Chương 39: Wedding

Ch 39. Wedding John stepped out of the bathroom freshly cleaned and dried with his hair styled backward and walked toward the bedroom where he saw Andressa starting to get dressed in a black formal dress with flared sleeves and a lot of golden ornamentation. It was beautiful, and he was certain it would be even more beautiful once she had it on. He'd had a few questions when he'd seen the black dress, but apparently weddings in Lendaria had different rules from those back home.

That made sense, and he'd attended more than a few diverse events in Avalon including an orcish wedding that had required him to engage in some bloodletting that he hadn't enjoyed very much, but this seemed like it would be a slightly more normal, at least to him, event. He moved over to his wardrobe and opened the doors to find that an island of black had taken up residence in the sea of green suits he wore day to day. He frowned as he reached for a garment bag he didn't recognize and unzipped it.

Within he found a beautiful burgundy three piece suit with minotaur horn buttons and a lining made of elven silk. He ran a finger along the fabric, finding it textured, but soft as he did so. He looked back at Andressa who was smiling at him.

"I wanted to get you a little something for the wedding. I thought you could surprise everyone by being in something other than green," she said with a smile.

"It's beautiful," he replied, looking at it again.

"It must've been expensive though."" Extremely," she replied. He frowned as he looked at her and she laughed.

"You buy me breakfast and lunch every day we work together, and dinner most nights now too. Coin wasn't a problem." He turned back to it.

"So, are you going to try it on or what?" He laughed a bit and moved the suit to lay it on the bed, grabbing his nicest white shirt to pair with it and a dark blue tie with a subtle floral pattern. He buttoned the shirt, slid on the pants, buckled his belt, tied his tie, slipped on his vest and finally placed on the jacket. As he fastened the midline button he looked back at Andressa.

"So?" She was practically gnawing on a long nail with half lidded eyes as she looked him up and down.

"I'd say red's a good color on you." He found himself blushing a bit. He was used to a flirty or appreciative look here and there, but he'd only rarely been regarded as a piece of meat.

"I'll go take a look in the mirror," he said walking toward the bathroom. He looked into the mirror for a moment, finding that he agreed with Andressa. A deep enough shade of red didn't clash with his complexion or hair at all. He straightened his tie with a smile, and felt the corners of his mouth droop just a bit. Deja Vu. He remembered looking at himself in the mirror the first time he'd tried on the suit Katrina had gotten him too. He sighed and shook his head. No reason to let that wear on him.

He was happy, about to see three patients get married with a beautiful woman on his own arm. He walked out of the bathroom and smiled at Andressa who, of course, looked even more beautiful in the dress than he'd expected her to.

"You look even more beautiful in that dress than I expected you to." If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. She took a few steps toward him and they kissed.

"Should we get going? I'm worried if we stay any longer we'll just spend the whole day admiring one another." He laughed.

"Yeah, let's go." They stepped out of the apartment, locking it, and walked down the steps and out onto the street. It was a relatively clear day with a cool breeze blowing down the street. Lendaria may have had different weather when they arrived, so John had brought a cooling stone and an overcoat just in case. Andressa would be fine unless the cold was particularly extreme, though John would be dead in that case so there would be other problems to worry about.

As they got their bearings a beautiful carriage arrived in front of them. It looked to be made of porcelain, the white paint and smoothness of it was so fine. A coachman wearing a bright white uniform with golden brocade leapt from behind two pure white stallions and bowed as he landed. He had a tremendous mustache and a smile so wide it could only be fake.

"Honored Guests of Princess Grailia, I am here to take you to the palace for the grand wedding of the princess and her consorts. My name is Bernard De la Renta." John smiled.

"Thank you for taking us."

"Of course," he stepped toward the carriage and opened the door, bowing again. John helped Andressa up the steps, then walked in behind her. The inside of the carriage was as opulent as the outside, with gold colored cushioning that was so plush John wasn't sure he'd be able to remove himself from it. Once they were both settled they watched Avalon pass by through the windows.

John preferred to walk so he wasn't used to seeing the city this way, but it was a nice change of pace to actually see the minotaurs, dragonkin, cyclops, ogres, and other larger citizens of Avalon at eye level for a change. It took them nearly an hour to get to the edge of the city and out one of the gates that led out. There were usually four, but sometimes extra ones would crop up and let things in or out.

Once they were out of the city and on the road the carriage picked up the pace, no longer constrained by the heavy city traffic. After almost another hour, things got strange. Avalon was a city between worlds, one that linked thousands of them together. Some people could simply walk from their world to Avalon. Others, like John's fellow Earthlings, usually had to travel to it from a connection between since Earth was very far from Avalon cosmically.

Lendaria was very close to Avalon, but that didn't mean it was a straight shot. As the carriage moved the world outside the window began to shift. The sky began to gain colors it didn't have before, the clouds becoming flat and mishapen, then the woods that surrounded them slowly seemed to fade away until there was only nothingness on either side of the road they were on.

As the world outside the carriage shifted, John's head began to pound and ache, the physical and mental strain of a body shifting dimensions tended to mean he'd need some acetaminophen after he was through. Eventually the madness around them began to settle. A world began to reappear on either side of the road next to them, the sky became bright and blue, and the clouds reinflated to being fluffy and mostly white with a few an odd shade of green for some reason.

John looked out the window at this new world and saw that their solidly paved road had changed to cobblestone and the traffic of myriad races and magical means of transport had changed to the more basic races of humans, elves, and a smattering of dwarves and half-folk. Instead of dragonriders in the sky, there were only birds, and the flying carriages and skeletal mounts had shifted to horses, mules, and donkeys.

"It's a bit drab, isn't it?" asked Andressa.

"Definitely a bit simpler than we're used to. Is Hell closer to this or Avalon?"

"Avalon, definitely. Demons come in far more colors, and there are just as many wagons being dragged by the damned as there are by winged mounts."

"Sounds charming," replied John dryly. She shrugged.

"Maybe not charming, there's a reason I moved away, but more interesting to look at than this? Certainly."

"Fair enough. If I looked out this window and realized it was a man in a horse costume pulling a wagon I'd certainly be entertained. Afraid and confused, but entertained." The carriage pulled them steadily along for around twenty minutes before other royal carriages began to come into view. John moved over to where Andressa was to look out the front window, jumping a bit when her tail poked him in the back. Outside the window he was able to see Grailia's palace.

He squinted as the sunlight hitting the white marble made it almost impossible to make out any of its distinguishing features aside from that it was large and very pointy. They seemed to be only about ten minutes away based on the pace they were moving.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Absolutely. Few places better to feed than weddings." He frowned at her.

"And I also want to support Grailia, Zak, and Carol of course. I can do both."