"Oh, cool! We have a drink similar to that, we make it with some of the plants we grow in the farms. We have it at festivals and celebrations so that it can go all night." Matthew was quiet a moment, thinking about the question.
"I've heard of them," Matthew admitted, "But I've never seen one before… they're rare."
Rowan nodded a bit as he listened to Matthew. "Well, I've got my phone on me… without a charger it'll die pretty soon, though, and I shouldn't waste the battery." He sighed softly and pulled out his phone to show Matthew.
Matthew looked at the phone with wide eyes.
"So cool… What does it do?" He asked. He leaned forward a bit, close to Rowan as he looked over the black screen.
"Um… it can do all sorts of things, but I can't do some of them without wifi…" He turned on his phone, which had a picture of him and his dog as both the lock and home screens. "I have games and stuff if you wanna try them out?" He pulled up a puzzle game that had all sorts of different puzzles on it.
Matthew watched the screen with fascination.
"Really?" He asked, looking up with wonder-filled eyes. "I… How do I do it?" He shifted, sitting next to Rowan's side.
"Here, with this one you just have to make rotationally symmetrical shapes to fill up this square…" Rowan demonstrated the game to Matthew, moving pretty quickly from experience. "I play this one the most."
Matthew nodded, watching carefully. When it was his turn, he fell silent, examining everything. After a bit, it seemed he was stuck, but then he reached out, setting all the pieces into place one by one until the puzzle was finished. Not a single redo, or mistake.
"There you go! It gets easier the more you do it." Rowan smiled softly. "You just have to touch where you want to put down the lines… a lot of it is trial and error."
Matthew nodded a bit, still examining the screen.
"This is very amazing," he admitted. "I've never seen something like this before." He grinned, sitting back now in his chair.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool… I don't have my charger with me, though." Rowan sighed, letting Matthew keep playing with his phone. "So I can't waste the battery too much. I doubt I could call anyone anyway, though…"
Matthew looked up, nodding. He set the phone down after a couple more times with the puzzle, thinking there would be better used for it than that they would need. He gave it back to Rowan, thinking.
"I wonder if there might be a way to do that when we get to the cities…"
"I dunno… maybe. I'm just worried that I can't call people from… you know… another dimension." Rowan sighed again and stuck his phone back in his pocket. "I'm sure we'll figure things out."
Matthew nodded. Fluff stretched out on Rowan's lap, curling up and tucking his head under Rowan's arm.
"Well, there are several mages known for magic that connects the different worlds."
Rowan kept idly petting Fluff while he listened. "Really? How can we get in contact with them? I need to get home as soon as possible…" He sighed softly.
"Well, the nearest city with someone like that is a few days fight from here," Matthew started slowly. "But I doubt you'd be okay with traveling like that…" He thought a moment.
"R-Right…" Even just the thought of a multiple day flight made Rowan feel queasy. "I don't think that would go very well…" He continued to pet Fluff. "How long does it take to walk? Or drive?"
"To walk would take a few weeks. With horses..? Just a few more days than flying." Fluff purred gently, nuzzling close to Rowan. He really did like the human, it seemed.
"Alright, um… I've never ridden a horse before, but I'm sure I can figure it out, yeah? Horses are tall, though… hopefully I won't have too much trouble with that."
"Well, I could help you with it! Perhaps for the first couple of days you could ride with me?" Matthew hummed a bit as he thought about what they would need to pack. For that long of a trip, he'd need to bring Sir Fluff too, and that's even more things to bring…
"Um… that's fine with me, I guess… how many days exactly do you think it would be? Where would we sleep?" Rowan asked. "Obviously we're going to have to sleep at least a few times…"
"We'd camp, of course. I have a tarp we could use…" Matthew smiled gently. "Here, it'll be an adventure. Well, more of a one than you're already on."
"Sure, why not? Why don't you have any mages in this particular city, though?" He asked, continuing to gently pet Fluff with one hand.
"We're not big enough. If someone is born with strong enough magic to be one, they flock to the bigger cities for more work and a better education." Matthew shrugged a bit. "I was almost that way, but I just wasn't strong enough to make it like that."
"Mm… you mean to say that you've got magic?" Rowan asked curiously, looking up at Matthew. "Even if it's not as strong as the mages, that could be helpful, right?"
"Yes, it should be. It's nothing much. I can just see really far away, and I can move objects." To demonstrate this, he held one hand out. A book from his shelf came floating over, setting down in his hand. He set it down next to him.