"Sounds good to me. " Axis watched the interaction curiously, obviously having no clue what the elves were saying. "I am curious how the time is different here than at home. I guess I'll just have to see how much time has passed when I return."
"That is one thing we aren't sure about," Ayda replied, shrugging, "No humans that have come here have ever come back and so we aren't sure how fast time passes here compared to your homeworld." She turned to face him after speaking to the elf, smiling gently, "I suppose not many of them want to come back to a world of what they called…child's stories."
"Mm… fair enough, considering the huge pain it is to both get here and to get back." Axis laughed softly and stuck his hands in his pockets. "It seems like a nice enough place, anyway. I'm sure it's great to live in."
She laughed as well, then shrugged, "I figure that…it doesn't sound easy to get here and anyone that does come doesn't seem to want to be here when they arrive." The elf Ayda has spoken to returned seconds after she finished speaking, a rolled paper in his hands. He spoke in the same tongue that couldn't be made out and she nodded, taking the paper and speaking to him before finally turning back to Axis. "Perfect timing, do you want to get going right away? Or would you rather see more of the city before going to my home? We have a bit of daylight left."
"Most people probably aren't too pleased to be here because it's so… different." Axis laughed weakly. "Like I said, we don't have magic in our world, so to suddenly appear in some other realm… I assume people would think they're dreaming, at least at first." He looked up at the question. "I'm fine with whichever you prefer, honestly."
"It's definitely different," She agreed, nodding, "I need to pick up something to eat, so I can show you part of the city." Ayda shrugged, then smiled at him, tucking the paper into her pocket softly. "That has to be better than nothing…and I suppose it's better than just sitting around my home."
"Sounds fine to me." Axis shrugged a bit, gathering up his fabrics and such as he followed along beside Ayda. "What kind of food do you guys have here?" He asked curiously. "Is it different than what we've got on earth? I mean, we've got all sorts of things from all sorts of different cultures, but…"
"I'm not sure exactly what you have on earth…but we have incorporated recipes that were mentioned from others before you. Most of our meals are plant based…seeing as that's the easiest to obtain, but we do have animals, and so there are other options." She walked out of the library easily, then paused in her steps, thinking for a moment before tipping her head and looking at him with curiosity, "Would you like to try our food? Or eat a human meal."
"I'm not incredibly picky. I'll try anything once." Axis shrugged a bit. "Whatever's cheap and available, I suppose. I don't have any serious allergies or dietary restrictions in general, so… anything should be fine."
Ayda smiled gently and nodded, "Then I know just the place we can go to get food…if you'd like? They have a wide variety of the human dishes we know of, and a good selection of traditional cuisine that you can try." She waited patiently for him to agree or disagree, quickly offering the other choice, "Or I can stop by a market and grab something to prepare at my house if you would prefer to just go there."
Axis nodded a bit. "We can go wherever that is, then. That's fine with me. You don't have to cook anything if you don't want to." He smiled gently at Ayda. "And if you did, I'd have to insist on helping you, you know."
"Cooking is no problem, I'd just make a simple dish," She said, starting to lead the way through the city once they left the area around the palace, "I'll decide what is cheaper as we walk if you'd prefer me to make the decision." It didn't matter much to her what they did, but she had the feeling it would be the easiest for her to make the decision.
"Sure. Honestly I'm fine with whichever is less troublesome." Axis shrugged and looked around as he walked along at Ayda's side. He kept his hair over his ears as well as he could so he could avoid attracting attention from the citizens nearby him.
She nodded, leading the way through the mostly crowded streets. Like the rest of the city so far, it seemed to be built of mostly living trees and plants, thought here there seemed to be more of a mixture of building materials overall. Especially as she led him down to the markets. Ayda made sure he was by her side as she pushed into the busier part of the city, the smell of delicious foods and products swirling through the air.
It was definitely a very interesting and different city to Axis. He was used to a whole lot of pristine metal and electronics and such. He looked around curiously when they entered the busy city, intrigued by all the different scents and people there.
"You can ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them," She said as she wove around stands selling spices and various other things, finally making her way to the area of the market focused on food. There were hundreds of stands, and even more choices of food as well as several restaurants set around, all bustling with activity and elves.
Axis nodded a bit. "It looks like you've got a lot of different kinds of people here, yeah? Like, not just elves. And lots of different diverse types of food…" He hummed softly to himself as he looked around, although he was still trying to avoid drawing attention to himself.
"Our land is open to almost every breed of being," She said with a nod, "It's not uncommon to see others that aren't elven here." Ayda slowed down as they passed one specific stand that seemed to be selling some sort of wrap, silently debating whether it was rude to buy one for herself while Axis picked what he wanted to eat. "Are you against the idea of eating food from a vendor?" She asked, keeping a respectful distance from the stand so they didn't think she was ordering.
"I'll eat food from just about anywhere." Axis shrugged. "We've got plenty of street vendors where I'm from, so I'm at least used to them. Well… they're mostly in big cities, but sometimes in downtown areas of smaller ones too. But that's besides the point anyway. To answer your question,
no, I'm not against the idea."
Ayda nodded, then motioned around, "You can choose what you'd like then, and if you'd prefer multiple things, you are free to order them." She nodded to the stand that she had originally had her eyes on, then continued speaking, "I'm going to get something from here first though. If you don't mind. Then I can help you order if needed."
"Alright…" Axis wandered around until he found a stand that sold something that most closely resembled earth food and then ordered it for himself. He then found Ayda again so that they could eat together.
"What do you think of the city so far?" She asked once she found Axis again, carrying some of the food from the stand she had gone to in her hands. Ayda was clearly waiting to find him before she started eating, and she glanced around for somewhere to sit to eat.
"It seems pretty nice." Axis smiled gently and sat down with Ayda once they found a place and started eating what he had bought. "The people are nice, the food is good… it generally seems… you know, good. Do you like it here?" He asked.
Ayda shrugged and smiled, "I don't mind it here, I'm glad you like it. I didn't grow up here, but I'm learning that I love it the longer I live here." She continued eating after she finished speaking, looking around at the still bustling market. "It's one of the most peaceful places I've seen or lived."
Axis nodded a bit and kept eating as well as he listened to Ayda talk. "If you weren't born here, where are you from?" He asked curiously. "And how big is your world? My world has nearly eight billion people in total, so it's pretty well inhabited."