A Good Night's Sleep?

"She was asking who'd sleep on the floor. She tells me that the room might very well have only one bed."

"I will," said Astra, somewhat regretfully. She hadn't had a single comfortable night's sleep for about a month now. Such was the price of adventure.

"No, it's fine, I can see you've been through a lot. I will," said Angela.

"All right," said Astra, since getting into an argument over that would be a bit pointless, and she somehow had the sense that Angela wouldn't concede easily.

"Here's the key," said the landlord. "You're in room number 13." They walked through the main room towards the back stairs. The noxious odor of that mysterious smoke permeated the air, making the three women cough. Angela seemed particularly perturbed by it somehow. She glowed slightly for about a second, and Astra felt the smoke part away from them as the waters of Lake Tol Nostra had for Phyrra. Astra could see that the men in the room were quite effected by the presence of the three attractive young women. Angela answered their surreptitious glances uneasily, Charmina with a well-practiced look that seemed to say "Not yet, wait your turn." Astra herself determinedly ignored them. She could here them mutter unpleasantly once Angela briefly glowed, but they soon seemed to convince themselves they'd been seeing things.

As Astra walked up the stairs, she saw someone drop a lit match on the wood floor. Before she could do anything, the fire slowly died down. It would seem that the wood of this building had been enchanted to absorb fire. By now, Astra wasn't really surprised. At the top of the stairs, they found themselves in a relatively narrow hallway. Each of the doors had a number on it. After a rather embarrasingly long time of thrying to find their way around, because this was a different system from the inns in Astra's and Charmina's homelands, they found room number 13. With great relief, they opened the door. It had two small beds and one large blue couch with portruding armrests, so no one would have to sleep on the floor. At the other end of the room was a mysterious dial that none of them were going to risk tinkering with yet. There was also a strange glass box inside a cabinet.

Charmina lay on one of the beds and soon drifted into slumber. Angela, seeming more troubled, lay on the couch. Astra removed her armor, felt immensely relieved as she felt the somewhat soft bed, and fell more or less instantly asleep.

1. The night passes without event.
2. Astra has a strange dream--perhaps an aftereffect of the strange mage's spell?
3. A loud noise outside their window wakes the three women up in the middle of the night.

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree