[Warm, Expectation]
Arthur returned with a glass of the IPA for me and a dwarven ale for himself, the barmaids didn’t care that he was the Burgomaster and Nim’s husband, the rule was that humans get the dwarven ale in a small glass, not a mug.
The IPA tasted good, maybe even great for beer, but it still wasn’t my cup of tea, in fact I’d much prefer a cup of tea. But everyone else certainly seemed to be enjoying whichever of the brew they’d chosen. Seeing how nice this party was, I suddenly felt bad for Ruby and Salome that we hadn’t thought to throw a grand opening party for them as well.
Lu finished the song she was singing and came over to give me a kiss and say hello to the Burgomaster.
“Lu, the only bad thing about the pub is how far it is from the town hall. I wish I could come here everyday for lunch, as it is I’ll have to arrange to be down in this section of town for business as often as possible.”
“You’ll be very welcome, Arthur, and you get a discount as your wife is a partner.”
“Speaking of her, I better find her and tell her how much I like the new brews, that fresh water spring she found makes the best beer I’ve ever tasted.
Paula got up on the little stage, cleared her throat loudly. Then shouted “Welcome everyone and thank you for coming. I’m not going to make a speech but I have a few thank you’s. First we wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for Grandmaster Brightspark, when he approached me with the idea of buying the building, I wasn’t sure of what to do. But after talking it over with my partners it became obvious we wanted to brew the best beer in any of the worlds and we wanted a food item that could warm and cheer anyone no matter how badly Fortuna had treated them. So if you see someone down on their luck send them in for a mug and a bowl. Cheers to Sparky.”
Everyone applauded and looked at Sparky, who was shoving a huge hunk of bread dipped in soup into his mouth. He gave a closed mouth smile and waved to everyone.
Lu said “You look so beautiful, Rose.”
“Oh Lu, so do you, I hope you’re wearing that hat to bed tonight.”
“I’ll wear anything you’d like.”
“How about just the hat.”
“Alright you naughty girl.”
“Who’s a naughty girl?” asked Paula.
I blushed redder than my cloak.
Paula said, “Ah there she is blushing beet red. Shame on you Rose, talking about sex when there are children around.”
Which only made me blush deeper. Just then McCracken, Gigi, Maz and Groucho arrived.
Maz and Groucho walked over. “Paula, Maz gave me your book last night, I stayed up all night reading it. You are as bad ass as my friend Jaq.”
“Thanks Groucho, I’m glad that you liked it.”
Then Eldara joined us. “Groucho, I have to talk to you.”
“Sure Eldara, Italian or English.”
“English, I talked to the Burgomaster after you read to the kids the other day. I told him just how great you were with the kids and he found some money in the budget for a part time children's librarian. Not only would you do story time but you’d help kids find the books that interest them.”
“Well in a couple of months my friends are going on another adventure and I have to help them. Maz what do you think?”
“Groucho, I’ll miss you in the lab but this may be the only place in any world that will accept you for just who you are. I think you should stay until they need you to go back into the tower. Then after that adventure you decide for yourself, just where you feel the most comfortable.”
“Rose, can I stay with you and Lu and Draco in the tower until you are ready to do the sequel?”
“Needless to say, Groucho, we'd love to have you, I can jump you home any time you want to see your friends. Lu and I are going to Tregaron for a writers retreat. We also have portal muffins, just summon a portal demon and you can be home in seconds just like me jumping you. You too, Maz, we can set up another room for you to use as a lab if you like.”
McCracken and Gigi came over.
“Nathan, I’m getting a part time job at the library, so if you can find two more Marx Brothers I’m in.”
“Yes we definitely can, we started this theater to teach kids so you working at the library will help with recruiting efforts too. We can even pay you a small stipend to teach, once we perform our first play. Our only revenue is generated from the snack bar, but that should be one hundred percent profit since the food is free.”
I didn’t get to speak to Lu alone for the rest of the night. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the beer I’d had, the opposite could be said for the soups. The cream of mushroom was the single best bowl of soup I’ve had in my life. I found the chef Gunay Conti and told her how much I’d liked all her soup’s but especially the mushroom. She told me that Lily had gathered the mushrooms for the soup herself when she was out gathering for magical items early this morning.
“Lily, I just spoke to Gunay and she said you are responsible for the mushroom soup, like I told Gunay it is the best soup I’ve ever had. I’d probably order it everyday if I could.”
“Whenever you want a bowl just come into the kitchen at the bakery, it’s my favorite too and the pot will never run out. Thanks for putting up the transportation network today. Why didn’t you use it tonight to come to the pub?”
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“I wouldn’t jump into your store when you are closed without permission.”
“Rose, honey you are always welcome at the bakery. If you wake up in the middle of the night and crave mushroom soup, jump right on over and have a bowl. Alright?”
“Thanks Lily, I will.”
“It’ll be great not having to walk home after having a few too many wines at book club, I just touch a drawing and I’m back in my kitchen. Opal is really a talented magician.”
“She is, and a sweet one too, I’m so glad she and Ruby stuck around.”
“Yeah between her and Salome, we now have a teahouse and a brew pub, none of that would have happened if those girls hadn’t dreamed up the teahouse magical expansion.”
Lottie came over and joined us.
“Lottie, if you need anything for the clinic I’m happy to jump you to wherever you want to get supplies and I’ll author as many of whatever you’d like as well.”
“Thanks Rose, I think we have everything we need to open. It’ll probably just take me a few days to move all the stuff in, and get it set up before I take my first patients.”
Orin walked in, saw Lottie and headed our way.
“Doc, there’s been an accident at the site. Could you please come take a look at the gnome who was hurt.”
“Yes of course, let me grab my instruments.”
Then they rushed out, Lu came over and grabbed my hand and we followed.
“But Lu your party you should stay.”
“No, maybe I can help with something, carrying, lifting, nothing medical of course. Half the reason for the brew pub is to help people, so let’s go help people.”
“Ah, Lu, I love you, you are absolutely the best person I know in any world.”
We arrived right behind, Orin, Lottie and Lily.
“Fred the human assigned to this team misread one of the gnome signals and pulled on a section of the wall that the gnome wanted him to push on The wall collapsed on both of them, but Fred got up and was fine, it was the gnome who took the brunt of the damage.”
Lottie was examining the patient and frantically trying to stop the bleeding from multiple locations on the body.
“This is the exact kind of injury that we need the trauma room and a trained assistant for. There is not much I can do.”
“Lottie I have and idea, trust me. I touched both the gnome and Lottie and we jumped to Maz’s lab at Tregaron. I paused the Gnome, bleeding, breathing everything on the gnome paused. Go ahead Lottie, I don’t know a nurse but Maz is a doctor of zoology, I’ll go get him, just continue on with your patient. I’ll be back shortly. ”
I jumped back to Lu, “We need Maz to act as a nurse for Lottie.”
Lu and I ran back to the brew pub, I was so out of breath when I got to Maz, I couldn’t talk so I just jumped him to his lab.
“Rose what’s going… has that gnome died?”
“Hi I’m Dr Lottie Li, Maz I need a nurse and you are our best hope. A wall collapsed on this Gnome and he was bleeding out, until Rose jumped us here and put this Gnome on pause, bleeding stopped, all bodily functions stopped. Rose said she can unpause him but first I need to patch him up. I’ll stitch up the minor wounds, but I need an operating room. If Rose sees a picture she can create it. Then have her write that everything is sterile. Rose please write a twenty by twenty sterile room. Ok you two get to it.”
Maz pulled up image after image on his computer, I duplicated them inside the sterile room. Finally Maz said he thought we had everything.
Lottie asked, “Rose, can the Gnome feel pain, when he’s paused?”
“No Lottie, everything is paused.”
“Rose, can you turn him into a human?”
“Yes, I think so, if I can pause him I should be able to as long as we are in my fictional world. Do you want me to try it? This is all my fault, because I didn’t want the human carpenters punished now one of the Gnomes might die.”
“He’s not going to die, I’m one of the best surgeons on Earth, you are going to make him human and keep him paused until I repair all the damage, then you’ll unpause him and we’ll give him blood to make up for what he lost. Then you’ll turn him back into a Gnome. You already saved his life by jumping us here and pausing him. I take it that you can’t pause people in Wyldwood.”
“No, only in fictional worlds, worlds I create work the best.”
“Alright Rose, transform him into a human”
So I did, then Lottie and Maz wheeled him into the sterile room. After about an hour Lottie yelled for me to unpause him for five seconds then pause him again. Which I did. Then about an hour later Lottie and Maz came out and asked me to unpause him. Color came back into his face, right away and Lottie was listening to his heart and lungs. A bag of blood was dripping into his body to make up for the blood he’d lost.
“Lottie is he going to be alright?”
“Yes he will be fine, oh god Ryan I left him alone at the brew pub.”
“Lily or Ruby will take care of him, don’t worry, but I’ll jump back right now, and check on him and tell the others that the Gnome will be alright. And find out what his name is. It’s racist just referring to him as the Gnome.”
“Rose while you were saving his life, I’ll bet you not once did he think you were being racist. Now go make sure my son is being taken care of and get back here.”
