You head towards the faintly visible lights of a small village as the sun begins to set to
your right. In about ten minutes, you reach the village's gates. The guards are
changing shifts and the one coming out sees you. He is paralyzed in fear as you
approach, but manages to grab the sleeve of the guard going in. The other guard
seems annoyed, but when he sees you he takes off inside the gate and sounds an
alarm. The iron gate of the city slams down, shocking the first guard out of his
paralysis. He realizes he is now locked out of the city with you and feebly pulls out his
sword. He is no more than 17, however, he is quite large and muscular, most likely
from farmwork and training. Fortunately for you, though, he is too afraid of you to even
hold his sword correctly. You still decide it's better to stop out of sword reach.
"Halt, d-demon, w-what do you want?" he asks with a bit of a stammer.
"May I go in?" you ask nicely. When he continues staring blankly, you add, "Please?".
Apparently, most demons don't say "please", because he then gives you a strange
look and sounds a bit more confident. "N-no, get back, demon," he says and adjusts
his sword quickly. You probably should have played it off tougher; now he might
actually hurt you. You try to stay calm.
"Come on, now, what kind of village is this anyway? I need a place to stay for the
night and you're just tossing me out? That seems rather rude. Surely somebody can
help me."
"He's absolutely right!" a strong voice exclaims as the gate is thrown up again. A
knight in silver armor, holding a helmet at his side, revealing a long, scraggly grey
beard steps forward. "This creature has shown no malice, so we must offer it lodgings.
Of all people, you should be aware of this, Roran. Have I taught you nothing? Please,
sir, forgive our inhospitability; there is a room available at my inn."
You thank the man and are allowed to enter the small city. The older knight guides you
to an inn named "The White Rose". It is a large building in about the center of town. It
is right across from the market where many villagers are still out making purchases for
supper. When they see you, they are frightened. The women scurry to get as far away
as possible, shielding their children with their bodies. The men keep a respectable
distance, but seem curious as to why a Grim is being led into the inn by two guards.
Once you are inside the building, you get a momentary reprieve from the stares as you
walk through a small hallway. As soon as you enter the barroom, however, you are
met with the same fear. The fear of the bar patrons is a little different: they are a lot
closer and they are trapped inside with you. Everyone moves to the farthest corner of
the room except for the bartender (who still moves to the far end of the bar) and a
drunkard who has passed out at the bar.
"Are you all women that you should cower from something different?" the older knight
asks derisively, goading a couple of the men to take their seats again. Of course,
these men still sat at tables far away from you. "Ah, it's good to see our village
contains so many brave men!" He walks over to the bartender, but motions you to
stay. The young guard steps forward and puts himself between you and the other men.
You found it humorous that they were all afraid of you when most of them were far
stronger than you were. Of course, they didn't know that you had no control over your
powers yet. You overheard one of them mention the fact that you wore clothing, even
as crude as it was.
Feeling brave, you make a joke about this to the young guard; "If they want me to
disrobe, they can just ask nicely."
The boy snickers against his will and you see an opportunity to break down the wall.
"Why are they so surprised that I'm wearing clothes?"
"Well, most demons like to flaunt their endowments, if you follow my meaning. You are
the most civilized demon we've ever seen. Especially as a harbinger of death, we
didn't expect a Grim to be so...friendly."
"Let me assure you that I don't plan to bring any death here," you say louder so that
they all hear you. "I just need a place to stay and eat."
"And that's exactly what you'll get," the knight replied, returning to you and the guard.
"I have a room key for you and I have instructed Bill to give you whatever you need.
There is only one thing more to discuss: payment. I understand you demons don't
often carry human currency, so—" he stops short as you take out your wallet and hand
him a large coin labeled "Antioch Kingdom Ten".
"Will that be enough for tonight?" you ask. You have no idea what their money system
is like, so you just grabbed the biggest coin. You had counted out 1,000 by the
numbers on the coins, but that could be cents or dollars or anything.
"Tonight? That's enough for a month!...Wait, that's not dirty money, is it?"
"Looks clean enough to me."
"No, no, I mean you didn't take that money from a dead man, did you?"
"Why would I do that? Just because I'm a demon of death doesn't mean I don't have
any couth."
"I'm sorry if I offended you, that was very prejudiced of me."
You assure him it's all right and hand him the ten piece. He hands it to Bill and leads
you up some stairs to your room. The rooms are arranged above the barroom around
a balcony which overlooks the dance floor. Yours is on the opposite end of the
balcony, so you must suffer through a long walk of being stared at by the men below.
The knight opens your room and hands you the key.
The room is small, but cozy. The bed and sheets are clean, there is a desk and chair
to work at, and a small closet offers some storage space. You enter and sit on the
bed, a bench topped by a wool-stuffed mattress and covered by a thick spread.
"I don't usually familiarize myself with customers passing through, but since you are a
special case I believe some introductions are in order. My name is Alec; I am the lord
and sheriff of Kingston. This is my son, Roran; he will be your personal guide while
you are here." This elicited a shocked expression from the boy, but he seemed to
accept it. "What may we call you, sir?"
You hadn't given much thought to a name. Dave just didn't seem like the name of a
demon, but you didn't know what to call yourself. "Padfoot," you say, thinking of the
black dog of England.
"Very well, then, Mr. Padfoot, we will let you rest and become comfortable. Roran, you
will take the room next door so you can help Mr. Padfoot with anything he needs. I
have to go inform the guards of what has happened. I'm sorry, again, for all the
trouble. Enjoy your stay."
The two men walked out and left you alone to your thoughts. You had no idea what to
do next.