Alice and Gale stood in front of the entrance door. From the inside, Alice could hear countless voices, laughing, talking sometimes screaming. In the background, Alice could softly hear a happy melody, drowned in a group of voices that was singing a simple text loud enough that Alice could understand every single word even through the walls.
It was the first time in her life that Alice experienced this kind of atmosphere and she instantly came to love it.
"I-is this a tavern? One of those that always appear in stories?", Alice asked excitedly. She had always wanted to go to a place like this since her father told her about them the first time.
"Yep, thought it would be your first time. There is no better place to collect information. But let's make a few tests before we go in.", Gale said.
"Test? For what?"
"How good your ears really are. Try concentrating only on your hearing and then pick out only a single voice."
Alice tried to do just as he instructed her, but even after a while, all she could understand was indistinguishable babbling.
"Sorry, I can't understand anything."
"Well, it's not that easy at first. Let's try again, but this time do exactly as I tell you. First, lean your back against the wall and stand so that you won't lose your balance. Now close your eyes and concentrate on the voices again."
Alice did as Gale said. At first, she didn't understand why he wanted her to lean against the wall. But when she closed her eyes and concentrated on the voices, she suddenly felt like she would lose her balance at any moment. Although the voices appeared now louder, she still couldn't make out a single one.
"Now, concentrate on the taste in your mouth, and then imagine it disappearing."
As Alice did as she was told, the taste saliva and the bred that was still lingering in her mouth from their breakfast slowly started to fade out.
"Now your sense of smelling, concentrate on it, and imagine the smells disappearing."
As the smells started to disappear and Alice concentrated on the voices again, she started making out single words.
"What... I would... shipment... anchour... flying children... nothing good..."
When she heard one of the voices, she suddenly got a little annoyed and lost her concentration a bit.
"At last your sense of touch, concentrate on the wall in your back, the ground under your feet, the clothes and wind on your skin. Now let them fade away one by one."
As she did so, the world around her started to slowly fade away. It was a very good and relaxing feeling but at the same time a bit terrifying as well. When Alice concentrated on the voices again, she could make out much more than before.
"I didn't you idiot Barchinelly company a dark magician anchor chain broke fell over board..." Although Alice could hear much clearer than before, the wall between her and the people inside dampened the voices so much that she couldn't differentiate between the voices.
As Alice tried to change her focus and find a voice that especially stood out, she focused on the music she had only been able to barely make out before.
While Alice listened to the music, she realized how clear and beautiful every single sound was. As Alice continued listening to the music, the other voices started to fade into the background, until only the melody remained. And the longer Alice listened, the more the melody started to change, what previously only had a beautiful sound started to acquire meaning, while the melody was a happy one, it couldn't hide the warm but sad emotions that flowed into it. The longer Alice listened, the more she got lost in the melody and she couldn't tell anymore how long she had been listening already.
"Iieks!", Alice suddenly woke up from her trance-like state with a strange scream, Gale had flicked her head.
"Finally woken up? Could you make anything out?"
"N-no, sorry."
"Then let's go in."
"Hmm? We can go inside? Won't they throw us out?"
"They won't as long as we don't cause trouble. We have a good relationship with the owner. We sometimes help them with troublesome customers and they help us too, like this for example."
"How could we help them?", Alice just couldn't imagine a situation where they could help out a tavern owner.
"One time, there was a thief for example. Some guy with the habit to pickpocket people in this tavern, which of course damaged their reputation. And we helped them find out who it was.
Just follow me and sit down in front of the fireplace, from there we can listen in on most of them. There might also be someone there today who might be able to tell us more."
Before Alice could ask any more questions, Gale had already opened the door and went inside. Before the door could close itself, Alice followed Gale inside. They found themselves in a small hallway with a second door at the end to better keep the wind outside.
Alice couldn't help but be nervous, it seemed like she had become very selfconscious about the fact that she lived in the streets, and now she felt like an intruder.
When Gale entered through the second door, Alice followed him as fast as she could without touching the door or the frame, it just felt like she wasn't allowed to, as if someone would scold her if she did.
She knew that she had already done worse than things than this, but she still couldn't get over this weird feeling.
When she looked around, she realized how big the place really was. At the same time, the room was very warm, heated up by the body temperature of the many people inside that made the room smell like sweat and alcohol. Distributed all over the room, stood at least fifteen round tables with four to six people each, and all of them were talking, with each other always trying to be louder than the rest.
On the opposite side of the room was the counter were also several people sat on very high stools. Two busy women worked behind the counter and another three were going from table to table.
Somewhere on the left side of the room, Alice could make out the chimney going up along the wall, meaning that there was the fireplace.
And at last, on the right side was a small platform, maybe half a meter high. On there stood a beautiful woman. She had fair skin, beautiful baby sky blue eyes, wavy blond hair that reached down to her back and wore a long white dress that was just tight enough to show off her womanly charm without seeming immodest. In her hands, she held the flute-like instrument that she used to produce that beautiful melody.