Chapter 7.
"I didn't expect you to use your nails," Erkin said.
Obran, Erkin, and Tomas relaxed in the university atrium, lounging in the afternoon sun.
"I thought it was great," Tomas said. "I've never seen anything like that; you moved so fast."
"Thanks but actually I think she wanted me to fail. The hourglass, the dull knives, and those veggies were practically rotten so I had to improvise. So what's this board that she was talking about?" Obran said.
"Just a fancy way of saying it's who you know not what you know," Tomas said. "Many staff weren't happy to allow non-humans into this school so they may not be happy about letting a gremlin work here too."
"Don't worry. I'll talk to the head of our department. I think he wants to keep me and Tomas happy," Erkin said. "So enjoy your next few days off cause I think she'll work you to the bone once you start washing dishes."
"I can't wait," Obran said.
They chatted a bit more but soon Tomas and Erkin returned to class and Obran decided to head home. It had been a busy day: he'd met a princess, toured the city, made friends with a human, and a gnome, and passed his job interview. Obran felt he needed a rest.
The next few days Obran returned to his regular routine. He thought about returning to the capital to explore the city and campus and to make stew for Zico like he promised but he knew his best chance to see Victoria was for her to return to the gremlin forest. How could he ever find her in Roma? Besides, he somehow felt that she would come back. He'd seen her twice; maybe she wouldn't forget him and wanted to see him too.
"All my stew goes perfect with brew," he sang.
Obran had spent three days singing all the songs he'd learned as a boy in the gremlin lands as well as those he'd learned in the army, hoping the princess might hear him and find him again. What if she was lost that first time we met? Should I look for her on the main road? Should I wait by the main gate? No, he didn't want to scare her off or arouse suspicion from the guards or her centurion companions. So for three days he sang with each song sounding sadder as time went on. He spent as much time as he could in his garden and at night he fixed the gremlin hole as best he could. He expanded the entrance so even a bulky dwarf could enter it and he cleaned and organized the place too. Of course he told Erkin it was for Tomas but he knew his brother was too smart to believe that. Luckily, his brother left him alone, going to school everyday and returning late, telling him there was no news about his job but that he'd keep asking about it.
Finally, on the fourth day, while gardening and singing, he heard a horse slowly coming towards him from behind; it was almost to the minute from when he'd met Victoria a few days earlier. That's if Erkin and Toma's watch was to be believed.
"Have you been waiting for me?" the princess said.
Obran turned and put on his best gremlin smile, trying to seem as casual as he could. Victoria wore a simple red tunic dress and belt but still looked more radiant than he remembered. The forest feels more alive with her here, he thought.
"Oh, hello," Obran said. "Are you lost?"
Victoria smiled. "I'd hoped you'd remember me."
"Uhm...I do," Obran said.
Obran looked around but Victoria was alone again. He still didn't understand why a noblewoman, especially a royal, would be alone outside the city.
"But weren't you with some centurions the last time I saw you?" Obran said.
"Oh them, I enjoy losing my minders sometimes. It's not too hard and they seem hesitant to come inside your forest; I don't understand why. I think it's so tranquil here, nothing like the city," she said.
"Yes, it's a nice place for us gremlins," Obran said.
"I know mister gremlin. Humans are not allowed here unless invited so I was hoping to make a new friend. Please don't have me arrested for trespassing," she said with a smile.
Obran didn't feel as nervous as he thought he would be; her voice was kind and soothing and though he was still unsure about her motivations he figured she was worth the risk.
"Okay, you are welcome in our forest and my home but I will be forced to escort you and be your new minder while you are here," Obran teased.
"Thank you, mister gremlin," she said. "Don't worry I won't bother you too much if you are busy."
"No, it's fine...I'm not busy," Obran said, thinking she might leave. "I was just tending my garden."
Obran had collected a basketful full of weeds, potatoes, onions and garlic.
"It's a fine garden," she said.
"Thank you. I try my best," Obran said.
He was indeed proud since it was easily the best garden in the forest.
"So do you take rides everyday?"
"Not that often but they allow me to get away from the city and the castle every now and then," she said.
"But why would you want to? I thought you would live in luxury there?"
Wasn't that the dream of every noble patrician.
"I am not lacking for anything and most people here are kind to me but they are still not my family and not my countrymen so it's not the same as back home."
"I heard you are from Carthagio," Obran said.
"Is it that obvious?" she said.
"Not just that; I can telI by the way you speak, your accent. I fought in the war."
Victoria had a slight Carthagio accent but the way she spoke made it hard to guess where she was exactly from. She could pass for Greek, Carthaginian, Minoan, even Babylonian. Obran hoped that it wasn't too uncomfortable to mention the war. It was a subject he barely spoke about, not even with Erkin.
"Seems like everyone fought in the war. That doesn't make me or my people very popular with some people here. I hope it's not a problem?"
"No, not at all," Obran.
During the war he never felt there was much of a difference between the humans from Roma or Carthagio. They both fought for land, treasure, and slaves, and he'd seen cruelty on both sides. It was just the way humans were. He just happened to be born in northern Italia but Obran really just fought for his own freedom and for the freedom of all gremlins.
"So that's why you get to live here in the gremlin forest, because you fought in the war?"
"Yes," Obran said. "I live here with my brother now."
"May I know your name now, mister gremlin?" Victoria said.
"Oh sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. My name is Obran."
"Nice to meet you, Obran. My name's Victoria Barca but my friends call me Tori. I was hoping we could have had a proper introduction the other day but you dashed off so quickly. I didn't even know gremlins were so fast."
Obran's cheeks turned pale green; he was still trying to forget that incident.
"Sorry, I thought maybe you were bait for slavers," Obran said.
"I hope I don't look like a slaver or a criminal," she said.
"Not at all," Obran said. "You just seemed so out of place."
In fact Tori looked like everything he imagined a princess would look like.
"I'm not a slaver but I guess I am a slave of sorts," she said.
"What? All slaves are free now in the kingdom," Obran said, not sure if he believed it himself.
"A hostage then. I really shouldn't say I'm a slave considering how slaves are treated in this world. But I'm happy there is no slavery here, that the King abolished it. Let's just say I'm a peace offering then," Tori said.
"I hope it works. I wouldn't want another war."
Tori got off her horse. She was not tall for a human female but was still over a foot taller than Obran. She bent down and gently stroked the weeds in the garden.
"I hope I don't bore you with my sad story," Tori said.
"It's okay. We all have sad stories," Obran said.
"But tell me about you. Do you come to the city often? I haven't seen any gremlins there," Tori said.
"There's some there but I'm guessing they mostly come out at night," Obran said. "And I doubt they'd be allowed in the inner sanctum."
"Does the light bother you? I never believed those stories that gremlins melted in the sunlight," Tori said.
"It doesn't harm us, we just have to get used to it. I could go to the city anytime, day or night, but I just don't go often," Obran said.
"Seeing how beautiful your garden and forest is, I understand. The god's only know how I miss the sea," Tori said.
"I've never seen the sea," Obran said.
"It's the most beautiful thing in the world," Tori said.
"Maybe I'll see it one day but for now I may end up a city rat as well," Obran said.
"I wish I could get into trouble hanging out in the city but what do you mean city rat?" she said.
"I mean, I'm hoping to get a job at the university; to work in the kitchen there since I'm kind of a cook. I'm just waiting on their approval."
"Really, you cook? I'd love to try gremlin food," she said. "Your ingredients all look great."
Victoria now gently touched all his plants and even the soil. Oh, to be a plant now, Obran thought.
"I'm just self taught but it would be an honor to cook for you," Obran said.
"I wanted to study at the university," Tori said. "I asked the king to let me but he said women were not allowed and I couldn't persuade him. So I get to ride outside the city instead."
"My younger brother studies in the university; he wants to be an engineer," Obran said.
"Did you try to enroll?"
"Me? No....no, I don't think university is for me. But what do you want to study?
"A bit of everything, I think. My people are great mariners so maybe I'd start with astronomy and astrology but really I'd study anything," Tori said.
"Hmm."
During the war Obran had been amused when Roman generals consulted soothsayers and fortune tellers who claimed to tell the future by reading the stars, or animal entrails, or worse: bird flights.
"Are you cooking those today?" Tori said.
Tori glanced at the weeds and vegetables he'd collected.
"Yeah, I was going to prepare breakfast for me and my brother."
"Have you ever thought of planting flowers; It would make your garden look more homely and you have lots of room," Tori said.
"They don't taste so good," Obran said. "And I'm not much of a decorator."
"I could bring you some to plant but you have to promise not to eat them," she teased.
"Ok, I won't eat them; you have my word," Obran said.
"And I hope you always keep it," she said.
Obran blushed again, his face turning a light green.
"The garden in the inner keep has a wide assortment of flowers and plants," Tori said. "I go there to read sometimes. Back home I lived by the sea so I'm still getting used to living away from it and that Tiber river is quite a mess."
"There is a pond and a brook nearby, much cleaner than the Tiber; some gremlins fish there. It's pretty nice if you want to see it."
"That sounds lovely, maybe next time you could give me a tour of the forest and of your home."
"It's just a gremlin hole, nothing fancy." Obran said.
"I'm sure it is lovely," Tori said.
"Are there really no gremlins in Carthagio?" Obran said.
Obran thought gremlins lived in most parts of the world.
"No...lots of gnomes, just like here, dwarves too. I've also met some elves but never gremlins. Oh, I met some giants once in our southern desert."
"Cool," Obran said; he'd never seen a giant.
"Obran, I can ask about your job. The chancellor of the university is often at court, usually with several professors too. The King is quite the scholar and intellectual as I'm sure you know."
Obrank knew; The king was often called "The Philosopher King".
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Obran said.
"I know but let me help. It'll give me something to do besides my rides and reading alone in the garden."
"Okay. I would be grateful, your highness," Obran said.
"But you have to call me Tori, okay, promise."
"Okay, Tori, thank you."
"I should go, Obran, so it's okay that I come next week?" Tori said.
"Oh? I thought you took rides everyday?"
Obran didn't want to wait so long to see her again.
"Yes but I promised the King not to go outside the walls too often; he seems worried lately," Tori said. "I was hoping to go to the central market. I've yet to go there. They say the street food there is the real food of the kingdom."
"It is...it is," Obran said. "I know a gnome there, his name is Zico. I told him I'd make him some weed stew in return for some fairy dust he gave me. I planned to go this week."
"Fairy dust!" she said. "You have some interesting friends."
"I'm starting to notice," Obran said.
"Would you want to meet for lunch there?" Tori said. "Maybe the day after tomorrow. I'll have news about your job by then."
"Sure, it's a gnome stand located on the eastern end, in the back row."
"I'll find it if you are there. But I should go back now," Tori said. "It's not easy to get here on horseback."
Tori mounted her horse.
"So I'll see you the day after tomorrow, at noon at the gnome stand," Obran said.
"Okay Obran, It's a date," she said.
Obran's ears perked up. He stared at her as she rode away.
What the hell just happened, he thought.
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