Chapter: 54
I stepped out of a shaky yet stable orange portal and immediately felt the blaring desert heat upon my face. Finally, I had mastered the sling ring to the point where I could freely travel anywhere on the continent. I appeared right in the middle of the street, but no one was outside to see me. The temperature felt blisteringly hot, so everyone was probably inside, surviving solely by their AC units. With no real leads to follow, I started meandering down the street, seeing where the desert wind took me. It led me to a pet store.
Puente Antiguo really was an absolutely tiny town. It only had a couple of dozen buildings in total and only one main street. At most, the population was only a few hundred people, so I found it strange that the town even had a pet store. Maybe the universe made it be here just for Thor's one funny line that takes place here.
"I NEED A HORSE!"
Lo and behold, as soon as I walked in, I heard the line being delivered. I stepped through the pet shop doorway at apparently the perfect time.
"We don't have horses… just dogs, cats, birds…" The confused pet store worker responded to Thor's comical request.
"Then give me one of those large enough to ride," Thor said with a completely straight face.
I decided to cut in and save the poor shopkeeper from, "I'll take it from here," I peered at the shopkeeper's nametag, "...Jerry." I made myself known as the two men turned their attention to me.
"Holy crap, Layla of the Fallen knows my name…" The shopkeeper did a double take upon seeing me before he openly stared, gobsmacked. Thor didn't recognize me at all, which I would have expected. He should have only been on 'Midgard' for a day or two at most.
"Ah, forgive me, most fair maiden. I did not see you come in. Do you have business with the shopkeeper here? I'm afraid he is most useless, however. What kind of animal keeper doesn't even keep proper horses? For shame, sir," Thor said as he gave the stink eye to the affronted store clerk.
"Hey, man, I just work here part-time! I don't even know why I took this job in the first place. No one comes to a pet store in the middle of nowhere! I haven't made a single sale in the past month, and yet the store owner never seems to care!" The man tried to defend himself, but it seemed that Thor was no longer interested in speaking with the man as he turned his full attention toward me.
"Actually, Prince Thor, I'm not here for an animal companion. I came here to meet you," I explained. Although some of the animals here did look absolutely adorable. There was this pure white bunny rabbit that was calling to me, and I was doing my absolute best not to immediately buy it. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to take a pet with me when I was for sure going to be getting into a fight in a day or two's time. Actually… wasn't this entire town going to be destroyed by the Destroyer soon? "Jerry," I said, getting the man's attention. "Here's ten thousand dollars. I want you to take all of the animals in this store and get them out of town by day's end." I pulled a fat stack out of my inventory and slapped it onto the counter. I gave him no room for arguments before I turned back to Thor. I directed him out of the store, and the two of us started walking down the street.
"Finally, someone recognizes my person in this dreary realm!" Thor exclaimed. "How could nobody recognize the Prince of Asgard!?"
"Well, when's the last time you were even on Midgard?" I asked.
"Hmm, it has been a while," Thor took a moment to think. "Mayhaps it would have been a bit over 700 of this realm's years ago. While not a short amount of time, it shouldn't have been that long either," Thor explained.
"Maybe by Asgardian standards, that wasn't that long, but by human standards, that would have been dozens of generations ago," I said. Thor seemed to take a moment before realization dawned on him.
"Midgardians truly have such short lives!? How do they ever get anything done!?"
"They'd probably wonder the same about your people considering you probably spent over 200 years wearing diapers," I replied with a laugh. I can't even imagine how awful that must be for the parents… Asgardian parents must be absolute saints.
Thor's face turned red from embarrassment. "It wasn't that long! I'll have you know that I was fully potty trained at 190 years old! My brother Loki took longer and wasn't potty trained until he was 211 years old," he said smugly, like that was something to be proud of…
"Woah, that's amazing! You must have been a genius!" I exclaimed sarcastically. I don't think my sarcasm registered on Thor's Allspeak though as he started preening from 'my praise.'
"So what reason did you have for wanting all of those animals out of town my lady? And was there a reason you sought me out specifically beyond simply wanting to meet with the crown prince of Asgard." Thor asked smugly. I might have forgotten that at this point in the story, Thor had yet to be humbled. He kind of came off as an arrogant ass…
When it came to the animals, I didn't want to mention the Destroyer wrecking the town and hint at my foreknowledge. Luckily I had another excuse. "There has actually been a monster around here that has been preying on the innocent. I was afraid it may go after those poor animals…"
"A monster!?" Thor asked intrigued. "What is it? Is it dangerous? If you wish it fair maiden, I shall slay the beast in your honor." He boasted. I'd honestly like to see him try without his powers.
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