The platform went up smoothly, and when they reached the top, that was when the little basilisk girl decided to pop out of Elanore's inventory. She slithered up to Penelope with a smile and grabbed her hand.
"Grandma, why did you guys leave me behind when all of the fun was out here?"
Penelope smiled down at the little girl. "We couldn't have you getting hurt fighting monsters, could we?"
Elanore wanted to protest that this basilisk was actually way older than her mother. Moreover, she is also much stronger than all of my other subordinates combined. There is no need for you to dote on her and feel like...
Naela tapped on the vampire's shoulder and whispered into her ear. "Mistress, I think it's better to let them have this. I have observed lots of humans, and I think you can't stop grandparents from doting on children. It is one of the facts of this world."
"I guess, there are many things our worlds share in common."
Elanore sighed and walked over to the nearby stand with a dwarf behind it. Now that she was looking at him, she felt it was strange for dwarves to live in such a hot climate. She always imagined that they'd be in cold mountains, mining for minerals. Wouldn't the heat make them evolve more surface area, or something?
The dwarf looked up at her with a furrowed brow. "Well?"
"Ah, sorry," Elanore said, pulling a pretty pink coin from her inventory. Naturally, it had the most gorgeous face this world had ever seen, and she flicked it towards the man. "When you find yourself in my kingdom in the future, you will realize what this means."
The dwarf's brow wrinkled and he started studying it up in the light, but before he could ask anything, Elanore had already started running away. Though, she heard him mumble under his breath.
"Damn, tourist brats."
"Mistress, that dwarf has no idea what you meant. Shouldn't you explain yourself properly?"
"No, you wouldn't understand. You've never watched television or anime."
Penelope briefly took her attention away from the granddaughter. "I knew that those things would fry your brain at some point."
"Mom, you can't even talk. You watched anime when you were younger, too."
"Yeah, but those were the classics. Back then, everything was always hand drawn. There was no CGI or AI." She reached into her pocket, but then stopped after a second, her eyes widening.
Elanore sighed. "The cigarettes are gone, and you shouldn't have started smoking anyways."
The little basilisk girl walked up and pressed her face into Elanore's robes. "I was right. You two really do smell very similar. What are cigarettes, by the way?"
"Cigarettes are bad for you, so you should never even try them. You ever heard of a carcinogen?"
Neshy shook her head. "What's a carcinogen?"
Elanore couldn't help a grin appearing on her face. She reached down and pet the girl's hair. "When you act like this, you really are like a child."
Naela nodded in admiration. She reached down and clasped the little girl's cheeks with both hands. "It's true, isn't it mistress? Neshy, do you want to ride on my shoulders again?"
Neshy responded with a frantic nod of her own and reached up with her arms. "Yes, please!"
Naela didn't hesitate and hefted the girl into the air before catching her. The not-dragon grinned and gripped both of Neshy's legs. "I never thought that I would be so happy for more people to join our group, mistress."
"The more, the merrier, I suppose." Elanore followed an ankylosaur with her eyes. It moved on top of a bridge, connecting the ridges together, and on the other side, there seemed to be a herd of them entering a tunnel. "What is the point of all those dinosaurs? Do they really use them to mine?"
"Yes, mistress, the dwarves have been mining in this desert with those beasts for centuries. It was even before I was born."
Penelope smiled. "You always did like dinosaurs. You want to go check them out and see what they're up to?"
Elanore's cheeks flushed. "Hey, we're not in some kind of dinosaur petting zoo, you know. Keep in mind, the last dinosaur would have loved to eat you. I am sure they're not gonna let tourists see them anyway."
Naela shrugged. "I have no idea. The last time I went here was on official business." She pointed towards a large sandstone structure further in the valley. "We delivered some kind of tome to that place."
Hearing those words, Elanore pulled another tome out of her inventory, remembering that she still had Morgana's tome to go through. "I wonder if it's similar to this thing. Actually, now that I think about it, I can maybe use this to teach you magic, mom."
"I thought we were here to get ingredients to make a kettle? Speaking of which, I am starting to feel famished. Do you think this city has any curry?"
"I have no idea. Despite how long I've been here, I am not very well-versed in this world's knowledge. A lot of their meals consist of dinosaurs. I wouldn't be surprised if they were eating those iguanodons from earlier."
Neshy sniffed the air and pointed towards a sand brick building with heat exiting towards the sky from a chimney. "Can we go there, mother?"
Elanore nodded. "Of course, we can. I have basically infinite money, even if much of it is pink now."
Naela shrugged. "The dwarves will appreciate your coins more than the human's, mistress. They can figure out that it's real gold, and they appreciate good craftsmanship."
"I don't even know if they can be called gold anymore. It's more like they're pink ore...Imagine if there was a pink ore in the ground. Do you think that these dwarves would start mining for it?"
Nobody seemed to answer, the two other adults were looking at Elanore as if she would be the one to do such a thing, and the little basilisk was drooling from the mouth at the prospect of food. Et tu, mom? Are you going to start thinking that I am gonna do something crazy as well? Though, I did tell her I died.
Ella sighed and walked forwards, pushing open the first wooden door she'd found. Many smells rushed to her nose, and a vibrant atmosphere filled the place. Dwarves argued to each other, while sitting at tables. Though, a lot of them instantly turned to the entrance when they saw the traveling band of...family?
The witchpire looked towards her uncertain mother with a conflicted expression. I have to talk to her more later. I hope she's not too upset about me dying still.