Gathering the shards

Roel selected a door randomly and turned back to June. "You should lock your door tonight. There is something weird about that woman." He nodded his goodnight to the girl with those words and opened his room door to go in.

Shaheen hissed in his ear as soon as they were alone. "That woman smells evil. I don't like that we are in this situation. But this could have something to do with my statue. We should look into it." He jumped off and hopped over to the king sized bed. The room was big and lavishly decorated. It seemed weird that they could afford to decorate every room like this. "this is either ancient money, or something fishy is going on.” The otter flopped on the bed, thinking about dinner now.

The swordsman pulled his black shirt over his head and tossed it on the floor. He unbuckled his belt on his journey over to the bed and took his sword off, setting it gently next to the bed. Sitting down he pulled both boots off and laid back onto the bed. “Damn. With a bed like this every night, I wouldn’t mind getting mixed up in stupid shit.”

June nodded and gave a small wave then quickly retreated to her own room.

Vivienne woke up early the next morning and promptly decided that waking up her guests would be her first course of action. She tied her hair back, threw on a house coat and ran downstairs to knock on the first door she came in contact with. "Good morning!!"

Several bangs came from within the room followed by a grumble of pain before the door was thrown open. Roel towered sleepily over the girl in just his pants. His red hair was sticking up everywhere and his eyes where droopy. "What. What is it?" He looked slowly around the hall before returning his gaze back at the girl, "oh. Morning." His voice was still deep with sleep.

Vivienne blushed and covered her eyes with her arm. "H-How dare you open the door in such a state in front of a lady!" She stomped her foot before lowering her arm hesitantly allowing her to see his face and nothing more. "Would you please join us for breakfast?"

Roel ran his hand through his messy hair and yawn, "Since I'm up." He scratched his chest ignoring the girls shyness and turned back into his room to get a shit. "Get up rat." He grabbed his shirt off the floor and pulled it on before patting at the animal.

Shaheen turned around on his back and pawed at his hand, "what is it?"

"Breakfast time." The swordsman grabbed his belt and threaded it through his belt loops before clasping it.

Shaheen sat up sleepily and looked at the girl in the doorway. "What time is it?"

Vivienne poked her head in the room to answer Shaheen's question "It's 6:30, Mr. Kitty!" She pulled away and started down the hallway. "I'll go wake the ladies!" Viv took off the hallway and woke the two dreaming girls who had a reaction very similar to Roel's.

"I don't want breakfast!" Ari shouted through the door and resumed sleep.

June groggily got dressed and moved out into the hallway and attempted to smooth out the hair that had curled out of place during sleep. She yawned and stopped infront of the boy's room, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "Morning you two."

After he had finished getting ready Roel walked over to his door to meet June, "Morning." His hair was still a mess but he didn't seem to care.

Shaheen padded slowly out after the man, looking grumpy about having been woken up. "Better be having fish."

June looked over at the man but couldn't help but to chuckle at his state. "I see none of us are morning people." She smiled at Roel and motioned him to lean down so she could at least attempt to help smooth out his bed hair.

Roel chuckled and tilted his head down, "I perfer not to be up before the sun."

Shaheen made his way over to the little girl and sat down, "Take me to the food then child."

June smiled and ran both hands through his hair which was surprisingly soft "Well you could always follow Arianna's lead." She glanced towards the girl's bedroom. "I don't think she'll be joining us until this afternoon." she placed both hands on the side of his head and gently guided his head up and pushed his bangs to the side. "Now you're presentable." she teased with a smile

Vivienne nodded and picked Shaheen up with the grace only a child could provide and started towards the dining room.

Roel chuckled and stood back to his full height. "Thanks. Guess we should follow those two." He headed after the two and looked back, "Arianna just wont get to eat then."

Shaheen allowed the girl to carry him to the dinner room. He wasn't shocked by the long table that stretched across the middle of the room or the elegant chandler that hung low over the table. “It seems funny that your mother collects money from the villagers while living in this house.”

June nodded and followed quickly after them. "Her loss~" She walked into the dining a room and gasped softly "Geeze.." she whispered "How do people even afford this?"

Vivienne frowned and set Shaheen on the spot next to hers. "What do you mean?" She asked, not really understanding what was so funny about it. She climbed into her seat and waited to be served.

shaheen stretched up and hopped onto the table. "Must be an adult joke. So are you getting fish?"

Roel took a seat next to shaheens, "I don't know. It's kinda creepy though."

Vivienne forced a laugh "Oh, alright then!" She watched him curiously and shook her head "I don't think so." She looked up to Roel as he sat down "Do you eat a lot of fish where you're from?"

Cassandra entered the dining room and stopped in the doorway, glaring at the rodent that decided it appropriate to trod all over her brand new tablecloth. "Get that wretched creature off my table!"

Vivienne jumped at the voice of her mother and quickly moved to remove Shaheen from the table. "Sorry!"

June frowned and moved over to sit next to Roel. She had forgotten how horrible this woman was and she was definitely not someone she would enjoy waking up to every day.

Roel watched the lady storming about but decided to keep his attention on the girl. "No way. I hate fish. Its just his favorite."

Shaheen squirmed angrily in the girls grasp, "I am a god! You will not name me wretched! Let go so I may smit her!"

Vivienne placed Shaheen back down in the chair but not before leaning down and whispering "Please behave. I don't want to get into trouble." She pointed to her eyes with two fingers then pointed back at the otter with one. She climbed back in her seat to continue her conversation with Roel "What do you like then?"

Vivienne's mother frowned at the group but decided it was too early to become stressed out. She snapped her fingers and the maids and waiters who were standing by began serving breakfast.

Shaheen looked at the girl odly for her little finger display. Two eyes and me? What did that mean? He decided to listen to the girl and hopped down to sit in a seat. He didn't want the girl to get in trouble by that horrible human. When the food came out his eyes grew wide. It all looked delicious. Since he had become an otter and started traveling he had not had such appealing food. Only seconds after the food was served he was digging into it.

Roel watched the otter and shook his head. "Gods dont have table manners?" As he said this he reached over and grabbed some ham with his fingers, ignoring the serving tongs, and took a big bite from it, also ignoring his silverwear.

June couldn't help but to chuckle at the two companions that sat beside her. By their table manners isn't wasn't hard to figure out how long they had actually been on the road. She glanced at the woman who sat at the head of the table who wasn't even attempting to hide her disgust. June picked up her utensils and began eating. "So," She finally spoke breaking the silence. "How long has this creature been terrorizing this village?"

The woman visibly tensed at the question and she leaned back in her chair and with an elegant shrug she shook her head. "Not sure. But it's not something we discuss at the table."

Vivienne frowned and looked across the table to the girl "A month or two." Despite her mother's cold attitude these people were only here to help and they needed all the information they could get, right?

Roel continued to dig into the meats around him but was listening intently to them, "Did anyone new arrive to this town during that time? Or someone bring an unusual item? Start acting strange? Demons like that could come from many different things."

Shaheen was nibbling on some eggs and agreeing with Roel. "Yes, it could be a summoned demon, or just one that has wondered in and decided to claim a new territory."

The little girl shrugged and looked off towards the ceiling in thought "No...not that I can think of." She wasn't really observant of the happenings of the village until the demon actually began terrorizing. "My friend might know?" she shrugged again

Cassandra's grip on her utensils tightened and she spoke softly through clenched teeth "If you continue to speak about this subject I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave the table." She turned to Vivienne "All of you."

Roel dropped the subject dejectedly and went back to his meal. He really didn't like how this woman was always avoiding the monster subject. She must know something.

Shaheen eyed the woman suspiciously as he continued with his meal. The table had fallen into a dead silence after her order.

Roel finished and pushed his plate forward. "I think it's time we go wake up Arianna." He stood and nodded his head to the woman at the table. "Thank you for the meal and the beds."

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Cassandra nodded her head at Roel's thanks. Satisfied now that she’d be able to continue her breakfeast in peace. “You’re welcome,” she replied coldly.

June quit pushing the excess food around on her plate and stood along with Roel and the otter. “Thank you,” She added before slipping out of the dining room.

June crossed her arms over her chest and sighed in annoyance. “How can anyone stand to be that cold so early in the day?”

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“Because she’s hiding something.” Roel answered. They made their way back to the hall with their bedrooms and Roel stopped to face them. “She knows what’s happening, or at least where the wolf came from. We just need to find away to make her tell us.” He rested his hands above his pockets, ready to brainstorm.

“She won’t tell us anything easily.” Shaheen hung lazily over the swordsman’s shoulder, “We would be better off going to talk to that brat from yesterday.”

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June nodded and lowered her arms to her sides. “Asking villagers might help too.” She pointed to her room with her thumb. “I’ll go wake Arianna and we can go?” She turned on her heel and retreated to wake up her friend.

The girls quickly got dressed and stood out in the hallways to wait for the boys.

Arianna sat on the windowsill and chit chatted with June about the boy’s conspiracy theory.

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Roel went into his room to grab his sword. He hadn’t brought it with him to breakfast, even though he hated going anywhere with out his dear sword, but Cassandra probably would have kicked him out of the dinning room if he had. Once the sword was strapped securely on his belt he made his way to the door and entered the hallway where the girls waited.

Shaheen perked up when they left the room. He could fill his statue piece. Hopefully that meant it was in this town but he didn’t trust the distance that he could feel it.

Arianna perked up upon seeing roel. "Good morning~" she was feeling well rested now that she had a comfy bed to sleep in. "So where are we starting today?" She moved over to the swordsman and looped her arm through his.

June tucked her hair behind her ear. "I guess we just start at the village." She filled arianna in on he rest of the plans as they continued towards the village. Quickly finding themselves back at the center of it

They spent the next hour stopping any person they came by and asking them for any imformation. Most people would hurry on, ignoring their request, or rudely tell them to go away. They met back up, Roel was dissapointed at their results. "Nothing. Couldn't even find the little twirp."

Arianna plopped down on the ground with a heavy sigh. "This is pointless!! Why don't we just go about our way. These people aren't going to help us an that woman is just a bitch"

June shook her head and leaned against the building wall in the shade. "They're just all so scared." She looked off "maybe we could go back to the house and get Cassandra to leave and we can investigate there."