After I let out a rather embarrassingly high-pitched scream, which I will claim to be Sarphi until the day I die, I whipped around to see a man with black hair and green eyes. He was rather handsome, seeming to be only a few years older than me. Yet, I could see some signs of stress on his features. There were dark circles under his eyes and a few lines on his face which seemed to be premature. He wore simple black trousers and a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows.

"Was just about to turn in, you're lucky." He sighed, moving forward and examining us. He didn't seem disgusted either, more so amused. "I've heard of you three, I was wondering when I'd meet you." I couldn't figure out his tone of voice which was annoying me to no end.

"You've heard of us?" Sarphi asked cautiously. "What did you hear?" She fingered the dagger by her waist.

"That you're cursed children of the shadows who are out to corrupt humanity," the man answered with an uncaring shrug. "My name's Cade. I own this place, and I find it difficult believing that we're only just meeting now."

I really had no clue what to do with the honesty he was showing us. I hadn't faced such true honesty without having a knife, sword, or arrow pointed at me. He was telling us exactly what he had heard about us, without much negativity.

"You're insane," I claimed quickly. The words left me before I could register them. I was far too exhausted to think. "How can someone say that so casually?"

The man laughed and shook his head, his long hair swaying as he did so. "You're not the first person to say that, dear." Him calling me 'dear', made my brain short-circuit.

"Who are you?" Aknon asked, interrupting the conversation. "What is 'this place'?"

The man moved to the large desk, jumping over it effortlessly and turned back to us. "Name's Cade, like I said. This place is the 'Bird's Nest', which is owned by me and my partner Niko." He pulled out a set of keys, putting them on the desk and leaning on it. "Unless you mean the village, in which case it's the Wandering village, a very un-unique title for something which moves."

"You're not going on about that again, are you?" A voice asked quietly from the other side of the 'staffroom' door. Out walked a man with short brown hair and slightly pointed ears, he had hazel eyes and seemed to be the same age as Cad, if not a little younger. "He complains about that all the time. I'm Niko." He gave a polite nod to us.

I could immediately tell that there was something elven about this man, probably due to the pointed ears and other features, but he wasn't a full elf. I narrowed my eyes at the two of them. I let Aknon talk, probably asking about how much a room was and why the village moved, and maybe where it was going. But I just silently examined the two men before us.

The more I looked at Cade, the more I noticed slight differences between him and other humans. He had dark facial hair which looked ragged and curly, and his long hair was a mass of curls as well. All of that seemed normal, until my eyes moved down to his hands, and I saw his thick, calloused fingers. His nails were neatly trimmed and yet still had dirt underneath, and his voice was gruffer than Niko's. He was around medium height, and very muscular.

"Are you part dwarf?" I asked, interrupting Niko and Aknon's conversation about sunlight filtering through the windows if the buildings in the village moved too much.

Cade and Niko looked at each other before laughing. "Yes," Cade answered with an amused sigh. "I was waiting for that, to be fair. I'm a bit trickier to figure out than pointy ears over here." He jabbed his thumb towards Niko, who rolled his eyes.

"He's half-human and half-dwarf," Niko explained. "I'm half-elf and half-human. It used to be a lot more obvious when we were younger."

"That's why you don't hate us," Sarphi said with a knowing grin. "You're different too."

"We're not that peculiar," Cade protested, but Niko nodded his head in agreement with Sarphi. "There are plenty of half-human creatures."

"No comment," I said with a small shrug. My mind had immediately gone to the dark side. "So, are you open for a room?"

Niko nodded. "Your brother has the key." He gestured to Aknon with a flourish.

"Since when?" I asked, I couldn't have been that deep in thought. "Like, what?" I couldn't get my words out, maybe I was too exhausted for interactions. Then again, that was how I present most of my social interactions, exhausted and not thinking much.

"Since he was born," Cade replied. "We like to use magic here when we can, makes the place seem more impressive."

I nodded in understanding. If I owned a business, I'd want my place to be like that as well, using magic whenever I could to impress those who don't know how to use it.

"That's so cool," Sarphi said, a slight grin on her face. I had to do a double take, to make sure that I wasn't seeing things. Her eyes were bright, and she was looking around, looking more relaxed than she usually did.

"Did I miss something?" I asked Aknon as he pulled me away from the desk.

"If you need anything, just give us a knock," Niko said before he went through the door to his and Cade's living quarters. "Have a good night."

"Or whatever's left of it," Cade added with a big yawn as he left us three alone.

"Right," Sarphi said. "Bedtime."

"You already had your bedtime," I said with a sigh as I followed Aknon to a door. He placed his hand on the centre of it and it seemed to ripple, before the sound of a lock was heard and we were able to step through into a spacious room. There were three single beds, which was amazing in itself. The room had a fire in the far wall, and it was decorated with the same kinds of furs which were in the main room.

"And this'll be my second one," Sarphi replied before jumping on the bed, rolling inside the cover, still fully clothed.

Aknon moved over and hit Sarphi on the head with the pillow. "Wash at least before you sleep." He moved over to the jug of water and put some in the bowl before splashing his face. "The both of you."

I slept in the next morning, as it was one of the nicest sleeps I'd ever had. I was convinced that they had some sort of magic in the pillows or something. I woke up feeling fresher than I had felt before. I stretched and got ready, putting my jacket and boots on before waking my siblings up.

"Come on," I said to Sarphi. "We've got to continue on this mad goose chase."

"Don't call it that," Aknon groaned as he got out of bed and over to the water again. He unwrapped the bandage around his torso and cleaned it, before bandaging it up again. "We've made good progress."

I was going to argue with him, but a knock came at the door. As the one who was most ready, I went and opened the door. I smiled at Cade and nodded in greeting as I left the room.

"Something arrived for you," Cade said gruffly, gesturing to a box by the door. "Didn't touch it, don't trust it. Could you please sort that out?" It was clear he was suspicious of it, And I didn't blame him. We were in a moving village, in a building which moves constantly through the night. But who in this plane of existence knew where we were?

I nodded my head slowly. "Thank you," I said out of politeness as I stalked towards the unassuming package. It looked just like any other, wrapped in brown paper with our names written on it. I couldn't even tell if it had been written on it, because it looked as though it had been stamped on instead of written. The letters were all bold and looked perfect. It seemed about the size of a toolbox, which would come in very handy right now.

I examined the package, looking it over several times before sighing and standing straight, moving back over to our room and getting Aknon.

"We can't just leave it?" Aknon sighed and crossed his arms over his bare chest. "I don't think that Cade or Niko would move it."

I shook my head, showing that they wouldn't. "Do we open it?"

Aknon sighed before slowly reaching down with his tail, picking it up. We were lucky that there weren't any traps, or anything attached to it. He slowly moved it from his tail to his hands and retreated back to our room.

"We have gifts," I informed Sarphi as we entered.

"Gifts? Is it a holiday?" she asked curiously, peering at us from behind the screen. "Who's it from?" She came out from behind the screen, wearing her vest and trousers.

"I don't know," I answered.

"Well, what is it?" She huffed and her shoulders slumped, stomping like a toddler.

"Let's find out." Aknon took his dagger and slid it over the rope keeping the parcel tied together.