<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">As the wedding and summer festivals drew closer, the traffic of Metamor Keep did as well. One day, the influx was too great and the four Bremen musicians found there was not so much as a space on the floor at any of the inns. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Misha Brightleaf and his bride were off making arrangements, and while they could still play, not having lodgings was not a good place to be. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“Excuse me sirs, I think I might be of some help,” there was a pig-morph woman at the Jolly Collie who tended the food and who noticed the problem. “My name is Olivia, and I happen to have a place of my own not too far outside the Keep. If you can wait until I finish my shift, I can lead you to it.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“But where will you stay, fair lady?” asked Chanti. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“Oh, I’ve got relatives close at hand. To be honest, I’ve been mostly staying in the Keep as the traffic increased, but I am a bit worried about my place. It’s not so large, but you four should be able to stay there easily. Then too, I would be assured no brigands would rob it.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“Well, we can’t be there all the time,” said Curtise, “but we can take care of it by night.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“My husband is there by day. He became a bat, so he tends to be up and out at night. He’s also a bit of a mage and has several protection spells on the place. Still…” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“Still, it’d set your mind at ease if <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">*someone*<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline"> was there by night,” said Tybalt. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“And we’d not need to worry whether the spaces at the inns open up,” said Baldwin. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">About an hour before dusk, the four met with Olivia and she led them from Keeptown through to the woods in the east. While not deserted, the houses were far enough from one another that it would be easy for them not to see what was going on even with a near neighbor. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">They were taken to a whitewashed cottage with a golden thatched roof and a garden of herbs and vegetables around it. The door was blue and opened and a flying fox walked out. Olivia ran to greet her husband. “Rufus! I’m so glad to see you! These are the minstrels I’ve been telling you about.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Rufus smiled and offered a hand. “Pleasure to meet you gents. To what do I owe the honor?” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“I thought they might serve as night guards for our cottage. There’s no more room for them at the inn and they don’t have anywhere else to go.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“Ah! Well, that’s fine by me. I’ve put enough warding that anyone with ill intent will regret coming here, but more people couldn’t hurt.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“We’ll be sure to keep the place as neat as a pin!” said Baldwin. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“Are you sure you don’t want to rent out to us?” asked Tybalt. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“You bring in brisk business as it is. Besides, we Keepers like to help each other out!” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">The inside of the cottage was neat and clean: a table close to the hearth, a room on the side with a soft-matt bed and a perch for Rufus, another room on the other side that served as a larder. There were dishes in the cupboards and utensils in a box. Finally there was a back door to match the front, and it led to the back garden. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“This is a cozy home indeed!” said Chanti. How shall we spend the night, gentlemen?” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Tybalt shifted to all fours. “I’ll stay by the fire a while; in this form I’ll be quite comfy.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Curtise also shifted and headed to the back door. “You can have the bed Baldwin. If anyone tries to get in, they’ll likely try through the back or one of the windows.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Baldwin let out a HMPH! “Oh sure, I get the most dangerous spot!” But he lay down on the bed without further protest. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“And the most comfy!” said Chanti. “But fret not, friend Baldwin, I shall take the perch and twixt the two of us shall certainly be safe enough!” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">They let the fire die down to coals and were soon fast asleep. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">*** <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“Where’re you leadin’ us now?” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">A trio of bedraggled-looking figures tramped through the woods. The leader was a lionmorph who’d obviously seen better days. The other two were a woman and a child. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“To my treasure. I told you before Totti, I left a buried treasure in my old home.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">The woman made a disbelieving sound. “You’ve not but led us on one treasure chase after another Jack. What makes this more true than the others?” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“I tell you, I placed it there myself! If it had not been for this curse I might have gotten it again long ago.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“Which curse?” asked the child. “The one that put us in these forms, or the one your mother placed on you? ‘To seek but never find, treasure always on the mind, far and wide you must roam before you may return home’. That’s what you told us.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“So it is. I never did please her and it was *<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">not<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">* my fault with the cow. She ought to have come with me; I was but a lad and too trusting. But I think this must be the end, since I am finally returning home.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Before them was a darkened cottage with whitewashed walls and golden thatched roof. Jack let out a sigh of longing so deep as to be almost painful. “Home. Well, I suppose no longer. My mother’s dead and I’ve been away these many years. Someone else keeps it up. I still have the key, though–if the lock has not been changed.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“They’ll take you for a burglar and you’ll be working the middens,” warned Totti. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“I know where it is, if it has not been found. With my luck it will have been, yet I must make a last attempt.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">He went to the door and fit the key into the lock. It opened and the wards were opened too. Into the darkened cottage he crept on soft paws. He sniffed eagerly, but the scent was no longer the same. *<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-style:italic;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">I ought to have known better.<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">* He let out another deep, longing sigh and went to the fire. His mother’s curse started and clouded his senses. Tybalt woke, and seeing the stranger near him, scratched at his face! “Intruder!” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Jack fled to the back door, only to be met by a growling Curtise! “You shall not pass!” Curtise bit him on the leg! Hopping and panicking Jack stumbled into the bedroom. Tybalt kicked him out and Chanti crowed out: “Who are you?!” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Running on all fours, Jack just made it out the front door before collapsing in a heap. The four lit the fire and looked on the pathetic figure of a lion, curled into a ball and weeping. With the fire, they also saw the other two looking on in horror. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Tybalt and Curtise took Jack in with great care. “Ho! You two, is this a friend of yours? Come here, we shall not harm you.” Chanti called out. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“Yeah,” said Baldwin, “your friend is in unfortunate shape thanks to us. What was he even doing here?” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Totti looked to the child and the child shrugged. “In for a penny, in for a pound. We’ve stuck with Jack through thick and thin, we might as well help him out here. Perhaps it will be a change in his fortune,” said the child. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">The two came to the cottage and were let in. “I’m Totti, a friend of poor Jack’s. His best friend from long ago.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“And I’m Nihil,” said the child. “I sympathize with Jack, for I also have lost all I had, even my own name.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">As Chanti and Baldwin began getting food and drink to Totti and Nihil, Curtise and Tybalt returned and looked very confused. “That fellow just turned into a cub.” said Curtise. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">“I had thought the aging curse didn’t allow for adults,” added Tybalt. <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">Totti sighed. “It does not, but Jack is under other curses as well. I’ll explain as we eat.” <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline">–Next Part Below– </div>