*Thud*
The Void Horse party had arrived back at the Adventurers' Guild, and Eodum just dropped the cut up corpses of the bamboo troll and the animated vine beast. Kali looked blankly at the corpses, and it took Eodum's snapping to wake her from her stupor. Kali's head shook slightly as her eyes attempted to focus on Eodum, "O-Oh, hey Eodum! See ya c-completed the quests, l-let me just put that in the system."
As she was talking, she pressed a few buttons on a floating panel in front of her. Then she opened a drawer and pulled out two silver coins and two large copper coins. "H-Here's your payment of 14 Zole." Kali hesitantly presented the currency in her hand. Eodum reached out its hand and grabbed the four coins. A small squeak could be heard as their skin brushed against each other, and Kali was visibly more shaken than before. She bowed and squeaked out, "H-Have a nice day!!"
Void Horse exited the building of terrified adventurers and travelled down their usual route. Down Main Street, buying bread from Pain D'or, and ending up back at the Sleeping Basilisk Inn. They would've normally gone to their rooms, but instead the young girl who waited on Eodum before the battle walked up to them. She trembled with each step and finally made her way to Eodum, refusing to look it in the eye, "U-Um, Mr. Tar, y-y-your rent is d-due. I-If you would."
She then reached her small hand out, which was also shaking. Eodum thought for a moment and remembered it had paid for the week, and the week was over. Eodum grabbed the change from its pocket, and reached into the void. It pulled out two large silver coins and placed them in the young girl's hand. She took them to an area underneath the counter, and came back with a single copper coin. "H-H-Here." She stuttered out.
Eodum took the change from the girl, and it and its party went to their room. Eodum transformed back into a rat, and laid down between the two beds. It curled up and started to doze off. The others changed and hopped into their beds, and dozed off just as quickly. The three drifted into their dreams: Eodum dreamt about a lovely bamboo forest, Henry dreamt about flying through the skies, and Sheila dreamt of becoming Gnos's most powerful warrior.
*****
In the darkness, creaking and squeaking echoed down the quiet hallway. A quiet footstep went throughout the eerie corridor of the inn. Another, and then another followed. A shadowy figure creeped their way down this hall. With them, was a bag of… something. From an outside appearance, one couldn't tell what was in the dark bag. Something ominous about the figure and their bag emitted throughout the quiet building.
They sneaked into a room, and tiptoed past its inhabitants. They uttered not a peep as they had no knowledge of the mysterious figure. The figure emptied the bag of its contents into the bottom drawer of a dresser. They slowly closed the drawer, but a high-pitched squeak came from the closing drawer. A small figure on the ground stirred a little, "Lot's of… bamboo…" The small figure laying on the floor then felt back to their deep sleep, and the shadowy figure let out a relieved sigh.
Extra carefully they made their way towards the door, and shut it as quietly as they could. With a slight click, the figure made a hurried but quiet jog to the stairs. The floor creaked with each step of their light body, but it was never loud enough to cause any reaction from any of the rooms. They hurried out the back door of the inn, and made their escape.
*****
Eodum lay between the bed's of its friends, sleeping soundly. Slowly rays of sunlight envelop the room. A mysterious and beautiful aspect runs throughout the room, as it is bathed in the golden-yellow light of the morning sun. The light doesn't hit Eodum's eyes, but it's still enough to wake the drowsy rat. It stirs in place, and eventually rises to unsteady legs. Eodum crawls from its small, cramped cove, and emerges in front of the beds.
The sight of plain off-white walls, the shaggy red carpet with golden threads running across the fuzzy floor, and a dark wood counter with a black marble-like stone top greet Eodum. The sound of tweeting birds and the bustling streets of Nomed echo around the rodent. A calm feeling envelops the rat in its pleasant life. To think it had started out as a simple sewer rat and was reborn as another sewer rat. Life was good.
Eodum created two long tentacles with hands on them to wake its friends. It gently tapped on their shoulders, and called out to them. Sheila was first to rise, shortly followed by Henry. They ignored the strange tentacles as it had become their norm, and asked Eodum to open its void so they could change. It complied, and a dark portal appeared on the red fuzzy carpet of the room.
Sheila hopped in first, and came out in her basilisk-metal armor. She had her basilisk tower shield right on her arm, and signaled for Henry to hop in now. He plunged into the deep, dark void, and came out wearing his usual black suit, white shirt, and black bow tie. He had very little in terms of defense, but some horned rabbit light armor beneath his stylish suit. Eodum finished its own dressing by transforming and putting on its usual leather light armor. The three exited their room into the hall of the inn.
They closed their room's door and walked down the old halls of their inn. Each step from Sheila and Eodum had the floors creaking; Henry didn't walk and much preferred to float and hover. They came down the stairs, and arrived at an empty inn. Not a single soul in sight: no customers, no workers. Where was everyone? Was there another incident like Ksilisab? The Void Horse party bounced ideas off of each other as they made their way to the exit.
The three exited out of the inn onto the streets of Nomed, only to find no one there as well. Actually, that wasn't quite true, there was a circle of guards surrounding them. The lead guard stood a little away from the circle, and it was the rodent-like man, SGT. Tnedor. He furiously yelled out, "T-There they are! Get th-th-them!!!"
… Again?