looked I bowed, Japanese style, and waited for her response.

I heard a very quiet laugh, before she punished me by pinching the tip of one of my ears with wet fingers. She then handed me a rinsed dish.

Aside from learning more about how things were run, and finally meeting our cook, a cat person named May, nothing really interesting happened.

And of all things, I found that odd. Sure, I hadn't been here long, but despite this being a tavern run by women, and most of the patrons being male and looking like mercenaries... I'm sure I was stereotyping things a little, but I honestly thought some one would try something.

I'd already seen a bit of the darker side of the city, and with the demographic in the tavern being mostly male... They seemed to keep their collective hands to themselves, the food, and the money when it came time to pay. Even late into the day when some of the patrons were getting a little drunk.

Curious...

At the end of the night, near closing, Mia called me to the register and started to school me on the numbers. She was all smiles when I picked up on it, but I did have a high school education. It wasn't as if it were difficult, but I was pretty sure Arnya was jealous of just how easily I took to it.

I resolved to wake up earlier the next day, hoping to catch Ryuu practicing. I drank some water before bed and trusted my body to wake me up before I had an accident.

Thankfully it worked, and after (very desperately) not having an accident, I got into the spare clothes Mia had given me the night before to sleep in (which I hadn't, by the way.) I was thankful for the sandals I'd also been given, as I'd spent the last two days barefoot.

I headed out of the tavern for the first time since I had gotten there, through a door I'd seen the others go through that wasn't the rear entrance I had entered from two days ago. It led, to my surprise, to what looked like the beginnings of a second building. It had cobblestone floor too, and while not very large, it could have held a respectable garden, or perhaps be used for training.

Like it was now. Ryuu was standing in the middle of the floor, moving about with her wooden sword in hand. Seeing the sword yesterday, with the well worn handle hinted at dedication. And that meant training when ever one had time.

I stood as still as I could and watched.

Not much scared me, back in my old life. I wasn't fearless by any means, but I tried to be alert and capable of motion when something bad might happen. Keep your eyes open and your body balanced. Even if 'balanced' meant a shuffling walk as I got older.

But in that moment of watching Ryuu move, I felt something in me want to hide under a rock and never come out.

I couldn't see the blade. It wasn't the dim light, as my new eyes had amazing dark vision. I could see her body move. Her shoulders and legs too. But her arms and hands... It took a moment for my brain to accept the possibility of some one moving that fast. My brain, wired for modern day logic simply couldn't accept it. It tried in vain to calculate just how fast, how hard, and how the hell wasn't that piece of wood disintegrating with that sort of movement?

I found myself holding my tail tightly for comfort when Ryuu stopped and my brain ceased to force some kind of logic to the superhuman sword practicing. Shaking my head to tell my logical side to grow a sense of humor or something, I stepped forward.

Ryuu finally looked at me. If she was bothered, or surprised at my intrusion, she didn't show it, but she did smile slightly when she saw me leg go of my tail and close my mouth with a click of teeth. I shook my head again, and wished, yet again, to be able to ask direct questions.

"New life, new body, new routine." I mumbled to myself. Before bowing to her, hands out in front of me in a martial art salute.

My second surprise of the day, before the sun had even started to brighten the clouds, was that she recognized it. My two hands out in front of me, hand held in fist as I bowed. The surprise broke her usual neutral look.

Then I attacked her.

Back when I was younger, I had taken a few different martial arts. It was fun for a while until I started to feel like I was switching one group of bullies at school for another in the dojo. But in the few years I had done, I managed to gain a good sense of balance, coordination and some simple technique of my own.

Seeing just how, quite honestly insane Ryuu was with not just her swordsmanship, and just how many people with swords there were around the small sample of town I had seen so far, I made a snap decision: Throw a mostly textbook perfect front punch at the lady who I was pretty sure wouldn't take offense at it in an environment that was made for practicing.

It was only around lunch time when I had walked off enough of my new bruises to stop moving about with a noticeable limp. Pain aside I was pleased Ryuu took my sudden assault in stride and didn't hurt me too badly. It was mostly my fault anyhow, honestly. My new body was soft. Pleasing curves aside, it was not used to any sort of violence, not to mention hard exercise. She hadn't even fought back really. Just tapped me on the back or side every so often as I basically flailed my limbs at her. There was just enough force that I'd lose balance and end up on my face, side or rear.

We stopped just as the sun was starting to colour the clouds, and she helped me get myself to the washroom to help me clean up a little before starting work.

When the late evening came around, I learned exactly why there were so few problems at Mia's tavern. I was walking by with a tray of drinks to serve a group of four when I heard a very drunk voice say something in a tone that even I could tell was lustful, and a hand grabbed my rear and went down my tail.

My spine did that thing it liked to do when my tail gets petted, while my already tired legs twitched with the sudden contact to my ass. The resulting shower of ale got me, the man who groped my rear, and Chloe soaked.

As I held onto the back of a chair to let my nerves recover from my tail molesting, I watched a very angry Chloe take hold of the top of the drunk man's breastplate, drag him most of the way out of his chair, and then walk, man still held in one hand, to the door.

Then she grabbed the bottom edge of the man's breastplate, and threw him like a javelin, into the street with a battle cry of "Eh!" Judging by the noise he made, I think he rolled at least twice before sliding to a halt just out of sight of the window. Dusting off her hands to the cheers of the rest of the tavern, she turned and looked at me, giving me a thumbs up.

Well, that answered the question of how a group of women averaging about 5'4" (discounting Mia) could keep the place running so smoothly. Again I had to force my logical side to stop trying to figure out how a young lady who might weigh 45 kilograms soaking wet, toss a man who was about my height of 5'9" wearing half a suit of plate armor, most of the way across what looked to be a street that could fit six lanes of traffic.

About a week passed like that. I would wake up early, flail my hands and feet at Ryuu in what could laughably be called sparring, clean up, work in the Tavern, learn a few more things, then sleep. On the third evening I pulled Chloe aside, handed her a brush turned and with all the control I could muster of my new anatomy, swished my tail against her chest.

I had hoped this would start to cure me of my near debilitating twitching when some one other than myself handled my tail, and to some extent, it worked. For about ten minutes every night after that, I'd let her brush the fluffy appendage until it shined. She even braided my hair, left long in the middle but short on the sides as per Ryuu's work after losing part of it to that ruffian's sword.

At the end of the seventh day, I had to finally admit to myself that while Chloe's tail brushing sessions had stopped me from simply locking up on the spot, they were doing something else my previously male brain was not wired for. Stupid hormones. If she had noticed me trying not to think about it while also trying not to scratch an itch that wasn't really an itch, she made no sign. Not like I could ask anyone about it either. So I just tried not to squirm and had a cold bath later.

After the eighth morning's exercises, to which I wasn't getting too badly tossed about by Ryuu's seemingly invincible speed, the day was beginning like any other. Our cook started cooking, the breakfast crowd shuffled in, and we waited on them as usual. It was around lunch, when Mia called myself and Arnya over to her. With a few words that got Arnya excited, she handed me a small pouch of Valis and gave me a look that said 'Protect it with your life.' Arnya pouted a moment at me being apparently trusted with the money, but after another few words she looked dejected and sighed.

Without further words, Arnya hooked her arm around mine and walked towards the entrance, half dragging me until my feet caught up with her.

This would be my first time leaving the building proper since I had arrived, I realized.

Aside from the view out the big window at the front of the shop, the back alley behind it, and the little bits of the city I could see from my window, this really was only my second time in the city proper. And it was overwhelming. The people not in shop uniforms were nearly all mercenaries. Even some of the people dressed in outlandish armor or 'battle clothing' were running actual shops. And I had only just stepped outside.

I could see from here, straight to the high outer wall of the city where the road ended with a big double door. Across and down the street itself, were more shops and stalls with either active or slightly bored merchants, depending on if they had customers or not. When I looked the other way however...

I'm not sure how long I stood there completely dumbfounded. It was by far the tallest structure I'd ever seen. Reaching to the clouds stood a pillar of stone that my logical brain said should not exist. Even with modern day materials, I doubted it could have been built.

"It's like... The tower of Babel..." I mumbled to myself, before Arnya brushed my tail with a hand to get my attention.

I spun to look, but she looked disappointed at my lack of reaction. Instead she nodded her head, pointed at the tower and confirmed "Babel."

I blinked, not just at being right, but at something of legend being here. Before I could fall into that line of thinking Arnya tugged on my sleeve again and we were off towards the gate at the end of the street. I shook my head and followed, listening to the up beat cat girl hum cheerfully.

At one point about half way to the gate, some one called her name and she seemed to vanish from in front of me to go to a stall with a white haired man behind it. The stall around him had bits of meat and sausage on display, and even my mouth started to water with the smell of spices. Walking over, the two were having a lively conversation. Arnya introduced me, to which I responded with my name and my now patented 'butler bow'. Arnya then said something else, making the old man's face fall a little. I understood what that meant by now, as a few of our regulars at the Tavern had tried to start a conversation with me, only to be told I couldn't understand them. So far I'd only picked up a few words of the trade. Like 'Plate' 'Table' and 'Drunken idiot'. (OR just 'Idiot', I wasn't sure.)

After a few minutes of them talking back and forth, and Arnya drooling over some of the meat under the glass counter, I figured it was time to be on our way. Lost in her own world of 'what's for dinner' I looked at the old man, raised a 'watch this' eyebrow, and simultaneously brushed one hand from Arnya's butt down along her tail, and blew in her nearest ear.

I had a moment to get an outsider's view of what my own 'tail brushed spine lock' looked like, before Arnya pushed me away. I felt an instant of weightlessness, before my body reacted and I started a backward tumbling recovery. Practicing with Ryuu had taught me how to roll with it, despite not being as insanely strong as she was. About five meters away, I had slid to a halt, the new boots I had been given recently to complete the uniform gripping just enough on the cobblestone, and one hand ahead of me so I could balance forward in a sort of three point slide.

Figuring I certainly deserved that, I simply stood and dusted myself off. I shook my tail to poof a little dust out of it, and bowed again to the old man, who was howling with laughter. Meanwhile Arnya stamped a little foot against the cobbles at our combined teasing. Once she had settled a little, I waved her over so we could get on our way.

Our destination was indeed the gate, where we found a wagon loaded with barrels. It was idle, with a truly impressive horse hitched to it. I wasn't ever really familiar with them, but I had attended a few medieval fairs, with jousting and everything. This horse looked like one of those. Big and muscular all over.

And bored. It had taken one look at us as we approached, sniffed the air, and decided we were not bringing it food. Arnya stopped near the wagon, looked around for something, then made an excited noise and darted off to a small house like structure near the gate. Following her with my eyes I spotted the reason for it. Another young lady in a uniform identical to ours was at the gate house. I watched a moment while they chatted, then turned back to the horse.

"Must be tough." I mumbled to it, getting closer, reaching out my hand slowly. "I had a job like yours once." The horse replied by snorting at my hand, though it moved its head closer, "Doing what I was told, day in, day out. Different materials, same process." I gave his nose and the side of its head a gentle pat. The horse replied by pushing its head against my hand, then it looked up and over my shoulder.

Arnya was back with the new girl. A little taller than Arnya, but still almost ahead shorter than me, she was rather plain looking, with short brown hair and matching brown eyes. She had a warm smile however. "Lunoire." She said with a small curtsy.

"Kodori." I replied, bowing.

"Valis?" She asked in return, motioning her head to a man who was now standing by the gatehouse. A merchant I guessed. Wordlessly, I reached under my apron, and untied the pouch I had stored in my bosom. With another warm smile she took the pouch and skipped over to the waiting man.

In the mean time, Arnya hopped up onto the driver seat of the wagon, taking hold of the reins. I followed her up, and she handed me the reins. I held them gently, and waited for Lunoire to hop up onto the wagon bed with the barrels. She gave me a wave to get started, and I looked back to the horse.

"No rush." I said to the dark eye looking at me as I gave the reins a gentle shake. With a snort, the horse started moving.

We were within sight of the tavern when I heard the raised voices. True to command, the horse was taking its time as we approached but as my ears focused in on the yelling I realized I knew one of them. Arnya picked up on my body language, her playful banter with Lunoire stopping cold. She nudged my arm as if to ask a question. I looked back and raised my hand to the side of my head, where the hair was nearly shaved by a sword.

Arnya said something to our new companion, and they both hopped out. I gave the reins a gentle tug to stop the horse before hopping off and tugging on a lever to apply an effective, if primitive, lock on the wheel. The other two were already jogging ahead to the tavern, when I saw 'Curly'. He was yelling at Mia, while Syr hid behind her. Mia stood passively, thick arms folded over her chest, looking down at the man with a face that wasn't quite angry, but very very close.

When he caught sight of me, he became even more enraged. I didn't need to know the language to need to guess at what he was calling me. "Syr?" I said to her. When she looked at me, wincing at a new line of what was probably very colourful profanity from Curly, I acted like I was putting on a robe or cape, then pointed a thumb at the man. She blinked a moment, confused, before her face lit up, and she dashed back inside the tavern. The man yelled at her retreating back, but Mia simply shuffled her feet to block his view.

He simply fumed and paced, until Syr came back with the red cloak she had 'borrowed' to cover me when we had first met. I had lost sight of Arnya in the mean time, but Lunoire was standing beside me now. Mia took the cloak from Syr and tossed it to Curly, saying something short and final sounding. The 'or else' tone clear to even me.

Angrily, he caught the cloak, swore again, then turned away. Likewise, we all did.

Then I heard the whisper of a sword being drawn.

Without really thinking, I completed my step, half turned, and ducked all in the same motion. Just as I caught sight of Curly again, I heard the distinct noise of metal shattering. Lunoire was there, her bare hand finishing a swing that looked to have punched through the flat of Curly's sword. He dropped the now useless sword hilt, turned, and ran as fast as he could away.

It would have been rather comical, if I hadn't been his target. Weak kneed I slumped to the ground. A moment later I was helped up by my rescuer, who's hand was perfectly clean, despite having just punched through a sword.

"Is he gone?" I heard a voice. "I swear, can't a Goddess sell potato puffs in peace? I have to make a living too you know... Hello?"

I didn't care that I could feel everyone staring at me. "I can understand you." I said, holding her shoulders as I leaned down to try and bring my eyes level with hers. Failing that, as she was the shortest person I'd met so far, I knelt on one knee and looked right into her blue eyes. "I understand you!" I repeated happily.

"Why wouldn't you? I am a Goddess, after all." She replied.

Author's notes.

Well then. Now that the groundwork has been laid, things shall speed up from here. Sort of, at least. The last worker at the 'Goddess of Fertility' has arrived, and the intro of Hestia had happened.

If you are still reading, I hope you continue doing so, as I get things lines up for the next chapter. Until then, gentlebeings.