The Nine Worlds

The sun raised up above the rooftops, its rays, unrestricted by even a single cloud, illuminating the city below and slowly warming its streets. Its presence symbolized a new day, as the residents started waking up to life. A man was sitting in the city’s main shopping street, looking at the various shops opening up nearly in perfect unison. His hat protecting him from the sun, casting a sharp shadow over his eyes. Suddenly, a large shadow covered the area around the bench he was sitting on. The man looked in front of him, seeing enormous blue shoes. He then started looking up, seeing the legs and then torso of the enormous giant that was standing in front of him, the giant was wearing a blue postman’s uniform. The giant must have been around ten meters tall, like most giants are. The giant then said with deep voice :“Mister Benny? package for you” and took out a box from an enormous bag that he was carrying, the box was around two meters high and around one meter thick, but the giant was able to place it in front of the man effortlessly using only one hand. The box had Various labels in front of it, with the man's name and streets name that he was sitting on. It seemed like the man's brain froze for a moment as he tilted his head and stared at the mysterious package that he has received, when suddenly the front of the box opened with a loud thud, scaring the poor man and a woman jumped out.

“surprise! did you wait long?!”

The man looked into her green eyes and smiled “Afsane, how in the nine worlds did you...and what’s the hat you are wearing?” he pointed at her pointy hat. She was a woman in her early twenties, so was Benny. Her amber colored hair looked like waves in the sea, and her smile was contagious.

She laughed “Well... Jordan is my friend, so he agreed to carry me as a joke today, and...what’s wrong with my hat? You dont like it? its a new fad, its how people in the past imagined witches! You know, before any of us real witches did exist.” Benny nodded and listed, he then stood up and approached Afsane, gave her a kiss, and they started strolling through the main street. The giant, Jordan, grabbed the empty crate and went his way, creating minor tremors with every step.

“you know, your hat had a special name too” Afsane poked mans hat, tilting it a bit to the side “it was called a cowboys hat!” Benny continued walking forward, and without looking at Afsane continued the conversation ”Cowboy...how does that make sense, all cows are female, is it some kind of transgender minotaur?" Afsane giggled "No silly, a cowboy wasn't any mythological creature that people imagined, but real people who rode on horses, carried revolvers and threw a rope with a loop on end, like this" She then raised her hand above her hand, twirled her arm to mimic the motion of throwing a lasso, and said "hiiiyah" jokingly. Then, with a big smile on her face she added "and frankly, with your leather jacket and messy hair, you look like a real cowboy."

They continued walking on the still relatively lifeless street, there were not many people shopping on morning, and this allowed them to appreciate the view, all shops there were made in the same style: Made out of white concrete walls, with blue line-art unique to every shop, and shops name carved over the door. All shops outside of one, that had red cross painted over its line-art. Afsane pointed toward it "Edward´s magnificent shoes? What happened to them?!" Benny took a deep breath "Well, apparently the owner himself pissed off dryads, the old fart should have retired years ago anyway. He claimed that gods should have never intervened in human affairs, that we humans were prosperous and had better lives before the gods forced us to close factories and forced us to live in harmony with the nature. He started burning coal "because his ancestors did it and the environment was fine" and the dryads got him, he will be in custody for a while and his shop is closed."

"ohh, I see" They passed the closed shop. "So, what happened to your phone? you dropped it?" Benny nodded "yeah, into a lake, i already told you, I was on patrol duty, saw this..." Afsane interrupted: "Yeah, you was chasing this thieving brat, i remeber, but..." Benny nodded "yeah, he jumped into a river, i jumped after him" Afsane raised voice: "You did what?! you idiot, why did you jump into a lake after some brat?" Benny said irritated "Because its my job, jumping into a river shouldn't be a easy get out of trouble card, even for a brat, he needed to get some repercussion, anyway, after catching him and putting him in arrest, i found out my phone was gone" Afsane pointed toward a shop with circuits drawn on the walls with blue ink on its walls : "well, dont worry, you will get new phone in my fathers shop, its there, on other side of the road"

As they aproached the shop, the door to the shop opened and a large humanoid cretaure walked out, hunbanched to get past the door. Once outside, he stretched and looked at afanse. The creature had long purple hair, with a black stripe in the middle. He was wearing sunglasses and black vest. He had face black painting, or was it a tattoo? On his face, a black arrow going going From his cheek, toward his forehead, then through the forehead and down to the other cheek. He also had a black triangle on his nose, and two triangles symmetrically places on his jaw. His mouth was wider than that of a normal human, giving him unnaturally large grin as he smiled. He was about double the size of a normal human, around 3.5 metal tall.

"Afsane, good you are here, help me out dear, my night shift just ended, i want to take a rest" said the cretaure, as he held up a sign and stood in front of the shop. "Umm. Put your legs closer together, your right foot is blocking the sideway a bit, and tilt the sign a bit... perfect!" The creature changed his position after Afsanes instructions, nodded and then his skin started to turn gray as he froze still, moments later, his hair turned gray too, and lastly, even his clothes turned gray. Not only the coloy changed, but soon afterhe texture started changing too, and in less than a minute, the creature turned into a statue holding a sign in front of the shop.

Benny was looking surprised at this, after the ordeal, he asked "a troll is working for your father? "Afsane thought for a moment, and after few seconds said: "well, they share the ownership between both of them. Ervin takes care of shop during nighttime while my father is in charge during the day. ge and my father have been friends for 30 years, back when humans were still hostile toward magical creatures, my father was one of the first people to befriend them. Ervin is a family friend as long as i have been alive." After having said that, she pulled the door open and they went inside the shop.