“This place is pretty nice!” Arkadin smiled as he sat down on a large pile of cushions. To the eyes of the Temthans in the restaurant, he was just pretty young female Ksithan with curvy hips, possibly a servant or helper to the attractive, muscular silver and blue Thrakani regular. Thrakani were always known to be a rare but powerful subspecies of Temthan, one of the very few winged bipedal breeds. Ksithans were also rare around these parts, but only really because they kept to themselves and rarely interbred with main Temthan populations.
“It is…” Kairos seemed hesitant. He was already seated, nursing a glass of blood brandy. “Why are you female?”
“What?”
“You’re obviously female…” Kairos tutted. “You have tits.”
“Yeah, so?” Arkadin eyed the silver jug in the middle of the table. A sniff told him it was filled with fruit wine, spiced with cinnamon and spiked with extra alcohol. “Apart from Yisini, I never understood why you and Epani so strictly stuck with the masculine and feminine roles. We’re deities, we can be whoever we want.”
The Dragon God hinted at a couple of waiters, all wearing tight silk wraps around their chests, arms and groins, and plastic gloves and socks on the ends of their limbs. “They think you’re my sex slave for tonight.”
“No, they are thinking that it’s weird to see a black and yellow Ksithan, normally they don’t have such bright furry parts. Don’t bollock me off, Kairos. I have telepathy as well.”
Kairos sighed. “Fine. But you do look… disturbing. Maybe it’s because I’ve not see you as feminine before.”
To Arkadin’s surprise, the servants immediately brought a whole roasted boar, its skin cleanly removed, its skin coated in honey. Inside was a mixture of stuffing, sausages of various types and long pieces of crispy skin and bacon.
“So there’s no choice.”
“Well, there’s a choice in animal.”
“Like what?”
“Bodin, hirin, rabbit, poula, your basic meats. And whatever they manage to hunt in the morning. I decided to play it safe with boar.”
Arkadin shrugged, then wondered how they’d eat all of this. Kairos took a knife and tore a chunk off, throwing it in his mouth. After a bit of hesitation, Arkadin did the same. Tasted pretty good, although probably slightly too sweet for Arkadin’s tastes, he always preferred a split between sweet and savory.
“You want a drink?” Kairos asked between mouthfuls of succulent flesh.
“Like what?”
“They only serve alcohol here.”
“Like… mead?”
“Sure.”
Kairos snapped his fingers and a waiter brought over a golden chalice, filled to the brim. Arkadin nodded a thank you and the waiter scurried away. The mead tasted genuinely nice. A bit rougher than the Rethan mead he was used to, but still nice.
“So, why did you invite me here, Kairos?”Arkadin asked after some more mouthfuls of food.
Kairos simply shrugged. “Dunno. Just fancied taking you out for dinner.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Arkadin paused, then chewed on a piece of meat. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
Kairos sighed. “Can’t a guy treat his little brother once in a while?”
“Ohhhhhhh…” Arkadin smiled. “So this is just for fun?”
“For fuck’s sake, yes!”
“Well, thank you. This was a nice surprise.”
Kairos sighed, then smiled. “You’re welcome, brother.”