Laurel

As the two walk through the streets, she notices bands of people, often with wanted posters shared amongst them. Medusa looks at these groups with a sort of yearning, but snaps out of it when she hears Gaheris speak.

"Medusa, sorry to be so nosy but, you said mercenaries are common, yea?" She asks, humming with curiosity at the bands. They sure look pretty kitted out.

“Yes… well, there’s lots of criminals and real monsters that need to be defeated. Um, for public safety… mercenaries are common, but…” she sighs wistfully, tearing her gaze away from them as the two continue to walk. 
“There’s also the guild that sits in the middle of the city… it’s full of heroes who take on tough jobs. They earn respect and admiration, are provided with bedding and food… they even allow women, too.” She sighs, longer this time. Gaheris can't help but wag her tail at that. She slowly leans her head on Medusa's shoulder and nudges her side a bit.

"You think we got a shot?" She beams brightly at Medusa, excited at the idea of a little normality. A guild wouldn't be all that different from her knighthood, right? She beams at the idea. So exciting! Plus, if she joined a guild full of strong guys, then it would definitely make her life way easier in the long run. But, Medusa gasps and hides her face a bit.  

“We— ah… well, you would… I don’t know if I… well. I really wish I could… but it’s frightening…” She mumbles, stumbling over her words. Gaheris just nods, getting it. 

"Hey, don't worry! I bet that kind of thing is tough for everyone!" Gaheris reassures her as they walk, but then Medusa stops them. It seems they’ve arrived at the bathhouse. It looks rather pretty, too, made of pretty white rock. Even in the afternoon light, it still seems to sparkle, and the prettiness of it makes Gaheris' tail wag. Medusa quickly walks up the stairs and inside, and Gaheris bounces after her, excited to see the inside. It feels a bit humid inside the waiting area, but pleasantly so, as well as smelling a bit of pleasantly fragrant oils. These guys are sure committed to the bit, right?

The two make their way to the women's side, and upon entry, Gaheris is immediately both intimidated and impressed. There's a bunch of seats arranged in a circle, but, look! In the middle, there's a big, warm-looking pool being shared by various women. Excited to finally clean up, Gaheris quickly strips and plunges into the water, getting strange looks from a some patrons. Still, she can't help but sigh as the pleasant scents and perfect warmth of the pool slowly seep into her, and she relaxes at last. She turns around to gesture for Medusa to get in.

"The water's great! You have to try this!" She says, waving Medusa down, while she is currently in the process of undressing herself. Medusa moves much more carefully, and follows Gaheris into the pool, sinking with a comfortable sigh into the warm water. There's a small, pleasant magical ripple in the water, and Medusa sighs happily as it massages her. She had also removed her bandage before entering, of course; being a demon, the wound healed quickly, and was already scabbed over to a point where she needn't worry about it anymore.

She turns to Gaheris, and starts to try to explain the function of the baths. After all, since she's foreign, she probably doesn't know much about Lastolan bathhouses.
“This is the Piscina… the middle area. It’s nice, isn’t it…? Over there are the tholoi.” Medusa points to the area around them, which seems to have hip baths. There are some attendants tending to people in them. 
“They will wash your hair if you ask one of the attendants. It’s very nice."

But, Gaheris sinks a little below the water, embarrassed at the idea. Her hair took the worst of it and is a lot messier than she'd like, but no way she's letting a stranger wash her hair like that! 
"Uh, hey, actually, Medusa. Why don't you wash my hair? I don't know if I want to embarrass myself again by not saying the right stuff in front of those attendants..." She mumbles, and blows some bubbles in the water, feeling embarrassed already, actually. Medusa laughs a tiny bit.  

“I can do that… well, maybe... Go pick one of the baths and take a seat…” She stands up, out of the water and walks off in order to prepare what she needs. There’s a few empty tubs to choose from around the pool, so Gaheris patters over to an empty tub and awkwardly scans the room, taking care to not make eye contact with anyone. So, so, so awkward. Everyone is so... old fashioned here, no tech, no showers, but not entirely like the Amish. They seem to genuinely be LARPing like one of Queen Artura's DnD games. Really, really hard. Collectively. As she looks around, she sees that there’s quite a few women around, all chattering about something or another. Soon, Medusa comes over, holding a bucket and some bottles. 

“Um, okay.” She says, “Hold your breath…” She dumps a bit of pleasantly warm water over Gaheris’ head, and then pours some of the soap in a small vase over her hair. Then, she begins massaging it into her scalp. Hey, smells like olives. Gaheris holds in the need to shake, it wouldn’t be very nice to her new friend to get her covered in weird soap, thanks to her doglike tendencies. The soap and warmth are nothing like home, much more indulgent and gentle than she’s used to. The soap didn’t even hurt her eyes!  

“I’ve never had a cute spa day like this. Must be nice to do this all the time.” she comments, feeling comfy.

“It is pretty nice… sometimes you have to wait in lines, though…” Medusa responds. She sure is a glass-half-empty kind of girl. Interestingly, the soap doesn’t seem to be lathering. It feels really silky and smooth in her hair, too. Oh, shoot, maybe it's oil? Soon, Medusa takes out a comb and begins to work out the knots in Gaheris’ hair, causing her to squirm a little from how many knots formed. Damn, she really hasn't taken care of herself for a while now. When was the last time she showered for real? She hasn't had any time in ages... She pauses for a moment, remembeing all the people who fought valiantly for her to get this chance. She slumps a little, suddenly thinking about how important her quest is. Yeah, she should... probably get this off her chest.

"Hey Medusa. I need to tell you something. Promise you won't freak out?" She starts, nervous. Here goes nothing.

Medusa pauses, and then continues. 
“Um. It depends on how bad it is… but, I won’t freak out, probably. Weird things just keep on happening around here, so…” She pours on a little more of the oil on a larger knot, and keeps trying to comb it out, despite how stubborn it is.

She straightens a little and takes a deep breath. "well. um... I'm from another world. another dimension, I think. One being eaten by a huge force that no one could combat, before it was too late. I was sent here by my mentor to look for warriors, so I could, uh, take them back home, so we could fight it..."  She peeks from the corner of her eye to gauge Medusa's reaction, worried that it was just too strange, even for her. But, Medusa doesn’t seem to react visually, not that her eyes and brows can be seen, anyway. 

“Another world… Is that really possible? But it does look like you aren’t from anywhere like here… and you do have lots of weird items that nobody has seen before…” her voice trails off, before starting up again. “That makes sense, I think… I didn’t know anything was big enough to eat a whole world.” She comments, piecing it together inside her brain. "That really does explain a lot, actually. I, um, believe you."

Gaheris heaves a big sigh of relief, and turns around to look at Medusa. "you believe me?" She smiles wide, knowing that. "I'm so glad! I thought I would look like an insane person trying to explain my predicament." But, then, her smile falters a bit and she sinks back, facing away from Medusa. 
"This world-eater... it's unlike anything I've ever seen. It's primordial, something from before the world itself, maybe even older than all of the magic in the universe. It's taken the lives of... a lot of people I care about." She says, sighing longingly as she remembers Dinadan, Bors, and of course her queen, Artura... All gone, just like that. But, Medusa's response takes her out of her mournful spiral.

“It does sound crazy… but it makes sense. Your coat was made out of a weird material that seemed impossible to me.” Medusa frowns. “I see. Um, that sounds… really bad. Maybe even cataclysmic… Can something that big even be stopped..?"

She shrugs at that. "I can't lie, that's been at the back of my mind. I was hoping to come to a world with, I dunno, stronger magic, or fighters, or something. Really, anything that could stop a being like a world eater..." She takes a big breath and turns around to hold medusa'a hands, which causes Medusa to drop her comb accidentally when she jumps with surprise.
"That's why we have to join the guild together! It's our only chance to find strong fighters!" Gaheris proclaims.

“—! Oh, th… that is true…”  she shakes her head.  “Yes, that’s true… the guild has lots of heroes, it’s true… um, but I don’t know how we would get in… it’s a bit of an insider’s club. But, um, if your world is at stake… I guess I can’t be so, um… trepidatious.” She takes a deep breath.

Gaheris waggles her tail and goes to hug medusa, but quickly stops because she realizes how insanely awkward that would be. She, instead, just grins at her.
"Great! We'll go ask tomorrow! We'll both get in and look for great heroes! We can do it!" She laughs, and Medusa smiles. She starts to hop out of the tub, but Medusa pats her shoulder, making her sit.

"Um." She laughs a little. "Gotta rinse it out." 

Gaheris blinks. "Ohhh. Yeah, right. Whoops." She laughs. She sputters as Medusa dumps a bucket of warm water over her head, rinsing out a fair amount of the oil, but keeping a fair amount of it. The very second Gaheris feels cleaned, she hops out of the tub, and grabs the bottle of oil from Medusa. She sniffs it curiously; yup, totally olive oil. She also bends over to pick up the comb that medusa had dropped a second ago, and places all the items on a small ledge in front of her.

"Your turn!" She beams, and Medusa nods, sitting down in the tub where Gaheris was previously sat. Gaheris observes the items in front of her on a small ledge attached to the back of the tub: the bottle of olive oil, the comb, the bucket, and strangely, a bar of… clay? Hmmm. She grabs the bar of clay and wets it a bit before gently trying to scrub Medusa's shoulders. It's nothing like soap, and she really hopes it's not too abrasive.
"Uh... Is this right?" She asks, a little worried. But, Medusa sighs with a sense of relief, despite Gaheris' misgivings. She looks over her shoulder at Gaheris. 

“It is, yes… have you never used clay before? Um, how do you get clean where you’re from…?” She asks, and Gaheris flushes with embarrassment. Maybe this is just how they do things, and she just outed herself as not very worldly.

"Uh... Soap? I'm sometimes lazy, and use 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner... B-But, I don't anymore! I'm good about it now!" She huffs.

Medusa tilts her head curiously. “I see… it does really seem like you’re from a faraway place, I guess.” She laughs a little. 
“I don’t need to wash my hair.. I already did, um, a few days ago. Don’t worry about it.” Is that true? Her hair seems pretty freshly cleaned. Things are so weird here. As she washes Medusa's back, Gaheris just can't help herself, and pets one of the snakes. The snake wiggles and nibbles at her, still with Medusa not noticing. They really are alive, but super docile. She was never a snake girl, but Medusa's sure are cute. As she pours some oil over Medusa's shoulders, and is shocked by how many little marks and scars she has for a civilian. 

“Um. Sorry about all the… scars. A lot of people don’t like me… I guess you knew that, though. Once you wash it off, we can head back…” She seems a little hasty to ignore them. Do people really think she’s some kind of monster? How could that be? But, Gaheris sets it aside for now, taking extra care to avoid any scarred areas. She dumps the bucket over Medusa's back, and once they're both ready, the pair scurries back to the changing room together, to go find their clothing. Soon, the two of them are drying off with towels wrapped around themselves. The area here is nice— a decently large room designed for drying and relaxing. No technology here, either… to be expected by this point. As Gaheris is admiring the room, she is surprised to be disturbed from behind— 

“Excuuu~uuse me!“ sings a adult woman’s voice; when they turn, they see a tanned woman with short purple-and-red hair… and elf ears. Wow, just like the king?! And here she thought half-elves were super rare. Gaheris straightens her body and goes on high alert. This woman seems awfully confident, even though all she's wearing is a towel. If she’s anything like the king, maybe she’s nice too? 

“Um! Hello?” The woman exudes a kind of weird magic that puts Gaheris on edge, but honestly, she feels she should learn to expect it from this strange place. The woman smiles broadly, and Medusa eyes her suspiciously, but says nothing. 

“Why, I overheard that you girls were talking about the guild!” She says, a little bit sheepishly. “It just so happens that I’m a guildwoman, you know. My name is Circe. And, really, the guild could use more girls… and you two seem like you have a good motivation to join!” She sings, clasping her hands together. Did she hear all of that? How mortifying. Or, did she? Medusa seems unsure of how to react, but Gaheris shakes away her weird feelings. What a great opportunity! Gaheris wags her tail at such good luck.  

“Yes, in fact, we’d love to! Wouldn’t we, Medusa?” She throws an arm around her shoulders and looks up at the adult. “We’ll do whatever you need!” Medusa just sort of nods her head. Circe laughs good-naturedly (Gaheris thinks?) and puts her hands on her hips. 

“Excellent! Oh, that’s lovely! Ah, she’s called Medusa, but what’s your name, puppy? It’s so good to meet you!” Circe purrs out, looking excited herself.

“I’m Gaheris! At your service ma’am!” She hops up to shake hands, but she pulls it back. Oh god, how do people even greet here? She rubs the back of her head sheepishly.

Circe laughs. “Oh, how foreign! Don’t tell me about it yet— why don’t you two come down to the hall tomorrow at noon? No, I know you will. Gaheris, right? Be sure to come, I’ll be waiting!” And with that, Circe saunters off, back into the crowd of women. What a nice lady. 

There’s a brief silence. Medusa breaks it: “Um. I guess tomorrow’s activities are booked, then.” she comments, feeling unsure of how to react, or if they can trust that Circe at all. Gaheris, however, looks much less concerned. She's is so happy! What great luck! She's really been needing a bit of luck, lately. She turns to Medusa, who seems less thrilled, and more trepidatious. “Isn’t this great, Medusa? We’re getting an opportunity of a lifetime!” She squeals with excitement, which causes Medusa to jump slightly.

“Wow. Um, it’s all just a little shocking, is all, I guess…” She seems pretty flustered.  “We should, um, get back to the Inn I think. We can talk about stuff there…”