Damien had left Twill at his stand to go explore the streets of Lethra; So far all he had gotten were a couple shoves through dense crowds and an older lady who had yelled,"Watch where the hell you're going!" The air on market street thickened the further down the road Damien went. Vendors yelled their low prices at him harshly as he held his shirt over his nose, trying to get rid of the smell of dozens of different foods attacking him at once.

"What's a matter with ya mister?" A small boy walked alongside Damien, no more than seven or eight. His blonde hair sat disheveled beneath a small hat that had looked to have lost its color from overexposure to the sun.

     "I'm trying to find an inn so that I can finally smell human again," Damien said through his shirt still navigating in between large crowds.

"Hey watch it, kid!"

A man pushed into Damien, sending him into a crowd of older woman conversing with one another in a high pitched fashion.

"Where's your manners?!"

The small boy trailed behind him without so much as word as Damien continued to be pushed and shoved through market street. Realizing that he had picked up a shadow, he turned to stare at the small boy who stopped suddenly to look up at him.

"Can I help you with anything?"Damien asked.

     "Ma uncle Terry owns the inn close by," the boy replied.

     Damien released his shirt covering his nostrils, relieved that he had gotten a lead for the first time all day,"Can you take me there?" He asked.

     The boy motioned to follow. It took only a minute more on market street before the boy lead him down a narrow side road and out of the congestion. Only one or two people passed by, clearly inebriated from the night before.The inn stood right where they had come out. It wasn't much but it was still better than walking around smelling like livestock and shame. Old wood boards made up the walls and porch entrance; covered in cracks and warping odd directions. Sounds of men and women laughing shook the dilapidated door from within and made Damien hesitate as he touched the door handle. The boy looked up at him quizzically.

"Whatcha waitin for mister? They ain't gonna bite," the boy said opening the door to reveal a crowded room of men and women.

     Not many noticed Damien in their drunken stupor, but the owner smiled and pointed to a chair that sat idle in front of the bar. The stool wobbled as Damien sat down. Condensation drenched his shirt as he rested his weight against the hardwood.

     "Ale?" The man asked.

     "I don't know if I should," Damien replied looking around at people eyeing him from their tables,"but sure, why not?"

      The man, Damien assumed to be Terry grabbed a tankard and filled it to the brim; foam dripped along the edges and rested on the countertop.

"Never seen ya around here before," Terry stated while washing out cups,"where ya from?"

Damien took a sip of his ale and choked at how strong it was,"Dockside," he replied peering into his drink like a fortune teller to a crystal ball.

     "If ya need a place I got open room up top--only a couple silver a night."

Damien, finally relaxed, threw back his ale and gently placed the empty tankard on the counter smiling.

"I'm very much in need of a room, sir. Thank you."

"The name's Terry. You can drop that sir crap. Just gives ya away as an outsider with means. Not a good thing for these savages selling a bunch a bullshit at the market," Terry said.

Damien threw a couple coppers on the counter and hopped off the chair,"I'll be back later on, Terry. I need to go thank the guy who brought me with him."

"Who's that then?"

"Some man named Twill picked me up," Damien said making his way to the door.

"Oh no need to be goin to do that, kid," Terry yelled out,"Twill always stops by for the night after market street shuts down."

"Well in that case--I need a bath terribly, Terry." Damien pointed out the dirt caked all over him with disgust plastered on his face.

"Let's go get ya some water, kid," Terry laughed.

~*~

"Erin, get up!" Tara yelled.

Erin rolled around her cot mumbling and flailing her legs with enough force to make the floor creak loudly against the steel frame. Tara stood there over her bed rolling her eyes before yanking off the blankets. She watched as Erin went into the fetal position.

"Please don't make me go, Tara," Erin muttered.

     "At least we're just walking around and not on a hunt tonight. You can handle a little walk." Tara crossed her arms, still hovering over a partially awake Erin.

      "Ugh..." Erin rolled out of bed with sleep still stuck to her inner eyes.

     "Get dressed. I'll meet you downstairs."

                                  ~*~

The air grew colder as the days went on, and the drop in temperature from the night before had sent Erin into a fit of shivers.

"You can't possibly be that cold," Tara said softly, careful not to get her voice carried on the wind to Lethra.

     "How are you not cold?"

     Tara shrugged and perked up her step as she walked through tall grass that sat along the outskirts of Lethra. Erin fumbled against the browning weeds that stood above her shoulders but eventually caught up with minimal scratches to her exterior. The town remained quiet with only a few stragglers who had began getting ready for bed; their silhouettes visible through windows in the distance.

     "You sure it's not too early?" Erin asked.

     "We'll be fine. Most of the town goes to bed by now." Tara said," feel like a little light climbing?"

"Where?"

Tara pointed to the wall surrounding Lethra and Erin's eyes followed. The wall was at least ten feet high, but it had stood so long that parts that crumbled away left enough space to scale it. Moss had made its home along the wall leaving moisture in the palm of Erin's hand.

"I think I can do this," Erin took a deep breath and stretched her shoulders and neck out. She popped her knuckles in one press and grabbed on to the nearest crevice. Tara followed behind watching Erin struggle to find nooks to place her feet into.

"Move your right foot a little to your left," Tara said.

     "I'm trying!" Erin raised her voice.

     "You need to keep the talking minimal and low," Tara whispered behind clenched teeth.

Erin regained her footing and continued up the wall with Tara following closely behind. She paused to look down and see how far she had come. The darkness of the earth below gave the appearance of a dark abyss from the height she dangled from.

"Tara, I'm starting to feel dizzy," Erin whispered.

"That's because you aren't supposed to look down. Keep going you're almost to the top."

The wall felt as if it were never going to end; peering up just made it seem to stretch on further. Erin's forehead became coated with perspiration and her legs began shaking, but luckily the top was only one more step up. She wiped the sweat from her face and turned to see Tara only two steps behind her.

"What are you looking at? We still have to go down the other side," Tara pointed out.

     Erin leaned forward to look down at the dark alley  below them and shuddered. The ground matched the opposite side at this height, looking like nothing more than a foreboding pitch.

     "Here let me go first and I'll be below you on the way down."

     Erin nodded her head at Tara who had already made headway at the tall wall inside of Lethra. Erin followed and found that climbing down was much easier than climbing up. She breathed a sigh of relief at the dismount and leaned against the wall to calm her nerves.

     "Where's that noise coming from?" Erin whispered.

     Tara took a step out of the darkness and held Erin back with one arm while she investigated. Erin watched Tara's eyes pick up lights from around the corner; her eyes darted back and forth searching.

     "Must be an inn...we just need to be extra quiet," Tara said.

                                    ~*~

     The water had been anything but overly warm, but the fact that it had been water in general was enough to please Damien. He sat wiggling his toes as best he could within the barrel with a smile on his face. The darkness of his hair had been cleared of mud and grim as well as the miscellaneous odors of market street that had resided in every follicle.

"Mmmmmm...finally," Damien rose from the barrel and grabbed a large cloth to dry himself.

Back home in Dockside the water for the baths was always warm and freshly pumped, but he remembered that he had to forget such comforts when he had run off. It was a small price to pay as far as Damien was concerned.

He walked over to the window, drying off the last bit of water that dripped down his torso, and peered outside. The calm of the night gave him ease after the panic of earlier in the morning, but it had also given him hope that not everything could be as terrible as he originally thought. He closed his eyes and breathed in the less harsh night air before he heard a loud...

FLOP!

"Oh dear," Damien said to himself. He looked out the window to spot his freshly cleaned shirt that fell and landed in the road directly below. He scrambled to put his pants on and ran down the old steps to the bar floor.

The bar was still crowded with a fully intoxicated crowd laughing and singing songs at the top of their lungs.

"Hey, kid! Where ya goin?" Terry yelled to Damien, right after he had jetted to the entrance door and slammed it shut in a tizzy.

Damien walked around the worn building looking for where his shirt had run off to, until he saw the thin white material blowing into an alley beside the building next to the inn. The sleeve remained illuminated in the moonlight until the wind picked up and the shirt became swallowed up by the darkness.

     He ran over to the spot with his footsteps echoing through the empty streets and spotted the shirt against the town wall on the ground. Damien gulped and walked slowly down the dark path, until he had arrived at his destination. He bent down and clutched on to the soft fabric with a sigh of relief until he felt the shoe that rested beneath it.