"Hard pass," I said and walked away from Klara, the red head who had dragged me all the way from the village notice board to this inn.
"What do you mean ?"
I looked from her, to the long coated snob looking guy, the broadsword wielding macho guy and his muscular companion wielding a heavy sword of her own.
"I don't want to be a part of any adventure. I would like to not go. So I'll pass."
"But this is the opportunity most villagers dream of, to travel with a group of adventurers," Klara said again.
"I'm not. Bye," I walked out of the inn and made a point of it to keep going forward as fast as I can, ignoring the protest behind me.
I just rounded a corner when the air in front of me begam to ripple and the heavy coated guy walked out from nowhere.
"What the hell," I heard come out of my mouth.
"Teleportation, one of my specialties," he said and held his hand out towards me. A circle appeared and several sigils begam to form.
"So you're trying to convince me to join your group by teleportation methods? Where are you sending me? The fire realm?"
The circle engulfed me and I found myself at a very lavish location.
"Where are we?"
"This is my home," teleportation guy said.
"Why did you bring me here?"
"To show you what awaits you, riches and a lavish lifestyle," he made a gesture to show his home. I mean it definitely is impressive, a lot of space. Hell, my home could fit into this living room. Silk curtains and over the top decorations. I mean the golden vase was a bit much to be honest.
"Is that the kind of energy I give off?"
"If you join us l, you can have basically anything you want, how isn't Thay worth joining?"
I felt a slight tingle as he said it, I mean he has a point. I wouldn't want for anything."
"It probably would be good."
" Money buys happiness," he said like it was obvious.
"Alright, fine. I'll join your stupid group, let's get back to them and tell them the good news," I waited.
"We won't be able to get back today," he said with a guilty look on his face.
"What do you mean?"
" I cast a big teleportation spell to bring us here, I need to rest to recover the spell energy for it."
"Where is here?"
" We are in Rassan," he said and I felt my eyes widen.
Rassan is the capital city of the neighbouring nation, Nassareen. It would take weeks by horse and a few more weeks by boat to travel here and he did it in less than a minute.
I immediately spotted the front door and decided to take a look.
And I did .
The first thing I noticed when I walked out of the front door, the air, the smells, so many different fragrances that I didn't know but they were so alluring.
Then the sights, so many things to see at once, the buildings were all strange, once covered completely in flowers of different colors while another once had little floating lights, almost like fireflies...maybe they were fireflies. Another building was encased in some kind of reflective material that distorted everything reflected.
" Welcome to Rassan," teleportation guy said and I could feel my obviousness.
"I've only ever read about this or heard about it in others peopes stories," I said looking at a man with round puffy cheeks selling bread at a store window.
"So now that you're here yourself? "
"It's better," I grinned and then noticed people were giving me a look.
Several people had given me a very similar look, like they knew I was not from around here. Was I really being that obvious? I looked around and my eyes fell on the mirror building, the distorted reflection slowly came into focus and I saw myself as I was. Clearly a villager, not a local to the city.
"It's obvious that I'm not from around here," I said and started looking for his home.
"So let's take you shopping to look less like you," he said and raised one of his hands to his his chest. His finger tips started glowing and one by one they would discharge a small light into the air that flew away immediately.
" Klara will make sure we have the funds," he said and pulled out his coin purse.
"I don't get it."
"We each have a coin purse that enters the same pocket dimension. So if Klara puts money in there, then I can just pick it out from here."
"Klara is your treasurer?"