My Journey with the Demon King

14 - Something to Call Home

He nodded. "We are. We just have to buy a lot of supplies. Hawaii is a very long way from here, farther than where I found you, in your village."

I paled a little at that. "H-how much farther?"

He smiled thinly. "Try double, possibly even triple, the distance. It's also south, in the middle of a huge ocean. And it's in a spot that is very sunny and naturally hot...My worst nightmare," he grumbled irritably.

"If you hate it so much, why do we have to go there?"

"It's where the End of the World came about. It was the last node of the Earth's magic and it's the last active one. It's still pouring out all the magic that was dormant in the Earth for ages. And with all the changes and mutations that have gone on with life in the past four thousand years, it isn't really depleting either. Now that magic is a normal, accepted thing in the life of the world, even side-by-side with science, it no longer has to worry about going dormant again. With so much magic, it is able to constantly recycle it and pass it back through the world once more."

I just nodded, accepting that I would never completely understand this man. "Okay. So, shopping it is. What, exactly, are we shopping for?"

"A house," he grinned.

I nodded again. "So, one house, going down on the list," I said calmly. He looked a little disappointed at my reaction, but didn't say anything else. First he directed me to an area of the city near the harbor. We came to a large warehouse, filled with the sounds of metalworking. I stayed back while Zane strolled up to talk to one of the men working outside the warehouse, moving large pieces of metal. Ten minutes later, he came back.

The man he was talking to disappeared into the warehouse, coming out three minutes later in one of the noisy cars. It looked like the few others that I had seen, sleek, metallic, and surprisingly comfortable on the inside. Zane let out a low whistle as he walked around it, inspecting. "Looks very nice indeed." He turned to me. "Welcome to the first half of our new home."

I glanced at the car. It was impressive. It was also very interesting. But it was only a car, just as a horse was only a horse. How could either be considered a home? "W-where will we sleep?" I finally found my voice to ask.

He gave me a secret grin. "Now, love, that's a surprise." He pulled out his coin purse and began speaking with the worker once again. Ten minutes later, the two exchanged a large handful of coins and a key. He glanced back at me, gesturing to the car. "After you, madam."

Hesitantly, I moved to the car. I slipped in the open sides, taking a seat next to the one the worker had occupied. Zane sat down as well, behind a large wheel that was connected to the car. In between our seats was a long metal stick, with a knob on the end, and numbers printed on it. I watched curiously as Zane placed the key in a small hole. He twisted it and the metal beast came alive.

I barely stopped myself from letting out a gasp of fright as the car vibrated beneath me. I placed my hands in my lap, clenching my hands into fists. Half a second later, Zane's feet and hands expertly made the beast move. He pulled away from the harbor and turned the car back to the city proper. I glanced out of the car, seeing that it was already mid-afternoon.

The next three hours flew by. The first thing Zane bought was something he called a tent. Then he quickly began throwing money all over town. How he had so much money, I would never know. He bought a bed and all the bedding to go with it, cooking utensils, and several chairs designed for the rich, made with soft cushions. He even bought a loveseat. He stocked up on at least a year's worth of foodstuff. Each time he bought something, he would pull up his pocket dimension.

I began to see his pocket with much more respect. If it could fit all of this in it...

When I brought up my thoughts to him, he just laughed. "Originally, it couldn't. But rereading my notes helped me remember some things, which allowed me to increase the pocket dimension's size exponentially."