Sadly, Boris's very special effort to bluff the bacon is not successful. In that instant, as though reading his mind, it flies clear of his grasp. As Boris's hands clap together empty, the bacon rasher strikes the upper, center region of the mirror. This should be enough to draw Boris's attention to the mirror, specifically.

Given that Boris turns to the Mirror, he will meet more than his own reflection amid the blotches of corrosion. Beside him stands the somewhat transparent reflection of a young girl.
What was likely once a young, beautiful girl, now stands beside Boris, a bloody and mangles mess of a creature.

Once Boris has seen her, the girl opens her mouth to extend what is left of her severed tongue as blood spills out over her chin. While this takes place, she raises one arm, her finger extended to point at the reflection of Boris. An instant later the top drawer of the dresser slides open abruptly. Within the drawer are numerous makeup products and cheap jewelry. Among these items is a plain wooden trinket box. It does rise from the drawer, floating in the air in much the same fashion that the bacon rasher did. It lands gently on the dresser top. The box is locked, but should not be difficult for a man like Boris to open.

If Boris was to force the box open, he would find a cloth pouch within. Sewn into the lining of this pouch are the words:



Within the pouch are three nuggets of gold.

Assuming that Boris fulfills these actions, the reflection of the brutalized girl in the mirror will fade from view. Seconds then pass. The shutters on the window slam shut. Downstairs, the front door to the house opens. No one enters. No one is there. Perhaps the ghost is sending Boris on his way.

Boris has been provided information.

@Quote5

The girl smiles as Karter introduces himself. "Nice to meet you, Karter. My name's Vesania. As for spending a night somewhere, there should be an inn up ahead, you could spend the night there, but it's still morning so why not go and explore first?" She asks, smiling as she gestures to an inn further ahead.

"As for money exchange... your best bet is probably the Bazaar I'd say. It's not too far away from here either."

---

@Zyngard@Metatrooper

As Kura and Kaldalis make their way down the street, a girl, somewhere in her late teens, emerges from an alleyway. She appears busy rummaging through one of the bags she's carrying, and fails to notice Kaldalis in time, crashing into him.

The girl has short brown hair, and wears a rather long black dress. As the girl recovers from the collision and finally notices that she has, in fact, collided with someone, an observant Kura might notice that the 'alleyway' the girl emerged from is in fact just a wall. Strange, that.

"Ow... sorry about that..." The girl says as she takes a moment to observe both Kura and Kaldalis with her bright blue eyes. As she notices Kura however, her eyes widen. "Oh hey, we meet again!" She says, smiling as she scrambles to her feet.

---

@citrouille

"No problem!" The girl says, smiling as Allysee looks around. "But no, I'm not a traveller. I live here, but I like watching the boats come and go, so that's how I found you here."

"So you're looking to live here huh? Gonna start searching for a good house soon then?" She says, seemingly lost in thought for a second.

"Oh by the way, what's your name? Mine's Vesania."

---

@Harlequ

"My name's Vesania, what's yours?" The girl, Vesania, asks, glancing at Illyssa's luggage before smiling. "And if you're looking for a better life here, does that mean you plan on living here?"

@Dartbored Fairy
Karter thinks to himself. Vesania, huh? Bit of an odd name... pretty name, though.

"Nice to meet you, Vesania," He said. "and thanks for the directions... I should probably go to that bizaar and extage my money so I can actually do something with it. I'm guessing you're not going that direction, since you came here to see family... so, see you later, I guess, and have fun with your family."

Karter starts walking over to the bizaar to get his money exchanged.

@Zyngard @Dartbored Fairy

Kaldalis does not even move as the girl collides with him, his armor absorbing the miniscule impact. He quickly reached the girl with his right arm and pulled her up.

Kaldalis: My apologies madam, I did not avoid you in time. Are you alright?

He then looks back to Kura as the woman claimed that she knew her, and waited for Kura's reply.

@Prima Luce

Boris opened his clapped hands, checking for the bacon like a child might check to see if he had caught a fly. But no, the rasher hit the mirror instead, and Boris turned his attention to follow. His wide-eye look of suspense quickly dropped when he saw the girl standing next to him in the mirror, replaced by a look of morbid confusion. He cast his eyes beside him to look for the girl who should have been standing beside him. She wasn't. He looked at the girls reflection in the mirror again, beside him, then back at the reflection.

Boris had seen a lot of strange things in his life, and this was up there with some of the stranger ones, but it sure wasn't THE strangest thing. He figured there must have been a logical explanation to what was happening, but knew he wouldn't be smart enough to figure it out. He poked the mirror image of the girl to see if he could feel her. Nah, it was just a mirror.

He sighed.

Still, there was no sense in wasting good food. Plucking the Bacon from the mirror he chewed on it slowly while thinking really hard. The bacon tasted good, but the girl sure did look bad. Someone must have punched her a lot or something. Boris didn't really blame people for wanting to punch girls, well, older girls, not younger ones. Older girls were very mean a lot of the time, but younger girls were usually okay. He couldn't think of a reason why someone might want to beat up a child. They were just children, after all. After looking over the girls wounds, he had to wonder out loud:

"Did a mean person punch you in your private place? Boris can punch them back in their private place too if you want...."

The girl didn't answer his question, though. Instead, she showed Boris that she didn't have a tongue to answer. Then she lifted her arm and pointed at Boris. Then the drawer of the dresser opened up in a hurry. Then a small wooden box flew out of the drawer and landed on the dresser. This girl may have been hurt really bad, for which Boris felt sorry, but she sure did know how to use magic that Boris didn't know how to use. He wondered how she did that....

He looked at the box with a curios grin, like a child awaiting a prize, and despite her not having a tongue, he really wanted to ask anyway;

"Is that for me, little miss?"

Of course, Boris didn't get an answer from the tongueless girl, but he went ahead and took the box off the dresser anyway. He gave it a shake next to his ear, trying to figure out what might have been inside by the rattle it made. Whatever was inside made a dull sound. It sure was possible that rocks were inside. He could use them in his slingshot! Maybe the girl was giving him ammunition to hurt the people that hurt her.

Wanting to know for sure, Boris pried open the box using just his thumbs and the lock broke away pretty easy. In the box he found a small cloth sack with some writing on it and three gold nuggets inside. He didn't know what the writing said, but it sure was nice of the girl to give Boris such valuable ammunition. Hurting the people who hurt her must have been very important.

Boris bit his lip, thinking on the matter for a moment, then nodded at the girl, saying;

"It's okay, little miss. I think I understand. I'll get those people that hurt you bad. You don't need to worry at all."

As he finished Speaking, the girl disappeared and the window shutters slammed shut. Boris guessed their meeting was over, but he was a little disappointed that the girl didn't stay a little longer, he really wanted to draw her picture. But anyway, she was gone now, so he shoved the small sack with the gold in his backpack and - since he had finished breakfast, played a fun game of catch the bacon, and couldn't see any way to help the headless man or empty woman - he left the house. The door of the house was already opened for him, so that was nice.

Boris had a little bounce in his step as he walked down the road towards the Bazaar. He had someone to help, and that was good! All he needed to do now was figure out how. Maybe some people at the Bazaar knew how to read.

---

@Karkinos

Madison had slept in. She woke in her cabin after most of the other passengers had already disembarked at Trios. The lack of motion made her realize the ferry had docked, and the sound of her stomach grumbling made her realize she needed to find some food fast. She struggled to sit up on her bed, rested a moment, and then rocked back and forth a few times in order to get the momentum needed to stand up.

Giving her nose a quick pick, she grabbed her bag from the table and opened the door to leave. She cussed loudly while pushing through the narrow door-frame and into the hallway that wasn't much wider. A sliding sound was heard as her hips and arms rubbed along both walls of the corridor.

When she reached the deck, she shoved hard past a well-dressed lady in a small top hat (Oblivia Minot) without stopping to apologize, then walked a bit farther before stopping on the boarding plank. There she quickly survey what she could see of Trios. The plank creaked under the strain of her weight as she picked a lice from her hair and shoved it in her mouth. Chewing the lice, she grunted and barged through more people in her way, heading to the merchants that had set up stalls at the docks.

She stopped at the nearest food stall and slammed a small, dirty copper coin on the counter. She looked over the few food items on display then grimaced at the stall holder.

“I wan some meat, ya got meat? Maybe pastry or somefin?”

@Dartbored Fairy@Metatrooper

Kura waved excitedly to the unfamiliar girl “Hey there, um... person!” She grinned. “Have we actually met though..? You don’t seem familial... famiri...-“

She realizes something, and her face lights up “Oh! Uh, where was it where we first met? I kinda got lost...”

"Yes, I'll be looking to live here. And my name's Allysse," she replied to Vesania. "It's nice to meet you. Also, if you're not too busy, could you give me a brief layout of the town? I need to exchange money and eat, first and foremost, so that'd be really helpful if you could." She gave an awkward smile to Vesania.

Just then, a violently horrid stench assaulted Allysse's nose, and she turned to see a gigantic, disgusting woman-thing coming off the ship. She quickly pinched her nose with her fingers as she watched the woman make her way over to the food stalls. "What in the actual..."

She was very hungry before, but the woman's stench made her lose her appetite. Retching, she couldn't take her eyes off the troglodyte not matter how desperately she wanted to, just like a car accident.

There is a church in the town of Trios. This church has a bell tower that all people at the docks, aboard the ferry and in all surrounding areas can see. Within the tower is a bell, and although it is not time for the bell to sound, it does.

For whom the bell tolls is not known, yet its dull, untimely and aggressively heavy chime resonates out across Trios, surely grabbing the attention of everyone in town. When the citizens and new arrivals to Trios hear it, they will no doubt turn to behold the massive blood-written message high on the wall of the tower:



If the message was not enough to sour the eyes of all who see it, next to the message is a disemboweled woman hanging by her neck from a rope. The bell too is covered in the crimson fluid. Each continuing strike sprays blood from the bell and out from its housing, raining down upon the people below.

@Zyngard@Metatrooper@Dartbored Fairy



Boris was conveniently walking past the church on rout to the Bazaar when the sudden dong of the church bell was heard. He wouldn't have normally thought much of the church bell ringing, as he didn't have much knowledge on church bell times, but a moment after the loud dong struck he thought it was starting to rain, only to realize, by the blood spattering his clothes, that it wasn't rain at all. He stopped walking and looked up, got an extra drop of blood in his eyes, and then through his blurred vision and saw a the empty woman from the house he just left. She was hanging way up high by a rope now. She sure did get around fast for dead lady. Beside the dangling woman was another message, and even though he couldn't read the message, it didn't look the same as the one he saw back in the house. Normally, he would have copied the message down for safe keeping, but this message was on display for the whole gosh town to read, so copying it didn't seem like it was needed.

He stared at the bloody mess way above for a while, wondering what it all meant, but the ringing bell became a little annoying. He sure wished it would stop ringing soon.

"That sure is a lot of blood." He mumbled. It wasn't the most the blood he'd ever seen, but it sure was a lot for one person.

Moving on, he walked a little farther before he came across a interesting weirdo all dressed in a shiny armor. The weirdo was with a little girl, and also another young girl all dressed in black. There sure were a lot of girls in this town, young ones especially. Boris had be on his guard, it was only a matter of time before little girls became mean like big girls. Avoiding any possible conflict, the massive Neanderthal of a man first addresses the man in the armor, who may or may not have still been watching the bell tower.

"Excuse me Mr. Tin Man. My name is Boris." He pulled out a notebook from his bag and opened to the page with the message he copied earlier and showed him:



"Boris can't read." He then added, "Can you? If you can, it sure would be nice if you told me what this said."

Boris then took his chances with the two girls, turning the message for them both to look at. Maybe they could read as well. After all three people had a chance to see the message in his note book, he jerked his thumb towards the bell tower and also asked;

"If it isn't too much trouble, could any of you also tell me what that other message says as well?" He sighed. "Boris had a visit from an invisible little girl." He glances back at the bell tower with a mischievous look, and admitted; "I think she might have done that to empty lady."

He snickers.

---

@citrouille



Madison didn't like people staring at her, even though it happened all the damn time. It seemed to be unavoidable. But now and then she would get that feeling, that hair standing feeling on the back of her neck that told her when someone a little different from the others was looking at her. Right now she had that feeling. The hairs on her neck stood up as she turned from the stall holder and looked through the crowd, most of whom were gawking at her. With a snarl, she kept her search going until she found the person responsible for the feeling she had - and there she was; some skinny, well dressed young woman wearing glasses. Her pretty face made Madison cringe.

"What are you staring at...." Madison mimed the words, since she was too far away to comfortably yell out. Still, Madison noticed something of interest, a quartz crystal hanging from the woman's neck.

I'll have that fucking gem, she thinks to herself. Then, with a hard slap of her own ass, Madison changes her mind on the yelling out thing, and calls across the crowd of people at the woman, saying;

"YOU WANNA LICK THIS -"

Her verbal attack on Allysse was interrupted by the sudden ring of the church bell. She quickly turned her attention, and saw the blood display on the bell tower wall. She kinda like it, though. The sight of blood spraying the people walking below made her oddly happy.

yeah... get em good...

Madison then corkscrewed her nose with her pinkie finger, something she quite often did while thinking, and carefully analysed the hanged woman and bloody message.

"Well that's just beautiful..." She utters, plucking a dob of snot from her nostril and smearing it across her top lip. "That ain't something you see every day." She licks the snot from her lip and starts chewing contently.

@Hokum @Zyngard @Dartbored Fairy

Kaldalis didn't seem surprised by Kura's answer, she already seemed kind of an airhead when he first met her after all. Suddenly, the sound of the church bells ringing caught his attention. As he looks up, he brandishes Kuy'val dar and is unnerved at the sight before him to say the least. Words written it blood, accompanied by the hanging corpse of a woman could be seen on the wall of the church tower, with blood raining down on nearby citizens. Acts such as these were not surprising in a war, but in a seemingly peaceful town such as this, it was an inhumane act of horror.

His attention then shifts to a large bald man with a weapon sheathed on his back that had just approached him, introducing himself and asking for Kal to read his notebook for him. Although perplexed, he decides to comply with his request anyway.

Kaldalis: Hmmm... this reads "Relax, let us play with you"

As the brute talks about meeting an invisible girl, Kaldalis' becomes more and more suspicious of him, as if he didn't seem suspicious enough before. Based on Boris' description, his "invisible little girl" would seem to be a spirit of some kind. He didn't know if Boris might be working with the spirit or not, but he was sure there was more to him than meets the eye.

Kaldalis: The writing on the tower reads "Come and enjoy she's gold."

He then turns his back to Boris and faces the two girls, he ushers them away until they're out of earshot and whispers to them:

Kaldalis: You should leave, it's not safe here.

@Quote5

Vesania smiles and waves as Karter heads towards the Bazaar. "Yeah, I'll see you around!" She says, before turning around and wandering off. If Karter were to look another way and then back towards Vesania, he'd notice that she's disappeared entirely. Strange, that.

As she leaves, the church bell tolls. Karter is close enough to see the blood landing just down the road, but he is fortunately far enough away to not be covered in it.

It doesn't take long for Karter to arrive at the large Bazaar should he continue on his way. It's a busy, roofed area with lots of people, shops and alleys, but unfortunately there appears to be a lack of signs giving any concrete directions towards a place to exchange money.

And to make matters worse, it seems as though people are panicking because of what is happening at the church, making the bazaar even more chaotic than usual.

---

@Metatrooper@Hokum@Zyngard

The girl smiles as Kaldalis pulls her back to her feet. "Thanks." she simply states as Kura seems to be confused for a moment, before asking the girl a question.

"Oh? You forgot already?" The girl says, frowning. "Just down the road from here, remember? The candy store? You desperately wanted some cookies so I bought some for you... did you eat them all already?"

The girl sighs and appears to be about to say something else, when the church bell tolls, drawing her attention to the horrific display. As Boris shows up, the girl seems... concerned, likely because of what he says. After all, who wouldn't be concerned about invisible people?

Sighing as Kaldalis ushers them away and tells them that it's not safe, she turns her attention back to Kura.

"What say you we go buy you some more cookies then?"

---

@Hokum again

The stall owner coughs and frowns as Madison shows up, slamming a coin onto the table and demanding food.

Quickly they comply, handing over a pastry and taking the coin. "Here, thanks." They quickly state, hoping to end the interaction with this... woman? as fast as possible.

---

@citrouille

Vesania nods. "Nice to meet you too, Allysse. And sure, I can show you around if you want."

As Madison arrives, Vesania doesn't seem bothered at all by the sight or the smell, and instead simply frowns at Allysse's obvious disgust. "Shall we go-"

Vesania barely manages to finish her statement as the church bell tolls. "...that's not good" She says, before turning around, concerned.

---

@Prima Luce sort of?

As the bell tolls and the town is made aware of the horrific display, a small amount of panic erupts close to the church tower, with people running away and seeking shelter from the rain of blood.

It doesn't take long for the town guard to react to the incident, ushering people away from the tower as some guards climb the tower, attempting to stop the bell from tolling and removing the body.

“That’s a pretty name, albeit unusual. As for living here, I’m going to see if I find the area habitable. It seems middling so far, though it is just my first hour or so here.” Just as she finished speaking, the bell tower began to chime, spraying blood over a large radius. Ilyssa stood there, taking in the scene. After reading the message, she simply pulled her jacket over her head, offering a side to Vesania. Her face remained impassive, though her eyes betrayed her disgust at the scene.
Once the crowd began to move away from the tower, Ilyssa folded her jacket over an arm, letting her wings stretch. “Well, it was lovely meeting you, but I think I shall go and check the inn over there for a room to stay in. Perhaps if I’m lucky they’ll have a functioning bath.” She flicked some of the blood off her wings and began walking in the direction of the inn, her luggage dragging behind her.

The inn itself was unimpressive, though by the crowd around it you could believe it a palace. Shouldering her way through the door, Ilyssa made her way over to the innkeeper, placing down a couple gold coins on the table. The man nodded, his unkept hair flying all over the place. He handed her a key to one of the rooms, motioning to the stairwell behind him.
After a few mishaps and incorrect rooms, Ilyssa finally found her designated room. Just like the inn, the room itself was satisfactory, good for one or two nights before she’d be able to move out. Leaving her luggage on her small bed, the winged girl headed over to the bathroom, where she spent a large amount of time scrubbing the blood off her clothes and self. Once she finished, she pulled on a loose outfit, deciding to take a nap before searching for work.

@Dartbored Fairy to an extent

@Dartbored Fairy
Karter is very confused and very tired. He has no idea what is going on.

He decided to put off exchanging his money to figure out what all the comotion is about. It's probably important. He tries getting the attention of one of someone.

"Hey, do you know what all this commotion is about? Something about The Church?" He asks the first person who will listen to him.

@Dartbored Fairy

Kura just sort of ignores the bell ringing, other than to note that the sound is rather annoying. Instead, she turns to the large, bald man (who vaguely reminded her of some of those labor servants she had seen), reading the note they gave her. Play...? She had more important things to do than play!

Speaking of which, she turns back towards the other girl, feigning an expression of, uh, what's the word.... recogti-. Recognititiot-. Remembering things. Anyways, she feigns that expression, and, resisting the urge to go buy cookies, instead says "Thanks!" And just dashes off in that direction.

Fortunately for Ilyssa, this hotel, set in a steampunk age, does in fact have a bathroom in each room, rather than a communal tub on the ground floor. How hygienically delightful. On any accord, her wooden tar-sealed tub has a lever-action pump to draw water from the hotels water source. Moving the iron lever up and down pumps water from the tap. It is a simple but effective design, yet can be slightly laboursome and somewhat noisy when a person is trying to sleep….

Perhaps Ilyssa does not hear the initial pitter-patter of footsteps running by her bed while she’s sleeping. The footsteps trail their way into the bathroom and leave a track of bloody footprints in their wake. Ilyssa would, however, find it hard to sleep through the loud, repetitive squeaking grinds of the lever in the bathroom now vigorously moving up and down, pumping fresh water into the empty tub.

If Ilyssa rises from her bed and ventures into the bathroom to investigate, she will see that the lever appears to be moving on its own. She can see no one else, but she would likely see the obvious set of bloody footprints of what must be a smaller, invisible person standing by the tub. The water continues to pump until the tub is half full, at which point the lever stops moving.

An instant later, the water in the tub makes a splash as though someone has indeed climbed in. The water in the tub then begins to cloud with blood as the sound of a young girl giggling echoes about the room.

Allysse was disturbed by the large woman mouthing something to her from afar. What prevented her from being scared of the woman, however, was the fact that she even existed; Allysse was still in disbelief. As she turned to look at Vesania, she jumped at the sudden ringing of the church's bell. Turning her attention to the bell tower, she saw a horrific scene: a poor woman hanging, a bloody message on the tower, and blood spraying and raining down upon chaotic and frantic citizens.

In that moment, Allysse tried to make sense of the message, but she couldn't. The combination of the loud bell and people's screams disoriented her. She felt bile rising in her throat and quickly looked away from the tower to observe the citizens instead. After watching the commotion for a few seconds and catching her breath, she yelled to Vesania "let's go!" and started jogging toward the inn. She figured she would rent a room, wait until things died down outside, and maybe say her goodbyes to Vesania. As she pushed her way through the crowd, she was baffled by how this day was turning more and more into a nightmare.

@Zyngard

Boris was about to thank the tin man who hadn't provided a name, but he quickly turned his back on Boris and ushered the two girls away. Boris didn't mind at all, in fact he thought very little of it. Instead, he was busy repeating the words that the tin man told him, making sure he wouldn't forget what the messages said. He had pretty much memorized the words pretty well when one of the girls with the tin man broke away and started a dash up the street toward a store named:



Of course, Boris couldn't read but, judging by the nice tasty colors of the sign over the door, he figured it must have been a candy store, and the display of actual candy in the shopfront windows was a dead giveaway.

Boris sure did like candy, a lot, and his own tin of hard candy was running low. Refilling his candy supply was an obvious priority before continuing on his job to find the people who hurt the invisible girl, so he too started his way towards the candy store with a happy spring in his step.

When he entered the store, the shop attendant gave Boris a strange look. A man like him probably wasn't expected to be seen in a place like that. Again, Boris didn't pay the look of the attendant too much mind, he was already too busy looking over the jars of candy lined up along the shop counter. His mouth was watering a lot, and making a decision of which candy to buy was very, very difficult.

---

Madison didn't bother turning her attention back to the woman who had been staring at her, and she soon grew tired of the blood display on the church tower. She knew all there was to know about that. Taking up the pastry from the counter, she shoved the whole damn thing in her mouth without thanking the stallholder and started walking towards the nearest inn she could see. Probably best to secure a room so she didn't have to do so later.

Like most people, the receptionist at the desk couldn't wait for Madison to get the hell away from him. He took her money, gagged on her stench a few times, and practically threw the key across the counter at her.

Up in her room, she took a small look over the town from her window, but didn't stay long. Locking her room behind her, she headed down the stairs and back out on the street. Her next order of business was clear: A hardy breakfast. One pastry was hardly even an appetizer. She had seen just the place to go from the window in her room, some Diner called:




It was located just north of the bazaar, and that's exactly where Madison was headed.

@Quote5

Due to the commotion and panic in the Bazaar, nobody seems to bother to want to answer Karter's questions, they're all far too busy being panicked.

After a while though, a man finally responds to Karter's questions. "Yes. Someone hung a corpse from the tower and caused the Bell to spew blood. You'd best stay away from there." They say, before vanishing back into the crowd, too fast for Karter to do anything but catch a glimpse of the black suit the man was wearing.

Up in the distance, through the crowd, Karter can briefly catch a glimpse of what appears to be a person gesturing for him to come over.

---

@Zyngard & @Hokum

"H-hey! Don't go running off alone!" The girl says as Kura dashes off towards the candy store. Sighing, she quickly follows her

As Boris and Kura approach the candy store, their attention is briefly drawn to their right as they both notice someone sitting on a low wall across from the candy store.

Sitting on the wall is a young girl in a white dress and a tattered white cloak eating from a large bag of cookies sitting next to them on the wall, she looks at both Kura and Boris for a moment, before smiling.

As the rain begins to set in, the girl reaches out to grab something behind the wall she's sitting on, and pulls out a black umbrella, holding it above her so her cookies don't get wet while she continues eating. The umbrella itself seems to be a reasonably expensive one, but it doesn't appear to be close-able, instead it appears to be a covering that can be detached from the handle it's on in it's entirety.

---

@citrouille

Vesania nods as Allysse begins running, and follows after her as it starts raining. The worst part of the storm is yet to come, but all around people are already putting on cloaks or heading indoors.

Once inside the inn, Vesania doesn't appear to have gotten wet from the rain, and the receptionist addresses Allysse, smiling as she gestures for her to come closer. "Good Morning Miss, it seems the weather has turned hasn't it? Would you like a room?" The Receptionist asks, completely ignoring Vesania.

---

As the storm slowly approaches the shore, the rainfall in the town intensifies. People head for shelter as the storm rolls in, and soon the streets of the town are almost abandoned as people have gone inside, leaving only the people who absolutely have to travel on the streets.

Since Big Alf's Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner was open all hours, it had swinging saloon-style doors. Soon after the rain outside started to fall, Madison pushed through those diner doors, allowing them to slowly flap close behind her while she quickly surveyed the place. There were a good number of people already there to take part in Alf's breakfast menu, which is served till midday. Everyone in the diner stopped what they were doing to gawk at the unsightly mammoth excuse of a woman. Eyeballing them all with a sneer, she soon spotted an empty table near the center of the room and made tracks in that direction. The floorboards creaked underweight with each step she took, while customers near her path started gagging on her stench and murmuring discriminating comments under breath.

When Madison took a seat, the chair itself seemed to groan beneath the stress. Every customer for a four table radius took up their plates and scattered to other tables in an attempt to escape the smell. Some even vacated the premises as they held their noses and tried not to let the impulse to vomit get the better of them. The menu had quite a good range, though. Madison flipped through the pages, her strained breath wheezing as she perused the many options.

Eventually, and less than willingly, a young female waitress hesitantly shuffled her way to Madison’s table, stopping a good two meters away to take her order. The poor girls face was already pale, eyes glazed with impurities, nostrils fibrillating and jaw trembling in her attempt to bear the eye-watering offense.

“May I.. M-m-m… may I take your ord –“

It was no use, the young lady was cut off by her own vomit filling her mouth. Her cheeks bulged, her lips pinched, and body took a hurling pose. Miraculously, she stopped the vomit from exiting, swallowing the vomit as a tear ran down her cheek and she straightened her posture.

Madison slammed the now closed menu down on the table in front of her, then practically snarled at the waitress while demanding her food –

“I want your Big Alf’s Complete Breakfast! I want a steak with roast potatoes as well, with a full dish of mushroom sauce! Don’t you hold out on me, you hear? I want a side stack of pancakes with syrup! I want this thing you bastards call a Big Alf’s Beef and Bacon burger, hold the salad! – What the hell ya serving salad with shit for anyway? I also want a full rack of Pork Ribs with Plum Sauce – again, don’t go easy on the sauce like a bunch of tight-ass misers! You hear me? And what is this thing you have, Fries? What are they, strips of potato or something? Huh? I’ll take myself a serve of them as well! Make that two serves! Salted!” Madison paused for a second, glancing at the closed menu to recollect her options, then continued in an equally nasty tone: “I want three serves of Ice Cream and Fried Banana for dessert. Give me some fruit as well, keeps me regular, you know what I mean, you Skank? And, oh yeah, throw in a side of Lemon Pie. A slice of Apple Pie as well – and don’t you dare skip on the cream! Don’t forget a stack of Eggy Cinnamon Toast and two serves of Pudding!” Madison paused again to seal one nostril, shooting out a gob of snot from the other, which slapped down on the floor at the waitresses feet, and then concluded her order in a grungy tone; “A Jug of Milk and another Jug of Water! – And don’t take too damn long, Skank! I haven’t got all damn day, you hear me??”

At this point the waitress was visibly dizzy from trying to hold her breath as much as possible. She was rolling her head about awkwardly, body swaying, while attempting to siphon the air with thin lips to catch a clean pocket of oxygen. But she wasn’t about to argue with Madison about half of her order not being part of the breakfast menu, and she didn’t even question whether Madison could actually pay for all that food, some of which were the more expensive items on the menu. She just wanted to get the hell out of there as soon possible. Still, she didn’t have the strength to speak another word without spilling the content of her stomach all over the floor. She simply nodded, turned, and scuttled away to the kitchen to deliver the order, as fast her legs would carry her.

Roughly thirty minutes later the delivery was made, three cooks from the kitchen, making a total of two trips each, delivered her order and made their retreat without saying a word. They didn’t dare prolong the situation with unnecessary chatter.

Madison didn’t thank them, of course. She quickly got absorbed in her feast with the pained eyes of everyone in the diner watching on in morbid disbelief.

Kaldalis looks back at the church to see the town guards taking control of the situation, securing the area and attempting to take down the body and stop the bell. He looks back to see Kura and the girl running towards a store. He decides to leave Kura with the girl's care, she seemed old enough and she did know Kura even though Kura didn't recognize her, but he wasn't surprised that she didn't anyway. He returns Kuy'val dar back to its sheath as he turns his sights to a nearby inn.

He walks through the crowd, most of them moving aside to let him through as a large figure with a sword encased in full steel armor would send a message to people. He makes his way to the innkeeper, where he takes a few golden coins out of his satchel and places them on a counter, asking him for a room. The innkeeper obliges, handing over a key to Kaldalis while motioning to the stairs behind him. He gives a small bow to the messy-looking man before making his way up the stairs. He soon found his room, pushing open the wooden door and grabbing his luggage from inside his cloak before setting it down on the floor. Kaldalis would then lock the door behind him before slumping down on a nearby chair, taking off his helmet and taking out his journal. He begins thinking about the scene at the church and begins jotting down notes on his journal, describing the event.