Amber sat in the wagon seat with Ena sitting beside her. Ena's arms were crossed, she had a scowl on her face, and her bottom lip was sticking out dejectedly. She wanted to sit on Amber's shoulder while they rode to pick up Nova. Amber had to explain to her that she wasn't being rejected, Amber just didn't think that it would be a good idea if it looked like the carriage was going down the road with no driver.
"Can you extend your invisibility out to conceal the entire covered wagon?"
Ena looked up at Amber with watery eyes and her lower lip quivering. [No.]
"There you have it then," Amber said.
Ena looked down and lowered her hands into her lap. [If I can get my invisibility shadow large enough to cover our transportation too, can I sit on your shoulder when we travel in the future?]
Amber reached over and gently patted the little pixie's head while holding onto the reins with her other hand. "Absolutely."
Ena grinned excitedly with determination shining in her eyes. [I'll do it then!]
Amber lightly chuckled as they continued to travel down the road. At least she was motivated, even if the source of her motivation is a little odd.
[We're almost there. Just go down to the end of this main street and then turn left. After that, we need to go five more blocks and then we'll be at the Vermilion Pavilion.]
They traveled in silence as Amber thought about what to expect when they reached their destination and Ena made plans to strengthen her magic. The more Amber praised her, the more she realized how much she enjoys the attention, but she will never admit it. Let Amber just wonder if she's liked! Ena stuck her nose up in the air and glanced sideways at Amber. Perhaps not being alone and being appreciated will be rather nice? Shadow Pixie's are known to be one of the more solitary pixies, because they tend to be territorial loners. She rarely even sees her twin brothers and half sister. That's why it's so incredibly rare for one to attach itself to a master. It's just as well, otherwise everyone would try to catch one if they knew the benefits of acquiring a shadow pixie as a familiar.
Amber parked the wagon at the end of the street, near a large tree that obscured its view. She put on her backpack and climbed out of the wagon. As Amber's feet touched the sidewalk, Ena flew up and landed on her shoulder. Then the two of them disappeared into thin air. She walked down the sidewalk until she stood in front of the Vermilion Pavilion.
It looked like a large two story old Japanese style building. It had a red tiled roof and long silk curtains hanging from the porch, which were slightly floating on the warm night breeze. The light scent of the surrounding flowers drifted in the air. The beautiful architecture sat between the light pink petals of two cherry trees. With the backdrop of the star filled night behind it and the paper lanterns hanging from the porch, it really was a beautiful scene. She sighed in happiness, while looking at the building and experienced a tinge of regret that she couldn't admire it longer. Beautiful architecture was definitely one of her weaknesses.
A rowdy drunken man disrupted Amber's momentary peace when he stumbled out of the front door dragging a woman by her waist. His short brown hair was sticking up in all directions and his face was flushed. His white shirt had a large yellow stain on the front and he was wearing a pair of brown pants.
The woman had copper colored hair and dark chocolate brown eyes. She was wearing a cream colored wrap dress with white embellishments. She had an ivory hair ornament stick, with a red tassel, barely holding her hair up. The neckline of her dress had been pulled on, revealing the top of her cleavage, and exposing one of her milky white shoulders. She was quite short, with a delicate bone structure, a cute little face and had sad looking eyes. The top of her head only reached Amber's shoulders.
She flinched away from the man's rough hold on her waist, but he just tightened his grip on her and pinched her butt fiercely. She yelped at the sudden shock of pain and tried to retreat. He grabbed hold of the back of her head and pushed his mouth onto hers, sloppily kissing her on the lips. Her face turned green as he shoved his tongue into her mouth and burped.
Amber looked at the scene with lowered eyelids and pinched lips. She strode up to the two of them and grabbed hold of the back of the drunken man's shirt and pulled back on it. He instinctively flung his arms out to catch his balance, releasing the copper haired woman. She scampered out of his reach before he could regain his balance and ran back into the building.
Amber smirked and then pulled back on his shirt harder. The railing of the porch pushed against the middle of his back and he flipped over the railing. He landed in a flower bed below. The force of the fall winded him. He laid there before turning onto his side and throwing up in the delicate white flowers around him.
Amber wiped off her hands onto one of the red curtains and walked back to the front double doors, slipping inside the building. As she enters, a wave of cheap perfume assails her nostrils and she fights to not loudly sneeze.
She looked out over the large room. In front of her, was a white marble reception desk that somewhat reminds Amber of an egg. Along the walls of the room were several arched doorways leading other smaller rooms, about the size of thirty by thirty cubes. Each one of the arched doorways had thick red curtains hanging from them.
Sitting on a raised platform, to the right of the entryway, was a young beautiful woman with long curly dark brown hair that had honey colored highlights. She looked straight ahead with sad looking sightless eyes. Her long delicate brown fingers danced across a quin while tears trickled down her cheeks. She was clearly blind, but she was playing an incredibly intricate and somewhat haunting melody. Without needing to see, her music touched Amber more than anything else she's ever heard.
In the back of the main room, to the left of the desk, was a tube elevator like the one at the hotel, but smaller. There were beautiful lights across the entirety of the ceiling that looked like the night sky. In the back of the room, was a large window that took up a third of the back wall. Part of the window became double doors and opened out to a beautiful walled garden behind the building.
In the garden was a large gazebo, in the middle of a koi pond, that had water lilies floating on its surface. A bridge from the main building was over the koi pond reaching to the large gazebo in the center of the pond. There were beautiful carvings of cherry blossoms in the wood. Twinkling lights hung from the gazebo and from the blooming cherry trees in the garden. Around the bottom of the trees were white flowers. Around the edge of the garden were lounges with thick red curtains hanging from them to give privacy. To the side of the koi pond, was a warm bubbling pool that had a fountain in the center of it.
Women dressed like the copper haired woman, walked around the main room carrying drinks on serving trays. While men wearing red masks that covered the upper half of their faces wandered around the room as if they were perusing fine art to purchase. Amber could tell by the quality of their clothing that these were not typical men. As she watched, one of the men grabbed hold of a serving woman and pulled her into one of the empty rooms. She set the tray down on a side table, near the round lounge bed, while he closed the thick red curtains.
Sitting behind the egg shaped desk, was a thin man in a light gray robe with leering dark gray eyes. He licked his thin lips as Amber approached the desk. "Haven't seen hair or curves like yours in a while," he said.
Amber looked down and saw that some of her shiny tinsel-like silver hair had slipped out from her hooded robe and was resting against her ankle.
"I need to see your manager," Amber said while looking back up at him.
"Ah, but does he need to see you? Are you trying to work here? Because all new girls need to be interviewed first, to see if they have the type of qualifications that we're looking for." He smirked at Amber and looked her up and down.
His eyes rudely lingered on the curves of her chest and hips. "I could take you to one of the private rooms above to start out your interview process."
"My business here has nothing to do with you. Where's your manager?" Amber said.
He chuckled. "Well seeing as the manager is busy getting ready to try out a new girl he brought in tonight, you'll just have to wait. It's not like you can go up there by yourself, you need to have clearance to even use the elevating tube."
"Is that so? Then I suppose I will take you up on your offer," said Amber.
A greedy gleam shone in the lanky man's eyes. He quickly stood up and walked around the desk to stand in front of Amber. He gestured towards the elevating tube with his arm while a sleazy grin appeared on his lips. "After you."
Amber walked ahead of the man towards the tube. She could feel his eyes lingering on her behind. A creepy chill traveled up her back. Once she walked into the tube, it took all of her willpower to make room for him to follow in after her. Then the sides of the tube closed and trapped her into the tight space with him. His breathing increased in the enclosed space that was only big enough for three people to get in, if they are squeezing in closely. It was only a third of the width of the tube in the hotel.
Amber could feel his hot breath and hear his breathing increase as he became more excited. Little particles of saliva from his open mouth mist onto her. Her stomach turned over when he leaned in. The smell of poor oral hygiene, body odor, sweaty butt crack, and rotten feet assail her senses. Her stomach was painfully cramped and her nose stung. She leaned away from him and swallowed several times, trying to prevent herself from throwing up.
[This dirty and disgusting man! I should skin him alive for looking at my master like that!]
Ena was standing next to Amber's feet looking at the smelly man. She glared up at him menacingly and huffed indignantly. Then her wings beat furiously while she started ascending with purpose.