[Mkguild] Life As We Know It XXI

[Jack Moore]

Life As We Know It - XXI

Eighteen Hours Remaining
The Shoeshine Inn was amazingly in one piece.  In fact it was the only Inn
I could name that wasn’t a ruin.  It had some soot and smoke damage, but no
holes in the building.  It was in very good shape.
It was also very empty.  Curses, sieges and anthros are bad for business.
The entrence to the building was a little dusty and quiet.  Grey light
streamed in from the washed windows, highlighting every empty chair and
table.  I shook my head.
'It’s a nice place.  Curses and warfare make everything difficult.' The
timber floors creaked as I walked through the lobby.  The front desk was
empty, though the door to the back room was open.  I knocked against the
wood.
“Hello?  Is anyone here?”  There was a pause.  Then a rumbling voice.
“Yeah.  My…daughter will be along to check you in soon.  She’s just run off
on an errand.”  I knocked again.
“My name is Corporal Janelle of the Metamor Watch.  I need to speak with
you about a patron.”  I don’t know why I always include my title as part of
my name.  It’s rather odd isn’t it?

I could hear a chair squeak as someone stood.  A large black bear morph
lumbered out, a smile on his muzzle.
“Sorry, I stay in the back.” He said. “Visitors to the Keep kinda get
scared by the whole…” He gestured with his claws to his fangs.  “My name is
Kemper!” He said, extending a paw.  I took it in my hand, avoiding his
claws.
“Pleasure.” I said. “I am looking for a woman named Chamomile.”  The bears
cocked his head.  “I take it you know of her?”
“Yeah, she asked to be switched three times.” Kemper said.  “First room
wasn’t right, second room wasn’t right and she didn’t want her shoes
shined!”  I blinked.
“Shoes?”
“Free shoe shine with your stay!” Kemper said, grinning.  “It’s one of our
selling points.  Plus few things are quite as fun as shining a set of
shoes!”  I looked down at my dented, frayed and oversized boots.
“I will take your word for that.” Kemper laughed at me, hitting me in the
face with spittle.
“Yeah it doesn’t seem exciting, but my wife loves and so do I.”  I nodded,
wiping my face.  “I even found a way to do it without turning shoes to
scraps with these things.” He said, raising his claws.  “Besides, gives me
something to do with the lady I love.”

“That is very nice.  Ms. Chamomile has been arrested, I will need to see
her room...” I shook my head, “In fact, let’s see the first two rooms also
if they’re empty.”
“She’s been arrested?  That’s terrible.  Don’t worry, all three are empty.”
Kemper said.  He scooped a key ring off a nail in the wall.  “Come on,
first one is down this way.
The first room was what you’d expect from an Inn Room.  It was on the
ground floor with nice carpeting and a small fireplace.  The bed was nice
if a bit musty looking.  In general, the room looked like it hadn’t been
slept in in a long time.
“Why didn’t you like this place?” I mumbled.  The only window looked out on
the wall of a building, little light streamed down from between the
rooftops.  “Was it the window?  Was that what bothered you?”
Thump-Thump-Thump!  I jumped back, banging my head against the wall.  “What
on Earth?  Be quiet!”  More thumping answered me.

I rubbed my eyes.  Thump-Thump-Thump! “I can’t think with all of this
noise.  Be quiet!”  I shook my first at the ceiling.  Of course more
thumping followed. “Eli gave us magic, you think we’d use it to block out
noise like that…”  I returned to my examination as soon as the thumping
stopped.
I lifted up the carpet.  The floor was stone, with not a loose stone to be
found.  The fireplace was clean, ash free and underused.  Nothing in here
aside from the noise seemed all that bad to me.
“Maybe I’m over thinking things.” I mumbled.  “The room above is creating
enough noise, maybe she just wanted a good night’s sleep…”  I sighed.
 “Okay, I will have to return home by eight, I need to get to work in the
other rooms.”
I signaled too Kemper I was done, and we moved on to the second room.  This
one was on the upper floor with people on both sides.  Once again I could
hear them through the walls.
“I thought you said this place was largely empty.” I said.
“We have a few customers.” Kemper said.  “I just put them together.”  He
unlocked the door and left me.  I resumed my search.  This room was much
like the other, except the room had more sun due to being on the second
level.  The floor was also wood beams, so solid they didn’t creek when I
walked on them.
“Loud again,” I mumbled, “Is that the only reason?”  The room had a very
nice wooden desk, turned away from the window.  I tried moving it, too
heavy.  I turned out the window, getting a very good view of the roof
across the way.
“Can’t see people here…are people are what interest?  Yes, yes they are.”
 I smiled, “You wanted to see people.  That might not be the only reason,
but you wanted to see the people. Why did you want to see them?” I sat down
on the bed.
“You’re not a warrior, you’re a scholar.  That’s why you were so picky
about the room.” I grinned.  “Because you had to be in control.
Everything, down to the room you chose had to be perfect.  Because you were
here to do something, but it wasn’t attack us.  You were running an
experiment…”
'Yeah but to do what?' I had a pretty good idea, which was...actually, why
don’t you figure it out?  I returned to Kemper.  “Take me to Chamomile’s
room now.”
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