Outside the Inn

Kalena had reached the town's outskirts when she spotted an army patrol coming her way. She immediately reined her mount to a halt. She didn't want to have to explain what she was doing out here in the wee hours of the morning. She could always say she was working for the Queen, but she had no proof to support such a claim. If she was back in the capital it would have been a different matter; the city guard all knew her quite well, having come to see her as an unofficial member of the kingdom's nobility. But soldiers out here wouldn't know her from the next woman, and might take her to be a bandit of some kind.

Before the patrol could see her, she dismounted and led the stallion off the side of the road. Behind a dense stand of spruce trees she stood and waited. In a few minutes a dozen men slowly cantered past, swords and pikes tightly gripped in their hands. She noted their worried demeanour. They must be spooked, she thought. And if the reports she heard were accurate they had every right to be.

Kalena waited until the hoof beats faded in the distance before continuing on, and then rode quietly. As dawn bloomed, she came upon an inn. The name on the sign out front jogged her memory. Something she had heard about the establishment once - to do with it having a shady reputation.

She started to ride by when she caught sight of a figure lying on the ground. A dead body? She clucked to the stallion and slowly rode over to where a man was stretched out, seeming to be asleep. What? No room at the Inn? she wondered wryly.

She leaned down from her horse to study him more closely. He was rather well-built with dark skin, short, curly black hair, and Elfen ears. With his tigerish frame he looked every inch a fighting man, and even without the rapier and crossbow she would have recognized him as such. Was he a mercenary? A bandit? Perhaps, but not a slaver. She noticed slight scarring around his neck where an iron slave collar had once rested.

Suddenly it occurred to her this very well might be the individual who killed the slavers that everyone was looking for!

Kalena reined the horse backward a few steps and agilely swung down from the saddle, whipping out her sword.

OOC: Since Jack slept through most of the morning, I hope it's okay to move things to the morning, at least outside the Inn.