The group left the safety of the forest and was outside of the city. There were some homes still in the outskirts of the city in the natural forest there. They had black blinds to keep the lights out as the city was like a nightlight compared to the area around it. It was the shining beacon in the middle of darkness. The stars were no longer visible above. As they got closer to the city, there could hear people talking from all over. Laughter, yelling, salesmen trying to sell, just a city still full of life. People from all different backgrounds. 4 legged, 2 legged, single eyed, multi-eyed people all around. Speaking the language of the beast comfortably with each other.
Tetsuya is leading the way. He finds the nightclub, and everyone follows him to the entrance. At the entrance, there's a bipedal rhino and pig as bouncers. "Everyone here is with me." Tetsuya said.
"Good to see you, Tetsuya, right this way. You have a lovely looking party tonight." The rhino said as he lifted the belt to let them in. "These must be your family, I can tell."
"You have a good eye. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise." He slipped some money to him, and everyone walked inside. The rhino just started laughing as everyone went in.
Inside the nightclub, it was dark with only green lights lightening up the space. It was a large area to accommodate for all the different sizes of animals and had sections for preferred types. Some areas with fake trees, some areas with small pools, and plenty of places to either dance or drink.
The group started walking around to the bar area when someone who knew them popped up. "Tetsuya and Amatesa, is that you?" A deep voice was heard. Amatesa turned around and saw a gargoyle in a nice suit. His suit was specifically made so his wings could stretch out from it.
"Hey, Bo. Nice to see you!" Amatesa walked up and gave him a hug. "This is one of Ryuu's old sparring buddies. He used to be the big beast on the block."
"That is until your brother took the title. Now he's a master caster. He is really something else. We keep in contact, though he didn't say anything about meeting you all here." Bo said
"Let me introduce you to everyone. This is Emerald, Turquoise sister, who you already met. This is Darius. He is currently studying under Ryuu. This is Crescent. She is Amatesa's cousin. Everyone else, you know." Tetsuya said.
"Nice to meet you all. I have a section over here if you all want to join us." Bo said while looking over at his section, which had some other gargoyles and vampires with them. "You're welcome to come over whenever you like."
"Oh, I haven't seen Vlad in forever. I'm coming with you. Turquoise, did you want to come over as well?" Amatesa asked.
"No, Emerald and I will do our own thing." Turquoise responded back.
"Darius and I will actually break away as well. We want to meet the women here. You understand, sis." Tetsuya said. Everyone else broke up in pairs of two, as Crescent went along with Amatesa.
Bo brought Amatesa and Crescent back to his section. They had cigars, drinks, very fine meat, and women all around. The men were dressed well, some very lavishly and others presentable yet lax. The table knew of Amatesa as her brother is very known in the money circles that run around.
"Amatesa, it's so good to see you again. You look splendid." The vampire approached Amatesa with open arms. He was young with silver, long hair. A piercing gaze. He wore custom everything from his hair tie to his shoes. He had his family's signature emblem on the back of his cape. "It's been ages since I last saw you." Vlad said happily to Amatesa.
Amatesa was blushing. "Yes, it's been forever. I have been dealing with some... clients, and it's been a busy period for us. You know how the market can be at times. This is my cousin, Crescent. I just bumped into her when traveling, and she tagged along. I'm showing her the town."
"Nice to meet you." Crescent went to shake his hand, and Vlad looked disgusted. "Oh, do you not shake hands, sorry." Crescent said, pulling her hand back.
"I do, I am not a fan of short-lived species, however. Purebred humans are repulsive. Nothing against you specifically, you two surprisingly similar, but I don't want to dirty my hands." Vlad said while turning away from Crescent.
"Ugh, sure. Ok." Crescent said with a confused look on her face.
"Tell me, Amatesa, what was your adventure like? Oh, would you like some T-rex steak? It's authentic. This wasn't cut and copied off of a meat donor, but the real juicy meat." Vlad said while offering Amatesa a seat.
"That sounds delicious." Amatesa sat down and started recapping her last trip. Vlad was heavily engaged in the discussion. With his face changing with each event unfold.
"Sorry about my friend here. He is particular about who he socializes with. He prefers people with longer life spans, and dragons can live for what feels like an eternity. Most of the elite families here are of long living species. Some could be new money, like Ryuu, but typically, wealth is passed down and increased by the new generation. Loans are pretty common around here. Longer Lives, that's what we refer to them as, are more reliable on loans cause there's little chance they can't fulfill whatever due date you give them." Bo said to Crescent.
"I see, this is new for me. I've traveled many places, but I've never seen so many gargoyles, vampires, tortoises, elephants, and dark elves. Thank you for trying to make me feel welcomed. So much is going on, I'm just being dragged around. You're the first gargoyle I met. Is Bo a common name like Vlad? It feels like every other vampire is named Vlad." Crescent asked.
"Bo is the name given to me by other creatures. Gargoyles don't have names. We also don't travel often cause of our curse. We reside in these areas for safety." Bo responded.
"Curse?" Crescent asked.
Yes, gargoyles are cursed to turn to stone if we are caught in direct sunlight. We can move on cloudy or rainy days. This location, where all other creatures like ourselves, is perfect cause it's rainy and gloomy majority of the time. We can often go years without being afflicted." Bo stated.
"I'm guessing this is common knowledge here, since you told a stranger this." Crescent said smiling.
"Yea, it's common knowledge." Bo responded with a straight face.
Crescent started looking around and noticed all the girls were surrounding the table, but weren't really interacting with it. They weren't eating like Amatesa, who is pigging out. The others, a dark elf and an elephant were carrying on about a discussion they had before they even arrived. The girls were almost there as objects from Crescent point of view. "Hey, are you ok?" Crescent asked one of the girls. She simply nodded yes but didn't speak. She and the others, were standing over lying on something but in a way to appear like a model.
"The girls are paid to make the area look nice. Don't worry about them. Also, you don't have to do that. Nobody will ask you to." Bo told Crescent.
Crescent just decided to hang out and just get a feel for the environment. She ordered some food, and ate while Amatesa and Vlad talked about everything.
Meanwhile, Tetsuya and Darius are surrounded by dark elf women. Darius being a half god, attracted attention from the women.
"How long have you been down here?"
"Are you stronger than Ryuu?"
"Are you into elves?"
The questions were pouring in and Darius tried earnestly to try and answer everyone.
"Tetsuya are you two best friends?" One of the women
"This guy right here is awesome. Best buddy. I wanted him to meet some nice women. Hey Darius, show them the lightning ball trick you can do." Tetsuya said.
"I can do that. Everyone take a few steps back." Darius held one hand up and summoned a lightning ball, about the size of an apple. He summoned two others and juggled them, after juggling he combined the three into one large ball and had it orbit his body. He motioned for Tetsuya to come close and the ball shifted from Darius to Tetsuya. Other people started watching around the same time. The ball floated around Tetsuya backed to Darius. Darius finished the trick by clapping his hands on the ball and making a Thunderclap sound. Several people started clapping as he sat back down.
"That was so cool." One elf girl, named Blessing. Tried getting really close to Darius. Darius was a little shaken.
"Thank you," he said nervously. Tetsuya seeing him being nervous made a quick request.
"Miss Blessing, Darius is a little thirsty from that trick, could you be kind and use this money to get us all some drinks? Don't matter the drink, something nice to sip on."
"Sure!" She went off with some of the other women. As they leave, Tetsuya can tell there are a lot of eyes on their table. Other people just watching and spying.
"Sometimes people can be really nosey, a little too nosey where it ends up getting cut off." Tetsuya said quietly but sternly. The lurking eyes seemed to disappear.
Elsewhere, Turquoise and Emerald were having a blast. They were eating.
"This place has great food, you were right big sis." Emerald said while eating.
"See, I used to sneak in all the time. They have the best most authentic food. You can't beat it. Sometimes, they give you food for free or random people pay for you. It's great, I love this place." Turquoise said while also eating.
"You girls really love this food. Next round on me. You girls have a big appetite." The server said as he walked to the back.
"This is so cool!" They said in Unison.