Under the starry night sky over the posh Halifax Waterfront, Bae, Irys, Mumei and Kaela lined up outside at the open-air Stubborn Goat Pub - a pair of opened metal container vans fenced off with elevated tree planters and wooden staircases and roof-decks that blended in with the rest of the Waterfront boardwalk. There, the placid sloshing of the waters of Halifax Harbour mingled with the din of the mixed Friday night crowds of tourists and locals and the cheerful laughter of the others who had already crossed through the narrow gates.
Mumei Nanashi watched that drunken revelry from the outside and furrowed her brow.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Mumei complained. She clenched her fists, barely able to suppress the frightening abstract painting that Bae had seen not too long ago. Seeing that made a cold sweat form on Bae's brow.
"Maybe we should look for a different place." Irys suggested.
"It's Friday night, chief." Kaela interjected, speaking while playing Minecraft on her phone as usual, "Drinking's a pastime over here. All of the pubs are gonna be packed at this hour."
"Is that so?" Bae mumbled. She glanced at Mumei and watched the otherworldly miasma gathering around the owl-girl and her body tensed up.
Before Mumei's violent harpy transformation could manifest, however, a voice cut through the din and called for Mumei. "Hey - Mumei. Is that you?"
Mumei paused. She and her colleagues all turned towards the voice. There, they saw one of the waitresses of the Stubborn Goat, a pretty girl with purple hair, two-colored eyes and the lively, swishing tail of a lunar dragon behind her waving to Mumei. Her brass nametag read 'TATSUKI'.
The owl girl's tension evaporated in an instant and her reddening eyes returned to their natural honey brown. Her bloodthirsty grin was replaced by a genuine smile.
"Selen!" Mumei waved back.
The lunar dragon waitress grinned and spoke to the other waitresses. Then, just like that, Mumei, Irys, Bae and Kaela were waved through to the front of the line. Selen bumped fists with Mumei and nodded to her companions.
"Mumei, my owl! What's cracking?" Selen asked, speaking with a lively, albeit raspy voice.
"Taking my colleagues out for a drink." Mumei answered, "We just had a rough night in the office."
"In the office…!?" Selen gasped, "Weren't you supposed to go on a d-"
"I WAS." Mumei frowned, halfway between going ballistic and breaking down into tears.
Selen regarded the volatile owl and sighed.
"Leave it to me." Selen nodded, patting Mumei's shoulder, "I'll make sure the pub treats you and your colleagues well tonight."
"We'll be in your care." Mumei mumbled.
The lunar dragon nodded, put her hands on her hips and turned to Mumei's companions with a bright smile.
"Welcome to the Stubborn Goat Gastropub, y'all!" Selen greeted, "They were making you guys line up for a table - but trust me! You don't really need a table to enjoy this place if you don't mind holding your drinks. Standing-room-only works just fine here!" Selen pointed to some of the patrons who were seated on the wooden steps of the boardwalk within the courtyard of the pub. She gestured to some of the steps by the pub's stage illuminated by a constellation of pretty, star-like hanging lanterns and grinned, "These are gonna be the best seats in the house are right here, believe me!"
"You heard the lunar dragon." Mumei spoke, now emitting flowers and rainbows instead of abyssal miasma, "C'mon! Let's go!"
Bae, Irys and Kaela looked at each other with surprise.
"I didn't know Mumei had someone on the inside." Irys whispered.
"I think that Tatsuki girl saved Halifax from a fate worse than death just now…" Bae groaned.
"Stuff happens outside the office!?" Kaela gasped, seemingly bewildered by the thought.
With that, Selen brought Mumei and her team to the spot by the stage.
…
Selen Tatsuki started taking their orders of the newcomers seated side by side on the staircase. Even without saying a word, Selen already knew what Mumei was gonna have. So, the lunar dragon smiled and took the orders of the other three. Selen returned not long after with all of their drinks. She spoke with her singsong voice while serving them from left to right.
"Two pints of beer for the Aussie students. A glass of red-wine for the office manager. And a Raspberry Cordial for the TOWL!"
"Hey!" Mumei pouted.
Suddenly, Selen burst into raspy belly laughter that reverberated throughout the entire pub. The lunar dragon laughed herself to tears!
"I'm sorry!" Selen apologized, wiping her tears while still chuckling. She turned to Mumei's colleagues and whispered, "But you guys have to see how salty Mumei gets when playing online games!"
"I heard that, Selen." Mumei's pout started crossing into the First Circle of Hell, but the lunar dragon didn't flinch in the slightest.
' How many apocalypses has that dragon-girl seen? ' Bae wondered.
The rat-girl just sipped on her beer and hoped that she wouldn't ever have to know. Either way, Selen bowed out and left the four Insurance office ladies to wind down for the night.
Mumei took a large gulp of raspberry cordial and leaned back into the staircase with her mug cradled in her hand.
"Selen's a good friend of mine who came to Halifax about the same time as me." Mumei revealed, looking up to the stars past the constellation of hanging lanterns. She chuckled and took another sip of her drink, "It's funny actually. When we both learned that we were going to Halifax, she thought that I was gonna work part-time here in the Stubborn Goat - and I thought that she was gonna work full time at Bread Dog!"
"Talk about an ole' switcheroo." Bae commented, wiping the beer froth from her lips with a napkin.
Mumei snorted. She then turned towards Irys and Bae and smirked.
"Just like you two." Mumei traced a circle through the air around the two Junior Sales Executives.
"The two of us!?" Irys and Bae nearly spat out their beer.
"Don't play dumb with me. I'm HR! I've read your files." Mumei insisted while her eyes starting to grow unfocused and her head started bobbing slightly, "The two of you thought you weren't gonna see each other again after university in Australia - but here you are in Halifax, freaking Nova Scotia."
"As colleagues." Kaela added.
"As colleagues!" Mumei confirmed, downing even more of her raspberry cordial.
Irys hung her head low, hiding her face behind her pint of beer. Bae, on the other hand, met the tipsy Mumei's comments head on.
"Hmm…?" Bae hummed, raising her brow. She turned from Mumei to Irys and then back, "Well, if that's the case, then I'm glad."
"How so?" Mumei asked.
"Well, you and Selen seem to be good friends - so meeting each other here is probably a good thing, right?" Bae asked.
"Uh-huh." Mumei continued.
Bae raised her own eyes up to the stars now and spoke her mind, "Then, I'm hopeful that meeting Irys here again will be a good thing for me too."
"Bae…!" Irys' two-colored eyes shone brightly.
Irys leaned closer towards Bae on the staircase and the rat-girl started to get flustered. Only then did she realize what she just said without a hint of hesitation.
"Oh…" Bae gulped.
' Damn. I'm already tipsier than I thought.'
Feeling the smooth skin of Irys' shoulder brushing against hers and heavenly sensation of the firm yet subtle squish of Nephilim tofu made Bae proud of the words the alcohol coaxed out of her.
' I'm not the only one feeling the booze already, it seems. '
Mumei watched Irys and Bae leaning against each other for a moment and sighed.
"If ever the two of you plan on getting married, just let me know so I can update your employee files, okay?" Mumei spoke softly.
The moment Mumei said this, Irys and Bae peeled themselves off of each other by an inch and sheepishly sipped their beers. Kaela, meanwhile, laughed silently and promptly returned her attention to her mobile Minecraft session in between gulps of wine.
While the four ladies drank at their own paces, a four-piece, plaid-clad Nova Scotian folk band took to the stage with their instruments: a synthesizer keyboard, bongos, an amplified acoustic guitar and a fiddle. Together, they started to play lively local favorite songs - and Bae, Irys, Mumei and Kaela had front row seats!
Across the stage, standing by the bar, Selen gave the four ladies a thumbs up and mouthed out the words ' you're welcome!' .
…
The music swelled and drew in the crowd at the Stubborn Goat Pub. Bae saw the people there clapping along to the tune of the songs, cheering for the band in their drunken revelry. Some people even started rising up from their seats to dance.
Bae watched the fanfare going on all around her and quietly nursed her beer. The tune of the fiddle made Bae bob her head, but it was the guitar that piqued her interest. She watched the guitar player strumming while singing and she found herself tapping on the wooden staircase with her partially-calloused fingers.
Still, Bae stayed glued to her informal seat. She was tipsy, yes, but not tipsy enough to lose herself completely in the atmosphere. In the back of her head, she knew she was still in some sort of after-work office function, so she held herself back.
' Plus, the last time I did that, I blacked out.' Bae wrinkled her nose, ' I stilldon't remember how I got home that one time. '
While she was thinking about this, however, she glanced at the Nephilim seated beside her. She saw Irys' two-colored eyes sparkling, reflecting the light of the hanging lanterns and the stars above while the people at the open-air pub cheered, danced and sang. Bae felt her heart throb.
' Irys had that exact same look when we first met at that music festival. ' Bae laid her hand over her heart, ' That was the day that I… That I…! '
Bae paused. She looked down at her own reflection in the bubbly beer and sighed. Then, she downed the rest of her beer and stood up from the staircase.
"Bae?" Irys raised her head.
Bae set down her beer glass and offered her hand to Irys.
"Say." Bae asked, "Wanna dance?"
Irys blushed. She clutched her own beer glass and looked up to Bae, "As colleagues?"
"As whatever you want us to be." Bae answered.
Irys' sparkling eyes shone even more brightly now. She downed her beer too and took Bae's hand. Bae helped Irys up to her feet and the two of them started to move to the tune of the music. It was slow at first. They both felt the eyes of Mumei, Kaela and Selen fixed on them, but all of that melted away before long.
For a brief moment, the two of them were four years younger, dancing under the moon and the stars one fine Australian summer.
Bae closed her eyes. A somber thought crossed her mind.
' I haven't moved on at all, have I? ' She paused, locked eyes with the Nephilim in her arms and thought, ' Has Irys? '
…
Nowhere With You
Dance The Night Away
…
To Be Continued