First Night at the Inn

---- Some Establishment in the Border Forest, Early Evening, 0 DSTR ----

"Uhm... Maybe a little, but it's nothing to worry about. I'll probably just go to bed for now and then find something in the forest tomorrow after we've left."

Ceriden nodded. "Okay, well, let me know if you start to become dangerously hungry, and I'll find a way get you something to eat. You can wake me up in the middle of the night for all I care, I just want to keep everyone safe."

Ceriden breathed sigh of contentment. "I'm not trying to say that you are a monster, it's just, I've only known you for a day, so I don't quite know how you'll hold up in this situation, and I feel the need to tell you that I'm here for you whenever and wherever. Heh, I don't know if that made any sense. Gods I'm tired. Alright, I'm going to go get something to eat. If you are asleep when I get back, then I guess I'll see you in the morning."

With a groan, Ceriden got off the bed back onto his worn out feet. He walked to the room's exit and opened the door. Before he left, be turned around and said to Gareth, "And remember, if anything comes up, don't hesitate to wake me up."

With that, he closed the door to their room and went back to the dining room, where he ordered a single order of the trout for himself. He initially took a seat while he waited for the innkeeper to prepare his meal, but he quickly felt himself beginning to doze off, so he stood up and paced until his food arrived.

"Thank you, Madam," Ceriden said to the innkeeper, giving her the five gold coins he owed her. "My, that looks and smells amazing." He pulled out another gold coin and gave it to the woman. "Here is to hoping your evening is better than your day was."

Ceriden took the plate to one of the tables and began to dig into his meal, only then realizing just how hungry he was. As his appetite came back in force, he started to scarf down his meal faster than was really healthy, which reminded him of Gareth's eating habits. Unfortunately, this brought the unpleasant image of Gareth tearing the spy's heart from his chest and eating it to mind, which pretty much killed Ceriden's appetite. Ceriden had seen his fair share of people's and creature's insides, but those experiences softened the blow of seeing such a things only so much. Hopefully, he would become even more inoculated to such graphic scenes in the coming days, for Ceriden doubted that the things he and Gareth were going to do to the bandits Ceriden wanted to use for necromantic experiments were going to be pleasant.

Even though his appetite was now shot, Ceriden forced himself to eat the rest of his meal, because despite the tip he had given the innkeeper, he wasn't exactly rolling in cash. He wanted to make his coin last, although hopefully he would be able to loot some coin off of the brigands he and Gareth would hunt down.

When at last he'd eaten all he could eat, the mage sat back with a sigh. After a moment, he took his plate and brought it back up to the front counter. "That was magnificent, Madam. I'm sorry I wasn't able to finish it, but I just can't fit anything more into my stomach."

Feeling rather energized from his meal, Ceriden skipped back to his room and carefully opened the door just in case the vampire was asleep. Sure enough, Gareth was out like a lamp when Ceriden entered the dark room. Ceriden was now quite awake, so instead of trying to go straight to bed, he decided he'd try to learn some more spells from his new tome.

He carefully navigated through the dark room, picked up Sabina's bag with the tome in it, and made his way back out into the hallway, slowly closing the door behind him. He then went back to the lobby and approached the front desk again. "My roommate is asleep, and I'd like to do some reading before I turn in myself," Ceriden explained to the innkeeper. "I'll be just outside."

Ceriden then left building and circled around to one side. He sat down with his back against the side of the inn, cast a spell that caused a little light-emitting orb to hover over him, pulled out the tome, and began to read. Now that he was no longer pressed for time, Ceriden decided to start from the beginning, where Galathus explained his understanding of the dynamics of the spirit world and how spirit magic worked. Ceriden found it utterly fascinating.

He ripped through the theory section of the book and read over a basic reanimation spell several times before he forced himself to close the book. Although his mind was churning from all the things he had learned, Ceriden knew he was going to need all his energy for tomorrow.

He put the tome back into the bag and walked back into the inn, noting that his light spell dissipated when he walked through the entrance. He waved to the innkeeper as he passed through the lobby on his way to his room. Again, he carefully opened and closed the door and made his way to his bed. He put the bag down at the foot of the bed, removed his boots and robe, and lay down.

Ceriden had certainly slept on higher quality beds before, but he had also slept in worse ones. Having spent most of his life on the road, Ceriden had slept in a lot of different beds.

Ceriden took a deep breath and struggled to clear his mind as he tried to fall asleep. Eventually, he succeeded, and he began to recharge his batteries for the trying day ahead.