Rowan's eyes opened in pure shock, the serenity of his environment caging his words as he struggled to release his thoughts from the back of his throat, stilled by its dryness.
As if he were reclaiming his breath, Rowan prompted a gulp so deep that it could be clearly heard, bulging his Adam's apple and clutching all the nooks and crannies in which the dry air had stolen its life.
Standing before him was a citadel of vibrant colors and shapes, nestled in grass, flowers, trees, and small land critters and animals that moved about freely and without restraint.
There were a number of animals that Rowan had immediately recognized such as cats, ants, and squirrels, but then came the far majority of creatures that were other-worldly in constitution, ranging from dog-raccoons, grasshopper-frogs, and armadillo-bears.
It was as if these animals were without the concept of biome, having parts that would've been seated for specific habitats, yet existed in the lush but still dry land.
"This is the royal garden," mentioned a man with high rising silvery garnishments, pointing at the gargantuan gradient of colors that lit up in ways that Rowan had never even thought possible.
"Is this real...?" Lucien asked, wide-eyed and unmoving.
"Yeah, I've never seen anything like it..." Responded Elias, his cheeks blush in inundation.
'Perhaps the other heroes are just as astonished as me' thought Rowan, stepping back and diverting his attention to alleviate himself from the mental strain of imagining such an impossible environment.
When the king had dismissed the heroes to be escorted across the royal grounds, Rowan thought it was going to be a royal chore, the halls never-ending and the placidity forever stalling his curiosity.
However, what he hadn't anticipated was the many lavishes that the king had adopted, a scary contrast to the otherwise well-mannered, unvaried demeanor that the king outwardly maintained.
Whether it be the royal kitchen which stretched as far as the eye could see with what their escort described as 'exorbitant, once-in-a-lifetime meats and vegetation', the prism halls which were laden in crystalline, glass panels that contorted in response to the inhabitants, the echoing chambers filled with echo crystals which rung sharp squalls at the smallest impact, or the spiral of golden willows where lies told near its roots cause it to light aflame and wilt, and the uttering of truths allow for it to grow even further beyond its already substantial stature--there was no shortage of earthly wonders that each would've been considered a miracle in his original world.
The before stretching tiles that sprawled out endlessly seemed more greeting now, each minute feeling like seconds as Rowan's continued fascination refused to fade.
The sun's peak slowly dwindled, the soon-to-be twilight drooping over the green landscape as the creatures almost instinctively retreated to their respective habitats, either curling or laying themselves into a rested position.
There were some tired snarls, reserved meows, and quiet chirps hollowing from the animals, a drowsy stupor extending its lethargic claws across the garden.
Inklings of drowsiness escaped into the castle ground and overcame Rowan and a couple of the heroes as well, surreptitious yawns and tired hums making their rounds along them.
"Well, then, we've spent the better part of the day looking around the castle. What say we call it a day?" Lucien said, eyeing the guard who'd been rather monotone in the expedition.
"Yeah, my fire doesn't burn quite as bright without a good night's rest!" Kaia yelled, pumping one fist in the air while grasping her bulbous biceps muscle with the other.
"Why--but we're not even halfway done with the tour..." The guard pouted, emotion bursting out of his face in ways that Rowan hadn't even envisioned he could.
"You know, you should really treat your guests better." Liora mused, poking away at the guard's chest plate the same way a mother would to their child.
An intense yet subtle emotion clawed its way through Rowan's chest, nostalgic bliss knocking him out of the present and dragging along a past feeling--the same motherly sensation that he'd felt when he first met Liora that made this new world seem a little less foreign.
A smile peeked through Rowan's expression, driving him to cross his shoulders and turn his head the other way to conceal the drop of water that had trinkled from his eye.
"Oh yes, why, of course, lady Liora! I don't know where my manners have gone." The guard spat out, frantically recomposing himself as he turned around to face the hallway that we'd just come down from.
"But firstly, if you may, would you partake in the great banquet that we've arranged for you heroes?"
The smell of warm meat and alcohol nuzzled into the heroes' nostrils, enticing their more instinctual sides.
Kaia's stomach grumbled--no, roared, a sparkle glimmering in her eyes in the form of stars.
"Did you say a banquet?" Kaia asked, now drooling at the mouth while her already tattered composure was made fully null.
Zoom!
As she dashed down and across the halls, three of the heroes looked around at each other in complete confusion, but Elias was quick with a response, clawing away at the others to push himself further ahead.
"Hey, you guys are hungry, aren't you? Last to make it to the food's a rotten egg!" He yelled, hurtling forward at nearly the same speed as Kaia.
"Idiots..." Lucien muttered, his left palm on his face while looking down in embarrassment.
"Yeah, but I think things are best this way." Liora chimed in, smiling at the two buffoons racing across the halls.
Rowan twisted his head, facing himself towards her in quiet amusement.
"And why is that?" He inquired, tapping Liora on her shoulder to grab her attention.
"Hm..." Liora hummed, pausing for a moment while closing her eyes in slowed contemplation, finally getting the words to leave her throat after a few seconds, "I guess it's because they remind me of my siblings back from my home."
Rowan stopped walking for a moment, a hoarse breath of air escaping his lungs while he struggled to find the proper response.
Ultimately, he opted for silence, quietly smiling back at her and looking back on towards the end of the hallway.
"Well, you guys, this food looks good, doesn't it?"
A light extended through and from Kaia, revealing both her and the wild menagerie of food and drink.
...
In front of Rowan was a plethora of dishes, bottomed with pale glass plates.
The main course was a large heap of red meat surrounding one thick bone, drizzled in a black, viscous sauce.
Surrounding it along the same dish was a single purple leaf, aether flowing out of it.
The resounding glow was enough to almost dissuade Rowan from trying it, but when he saw the way Kaia was hounding away at her meat with such intensity that she was actually growling like a rabid beast, he felt it would be far too wasteful to simply shove away his plate.
Rowan grabbed his four-pronged fork, haphazardly stabbing into his food while edging his body backwards a little bit, half-expecting it to blow up.
Instantly, Rowan's eyes opened from their squint, his posture more relaxed as the fork just passed through the meat like a soft ball of clouds.
'It's fall off the bone!' He yelled in his mind, the meat beginning to slide down as he picked up the single bone it was attached to.
Extending his lower jaw out, he vied for a small piece, letting some of the black sauce trickle down along with it.
"Mmmmm!" He hummed, his eyes vibrant with life.
The texture was beyond description, like if one were to mix meat and cotton candy all into one.
Just a moment's contact with saliva was enough for the meat to almost melt away completely, the calories burning in his gut in liquid form just as fast.
It was with this that his stomach thrummed and rose in temperature, the feeling of a nicely resonating heater soothing the rest of his body.
Rowan grew desperate for the sensation, clawing away for a second bite even faster.
He grew to appreciate the meat's taste even more with his next mouthful of meat, the sauce an earthy, fermented flavor with a hinge of salt. If Rowan were to try to put his finger on it, he'd imagine the sauce as a mixture of soy sauce and steak sauce.
The meat's flavor wasn't all that foreign to him, however. It had the same rich, grassy flavor as slow-cooked lamb, yet, after more careful introspection, Rowan felt another flavor skillfully interwoven into the meat that wasn't replicable by anything of his world.
There were specks of purple in such small quantity that they would hardly have been noticeable by one not actively seeking it out, but yet there sat Rowan, carefully inspecting the meat.
Unknowingly, he was garnering bad attention, some of the nearby guards looking down at Rowan with reserved vexation.
Some of the angered would turn their heads in secret, saying, 'how ungrateful he is', and others commenting, 'to suspect the royal palace of poisoning his food; how preposterous!'
Rowan could hear them, however, and resigned himself in hushed shame, looking down with little to nothing to make of the situation.
"I pray the food has been serving you all well?"
The king's statement a cutthroat blade to the bad attention Rowan had brought to himself, the heroes all looked towards Viral, Kaia halfway through her fourth slab of meat and the other heroes having almost cleared out their plates.
"Yes, this food has, by far, exceeded my expectations." Lucien cut in, rubbing his stomach with a belated satiety.
"Oh, yeah, this food's great! I've never seen anything like it." Elias added, inattentively holding onto one of the purple leaves.
"This is the best meat I've ever had, worthy of a demon queen's palette!" Kaia disjointedly announced, licking the bone of the ravaged remains of the meat she'd just been holding in her hand a few seconds ago.
A few men in the room twitched at her remark, breaking their before ironclad composure.
"Ah-- I mean, yes, this meat is amazing!" She immediately added, turning away with a red blush in her cheeks as she feigned aloofness.
"This food is quite delectable. Please do send the chefs my best regards." Liora warmly spoke, her smile investing a warmth in Rowan's chest with even greater soul than the meat he'd been badgering at just moments ago.
The sudden onslaught of emotion froze Rowan, choking out his words.
Unluckily, the rest of the room shifted their attention to Rowan, the guards recoiling in disgust at his expression.
He'd had an unnaturally wide smile, almost intruding onto the space where his eyes were, his nose puckered to such an extent that dozens of lines filled the gap between his nostrils and his temple.
Liora looked up to where he was sitting, lightly waving her hand back at him. She had an innocent smile to her, wholeheartedly responding to Rowan's stare.
The act was too much for him to handle, his heart impacting against cupid's arrow, the shifting of some emotion in him stirring enough to completely incapacitate him.
"And you, Sir Rowan?" The king inquired, breaking Rowan's daze.
"Uh... Ah... Well... this food was... good. Wait, no. I-it was great!"
Rowan's stammering caused some in the room to reel their heads back, stifling laughter through grit teeth and covered mouths.
The king on the other hand, laid still with the same monotone expression that invoked a distant annoyance in Rowan for reasons he felt he couldn't explain.
"Well, I'm thankful that you heroes were able to enjoy the banquet prepared in your name. I'll tell you, getting all the necessary materials for your legendary palettes was no small feat, hah."
The king's small break in his composure made Rowan feel as if an imaginary weight were lifted from his shoulders, the distance between the heroes and the king being enclosed inch by inch.
"If you truly enjoyed the food as much as you say you did, then it pains me even more to cut this banquet short."
The heroes, some more than others, were all adopting faces of wide-eyed bewilderment, some slamming their hands on the wide feasting table while opening their mouths in ready anticipation of refuting.
"Of course, you heroes may request for food to be brought to your quarters, but for the time being, I humbly request for you to consult the royal seer."