Despite her fitful sleep, when the run rose that morning, Elona rose with it. Pushing her restless night from her mind, Elona shot one last look at the window as she gathered up her belongings. To think that the window would be so easily unlocked. She’d woken so many times in the night just to double check that the lock was secure that it was hard for her to believe she’d slept at all. That was hardly uncommon, though. Sleep was as elusive as a rare bird. Speaking of elusive creatures, Elona shook off her morning fatigue. The deer herds would be moving, and if she dallied too long, she might miss them entirely.
It was only when she was lacing her boots that Elona reflected on her visitor from the night before. He hadn’t seemed to mean her any harm, but she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d truly only meant to use her room as his hiding place. Pulling on the laces overly hard, Elona thrust him from her mind. No matter who he had been, she had to leave. It was better that she was gone before she knew how far into the darkness he’d been able to see. It had been a blessing that when he’d let the moonlight into the room, he hadn’t thought to look back.
He’d had the chance to see far more than she’d ever allowed another, Elona considered. Even ignoring just her scales, she’d been naked, vulnerable in many ways. While searching for her cloak, her hand came across the iron poker. It had been left to tend the small stove, but when Elona had gripped it, she hadn’t thought beyond getting the intruder out. Had she gone with more than her gut reaction, her base instincts, she’d’ve taken the time to find her cloak as well. Only luck had kept her secret.
Yelling at herself to stop, Elona pushed to her feet and slung her bow over her shoulder. Spending all morning chewing over what had happened the night before wouldn’t help her, and it certainly wouldn’t get her job done. Which meant it wouldn’t get her fed, clothed, or warm. Taking a determined breath, Elona moved her eyes in one last sweeping look over the room. She spun on her heel and strode towards the door, unlocking it. Rolling the key in her palm as she took quick steps down the slim staircase, Elona tried to calm herself.
The bottom floor of the inn housed the tavern, and the desk where the innkeeper currently stood. Even though she knew the modest inn was prosperous, it was the plumpness of the innkeeper that told Elona just how well he was doing. He seemed amiable enough, with an inviting smile, but the sign behind him spoke volumes otherwise. It’s calm statement, denouncing those he didn’t allow within his walls, belied his joviality.
“No Beastials Allowed.”
Swallowing the bile flowing in her mouth that she was reduced to interacting with him, Elona wished that the forest town had possessed more than one inn. It had not, however, and so she walked towards him with a vigorous pace, intent on paying up the remainder of her bill and being done with this place. As she handed over the key, Elona felt the prickle of someone’s gaze on her, and she flicked her eyes towards the tavern.
Though this early in the morn she would have expected it to be mostly deserted, there were a few stragglers from the night before. They were nursing what little remained of their drinks, and from the glances they shot at the sun peering through the windows, many of them were disgruntled to find the night had passed. The few who had enough wits about them to look at her were clearly trying to see underneath the hood of her cloak, but Elona merely shifted her head in a nod towards the innkeeper, obscuring her features. Though the looks had been drunken curiosity rather than that of suspicion, Elona couldn’t afford any risks. Not after how close things had come last night.
Upset with herself that once again her mind had turned away from her, Elona kept her gaze on the floor as she headed for the door. Her palm was resting on it, ready to push, when another hand curled it’s eerily sausage like fingers around her wrist. Her stomach rolled, and Elona closed her eyes for a split second. Opening them, and struggling to maintain her bland expression, Elona raised her eyes to the bloodshot pair. He might have been slightly taller than her, if he hadn’t been leaning against the wall for balance, and his form was that of someone who’d once been fit but had taken too hard to drink of late. Keeping her voice icily level, Elona murmured,
“Yes?”
The man blinked, staggering for a moment under the chill of her voice, but recovered quickly, “It’s rude to sneak off so early. Why not stick around a while? Let us townfolk get to know you, mystery lady.”
Relief was tempting, but Elona pushed it off. The man’s statement sounded more like a drunken attempt at flirting, rather than an accusation of guilt. This didn’t mean she wasn’t in some sort of trouble if she wasn’t careful. As she remained perfectly still, debating her options, the portly drunkard made an attempt to forcibly lead her to the bar. For a moment, she didn’t move at all. Quickly, Elona realized that a man of his frame not being able to budge a woman of her own was more suspicious than not, and she allowed herself to be dragged slightly. Digging her heels against the wooden floor of the tavern, Elona made a show of struggling to remove her wrist from his grip. As they came to a stop, the drunkard turned and shot Elona a confused expression.
“I thank you for the invitation,” Her voice, ever moderate, betrayed nothing with her tone. “But I must be off.”
A swift flick of her wrist, timed to look like the man had loosened his grip, and Elona swung around and pushed out into the dawn light. Admittedly disturbed by the encounter, she lengthened her stride, her feet eating up the distance between her and the town outskirts. Just because she could likely have overpowered the man easily didn’t meant the prospect of having to do so didn’t make her skin crawl.
“Hey-oh! I almost didn’t recognize you!”
Elona felt her heart slam to a stop in her ribs, and she found her feet coming to a halt despite herself, before she swung around. Sure enough, she was staring straight into an unfamiliar face- topped with twitching fox ears. The boy from last night. The moonlight had lit up his ears as he departed, confirming all Elona had suspected about why he’d felt the urge to hide. He wasn’t human. Standing stock still, staring blankly at his beaming grin, Elona came to realize he was talking. To her, in fact.
“-And after all, considering how rude I accidentally was, I figured it was more than the right thing to do to track you down to apologize! Though, I guess I should also apologize for hanging around to waylay you.”
“I- you- what?”
“I hung around the inn, so I could see you again!” He sounded pleased with himself, excited even, and Elona just couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Why he should be so enthused at the thought of seeing her after she had put in a fair effort to hurt him, she had no idea. Especially after her parting words.
“I thought- wasn’t it obvious that-... why?” Her moderate tone had been lost, finally falling as her voice cracked on the final word.
“Why?” His head tilted, like the question confused him to such a level he had to angle his head to hear it better.
“Did you seek me out?” That was the part that most baffled Elona. That their chance meeting might lead him to try and find her again was the most inconceivable notion.
There was a flicker of pain in his amber eyes, and Elona felt stricken, but she shoved it aside. Forced herself to tear her gaze away from his as well. The color of his eyes had surprised her, but it’d been so long since she’d met the gaze of someone else that they could have been any shade and likely gotten the same reaction. Her question was a reasonable one, considering the circumstances. In any normal world, by any rational logic, he would have tried to get as far away as possible from whatever he was trying to avoid the blame for. Yet he’d stayed close to the inn, specifically to see her. Feeling her bow slipping off her shoulder, Elona reached to adjust it, reminded that she was losing the light.
“Never mind, I need to head out. Apology accepted, I suppose. Just… Just don’t-”
“Can I come with you?”
Folding his hands behind his head, like he hadn’t just knocked the breath right out of her, the foxkith man gave a half-grin. Elona merely schooled her features to mask her shock. Not only was it unlikely that he hadn’t been about to guess the nature of her next request, he seemed to completely lack self preservation. Why by the dragons would he ask to accompany someone he’d never met? He couldn’t possibly even know where she was going, was he expecting her to protect him from the humans? How was she supposed to hide from him if it began to rain while she was hunting? Alarmed that the course of her questions implied that she was considering allowing him to come along, Elona found herself refusing more harshly than she’d intended.
“No, I’m going into the woods to hunt. Alone.”
The words were cold, in a way her icy tone before hadn’t been. Twin emotions flooded through her, both the relief that she hadn’t fallen into a dangerous decision, and disappointment at the prospect of crushing all the enthusiasm he’d had. She only hoped her expression was as impassive as ever. 825Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh6bBsx1wPG
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