Breakfast in the woods

---- Border Forest Near Jocelynn's Inn, Early Morning, 1 DSTR ----

Gareth looked down in shame and followed Ceriden to the counter, feeling bad for having disturbed his sleep, even though Ceriden had told him to do so in case he got hungry.

While waiting for someone to arrive he stayed quietly being Ceriden, trying to be patient. Then, after a while, a woman arrived. He kept his gaze down as he listened to their conversation. To be honest he was a little puzzled as to why Ceriden suddenly sounded so nervous or rather shy when talking to this lady. Ceriden hadn’t exactly struck him as being a someone having trouble speaking to anybody, but then again Gareth had only known him for a day, so he couldn’t know for sure.

Despite Ceridens efforts the lady refused to sell him any kind of livestock and just as Gareth was about to open his mouth to tell him that it was all right and that he would then just go find something in the woods, Ceridens words made him freeze on the spot.

Ceriden averted his gaze by looking at the floor. "Because my friend's a ghoul," he muttered.

"What was that?"

"Um, my friend is a ghoul, and he doesn't eat what most people eat," he said a little louder.

Her eyebrow rose even higher as she asked, "He eats live animals?"

"Yes..."

Gareth was shocked. How could Ceriden simply tell this woman his biggest secret? Had he no idea what could happen by telling this? Gareth stared at Ceriden for a moment, his eyes filled with disbelief and terror before turning to look at the woman behind the counter. For a brief moment his eyes met with hers, making him look quickly once more. It felt like hours went by before the woman finally answered "Fine, that will be 300 gold, sir.". He couldn’t believe it. The lady actually agreed and didn’t even seem frigthend by the thought of having a ghoul staying at the inn, though her price were incredibly high. Before Gareth managed to get anything said Ceriden had ended the deal and payed the lady.

Now they just had to wait, though this wasn’t easy. He could almost feel how the woman was watching him with her one eye, making him more and more uneasy with every second that went by. He was so grateful when they were finally told that they could get the pig and hurriedly followed Ceriden outside. Quietly he simply nodded in response to Ceridens comment about all the annoying women they had encountered so far, not sure how to respond to it.

As they approached the pig Gareth unconsciously tensed up slightly with anticipation, almost as a cat preparing to pounce at its prey. It was only Ceridens words that held him back, nonetheless he still struggled to wait now that they had finally acquired a meal for him. He followed Ceriden deeper into the woods, but before long he simply couldn’t wait any longer. Almost in a blink of the eye he threw himself at the pig, knocking it to the ground and bit down into its neck with a powerful bite. Had it been a human or a smaller animal it would all have been over by now, but because of the pig’s thick skin and neck he wasn’t able to kill it with one bite. The terrified pig squealed and tried to fight for its life, but Gareth kept it down with his weight and eagerly drank its warm blood.