This Life of Sin

Bellana

Chapter 3: Bellana

The bread was, indeed, very good. But the stew was just as good. I had no idea what meat was used but it was the same color as pork. I decided not to think to hard on it as I may not want to know what kind of animal or monster I was munching on. This world did seem to have carrots and potatoes though. That or vegetables that both look and taste exactly like them.

I ate the food quick. I was so used to hunger pains that I hadn't even noticed that I was so hungry. It was as I was placing the tray out into the hall that I found Fenny. He was about half my height and skinny as a rake. That didn't seem to affect his strength at all, however. He carried the large tub of steaming water like it weighed nothing at all. Like his mother he had scales but his were more of a sea blue and his eyes were red much like my own. I suppose that explained why no one had made a fuss about my eyes yet. Though my eyes were not slitted and seemed to be a darker red.

"Let me just put this down in yer room miss." The boy said softly. He wore a kind of serious look that made me want to smile. Like he was trying to be more grown up than he was. "Ma says I'm to come get it in the morning. So, you have a good night Miss." He said, gently placing the basin on the floor near the door just inside the room.

"You as well Fenny."

He gave me a small smile then excused him self. I was closing my door when I heard a woman shout up the stairs for him to hurry it up. My good hearing also picked up the boys irritated mumbling. I laughed as I shut the door, locked it, and stripped out of my meager grey cloths, the cloak already hanging on the coat rack. I took a few minutes to enjoy just getting clean with the hot water and one of the towels Fenny had carefully laid on the table.

Once I was done, I decided to give my cloths a little was as well and used the water to scrub the dirt and slime scum off them as best as it could. Wringing the water out took longer than the washing had. I mostly just hoped that they would be dry enough when I got up that I could where them. Normally I wouldn't be too keen to sleep naked in hotel sheets, but my keen demon nose told me that these were clean. Besides, I was too tired to care.

I hung the grey cloths, as well as the wet towel, on the coat rack to dry and fell back, naked, on the bed. I was tempted to just go to sleep but figured I should at least glance at my grimoire before I went to La La Land. So, begrudgingly, I got back up, flicked my long hair out of my face and made sure I didn't step on my own tail as I went to the table and used a match to light the candle there. I reached into my bag, snatched up the little book, and settled back into the bed on my stomach with the leather-bound book on the pillow.

For the first time I took a good look at the cover. On it was etched a stylized dragon and the words: Taming Magic. I smiled and my tail flicked out behind me. That sounded promising. I honestly had no clue, other than the methods that would be used to tame the monsters themselves, what kind of magic Tamers would even use. With any luck id be at least getting a little peek at that now.

I undid the leather tie holding the cover shot and carefully opened to the first page. I was surprised to see that it seemed to just jump right into it. There was no cover page nor a table of contents. In bold italics at the top of the page was the header: To be a tamer.

To be a Tamer:

The first thing one needs to know about being a tamer is that it is a labor of love. If you go into this line of work think of simply forcing some strong monsters into being your partners, then taking the world by storm than you should probably investigate finding another line of work.