The Tales Of Titonus: The Realm Long Forgotten |Page 2|

“Okay, quit saying the house part and just call me Augustin. In addition, it sounded like an appropriate moniker since I didn’t know what your name was.” I exhaled a long, deep, unidentified breath after I had said the last word of my statement. “I’m grateful you explained things to me, and from now on and for all future generations, I’ll just call you Augustin.” She revealed yet another trait about herself in just that one sentence, which irritated me. “I assume you want me to assist you in traveling to the Earthly Gateway as well.” How does Crystal manage to always know everything I’m thinking, even after only two and a half hours of getting to know her? Her actions don’t actually display much emotion, now that I think about it. Good thing I reserved two rooms at the bar in advance. When she finished speaking, she threw me a tiny metal key, which I just almost grabbed. I glanced down at the key, but when I looked back up, Crystal had already begun to enter the tavern. Crystal could walk very quickly for a pixie with what appeared to be undamaged, totally functional wings. She moved back to the tavern’s bar, where we had been just an hour and a half earlier, moving so quickly that I found it difficult to keep up with her. “Four shots of fizzeler and two cups of cidercloud, please.” I heard her request when I caught up to her and let out a gentle giggle. As a fizzeler is one of the stronger drinks, it also fizzes in your mouth as you’re sipping it. Cidercloud has the same effects as any alcoholic beverage, but it’s made primarily of apple cider and usually fills the empty space in the glass with a fog-like mist. Crystal turns to face me and looks me in the eye as the bartender leaves to retrieve our drinks. “I think we should try to leave by five in the morning so that we don’t get caught in the crowd of people that floods the streets of this town,” she says. Despite the fact that I was nodding in agreement with what she had stated, her expression remained expressionless. Before returning to serve someone farther down the bar wearing a brown cloak and hood, the bartender came back over to us and sat our drinks down on the bar counter. When I turned around, Crystal had already finished both of her fizzeler shots and had begun to drink her cup of cidercloud. I, on the other hand, have never really been the type of young man to partake in strong liquor, so I began to drink my cup of cidercloud. Soon enough, we were both fairly exhausted, but I was the first to go to my room to get ready for bed. I gently opened the door and paid attention to every floorboard creak, wind howl, and intoxicated person downstairs laughing.  Although it wasn’t unusual for a chamber to be nothing more than a big trap, this one felt secure enough. The room was a respectable size, the bed could accommodate a dragonling, and there was a large enough mirror by the window so that you could see your entire reflection. Before going to bed, I made the decision to check out my mirror. I don’t care if I come out as a perfectionist or whatever, but I feel fairly irritated when stuff on me is a mess. My chocolate-brown hair was a mess. Islabeth used to make fun of me by telling me that my asymmetrical horns were the reason I behaved the way I did.

However, perhaps this isn’t the best moment to consider the past. I don’t need much time once I’m in bed to nod off and begin dreaming. The identical dreams that Islabeth and I used to share persisted for a whole week after Islabeth’s disappearance. I tried to get Islabeth to tell me what had happened and where she had gone for the entire week, but she continuously seemed to try to distract my attention with something else. However, when we finished talking about our dreams, I began to dream about a location that was unquestionably not Titonus. Tonight was no different; in the dream, I awoke on a beach, but the sand was yellow instead of the usual black

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