necessary.
"I'm blind! Not deaf!" She yells back
at me with a voice that cracks on every second word.
"I wasn't... I wasn't thinking that at
all."
The innkeeper harrumphs and looks at me coldly.
"Can I get a room, one with two beds,
please?"
"What do you know, a room just became
available. That will be four silver," she says sarcastically while
pretending to look through the inn's log book, despite being blind.
"Umm, sure."
I hand over the money and the old lady hands me
a rusty bronze key. She points to the staircase and tells me it is room 24 on
the second floor. Fen and I follow her instructions and head toward our room.
Every step on the staircase causes the boards to sink and creak, and every step
makes me think this one will surely break.
Almost as if my thoughts had jinxed me, the
very next step breaks and my foot goes straight through it, causing me to
tumble forward. I don't suffer any damage, but I am quite embarrassed.
After straightening back up, I turn around
expecting the old innkeeper to be furious about damaging the inn, but she has
completely vanished.
'Has she gone back into the kitchen or
somewhere?'
Realizing that she mustn't know about the step
breaking just now, I quickly ascend to the second floor and walk down a long
corridor lined with rooms. Beside each door is a brass room number as old and
rusted as the key in my hand is.
It isn't long before we reach a room labelled
“24”. The sliding doors to the room are held together by a large padlock. I
place the key in the lock and after a bit of fiddling, it finally opens. My
heart starts beating faster as I open the door, not knowing what to expect on
the other side.
The doors rattle as they slide open and reveal
the room. I’m dumbfounded as the room is perfectly normal and exactly what I
would expect from a third-rate inn. There is a window at the back of the room,
showing the moon rise as night has just begun. All the walls are in good
repair, so my only issue is that this room has just a single bed, and a
relatively small one at that.
"Fen, wait here!" I say to the wolf
before angrily stomping down to the common room to complain about being given
the incorrect room.
When I arrive at the bar downstairs, the old
lady still isn't there. I try knocking on the bench and even calling out to
her, but she doesn't respond. Frustrated, I return to the room, tripping on
another broken step along the way.
Fen is standing by the window with one hand
against the glass and staring outside as if she is looking for something.
"Fen, looks like we will have to share
this single bed tonight."
My words cause the wolf girl to instantly turn
around and smile in delight. I climb into the bed first, and Fen silently
climbs in and pulls herself close to me shortly after. I feel her nose tickle
my ear and hear the short sounds of her breathing, but try to clear my head and
focus on sleeping.
Her breathing slows down and I realize she has
just fallen asleep. I lie there and try focus on falling asleep, but the system
assist doesn't seem to take hold of me. I furrow my brow with my eyes still
closed, a little annoyed.
A loud crash sounds against the door and my
eyes fling wide open as my heart beats erratically at the sudden fright. Any
thoughts of sleep are instantly dispelled along with whatever fatigue I was
feeling.
I climb out of the bed and carefully approach
the door to the room. I open the door an inch, hoping to see who would make
such a racket at this hour, but don't see anyone there. Opening the door wider,
I quickly poke my head out and glance up and down the corridor before pulling
it back in.
'Strange! There is no one there.'
I close the door and move to return to the bed.
As soon as I take two steps, the crashing against the door sounds again,
causing me to physically jump in fright. I don't try looking behind the door
again, but instead dash to the bed.
"Fen! Wake up! We are leaving this damned
place, right now!" I shake the wolf girl
"I'm blind! Not deaf!" She yells back
at me with a voice that cracks on every second word.
"I wasn't... I wasn't thinking that at
all."
The innkeeper harrumphs and looks at me coldly.
"Can I get a room, one with two beds,
please?"
"What do you know, a room just became
available. That will be four silver," she says sarcastically while
pretending to look through the inn's log book, despite being blind.
"Umm, sure."
I hand over the money and the old lady hands me
a rusty bronze key. She points to the staircase and tells me it is room 24 on
the second floor. Fen and I follow her instructions and head toward our room.
Every step on the staircase causes the boards to sink and creak, and every step
makes me think this one will surely break.
Almost as if my thoughts had jinxed me, the
very next step breaks and my foot goes straight through it, causing me to
tumble forward. I don't suffer any damage, but I am quite embarrassed.
After straightening back up, I turn around
expecting the old innkeeper to be furious about damaging the inn, but she has
completely vanished.
'Has she gone back into the kitchen or
somewhere?'
Realizing that she mustn't know about the step
breaking just now, I quickly ascend to the second floor and walk down a long
corridor lined with rooms. Beside each door is a brass room number as old and
rusted as the key in my hand is.
It isn't long before we reach a room labelled
“24”. The sliding doors to the room are held together by a large padlock. I
place the key in the lock and after a bit of fiddling, it finally opens. My
heart starts beating faster as I open the door, not knowing what to expect on
the other side.
The doors rattle as they slide open and reveal
the room. I’m dumbfounded as the room is perfectly normal and exactly what I
would expect from a third-rate inn. There is a window at the back of the room,
showing the moon rise as night has just begun. All the walls are in good
repair, so my only issue is that this room has just a single bed, and a
relatively small one at that.
"Fen, wait here!" I say to the wolf
before angrily stomping down to the common room to complain about being given
the incorrect room.
When I arrive at the bar downstairs, the old
lady still isn't there. I try knocking on the bench and even calling out to
her, but she doesn't respond. Frustrated, I return to the room, tripping on
another broken step along the way.
Fen is standing by the window with one hand
against the glass and staring outside as if she is looking for something.
"Fen, looks like we will have to share
this single bed tonight."
My words cause the wolf girl to instantly turn
around and smile in delight. I climb into the bed first, and Fen silently
climbs in and pulls herself close to me shortly after. I feel her nose tickle
my ear and hear the short sounds of her breathing, but try to clear my head and
focus on sleeping.
Her breathing slows down and I realize she has
just fallen asleep. I lie there and try focus on falling asleep, but the system
assist doesn't seem to take hold of me. I furrow my brow with my eyes still
closed, a little annoyed.
A loud crash sounds against the door and my
eyes fling wide open as my heart beats erratically at the sudden fright. Any
thoughts of sleep are instantly dispelled along with whatever fatigue I was
feeling.
I climb out of the bed and carefully approach
the door to the room. I open the door an inch, hoping to see who would make
such a racket at this hour, but don't see anyone there. Opening the door wider,
I quickly poke my head out and glance up and down the corridor before pulling
it back in.
'Strange! There is no one there.'
I close the door and move to return to the bed.
As soon as I take two steps, the crashing against the door sounds again,
causing me to physically jump in fright. I don't try looking behind the door
again, but instead dash to the bed.
"Fen! Wake up! We are leaving this damned
place, right now!" I shake the wolf girl
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