A sound of brushing. A soft feeling altering from the slight softness of fur towards a more warm feeling of breath. What was it? I don't know. It feels relaxing and soothing. It doesn't feel like the shell of the arachnid, it felt more of a bed, soft from its cotton stuffed in its rags.
I felt a poke on my cheek, it tickled. I scratched my left cheek thinking it was just a measly bug. As I sighed and turned onto my right side, I felt a hard knock onto my nose, alerting me with a quick ache, I shouted in a yelp and rubbed my nose.
"Mister, mister, are you okay?" A voice called out to me from behind as I cooled the ache on my nose's sensitive roof.
"Yeah, I am alright," I replied as I then put on my glasses to see where am I currently. It was a particularly exotic inn of sorts, from left to right, I noticed it filled to the brim with electrical appliances and a lobby for people to rest.
The people here are, however, only monsters. Both male or female, I guessed this was an inn specifically for this type of lives. I was the only one out of the bunch yet they still treated me like a guest, one of their own. They have better hospitality than those of humans from other regions.
Given a hand by one of the inn's staff, I raise my head to notice a lady with deer antlers over her scalp as she had flapping long ears that swayed left and right with each one of her small movements. She was pretty strong for her height, being able to bring me up with just both of her pair of hands with minimal effort. Not even the males bothered and just left her to help me up.
"There we go!" She says with a big smile. "That's one for the human help of today." Letting me stand on my two feet that finally awoken, I nodded at her as I rubbed my coat off the dirt as I looked left and right for the familiar faces that left me on the ground rudely.
"Uh, excuse me," I muttered as I turned to the deer-lady as she adjusts her western pioneer hat and pulls up its knot to a tight lock. "Have you happen to see the people I was with?"
"Sorry, mister, but I just got here, you could ask the receptionist over there, she sees all and knows all that comes around this parts." Pointing to the colleague of hers that wore a similar brown ranger suit, she then hands in some strange green wad of paper to a leaving guest as she notices me peering at her. With a curious smile, she waves at me as she gestures me to head to her.
"I know what you are going to ask. Where were your friends that were with you." With a chuckle, she pulls open her register and picks up two items off its holder as she gripped onto it with a fist before reaching it slowly to me. "Hand me your hand, these are the keys and the business card of these area in-case you need to find your way back here if you scamper about outside."
Speaking in a strange accent, I barely understood her. I wasn't a Northsidean so it was a little hard to catch the pattern of sentence construct which reminded me of Texas-American western films. Nodding my hand with a soft grunt, she then points me to a long and deep hallway which was logged up with structures of small cabins that acted as hotel rooms.
"Go down the hallway, and look for the door with the number written on the key. Alright?" She answers kindly as she smiles at me in a very respective way.
"Thank you very much, it was much appreciated, miss." I reply to her before smiling back and walking my way to the entrace of this long snaking corridor.
"Enjoy your stay~" She sings out as I walzted slowly , reading every number on the door as I looked for the wooden eteched door-sign with 114 crafted into it. As I went deeper and deeper into the hallway, I felt a little irked out as I could hear strange noises and shuffles from left to right. I presumed it was just noises coming from inside the other cabin's residence and their many activities, but other than that, I was worried if the place was haunted. Who knows, after all monsters do come in multiple shapes, sizes and also species.
I remember my time staying in an inn similar to this during my visit to East-side. Barely knowing how to speak Eashean, I had to navigate through sign language and translation through my devices to help ease the function of verbal or written communication. I was staying in a room which was considered empty. It was pretty clean and neatly treated as usual for every Inn there is, but, the owner of the Inn didn't even realise that an Enenra was staying in my room too. The master itself didn't even remember that the room was booked by somebody else already. Not only it was embarrasing but it freaked both of us each other out.
As every dumb stereotype that could have come out through my brain chip, the one that had to happen was the side-event of her coming out of a warm bath. Just great, luckily she had no true physica form. That would have cause me great annoyance for such a measly creature. Its already notorious for an Enenra species to be quite aggresive to its prey or target, but , this alone but it a little reminiscence of the fact that danger could be anywhere and so should dignity.
As I try to forget about that measly memory, I then stand infront of the door I wanted to be in. As i knocked on it three times with no reply nor sounds of footsteps, I push in the key as I twist it slowly and push down the handlebar. As the door creaked slowly open, I invited myself in as I see a few sleepyheads resting about as they notice me entering, making innocent looking smiling faces.
Ah yes, the face of innocence. No, its not obviously. They purposely left me there so they could do half of the weight carrying. They are obviously feeling guilty yet due to my humble nature, a punishment is something I admit I would not like to perform. They laid on their bed and sat on the pillows comfortably as I watched them with my raised eyebrow. Clicking my tongue in a little annoyed way, I folded my hands as I kicked the door shut behind me with my heel. I cleared my throat as I smiled and blinked twice deep into the eyes of the group as they watched me back.
"Ahhh hahh, Welcome back, Ryuu. How was the reception?" Princess Fusui asked softly as I noticed her ears tilted down in regret and guiltiness.
The Black Witch smoked on her pipe as she watched the window by the side of her to avoid my look as Nia slowly crawls to my left side and hugs me on my arm that she grasped upon. Rubbing me gently with her soft hair and cat ears, wanting to be forgiven by acting very childish. A typical feline gesture of greeting and also another way of saying I am sorry.
Arachnid was already sleeping as she hugged on her adopted human child as well, Kisuen, was drunk on age-old whiskey that she have probably bought in the bar beside the reception. I can't blame her, she is probably the most innocent one in the room as she is mostly in a drunken state and doesn't even realise anything that happened for the past few hours after her strange running sprint. I can forgive her for that but not the others. The ones with an actual running, working and sober brain.
As I walked up towards a couch and plop myself and rest comfortably. I inhale deeply before exhaling a mumbling snicker. I rubbed Mia's head as she laid on my lap as she rested comfortably as I continued following her apologising behaviour. Rubbing me nose, I stayed quiet before calming down the anger that burns inside me. The chip in my brain gave me probabilities of events and I decided to choose the one that would benefit me best. There was no need to scold them, they are just being themselves. Sure, they may be fully grown adults but their brain works a little different from a humans. Leaving it be, I then slowly close my eyes before falling asleep once more for a proper and sounding nap.
***
Blinking lights in front of my face, I hear a strange vibration from the side of my ear as I yawned and woke up. Removing the watch from my hand, I attached a cable to its USB slot before hiding it in a drawer beside my laptop's table.
As I notice my room's partner, playing with his computer games, I get up and stretch myself as I walk towards the bar fridge sitting behind my chair under my daily schedule of university work. "Today is...what day?" I asked myself as I shuffled into my lab coat before pulling out my rather old and ancient smartphone.
Pressing its side power button, it displayed a picture of the younger me with my parents as a font of black and white displayed the time and the amount of battery juice still resting in its pack. "The sleepover, I remember that..." The memory of the strange sudden invitation from my neighbouring partner hits my head as I realised that today was the day.
Trying not to rush as I still got some time, I then removed my lab coat and placed it over my computer chair as I head into the bathroom across from my sleeping room. As I opened the entrance door, I then close its white opaque glass door as I removed my clothes and turn on the faucet into a mildly lukewarm shower.
Wetting myself and soaping myself gently with a sponge, I then made sure I smelt as fresh as possible as the scent of Nia might break through the timeline and actually become scentable. Heck, I don't want the smell of a cat lingering around the people I will meet. They would probably think I own a cat and when they enter my apartment with curiosity, there wouldn't even be one.
They could probably guess I got myself secretly a cat-girl from the red light district or something, but that's an edge of thought to be coming from silly [perverted brains. I mean, I don't even know if they are human in the first place. I only know about my neighbour and her best friend that always muck about with her. The others could be monster girls as far as I could guess.
Turning off the shower, I wiped myself with the white towel I kept by the door handle as I dried myself properly. Picking up my old clothes and tossing it into the washing bin, I then wrap myself with the towel around my waist as I then unlock the door and head to the sink. Brushing my teeth and giving myself a quick smooth shave, I then head back to my sleeping room and pull out some clothes from my bedside cabinet.
Putting on a good set of casual clothing, I then put on two metal chains by my neck before putting on a newspaper cap, common in Yore as a typical dress-ware when showcasing your fanciness without the use of strange hats or branded goods.
Picking up my room key and the drawer key, I then excuse myself from the dorm before heading to the parking lot. Taking my lovely bike and preparing my riding gear, I then rev its engines and drive slowly towards the ticket barrier. Scanning my ID card on it, I then head back to my actual place through the mild traffic. Left and right through the over-bearing highways and bridges that exist, I then crossover a building shaped like a Rubik's Cube before heading deeper into the apartment complex where I live during my free times or when I actually have the effort to drive all the way back home.
Doing the usual procedure of parking, I then enter the lift and input my code of residence before pushing the button of my room's level. The sound of looping melody, elevator music. Though quite relaxing, it can be quite annoying as you usually hear the same thing over and over again. Like an earworm, it can keep on playing after you disengage from its platform.
Walking normally towards my room's corridor, I then stop by a few steps to reach my neighbour's room. Sighing and trying to calm myself down, I smile and think positive thoughts before reaching my knuckles onto the door.
Knocking it three times, I wait for the door to slowly open with happy little curious faces appearing as they await my arrival.