“I’ve spoken to Captain Caril, and he said all is set,” she tells them. “They’ll be leaving at first light.”
“Good,” exclaims Jiron. “Though I’ve enjoyed the hospitality of your house, I am anxious to return and find my sister.”
“Yes,” chimes in James, “you and your family have been most gracious in allowing us to stay here with you.”
She turns a warm smile to James as she says, “It is the least we can do for having our Nate back. I had given up all hope of ever seeing my son again.”
“Miko will be going with us as well,” he tells her. “I told him of your offer to have him stay here, but his mind is set to continue with us.”
“That’s too bad,” she says, “Nate has grown awfully fond of him. We all have to tell the truth, he’s a good lad.”
“Yes he is,” agrees James.
She begins to leave but pauses and turns back toward them, saying, “We’re having a banquet tonight in your honor, to send you off properly. I took the liberty of arranging for suitable attire to be brought to your rooms later this afternoon.”
“Thank you lady,” James says to her graciously.
“You’re welcome,” she replies as she again turns and makes her way out of the atrium the way she’d come in.
James turns to Jiron and says, “You’d better stay away from Miriam until we leave.”
“I don’t intend to do anything with her,” he assures him. “Truth to tell, she was the one who found me. I was sitting here just relaxing when she shows up and starts talking to me. Before I even knew it, she had me relating the tale of our escape from Al-Kur.”
“Be that as it may,” he says, “we’re not out of here yet and an angry mother can screw up our way back to Cardri.”
“I’ll do my best to avoid being around her, okay?” he asks.
James nods his head in reply, “That’ll be just fine.”
“Wonder what ‘suitable attire’ is?” Jiron asks.
“Don’t know,” he replies, “but it’s usually stiff and uncomfortable.”
A groan escapes Jiron as he rolls his eyes upward.
He walks with James back to their room and as they near their door, they see one of the servants coming out of their room. The servant fails to notice them as he shuts the door and walks down the hallway in the opposite direction.
With trepidation, they open the door and walk in. Lying on each bed is indeed a set of clothes, one which has bright green tights and a darker green upper tunic. The other one is light brown tights with a dark brown upper tunic.
They both race for the brown set and Jiron cries out in triumph as he gets to them first. “Ha ha ha, my peacock,” he says to James as he’s holding the brown set.
“Oh, shut up,” replies James as he goes over and holds up the other set. “I hate green,” he says miserably. He turns to Jiron and has an imploring look.
“No way, man,” he says and then indicates the clothes James is holding, “I’d rather go naked than wear that.” He begins taking off his clothes and putting the new ones on. When he sees James hesitating, he asks in all seriousness, “You don’t want to insult our hostess do you?” Then a playful smile spreads across his face.
Resigned to his fate, he replies, “No.” He takes off his clothes and first slips on the bright green tights. When he has them on, he looks down at himself and realizes they are truly tight and forms to his every curve down there leaving nothing to the imagination.
Feeling naked, he pulls on the tunic which helps to cover his nether regions, though not as well as he would want. Despite being rather revealing, they are quite comfortable. Once he has them on, he goes over to look at himself in the mirror standing in the corner. Aside from the fact he’s green, the outfit actually looks pretty sharp on him.
Jiron has his own set on as well and they look at each other, nodding in admiration. “Actually, James,” he says when he sees him, “it doesn’t look so bad once you have them on.” He comes over and joins him in front of the mirror.
“You look pretty good too,” he tells him.
“It’s still another hour till mealtime,” Jiron says. “What say we go and show off our new clothes to some of the serving girls?”
Smiling at his friend, he replies, “You go ahead, I’m going to go and find Miko. He’s probably still sitting with Nate, and I need to make sure he gets ready for the celebration.”
“Alright, then,” he says. Going to the door, Jiron opens it and pauses a moment as he says, “See you there.” Shutting the door behind him, he heads down the hallway to find one of the several serving girls he’s been ‘impressing’ since they’ve arrived.
Under his tunic, he straps on the belt holding his slugs so as not to be conspicuous. He really hasn’t felt safe anywhere since coming to this crazy world, and he always likes to be prepared. A couple days ago while they were sight seeing in the city, he’d found a store where he was able to restock his supply of slugs. Sitting over in the corner of their room is a box holding a hundred of them. When Miriam had found out why he’d wanted them, she had bought him the box.
Straightening his tunic so it will hide his belt of slugs, he leaves his room and makes his way back up the stairs to Nate’s room. When he gets there, he knocks but receives no answer. Knocking again, he waits but no reply is forthcoming. Opening the door a crack, he peeks in and discovers Nate and Miko are no longer there.
Closing the door, he continues down the hallway toward where they’d put Miko. Being Nate’s friend had warranted him a room to himself next door. As he approaches Miko’s room, he hears arguing inside and raised voices. Fearing the worst, he readies a slug and bursts through the door.
Standing in the middle of the room is Miko, bright red tights in hand and a stubborn look on his face. Nate is there sitting in a chair and it seems as if they’ve been arguing. When the door bursts in, they both turn to see James framed in the doorway.
“James,” Miko cries out holding the clothes out to him, “do you realize what they expect me to wear?” Turning to Nate, he says, “If I have to wear this, then I’m not going!”
“Miko,” James says to him as he enters the room, “we’re their guests. And if they want us to wear these things, then wear them we shall. It’s the least we can do for the hospitality we’ve received.”
“But…” he starts to say and then stops abruptly when he realizes just what James is wearing. Breaking into a laugh, he drops his clothes to the floor and sits down in a nearby chair. “Man, would you look at you!” he says as he starts laughing even harder.
Turning a little red, James looks to Nate who says, “You do look good, James. It’s what everyone will be wearing tonight at the celebration.”
“Come on ‘Torchy’,” James says to Miko as he comes over and picks up the clothes from the floor. Handing them to him, he says, “Put them on.”
“Torchy?” Miko asks when he calms down. “Why did you call me that?”
Pointing to the clothes Miko’s holding, he replies, “Wearing that will make you look like a flaming candle.” Nate breaks out into a smile at Miko’s expense when he hears that.
Looking forlorn, he holds the clothes and says to James with a slight whine in his voice, “Do I have to?”
“Yes, you do,” he tells him. “Now stop bemoaning your circumstances and put them on. Our hosts are expecting it.”
Under James’ glare he gets into his new clothes and sure enough, he looks like a flaming candle. When he looks to James for approval, he does his best to not smile.
“You look good,” he assures him.
“You sure?” he asks as he looks down at himself, not entirely convinced.
James glances to Nate for support, who chimes in, “Miko, you do look fine.”
“Are you coming to the celebration?” James asks Nate.
Nodding, he replies, “Yes. In a few minutes, my servant will come and help me into my attire for the evening. You fellows can go on ahead, I’m sure they won’t be upset if you’re a little early.”
