A Fairy Out of Her Tale - Dear Diary - 56. Scene 56

23rd January 1995

Dear Diary of Serial Interruptions,

You probably guessed that it was Lydia knocking on my door earlier. It's just after breakfast now. She kept me busy and entertained all this time...

Luckily for you, she's now off to school, so I have a whole day to tell you about our date without someone else getting on the way. It's now or never, Dear Diary! I'll let the world know what an amazing time my girlfriend and I had! It'll be registered for all eternity, for my children and grandchildren to see, and for the children after them, until your pages crumble to dust and nobody remembers who I am!

(That sounds terrifying and awesome at the same time, don't you think?)

Anyway, Lydia thought we should go explore the city. I know nothing about Enkyo and I've been living here for almost two weeks. She made all those plans to put me on the tour bus and visit all the touristy places at once, like the Enkyo Broadcast Tower and the Statue of Freedom (I don't know what those are, by the way, I'm just telling you what Lydia told me). She talked about panorama views of the city, secret spots where lovers can bless their relationship, and she even said there is a park here somewhere! I was getting really excited about all those things, but the bodyguards killed our fun.

'We cannot allow you to go on an open bus. You would be too easy targets,' one of the bodyguards I didn't know said.

'I understand your need to enjoy each other's company, but you must put your safety first, otherwise this will be your first and last date,' the other unknown bodyguard said. Branjka was the only one who didn't say anything (I'm guessing because she didn't know enough Fadalesh to speak to me directly).

And so, just like that, our options of programmes suffered a more dramatic cut than that of the violinist who had his hand cut off for playing a song the evil king didn't like.

(Sorry for going off in a tangent when you must be dying to learn about my date, but do you know that story about the violinist? It's one of the demon tales adults tell their children to teach them morals and life lessons. It's called The King's Violin and you should definitely look it up. And by that I mean I should probably tell it to you at some point, because obviously books can't go looking for information inside other books. But still. I'm sure there will be an appropriate moment for me to tell you that story.)

Lydia and I ended up going to the movies for our date. As far as romantic plans go, it wasn't too bad. We sat at the far back, in the darkest possible corner, with our bodyguards providing additional cover by sitting in front of us. It was the first time in my life I was glad I couldn't understand a word of what the actors on screen were saying. I don't even remember what the movie was called. And as for plot... what is plot? The only plot we had was Lydia's mouth on mine, my hand up her skirt, and a lot of struggling to keep our voice down.

You get the picture.

(And you probably got the pun too. Love inspires me like that.)

We went to a restaurant after that. The bodyguards went in first, got us a table in a safe corner, and sat at the table next to us. Then they proceeded to pretend we weren't there and seemed to have a lot of fun talking and whispering in their demon language. Lydia reassured me they weren't gossiping about us (I didn't know she spoke demon language until today. And she seems really fluent in it too!), but it was still weird to sit next to people you sort of know are there because of you and make a point of whispering things they know you can't understand. You can call it paranoia if you want, but I still don't like it.

Also, the bodyguards may have been on our side, but at the end of the day, they're still demons. Treacherous, evil, rotten demons. They all are, just ask that poor violinist (I really must tell you that story at some point). I don't know what they're doing going against their nature like that. Maybe they were forced to help us in exchange for something else? I can't think of any other reason a demon would willingly protect other people against their own kin.

Anyway, we were in a "traditional" Daisenian restaurant (as much as shape-shifters do "tradition", anyway. Apparently being able to change their bodies all the time makes them not particularly attached to their past or to a single unique way of doing things for endless generations) and Lydia wanted me to try the local food. She translated the menu and explained to me what the foods were.

'Why would anyone want to eat fish?' I asked after she showed me two whole pages of "foods" made by putting pieces of raw fish on top of rice balls or wrapped inside rice balls. 'It's disgusting! Fish are living beings, you can't kill them for your own interests!'

'I knew I should've skipped that part of the menu...' Lydia sighed. 'I guess you really are a sheltered fairy if you don't know that the rest of the world likes to eat all sorts of meat from animals.'

'I'm not that clueless. The people in the hospital I first arrived in fed me dead animals and my reaction was as bad as Unn's to ice cream.' I noticed Lydia's body going stiff after those particular words. 'Not that I'm going to describe them to you.'

Lydia relaxed again. 'Thanks. And I'm sorry about your experience at the hospital. They're usually more careful about giving people things they can't digest.'

'My point still stands, though. Why would anyone think that eating dead animals is a good idea?'

'We are in a desert nation. While Daisen does have quite a lot of coastline, not everyone lives in places with easy access to open water. Sending fresh fish inland is a challenge, it's expensive, and so it became a symbol of status to many. Daisenians like to eat fish because it makes them feel posh and in control of nature.'

'Nature can't be controlled! And those poor fish! They didn't deserve to die!'

I almost made a scene at the restaurant. What are the people here thinking? Animals and other beings have as much right to life as we do, we can't just kill them because it gives us status!

Though I realise now that this mindset is rare here. You really have to be a protector of nature to understand its beauty and its value.

Fairies respect and cherish every bit of life in this planet. Even plants, who can't move and don't get killed for their flesh, deserve special respect. We always talk to them, take care to understand their personalities and their energy, and only then ask them to provide us with food. And we only do it because we have the ability to make them strong enough to feed us while continuing their natural life cycle. Fairies wouldn't dream of taking more than we need from nature, or of asking for something nature can't give us.

But that's me going on another tangent.

Lydia had to spend a whole five minutes distracting me with kisses before I calmed down enough to look at what they called the "vegetarian" part of the menu, the bit where none of the foods includes dead things. It turned out they had some interesting "salad" made of seaweed, and vegetables covered in a special batter and fried in oil that were absolutely delicious. Lydia and I shared our meals so I could try a little bit of everything (she took the wise decision of not ordering any dead animals around me).

And I'm sure you're not surprised that sharing food also meant sharing a lot of kisses and saliva in the tamest public make out we could manage.

We headed home after that. It was getting really hard to keep our hands to ourselves, and I figured I had seen enough of Enkyo for the day.

I won't insult your intelligence asking if you have any idea of what happened once we crossed the front door.

It was a good date, despite the issues with the food. We didn't get attacked, nobody died, and I could see for myself that my girlfriend is not just the compact embodiment of sexiness, she also makes for great company and has an enchanting personality.

Looks like I managed to talk about the whole date without being interrupted! I was beginning to think it wouldn't hap—

Hold on. Someone's knocking on the door again.

We were so close!