A Journey Always Begins With The First Step

[Nayt]

"Well, er . . ." the woman trailed off awkwardly.

Both boys reacted in with some varying degree of harshness. Criticism and negative opinions about the whereabouts of the book she was looking for weren't ill received by her, but they did clearly make her a little bit uncomfortable, leading to a long and awkward silence after her initial trailing off.

The woman looked behind her at the bookshelf, then back to Hrothgar and Aiden. For a moment there, she hadn't the slightest idea how to respond. Exactly what was she supposed to say that wouldn't create immediate social tension? Or, rather, what could she say that wouldn't create more social tension? There were only a scant few options, one of which became extremely attractive to her.

"I hope it's none of those, and some library's just been sitting it for a long, long time," the woman remarked, "Um, er, well, anyways. I don't think it's here, so, er-- thanks, anyways."

With a hint of awkwardness still left in her, she'd wave slightly, before heading towards the only entrance and exit this particular library had available to it.

[Zach Kaiser]

Aiden nodded absently; he wasn't quite aware of any social tension, since he debated the issue much like he debated the contents of any other book: a simple sharing of his point of view of the subject. The fact that he'd been less than polite about it (especially considering the girl was going through great effort to actually *search* for it) didn't enter his mind once.

He was also used to people not particularly wanting to talk to him, so he just turned back to the shelves and continued his examination of their contents.

[adi]

Awkward social tension was practically Hrothgar's lifeblood. Not that he particularly enjoyed it, but any given day just did not seem complete without a healthy dose of it. He hadn't meant to upset the woman, just meaning his words as a rather dark joke. The few times he had managed to socialize back in school, dark sarcasm was common among the other students. He supposed it wasn't all that well-received outside of education.

"Er. Sorry," he apologized quickly as the dark-haired lady turned towards the door. His fingers untangled from the lock of hair at his temple to slide down to scratch at the nape of his neck. Ah, there was that awkward, stammering knot in his stomach that was needed to complete each day. "I didn't mean it negatively-- well I did. B-But not to insult you or anything, miss! I just find it strange, I guess?"

"... Right, uhm," Hrothgar continued to babble, walking over to the table where he had set his satchel. He heaved it over his shoulder and continued his verbal vomiting. "I asked you about the inn, right? I am completely clueless with directions so if you could point me in the right direction from the door, I would really appreciate it."

[Nayt]

The woman stopped at the door.

"Ah-- er, right, it's fine," she replied awkwardly.

Yes, awkwardness. That was the official one word way to describe this meeting. None of them actually seemed to be all that socially capable. The woman and Hrothgar both tried, while Aiden just didn't care enough to. The former two's attempts didn't end well, though, and wasn't helped by Aiden's personal criticism. Truth be told, it was actually kind of rude! Oh well. Water under the bridge, perhaps?

She looked to the door again, then back to Hrothgar. He didn't seem like a bad guy. He apologized after all, right? No need to leave him high and dry. She folded her arms over her diaphragm and thought for a long moment. This, of course, might fuel further social awkwardness, as she scrunched her lips up in thought and looked past Hrothgar-- not really at anyone or anything in particular, just off into space.

"Um . . ." she coughed after she'd come to a conclusion, "Actually, if you two, er, if you two are going that way right now, I can show you there myself."

Hey, kill 'em with kindness-- it was just the best way to go sometimes!

[Zach Kaiser]

Overhearing this, Aiden spent several moments looking between her and Hrothgar and looking forlornly at the bookshelves. He didn't really want to leave...but he couldn't check anything out today anyway, not with it closed.

"Sure," he said with a slightly defeated sigh as he made his way to the door.

If it was a few days until the book fair, he'd just have to return tomorrow to check enough out to last him until it started.

[adi]

Hrothgar chewed on his bottom lip while he waited for the woman's answer. He was half tempted to shuffle his feet, but her pause didn't last long enough for him to begin. He smiled softly at the answer, thankful that he wouldn't have to work on his below-average directional skills. He looked over his shoulder at Aiden, not knowing if the boy was going to continue along with him or if they would finally split up.

"Thank you very much, miss," he said, waiting for Aiden to pass him on his way to the door before he followed up a few steps behind him. He paused momentarily as he approached the woman, putting his hand out as they exited the library. "My name is Hrothgar, by the way. May I ask yours?"

[Nayt]

And so it was decided, it seemed! The woman watched Aiden go; it was almost like he was ready to lead the way himself, without actually knowing exactly where to go.

"Kei," she replied as she took Hrothgar's hand and gave it a light shake. She didn't have all that strong of a handshake, but it didn't look like she was trying for one, anyways, "It's just a nickname, but it's loads better than my full name."

Kei-- the spelling didn't matter so much. Kei, Kay, or any other way imaginable were all fine by her. They all made the same sound, anyways, and as far as she was concerned, it was superior to her full name. Of course, this suggested that her full name somehow incorporated that sound in it, or at least something similar.

Once she released Hrothgar's hand, Kei turned and made her way out the door and into the street. She peered down the street with a hand over her eyes. Odd. The sun was going down. She didn't think it was really that late, but time had a nasty habit of going by fast. Well, it was a good thing they were going to the Ceildh Inn, anyways. She motioned for them to follow her once she spotted her waypoint: a brick dislodged from a house, sitting near the middle of the dirt road. As if struck by brilliance, she marched forward in something that almost resembled that of a strut. With Hrothgar and Aiden behind her, she'd lead them forward, down the street, towards the setting sun, before finally they might make out the word "Inn" on the front of a building.

It was a generic looking place; didn't even have an edgy name-- just "Inn." It was a two floor establishment, making it one of the taller buildings in town. It was set between two smaller houses, and wasn't quite large enough to have anymore than maybe five or six available rooms. Really, the inn itself looked more like a tall house with a sign on the front than anything else.

It was just as they were nearing it, however, that Aiden and Hrothgar would hear something in the near distance:

"The paper trail lead no where," a deeper voice said.

"It never works that way," a familiar male voice replied.

A female voice, confused, asked: "What are you talking about?"

There should have been no doubt in the world as to who they were, exactly-- and they were close, perhaps just down a perpendicular street from them, and still hidden behind a denser collection of houses. For now . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Aiden may have left the building first, but he waited outside until Hrothgar and the girl--Kei, it seemed--came out so that he could follow them. While he wasn't really intentionally sticking with the scholar, he wasn't about to intentionally split up with him either.

It wasn't a terribly long walk, but unused to so much exercise in a day he was nevertheless a bit winded by the time they got close. Unfortunately, that was also when he heard three familiar voices, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end.

Taking some nervous glances around and seeing the owners of the voices weren't in sight, he lowered his head and increased his pace, now wanting to get to the inn as quickly as possible.

[adi]

"Shit," was all Hrothgar could mumble when he heard the familiar voice. He had thought the destruction of his dream journal would have been a big enough sacrifice to completely divert them, which in retrospect was stupid. The journal had only been important to him, it wasn't really anything anyone else would completely stop for. It was nearly dark now, not even the slow man would be distracted by useless bits of paper for too long.

He hurried his pace as Aiden did, wanting very badly to reach the inn. Unlike being worn down from the day's exercise, he seemed to get another surge of nervous energy. He hoped that it would not be the same place Braxa and the other two were headed, and it would end.

[Nayt]

As they weren't too terribly far from the inn when Braxa was overheard in the near vicinity, Kei didn't quite notice Hrothgar and Aiden's sudden wave of urgency.

"Well, this is it," Kei announced as she approached it with the others in tow, "It's not a huge place. I, er, haven't seen the rooms yet, either, but it's the only place to stay in this town, I'm pretty sure. That kind of makes me wonder about the book fair, and how accommodations are going to go."

Yet, at the same time as they neared the inn, they'd here the voices just down the road, this time much, much closer-- dangerously slow.

"So, about those papers, Braxa?" the man asked.

"What about them?"

"They had to some crazy stuff scribbled down on 'em. What's the deal with that?"

"How should I know?"

"Well . . ." the woman jumped in, "You are the scholar here."

"And I haven't had the chance to sit and read them yet," Braxa replied with a hint of annoyance, "I'll tell you what I think when I get the chance."

If Aiden, Hrothgar, and Kei were outside for more than a couple more seconds, they might well be in the line of sight of Braxa's party, a fate unlikely to end well.

[Zach Kaiser]

Just as the reached the front of the inn, he could hear the voices; they sounded very close now, on the verge of rounding a corner and seeing them. That would be bad; he was used to taking care of himself, but he'd never met anyone else with...powers...and the thought of dealing with someone like that was frightening.

Not really listening to Kei, he quickly ducked inside to the inn, and if for some reason his sense of being polite overrode his sense of survival, he'd tug Hrothgar inside as well.

He didn't worry about Kei; they weren't looking for her, so they wouldn't think twice if they saw just her.

[adi]

Hrothgar quickly ducked into the inn behind Aiden without prompting. He didn't feel any sort of sense of sanctuary that he assumed would come with it. Rather then gawking in the doorway, he stepped around the side of the door, squeezing between the door and a nearby table. He could easily feign that he was being polite and holding the door for Kei, but in all reality he felt that the more barriers between him and that trio would be the best. The scholar would hold the door only long enough for Kei to enter the inn, and then would shut it hurriedly, if not a bit too eagerly.

Hrothgar bit his bottom lip to try and calm his breathing. He had overheard Braxa's say he was going to read the papers they had collected. Braxa seemed frighteningly intelligent, he could probably figure out his sleepy scrawls. He couldn't remember what he put down on them, he could have made notes of his future plans and destinations! He felt like repeating a mantra of swears, but he decided that it would not make him look very sane, so he chose to repeat them only in his mind.

[Nayt]

Aiden burst into the inn without a word with Hrothgar following suit almost instantly. This left Kei standing just outside of the door, her brow lifted in confusion. Still, though, it made her feel like there was some sense of urgency that needed to be addressed, so she followed Hrothgar in when he held the door open for her. He looked like he might physically explode if she didn't, anyways. When the door was slammed behind her, she nearly jumped out of her skin. What the hell was all that about? Was that even necessary?

"Hey, what's the rush . . .?" asked a curious and somewhat concerned Kei--concerned for her own safety as much as she was these two total strangers'.

This could all be a trap, after all. Kei looked back to the door. Well, at least they didn't try and lock it. You couldn't be too cautious of strangers. A library might have been a bad place to commit a crime, but there were any number of ways they could try and get away with something in an inn. Fortunately for Aiden and Hrothgar, Kei only dwelt upon those thoughts for a moment. They didn't seem like the type to try and pull something like that. Besides, she was probably stronger than the both of them put together.

Kei wasn't the only one in a state of concern, either. The old woman sitting at a counter at the end of the room was visibly concerned, too. She was a frail old lady, skinny as a twig, and partially bald. She shakily stood up from the desk at the end of the room-- a long room with numerous tables scattered about the sides of it, all surrounded by chairs where folk could sit if they so desired. Chances were, it used to be a pub or something along those lines, and the space needed to be filled somehow, even if there was clearly no place to obtain a drink in the entire building.

[Zach Kaiser]

Aiden relaxed slightly after the door closed behind Kei; it was a close call, but they seemed to have avoided detection. A small sight of relief escaped him.

"I'm avoiding people who want to kidnap me," he replied to the girl matter-of-factly. Which pretty much summed up what he knew about the situation, although he neglected to mention that supernatural powers were involved to some degree.

He then turned to the old woman. "How much is it for a room?" he asked, as though their entrance had been a perfectly normal one.

[adi]

"S-sorry, ma'am," Hrothgar immediately apologized for closing the door so abruptly when he noticed the age and gender of the innkeeper. He hurried across the room away from the door, as if it was viable to suddenly slam open and injure him somehow.

The redhead opened his mouth to explain his haste, but Aiden managed to speak before him. He grimaced at the boy's seeming nonchalance of the situation and the matter of fact explanation. That was the basic gist of the situation, but the scholar was left wondering if it couldn't have been explained a bit more tactfully.

Hrothgar didn't want to worry people that weren't directly involved, like Kei. He also didn't want to alarm the innkeeper, because she seemed like a woman who had experienced enough stress without having a strange pair of bookworms barge in and claim they were in danger. Well, not causing undue stress was really more of an afterthought. He just really, really, really wanted to secure a room. It seemed to the redhead that immediately and directly stating that you are on the run did not seem like a good way to do that.

"Uh, well," he began, trying to think of how to summarize it so that it did not sound quite so horrible.

He couldn't.

"Yeah, that's... that's about it," he shrugged, stroking the the hairs at chin nervously. Maybe if he focused his energy on looking completely tired and exhausted some pity would be awarded to him and he could rest. "It's been kind of a long day."