FSE

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Part 1

The huddled shape breathed slow and deep, visualizing the act as he did. Eyes closed, one breath in, one breath out. His arms hugging his body tightly, on his knees, naked on the forest floor. The clear morning sky slowly brightened, now threatening sun after having banished the night's stars. He took a deep breath again, his hands moving in slow circles, fingers feeling the bumps on his back where his wings should have been. Yogoloth opened his rich purple eyes and took another deep, slightly wavering breath.

The usual pain of his transformation had faded, but the loss of his wings had brought a fresh wave of panic. It was perfectly normal for his two legged form to vary slightly each time he changed. Sometimes his horns were shorter, other times his throat would lose its scutes, once he'd even lost his fluffy gryphon-like ears. His wings would often vary in size too, they would always be useless even for gliding, but they had never shrunk away entirely before.

"They'll be waiting for me.", he whispered to himself. "It's more convenient this way.", Yogoloth rose slowly to his feet, trying to put his mind at rest.

He walked over to the leather pack he'd brought with him and opened it up. The act was far easier with opposable thumbs. He carefully donned some leather breeches, a woolen tunic, a light cloak and a pair of special, toeless boots. With the pack tied back up and slung over his shoulder, he was almost ready. Yogoloth focused on his magical reserves and pulled a good few strands out. He quickly shaped them into the disguise that would hide his ears, fur and horns. His hide finally turned grey and he felt a little safer as the passable lizard man he always took the role of.

Normally Yogoloth would have left it at that. The magic still bound to him in such a way that he could reclaim and recycle it in a few short moments. However, it would also prevent him regaining the power invested as he normally would over time. So instead he tugged at it in a particular way and it changed subtly. Still disguising him as before, it now acted as though another had placed the magic upon him. Although he could not recycle it now, his reserves would slowly replenish to full strength as normal.

Yogoloth guessed he would probably be in this form for a few days at least. His magic would have the chance to replenish completely, whereas normally it would not. This way, after today, he would be at full strength and yet still have his disguise intact. The disguise should easily last a week probably longer; that would be plenty of time to do what he came here to do.

The road to Stone Haven was an hour's walk from here, through the trees, over fairly rough ground. Then several more hours walk to reach the town itself. Yogoloth had picked his spot partly because it was fairly remote, but mostly because he would reach an inn fairly early on in his journey. It would give him chance to get used to being around the civilised races again before heading into the large port town.

Yogoloth had very briefly been to Stone Haven a few years ago, it had been dark and the weather miserable. He'd never been to such a large settlement on his own before; nor for as long as he expected he would be this time. It was probably going to be stressful and probably dangerous. Although in the end, it would be worth it.

For the next hour and a half, time passed rather quickly for the half dragon. His kind's ability to become absorbed into almost any task, no matter how simple or mundane, came into good use. The trees began to thin, the air began to warm and soon Yogoloth was free of the forest and onto a well travelled road. He headed north, the tough leather soles of his boots protecting his paw pads from the rocks used to keep the road passable and mostly free from vegetation.

It was not long before his keen eyes spotted the inn ahead. He'd not been to this particular inn before. It was clearly just a modified farmstead whose owners decided that their location was perfect to accommodate travellers on their way to and from Stone Haven. As Yogoloth got closer, he realised that the inn even had a small wooden shed a little way back from the road which was being offered as a gryphon stable. There didn't appear to be a gryphon staying there now however. Yogoloth chuckled to himself. The shed was no doubt dry and more comfortable than a cave floor, but it looked rather cramped.

As he got within earshot of the inn itself he could hear a pair of voices having what sounded like a polite conversation. Not friendly, not aggressive. The sort of tone between two strangers with other things on their minds than the conversation at hand. The disguised half dragon took a deep breath as he reached the door and put on his best smile. The civilised races loved a good smile.

Part 2

The day was still rather young, only a couple of hours since the sun had lit up the blue sky and set birds and insects flying in the light breeze. Yogoloth wished he could join them and the constant feeling, or rather lack of feeling of his wings, kept reminding him of just how long it would probably be before he could take to the skies again. So he ordered an ale instead.

Or rather, as Yogoloth approached the counter, little more than a plank of wood on top of two old slightly rotted barrels, a middle aged human tipped the remains of a previous drink out onto the floor and began to refill the wooden mug. Written in charcoal on a nearby wall, the cost of an ale was two copper bits, so the disguised half dragon put them on the counter. He was going to grab an ale anyway.

"'Eadin' inta Stone 'aven.", he spoke in common Namarian without turning, Yogoloth wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement. He decided to confirm either way.

"Yes. I thought I'd stop for a drink and to rest my legs for a moment.", the young hybrid responded in kind. He'd been working on his Namarian over the last few years with Natanii and Reinald and he'd become rather good at it.

"Ah. Thought so.", he seemed to be studying the ale rather carefully as he poured it. "Not seen ya kin' round 'ere before. Not complainin' mind ya, jus' sayin'."

Yogoloth resisted the urge to laugh, the innkeep had no idea just how right he was. "No. I'm a long way from home. I prefer to travel, than stay in one place."

That seemed to end the conversation and Yogoloth took a moment to look around the establishment. The Inn of the Cracked Plow was a modest building, even for a travellers inn. Clearly a converted barn, it had a couple of rooms at the back and a long fire pit to warm travellers on long winter's nights. Most walls were mere wattle and daub and there was certainly no glass in the windows.

A young man with a moderately clean apron was collecting woollen and fur rugs from around the fire pit. He started pulling chairs and tables out to where the rugs had been. The older man behind the counter, who didn't have enough teeth, grinned as he put the ale on the counter and took the coins. Yogoloth guessed they were father and son from their identical square jaws and straw-like hair.

The ale turned out to be rather sweet and slightly acidic at the same time. No doubt brewed out back or in a basement with whatever extra fruits or berries they had to hand at the time thrown into the brew. It wasn't unpleasant, although Yogoloth almost wished it was. Plants did not sit well with his carnivorous stomach, but you ferment them into a drink, and suddenly his body was prepared to give them a chance. He took another sip and found himself a table near the door where he could watch people come and go.

It was still fairly early, but most travellers would have left on the way to Stone Haven by now. It wasn't far, he would easily be able to make it before night fall and find a decent inn to stay in. Probably the one he'd visited briefly before. Although that visit hadn't gone exactly according to plan, Natanii had given him some ideas on how he could prevent a similar situation again. Besides, he would be at full magical strength this time round.

"Ya 'eadin' out, young miss.", the older man called out as he scratched his only slightly podgy belly.

Yogoloth turned in time to see a young tigress emerging from one of the two crude makeshift rooms. She wore a pale green dress, which he guessed had been dyed herself, with a pair of sandals tied up around her ankles that protected the pads on her feet and nothing more.

"Am so excited! Canna wait to see me sis. Been years!", the young tigress exclaimed a little loudly.

"Ya lizard o'er there is 'eadin' inta town too.", the gap tooth grin reappeared on the human's face as he tipped out the rest of the mugs. He arranged them in a crude line, upside down on the counter. "Two's safer thun one. E's a trav'la too, prob'bly more used ta towns."

Yogoloth didn't have much time to wonder what he was being volunteered for before the young tigress closed the gap between them, gave him a toothy grin and held out an open hand towards him. "Tash... of Shoebridge."

Yogoloth decided not to make a big fuss over it, the whole idea of coming here was to break himself into civilised socializing before he reached the town. If he couldn't handle this, he'd never survive in Stone Haven itself.

"J'darden... just J'darden."

"Juh-dar-den.", she repeated a little slower and then smiled. "Ready now?"

Yogoloth looked into his mug of ale and slowly smiled. "I can be.", he said before swallowing the rest and getting to his feet.

It would probably be better to arrive at the town with someone else, especially if she had a sister waiting for her. It would almost legitimize his arrival. Apparently, lone strangers were viewed with more suspicion than groups of strangers. He had no idea why, surely a group would be more dangerous.

With that, the two of them left the inn and hit the road towards Stone Haven. Tash seemed young and energetic, they would probably make good time. It wouldn't be so bad to have a little company either.

Part 3

"Only three years older than.", Tash continued. "Buuuut just had to see the town. Left yeeeaaars back, gonna be great to see again."

Yogoloth nodded as they walked along the dusty path together. He wasn't exactly very good at making what the civilized races called 'small talk', but thankfully the young tigress was perfectly able to talk for two. Her excitement at visiting the large town and seeing her sister was almost palpable. She had a slightly annoying habit of missing out words from her sentences, or stretching them out for far too long, which made it hard to know who or what she was talking about. The disguised dragon wasn't sure if she was over excited or that was just the way she spoke.

"Only live two days from, but so haaaard to get time from farm. Had to save some bits for inns and such. Sis said could find a bed for me once get to Stone Haven.", Tash looked up at the rising sun and smiled. "Never been so far from home!"

Yogoloth couldn't help but chuckle at that. Two days travel on foot was probably about two hours flight for him. Probably less because he could travel in a straight line while the two legged folk had to follow the roads. He'd been to places that would take months of flying to reach, places that these folks couldn't even imagine, places that even Reinald's extensive maps didn't show. Tash seemed to follow his thoughts.

"Where's furthest you've travelled?", she asked sounding genuinely interested.

"Here I guess.", he replied, keeping to his story of being from the Shudan Mountains far across the ocean to the east.

"Oh...", Tash sounded disappointed. Yogoloth smiled as he went on to clarify.

"But I come from beyond the Gretish Nations across the sea originally. Then north and over the mountains."

"Gretish Nations? Not heard of them."

Yogoloth was a little puzzled at first, everyone on the Tylor estate seemed to know of the lands across the sea. Even the barmaid he'd originally spoken to on his first visit to Stone Haven had known. But then Tash was a simple farmer's daughter visiting her first proper town. She was no doubt less knowledgeable about the civilised world at large than Yogoloth was; the thought amused the young half dragon greatly.

"They are a very long way away, it would take me d- many weeks to travel there... by ship and by carriage.", Yogoloth nearly said days but quickly recovered. He imagined that it would take weeks to travel from Stone Haven by sea and road. Probably months now he came to think about it more.

Tash gave a tight lipped grin and sighed before speaking. "Oh! Never been on ship... or carriage... or even seeeeen sea.", she lamented and then added a little more enthusiastically. "Get to see sea at Stone Haven! Where else?"

Yogoloth thought for a moment and went on. "I've sailed the southern ocean too. For many weeks.", he said telling mostly the truth; it could be said he sailed on his wings.

Marrus had always told him to speak as much truth as he could with every lie. If the young hybrid had flown over some mountains then it wouldn't hurt to say he'd travelled through via a mountain pass. If he'd hunted boar on a small island, then admit he'd sailed there and talk of his love of the meat. Truths gave lies believable substance and left fewer details that could be unpicked. Yogoloth's genuine passion about the taste of boar would make the rest of his story more believable.

Tash's eyes widened a little. "Oh! Thought there were monsters... sea serpents and other... things!"

Yogoloth grinned, partly at her reaction and partly at a particularly fond memory. "Well, yes there are. They're very rare and no doubt more concerned with their hunger than harassing ships.", he said using the word hunger carefully. "I've never seen any myself, but I've heard the tales too."

"So what about where you're from? Tell about those mountains!"

So Yogoloth told her about the lands north of the Shudan Mountains, about the lizard people who lived there and about his supposed childhood. He'd long since decided that his fake identity J'darden, would have been raised on his own by his mother, away from the main reptile villages. At least he'd have an excuse not to know too many specifics about 'his people'. Perhaps feeling like an outsider had encouraged him to explore the world. As far as stories go, it was as believable as the next.

"You said your sister lives in Stone Haven, what does she do?", he eventually ran out of half truths and decided to turn attention to Tash. Showing an interest was supposedly polite. Besides, they'd been walking for hours and conversation had been a little hit and miss as the sun had travelled across the sky.

"Scullery maid at rise, bar maid at night. Got a small room, juuust enough space for two.", she replied, the tone of her voice was rather matter-of-fact.

Yogoloth was aware that both jobs were rather demanding, especially a scullery maid. It was hard, unrewarding work which primarily included cleaning just about everything in a kitchen. The young hybrid remembered many of the conversations he'd had with his old friend Marrus about such civilised concepts. For Tash's sister to be able to afford her own room, implied she either did very well indeed at the inn she worked at, or she did another kind of job entirely.

"What about you?", Tash asked brightly, turning to smile at Yogoloth as they began to reach increasingly familiar ground. "How does... Juh-darden afford to do so much travelling?"

"I used to trade in precious metals, stones and jewellery, that sort of thing.", Yogoloth started the script that he and Marrus put together. "Not much now though. I made enough to live on and decided to see as much of the world as I can."

Of course, Yogoloth did know about gold, silver and gems. He'd had a lot of exposure via his mother's hoard and could magically tell if gems were flawed or metals were impure. Jewellery was a little trickier, the half dragon didn't exactly share the same tastes as the civilised races, but it didn't matter; he was playing the part of a lizard from beyond the Shudan Mountains, tastes in jewellery would be different there.

"Oooh... fancy...", Tash spoke, a little distracted, her eyes were focused ahead.

Yogoloth followed her gaze. In the distance he saw some of the taller buildings of the port town become visible as they rounded a corner and the trees by the side of the road thinned. The sun was still a good height in the sky, still a couple of hours before evening. They'd made good progress.

"Welcome to Stone Haven.", he said unable to prevent a smile forming on his own snout.

Part 4

Tash and Yogoloth entered Stone Haven without any further delay roughly fifteen minutes later. They passed between the stone pillars that marked the town boundaries and into the cobbled streets. A wolf, dressed in a mixture of boiled leather and chain, was sat on a wooden stool by one of the pillars. He looked up at the two outsiders, nodded and returned to his conversation with a human standing nearby also in similar garb. Both wore iron swords on their belts, light grey cloaks on their backs and looked rather capable.

Yogoloth turned to make a comment to Tash about the guards, but the young woman hadn't even noticed them. She was busy smiling up at the buildings around them, taking in the sights and smells with a grin on her face. The feeling of being enclosed by all this wood, stone and dirt, wasn't a pleasant one for the disguised hybrid. To the farmer's daughter, however, it was clearly wondrous. Yogoloth frowned a little at his companion.

"This is where I'll be staying, if they have room.", Yogoloth gestured to the inn nearby, The Three Wheatsheaves. "Where are you meeting your sister?", he found himself projecting his voice a little louder than usual, hoping to jolt Tash from out of wherever she was right now.

Tash turned back towards Yogoloth and nearly giggled. "Oh, yes! Place called Grim Mare sis said."

Yogoloth nodded and strode off toward the two guards. They looked up as he approached and the wolf nodded. "What's ya name, son?"

"J'darden. Do you know where the Grim Mare is?", the disguised half dragon asked quickly.

"Hmmm... yah, I do that.", the sitting guard replied giving Yogoloth a good look up and down. "Follow the main road to the market, head right down Docker's Way and it's a proud building on ya left."

"Thank you.", and with that Yogoloth returned to Tash and gestured her to follow him along the road. "It's not far, I'll see that you get there."

Yogoloth was a little confused by this point. He had no reason to help this tigress at all. She was nothing to him, no one here was, none could be his equal, none equal to a dragon. Yet here he was, escorting a civilised tigress through a town he barely knew himself. He'd been in plenty of villages and even a couple of other towns, they were not at all unfamiliar to him, but this didn't seem to make much sense... unless...

He couldn't help but smile to himself and shake his head slightly. He'd felt this same thing before at the colony where his father lived. It was the gryphon side of him that encouraged him to talk to people. Part of him needed that interaction, even as part of him also needed his space. He had been raised as a dragon, and even all these decades later, he still hadn't quite got the grip of being a gryphon too.

Regardless, there was also something satisfying about helping her as well. Perhaps she reminded Yogoloth of himself when he had first entered a civilised settlement with Marrus all those years ago. His old friend had given him a few pointers, but nothing could have really prepared the young hybrid for it. His initial reaction was to constantly watch over his shoulder and he'd reacted to almost every sound as though it could have been a threat. Tash's reaction was staring at everything, with a huge grin on her face.

"I'm going to give you a really important bit of advice.", he said to the young tigress in a tone that caught her attention right away. "Once I leave you, please don't keep staring at everything and grinning. You look every bit the clueless outsider that you are."

"But..."

"No.", he almost growled. "A big town like this is not safe for a young woman on her own.", he said a little awkwardly.

For a dragon, sex didn't matter where safety was concerned. He'd met dragonesses who scared him more than his fellow drakes. But the civilised folk were built differently. Males seemed stronger and more capable of fighting and the females seemed more sociable and more capable of nurturing young. For dragons, the roles were a fairly evenly spread. A dragoness's claws were just as sharp and a drake's nesting bladder was just as large.

"You must promise me you'll get all this staring at everything out of the way before we go our separate ways.", Yogoloth said, wondering again why he cared so much.

"C- course.", Tash replied a little stunned by her companions sudden mood change. "Didn't know it was obvious."

Yogoloth sighed. "Painfully so. I think we're here."

The Grim Mare wasn't exactly what Yogoloth would have called a 'proud building'. It was a solid, two story building of stone and wood, only a few walls on the upper story were wattle and daub. The inn certainly proudly displayed its sign of a sad looking black horse's head. Or did it look stern? Or maybe a little threatening? The half dragon wasn't so sure as the sign was rather weather worn. The establishment was situated on the street corner and there seemed to be a fair bit of foot traffic moving through. He could detect the scent of the sea even more strongly on the air now. Docker's way? Yogoloth assumed this road lead to the harbour.

"Oh! Thank you, Juh'darden.", she hugged him briefly as she nearly got the name right this time. The disguised dragon smiled and she turned, managing to keep from running into the inn.

"Farewell, Tash.", Yogoloth spoke quietly but couldn't help but smile just a little more. He turned around and headed back towards the inn he had chosen for himself. The young hybrid realised that being stuck in this shape for a few days wasn't going to be as bad as the thought. At the very least, he would probably learn a little more about himself than he'd known before.

Part 5

The Three Wheatsheaves offered Yogoloth a semi-familiar place to plan for tomorrow and settle for the night. This was the inn that he'd first visited when searching for the Tylor Estate nearly five years ago. This was the place he'd met Natanii. It reminded him of that night, when the gryphoness had mistaken him for a blood mage and nearly killed him. It only held fond memories now though, and as such, Yogoloth smiled as he headed to the counter without thinking twice.

A young red fox served him an ale and took his coins. He had long hair tied back and his fur looked a little worse for wear. The ale was as pale and weak as he remembered it. It wasn't exactly bad, just not to the half dragon's taste. He looked around the inn and spotted the long fire pit that ran across the far stone wall. He smiled to think that now he knew why it was positioned like that. The stone wall was shared with the gryphon stables behind. At the time, Yogoloth couldn't have known that the inn even had such stables.

The fire pit would warm the stone wall and provide safe radiant heat for any gryphons in the stables beyond. Without any naked flames, they could lounge and spread their wings knowing there was no risk of burning themselves or their bedding. Producing warmth purely with magic was actually quite difficult and very costly. That combined with the Ancient Laws and the fact that not all gryphons had magic anyway, meant that the heated stone wall was of great comfort when the weather turned cold in the winter months.

Now that Yogoloth knew what to look for, he also noticed that the door at the back of the inn was taller and wider than normal. This was to allow gryphons, who wanted to meet and speak with the other civilised races, easy access to the main part of the inn from the stables. There were even some higher tables and stools so that the two legged races could speak with a resting gryphon face to face. Yogoloth could sense that there were no gryphons in the stables right now.

It actually rather impressed Yogoloth, and made him slightly jealous too. If he had been a pure blood gryphon then he could have come here and revealed himself, his true self. He wouldn't have to hide or disguise himself. The half dragon sighed, took another drink from his ale and went to find himself a table. Having this two legged shape was a fine consolation though, just a pity he couldn't fly like this.

Yogoloth settled at a table that had a good view of the inn. It was a little passed its busiest time and people were starting to finish their meals and drinks and slowly the inn began to empty. Unlike many taverns, The Three Wheatsheaves didn't have busy evenings filled with drunken cheer. A few patrons who were staying at the inn had gathered around the hearth or the fire pit and a couple of others had headed upstairs. Yogoloth didn't need to rise too early nor did he require too much sleep, even in this form, so he settled to finish his ale.

He sighed and stared into his mug of ale. He felt a little... bothered. He was comfortable here, resting at the inn, with an ale, surrounded by civilised folk; but tomorrow he had to follow the leads left by that dead poacher. It wasn't something he'd really done before and as the time drew closer, Yogoloth was feeling less and less confident about his mission.

He took another gulp of ale and shifted his weight. It was times like now when he felt the greatest urge to preen his feathers. It would soothe his nerves and allow him to focus his mind on other things. But he couldn't even do that, even in the privacy of a rented room. He'd have to find comfort in some other way, but he had no idea what.

"It is you! I knew I recognised you from somewhere.", a vaguely familiar feminine voice called out and Yogoloth's heart skipped a beat.

Although he was well disguised, and in his two legged form, his overall head and face shape was pretty much identical to his natural form. If someone from the Tylor estate bumped into him, then they probably would recognise him. Yogoloth hoped that under the circumstances, they would assume that the lizard man merely had a passing resemblance to their half gryphon acquaintance. He straightened his back and looked up to see who could have possibly recognised him.

Part 6

"It's been a good few years since I last saw you here.", the slightly buxom human continued.

Yogoloth inwardly let out a deep metaphorical breath and outwardly smiled up at the barmaid. He'd spoken with her at length the last time he had been to this inn. The one and only time he had been to this inn. It had been such an eventful night that he hadn't had the chance to really think about the events leading up to it before. In a way, he had forgotten about her being here.

She quickly collected a couple of used mugs from the table, which had been there when Yogoloth arrived, and wiped the table down with a dubious rag of cloth. The only effect it probably had was just to smear the dirt around rather than make the table any cleaner. The disguised dragon grinned.

"Ah... yes... I'm surprised you remember me at all.", Yogoloth replied, not exactly knowing what to say. She seemed to think for a second.

"J'darden, wasn't it? From beyond the Shudan Mountains?"

"You have a good memory, but then you said you don't get many patrons from so far away.", Yogoloth smiled and took another gulp of ale as the barmaid moved to another empty table nearby.

"I suppose you've been half way across the world since last time we spoke?"

That wasn't far from the truth in many ways. Although Yogoloth had no idea how far the world actually stretched until you reached the end, he had been further than many generations of the civilised races could ever get. The distances involved were difficult even for the half dragon to grasp let alone a human who had probably still yet to explore beyond a ten minute flight from her town of birth.

"I've certainly kept myself busy as best I can.", he said carefully. He didn't want to be pressed for too many details.

"I think the last time we spoke you were heading up to the old Tylor estate? To admire the buildings?", the barmaid said as she wiped down another table. A spillage of ale dripped onto the floor, but she didn't seem to notice or care.

Yogoloth nodded and took another swig from his wooden mug.

"Well, I have to get back to work and get things ready for the morning.", she said hastily, throwing the cloth over one shoulder and stacking some empty mugs together. "So see you again in another few years?", she added with a smirk.

"Actually, I'm looking for a room tonight. I suppose I should have asked earlier.", Yogoloth replied quickly as she began to walk away.

She called out without turning. "I think we have a couple of rooms free tonight, or there's a place by the hearth if you don't have the bits for a room.", she dumped the mugs on the counter and gestured with one hand for Yogoloth to follow.

Yogoloth needed a room where he could feel slightly more comfortable and hopefully get some rest. Sleeping around others would not do. There were few creatures in the world who the half dragon felt comfortable sleeping near and they all knew and accepted him for what he truly was. Nor was his disguise perfect. A private room was the only choice and he most certainly had the bits for it.

"A private room, please."

"Would you like a hot bath for the morning? Breakfast?", she asked while quickly sweeping the mugs to one side and fetching a book from a high shelf behind the counter. "Two bits for the bath, same again for breakfast."

The half dragon didn't sweat like the civilised races did and the breakfast would probably make him sick. So he refused both and simply paid for the room. Besides, he'd eaten yesterday and would probably go without having to eat the meat he'd brought with him before he changed back and could hunt properly. Meat always tasted better after a chase.

He was given a small oddly shaped piece iron, which he recognised as a key, and headed upstairs to the room he'd rented for the night. Stairs, doors, locks, coins. It was all a little too civilised for the disguised dragon's liking. He'd been this 'deep' into the civilized world before, but back then, Marrus had taken charge and merely answered the young hybrid's questions as they arose. Yogoloth knew as much as he needed in order to survive and not to arouse too much attention.

He unlocked the door to his room, slipped inside and locked it behind him. He let out a sigh of relief as he dropped his pack on the bed and found a candle on a small wooden table. Without even thinking, he magically lit the candle with a single finger before walking over to the one narrow window, which the room possessed.

He rested his hands on the ledge and looked out over the town. There were many lights still burning brightly in the night, mostly from oil lamps near the more prosperous districts and the merchant quarter. The odd pair of guards also walked the often narrow streets with torches casting light into shadows. But all in all, the town was rapidly growing still and quiet except for the odd drunken cheer, music or hearty laughter.

Yogoloth felt himself smile at a couple of memories from his younger days with Marrus. He sighed before closing the wooden shutters on the window and began to place a few choice magical wards on the shutters and door of the room. They were enough to prevent either from opening without considerable force and then he would be alerted loudly. Yogoloth removed his tunic, breeches and light boots before settling down.

He wondered how easy it was going to be for him to sleep, but before he knew it, he was.