You got more than half way through the meal before Aust's return, and have become reasonably adept at using the odd utensil the waitress provided.

Aust shrugs, "I hadn't picked a place, but odds are we'll have to stay with the refugees. Not that I mind, I'm used to less than comfortable accommodations. We might even get a new perspective on recent events. I get the feeling there's more going on than we know about." He returns to the nearby door, and pushes it open, "After you, friend."

Pvednes

"I told you someone's out there," the nasal voice announces. "Honey, see who it is." "Just a moment!" the deeper voice calls from somewhere behind the curtain. A high-pitched voice calls out, "Mommy? Where's daddy going?" "Go back to sleep, angel," the nasal voice answers, "Daddy's just answering the door."

The curtain pulls aside slightly, revealing a middle-aged man with half-open eyes, disheveled red hair, wearing an undyed robe and slippers. "Who are you?" he asks sleepily in a somewhat deep, soothing voice reminiscent of the person that the nasal voice referred to as 'honey'.

Taylen

Both sets of tracks look fresh, with no new dust in them of any significance. They're both no more than a day old, quite probably less than that. Considering their similar paths, it's likely one followed the other, but you can't tell who is following whom from the limited distance you've tracked them so far.

Pressing the curtain aside, the smell of rotting plants and stagnant air hits your nose. You walk into a rather wide hallway, dimly lit from outside through openings in the vaulted ceiling. The width and shape of the hallway appear to be defined by the curved walls of the building's assorted rooms. Judging from the walls, every room is an independent dome, fitted side by side with each other to shape the hallway. The hallway to your right narrows, then ends at a curtained doorway. A narrow branch of the hall leads out of sight straight ahead of you, and a wider branch leads off to your left, curving around the large room you just exited, and out of sight.

A single, intermingled trail of bootprints leads away from you to the right, towards the right side of another curtained doorway. Upon reaching the doorway, one track turns around, headed past you in a straight line. The other track reemerges from the left side of the doorway, and travels in a slightly more exploratory path. Both sets of tracks lead off to your left, beyond your range of vision.

Why in all nine hells has it come down to this? Why?!

"Doubling up? Oh, yes, that nice elf did discuss this with us. I'm sure we'll get along just fine for the night. Come in, come in," he says to you, and pulls the curtain back a bit to clear the door. The room behind him looks very dark, but you can see the outlines of two beds, a table, and something hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. A sliver of light leaking through the shuttered window falls on one of the beds, revealing the uncovered feet of a small child.

Taylen

The room you peek into looks distinctly like a dining room. Several mushroom stools surround a large round table. The footprints take a tour around the room, pausing at a curtain to your left, before approaching your current location and exiting through the opposite side of the doorway.

Back in the hallway, the footprints lead away from you, towards a few rooms in the distance. Though you can't see the footprints that far away in this lighting, the set with the more prominent heel appears to make a beeline towards the entrance to one of the rooms.

ooc:
Sorry about the delay...

Though the less prominent footprints meander, both trails appear to have gone in the same general direction, at least until they reach a group of rooms. The footprints with less prominent heels visit each room in turn, then move on, eventually leading away down the hall to your left. The more prominent prints enter the room they initially aimed for, and do not egress.

"Barry shall be along shortly, I would expect. Out getting some fresh air now; he's the quiet type, so don't you worry."

Arthur continues to walk towards and out the door as to carry on the conversation outside away from all these people.

"As long as he likes children, I'm sure we'll get along fine," the man says in soothing tones, as he approaches the bed with the little girl. She stirs slightly, as he slides his arms beneath her back and knees, and picks her up.

"Muh? Oh, hi daddy," the girl whispers. "Where are we going?"

"You're sleeping with mommy and daddy tonight, angel," her father replies softly. She shifts a bit in his arms, laying her hand over his own. With soft steps, he carries her over to the bed where his wife waits, and the two of them lower her onto the middle of their own bed. He then climbs back under the covers himself, and stretches his arms with a yawn.

"Sleep softly, angel," the girl's mother says as quietly as her voice can manage, and kisses the girl's forehead. The little girl snuggles her form into the bed.

Kilrath

Aust walks with you out the door, and turns towards the spire at the center of the city. "Not as much as I'd hoped," he says in answer to your question, "but I did learn one thing that might prove useful. We encountered a construct on the road. Turns out it's some sort of artifact, and there's more than one out there. I found out how to stop it. Other than that, we'll just have to come back here in the morning, before the big meeting the hunters mentioned."

"Oh, that reminds me. We should head back to the hanging gardens, and tell Freya where I caught up with Taylen."

The tracks with the less prominent heels do not enter any of the three clustered rooms. Each of these rooms resembles a bedroom, with a moss-covered mat, a small table with mushroom seats, and an alcove no larger than a walk-in closet. When you peer into the leftmost of the three rooms, you notice the more prominent-heeled tracks leading across the room to a moss mat. On the mat, a slender elf-sized figure sits bolt-upright with folded legs, still as stone. If you listen carefully, you can hear soft breathing. The less prominent-heeled tracks lead away to your left.

The tracks pause at the other doorway between the hall and the sitting room where you entered, then proceed to another room on the right. Somewhat larger than the three bedrooms you already saw, this one appears to have gained the person's interest. Tracks lead almost directly across the room towards a small alcove on the far side, facing both in and out. You can hear only silence and your own breathing, and can see nothing moving.

After leaving the larger room, the tracks approach a solid silvervine door. Besides the entrance, it's the only door you've seen. It also has a keyhole. The prints scuffle a great deal at its base, and do not walk away. No other tracks approach the spot, with the exception of your own footprints in the dust.

A ring of dresses, robes, pants, and other assorted garments hangs from the inner wall of the alcove. Several outfits lay strewn on the floor, some covered in dust, others recently moved. Smudged footprints along the floor indicate that your quarry spent some time here.

Taylen heads back out following the footprints to the door with the keyhole. Kneeling down he presses his ear against the door and tries to make out if there are any noises on the other side.

After listening for a few seconds, you hear a slight thud, and the door jostles a bit. Following the thud comes a muffled, "Ow!"

Then, drawing his shortsword, he tries to open the door.

You manage to put the armor down with only a small clunk. As you pull on the door handle, you hear the same muffled voice, "Hello? Is someone th- ow, hey! Stop trying to kill me! Stupid door." The door jostles against your grip.

"Silvan? Is that you? Taylen? Aust? Can you open the door please? It closed behind me, and now I'm stuck in this closet, and it's too tight to move."

"Footprints?! I'm stuck in a closet and you're worried about footprints?! Do you have any idea how hard it is to breathe in here? Get me out!" You hear a sharp thud, "Ow! Damnit, now my leg is asleep."

Taylen puts away his sword and tries the door again this time with both hands and putting more strength into it.

"How am I supposed to not touch the door? It's pinning me in pl-eckh," the voice cuts off as you push on the door. It doesn't budge. When you try pulling, the door creaks, and you hear a scraping sound coming from the other side. "Wait, don't move. I think, maybe, I can-" the door handle snaps, and you stumble backwards a step.

[ 01-28-2004: Message edited by: Ford Prefect ]

The voice doesn't respond. There's no motion, and you've added to the scuffle of footprints on the dusty floor.

No answer.

Taylen turns back to the door and examines the door around the lock and handle carefully, and then examines the handle and lock themselves.

The remnants of the wooden door handle are too small to grip. With the exception of the metal lock, the door is entirely wood, and doesn't look like anything spectacular. However, hitting the door might not bode well for the person on its far side.

The metal lock also looks fairly ordinary. Though you don't know much about locks, you may be able to pry loose the metal housing, with proper leverage.

Wedging your dagger takes a bit of effort. When you pull against the housing, the door creaks again. You hear a thud, then more scraping. Slowly and methodically, you manage to bend away the lock's metal housing, revealing a pair of thin rods on a hinge, and a cylindrical lock, seated in wood.

"You couldn't just hold th-" the door jostles, "the door still? In almost had a hand free when you let go."

Taylen inserts the tip of his dagger into the lock and move the hinge the rods are attached to.

The rods pull back easily. With a click, the door swings open, and a familiar figure slumps onto the floor. Ara's face appears flustered, and streaks of water trail down her cheeks. "Ow," she groans, holding a hand to the back of her head. She still has her backpack on, and it appears flattened.

Beyond the doorway is an alcove only a foot deep, and just wider than the door leading into it. A preliminary glance reveals nothing inside save for the half-elven girl.

[ 01-28-2004: Message edited by: Ford Prefect ]

"Wonder what he's getting up to." she says to herself.

[ 01-30-2004: Message edited by: Pvednes ]